Shades of Loneliness

Chapter 005: The Monster Attacked

Although the little girl's playmates were afraid to face Creepy Valderos themselves, they couldn't overcome their curiosity.

So the children found a hedgerow from where they'd have a good view of the situation, without being too close. They crouched behind it and anxiously watched as Maya made her way towards the object of their fear.

The distance between them was too far to hear anything. But they could see she was uneasy from the way she'd started hopping from foot to foot.

They'd seen her do it before.

That was the way she'd behaved in front of her mom the time she threw a racket through a neighbour's window. Maya wanted to prove it was made of real glass and not plastic.

Her reward for being right was a round of spanking right then and there by her own mother.

The uneasy hopping was also the move Maya'd pulled in front of the principal when the latter called her to his office after Maya locked the physical education teacher in the toilets so they could play whatever game they wanted that period.

All of them knew Maya had been thrown out of her previous school for the same reason. Her mom had even threatened to send her to a special training facility for children instead of allowing her to continue her studies the last time she was called in by a teacher as a result of Maya's pranks.

As expected, the principal brought up expulsion after this hundredth transgression.

So, to sum things up: Maya dancing on her feet meant that she believed something bad was about to happen to her.

The kids pondered whether they should call a teacher over. However, the idea was dropped as soon as it came to mind. And for good reason.

Sure, Maya was annoying and loud. She often treated them like babies. Just like earlier when she called them a bunch of scaredy-cats just because they confessed they were afraid of what Creepy Valderos might do to them for disturbing him.

Nonetheless, they had to admit that Maya was one of the bravest humans they'd ever met. And she was also especially strong for her young age.

As such, seeing how she suddenly seemed scared in front of Creepy Valderos, the other kids couldn't help but be anxious.

Valderos was pretty famous in their year, after all.

Looking at the boy sit still on the grass with his arms wrapped around his knees as he stared up at Maya, his long hair hiding his eyes like those female ghosts in movies, they were once again hit by the reasons why he was so creepy in their eyes.

There were many strange things about Valderos.

Firstly, no one knew what his family name was since none of the subject teachers ever used his last name.

This was quite peculiar because it was customary for all teaching staff to address their students by their family names.

So when they learnt that Valderos was his first name and not his family name, they were both shocked and confused.

Even if he was an orphan with no family name, the orphanage name prefixed with "of" would have been used instead since it served to convey a sense of belonging as well.

Inevitably, many suspected that the teachers disliked him.

Addressing a student by showing they belonged somewhere was a sign of respect, after all.

That's where the second issue came.

Valderos couldn't have been mistreated by the teachers. It was clear in their behaviour. Most of them paid particular attention to him. They seemed to care for him more than they did the other students.