Save the Flowers (4 page)

She peeped over at his drawing. He had drawn an animal that looked like a gorilla. She asked, “Are you drawing a gorilla?”

“It's a teddy bear!” cried Darren. “Don't you look at my drawing,” He moved his drawing paper away from her and tried to use his hand to cover it.

“Well, I'm done,” said Mabel. She stood up and handed in her artwork to Mrs Lim.

The recess bell rang. Mabel hurried over to Julie and said, “It's recess! Time for food! Are you done?”

“Yes, I've finished. Let's go!” The two of them picked up their water bottles and started walking towards the canteen.

“Now can you tell me what happened?” asked Julie. She was getting more and more curious and could not wait to hear what had happened.

“Julie, it's recess. We need to eat first,” said Mabel as she made her way to the queue in front of the chicken rice stall. She loved to eat chicken rice. She could eat chicken rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

After eating their food, the two girls walked towards their favourite spot – a little bench next to the pond in the science garden.

Chapter 5

The science garden was in one corner of the school and very few pupils went there during recess. There was a pond in the middle of the science garden. In the pond were fish, tadpoles and tortoises. Mabel often went there with Julie during recess to feed the fish and tortoises. Near the pond were some vegetable plots grown by the upper primary pupils. There was also a hen, a duck and a rabbit in a special enclosure.

“Hello, Mother Hen! Hello, Mr Duckie and hello, Mr Rabbit!” Mabel greeted the animals as she and Julie walked past them.

“Now can you tell me what this is all about?” asked Julie once they sat on the bench.

Mabel started telling her story, starting from when she was about to pluck the flower, to how she met Robozonic, ending up at how she had appeared in the school toilet.

“Mabel, are you sure you didn't make this up?” asked Julie. She put her hands on Mabel's forehead to make sure that Mabel was not having a fever or something. “Is this one of your stories about your pillows and pencils and erasers again?”

“This time it's for real. Let me show you Robozonic,” said Mabel. She put her hand into her pocket and took out Robozonic. She passed Robozonic to Julie. Julie held it right in front of her eyes. She slid her glasses up and down, trying to get a closer look.

“Can you tell her not to stare at me? Why do you humans like to stare? It's very rude,” Robozonic said.

“Did you just talk?” Julie asked Robozonic. She was
stunned.

“Yes, it is me. Can you not stare at me?” it said.

“Oh, dear me, it really talked. It talked to me!” exclaimed Julie as she jumped up from the bench.

“I told you so,” said Mabel.

“Hello, I'm Julie. Nice to meet you,” said Julie politely.

“Nice to meet you too, Julie,” said Robozonic. “You can call me Robozonic.”

“Robozonic, there's something I don't understand. How come we can hear you, but nobody else heard you in class when you talked?” asked Mabel.

“I can tune my soundwaves so that only selected people can hear me,” explained Robozonic.

“I see. So now only Julie and I can hear you?” asked Mabel.

“That's right,” replied Robozonic. “You're now my special friends, so I'll let you hear my voice.”

The two girls were
thrilled.
They could not believe that they had a talking pebble, or rather, a Robozonic as a friend.

“Is that why I can talk to the flowers too? You tuned my hearing to the flowers' soundwaves?” asked Mabel.

“Well, kind of,” said Robozonic. “Like I told you, I'm a communicator. I'm built such that I can talk to the trees and flowers so that I can understand their needs.”

“Why do you need to understand their needs?” asked Julie.

“So I can do the important stuff that I need to do,” said Robozonic.

“Which is?” asked Mabel.

“I can't tell you,” said Robozonic. “It's top secret.”

“I hate secrets,” said Mabel. She folded her arms and turned away from Robozonic, her lips
pouting.

Seeing that Mabel was getting upset, Julie quickly said, “Are we going to let others know about Robozonic?”

“Of course not. Let's keep this a secret, Julie, between you and me,” said Mabel.

“Yes, it'd be a secret between the two of us,” said Julie. They high-fived each other and giggled.

“And me!” said Robozonic.

“Yes, and you!” laughed Mabel.

“I thought you hated secrets?” said Robozonic.

“I hate secrets that I don't know about,” said Mabel. “But I like secrets that I know.”

“What plans do you have for tomorrow?” asked Julie as she swung her legs under the bench.

“I don't know. I was thinking you could help me. We've got to teach those two boys a lesson,” said Mabel, also swinging her legs.

“Let me see,” Julie put her fingers on the
rim
of her round glasses and started to think. She did this whenever she needed to think.

Just then, the bell rang. Recess was over. The two girls stood up from their bench.

“I know. Tomorrow, both of us will go to the park and hide. When the two boys walk past, we will use a camera to record what they do and show it to the teachers,” Julie said as they walked.

“What a great idea! I knew I could count on you, Julie,”said Mabel excitedly, giving her a hug. “Tomorrow, I'll borrow my mum's iPhone so that we can take the video.”

“A stakeout! It's gonna be so exciting,” said Robozonic.

Mabel and Julie held hands and hurried to their classroom.

Chapter 6

After recess was Chinese lesson. It was the lesson that Mabel
dreaded
the most but the one that Julie liked best. Mabel could never make out what those Chinese characters meant. To her, they were pictures that she had to draw, yet every dot and every stroke had to be perfect. It was a subject that she just could not master.

While the teacher, Madam Tay, was talking, Mabel
slumped
in her chair. The weather was just too hot and she was trying hard to keep herself awake. With all the excitement that she had had and the voice of the teacher droning in the background, her eyelids started to droop.

“Wake up!” a voice said.

“Yes, teacher!” Mabel stood up and replied to the voice.

The whole class laughed. Mabel realised that the teacher had not called her. It had been Robozonic!

“Madam Tay, may I go to the toilet please?” she asked, suddenly feeling the urgent need to pee, and to scold Robozonic.

“Ni yao yong hua yu wen wo
(You have to ask me in Mandarin),” said Madam Tay.

“Zheng Lao Shi, wo ke yi shang ce suo ma?
(Mdm Tay, may I go to the toilet please?)” Mabel said the words in Chinese one by one.

“Ke yi, ni qu ba
(Yes, you may go),” said the teacher.

“Xie xie Lao Shi
(Thank you, Teacher),” Mabel replied. She bowed and walked
briskly
to the toilet.

Once she stepped into the cubicle, she took Robozonic out. “Why did you do that? You made the whole class laugh at me! ”

“I was helping you. Your teacher was moving towards you so I quickly asked you to wake up,” explained Robozonic.

“Oh, I didn't know. Thanks for the help,” Mabel yawned and stretched her arms. After using the toilet, she walked out of the cubicle and washed her face.

“I'm so sleepy,” she said and patted her face gently with her fingers.

“Don't fall asleep again. How can a student fall asleep in class? What kind of student are you? Look at Julie, she's…” Robozonic
rattled on.

“Stop! I won't fall asleep again. I promise,” said Mabel as she wiped her face dry. “AND PLEASE DON'T TALK AGAIN WHILE IN CLASS!”

“I promise I won't speak a word. I will keep my mouth shut until the end of the lesson,” promised Robozonic.

The rest of the day went on without any more problems. Mabel had to write two pages of
xi zi
(writing practice in Chinese). She hated
xi zi.
She just could not get the strokes right. She wrote and erased, and wrote and erased. She struggled for half an hour before getting it done.

Finally, it was time to go home. Mabel walked with Julie to the school gate.

“Remember to borrow the iPhone from your mum,” said Julie as she waved goodbye to Mabel.

“I will. Don't forget to meet me at 11:30 at the park. You know where I'm referring to, right?” asked Mabel.

“Yes, the big shady tree. Don't be late!” Julie waved and walked off.

Mabel started her walk home. The sun was setting as it was close to seven in the evening. There were several people in the park. Some were jogging and others were walking their dogs. A few children were cycling.

Instead of following the path towards her HDB block, Mabel went over to the other path where the two rows of flowers were planted, next to the big shady tree. Then she stopped.

“What are you doing? Why did you stop?” asked Robozonic.

“I want to give the flowers some water again,” she said. She took out her water bottle and started sprinkling water on the flowers.

“Hello, flowers, I'm here to give you more water,” Mabel said to the flowers.

“Thank you, Mabel. You're very kind,” sang the flowers.

“I'll bring more water tomorrow,” she said. “Now it's time for dinner! I'm soooooo hungry! I wonder what Auntie Julita has cooked for dinner.”

Mabel then skipped all the way home, with Robozonic bouncing up and down in her uniform pocket.