YOU COULD DIE!!

Mini looked at her textbook, obviously bored with the content inside.

It was all just those Pre-K stuff.

Look! What do you see?

Record the stuff you learn!

And most of all:

Complete the previous book before you can do the next one!

Which is mostly why Mini burned every one of those so-called leveled text books that supposedly made you learn.

Maybe it was useful for other people, but not Mini.

She knew a lot about the social world, the study of science, a person's behavior's, basically everything.

Except feelings which she sucked at.

Sure she did have a crush on Rudy...

But she did a horrible job hiding it.

As Brynne would always say, "Your as red as a tomato, but I'm fine with that veggie because you could always fry them with chile pepper, and they'll still taste good.

Tomatoes were technically fruits but they lacked the sugar in them which is why it probably was considered a vegetable.

Mini would always tell that to Brynne and in reply, Brynne would say, "Shut up."

Then there was her shady but funny neighbor that seemed to always pull down the shades when the sun was shining and almost never went out.

Her name was Aru and her bags became increasingly darker each day.

Mini never pointed it out, but she felt like Aru shoul at least have a look at herself.

So today, Mini decided to walk a few minutes toward Aru's house and knocked on the door. There was loud crushing sounds which sounded a lot like crushed up Oreos (something that Brynne also experimented with).

The banging stopped and there were a few crashes of pots or maybe something else possibly before her head popped out the sliver of an open door.

"Hiyah, buddy," Aru exclaimed, exagerating the last syllable. Then she held out her hand.

Mini wrinkled her nose. "You know that's the most effecient way to get a cold, or fever, or a virus. I wouldn't just shake hands with everyone if I were you -"

"Then how come you shook hands with me the first time?" Aru interrupted, slowly backtracking her hand away.

"I was trying to show a kind gesture!"

Aru rolled her eyes. Then there was a sudden bang that made Aru roll her eyes again.

"What was that?" Mini asked, wondering if she had anything to do with Aiden's murder, but then she scolded herself because she couldn't just judge someone if they were a murderer in the first place.

"Uh," Aru began, "My floof."

"You know I'm allergic to dog fur?" Mini started, ready to spew out the facts about her allergy symptoms.

Instead, Aru held out her hand, telling her to stop, and looked directly at her.

"Do you ever talk about normal things?" Aru asked.

"What do you mean normal things?" Mini demanded, feeling offended.

"Like, you spew out facts like a geyser, then you give out more information, then you get into detial about it, and then you keep talking about it. It's like you'll never stop if nobody would stop you."

Mini frowned. Sure she did that, but as her mom said Knowledge is power. 

"My mom said knowledge is power," Mini noted.

Then she heard Aru mumble something like, "And my mom said ignorance is bliss."

"Fine, I'll try not to spew out random facts that aren't random for your information," Mini said. "Elbow bump?"

"What?"

"It's safe and effective!" Mini said, sticking out her elbow.

Aru sighed and bumped it.

Mini smiled and started to leave. "Bye, Aru!"

Aru didn't say anything, but she waved back at her and slammed the door shut before locking it.

When Mini got home, she almost screamed.

There was a rat in the corner of the living room.

Rats could kill you! They would have these fleas or viruses or flus in their blood or on their backs and if you even touched it, you could have the chance of Pox, the plague, and also typhus! And if you got one of those, you could die!

Mini tried not to dwell on how she would die if she touched and just tried lowering her heartrate by breathing, the most simplest thing to do and is what yoga is technically for too.

Suddenly Rudy popped his head in which made Mini scream for the second time.

"Geez, you don't have to be so afraid of me," Rudy said, still wearing his sunglasses. 

"I'm not a - rat!" Rudy squeaked when he finally saw that brown moving lump slowly advancing toward them.

"Yes, I know Rudy," Mini said impatiently. 

"Get it!" Rudy said.

"What? No!" Mini said. "Rats have viruses in their blood and I could get one of those viruses and -"

"Die?"

"It's not funny!" Mini said, fuming before relaxing herself again and reminding herself who was in front of her.

"Still, can you get it?"

"Don't you have a pet snake?"

Rudy thought for a moment until he finally got it. Then he frowned.

"I don't want my snake to die!"

Mini face-palmed herself.

Of course it took a while to explain every single thing about a snake's diet and of course it took twice as long too persuade Rudy to do so.

Then it took triple the time to go to Rudy's 'palace' and lug the stupid snake out.

Let's just say it took a long time.