Merrilyn's alarm clock began to quietly buzz, telling her "It's time to get up", in its own language. She had been up all night, reading the new conspiracy about the whistle blower who posted America's plan to monitor social media, and his apparently bloody death that followed a month after. 

Sadly, she lost interest, since it had nothing to do with aliens contacting humans or insane cults sacrificing people. Merrilyn slowly sat up, and slammed her fist on her alarm to make it shut up. She looked at the time, thinking how many hours of sleep could she have if she didn't go to school. 

The clock read: 9:05am  

She rubbed her eyes, believing she was just seeing things, but when she opened them again the clock read:

9:06am

"OH S*IT!" she yelled.

Merrilyn was late for school. She quickly threw on a shirt, shorts, and jacket, then grabbed her black and white panda bag from under her desk. Seconds later she was out the door, and rapidly trying to make it to school on time. 

Merrilyn had gone to Tri-Cities High School for almost a month now, and was already being threaten with suspension of she missed one more day of school. She swore to herself that she would not be suspended from school again, unlike middle school, where she was suspended ten different times in a row. Somehow Merrilyn moved on to high school, but was warned if she missed anymore days the  they would expel her on the spot. Her parents would murder her in a heart beat, if they found out she was expelled. 

She ran south of Martin Street, and thought "If I cut thru Harris Park, then I might be able to make it on time.", and she did. Merrilyn cut thru Harris Park, a nice little park located not far from her school. It was the middle of the week, but somehow, people still crowded the park. Up ahead of her, a crowd of protesters were all standing around, protesting America's recent scandal. Merrilyn didn't have time to walk around them, and so she charged straight at them instead. One of the protesters saw her coming, and without warning, him and all the other protesters were shoved to the side like bowling pins. 

Merrilyin didn't stop to say sorry, the only thing on her mind was getting to school before it was to late. She could see the parks south gate ahead, and she pushed onward even faster. "As soon as I clear the gate it's just a straight shot towards the school." she thought to herself. As soon as she clears the gate, out of no where, she hits a man carrying a stack of paper, knocking him over, and knocking herself down. 

She landed hard on her butt, and groaned in pain. "Hey, watch were you going!" she yelled, taking a good look the man she knocked over.

He was tall, average build, and wore a gray dress shirt and tie, with black slacks. What made him more noticeable was his hair. It was half black, half white. Merrilyn thought of asking him how he did his hair like that, until she noticed him frantically picking up papers off the ground. She decides to help him, even if that made her late, it was her fault. 

As the man frantically snatched all the papers he could, he started to count them, making sure he didn't lose any. He noticed that he was missing a handful, and that's when Merrilyn walked behind him, holding the missing papers.

"Here, I'm sure these are what your looking for." she said.

The man grabs them from her, checking to see of they weren't ruined. After a quick inspection, he bowed his head, think Merrilyn.

"Thank you so much." he said gratefully, "I was on my way to work before..." 

The man stopped talking, looking up at Merrilyn.

She stared at him confused, not knowing what he was staring at. "What?"

"Your hair."

"My hair?" Merrilyn said confused, "What about it?"

She reaches up to touch her hair, and realized that she forgot to brush it or do anything to it. She took out a pocket mirror, and saw the mess it was. Her hair looked like something between the cross of a not so groomed dog and a cat's hair ball.  

Merrilyn began to panic, searching her bag for her brush. "Crap, where is my brush? Don't tell me I left it at home." her mind began to tear in two as she frantically searched for a brush.

"Um...excuse me?" the man said. Merrilyn turned towards him with tears in her eyes, "Here." 

In the mans hand was a brush, just was Merrilyn needed. She quickly brushed her blond hair, then using two scrunches, she tied her heir into pigtails.

"Thank you." she said gratefully, handing the brush back.

The man put his hand up, shaking his head. "You keep it. I only had it because someone handed it to me."

"Oh...well thanks Mister..."

"Hobbes. Axel Hobbes, but call me Mr. Hobbes."

"Well, thanks again Mr. Hobbes." 

Merrilyn ran off, trying to make up lost time.

--

9:30am 

The bell rings thru out the school, letting every student know to get to class. Students begin to head off to their respective class rooms, and teachers began to call roll. Except for Merrilyn's class.

Merrilyn somehow made it, despite the setbacks she took. Her body was exhausted, like she just ran a marathon. She did more running than during gym class, it was more than she could handle. Luckily, it all worked out in the end, and she didn't have to be expelled or anything. "I need to buy a new alarm." she said to herself, placing her head on her desk.

"Got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, did we?" a voice said to Merrilyn.

Above her, wearing his usually black hoodie, and black hair that covered his eyes, was her best friend Kasey. 

"Bite me." Merrilyn scowled.

"I guess that answers my question." Kasey said, taking his seat next to Merrilyn. "So, did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"We got a new teacher...again."

In truth, their class was named one of the worst in the school. Half the students didn't care to do their work, some were disobedient, and others just gave teachers a hard time for fun. Their class, sense the school year started, has ran off a total of four teachers. "Who ever this new guy is," Merrilyn thought, "he won't last a week."

The class room door opens, and everyone takes their seat. Principal Pink, the schools main administrator, steps on him with his usual trademark smile. No matter how this class, or any of the students got, Principal Pink never lost his cool, even when Merrilyn was always tardy to class. Everyone waited breathlessly on his words.

"Good morning students." he said in his deep tone of voice, "As you all know, your last teacher has unfortunately quit there postilion here, in order to move on to another one at a different school, the coward." the Principal was never afraid to speak his mind, "But never fear, for we have a replacement, hopefully he has the balls to stay." 

"I wonder who could it be?" Merrilyn thought. 

"Allow me to introduce, Mr. Axel Hobbes."

As Principal Pink introduced the new teacher, Merrilyn's expression changed to sudden surprise, as the man she helped early today walked in calmly. Same clothes, and same hair color. Like here first time seeing it, some of the students whispered that he may have dyed it like that, and if he was allowed to do so as a teacher. Even Merrilyn was curious. 

As the new teacher sat he bag on the desk, he turned towards the students, smiling. He bowed his head, and greeted the class...

"It's a pleasure to meet you all."