"Thank you very much sir." An eight and a half year old girl named Juleah smiled at the school bus driver.

"You're welcome, Leah," replied the bus driver with a smile. After a moment, his expression turned sad. "Sorry I couldn't drive you all the way to the front of the house. You know." The bus driver glanced at the other children behind.

A boy throws a paper ball at Leah and hits her in the head. "Hey! Get out of here quickly! We can't stand being around your house!"

"Yeah, right. Get outta here!" exclaimed another child.

Juleah—or more familiarly called Leah, got off the bus without looking back. Leaving the sound of laughter from inside the bus that can still be heard.

From the stop, Leah still had to walk about 200 meters to arrive at the apartment where she lived, and had to climb dozens of stairs to reach her unit on the third floor because the elevator had broken about one year.

The sun this afternoon, feels so hotter than usual. Made Leah lower her head all the way home from school. Even though she doesn't really have a problem with her skin getting charred. But at least that's what she can do in order to get past the obstacles ahead.

Yes, soon Leah will have to pass a group of children who incidentally are her neighbors, playing in the garden of the flat.

"Eh, look, the rich kid's back from school!" exclaimed a child who was about the same height as Juleha.

The other kids laughed evilly.

Leah tried to ignore them as usual. Leah kept walking, staring at the street. The rusty wire fence that divides the apartment garden, the red brick walls that have holes here and there and are full of graffiti, and the smell of urine in the corners of the apartment walls, are silent witnesses of Leah's silence every day.

"Hey, how did you get to Richstone School?" asked a girl in a mocking tone, "does your mother have a side job? You know, like a prostitute."

They laughed louder even though Leah didn't notice.

A boy named Gerlad; the biggest and the leader of the group, threw the ball that he was holding and walked over to Leah. His steps were followed by other child.

"Hey, why don't you answer?" asked Gerlad, "are you deaf?"

"She didn't answer maybe because it was true that her mother was like that," mocked another.

In the stuffy and deserted lobby of the flat, Leah finally stopped in her tracks. She turned around with a sharp look in her eyes then somehow Gerlad was immediately bounced as far as 3 meters before hit a garbage bin.

Everyone gasped, as well as Leah who didn't expect it. But that wasn't much because Leah hadn't seen her caramel brown hair turning green yet.

"H-her hair is turning green and smoky," said one of the girls, pointing fearfully at Juleah.

"Mo-monster," a thinner boy stammered.

The little thugs immediately scurried away. Screaming until someone peed.

Juleah who was already enveloped in anger, ignored the words about her green and smoky hair.

"Run, save your life! There's a raging monster!" That's what they said alternately, making Leha even more annoyed.

When she was about to run after the children, suddenly a black shadow grabbed Leah's tiny body. Then suddenly Leah was at the door marked 304.

"Why, why am I here?" Leah seemed to be asking herself.

Shortly after Leah's hair color returned to normal, the door in front of Leah was opened by someone from inside.

"Leah, you just arrived!" Apparently Leah's father opened the door. In his right hand father carries a toolbox. He must have another call to fix the plumbing in one of the units.

"Come on in, and get changed quickly," Dad ordered, but Leah still needed time to understand what had just happened.

"What's going on?" asked my father getting worried.

"Dad, am I a monster?" Leah asked again.

Dad put the toolbox on the floor, and knelt before Leah. "Why do you ask that? Of course not."

"But they said so." Leah looked down.

"Ah, don't listen to them, honey." Dad stroked Leah's hair. "Come on in. You must be tired." Dad stood up and grabbed Leah's hand.

"No Daddy! I've thrown Gerlad, the biggest child." Leah began to sob.

"What do you mean throw?"

"I do not understand too." Leah shook her head. "I couldn't stand their taunts, especially Gerlad, so I turned around and Gerlad was just thrown. I didn't touch him."

"Really? hahaha, how could that happen." Leah's father laughed happily. "You must be hallucinating."

"No, Dad. Lots of other kids saw it wasn't just me." Leah tried to convince her father.

Leah's father smiled again. "Why don't you go in first and try to rest? After dinner you can talk again. Of course you can't tell everything at the door, right? Daddy has to leave immediately. Otherwise, the flat could be flooded."

Leah nodded, but before she could actually enter the house, she heard the sound of a crying boy wailing down the hall.

Leah and her father watched the voice for a moment. As far as they remember, there were no families on the third floor who had young boys.

Gerlad the naughtiest child in the flat, and the most feared, came with his mother who was an immigrant from Hong Kong, crying. Gerlad's parents had been living in East London for a long time. That's why they want to name their child with an appropriate name. But because they weren't used to it, they wrote the wrong name on the birth certificate to be Gerlad instead of Gerald.

Besides that Gerlad and mother also came with two other children who had been mocking Leah; then shrieked as Leah threw a tantrum. They walked timidly.

Seeing Gerlad's arrival with mother and other kids, Leah immediately hid behind Dad's body worriedly.

"I told you he was thrown," Leah whispered to his father.

"Relax, this will be my business." Leah's father covered Leah's body with his hands.

From the look on her face, Gerlad's mother didn't seem happy at all. Her slanted eyes made the glare even sharper. Her shorter stature than a native of London did not seem to make her flinch.

"What is this? Is it because I am a foreigner, so your daughter can do whatever she wants to my son?" asked Gerlad's mother in an accent that was still clear. By the way, Gerlad's mother didn't know that all this time, it was her son who often bullied other, especially Leah.

Not only that, the parents actually questioned the ability of the Juleah family to pay for Leah's schooling at an expensive and quality school like Richstone School.

Leah was an ordinary child. Not smart or have special abilities in other fields; but Leah was a sweet and obedient child; in stark contrast to most of the other children's traits there. So there's no way Leah got a scholarship at Richstone School. Fortunately meddling in the affairs of neighbors is not a culture in this country.

"Sorry, what's the matter, Mrs. Wen?" Leah's father tried to calm down.

"Hasn't your daughter told you yet?" Gerlad's mother was on her hips, glaring at Juleah who was hiding further and further into father's back.

"I've heard of it," Leah's father replied, still smiling. "What I mean is, so that Mrs. Wen can speak calmly, so we can have a good talk. Of course I have to hear it from both sides."

Gerlad's mother sighed. "Okay. My sweet Gerlad just came home crying. It was so loud and heartbreaking. He says his back hurts from bouncing after being stared at by your daughter."

"Stared?" asked Leah's father suspiciously.

"Yeah! Sounds absurd indeed. I didn't believe it either. I mean I couldn't believe Gerlad was bounced just because he was being stared at. But Gerlad insisted and asked me to ask his friends who saw what happened." Gerlad's mother paused. Her slightly stocky body makes her breath shorter

"Then?" asked Leah's father.

"I approached each of them and they confirmed. They even said your daughter's hair turned green. I managed to persuade two of them to come here as witnesses."

Leah's father couldn't hide his goofy face from laughing.

"Listen. I'm not so sure about that either. But I'm sure your daughter did blow mine. Isn't that right?" the look in Gerlad's mother's eyes moved to Leah.

Leah gripped her shirt tighter and sobbed. But instead the Father knelt before Gerlad and his two friends.

"Did Leah really do that, I mean by her gaze?"

The three kids who had been mocking Leah nodded; they took a few steps back when they were about to be asked by Leah's Father.

"H-her hair is turned green and smooky toi," said one of the kids, looking at Leah and her father frantically.

"I told you, didn't I?" Gerlad's mother tried to believe.

Leah's father glanced at Gerlad's mother for a moment before returning to ask the three boys. "Then, is it true that you guys made fun of Leah first?"

The three children moved closer to Gerlad's mother. They looked dimly shaking their heads in doubt.

"They said mom had a side job like a prostitute because I went to Richstone School." Leah began to dare to speak.

"I-I'm sorry, I just joined in because I was afraid of Gerlad," another child began to say. "I want to go home, I'm scared!" The boy ran away crying, then disappeared down the stairs. 

Leah's father got up again and spoke to Gerlad's mother. But before he could speak, Gerlad's mother cut him off. 

"Is that really Gerlad?" she asked her own son. 

Gerlad shook his head. "No, mom. That's not true. How could I be that brave." 

"But the kid said that," said Leah's father. 

"That child must be afraid of your daughter, so he instead slandered my sweet and obedient son." Gerlad's mother tried to defend. 

"Look, I know it's not good to push other kids. But, I don't think what they say is impossible. After all, there's no solid evidence that my daughter pushed them for no reason, let alone just stares." said Leah's father. 

"So you're saying my son is lying?!" Gerlad's mother's tone went up a notch.