“Don’t worry about anything. George called me before leaving.” said the professor. “He said he left a letter with Mary. Can I see it?”

Malee took out the envelope from the pocket and gave it to the professor. He put down the glasses on the table. He wasn’t wearing them while he was teaching drawing lessons to George, or Malee, and then slowly unfolded the letter.

“Signed by Georgia too, amazing.” said the professor after reading the letter to the end. He remembered how those two kids would end up fighting in every lesson he had with them. Perhaps they had grown up and matured. He sighed and folded the paper back into the envelope and handed over to Malee.

“Come on, both of you. I will show you around the school.” said the professor as he got up from the chair and walked towards the door, followed by Malee and George. He gave a few instructions to his assistances before walking down the hallway down the staircase to the entrance of the school. Along the way, they met a few students who greeted the professor with smiles. It was still a week from the school opening after the holidays, but the building was not entirely void of the students.

“This is the entrance to the school. You know what is our school about, Malee?” asked the professor.

Malee shook her head. Neither Mary nor John had filled her in with the details of the school nor the classes she would be attending.

“Well, we are a special school to prep students into the University entrance exam. Normally, a student would take 2 years to complete the course, but I would expect you might need longer than that. It’s ok. Don’t worry.” smiled the professor.

Malee nodded. She wondered why is she going for such a school but if George and Georgia thought she should, then she didn’t have much choice, or did she? The professor continued walking to the classes, and the two children walked along with him. Malee saw students sitting in groups, looking at the books and exchanging notes. They also saw a classroom with students boiling green liquid in the flask and looking at the gas that was coming out of it. Then they reached the end of the path to a large open hall.

“This is the gym hall.” said the professor. Malee nodded. It was at the back of the school so she wasn’t able to see it from the front when they first come into the building. It was an empty hall with gym equipment at the far corner. Malee could recognize several of them from the school that she used to attend, but also a few equipments she had never seen before. The professor continued.

“This is also the place where the students would assemble in the morning. You would come here on your first day.” said the professor. Malee nodded again and tried to remember the details in the hall. Her eyes stopped at the large wooden board with names at the side of the hall. She thought she had seen the name at the top of the board in a larger print than the rest. She tried to remember where she had seen it without success till the professor noted the look on her face.

“That is the name of George and Georgia’s mother. She is the patron of the school.” said the professor. “Now the trustee of the board is George.”

Malee didn’t know the meaning of the trustee nor the board that the professor was referring to, but she nodded, anyway. From the side of her eye, she could see John looking at the phone. The professor turned to John.

“You too, John. George wanted you to go back to school.” said the professor.

“What?” John looked up from the phone with a surprise look on his face at the mention of his name with the word school. He left school because he had no interest in studying. He thought George had agreed to it.

“You will attend the art class, specialising in landscaping and gardening class from next week.” said the professor.

John nodded with a frown on his face. At least it wasn’t the mathematics or science which he hated, he consoled himself.

“What about me?” asked Malee.

“You are going for a general art lesson then specializing in management.” said the professor.  “Ah, here is your form teacher. Let me introduce.”

So started Malee’s fresh life after George had left home for overseas.