Chapter 26: Cockroach (1)

Because of the rise of the so-called “space craze,” lately—whether on television, in newspapers, or on the radio—there have been all sorts of reports and popular-science segments about space exploration.

Not long ago, Everly happened to hear on the radio that, contrary to common stereotypes, the vast majority of meteorites are composed of minerals such as iron, nickel, and silicates. Only a very small fraction contain radioactive substances, and even when they do, the level of radiation is extremely low—not much higher than that of the natural gemstones people wear every day.

After hearing that, she became rather interested in meteorites.

It just so happened that today was Saturday, so there was no school. With nothing better to do anyway, Everly went thud thud thud down the stairs, let Old John know, then took the dog, Buddy, by the leash and ran off together toward where the crowd had gathered.

When she got close, she spotted several classmates from school at a glance among the onlookers. Everly instantly wiped the curiosity off her face, slowed her pace, and pretended she was merely strolling past, walking over with a blank expression.

She really did have a serious idol image to maintain.

“Hey, good morning, Everly.”

A second-year student in the crowd was the first to notice her and enthusiastically greeted her.

Naturally, the noble “Ice Queen” was not about to open her mouth to return a greeting to a commoner.

Everly gave him a cool glance, treating it as her response, then led the big dog to stand beside him, facing the meteorite crater.

—She came over!

The younger student was flattered beyond measure; his fair face flushed bright red in an instant. After that, Everly didn’t even need to ask—he poured everything out like beans spilling from a bamboo tube, explaining the purpose of everyone’s visit.

As it turned out, the townspeople had come for two reasons: first, to gawk at the meteorite, and second, to dig it up and haul it back to town to turn it into a statue.

“The mayor says this is the first time such a big meteorite has ever appeared around here. Space-exploration themes are really popular right now—if we dig it up and bring it back to Lemot Town, put it in the central square as a landmark, it might attract more tourists to visit… Look, that truck over there belongs to the Carter family. They usually only use it to haul frozen meat, but today the mayor borrowed it specially to transport the meteorite!”

Following his pointing finger, Everly looked over and indeed spotted a large iron-skinned truck among the many sedans. Standing beside it was a short, brown-haired boy. He looked rather introverted—probably the “Carter” the younger student had mentioned.

After finishing the gossip, Everly shifted her gaze back to the center of the huge pit. There, after more than a dozen townspeople worked together to dig, most of the meteorite buried beneath the loose soil had already been exposed.

It looked about the same size as the decorative rocks commonly seen in parks in her previous life—jet black, pitted all over, and fairly ordinary at first glance. However, when the townspeople shoveled away the surrounding dirt, slid wooden planks underneath, secured them with ropes, and prepared to lift it, the meteorite’s unusual quality finally revealed itself—it was heavy.

Compared with an ordinary stone of the same size, the meteorite was far denser. The townspeople padded seven or eight wooden planks beneath it, pushed the meteorite onto them, tied it down with ropes, and only then—after more than ten people strained together—did they barely manage to hoist it off the ground.

The truck driver drove the vehicle down into the funnel-shaped depression and parked it beside the meteorite to receive it. Seeing this, the onlookers, unwilling to miss the moment the meteorite was loaded, all crowded closer.

Everly had no interest in joining the excitement. Aside from being bigger, the meteorite didn’t seem all that interesting anyway—she’d already seen enough.

She turned around, holding the dog’s leash and preparing to leave, when suddenly a burst of commotion erupted from the crowd not far away, immediately followed by a dull thump.

Everly turned her head and saw the crowd in an uproar, people shouting and hurling insults at one another. She took a couple of steps forward and pricked up her ears, and only then did she understand what had happened: while they were carrying the meteorite, one of the townspeople had tripped over a stone and fallen, throwing the entire team off balance. With a loud bang, the meteorite slammed into the truck bed, cracking it open.

“Useless! How can you mess up something this simple?” someone in the crowd yelled angrily.

“It’s just a crack. If you don’t look closely, you can’t even tell. What’s there to make such a fuss about?” one of the men who had been hauling the meteorite shot back.

“Yeah! If you care so much about this piece of junk, why don’t you come move it yourself?”

The two sides bickered noisily, soon devolving into mutual accusations.

No one noticed that while they were busy arguing, the onlooking boy, Carter, bent down and picked something up from the ground beside the truck.

Everly saw it, but she didn’t pay any attention.

Aside from the large meteorite, there were plenty of small fragments scattered around on the ground. She was planning to wait until the crowd left and then go in to pick up a piece herself… though obviously not now. If her classmates saw her, it wouldn’t be cool at all.

The bustle around the meteorite crater went on for another ten minutes or so before finally dying down amid one engine starting after another.

Once the crowd had dispersed, Everly went into the crater and, just as she’d hoped, picked up a few of the prettiest-looking meteorite fragments, which she took home and set on a shelf.

…

After spending two comfortable days resting at home, on Monday Everly rode to school. Passing through the town’s central square, she saw that the original art sculpture in the middle had already been dismantled, with workers swinging hammers, smashing the base again and again. Not far away on the plaza stood a familiar chunk of jet-black stone.

It looked like they were planning to build the meteorite landmark right in the very center of the square—quite a grand display.

Everly gave it a casual glance and then looked away.

Her interest in meteorites had lasted only until she’d actually seen one. After that, she found it unremarkable and promptly put it out of her mind.

But her classmates were a different story.

Right now, space-related topics were all the rage. The appearance of the meteorite was like dropping a boulder into a lake—it completely shattered the quiet of this remote little town.

At school, no matter where you went, nearly everyone was talking about shooting stars and meteorites. Some boasted about having shoveled a bit of dirt while the meteorite was being dug up, claiming to be one of its “foundation builders.” Others claimed to have seen the meteorite glowing at night, communicating with UFOs floating in the sky. Some even made plans with friends to go to the square after school just to touch the meteorite…

Everly also ran into that Carter boy. He was standing by the window, holding a small yellow bead, earnestly telling his classmates that it was an alien egg brought by the meteorite. This outlandish claim was immediately met with merciless ridicule. One boy shouted wildly, snatched the so-called “alien egg” from his hand, and hurled it out the window—earning cheers and “Wow~” from the other students.

Hah. So young, and already learning how to bully classmates…

Everly’s expression remained icy as she pushed through the crowd, turned, and went straight to the teachers’ office to report the incident to the second-year head teacher.

In most American schools, students generally feel embarrassed to tell on someone to parents or teachers if they’ve been b*llied. But for Everly—hah—no such hesitation existed. When trouble arises, of course, you go to an adult.

One good deed a day, one good deed a day~

…

No matter how fanatical everyone else got about the meteorite, Everly kept to her own rhythm—reviewing lessons, exercising, exploring new knowledge, picking up hobbies—living a happy, fulfilling life.

A few days later, she noticed a subtle change at school.

One word had quietly started replacing “meteorite” in everyone’s chatter: cockroach—a common pest insect in the U.S.

“Have you noticed that there seem to be more cockroaches around lately?”

“You noticed too? Yesterday I opened my locker, and a cockroach suddenly crawled out from inside, almost onto my hand. It was disgusting!”

“I haven’t run into any… By the way, did you guys watch that show yesterday?”

“……”

Walking down the hall, more and more students started complaining about running into cockroaches in various corners of the school. Before long, when Everly went to the sports equipment storage to get a basketball, she finally encountered the very cockroach her classmates had been talking about.

It was perched on the wooden vaulting horse, small—barely one or two centimeters—and was noisily gnawing at a piece of bacon scrap that had somehow ended up there. Its body was reddish-brown, with a V-shaped black mark on its pronotum. It had no wings, and its back was nearly the same color as the leather top of the vaulting horse. If it weren’t for its constantly twitching antennae while feeding, even Everly might have missed it at first glance.

Once she noticed it, she felt pretty disgusted.

In a little while, the teacher would start teaching vaulting, and Everly didn’t want bugs crawling over the things she would need to touch. She bent down, pulled a tissue from her pocket, hovered it over the cockroach for a moment, and then struck like lightning—quickly grabbing it through the tissue, wrapping the wriggling little insect, and tossing it onto the floor. She stepped on it.

“Squish!”

A tiny, almost imperceptible crunch rang out, and yellowish-white liquid seeped from the tissue onto the floor. Everly frowned, pinched the edge of the tissue with disgust, and flicked it into the trash.

After encountering one once, Everly couldn’t help but start paying attention to cockroaches. And the more she looked, the more she realized that the number of cockroaches in school had indeed increased recently. In just a few days, they had gone from being sneaky, occasional sightings to popping up whenever someone opened an unclosed book—scuttling across fast enough to make anyone jump.

Wait… is this even normal?

Many students asked the school to hire a pest control company for a cleanup, but Principal Ms. Gray refused. Since Volcano Rock Canyon Elementary was a public school, the budget simply wasn’t that flexible.

Just like that, a couple of days passed, and it was Friday. Everly was sitting in math class when suddenly a piercing scream came from the art classroom upstairs.

After the scream, there were sounds of desks and chairs being moved, and hurried, chaotic footsteps.

Everly wanted to maintain her cool-girl image, so she stayed in her seat and ignored it—but the other students weren’t so disciplined. The commotion upstairs grabbed everyone’s attention. Not only did the third graders in her class crane their necks, even the first- and second-year students next door opened their windows to peek upstairs. Some bolder ones even tried to sneak out in front of the teachers just to see what was happening.

The homeroom teacher shouted at the top of their lungs, but not a single student listened. Realizing the class couldn’t continue, the teacher had no choice but to say, “Study quietly in your classroom,” and go upstairs to check the situation.

As soon as the teacher left, the class erupted. Even Everly, moving slowly to blend in, pushed her way through the crowd and headed upstairs, eager to catch sight of the rare gossip.

And that’s when she saw them: cockroaches—hundreds of them, crawling everywhere.