Apparently, when some people arrive on The Other Side, as my Great Nan used to call it, they take one look and go, "Oh, hello, I must have died and gone to heaven!"

　　But I was only thirteen. It didn't occur to me I was dead.

　　What's going on? I panicked. Why am I hanging around outside this snobby school? Big snobby school, to be strictly accurate. Kids of all ages were crowding through the gates.

　　Hang on, Mel, I thought. This can't be right. It's the summer holidays.

　　But it didn't feel like the holidays. There was a definite first-day-of-term zing in the air. All the kids had that "Yippee! Can't wait to see my mates!" look about them.

　　It was like being in a dream. The kind where you forget really vital personal info. For instance, I totally couldn't remember what I'd been doing just before my little trip around the galaxy (which I was rather carefully trying not to think about).

　　I could remember the Jewel song. Also an alarmingly big bang. Perhaps I'd been in some kind of accident, and I was concussed? That would explain why I felt so out of it.

　　I hung about uneasily as kids streamed past me in their gorgeous designer colours. For some reason, my eyes kept going back to that little logo on the gate. At first it struck me as just your basic logo. Like that Puma symbol, or whatever. Then I realised it was incredibly beautiful. And it wasn't that I couldn't stop looking - more like I didn't want to.

　　As I stared, hypnotised, at this dazzling thing, the little angel figure began to grow sharper and brighter.., and suddenly it was shooting out huge starry rays like a Roman Candle.

　　I shut my eyes fast, telling myself it was purely an optical illusion. And when I opened them again, the logo was safely back to normal. Boy, Melanie, that must have been some bang on the head, I told myself.

　　I still didn't have a clue what to do. But I was starting to feel pretty stupid, hanging around like a spare part. It can't hurt to have a little peek, I thought. I'll just see what's on the other side of these gates, and if I don't like it, I can come straight back out.

　　到底是怎么回事啊？我真的好怕怕。

　　我干嘛要在这么个烂学校外面晃悠呢？

　　一点都没错，这就是个超级超级烂的学校，门口挤着好多不同年龄的小屁孩，他们好像很想进去的样子。

　　我对自己说：

　　小美，你这是在干什么啊？是没事做了吗？跑到学校来干嘛？现在不是在放暑假吗？

　　但是好奇怪，这里一点也没有放暑假的气氛。

　　给人的感觉，反而像是开学的第一天呢！

　　所有的孩子都非常激动，他们的眼神和表情，好像在说：

　　“太好了，终于等到啦，又可以和朋友们一起玩啦！”

　　我一定是在做梦，只有在做梦的时候，人才会出现大脑短路的情况。

　　我已经完全记不起，自己是怎么跑到这里来的，或者说，我根本不愿意去想清楚。

　　在我的记忆中，只有那张白金唱片，还有“梆——”的一声巨响。

　　我一定是出车祸，被撞成脑震荡了吧？

　　难怪现在感觉怪怪的。

　　我在校门口走来走去，浑身不自在，穿着鲜艳衣服的孩子们蜂拥着从我身边走过。

　　校门上有一个小天使形状的标识，不知为什么，我老是觉得它有点不一样的地方，到底是哪里不一样呢？我忍不住对它看了又看。

　　其实，第一眼看过去的时候，它不过就是一个普通的商标，就像彪马啊，阿迪达斯那样的商标。可是，越看越觉得它很特别——它非常漂亮，漂亮得让人不想移开视线。

　　盯着这个金光耀眼的小玩意，我有一种被催眠的感觉，

　　小天使的形象变得越来越清晰、明亮……突然，它发出耀眼的光芒，就像绽放在空中的罗马烛光焰火一样。

　　我吓了一大跳，马上闭上眼睛，对自己说“这只是一个幻觉啊”！

　　当我再次睁开眼睛时，标识又变成原来的样子了。

　　“糟糕啦，美兰妮，你的脑袋，一定是被那‘梆’的一声给撞坏了。”

　　我着急地想。

　　我该怎么办呢？

　　不管怎样，老是在门口晃悠，肯定不太好，一定会被别人认为是大傻瓜吧！

　　要不然，就进到这个学校去看看吧！就是看一眼而已嘛！没什么大不了的啊！如果我不喜欢，大可以马上掉头回去。