Part Three was published on the 22nd of November.
CONTINUE WITH PART FOUR.
I lost Nero before after the November semester break. I seemed to lose the ability of feeling sad. I had to remind myself to be sad. I just lost my best friend but I rest contented with a thought. He surely will be missed. After all, I can’t bring him home in 12 hours of bus ride. There would bound to be a full scale rebellion on my way back home.
During the 4 week break, I rest contented after finding out that I no longer belong in the same class with everyone stupid. I was disgusted with all the ‘smart’ girls in 1 Setia. The feeling was mutual. After failing my finals, I was instructed to move to another class (the last class in the ranking) and to my surprise none of my name calling reemerges after that. I sat close to a girl whose face was in light shade of garden peas and began to introduce myself.
“I’m Hani,” she said. She seemed uncomfortable. Her bangs covered most of her eyes. She has a habit not to look anyone in the eyes. I found out later than her skin problem began when she used an imitation product of Nona Roguy. Heck, I wonder what they put in those tubes until a normal skin turned vomit green.
Other girls came to our desk and chatted. Class 2 Bersih was more than welcoming. There was a Melanau girl in front of us who introduced herself as Harry. All three of us shared an affinity for reading. We agreed that Archie is best with Veronica and Nick Carter is the best looking guy in the whole universe with his blond hair parted in the middle. He was sexy by definition.
“We hardly saw you last year,” said several girls.
“What do you mean? I’m always here,” I said. My hand picked a single long thread from my bag and curled it between my fingers. It doesn’t make any sense. They cannot simply not see me. I’m one of the tallest girls in our batch.
“Yeah. I thought you went back along with other Form Ones. You know, the hysterics and also the homesick ones, just like your dormmates. How many were there?” asked Harry.
“About 12 of them. I was quite glad that Razlina was one of them,” said Hani. The rest nodded.
The name made me clench my fist involuntarily. The impulse was simply there at the memory. Before this, I thought I was the only one that would agree to that statement.
“Why?” I asked.
“She’s nasty. I hope no one would ever hold a grudge for people from Kuala Lipis. I am ashamed to admit that we came from the same village,” said our class monitor. The whole class booed her in response. She just chuckled back.
“I can’t believe she told Miss Bijan that she’s an orphan just to get free text books and then told everyone that her father is a pilot circumnavigating the world as we speak,” said Hani, slightly smirking. Her hands moved as she speaks, rotating the Earth like the big globe on the teacher’s desk.
“Remember when she said her clothes are all bought in the U.K? Nothing made in China like ours. Oh, and don’t forget that her mother was the most famous Miss Kebaya in the 80s,” added Harry, rolling her eyes. The group surrounding my desk roared with laughter. My cheek hurts from smiling. So this must be what friends do. I am beginning to like this gossiping thing.
“You know how we got her?” asked a small girl from Sabah.
“How?” I asked.
“We called her parents and told them the truth. They got really upset, of course, especially when we told them what she did to you. It’s a shame it took us a while to understand her scheme. Her mother was genuinely embarrassed. Never taught their daughter to lie and stuff. I didn’t know any of her haunted school tales were any true because no one believes the girl who cried wolf,” said another girl wearing a blue sweater.
“She deserved it, that liar!” said Hani.
“Hear, hear!” said everyone.
“She got everyone in her trap, just like Stamford Raffles got Singapore,” I remarked. I thought it was a nice, nerdy touch. They applauded.
“Razlina Raffles has a nice ring to it,” said her village-mate, patting me gingerly on the shoulders.
END OF PART FOUR.
Part Five will be published on the 26th of November. Thank you.
[bisa] 