This is my first attempt at typing out one of my old stories, written when I was in Sec 2. Yes, I was quite a prolific writer then, often writing about my friends, who brought me so much joy. Some of the characters are based on real friends, some are from my imagination, combined with characters plucked from books I've read. I must apologise for the Western names and setting. Back then, very few Singaporean fiction authors were around (maybe Catherine Lim and Adrian Tan? But I hadn't read any of their books yet), and my staple consisted of mostly American and British authors. So anyway, I shall be uploading parts of the story as I go along. I am hoping to transfer all of my pages into soft copy, and hopefully continue the story I left off in JC 1 and give it a proper ending :)
CHAPTER ONE
Sharon Loh gulped as she stepped into the classroom. They were receiving their Year 1 examination results that day and she already felt like she wanted to go to the toilet.
In the classroom, everyone was as rowdy as could be. Boys shouted and laughed, girls giggled and chattered excitedly. She couldn’t believe it.
“Hi!”Julie Ong, her best friend, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “You look ghastly!”
“Of course, I almost couldn’t sleep last night worrying about my results,” Sharon said. “Why isn’t everybody nervous?”
Julie laughed at the expression on her face. “Not everyone’s like you, Ms Brainy. Now you’ve got to hear about the party. It sounds like a fireball of fun.”
After the long, hard examinations, her class was organizing a party to enjoy themselves and they were planning to make it a school celebration. Almost the whole Junior College was invited and they had even asked the school principal for permission to occupy the school compound on the day of the party. As far as Sharon knew, the principal had granted it. But she knew she wouldn’t be able to think about the party until the results were out.
Just then, Mrs Ho strode into the classroom with a huge stack of papers. Sharon gulped again.
“Good morning, Mrs Ho,” droned the class, standing up.
“Good morning, please be seated,” Mrs Ho took out a hanky to wipe her face. She was a plump lady with a bulbous nose and a warm smile, well-liked by her students. The students sat down with much scraping of chairs.
“As you know, you will be receiving your papers back today, and I will be pleased to tell you that though none in this class has got outstanding results, all of you passed and did well on the average.”
That was not what Sharon wanted to hear. A chatter rose among the students, but soon subsided when Mrs Ho started giving out the papers.
Sharon clasped her hands together and hoped. She was so nervous she could scarcely breathe.
When Julie received her paper, she shut her eyes for a second, then looked. She stared at her paper for a long time. Before Sharon could ask Julie her grades, she received hers and her heart nearly flipped. She took a long time calming herself before looking at the results.
She had an A for everything except History and Art. She heaved a sigh of relief. The weeks of studying had at least paid off. But Sharon knew she was not going to get away from a nagging session. Sharon’s parents had high expectations of her when it came to her studies.
Meanwhile, Julie was still staring at her paper. Sharon had the sudden thought that Julie had somehow scored all A’s and felt a poisonous pang of jealousy. Julie suddenly swirled around. You couldn’t imagine a wider grin.
“I can’t believe it! I scored a B for my English essay! I’m in heaven!” She flung her arms around Sharon in an impulsive hug. In fact, she looked so gleeful that Sharon could've kicked herself for being so small-minded.
Picking up Sharon’s paper, Julie gasped. “Eight As! Wow! That’s super! Congrats!” She pumped her hand enthusiastically. “Come on! Let’s celebrate!”
Gary Teo, who sat behind Sharon, giggled. He was a boy who was definitely on the round side. Giggling was one of his favourite pastimes , usually at nothing. He got along quite well with Sharon and Julie.
“Stop jumping around, you look ridiculous,” he said between giggles.
“Oh yeah, that’s because you’re jealous you can’t do that without causing a mini-earthquake,” Julie teased, still grinning her head off.
“Stupid Charlie,” Gary said quite pompously, wagging her finger at her. He called anybody whom he didn’t like Charlie. That was another of his little habits, which as usual, made no sense.
Sharon smiled at their teasings. They never got tired of it and could never spend a day without snapping a saucy remark at each other. Sharon usually joined them and ended up laughing her head off, but today… She sighed again, glancing at the offending grade sheet. All because she had been best student last year. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t have cared how may A’s she got. One of life’s ironies.
The bell rang and Mrs Ho dismissed the class. There was an air of gaiety everywhere. Students packed their books, talking with one another. Chairs were pushed in and someone cleaned the blackboard, bringing out clouds of dust.
“Lunch?” Sharon asked listlessly, dawdling over her books.
“Of course, I feel like a Botak Jone’s Supreme Pepperoni Deluxe, chicken wings, cheesy nachos, not to mention a root beer float!” Julie always developed an usual appetite when she was happy. “How about you?”
“I’m not hungry, why don’t you go first?”
“No problem, call me later ok?” Julie bounced out. Sharon smiled at her friend. She always seems so easily happy. While me, I’ve got so much and yet I’m not satisfied. I’m sick.
Feeling all the more miserable, Sharon stepped into the corridor and just started walking. I feel like I could use a Mickey Mouse right now, she thought.
“Sharon!” Someone called her from behind. She turned.It wasn’t Mickey Mouse. It was someone better. It was Winston Chia.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Snubbed!
I went to an old friend's birthday party last night. I mean a really OLD friend. We got to know each other during a French immersion programme in Sec 3, maybe the most memorable trip of my life. It was my first month-long overseas trip with a group of 15-year-olds, away from parents. It comprised a two-week stay at a French correspondant's house and another two weeks travelling around France with the other students. What heaven.
During the trip, six of us became close friends - all of us being from the "non-elite" schools. I guess you could call it selection by elimination :P Four of us formed the core group - two guys and two girls and we used to have heated, long squabbles on the train going to and from French lessons. One guy and myself were "conservatives". We believed in marriage, fidelity, filial piety, loyalty to country, etc etc . Could be our unbringing in a very Chinese school :P The other guy and girl were the complete opposite - believed in free love, cohabitation, etc etc. I shall very innovatively call these two, Liberal Guy and Liberal Girl. Myself and the other guy shall be called “Me” and Conservative Guy :) Besides the four of us, there were another two guys. One could be considered an extremely prim and proper teenager in those days. He would stuff his fingers in his ears when the guys were telling crude jokes, just to illustrate. Even myself, prudish as I was at 15 years old, was not above indulging in a few crude jokes and laughing myself silly. I shall call him Mr Prim-and-Proper. The last guy of our gang was a rich kid who was very laid back and easy-going, but didn't seem to hold very strong views, or at least if he did, didn’t put them across too strongly. He also didn’t have a chance to join us in our ideological debates as he lived on the other side of town (actually he lived in town) and didn't take the train like the rest of us (ah, the benefits of being middle-class). All 5 of us lived in the east. It was to Rich Boy's birthday dinner that I went to.
As I had caught up with Conservative Guy, Mr Prim-and-Proper and Rich Boy 1-2 months ago, one of the highlights of going to this dinner for me was that I would finally get to catch up with Liberal Girl after so many years. I had heard that she was based in another country, China? Russia? Anyway, it was some exotic country, after having left her former job to study, and that she was now leading some exciting life cycling around the world and being super fit. There is also this other little thing between me and Liberal Girl. Back during the French trip and the days taking French together, I had the nagging feeling that she didn't like me much. She was always closer to the other two guys. But I always treated her like a good friend, cos she was one of our gang which was very close. However, I realised halfway that she seemed to have a crush on Liberal Guy, with whom I made the mistake of hooking up with after the French trip. Ok ok, I was young, I was impressionable and being overseas in France with 30 other hormone-charged teenagers didn’t help. Anyway, it seemed very simple. He liked me, I didn’t mind him, so voila! The fact that our world views were as different as black and white didn't cross our minds as being a problem at all. Aah, the recklessness and optimism of youth :) But after the trip, the romantic feelings slowly turned into a strong friendship as we spent more and more time together and really got to know each other beyond the jokes and repartees. He was an intelligent, witty and good-looking guy, but it turned out he was rather needy and we didn’t quite agree what level of intimacy was appropriate at that time. I think we sort of just became good friends, and eventually split up in JC 1. I must say I didn't really mourn the passing of the relationship and after that, I had the distinct feeling that Liberal Girl felt rather sorry for Liberal Guy and thought I was being so very nasty to him and that I didn’t deserve him in the least. I believe I actually heard that from someone!
Anyway, it has been years since then, and I was quite excited to see if she had changed, what she had been up to, and whether she still held the liberal and radical views she did. She was the missing link in the puzzle of our group I wanted to piece together.
Being extremely excited, though more than an hour late (gosh, these Bukit Timah houses), I sat down quite far diagonally from her and at the first pause in conversation around the table, immediately asked her what she has been up to. But I soon realised that the feeling was mutual. The conversation went something like:
"Hi!!! So where are you now???"
"Oh, I'm in Hong Kong." Silence. She stares at me. Isn't she supposed to say more?
"Oh ya ok! I meant where are you working now?"
"A law firm." She looks at me apologetically, like waiting for me to end the conversation.
"Uh-huh" I try not to roll my eyes, "What's the name?"
"It's a British law firm, you won't know it." This was getting weird. This wasn’t supposed to turn into an interrogation, so I stay silent, knowing she would have to say the name at some point.
"It's XXYY." She finally blurts out very quickly. It's true. I couldn't remember it the next second :P
Finally she asks me, are you still at XXYY?
"Yes!" I give her quite a comprehensive run-through of where I've been since we graduated. Then I ask again "So you are a lawyer now?"
"Yeah."
"But you went somewhere to study right?"
"Ya I went to US for a while to study" This other girl chipped in "Hey, where were you were USA?? When were you there? Blah blah blah..." And the two of them started talking very animatedly together. I was completely left out cold. I waited patiently for a while, then realised they were not about to stop anytime soon. Feeling like I was in twilight zone, I turned to talked to the person on my right. The situation repeated itself another 2 more times. Every time the conversation around the table took a breather, I would ask her another question. But the moment she finished her first sentence, the girl would ask another question and the two of them would go into their two-person world. It was so unreal I wanted to make a face at Liberal Girl to say "Isn’t she rude?”. But she didn’t even glance my way.
Sometime through the dinner, I decided that it wasn't worth it. If she didn't want to fill me in the details of her life, so be it. I wasn't going to wrangle it out of her any longer. This was more painful than pulling teeth. So I relaxed and started taking an interest in this other girl sitting opposite me and the girl on my right and we started having our own conversation.
Time flew, and soon it was 1130pm. As we got up to leave, some muttering about church the next day, with phrases like "830 service", Mr Prim-and-Proper offered to send me and Liberal Girl back since we all lived in the same area. In the car, we started talking about the value of marriage (ah, some old topics die hard) and why people get married (never thought I'd ever have to answer that in my life, I mean, isn't it one of those basic things?), and what was happening with her love life, and what was happening with Prim-and-Proper. Then as we were nearing her house, she heard this French song in his car and went beserk with excitement and asked him to send her the song. Then she realized she didn’t have his email address and started saying we should exchange hp nos and emails. All three of us whipped out our hps. Then she keyed in the guy's hp no and email, sent him an sms on the spot and got out of the car. I was quite shocked. What about me? Thankfully I already had her hp no and email, but she never really gave it to me. I got them from mutual friends.
Anyway, these few incidences left me feeling rather wounded. I realised anew that she really didn't like me, having been snubbed three or four times in a night, a first in a very long time!! But as I thought it over in my head, I realized this wasn’t going to change the way I feel about her. To me, she’s still a good friend. I guess that’s what friendship is all about isn’t it? There will always be friends you treasure more than they treasure you, and instead of moping about it and blaming them, I guess I should count it fortunate that I value them so much.
During the trip, six of us became close friends - all of us being from the "non-elite" schools. I guess you could call it selection by elimination :P Four of us formed the core group - two guys and two girls and we used to have heated, long squabbles on the train going to and from French lessons. One guy and myself were "conservatives". We believed in marriage, fidelity, filial piety, loyalty to country, etc etc . Could be our unbringing in a very Chinese school :P The other guy and girl were the complete opposite - believed in free love, cohabitation, etc etc. I shall very innovatively call these two, Liberal Guy and Liberal Girl. Myself and the other guy shall be called “Me” and Conservative Guy :) Besides the four of us, there were another two guys. One could be considered an extremely prim and proper teenager in those days. He would stuff his fingers in his ears when the guys were telling crude jokes, just to illustrate. Even myself, prudish as I was at 15 years old, was not above indulging in a few crude jokes and laughing myself silly. I shall call him Mr Prim-and-Proper. The last guy of our gang was a rich kid who was very laid back and easy-going, but didn't seem to hold very strong views, or at least if he did, didn’t put them across too strongly. He also didn’t have a chance to join us in our ideological debates as he lived on the other side of town (actually he lived in town) and didn't take the train like the rest of us (ah, the benefits of being middle-class). All 5 of us lived in the east. It was to Rich Boy's birthday dinner that I went to.
As I had caught up with Conservative Guy, Mr Prim-and-Proper and Rich Boy 1-2 months ago, one of the highlights of going to this dinner for me was that I would finally get to catch up with Liberal Girl after so many years. I had heard that she was based in another country, China? Russia? Anyway, it was some exotic country, after having left her former job to study, and that she was now leading some exciting life cycling around the world and being super fit. There is also this other little thing between me and Liberal Girl. Back during the French trip and the days taking French together, I had the nagging feeling that she didn't like me much. She was always closer to the other two guys. But I always treated her like a good friend, cos she was one of our gang which was very close. However, I realised halfway that she seemed to have a crush on Liberal Guy, with whom I made the mistake of hooking up with after the French trip. Ok ok, I was young, I was impressionable and being overseas in France with 30 other hormone-charged teenagers didn’t help. Anyway, it seemed very simple. He liked me, I didn’t mind him, so voila! The fact that our world views were as different as black and white didn't cross our minds as being a problem at all. Aah, the recklessness and optimism of youth :) But after the trip, the romantic feelings slowly turned into a strong friendship as we spent more and more time together and really got to know each other beyond the jokes and repartees. He was an intelligent, witty and good-looking guy, but it turned out he was rather needy and we didn’t quite agree what level of intimacy was appropriate at that time. I think we sort of just became good friends, and eventually split up in JC 1. I must say I didn't really mourn the passing of the relationship and after that, I had the distinct feeling that Liberal Girl felt rather sorry for Liberal Guy and thought I was being so very nasty to him and that I didn’t deserve him in the least. I believe I actually heard that from someone!
Anyway, it has been years since then, and I was quite excited to see if she had changed, what she had been up to, and whether she still held the liberal and radical views she did. She was the missing link in the puzzle of our group I wanted to piece together.
Being extremely excited, though more than an hour late (gosh, these Bukit Timah houses), I sat down quite far diagonally from her and at the first pause in conversation around the table, immediately asked her what she has been up to. But I soon realised that the feeling was mutual. The conversation went something like:
"Hi!!! So where are you now???"
"Oh, I'm in Hong Kong." Silence. She stares at me. Isn't she supposed to say more?
"Oh ya ok! I meant where are you working now?"
"A law firm." She looks at me apologetically, like waiting for me to end the conversation.
"Uh-huh" I try not to roll my eyes, "What's the name?"
"It's a British law firm, you won't know it." This was getting weird. This wasn’t supposed to turn into an interrogation, so I stay silent, knowing she would have to say the name at some point.
"It's XXYY." She finally blurts out very quickly. It's true. I couldn't remember it the next second :P
Finally she asks me, are you still at XXYY?
"Yes!" I give her quite a comprehensive run-through of where I've been since we graduated. Then I ask again "So you are a lawyer now?"
"Yeah."
"But you went somewhere to study right?"
"Ya I went to US for a while to study" This other girl chipped in "Hey, where were you were USA?? When were you there? Blah blah blah..." And the two of them started talking very animatedly together. I was completely left out cold. I waited patiently for a while, then realised they were not about to stop anytime soon. Feeling like I was in twilight zone, I turned to talked to the person on my right. The situation repeated itself another 2 more times. Every time the conversation around the table took a breather, I would ask her another question. But the moment she finished her first sentence, the girl would ask another question and the two of them would go into their two-person world. It was so unreal I wanted to make a face at Liberal Girl to say "Isn’t she rude?”. But she didn’t even glance my way.
Sometime through the dinner, I decided that it wasn't worth it. If she didn't want to fill me in the details of her life, so be it. I wasn't going to wrangle it out of her any longer. This was more painful than pulling teeth. So I relaxed and started taking an interest in this other girl sitting opposite me and the girl on my right and we started having our own conversation.
Time flew, and soon it was 1130pm. As we got up to leave, some muttering about church the next day, with phrases like "830 service", Mr Prim-and-Proper offered to send me and Liberal Girl back since we all lived in the same area. In the car, we started talking about the value of marriage (ah, some old topics die hard) and why people get married (never thought I'd ever have to answer that in my life, I mean, isn't it one of those basic things?), and what was happening with her love life, and what was happening with Prim-and-Proper. Then as we were nearing her house, she heard this French song in his car and went beserk with excitement and asked him to send her the song. Then she realized she didn’t have his email address and started saying we should exchange hp nos and emails. All three of us whipped out our hps. Then she keyed in the guy's hp no and email, sent him an sms on the spot and got out of the car. I was quite shocked. What about me? Thankfully I already had her hp no and email, but she never really gave it to me. I got them from mutual friends.
Anyway, these few incidences left me feeling rather wounded. I realised anew that she really didn't like me, having been snubbed three or four times in a night, a first in a very long time!! But as I thought it over in my head, I realized this wasn’t going to change the way I feel about her. To me, she’s still a good friend. I guess that’s what friendship is all about isn’t it? There will always be friends you treasure more than they treasure you, and instead of moping about it and blaming them, I guess I should count it fortunate that I value them so much.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The Value of Rest
Ahh... I am amazed at what half a day off from work can do for me. Yesterday morning I woke up with a mysterious large lump of phlegm in my throat that I managed to get out with a loud hack. It really surprised me, as I had been feeling perfectly fine until then. Then as the rest of the day progressed, and as the pace of work picked up, I started blowing my nose more and more, and sniffling miserably as I worked.
Today I seriously contemplated taking a day off from work, but there was too much to be done, so I went to office anyway. Miraculously, I managed to finish most of the urgent things on my to-do list, and left at about 1pm to go to see a clinic near my house. But the strange thing was, the further and further I got away from office, I found myself calming down and looking forward to half a day off from work! Then i decided to pop into Tampines Library to look for a book... which resulted in my trotting around Tampines 1 bookstore and buying that Sophie Kinsella book that has been eluding me for so long :) Then I settled with a happy sigh into a restaurant called "Say Cheeze" and started reading the book, and before long, I was chuckling aloud to myself as I flipped the pages. She manages to be so funny :) If I were to ever write any fiction, I want to write funny fiction!
Anyway, as I finished with the minestrone soup and baked rice and moved on to the nice cup of coffee, I felt myself feeling better and better, and I noticed I had not blown my nose nor felt groggy and stuffy in my head in a long time. I feel perfectly fine! In fact, I feel so well, I think I'm not going to see a doctor.
And on my way home, I popped into that posh-looking Urban Write stationary store I have been so curious about and never had the time to get there before closing time, and buy a blue scrungee to replace the one I lost... And as I let myself into my home at 4 plus, I still had time to pack up the mess of clothes on the sofa, and send off a few quick emails to cell that have been outstanding (never managed to find the strength to log on after work)... Ahh.... The luxury of some time off from work :) It's magical.
Today I seriously contemplated taking a day off from work, but there was too much to be done, so I went to office anyway. Miraculously, I managed to finish most of the urgent things on my to-do list, and left at about 1pm to go to see a clinic near my house. But the strange thing was, the further and further I got away from office, I found myself calming down and looking forward to half a day off from work! Then i decided to pop into Tampines Library to look for a book... which resulted in my trotting around Tampines 1 bookstore and buying that Sophie Kinsella book that has been eluding me for so long :) Then I settled with a happy sigh into a restaurant called "Say Cheeze" and started reading the book, and before long, I was chuckling aloud to myself as I flipped the pages. She manages to be so funny :) If I were to ever write any fiction, I want to write funny fiction!
Anyway, as I finished with the minestrone soup and baked rice and moved on to the nice cup of coffee, I felt myself feeling better and better, and I noticed I had not blown my nose nor felt groggy and stuffy in my head in a long time. I feel perfectly fine! In fact, I feel so well, I think I'm not going to see a doctor.
And on my way home, I popped into that posh-looking Urban Write stationary store I have been so curious about and never had the time to get there before closing time, and buy a blue scrungee to replace the one I lost... And as I let myself into my home at 4 plus, I still had time to pack up the mess of clothes on the sofa, and send off a few quick emails to cell that have been outstanding (never managed to find the strength to log on after work)... Ahh.... The luxury of some time off from work :) It's magical.
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