These Shoes Would Be Perfect For Prom

in a sudden burst of school spirit, the prawn, the parrot and the pinkpau went to visit their former high school today.

i was so excited i could barely contain myself. seriously! i even wore my school uniform just for fun; shirt neatly tucked in, of course.

at the trophy cabinet

we arrived at about 11 in the morning. it was just like old times, waltzing into school during recess after missing 3 hours of classes, hahaha! elizabeth, who is still the receptionist after maybe an eternity of working with the school, insisted we get permission from the head of secondary before we were allowed into the building. like that also can! after giving X amount of money to the school after all these years, you’d think we’d at least be warmly welcomed back into the folds of our alma mater with open arms -___-

to our disappointment, the school was rather empty coz most teachers and students were away for the full-dress rehearsal of the school’s annual play that’s staging tomorrow. (which we are going for! yay!) nevertheless, we still got to catch up with some of our former teachers, and also make some noise with former schoolmates as well as our classmates’ younger siblings who seem to be growing up so quickly. malcolm has a girlfriend now, whom he keeps spying on lovingly from yonder blue classroom door! awwwww!

sieutheng looking at a BM essay some student wrote. man! we used to do that shit!

there are so many new teachers walking the halls of the school now. despite many of our favourite teachers like Ms Doh and Mr Mani flying the coop, it’s comforting to know that many old senior faces like Encik Iskhandar, Pn Rokiah and Encik Adenan are still around. it’s okay if the lobby bookshop that used to be run by the grumpy Aunty with curly hair has since closed down, and that i dont even remember how the canteen looked like back in 1995 because it has undergone maybe six hundred and seventy two renovations since then… as long as some of our teachers are still around, everything still feels familiar. even if only slightly so.

walking around the school, there were so many memories that just came flooding back. i remember how on my very first week of school, i was in Standard 1 and i met this boy i really liked. his name was Steven and we got along really well. i even went home and told my mother about him. later that week when she dropped me off at school, she asked if i would take her to meet him and i said okay. after that, i walked with him down to the courtyard for morning assembly and he said anxiously, ‘wah damn scared man while talking to your mother!’ and i remembered thinking how cute it all was. after he moved away in Std 3, we lost contact. only recently did we get back in touch via his sister, but he’s now nothing more than a Friendster friend whose profile i dont view.

hopscotching

Std 4 was when class-streaming started, and that was the most defining year for us because it pretty much determined who you would study with 8 hours a day for the next 8 years. since 4A till 5Science1, most of my classmates are the same faces, give or take a few new kids, people who changed schools, as well as B class students who got promoted - one of whom would later become one of the smartest kids our school ever produced, another two of whom are my best friends today.

and another one of whom i was head over heels in lust for, and probably still have a teeny weeny crush on till today. cough.

and Tze remember how when i was 10 and you were 12, we used to read Sweet Valley books and then we would discuss them on the phone wtf! remember Benjamin Liew wtf.

the courtyard, where we’ve had morning assemblies, kompang and bunga manggar affairs, senamrobik when ms anne was still around, early morning loitering, boys brigade meetings

after Std 6, many of us stayed back in our school whilst some went to other high schools. lots of new kids joined us in Form 1 : ivan who sat beside wai min and had what was supposedly a crush on her hahahaha (ivan you better start getting your stories straight), lynn-nee whom everyone said was my twin, sze yin who was so mild-mannered back then! i’m glad that all these new kids came when they did - life now would be so different without them. and i joined the Christian Fellowship in Form 1. i cannot put into words how different my life would be if i hadn’t taken that ECA form and put a tick on the Christian Fellowship checkbox. songjun isnt it scary to know that we may not have met if i hadn’t joined CF when i did!

Form 1 was also when i met my first love. haha yes, my first love! oh what a story. one that deserves a whole long post of its own. a tale for another day :)

the 2nd floor corridor where many a romantic thing happened

Form 2 was perhaps the most dramatic year of my high school life, because teenagers can be so theatrical that way. it was interesting and i learned many a lesson that matured me quickly. it was also my ‘nice’ year, and the beginning of a 4-year seating plan with The Four Of Us, ie the penguin, the prawn, the parrot and the pinkpau! plus ivan :P who doesnt have a P-nickname because jovann decided to name him Dubur instead. heeheehee. very apt right. yes i know.

the window and fire hose thingy where we used to chitchit at during our Form 2 year. then i saw a dead lizard on the windowsill and never stood there again

jin hang, Form 2 was the year i yelled at you in class. hahaha sorry lah dont angry i give you chocolate ok?

Form 3 was PMR year and the year i turned into a delinquent. haha! i was either many hours late for school or would not turn up at all for days on end. and i always wore these orange shorts to school that pissed the hell out of the strict teachers who liked to harp on imej pelajar. aiya but despite all that i still got damn good results. so what if they didn’t let me be a prefect! so what if they disliked me so much and said i had disciplinary problems! so what if my skirt was a few inches too short! i still got my straight A’s for PMR!

the longest year ever was Form 4. man, i swear. but it was also my favourite year. even though it feels like i cried in the school toilet one too many times.

sieutheng and i with my Short Brother, who is actually not that short anymore because he’s now as tall as i am!

jonathan, we met you in Form 4! do you remember how antisocial you were! and then when i asked you if you knew sieutheng’s ex-boyfriends from your former school, you said with this frown on your face, “why do you mix with this kind of people?” hahahaha!

Form 5 Form 5 Form 5. the first half was all good fun and games, and then come mid-year it was panic city coz of SPM. i still didnt like going to school and i still argued with my teachers and they still thought that i should be suspended for disciplinary issues. aiya but despite all that i still got good results! so what if they didnt let me run for student council president! so what if they always saw it appropriate to belittle and discourage me for anything i tried to do! so what if my skirt was still a few inches too short! i still got 12A’s for SPM!

(and one B for Biology lah but let’s not bring up sad stories)

and Form 5 was the year we lost to SMK Damansara Jaya in the Taylors Debate and they went on to win the trophy wtf wtf yes i have beef with all DJ people ever since then!!! DJians you all too much oredi. why everything oso you all must win! leave some trophies for the rest of us in the Klang Valley can anot!

we used to hang out at this area in the back stairwell during recess and lunch hour when the prefects would chase us out of the classrooms

siigh those were the days lor really wan lor. walking around school today was like being taken through a whole montage of events. it felt crazy and overwhelming, like a little balloon that welled up deep inside of me and expanded to encompass my entire being. all these experiences and memories are just bigger than me. i ran my fingers along the smooth painted walls of the corridors the way i used to do while walking back to class, and the sensation of it felt exactly the same as it did when i was 7 years old, 9 years old, 13 years old, 17 years old.

it’s true what they say, your high school years are the best and worst of your life.

i saw Pn Nages in the lounge; she’s the librarian, who like Elizabeth the receptionist, has also been working in the school ever since the beginning of time. seeing her, i felt the urge to inform her that her library has naughty fiction that gave the 11-year-old me many a wild dream back in the day. ah but then one must let the serendipity of nature take its course. one must not deprive other kids of reprieves from their sheltered sexually-uninformed lives. and so i didnt say anything.

with the security guard who would always quietly let me into school late without informing the admins!

some conversation snippets from the day :

pn ros : MENGAPA RAMBUT BERWARNA
me : sorry lah cikgu, i promise tomorrow i dye back black!
pn ros : tak boleh! BSL, BSL!
(bsl = borang salah laku / student offence form)

pn rokiah : (to me) button your baju!!
pn rokiah : (to sieutheng) button your kulit!!

pn jamaliah : datang tak bawa buah tangan pun
pn rokiah : tapi bawa buah dada

me : ms vasinthi, jonathan sends his regards (actually bluff wan, jonathan never sent oso hahaha)
ms vasinthi : jonathan? who’s jonathan?
me : aiyo! jonathan, miss!!!
ms vasinthi : ohhh, the new boy!
me, aira, st : HAHAHAHA

mr khoo : (to aira) so are you doing physics now?
aira : yup
mr khoo : (to me) this one for sure not doing science wan
me : SIR YOU DONT FORGET I GOT A1 FOR PHYSICS OKAY

pn munap : su ann, you shouldnt do psychology. i think you should do law, because you have a criminal mind.
me : …………….

the toaster in the staffroom

61 comments June 15th, 2007