A/N: OK, before the story, I would like to emphasize something. This story is COMPLETELY fictional. Nothing in this story (all chapters) should be carried out in the real world, as it may be a little violent and whatnot. Please be a wise reader and do not imitate the plot, especially the pranks. Thank you for your patience for reading this. Now, on with the story! ^_^
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT A PART OF THE PLOT!
Chapter 2 – CLASSES AND TEACHERS
"Tap… Tap…" A string of footsteps sliced through the silence atmosphere of the school. They seemed to be in a hurry. "Dang it, we have five more minutes! Are we going to reach there on time?" Zexion asked while running, propelling himself forward really hard. He wasn't the best when it comes to running. Axel calmly said: "Geez, Zexion, seriously there's nothing to worry about!" "Yeah, you are the one to talk while your hands are clammy," Zexion retorted. The redhead peeked at his hands, as much as he hated to admit it, they were sweating, which indicated Zexion was not the only one who worries. "… My sweat glands are very active, no big deal…" "Forget it, no time to fight over it. Just get back to class!"
We were all in Class K2D (Form 2 / 8th Grade). We were having Living Skills right now, or what I called "the most aggravating class". Except those who scored 80% and above for this crappy subject, the rest of us would answer "Living Skills" to the question of "Which subject is your least favorite". (Now I am SSSOOO glad that in my real world, I don't have to take this subject anymore. Thank god!)
"Knock! Knock!" Who's there? (Bad joke, I know…) "Come in!" The teacher half leaned on the table and said. The two boys quickly slipped in once permitted. Today we had to copy a very long report on "Entrepreneurship". Ugh, I had to admit that this teacher was one hell of a rocket. Why? The other classes didn't even need to copy a quarter of the report, yet our class was rushing like mad as if chasing a "rocket". Sigh…
"Hey, Zexion. Do we have any cases so far?" I asked quietly, while lending him to copy the first part of the report. I was working on the second last part. "Not yet. Ever since the hall incident, things are in pretty good shape." I was very intrigued by his multitasking skills. How could someone talk while writing a report with such perfect handwriting? "Hmm, you have a point. Then again, Why are you guys so late?" "Do not remind me that. We were handling contrabands in an amount of a mountain just now. There were a few more types -"
"Hey! Be quiet and work on it! Fine, if you people did not hand in the report on time, that's demerit 2 marks and detention for you!" Such good hearing. Pfft, I'm not scared. This teacher's face always made me want to punch her in the face. Furthermore, she didn't even care about all your excuses if things were not going in her way. That included apologies and a very good answer as to why you may have offended her. Once we had a spontaneous grammar quiz, and we didn't know where to go (the venue is not announced). Me, Zexion, Axel, Demyx and Roxas were kind of lost. So, we decided to stay in the classroom and wait for a while, in case it was held there. We then rushed to the Living Skills workshop after sensing something's fishy. When we saw the teacher waiting outside, we increased our speed (only to make me trip), but we earned a scolding from the teacher. She demanded a reason from us and went into the workshop, leaving us outside.
We discussed among ourselves, there were a lot of reasons to say, but we picked what we thought was the most logical. Since Zexion was very good with words, he represented us to talk. But this person (Was she even a person? She's unreasonable!) merely stated that that was NOT ACCEPTABLE! I didn't know about the others but I was fuming internally. Not acceptable, huh? We decided to pull off Plan B - Apologize.
We showed our greatest sincerity while apologizing, near to bowing 90 degrees like the Japanese do. But she said: "I want a reason from you people." WTH?! In the end, all five of us had our grammar quiz outside the class, with passerby staring at us. What's the meaning of this! We gave our reason and she denied it and then demanded a reason when we apologized! ARGH! What nerve! [Recall ends]
Fine, I thought. I will hand in on time, just you wait and see. I bet all of us will. I'm gonna prove it to you! Zexion started speed writing. I couldn't believe the work he produced was of very good quality. Axel was writing kind of furiously, muttering under his breath. Roxas just finished and lending Demyx to copy.
1 minute, 2 minutes passed… "Yes! I'm done!" I whispered. "Did it," Zexion was finished too. The teacher didn't say a word when I let the paper flopped on her table. Pawned! Yes! D
"RRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNGG !" Time for the next class! We hurriedly left the workshop and to the classroom we went. "What class are we having now?" Roxas asked Demyx while sitting down in front of him. After fumbling for his schedule, he said: "Em, Malay Language… After that is English." (Oh yeah. Almost forgot to mention that the setting is in Malaysia, because I live there. ^_^ So we have these funny subjects to study… Sorry for the belated information, readers!)
Just as Demyx finished his words, a voice came in: "Selamat petang, kelas~" [Translation: Good afternoon, class~] No need to think about it, it must be Mrs. Lee, who had a slight lisp. (We addressed her as her initial LCL among us anyway) Her punctuality was something we often feel sad about. Once the previous class's teacher stepped out of the class, she came in simultaneously. She wasn't very boring, but there were some very interesting "observations" in her class: a) If she raised her hand, the angle subtended by her armpits, and the angle subtended by her forearm and the upper arm will be 90 degrees (I even used a protractor to measure it, it really fits!); b) When she spoke Chinese, her pronunciation fails, even though she is a Chinese; c) It was really easy to imitate her (One of our classmates did it and we all just laughed to death); d) The persons she picked to answer questions were almost consistently the same, so you were safe if you're not noticeable, unless she decided that you were not paying attention; e) Almost everything she said will be followed by a "kelas" [Translation: Class].
"Hari ini hari KOMSAS kan? Kelas? OK, hari ini mari kita belajar 'Syair Pesanan Ibu', kelas. Keluarkan buku antologi KOMSAS, kelas." [Translate: Today is the day for Malay Literature Component right? Class? OK, for today, let us learn about 'Poem of a Mother's Message', Class. Take out your Malay Literature Component Anthology book, class.] Hmm, I did my homework and brought my books, now try to pay attention. Only some people who did not follow orders forgot them anyway, since the schools here did not have lockers. Oh boy, this was going to be a long day… although poems were easier to learn than traditional prose. Eh! Stop daydreaming, I told myself mentally. Or else you're gonna get called! -_-
"Lihat rangkap keempat, kelas, berikan maksud rangkap keempat ini, kelas. OK, cikgu minta - " [Translate: Look at the fourth stanza, class, give the implied meaning of this fourth stanza. OK, teacher (Meaning herself) would like to call -] Uh-oh! Random Pick Mode activated! Here are some tips on how to cope with this problem: a) Immediately prepare a very good answer in mind; b) If you don't know the answer, use eye contact to seek help from your buddy/buddies, it may work; c) Pretend that you have a sore throat that day (If there is no other solutions left. P.S. you must not talk for the rest of the day to make up for the lie, which is kind of unbearable.); d) Remember what our moms taught us when we're little? Be honest, say: "I don't know." (But they will ask you to try your best anyway, so it's not very effective); e) This is the ultimate one: If you are not the first one to be called, just say: "Same answer!"
"… Ini, Axel, ya, apakah maksud untuk rangkap keempat ini, Axel?" [Translate: … This, Axel, yes, what is the implied meaning for this fourth stanza, Axel?] Oh noes. The bomb sent from "Her Majesty" LCL just landed on… Axel. "Ah… Zexion, help me…" Axel secretly sent a SOS alarm to Zexion, who was sitting in the direction of 2 o'clock from him using eye contact, but Zexion was being watched by LCL, not a single move can be taken by him to save Axel. Poor Axel, he apparently got the wrong guy…
LCL decided to give Axel some time to think, so she turned around and scribbled something on the blackboard. Now is the chance! I took the opportunity, and whispered: "Psst! Axel! Here…" I was sitting in front of Axel, so it was quite easy for me to throw a paper ball to the back to him. He opened the crumpled paper and it read: "2(d) on the exercise book on page 17." He looked at me and to confirm my answer, I pointed at the book again and mouthed "2d".
"Apakah maksud rangkap ini?" [Translate: What is the implied meaning of this stanza?] LCL turned around to face Axel again once she finished writing on the blackboard. Axel cleared his throat and said: "Janganlah terjebak dalam kegiatan negatif terutamanya dadah. Jauhilah diri daripada najis dadah." [Translate: Do not involve yourself in negative activities especially drugs. Stay away from the filth of drugs.] "Bagus, inilah maksud rangkap keempatlah, kelas." [Translate: Good, this is the implied meaning of the fourth stanza, class.] Yo! Job done! After he sat down, he gave me a thumbs up, which I returned. "Thanks a bunch!" "My pleasure! He he!"
"RRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNGG!" Time for the next one! "Terima kasih, kelas." [Translate: Thank you, class.] "Terima kasih, cikgu." [Translate: Thank you, teacher.] All life once again thrived in K2D, because our English teacher, Mr. Luxord was always late. One of his greatest (and the most epic one) reasons as to why he was late was because he was playing strip poker with Mr. Xigbar, Mr. Sephiroth and Mr. Xaldin (Holy Bananas… O.o). He only rushed in when it left only one minute, before the end of his class! We just snickered when the bell rang and he had to rush out again, with his necktie hanging loosely and his shirt not tucked into his pants. (We guessed he was losing in that game… Blek! Get those horrible images out of my poor head! _)
I was observing the class. (NO, I'm not a stalker, I'm just curious.) Zexion who sat beside me was, you guessed it, reading. He loves reading to death, especially Chinese novels when I first introduced them to him. He had read "The Journey to the West" (西游记), "Royal Tramp" (鹿鼎记), "The Heaven Sword & the Dragon Saber" (倚天屠龙记), "Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain" (雪山飞狐) and all that jazz. If someone created a bomb based on the amount of books he had read, the whole Earth was going down. Axel was scribbling (or maybe doodling) on his notebook behind me. I couldn't read handwritings upside down… What was he writing anyway? I heard people said that the notebook held a lot of secrets, and that became Roxas's biggest interest to find out. (I hope there were no porn inside though, I couldn't imagine a brain-contaminated Roxas… Yikes.)
Speaking of Roxas, he was now burying himself behind a bunch of Math exercise books. It must have been the ones who skipped class and paid no attention to whatever the teacher said. They must have asked good old Roxas to "help" finish their work again. Algebra and Linear Equations weren't that hard, they were too lazy to work their way through, in the end they wouldn't even understand how to do it. Demyx was chatting with Sora, Riku and Ventus about his sitar again. Once we mentioned music, he would carry on with the whole conversation to the end of the world. He sure loves music. I gotta get him to teach me how to play the piano someday.
Just then, Mr. Luxord came in with a stack of papers on his arms. He's… ten minutes late? Wow, a new earliest record! Mark that down! Wait… Papers? Crap! I almost forgot that today we were having an oral test! Yikes, I slapped my hand on my forehead lightly. "I'm finished," I thought. Eh? I was not the one in distress. When Zexion reminded Axel about the oral test, Axel's eyes almost popped out, Demyx had his jaw dropped to the floor and Roxas just gave all of us a blank stare. Our status: OH SNAP…
"All rise," Mr. Luxord said. "Good afternoon teacher…" Our treasurer, Ariel (Yeah, kinda fitting for her…) greeted with a soprano voice which sometimes makes my ears bleed. o_O "Miss Ariel, I would appreciate if you could perform in the school concert in July, but perhaps it is a bit too early, luv…" He rubbed his ears a little and went on rambling. Great, now I could gather my materials for oral. I put the book in my drawer and read silently. Hope this works…
"Class, as for today, we are going to have our oral test. Be sure that you are ready, because I will call you RANDOMLY and you must come out here to say something, OK?" Why thank you, Captain Obvious. Thanks to your "RANDOMLY", it hit me hard on the head. Hope he didn't notice me… T_T I peered over to Zexion, he wasn't panic at all, he's all calm. Axel was the one who looks panicked. He lost his normal cool and cocky attitude, and started to cram all the information into his head. After 3 seconds, he just tossed the book into the drawer and decided not to give a single damn about it.
Demyx had just entered spaz mode, he's even worse than Axel. He kept on mumbling about something like "What now?" and "Crap crap crap". Roxas just kept on reciting his stuff repeatedly to himself quietly. Although there were pauses within, it was still way better than me. I FAIL…
"OK, now we will 'welcome'… Nemixiljix to come out for oral." ALAMAK! [It's Malay. Translate: Oh no (Or equivalent)] Ma Zu (妈祖)! Buddha! Bodhisattva! Jesus Christ! Ganesh?! Or any god that exist…?! Help me! Tasukete! [It's Japanese (たすけて!). Translate: Help!] I slowly stood up, squeezing out an awkward smile that looks like crying. "Teacher, I… Afraid!" I could hear some people snickering somewhere near me; they must be making fun of me. I suck at English (Because I'm a Chinese, he he) and I have glossophobia (fear of public speaking). If my heart wasn't strong enough, I'd probably fainted.
He spoke with his British accent again. "What? You afraid? It's nothing actually, you just need to come out, speak a few words, that's all. Why do you feel afraid? Sick?" Sigh, thank you for your concern, but I was not fully prepared… -_-'
Suddenly… "YEEEEOOOOHHHHYEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOHHHH~~~" What? Fire drill? Wait a minute… Why didn't Mr. Saix make an announcement as a reminder days before? Something's not right here… Anyway, no time to lose, we scrambled and quickly queued outside, and then we headed towards the field.
The field was half full in less than 7 minutes, most of the students were chattering non-stop, just… Shut up! I could see the fire cadets rushing in and out in pure panic. They weren't this panic if they knew that the drill was going to be held. This random incident indeed put everyone in a shock. Even the fire brigade ran in and out, some grabbing water buckets, fire extinguishers, water hose pipes and even bags of water. Whoa… What a commotion.
After what I thought was the longest and the noisiest 10 minutes, Mr. Mans — I mean, Xemnas finally appeared and announced something. I perked up my ears to listen. For what a shock from what I heard, the chemistry lab was under arson attack! Holy Bananas, no wonder everyone was so panic-stricken. Yikes. x
We then headed to the canteen since we were told to leave after a few more announcements (And flabbergasts… ) and it was recess. When we were in our classroom, our Math teacher and Chinese teacher didn't show up. But we were too engrossed in our own activities to care. Suddenly, I froze on the spot!
After 2 seconds, I quickly grabbed my schedule and surveyed it. Bwahahahahaha! English class is over! Yoohoo! NO MORE ORAL~ Yeah! My eyes landed on the next word "P.E." and I jumped 3 feet high. I love P.E. very much ever since I was in primary school ("elementary school" in some countries). Some of my classmates were startled by my OOC behavior; I just don't go around and jump in glee. My face burned a little in embarrassment. (Then I realized that English class was already over for, like, 1 hour… Silly me…)
I changed into P.E. T-shirt, and when I got out, my best friend, Rita Hoe ("Hoe" (何) is one of the surnames in Chinese, and some Chinese have their Christian/ English name in front of their surnames.) and I high-fived each other 3 times before heading towards the field. I didn't know what's going on, but we were in the same class the first time and yet our friendship just developed really fast. It's like we have known each other for years. Maybe it's fate (缘分), I guess, what the Chinese kind of believe in. ^_^
In the field, our P.E. teacher, Mr. Lexaeus, had piled up some boxes. Beyond the boxes was the mattress, what I call "kuih lapis" (or translated as "layered cake"). There was once that Demyx, Roxas and I all jumped onto the mattress at once and we all bounced off to the ground, laughing. Zexion must have facepalmed internally for having such childish people as his friends. Anyway, we gathered around Mr. Lexaeus and listened to his briefing: "You know what to do when it comes to box jumping, just run to build up speed and jump over the boxes to land on the mattress. Simple." I was having a little hard time listening to native English speakers, since my first language was Chinese. Luckily I could still write English essays… Thank god. After processing what he said, I realized that we were going to do the plyometric box jump. Time for a challenge! 8)
We queued up according to our class number and we started to jump one by one. My heart was beating really fast that I could even hear them loud and clear. Yikes. Now it's time for number 11, I was number twelve, but there were like 6 to 7 classmates who either crashed into the boxes or couldn't jump high enough. My hands were sweating a bit. Oh noes, even number 11 couldn't make it. OMG… "Get a grip… Keep your cool… Yeah, you can do it… Calm down, calm down…" Olette who was behind me was just staring at me. She asked: "Nemix, you OK? Was it because of oral?" "… Eh? Wha- Oh, no, not oral…"
"Number 12?" Whoops, I was called. I immediately turned around and ran towards the pile of boxes. Jump, and over the boxes and "BOOF", I landed safely on the mattress. Hooray for me, my first victory of the day! :D
For the next 10 minutes, many of us "volunteered" to be the "cannon balls", crashing onto the mattress after one another. If I were to add the sound effects, I guess the whole school's going to hate me for creating such a racket. Zexion was pushed to go next, since the rest of the class wanted to go last. He only succeeded in the second try. Failure is the mother of success *nod nod*. Next! When Roxas charged towards the boxes, I was shocked at his speed, for someone who sticks to the computer so much. But when he arrived at the boxes, he suddenly performed a real life emergency brake and the inertia sent him crashing into the boxes! OMG!
Demyx went up to help Roxas up, asking him why he pulled off a stunt like that. Apparently a lizard that didn't seem to know the meaning of "look before crossing" just had to pick that time and ran into him. For what I say: Green light, go; Yellow light, go faster; Red light, go to hospital. I shivered. Yikes, if I were Roxas, I would have jumped on that lizard without even knowing! It was so kind of him to notice it. Roxas tried once again after Mr. Lexaeus took care of that lizard. And no, it was not killed; let's just say that it was thrown into a rag. He did it. Congratulations. And since Demyx have very strong legs, he would have surprised me if he did not pass. Axel's up next.
And ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the greatest show. Axel readied himself and he went off like a breeze. He didn't even need to use his hands to carry himself over the boxes - he flew straight over them. Holy Bananas, everyone cheered. "You go, Axel!" Demyx cheered. I was shocked, although I've seen many of his athletic achievements. I just stared at him blankly. I swear he must have these athletic genes with him. He could survive whatever physical ordeal we put him through.
I talked to Rita for a while and then Mr. Lexaeus wanted her to help to put back the equipment. It was then Roxas came over to me. "Hey Nemix, about that arson earlier…" "Oh yeah, that one. What about it?" I prompted him to continue. "Just now, a few 10th grade prefects told me that our counter crime group is going to take over this case." "You mean to look for the arsonist?" I asked. He nodded and said: "Maybe."
Then a basketball flew out of nowhere and almost hit us. Thanks to Roxas and his quick response, he blocked the ball before it can hit us. "Hey Roxas! Basketball! You in?" Hayner shouted from the other side of the field. "OK! One minute!" He replied back, and then turned to me and asked: "What about you?" "Why yes of course, we are in the same team?" "Sounds good to me." He then paced towards the crowd, with me jogging behind. Well, he did say a lot to me today. He's usually quiet, but not as quiet as Zexion. I hope he could speak more though, sometimes I didn't even know what's bothering him. But when he and Axel got together, he transformed into a very talkative person, as contrary to popular belief. A match begins…
When we finally made it back to class… "Hey, Zexion, we are going to have another case again, right?" I sat down beside the slate-haired boy and said. "Ah yes, about that fire," Zexion tore away from his book and said.
"So, where do we start?"
"I think the most possible place would be the chemistry lab."
"Hmm… The question is who did it and why he or she did this?"
" You know, there is this small temple up ahead Radiant Garden Park, I recommend you to seek help from there," He said and smirked.
"Ha ha, yeah, right." He rarely joked. He must be in a good mood today.
"Hey, you guys. What are you guys talking about? Sorry to interrupt," Roxas walked towards us as we looked at him. Maybe we could start a brainstorm right now!
"It's about our new case," I said.
"About that, I guess we are going to delay three more days of homework again, -_-" Roxas sighed.
"… I do not think three days is enough. Maybe more than that," Zexion crossed his arms in front of his chest and said.
"More than WHAT?" A loud voice cut through our quiet conversation.
"WAHHH!"
Yikes! Demyx? What were you doing, scaring the living daylights out of people?! Geez. "What the heck, Demyx?" Roxas tried to calm down his breath and said. "You scared me, dude…" I wiped the imaginary cold sweat forming on my forehead with the back of my palm. "Aww, c'mon, tell me. More than what?" He pouted and asked innocently. Zexion sighed and said: "It is about our group's new case, Demyx. We may have to delay -" "DELAY WHAT?!" Not again! The four of us shouted "WAAHH!" and found Axel grinning at our responses. He sure looked very amused. Let me tell you, Axel's voice was like booming, worse than Demyx's.
"What are you NUTS?!" Roxas lost his temper and shouted. But Axel just started to laugh out loud, almost rolling on the floor. And while he was still laughing, Zexion decided to take his sweet revenge by using his ultimate weapon - POKE POKE! (Sorry, people, not the lexicon… He he.) Now the scene before was as follows: Zexion kept on poking Axel's sides, making him dodging and running around like a madman, almost crying for his mother!
Roxas and Demyx looked at each other and sighed, and then they looked at the two boys running around. I stared at them, surprised. Never thought that Zexion had it in him. He poked, man… Axel's OK, it's just that he likes to prank people. But if he messed with Zexion… I dare not write that, use your imaginations! =_=
The class monitor just had to pick now… "EVERYONE GET YOUR BUTTS TO THE SCIENCE LAB NOW!" Holy Bananas, my ears… Be quiet… Finally, the both of them stopped torturing each other to death. Phew! On the way we go!
In the lab, the creepiest science teacher of all - Mr. Vexen was rambling on and on about nutrition. We were learning proteins and fats today. The whole class was practically struggling to pay attention. Some of us had gastric pain, some of us had their stomachs grumbling like hitting a gong, some of us were sleeping, some of us were daydreaming and some of us had our mouths wide open, welcoming a random fly to enter! Yikes. "So, can you all understand what are proteins and fats?" Mr. Vexen asked, only to find out that the whole class was dying… of hunger! It couldn't be helped, just why this topic, nutrition, was all about food? We were starving… Sigh…
3… 2… 1…! "RRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGG!" Oh, the bells from the heavens! Yeah! Dismiss! "See ya tomorrow!" "Bye!" "Goodbye."
~ CHAPTER 2 FIN ~
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N: Ugh… I am close to dying too, not because of hunger, but because of the translating job. Actually, this story is written by me in Chinese in the first place, along with some foreign languages like Malay, English, Japanese and some more. I had a hard time translating everything to English. Luckily I learn Chinese, English and Malay in Malaysia, or else I'm gonna die… Sorry for any typos and grammar mistakes. You are welcome to give positive criticism and rate if you want. Sayounara [Translate from Japanese (さようなら): Goodbye] people! :D
