DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT A PART OF THE PLOT!

Chapter 2 – CLASSES AND TEACHERS

"Tap, tap…" A string of footsteps sliced through the silent atmosphere of the school. They seemed to be in a hurry. "Darn it, five minutes left! Are we going to reach there on time?" Zexion asked while running, propelling himself forward really hard. He was not the best when it came to running. Axel calmly replied, "Geez, Zexion, seriously, there's nothing to worry about!" "Yeah, you are the one to talk when your hands are clammy," Zexion retorted. The redhead peeked at his hands. As much as he hated to admit it, they were indeed sweating, which indicated Zexion was not the only one who was worrying. "… I have very active sweat glands, no big deal…" "Forget it, no time to argue. Just get to class!"

We were all in Class K2D (Form 2 / 8th Grade) and 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 favourite".

"Knock! Knock!" Who was there? (Bad joke, sorry…) "Come in," the teacher, who was half leaning on the table, 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 did not even need to copy a quarter of the report, yet our class was rushing the content like mad as if chasing after a rocket. Sigh…

"Say, Zexion. 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 have been 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 mountainous contrabands earlier. There were a few more types-"

"Hey! Be quiet and work on it! Fine, if you all do not hand in the report on time, that's demerit two marks and detention for you!" Such good hearing. Pfft, I was not scared. This teacher's face always made me want to punch her in the nose. Furthermore, she never cared about all of our excuses if things were not going her way, including apologies and a very good answer as to why you may have offended her. There was one time when we had a spontaneous grammar quiz, and we did not know where to take it (the venue was not announced). The five of us were kind of lost, so we decided to stay in the classroom and wait to see if it would be held there. We then rushed to the Living Skills workshop after realising something was fishy. When we saw the teacher waiting outside, we increased our speed (only to make me trip), but we earned a scolding from her instead. She demanded a reason from us and went into the workshop, leaving us outside.

We discussed among ourselves, there were many reasons at hand, 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 was unreasonable) merely stated that that was NOT ACCEPTABLE! I did not know about the others but I was fuming internally. Not acceptable, huh? We decided to pull off Plan B: Apologise.

We showed our greatest sincerity while apologising, almost bowing ninety degrees like the Japanese did. But she said, "I demand a reason." WTH?! In the end, all five of us had our grammar quiz outside the workshop, with passer-by staring at us. What was the meaning of this?! We gave our reason and she denied it, and then she demanded one when we apologised! ARGH! What nerve! [Recall ended]

"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 could not believe the work he produced was of very good quality. Axel was writing kind of furiously, muttering under his breath. Roxas just finished and was lending his report to Demyx.

One minute, two minutes passed… "Yes! I'm done!" I whispered. "Done," Zexion finished his work too. The teacher did not say anything when I let the paper flop onto her table. Pawned! Yes!

"RRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNGG!" Time for the next class! We hurriedly left the workshop and to the classroom we went. "What 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 it's English." (Oh yeah. Almost forgot to mention that the setting was in Malaysia, so we had these funny subjects… Sorry for the belated information!)

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 have been Mrs. Lee, who had a slight lisp. We addressed her as her initials LCL among us. Her impeccable punctuality was something we often grieved over. Once the previous class' teacher stepped out of the classroom, she came in simultaneously. She was not 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 would always be ninety degrees (I even confirmed it with a protractor); b) When she spoke Mandarin, her pronunciation failed, despite being Chinese; c) It was really easy to imitate her; one of our classmates nailed it and we died laughing; d) The people she picked to answer questions were almost consistently the same, so you were safe if you were not noticeable, unless she decided that you were not paying attention; e) Almost everything she said would 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's 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 I should pay attention. Only some people who did not follow orders forgot them, since the schools here did not have lockers. Oh boy, this was going to be a long day… although poems were easier to digest than traditional proses. "Hey! Stop daydreaming," I told myself mentally. "Or else you're gonna get called out!"

"Lihat rangkap keempat, kelas, berikan maksud rangkap ini, kelas. OK, cikgu minta-" [Translate: Look at the fourth stanza, class, give the implied meaning of this stanza, class. OK, teacher (meaning herself) would like to ask-] Uh-oh! Random Pick Mode alert! Here were some tips on how to cope with this problem: a) Immediately prepare an answer you were damn sure about in mind; b) If you did not know the answer, use eye contact to seek help from your buddy/buddies, it might work; c) Pretend you have a sore throat that day if there were no solutions left. P.S. you must not talk for the rest of the day to make up for the lie, which was kind of unbearable; d) Remember what our moms taught us when we were little? Be honest and say, "I do not know" (But they would ask you to try your best anyway, so it was not very effective); e) This was the ultimate one: If you were 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 signal to Zexion, who was sitting two o'clock from him using eye contact, but Zexion was watched by LCL, so not a single move could be taken to save him. Poor Axel; his request for support was denied…

LCL decided to give Axel some time to think, so she turned around and scribbled something on the blackboard in the meantime. The chance had come! I took the opportunity and whispered, "Psst! Axel! Here." I was sitting in front of Axel, so it was quite easy for me to toss a paper ball backwards to him. He opened the crumpled paper and it read, "Section 2(d), exercise book, page 17." He looked at me and to confirm my answer, I pointed at the book again and mouthed "2d".

"Apakah maksud tersirat 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 replied, "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 keempat, kelas." [Translate: Good, this is the implied meaning of the fourth stanza, class.] Yo! Success! After he sat down, he gave me a thumbs up, which I returned. "Thanks a bunch!" "My pleasure! Hehe!"

"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) reasons as to why he was late was because he was playing strip poker with Mr. Xigbar, Mr. Sephiroth and Mr. Xaldin (Holy Bananas…). He only rushed in when there was only one minute remaining 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 untucked 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 was not a stalker, just curious). Zexion who sat beside me was, you guessed it, reading. He loved reading to death, especially Chinese novels when I first introduced them to him, and somehow got him hooked on them. He had read "The Journey to the West", "Royal Tramp", "The Heaven Sword & the Dragon Sabre", "Fox Volant of the Snow Mountain" and all that jazz. If someone created a bomb based on the amount of books he had read, the whole Earth would go down. Axel was scribbling (or maybe doodling) on his notebook behind me. I could not read anything upside down… What was he writing anyway? People said that his notebook held a lot of secrets, and that became Roxas's biggest interest to find out. I hoped there were no porn inside though. I could not 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 from the ones who skipped class and paid no attention to whatever the teacher said. They must have asked good old Roxas to finish their work again. Algebra and linear equations were not that hard; they were too lazy to work their way through, in the end they would not even understand how to do it. Demyx was chatting with Sora and Riku about his sitar again. Once music was mentioned, he would carry on the whole conversation to the end of the world. He sure loved music. I should 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 was… only ten minutes late? Wow, a new record! Mark that down! Wait… Papers? Crap! I forgot today we were having an oral test! Yikes, I slapped my hand on my forehead lightly. "I'm finished," I thought. Hmm? 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, kind of fitting for her…) greeted with a soprano voice which sometimes made my ears bleed. "Miss Ariel, I would appreciate if you are performing 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. I hoped this worked…

"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, alright?" Why thank you, Captain Obvious. Your "RANDOMLY" hit me hard on the head. I hoped he would not notice me… I peered over to Zexion, he was not panicked at all, just cool and steady. Axel was the one who looked panicked. He lost his normal cool and cocky attitude, and started cramming all the information into his head. After three 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 was 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 in between, it was still way better than me. I still could not gather all of my wits…

"OK, now we will 'welcome'… Nemixiljix to start this off." ALAMAK! [Malay. Translate: Oh no (or equivalent)] Ma Zu! Buddha! Bodhisattva! Jesus Christ! Ganesh?! Or any god that existed…?! Help me! たすけて! [Japanese. Translate: Help!] I slowly stood up, squeezing out an awkward smile that looked like crying. "Sir, I… Afraid!" I could hear some people snickering somewhere; they must have been making fun of me. I sucked at public speaking and I had glossophobia (fear of public speaking). If my heart was not strong enough, I would probably have fainted.

He spoke with his British accent again, "What? You're afraid? It's nothing actually, you just need to come out, speak a few words, that's all. Why do you feel afraid? Are you feeling alright?" *Sigh* thank you for your concern, but I was not fully prepared…

Suddenly… "YEEEEOOOOHHHHYEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOHHHH~~~" What? Fire drill? Wait a minute… Mr. Saïx would have made an announcement as a reminder days before if there was one scheduled. Something was not right here… Anyways, 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 seven minutes, most of the students were chattering non-stop, just… too noisy. I could see the fire cadets rushing in and out in pure panic. They would not be so caught off guard if they knew the drill was going to be held. This random incident indeed shocked everyone. Even the fire brigade joined in, 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 ten minutes, Mr. Mans- I meant, Xemnas finally appeared and announced something. I perked up my ears to listen. What a shock from what I heard; the chemistry lab was under arson attack! Holy Bananas, no wonder everyone was so panic-stricken. Yikes.

We then headed to the canteen since we were told to leave the field after a few more announcements (and flabbergasting…), and it was recess. When we were back in our classroom, our Math teacher and Mandarin language teacher did not show up. But we were too engrossed in our own activities to care. Suddenly, I froze on the spot; I felt like I was forgetting something…

After two seconds, I quickly grabbed my schedule and checked it. Bwahahahahaha! English class was over! Yoohoo! NO MORE ORAL~ Yeah! My eyes landed on the next word "P.E." and I jumped with glee. I love P.E. a lot ever since primary/elementary school. Some of my classmates were startled by my OOC behaviour; I rarely went and jumped like that. My face burned a little in embarrassment. That was also when I realised that English class was already over, like, an hour ago… Silly me…

I changed into my P.E. T-shirt, and when I got out, my best friend, Rita and I high-fived each other before heading to the field. I did not know why, but we were in the same class for the first time and yet our friendship just developed really fast. It was like we had known each other for years. Maybe it was fate, I guessed.

In the field, our P.E. teacher, Mr. Lexaeus, had piled up some boxes. Beyond the boxes was the mattress, or what I called "layered cake". There was one time when Demyx, Roxas and I all jumped onto the mattress together and we all bounced off to the ground laughing. Zexion must have slapped a palm to his face internally for having such childish people as his friends. Anyways, we gathered around Mr. Lexaeus and listened to his briefing, "You know the drill when it comes to box jumps; 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 Mandarin. Luckily I could still write English essays… Thank god. After processing what he said, I realised that we were going to do the plyometric box jump. Time for a challenge!

We queued up according to our class number and we started to jump one by one. My heart was beating so fast I could even hear it loud and clear. Yikes. Number eleven just went off. I was number twelve, but there were like six to seven classmates who either crashed into the boxes or could not jump high enough. My hands were sweating a bit. Crap, even number eleven could not make it. Crap… "Get a grip… Keep your cool… Yeah, you can do it… Calm down, calm down…" Olette who was behind me just stared at me. She asked, "Nemix, you OK? Was it because of the oral test earlier?" "… Eh? Wha- Oh, no, not that…"

"Number twelve?" Whoops, my turn. I immediately turned around and ran towards the pile of boxes. I jumped and used my palms as leverage on the topmost box. I went over the boxes and "BOOF", I landed safely on the mattress. Yes! My first victory of the day!

For the next ten minutes, it seemed like many of us volunteered to be cannon balls, crashing onto the mattress after one another. If I were to add sound effects, the whole school would have hated me for creating such a racket. Zexion was pushed to go next, since everyone else wanted to go last. He succeeded in his second try. Failure was the mother of success, indeed. Next! When Roxas charged towards the boxes, I was surprised by his speed. For someone who was bounded to computers so much, his speed burst was good. But when he arrived at the boxes, he suddenly performed a real life emergency brake and the inertia sent him crashing into the boxes. Crap!

Demyx went to help Roxas up, asking him why he pulled off a stunt like that. Apparently a lizard that did not seem to know the meaning of "look before crossing" just had to pick that time and run into him. Like I said: Green light, go; yellow light, go faster; red light, go to hospital. I shivered. Yikes, if I were Roxas, I would have stepped 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; it was let off elsewhere. He did it. Congratulations. And since Demyx have very strong legs, he would have surprised me if he did not pass. Axel was up next.

And ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the greatest show. Axel readied himself and he went off like a breeze. He did not 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 still surprised despite having witnessed many of his athletic achievements before. I just stared at him blankly. I swore he must have these athletic genes in his DNA. He could survive whatever physical ordeal thrown at him.

I talked to Rita for a while and then Mr. Lexaeus wanted her to help returning 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 will be taking over this case." "You mean to look for the arsonist?" I asked. He nodded and said, "Maybe."

Then a basketball flew from of nowhere and almost hit us. Thanks to Roxas and his quick response, he blocked the ball with his hands before it can hit us. "Hey Roxas! Basketball! You in?" Hayner shouted from the other side of the field. "Yeah! Be there in a minute!" He yelled back, and then turned to me and asked, "What about you?" "Gladly accepted. Are we in the same team?" "Sounds good to me." He then paced towards the crowd, with me jogging behind. He did speak a lot to me today. He was usually quiet, though not as quiet as Zexion. I wished he could speak more though; sometimes I did not even know what was bothering him. But when he was with Axel, he transformed into a very talkative person, contrary to popular belief. A basketball match began…

When we finally made it back to class… "Hey, Zexion, we are going to handle a new case, 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 reckon the chemistry lab."

"Hmm… The question is who did it and why they did it?"

"You know, there is this small shrine in Radiant Garden Park, I recommend you to seek answers there," he said and smirked.

"Haha, 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 might have to delay handing in three-days-worth of homework again," Roxas sighed.

"… I do not think three days are enough. Most likely 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?! Sheesh. "What the heck, Demyx?" Roxas tried to calm his breath down and said. "You scared me, dude…" I wiped imaginary cold sweats from 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 booming, worse than Demyx's.

"What are you, nuts?!" Roxas lost his temper and yelled. But Axel just started laughing 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; poking! (Sorry, people, not the lexicon…) Now the scene unfurled before us was as follows: Zexion kept poking Axel's sides while chasing him, making him dodging and running around like a madman, almost screaming for help.

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 to do something seemingly out of his character. Axel was alright; he just liked pranking people. But since he messed with Zexion… I dared not write the outcome, use your imagination!

The class monitor just had to pick now… "EVERYONE GET YOUR BUTTS TO THE SCIENCE LAB NOW!" Holy Bananas, my ears… tone it down… Finally, 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 rumbling like drums, some of us were sleeping, some of us were daydreaming and some of us had our mouths wide open, welcoming random flies to enter. Yikes. "So, can you all understand what proteins and fats are?" Mr. Vexen asked, only to find out that the whole class was dying… of hunger! It could not be helped; just why this topic was all about food? We were starving…

Three… Two… One…! "RRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGG!" Oh, the bells from the heavens! Yeah! School was over! "See ya tomorrow!" "Bye!" "Goodbye."

~ CHAPTER 2 FIN ~

TO BE CONTINUED

Ugh… I am close to dying too, not because of hunger, but because of this translating job. Actually, this story is written by me in Mandarin in the first place, along with some foreign languages like Malay, English, Japanese and more. I had a hard time translating everything to English. Luckily I learned Mandarin, English and Malay in Malaysia, or else I would die… Sorry for any typos and grammar mistakes. You are welcome to give positive criticism and rating if you want. Sayonara people! :D