24th
A tale of time…
it really hit me the most when i went to visit our new school. the structure of it was completely gone. the orderly four sided compound with easily accessible places were missing. immediately i felt like a part of me was missing. the memories of sec one and two came flooding back into reality. i walked in with my friends, trying to place back the pieces of the old compound into the alien land i was stepping into.
the school values and the motto was gone. the huge grey gate that separated the carpark from the school was missing. even the benches on which i used to sit and wait for my dad were gone. i saw a long pathway leading up to a pair of glass doors. it was the general office. right in our faces as we walked in. u no longer had to turn left to enter it. we went upstairs. it was the staff room. since we were alumni we entered. they we only a few teachers. Mrs cheong and miss asmah to be exact. the teachers themselves have not moved in. the HOD room was better. more spacious. Mr tan greeted us to show that at least one HOD was in school.
seeing that the admin block has completely changed i was eager and afraid to know how the rest of the school turned out to be. we then walked back down to the office and we walked straight to where the canteen used to be. it was still there. but it was COMPLETELY restructured. and that’s when i felt sick in my stomach and my eyes started welling up. i didn’t want to cry in front of my friends cos the reason is basically stupid. they will find it stupid. i found it stupid too but i couldn’t help myself. exactly two years and ten months ago it happened.
me and three others were sitting in the canteen. he and his best friend walked past. i don’t know what happened but my eyes immediately shifted. and i saw him. he was clean shaven at that time. with a perfectly normal pair of specs. not the chunky kind he now uses. and short but still good looking. he walked over to a table about one away from ours. he stood at the side where i could see him clearly. my first comment about him when he was still walking was “omg that guy is hot”. one of my friends who was then a councillor turned. and she was like “oh that’s him”! and i was like “how do u know him? oh right… u know everyone.” she went “he is in council!” then my other friend knew his best friend as they were neighbours. so she decided to do something completely insane that i nearly killed her. she called his best friend and said “hey! go tell your friend that my friend thinks he is hot!” and the guy did it. he told him! and i was like freaking out. he turned to look at me with this very uncomfortable smile on his face. and his friend was laughing his knickers off. i just hid my face in embarrassment.
the scene kept playing back in my head. so many times. tears were welling but i managed to fight them back. the three years passed by very quickly from the time it happened. so i decided to move on as well.
from where i stood, i could see a really random long bridge that stretched across two blocks. we never had that in the past and it looked really retarded to me. we made our way to the classroom block soon. and it was again completely different. there were walls separating one classroom corridor from another. that was completely insane. i guess when we were still in the school the teachers thought we were sane. i guess our juniors are not so sane after all. the staircases were all restructured. there used to be MacDonald tables at every level. but they disappeared. the linked pathways to the admin block and the science block disappeared as well. *poof*
the staircases also brought back memories. me and my best friend always used to used the particular staircase at the side of the block closer to the admin block. this was where we always used to meet him. *another him this time =D* and he used to give this cute charming grin when we collided into him. his long striding legs, still in shorts, would go up and down the staircase. a couple of times a day as our classrooms were on the second level. his soft black brown hair would just fall across his smooth face and chiselled jawline. this happened many times and we soon began to recognise his face when we see him around. and the both of us agreed that he doesn’t look like what he is supposed to be. the next few meetings he had with us began with smiles and grins and cautiousness so that we wont collide again.
the two important places in my 2 years in the school were gone. it really teared me up and i felt the hatred growing towards the new school. but i reminded myself that i wont be studying in the school anymore and i did not have to worry about passing by the two places again. but when i visit the school anytime in the future, these memories would still linger and haunt me.
Mrs Choi.
