Diary of an Asian Kid

27 Jan 2011

27 January 2011, Thursday

I was actually not that sleepy today. Happens to even me once in a while, I suppose. We had a Math test this morning, which I got 90 on. Good.

There was double Geography today. The first period was spent learning about Africa (and laughing our heads off, of course, either at the teacher or our fellow classmates), while the second was an immediate test, which I happily got 97.5 on.

Rest of morning was rather uneventful. Ah yes, Alice and I decided to go the the Gauguin exhibit on Saturday, and see if we can get Yvonne to go too (it later turned out that she can't go because of cram school. On weekends. How does she stand it?).

As usual, I took my lunchbox and set off to the library for lunch. I saw Martin and Debbie in front of me, as they were going to wait for Debbie's lunch. For some reason, Martin sat on the stairs while she continued on.

"Why are you sitting on the stairs?" I asked him when I passed the place.

"Umm...what? Oh, hello. I don't want to see Debbie's mom," he explained. Well, I second the sentiment, and I'm not even sure if her mom knows about them. Debbie's mom is horribly nosy and overprotective of her, probably because her older brother by ten years was a 'bad kid'.

"I can respect that," I started walking again.

"Where are you going?" Martin asked.

I turned back to him. "To find Alice, of course."

He looked a little confused. "But shouldn't you be going the other way?"

"Didn't we tell you before?" I sighed. "She's at the library."

He jumped up, saying, "Then I'll go visit her too." He yelled to Debbie, "I'm going to look for Alice!" I faintly heard, "Okay!"

And that is how Alice and I ended laughing at Martin as he tried to wrestle Michael for his lunch of dumplings while they, in turn, were waiting for Debbie's lunch to show up. Her mom didn't show, so after a bit, they went back to class.

We still had to find Yvonne, but Alice refused to go up to the fifth floor (where her class is), so we took the lift up to the fourth floor and I continued upstairs alone.

I was immensely gratified when a girl in 910 recognized me hanging around outside their class and informed Yvonne that there was someone to see her. I didn't even have to knock on their door (Which, along with all their windows, was closed because of the cold. And yes, I know I have complete social-intercourse phobia)!

Yvonne immediately came out, and I told her that Alice was waiting downstairs. She said, "Wait a minute," and dashed inside to get the rest of her lunch and a packet of instant seaweed soup.

While she was at it, I noticed Christopher playing Chinese Chess, with his lunchbox in one hand, with another guy. Hmm, the boys in my class used to use Chinese Chess to play mahjong (Seriously. They did that. It can be done) with.

Ben appeared as we were walking along the corridor. He was going to look for someone in 910. Alice confirmed that he'd gone to look for Christopher. Apparently, Ben asked her, "Do you know the guy in night study with the bike?"

Alice told him his name and pointed him in the direction of 910. What does Ben want with him? I'm ever curious. Sadly, I didn't get up the guts to ask either of them later.

Yvonne was looking for a water cooler, so we went to the one outside the fourth-floor toilet. There's, conveniently, a stone bench beside it, so we sat down there, although the wind kept blowing the drizzle all over us. She said that she had a feeling Christopher was talking bad about her behind her back. Hmm, that's strange, though I don't personally think he'd so something like that (Yes, I am biased.).

During nap, strange squirting noises kept coming out of the balcony. Joan got really annoyed and went in to tell Mark and Sean to keep the noise down. They said that they were cleaning the door. Just for the heck of it (that was what ticked Joan off the most. And a whole host of other people, of course. They were noisy.).

As it has been for three days straight, English was the first period after nap. Miss Chen said that she felt like she is always rousing people from their sweet dreams. But it must be done. Anyway, I didn't get any sleep today.

Miss Chen handed out our report sheets for everything until now. Yep, all five semesters. It's for use in applying to schools using the North Star program, which is basically a non-test way of getting into school by looking at your grades. They choose the best three semesters out of five and look at your percentage among your peers. The lower the percentage, the better. Unfortunately, only a very small handful of people actually get into their desired school this way. I got 16%, which is not of much use to me. I'd still apply, of course, just for the heck of it. After all, it's possible. Never give up hope.

Out of the seven subjects, I got 1% (the highest) on two: English and 'Arts and Humanities' (which includes Art, Music, and Performing Arts, all of which I'm rather good at), and I got 2% on Integrative Activities, which was rather good. However, my Chinese, Science, Social Studies and PE pulled the average down. Too bad.

Initially, I took the report sheet and went to find Alice. She was not, for some strange reason, in the library, so I sighed and went back to class. Most everyone was still discussing the report sheet.

I ended up talking with Ben about whether to go to the music class. He'd already applied for the dancing practical examination (He's been learning dancing since kindergarten. Ballet, I think. Sometimes he twirls around the classroom. Seriously.). I told him that I probably could go to the music class.

To my surprise, he said, "Yeah, you could go apply for vocal music." Why was I surprised? Well, it was probably because every single time he'd heard me singing he always said that I was noisy. Exactly like Victor is prone to do. So I chose to take this as a compliment.

I told him that if I did I would probably go for piano, seeing as I've learned it for almost nine years now. Unfortunately, I also found out that the deadline was today. Sigh. Actually, I'd always known that I couldn't really pursue a career in music. I mean, I might be good amongst our classmates, but with those really freaking good at music, I don't stand a chance.

There were two rather uneventful periods of Civics after that. And an Earth Science test after that, which I got 82 on. Acceptable, at least.

Today, I decided to cut along the field instead of going along the first floor corridor to the main gate, because at least it wasn't currently raining. I saw Christopher playing basketball with a few of his classmates. I couldn't tell if he was good, however (without staring at him for too long a time, of course).

A bit later, I saw a bunch of boys in my class, including Pan (because he had on a bright blue/yellow coat) rush down to an empty court. There was actually no need to rush, because more than half the courts were empty, anyway. They're funny like that.

Because of the year playing basketball with them, I can tell who is who just by watching them play from a distance. As long as it's not too far away. It sometimes comes in useful.

I met Alice before the pedestrian crossing. She was reading while waiting for me. We walked home quite quickly, with no delays.

Nothing interesting happened when I got home. That I remember, anyway.