Teach

Chapter 2A

After we alighted from the bus, I realised that I had forgotten to ask Yi Xun something that was on relative importance. "Oh yes, what's your class? You need to report there before assembly."

"Right." Yi Xun turned to dig into his bag. "They gave us a form about it or something. Here." He took out a piece of paper which had all of Yi Xun's particulars on it. Under the 'Class' section, there was "2-3".

I tried to hide my disbelief. "Well, I'm also from there. I can take you to our class."

"Really? Thanks." We crossed the road and entered Dunman High School. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Kopi-O gaped at his new surroundings. It was as though he was stepping into a fresh new world, even though I did not suspect that he had never encountered at least a secondary school of some sort. Ah, I couldn't identify.

"Come, the stairs are here." I pointed awkwardly towards the stairway leading up to our classroom. Yi Xun nodded and followed me up to the third floor. I gazed at the familiar sign of the corner classroom, 2-1, before asking Yi Xun to follow me down the corridor till we reached 2-3.

When I entered the classroom, I went by habit to my usual table I shared with Roadrunner, 阿哲 and 浩诚. I was halfway then when it occured to me that Yi Xun was just standing there staring at me. Just then, I saw an empty table and chair sitting at a corner at the back right of the classroom. I immediately pulled it over. "Sit here..." "Okay." Kopi-O immediately put down his bag and plonked down on the chair, leaning his elbows on the table as though waiting for something to happen.

浩诚 was mugging for chem at his table, the huge nerd he was. I had entirely forgotten about the common test today, given that so much had happened with Yi Xun over the course of one night. "浩诚, can I ask you a question?" The soft-spoken 浩诚 consented and a few minutes were us engaged in bright-eyed discussion over whether diamond was a true molecule of an element or simply an allotrope of carbon. After having enlightened me on the subject, 浩诚 looked at Yi Xun and asked, "Who's he?"

I might as well introduce the 2 of them, so I did. After the two shook hands cordially and got to know each other as acquaintances, I asked 浩诚, "Where's Roadrunner?"

"Idk. He just came to put his bag and then left. Probably, you know, practising at the field." With that, 浩诚 immediately went back to his books. Sitting around was boring also, so I called Yi Xun, "I'm going down to the field to check out Roadrunner. You want to come with?"

"Sure." Yi Xun immediately followed me out of the classroom and in 3 minutes, we were down at the field. Sure enough, Roadrunner was at the other end, looking like he had just finished his run, and was conducting some sort of cooldown jog to catch his breath. "Roadrunner!" I called him by his nickname, and he immediately slowed down to come to us.

"And who's this friend you brought along, Samuel Liew?" I quickly introduced the 2 of them. "I'm Chung Keat, but you can call me Roadrunner! I'm terribly good at running..." his voice trailed off as he looked at his athletics CCA batch mates across the track. I knew why. Even though we all knew Roadrunner's running skills were his pride and joy, he was never the fastest, or the leader of his pack among those of his age. It was his unwritten, unspoken dream to one day win some running competition, but he was always somewhere in the middle, to his utmost despair.

Perhaps the only thing that stood him out was his tall stature that could easily be seen by anyone in the spectator lane - in the middle of the crowd. "I'm Yi Xun. I just moved here from Sennett Lane."

"Oh. Nice to have you here!" Roadrunner seemed to have bounced back very quickly. It was a trait I admired in him - what they would call 开心果, optimistic, never able to be sad for too long. "Well, have you met the others yet?"

"Did you say others?" There was a heavy pat on Roadrunner's and my shoulders. 阿哲 stood there grinning, his strong, androgynous build alongside small, dreamy eyes that, if I were to reveal without his permission, had once caused at least one girl to feel absolutely indebted towards. "Hey 阿哲! This is Yi Xun here." They gave a friendly wave.

"Anyway, it's on you to disturb my morning routine! It's 7.28 already! Last one to class' a rotten egg!" Without warning, Roadrunner created an impromptu running race and all 5 of us bolted towards class.

By now, the sun was already shining high in the sky. Against the backdrop of those familiar buildings and the school compound and people which I felt absolutely at ease with...things were nice.

We had hardly gotten back to class when the familiar tapping of heels came echoing across the corridor. "<>." I quickly whispered to Yi Xun. She's our form teacher." We immediately dived into our seats and pretended we hadn't been off gallivanting.

"No need to run, Chung Keat." <> locked eyes with Roadrunner who immediately gave a sheepish smile and placed his head on the table in mock embarassment. <> let out a sigh of resignation and turned to Yi Xun. "Is your name Yi Xun?"

Yi Xun nodded. "Okay class, Yi Xun is our new classmate who is joining us today. Please take care of him as he is part of 2-3 now. And since Samuel - " she looked at me the same way she looked at Roadrunner, "has made you at home, Samuel will be in charge for taking care of you for the first week of school." The two of us looked at each other and knew that this arrangement would be agreeable to the 2 of us.

"Yi Xun, since you are new, we will discuss some administrative matters outside while the whole class is having their chemistry test." Before Yi Xun could even reply, the national anthem abruptly sounded through the speakers and it was a rush of excitement as we all rushed to stand up and sing while holding back snippets of chuckles.