Diary of an Asian Kid

14 Feb 2011

14 February 2011, Monday

First day of school in my last junior high term. Also, coincidentally, Single Awareness Day (yes, I do find it highly amusing. Or ironic, considering my condition). How appropriate for me.

I feel like I have split personalities. One moment, I'm thinking that it's all right, and I'm still friends with him, and the next I'm wallowing in despair (okay, that's too strong a word. Regret/sadness work, too). I don't know what to think. I know, or at least I think it's better for me, to just forget about everything and move on. On the other hand, it's so blasted HARD to just get, you know, someone, out of my mind.

This is when I wish that my logical, practical, realistic side could win out over my emotional one. Sigh. Am I even making sense?

Forget it.

Got up around five minutes later than usual. Victor was even slower than me. As a direct result, Dad got very fed up waiting in the car for us, and when I got in first, I told him that Victor wasn't ready yet. Livid, he pulled out his iPhone and called Mom at home, who said that he'd gone just as Victor was opening the door. He faced a very angry father in the car, because both of us children were hoping to achieve perfect attendance in Junior High. Needless to day, you won't achieve it if you're late. Dad thinks it's a huge pressure on him.

It was raining, as usual, and also very cold. Even though I had on two coats and a scarf, my fingers were ice-cold all through the day. They're quite convenient thermometers, actually: when the temperature is cold, my fingers are cold and numb, and when it's hot outside, they're normal and warm-blooded.

Even though it was the FIRST day of school, we still had a complete Science revision test in the morning, to finish before assembly in the morning. I did okay on it, as half of it was either Earth Science or Biology, which are easy for me. On the other hand, the other things were Science, Physics and Chemistry, which I suck at. Especially Physics. Because it contains Math.

We were supposed to assemble in the gym for the opening ceremony (assembly) before nine. Thank heavens it's winter, so the place is actually tolerable. It's totally devoid of any decent ventilation, as it was designed to be used with the air-con on, so it's swelteringly hot and stuffy in the summer. Nay, not just the summer. Autumn and spring aren't cold enough for it, either. Of course, actually using the air-con is very expensive, and our school's electricity bill is already too large, so they only use it very sparingly.

Before that, though, we had to pick up all our brand-new textbooks from the conference room underneath the library. As usual, I volunteered to go, although the only other girl who went was Debbie. Well, I have been going to carry the textbooks every single semester since the 7th grade, and I guess I didn't want to break my private tradition. And I compulsively volunteer when no one else does, or when there's not enough people. Thankfully, the place was very close to our classroom, and I was able to relief the burning pain in my arms soon enough by dumping the package on our windowsill. Ah, sweet relief!

After that, though, we had to queue up in two rows to go to the mind-numbingly dull assembly.

When we finally got to sit down, I found myself right smack in the first row, along with Ben. Unless you count our class monitor, who has to sit in front of everyone with the sign for our class saying 913 (and it's quite expensive, costing around 800NT, so we have to pay for it as a class if we broke it). Debbie and Shaun sat behind me. I saw Christopher in his class, and resolutely refrained from looking at him after that. I don't know if he saw me, probably not.

After our principal and the various HODs finished droning on about their usual topics, the Head of Discipline came up and gave us (another) speech about bullying and the wrongness of it. We've heard it all uncountable times in the last year; but none of it is actually of any use. Victor is still being bullied in his class, the poor thing.

At least the Head of Discipline was amusing. When he was done, we all had to sit there and wait for various teachers to come down and inspect our attire. To my surprise, they only looked at our nails and if our registration numbers were embroidered on our clothes. Usually, they look at socks and hair and stuff, but not this time. Not that I mind.

Halfway through, the Head of Student Affairs (boss of the head of discipline), a middle-aged man with a bit of a tummy (even though he's a PE teacher), that no one likes because he's so dry and boring, came up on the stage and started going on about how untidy our attire was, and that this was the opening ceremony, we need a good start to our semester, and this is a bad start...blah blah blah. There were four 8th graders, all boys, who were standing there on the stage because they'd snuck out of the gym to chat just now. None of their attire was acceptable, and even standing there being scolded, they kept grinning and whispering to one another.

Ah, the quality of our students go down with each passing year. At this rate, our no-violence, no-gangs, no-smoking school environment will disappear in a few years. And the school is really new; we just had our 7th anniversary this year.

During the assembly, I mostly just tuned everything out, trying unsuccessfully to sleep (actually, I still listened to all the teachers. I'm a good student that way), and talked with Ben and Shaun. Martin was sitting behind the latter, and after a while, two girls, among them Pansy Hong, in the nearby 912, and Shaun ganged up on him and pulled out his shoelace and flung it onto the stage for fun. Pansy ended up giving the shoelace to Debbie, who immediately handed it back to Martin. She also kept asking Debbie who would she choose if she could only have one, her or Martin? I think Debbie refrained from answering. I didn't hear her, at any rate.

At least I got people to talk to. It made the boredom more tolerable. An interesting side note is, when we were standing, ALL of the people around me were at least half a head taller than me, save Debbie. It made me feel a little claustrophobic. Pshaw. At least I'm still taller than Alice.

We changed our seats when we got back to class. I was still stuck in the front row, but at least I wasn't in the dead center. To my left was Ruby, with Martin behind her. On my right was Eric, luckily, and Florence sat behind me. Overall, it was an acceptable place, mostly because I could talk to Eric and my papers would be marked by Florence, who, being a girl, had much better handwriting than most boys.

The textbooks were also handed out. They were mostly thinner than the ones from the last semester, because we only have a scarce bit more than three months before the BCs and graduation two weeks after that.

Of course, I had lunch with Alice. Because of the cold, she refused to come out to eat, so I had her smuggle in my lunchbox. Naturally enough, I didn't want to break the rules and get chased out of the library.

Had Science, Math, and Geography in the afternoon. Very unfortunately, I'd forgotten to bring along the Geography homework, so even though I'd finished everything, my marks would still be lower because I handed it in late. Darn!

Even though today is the first day of school (yes, here it comes again), we still had an afternoon test. Sigh. Us ninth-graders really have no life.

We got to get out of here at four-thirty, but even though I'd told Alice, there was no sign of her.

When I got home, I encountered two shrieking boys, chasing each other around: Victor and his best friend Jed. Actually, I quite like Jed, as he seems quite, you know, normal or mature sometimes (this being the key word). At least he's better than Victor, and the pair of them is quite entertaining.