Adventures Of A Female Loner

The Coward & The Unicorn pt. 1

In the twenty three years I've lived on this earth, I have had only one memorable crush. He wasn't a super extraordinary guy, and at first I didn't like him, but he was a unicorn disguised as a horse and I was a coward who didn't want to face her feelings. Alas, here I will be revisiting this (long) chapter in my life so that I can have a written record of it (:D), and I hope you guys will enjoy reading it.

My first day of high school was a nightmare. I had arrived at this new prestigious private school knowing absolutely nobody having come from a local public primary school thanks to the academic scholarship I earned. Here I was, a nerdy Asian girl with the standard tightly pulled black-haired ponytail wearing a pair of old fashioned, thin-rimmed spectacles dressed in an oversized blazer (my mom bought it bigger in case I grew more) and school uniform, carrying my backpack filled to the brim with textbooks and stationery. I remember walking in with my father into this huge atrium that opened up to a podium area where another new girl asked me where the office was thinking that I was an older, more knowledgable student. She saw my expression change from composed to anxious and left me alone apologising for mistaking me and left to decipher her way on her own. I guess she didnt want to be friends as we could've searched together. Anywho, then and there it hit me that I was in high school.

My father went to chat with some teachers to ask how a student could get a locker as there were hundreds of lockers lined up on the walls and after attempting to blend in with the other students for five minutes the bell rang. I saw the other students start to line up in front of the podium whilst I was still standing on the podium. Luckily, a teacher saved me by directing me towards the grade 8 class lines and the morning assembly started.

We were shuffled into a classroom and introduced to our home room teacher. I found another lost new kid, and we decided to sit together at the front desk closest to the teacher. Everyone else in my class was catching up with each other about their holidays, and some of them were complaining that they got stuck in the boring class. My high school was a college, which meant that most of the enrolled students grew up together from when they were still in creche. The teacher started to do roll call. A few names down the line, the teacher was struggling to say a person's name: "Jong Sue, no, no, Jahng Sue Moon?". The class was silent. "Jahng Sue Moon?". A girl who sat behind me at one of the desks alerted the teacher's attention, pointed at me and asked "Isn't she calling you?". The whole class started laughing. I told everyone it wasn't me. A burst of laughter followed again, and I was even more confused than before. What was so funny about the situation? When I think about it now, it was my first clue that some of my classmates were racist, but I wont dive into that for this is a love story. The teacher was finally done with the register and assigned my new friend, whom I'll call Dee from now, and I a "buddy". My "buddy" was a slightly plumper female who was mixed half Asian half caucasian with round eyes and full lips. We left the class, and I started following her hoping to strike up a friendship, but she was disinterested, and didnt really want to hang around much. My dad found me and had managed to secure a top locker and gave the number for it before he left to go about his business. The bell for the first lesson rang, and it was time for me to get used to my new surroundings.

The day went by and nothing really noteworthy happened except when we were playing a game called "open gate" with the matric prefects (seniors of the school - grade 12s) as part of orientation day on the fields, and I fainted on the grass in front of all the grade 8s and 12s for no particular reason (I sort of lost my balance, as I was still recovering from being food-poisoned a few days ago). I had asked Dee if she saw me falling and if she thought anyone else saw. She said "No". Dee told me a few years later that she lied back then, and that everyone saw me fall and was wondering what was wrong with me (hahaha). Yea, nothing much else happened and I was glad it was home time. Dee and I decided to sit on the step right next to a fountain. We sat there for a good twenty minutes before one of our classmates kindly told us that there were fish in the water and that we were getting drizzled on with their poo. We swiftly moved away and my dad finally picked me up. Thank the world that my first day was over!