𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡

𝐟 𝐢 𝐟 𝐭 𝐲 - 𝐞 𝐢 𝐠 𝐡 𝐭

"Alright class, settle down." Ms Zhang was carrying our report books as she walked into class. Those who were standing up and chatting at their friends' desk quickly returned to their seats and we all waited nervously.

"All of you know the drill, come up to collect your report book in chronological order of your class's index number." Ms Zhang sat down at the teacher's desk as my classmate who is index number one went up.

In Singapore, in each class each student will be given an index number, starting from one to the total number of students in the class, which is usually forty. The index number is given out based on the alphabetic order of our name. Since my name starts with the letter 'T', my index number is thirty-one.

Fidyana was the first of our group to go as her name starts with N; Nurul Fidyana. Following was Sha, Sherwyn, myself then Zach. Sherwyn got mostly As, as everyone knew he would. But that doesn't mean he was whining about the one subject he didn't get an A. Fidyana and Sha got a split of As and Bs, whilst Zach and I averaged on Bs and Cs.

I wouldn't say I was satisfied with my results, but I know I did the best I could with everything else going on. Susan will probably resign herself as my tutor after this though, pretty sure none of her other students even scored below an A after her tutoring.

"Hey," Sha interrupted my thoughts and came to sit beside me. "Are you going anywhere during the June holidays?"

"Yeah, but it's only around a week, I'll be here other than that," I answered, getting excited just thinking about seeing Nicandro again.

"Thank god! Because the whole group is going away; Sherwyn back to the Philippines to visit his family, Zach to Japan as his father needs help with the family business and Fidyana to Australia for a family vacation. I thought I was going to be all alone this holiday. But now, I can maybe finally show you around Singapore since I don't think you ever got the chance." Sha suggested and I immediately agreed to it. Singapore is going to be my home for at least until I graduate from junior college so I definitely want to learn more about it.

But the thought of bringing Sha to the cruise instead of Breton also crossed my mind. I know for some people after a rough breakup being exposed to others is a good way to move on, but from what I observed the past week, Breton is one of those people who needs to be left alone for some time and deal with their own internal battle before facing the world. Being on the cruise and seeing the couples would just make him dwell on the relationship and not move forward. The only issue I would have with inviting Sha is coming up with an excuse as to how I had gotten the invitation in the first place.

I can't tell her that I got it from the soon to be king of Spain, can I?

The school bell rang not long after, and Sherwyn suggested that we went out to have lunch to celebrate the almost end of the school semester and all of us doing well. So now all five of us are sitting in a restaurant finishing up our little expensive delicious meal as we reminisce about the good times of this semester.

"Can I propose a toast?" Sherwyn held up his glass of sprite.

"As if we can stop you now, pinoy." Sha rolled her eyes and the rest of us chuckled.

"Let's toast to Tiana." Sherwyn surprises me by saying. "She only joined the school this term, but she did a darn good job adjusting and already a member of our group. Unlike when I first came to Singapore six years ago, god I remember I once waited for the traffic light to turn green for ten minutes because I didn't know I needed to press the button. Oh, and there was also this other time that-" Sha cleared her throat and gave him a look.

"Sorry, went off track." He let out a chuckle. "As I was saying, I still remember this time a year ago when we were done with our mid-year exams, Sha, Zach, Fidyana and I came together and did the official forming of this group, without ever thinking someone could be a part of it as we were already close-knit. Then when you came in, it was weird to me that the dynamic of this group didn't change one bit. No, something did change. I felt that we were actually a whole, like you're the glue which stuck us together."