‘ANNA!!! You’re gonna be late. Hurry up. Your toast is getting cold and I AM NOT going to make you another one,’ screamed Claire at her 17 year old daughter. ‘You will,’ whispered Anna as she curled and snuggled deeper into the comfort of her duvet. The same one she has been sleeping with for the past 13 years. Hand sewn by her Po Po and given as a gift on her 4th birthday, Anna practically couldn’t sleep without first whiffing on the familiarity of her own buried scent wafted from this ragged blanket.
14 minutes later ...
‘That’s it young lady! You’re going on your first day of college on an empty belly,’ hissed Claire as she forcefully open the curtain drapes, allowing the morning rays to explode in basking over every inch of Anna’s tiny room. ‘Okay, okayyy. I’m up,’ replied Anna groggily. Anna fisted her palm and rubbed first her left eye and then the right. A habit developed since young. She nonchalantly reached for her mobile tugged somewhere beneath her pillow and registered 6 smses and 2 missed calls. All from Wei Yee, Anna thought to herself and she was right. She could’ve guessed the contents of the messages and the calls and so didn’t bother reading them.
Her Sony digital clock reads 7:19 a.m. Cramped up next to her single bed is her double door-ed wardrobe filled up to the brim with clothing bought 3 weeks ago to those she has been wearing since she was 3 years old. Sentimental values were her excuse for not discarding them away. Propped on the other side of her bed is her study table. There isn’t an inch to spare on the pastel blue desk as it was piled with pirated music CDs, a box of Kleenex, a 2nd hand Acer laptop given by her Uncle Leon, notepads, stationeries, a half eaten packet of Cheezels and a photo frame of Wei Yee and her, taken two years ago during their class trip to the waterfall at Kota Tinggi. That leaves about a two feet walking space leading to the entrance. Yes, her room is painfully small but that’s all Claire, raising a child as a single mother could afford. David, Anna’s dad left the family eight months after she was born. It seems his leggy secretary was too hard to resist and they have not heard from him ever since. Not even through an occasional birthday or Christmas card. As far as mother and daughter are concerned, he never existed.
Anna brushed her almost perfect set of pearly whites and doused warm water on her face. She doesn’t subscribe to using chemical enhanced facial cleansers and her porcelain smooth complexion agrees. She tied her shoulder length hair into a solitary pony tail and put on her plain circular white gold earrings, given by her mom when she scored straight As in her finals last year. She dressed herself in a navy blue hoodie, thought better of it and changed into a red one. Paired it with her regular jeans, she slung her bag across her shoulder and bounced to the kitchen downstairs.
‘I’m done Ma,’ chirped Anna, faking cheerfulness over excessively. ‘I just made you another toast but it’s going to be the last time you hear me,’ said Claire stifling a smile. It’s the same game they have been playing since Anna started schooling. ‘Butter’s in the fridge,’ her mother added.
The bus ride took no more than 20 minutes before Anna spotted Wei Yee looking anxiously at her watch in front of the college’s foyer. ‘Wei Wei,’ shouted Anna across the street. Wei Yee rolled her eyes upwards and pointed at her watch. Anna skipped across to the foyer, smiled and said ‘Ohayo Wei Wei-san.’ ‘Didn’t you get my missed calls and smses?’ questioned Wei Yee irritatingly. ‘Oh you called?’ pretended Anna dramatically. ‘It’s ok la. We’re just in time. See the timetable says Chemistry starts at 8:15 a.m. and it’s only 8:07 a.m. my dear. I took longer to get here, some car stalled and caused a li’ll traffic jam,’ said Anna. ‘I know ding dong but all the good seats will be taken by now,’ grumbled Wei Yee as she dragged Anna up the stairs to Lecture Hall 2.
Wei Yee and Anna are best friends since they were in Primary 2 and have been inseparable ever since. They first cross path at the school’s bookshop. Both had their eye on the electric pink Barbie Doll pencil case and there was only one left for sale. Both girls raced to save enough money to make the purchase of a lifetime but it was bought by another classmate of theirs, Ayu. The spoilt little 8 year old spent the next several days gloating over her new ‘jewel’ to anyone who would listen. An incensed Anna and an infuriated Wei Yee decided to gang up and ‘not friend’ Ayu from that very moment on. That was how their bond was formed and it has only grown stronger over the past nine years.
‘See. I told you. Now we’re right at the back and I could hardly see what’s written on the board,’ complained Wei Yee. ‘I think it’s time you need glasses la. I can see it crystal clearly wo,’ Anna said. ‘Didn’t expect there to be that many students this early though. All so kiasu, just like you,’ as she stuck out her tongue cheekily at Wei Yee. In response, Wei Yee drew a blue line across Anna’s right arm just as the lecturer demanded everyone’s attention to start of the class.
The lecturer, Mr. Ananda boomed over the microphone and gave his usual pep talk as he has done over the past eleven years to students attending their first Chemistry class in the college. Fresh meat he calls them and he enjoyed terrifying his wide eyed pupils with statistics of failure percentages. He believed the exaggerated numbers should at least keep them on their toes for the time being.
Wei Yee was absorbing every horrifying detail Mr. Ananda was dishing out while Anna doodled sleepily on her brand new notepad. She glanced around and soon noticed the different groups segregated across the hall. The front rows were typically occupied by the nerdy ones. The girls in short cropped hair along the fringes with double china doll pig tails on each side while the boys creamed their comb over till it’s shiny enough to reflect the beaming fluorescence from the ceiling. Almost all of them wore thick glasses. Anna smiled to herself as she observed this scenario of unchangeable status quo. Along the center aisles, the hip and happening people assembled. Girls in their miniscule hot pants and spaghetti tops browsed through the week’s tabloids, hungry for the latest celebrity gossips while the boys chatted noisily about last night’s Champion League match between Liverpool FC and Real Madrid. Two other blokes were focussing intently on their PSP games, oblivious to the on goings around them. On the back row, a heavily pierced guy was in deep slumber. His face plastered on the desk, drool dribbling from the corner of his mouth. ‘YUCKS,’ thought Anna.
The door suddenly burst open startling both girls. Standing there was a silhouette of a guy. He was about to take his first step into the hall before Mr. Ananda voiced out ‘Leave my hall immediately young man. I DO NOT tolerate late comers.’ ‘That goes for the rest of you,’ he continued as he perused his gaze across the audience. The man then resumed his lecture ignoring the silent interrupter. The silhouette turned around and shut the door behind him.
‘I like Mr. Ananda,’ Wei Yee told Anna without looking at her. Two hours later, the students made their way out of the hall in a steady file. A few from the front row swarmed the lecturer, bombarding him with pressing questions. Mr. Piercing was still fast asleep despite the heavy noises surrounding him.
Anna packed her pens and highlighters and dumped her notes into her bag. They got up and slotted into the queue heading out. ‘Which elements did he asked us to researched on again?’ questioned Wei Yee as she shuffled through her scribblings. ‘Never mind, I found it,’ she answered her own query. They were on their way to the library. Reference books were needed for their homework. More than a hundred students fighting over a handful of copies available. Anna sighed at the thought of that. ‘Arghhh. Haven’t we already gone through all these in high school? Why is he making us do everything all over,’ Anna groused. ‘He simply wanted to refresh our minds I’m sure and I want to make a good impression. Come on Anna, let’s hurry before all the books are gone,’ replied Wei Yee increasing her pace.
At the library’s information counter, scores of students were barraging the exhausted looking librarian with their demands. Before they could scrum in with the rest of the crowd, a guy stood in front of them and said ‘Hey, weren’t you two in the Chemistry lecture earlier? Mind if I borrowed your notes?’ ‘Yes, we were in that class and yes, we do mind you borrowing our notes. This should help remind you to not be late in the future,’ Wei Yee curtly replied. ‘Now excuse us,’ she added as she hastily manoeuvred both of them around the guy. Anna couldn’t hear a word Wei Yee said. She was transfixed by the way his hair fell stylishly across his face, revealing little of his peeping eyes and that mesmerizing grin in the end. It was a good thing Wei Yee dragged her away for she couldn’t remember the last time she ever blushed this way before.
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