Reminiscence - Part 4 ---- The Very First Approach ----

S.M. Chong Hwa - Secondary school
The first day of class, it's such a co-incident or should I say faith and fate that both of us are ordered to sit side by side in the classroom. And... yup. That's when she started to get my attention.

03 July 1991

It was her birthday. I really wanted to give her something as a present but I didnt have my pocket money from my parents back then and I was so shy to get money from them with such reason. Instead, I just passed her a mechanical pencil that my brother picked up somewhere else with a simple wish at the end of the day. What is worse is that the mechanical pencil uses 0.7 lead which is a really rare "species".
-- This paragraph of story is what she told me. I've totally forgotten about it. If such story is true, then that pencil will be the very first present I ever give to other people. But was I that stingy??!!

Notice the stickers she sticked on the pen.

She never get to use it yet she keep it until now. I'm so touched and feel sorry for her when I knew about this. (I promise myself from now on that I will give her the best I can when I can.)

It's very true when people said that you won't appreciate what is before your eyes until you lose it. I never knew about my feeling until form 2 that we were eventually in seperate classes after 7 years. Since then, I lost my guts to talk to her and we didnt have any proper rendezvous as she, as well, has the same feeling to me (since when? ask her). I still remember that me and my best friend kind of stalked her and came out with all sorts of stupid ideas on how to get a chance to talk to her. Here's 1 of them...

My friend, who was a delinquent back then, will asked some of his friends (of the same kind) to wait her and tease her during the recess time at a corridor where it's always dark and desserted. We knew she'll walked through the corridor everyday to her class. Then, here I'll be a hero to save her. Through this, I thought I would be able to get her attention or at least a chance to talk to her which is more than enough.

Childish but quite practical. We actually planned through this in detail - gather the boys, conversation, and time were set. However, we didn't execute it again because of my guts.

Then, 1 girl, " girl A" appeared to offer help for both of us. Girl A was a good friend of mine and, with 2 other girls they were very close friends with her as well. However girl A has a crush on me (and I didn't know about this). She pretended to be very friendly and helpful by passing on messages. No one knew she actually passed on the false one all the while. At the end of form 2, both of us (me and Casley) found out that we hated each other but in reality we still like each other. She told me that Casley knew I was stalking her and with all the rumours about me liking her, she was really mad at me.

I was really sad when I knew about it but....

Reminiscence - Part 3 ---- The Ups and Downs ----

End of 2000

As time goes, so as the hatred. However, we still never talked to each other until the standard 6 examination finished. We were asked to come up with some games as there'll be a bazaar to raise fund for the school. I forgot what game I came up with and who's my teammates. Yet, what I can remember is there was one day when I went to a friend's (Amanda's) house to finish off the game, she invited Casley as well. We didn't do much but hanging around and playing (fire-cracker is one of them i think). Four of us, me, Amanda, Casley and another guy friend sat at the swinging bench in the porch and had a very long chat. We talked about ghost stories. Then the sky turned dark. Thunder stormed. Out of sudden, we felt very eerie and 4 of us ran into the house. We really have a great time.

After that was the graduation trip. There is 1 night in the hotel when everyone was planning to play throughout the night. However, I wasn't feeling well during the trip and my lips got red. I felt really sad that I couldn't join them because I was so tired.

Taken in the airport. The only photo we took together during the whole trip.
I was very shy to take photo and stood faraway from everyone but hey, look at our poses!

"You look cute with the lips," she said to me while I went to greet my friends before going back to sleep. These few words compensate for every disappointment I just had and I really had a good sleep with that phrase playing repeatedly at the back of my mind.

However, good time won't last long. I must admit that (haha) though I was quiet, I was quite popular among the girls. There are some guys who got jealous about this and talked bad about me behind my back. They told the girls not to talk to me as I will always let the cat out of the bag. Then I was boycotted.

Reminiscence - Part 2 ---- First Encounter ----

2nd of January 1995

"
I’ve no idea how I could still remember the first day I saw him. I don’t remember anyone else, that clearly, other than you. I never tell anyone other than my family about this. As I can remember that it happened on the first day of our school, back in standard one when we were 7 years old. Actually we did go to school for the registration and orientation a week earlier, but I didn’t notice him since all of us had our parents by our sides. When it came to the first day of our ACTUAL commencement date, this is what happened...

We were given instruction to queue up on the field before going into the classroom. As you know, I’m always LATE even since young. So I was at the back of the queue and this gave me a chance to ‘observe’ my new classmates. While I was scanning through every single person in the queue, a cute little boy's smile caught my attention. His smile with 2 obvious dimples look so cheerful and so adorable. This might sound very ridiculous and SILLY but those are really my first impression towards him. Hahaha so shy to write all these, seem like I know how to ‘kap zai’ even when I was juz 7? OMG!!!

by Casley

"

Thus was the moment we met each other for the very first time. We have been in the same class throughout the whole primary school life. However we barely talked to each other and there is only 1 incident that I can remember that is in standard 2 when both of us were selected to be class monitors.

Standard 1

We worked well together until 1 day when there was no teacher in the class and both of us were responsible to keep the class in order. We were asked to keep the class quiet and make sure everyone was doing the work given. Halfway doing it, 2 friends in front of me slacked off and took a break by chatting with the 1 beside me. I kept quiet all the while as I knew my own position but I didnt shut them up.

They talked louder as they get carried away. Then, her friends informed her about us and she got no choice but to record down our names on the blackboard and this gave rise to resentment. The boys started to keep an eye on the girls, hoping to catch them back. Without awareness about this, they get caught very soon and I was asked to jot down their name as well. I did it reluctantly. This went on until the end of the class. Our names were all over the board but luckily none of us get into any trouble as the blackboard was cleared the next day. Yet we started to hate each other since then and never talk to each other (childish? Haha.) until...

Standard 3

Standard 6
Photos of Standard 2, 4 and 5 were not taken due to the disorganisation of the administration.

Reminiscence - Part 1 ---- Forewords ----

I'll start the story off from when both of us first met each other. However, I couldn't remember many things those are before I was 16. I was struck by a very high fever when I was 15. My body temperature was recorded to be one of the highest the doctors have ever met, that is 43.5 degree celcius. I was awake but lost conscious for around a week. I have not idea at all what happen within that week as if I were possessed.

I was told by my mum that I scolded the doctor in the clinic when he asked me to get him some urine sample for testing. However what I can remember is a very blur vision of a few seconds of me standing by the door looking into the room where my mum and the doctor were staring at me. Then I went into unconsicous state again. The doctor was shocked not only because I scolded him, but also with my body temperature. He couldn't do much but just gave me 2 tablets of Panadol and asked my mum to send me to the hospital.

The following vision I can remember is in the hospital where a nurse asking me not to move as they are going to scan my head. Then I went black out again. My mum told me after that that I kept shouting for my headache. The good thing is they found no tumor, nothing is wrong with my brain. The bad thing is as they couldn't diagnose the problem, I still have to suffer from this headache once in a while.

When I regain my conscious, I found my hands were tied on the bed and caked with blood. My mum was beside me. I asked her why I was tied. Initially she still thought that my mind was still unclear and just simply answered me until I asked her why I was in the hospital. "Finally regain your conscious?" she asked. Later on I found that everytime nurses tried putting on the dripping syringe on my hand I pulled it off with anger and sometimes with the needle left inside my flesh. They have no choice but to tie me up so I won't struggle anymore.

I lost some of my memory during the fever. I forgot my study, and the exam (PMR) was just around the corner. I can't even remember some of my friends but definitely not her. Nevertheless, the doctor said that I was very lucky that the fever did not leave any irreparable damage on my brain. It's almost a miracle that such a high fever just deleted some part of my memory.