Class 4C

Blobs and patterns of a mysterious grey-scale spectrum are vibrating before me like broken military footage from the 1920s. The spectacle is so calm and meditating. Because of it, I might even forget that I am in a damped, dirty school uniform. I sweat so much every time I play tag with Ah Ya and Ah Nak. And the morning sun does not help either; it is always at its most scorching state during the second break when we usually play. Although my eyes are shut, I am still wide-awake. I rest my head on my arms and shut down my vision because it is the only way I know to fade away the static noise from the class chatters. I often do this in class because I don't care much about the re-alteration of what I've learnt at home from my daily, private tutoring sessions as well as the dull, endless conversations my classmates seem to have. Not to mention the fact that I hate taking notes. Notes are useless. They are temporary. I don't think anybody reads their carefully crafted notes later in life. It must be true because I've never seen any of my parents' lying around at home, at least for the past decade that I've come into existence. Or I may just be the lazy pain that I've always been and do not have the necessary motivation to fill up the empty pages of my thin, unused notebooks.

Ummm, it suddenly feels strange. The noise slowly dies out. Ummm, I can hear footsteps approaching the scratched, wooden desk, which hosts four students, including myself, Ya, Nak, and Heng ... The room becomes completely silent now. How come? Wait, I instantaneously sense the air over my head splitting like it is making way for something.

Whack!

"Ow!" Sak cries.

"Stop daydreaming, kid! Get up! It's class time now!" Teacher Khem yells.

The majority of the class bursts out laughing.

"Quiet, will you?" he utters as he calmly walks back to the chalkboard and proceeds with his lecture.

The atmosphere becomes tense, the way every classroom should be.

"What were you thinking, man? You always get yourself in trouble this way." Ya whispers.

"But what else was I supposed to do? He just repeats the same thing he taught us at the tutoring session."

"I know, but just pretend that you are paying attention or something, dummy."

Sak looks at Ya with a blank on his face while rubbing the shoulder at which Teacher Khem smacked with a folded textbook a moment ago.

The warmth is still here. Geez, that must have been a hard hit.

"Here, let's play tic-tac-toe." Ya hands Sak a pencil, and they play one game after another mutedly amongst the populated classroom of 60 heads.

The pages on Ya's notebook are once again filled with lines, crosses, and circles.

Merng! Merng! Merng! Merng! Merge!

That is the sound, which the school bell, apparently a recycled artillery shell, makes when being knocked in rhythm by a rusty hammer. This time, the bell is rung to announce the third and final break of the day. Kids erupt from their respective classrooms like the explosive splash of a broken faucet.

Finally! Uncle Soy rings the bloody bell! It's three past ten! He's three minutes late again!

"Ah Sak! Let's go get some sugar cane juice!" Nak shouts from the other side of the table.

Yes! Sugar cane juice is my most favourite drink! It is the best remedy for the extreme heat of the Cambodian dry season.

"Let's go! You're coming, ah Ya?" Sak asks the skinny boy.

"You guys go ahead, I want to hang around in class."

In our class, there is a pair of twins. I have always suspected that Ya likes one of them. I think he chooses to stay because he wants to hang out with them. Thinking about it, he is the only guy in the class, who gets along with the girls, especially those who hang out with the class monitor, like the twins. People say that they're cute. I just don't see it. What does that even mean? Girls are annoying, especially the class monitor. What was her name again? Da or something? She's all self-righteous, annoying, and always tries to take the top class standing from me. It irritates me just to think about her.

"Okay, dude, we're taking off now. we'll bring you some juice, too." Nak and Sak walk through the door.

"Thanks a bunch!" Ya's voice flies across the room.