My Kiasu Teenage Life in Singapore (12 page)

Love, Pei Yi

Tuesday 30 June

Dear Mei Yee

Hi! I'm out of my blue mood now. Serena, my classmate, gave me a box of chocolates 'coz she visited USA during the hols. I'm beginning to enjoy school now that I have nice classmates. (No, not because they gave me chocolates.)

Oh ya, everyone was excited about the chewing gum that I brought them. I was afraid that the people at Customs would question me about the packs of chewing gum but they didn't.

Now our canteen, in fact every school's canteen, is not permitted to sell certain soft drinks and junk food. I think the Singapore government is always concerned 'bout the progress of the nation.

I've finished writing a ghost story. Sometimes I get very afraid when I think about the supernatural, especially when it's dark.

I read a book 'bout spelling. Now I can spell diarrhoea, manoeuvre, miscellaneous and lots more. I really want to be very figurative in my writing so I can paint a picture for the reader.

Love, Pei Yi

Thursday 2 July

Dear Mei Yee

My ghost story turned out to be most unscary. In fact, Huiwee said it was rather comical. I wonder why and how sometimes the ghost stories we read can be so scary, even if the story seems so preposterous. Dean R. Koontz's novels are very “out of this world” but still very exciting and thrilling.

Did I tell you, Mrs Simons is going on a Maths course until April of next year. There'll be a substitute teacher in her place. I hope he or she is as good as Mrs Simons. She makes Maths so interesting and enjoyable. But not all CHIJ teachers are that great. Who says Singapore education is perfect?

Cheng Hoe is so funny 'coz he is so blur and dense. Last night he went to Jen Nee's table. He saw a picture that Jen Nee drew of me. Eric guessed it was me and Jen Nee even said, “Yes, it's Pei Yi.” Cheng Hoe still said, “Let me guess.” Even though Jen Nee told him once again the sketch was of me, he still looked like he wanted to guess!

Love, Pei Yi

Dearest Mei Yee

Tonight, Eric, Jen Nee and I did deco. It was great fun. Sunny helped us do the lettering. Alisa is being so bossy and irritating though. She thinks that she and Pau Leen are the only ones to put any effort into Farewell. She implies this when she speaks and she wants to take all the credit. Pau Leen is equally bossy. She's already the MC and she's also a rep for Farewell but she wants to take over everything else as well. She wants us to follow her ideas for deco but we're not going to. I wish I could show you everything.

My God, it's 3 am now! Must sleep.

Love, Pei Yi

Sunday 5 July

Dear Mei Yee

Today was a very fun day! In the morning we did deco. We've finished the painting. It was fun doing it. Eric is very knowledgeable about art. He's the RI Networking Club president and he looks like Alvin the Chipmunk—so cute. I talked more to him, and I'm glad about it.

There are so many places to visit in Singapore, like the zoo, the libraries, the ice-skating ring, Orchard Road. The libraries are full of people reading, they're not empty like the ones in Malaysia.

The
Teenage
Centrefold Girl (July issue) is such a spoilt
loh heng
brat. She goes shopping twice a week, spending more than S$200 each time! She is doted on by her father and relatives and she's extremely brand-conscious. If her friends have any branded goods, she'll make sure that she gets the same or better straightaway. This seems to be a common Singaporean trait. She wants to be a model, that
loh heng-faced
girl!

I think Eric's a very nice guy. He has a cute grin and he blinks his eyes like when you don't believe what you see and he wears specs. He was Alisa's classmate in Malaysia. We were surprised to hear he's president of Networking Club 'coz he looks quite quiet and innocent from the outside. Although he seems so proper (he even says “Good morning” and “Good night”), I think he's fun. I wish he'd like me. Ya, it sounds silly but I do. OK, to make Eric like me, I must talk more to him. I must appear cheerful and interesting.

Gaik Teong likes Nancy, we think. He said he's not going to the Farewell but when Jen Nee said, “Nancy is going,” he replied, “Then I'm going.” He might not be serious, being the crazy person that he is, but he once said Nancy is beautiful.

I bet people like Eric never worry about shallow stuff like popularity. Why do I? I think Jen Nee's very sociable. People often tease her a lot—a sign that she's liked. I must know more 'bout everything 'coz every time people talk 'bout songs, actors and movies, I don't know anything.

Love, Pei Yi

Dear Mei Yee

My Maths teacher, Mrs Simons, has left for her course. She'll only be back in April next year! Mr Koh, the substitute teacher, is so boring.

My horoscope this week is so correct! It says that I'll have frustrations in the middle of the week (true!) but I'll have fun and enjoyment at the end of the week (at the Farewell, I hope). The frustrations were: Sunny is so unreasonable. She got angry with Jen Nee and me 'coz she said we're irresponsible and left the deco lettering to her. But it was she who said she wants to do everything. She went to tell Alisa about it! I was so angry with her. Jen Nee and I went to have a “talk” with Sunny but nothing really turned out right. Aargh, everything's so upsetting. I wonder if Sunny will now go talk bad about Jen Nee and I behind our backs. Since she used to talk bad about others to us, she might talk bad about us now that she is angry with us.

Bye

love, Pei Yi

Thursday 9 July

Dear Mei Yee

Pau Leen and Alisa really overdid it pestering us! Yesterday and today they kept pestering, as if they have absolutely no faith in our capability. I was so mad at them. And quite cross with Eric 'coz he never gets the pestering. All the responsibilities are dumped on me and Jen Nee while Eric enjoys himself. After Toa Payoh Central, we came back to the hostel and paged for Eric to force him to carry the Styrofoam with us. Jen Nee said, “We must make you suffer,” and I said, “We always do the work,” and we told him about Pau Leen and Alisa's pestering. Eric said he understands what it's like to be pestered by Alisa.

Earlier, Alisa had asked me how we're going to put the picture on the Styrofoam. I said use Sellotape and she replied, “Cannot lah, blah, blah, blah”, but I insisted “can” and she said, “You all, don't be so relaxed, lah!” Later I asked Eric and he said to use tape so I told him what Alisa said to my suggestion of using tape. Eric said if I need help convincing Alisa about it, ask him 'coz he can threaten to spread rumours about Alisa. I was surprised that he said things like that 'coz outwardly he looks so serious.

Anyway, tomorrow we're supposed to put up deco and other stuff for Farewell in my school hall. So I asked Eric to meet me at the bus interchange at 2.45 pm. Then just now, Pau Leen came to talk to Jen Nee, and now Pau Leen wants to go and meet Eric. It was so obvious that Pau Leen wanted to be the one to take him to our school. I couldn't say I want to meet him 'coz she asked me this way, “I'll go meet him since I'm going to Toa Payoh Central unless you really want to go meet him.” Anyway, why all this fuss about meeting him?

Eric seems to know how to go 'bout doing everything. For example for drawing the huge circle he said, use a string, someone hold it down in the middle, then draw. And lots of other things. And yesterday, Jen Nee was cutting Styrofoam with a blade and the flakes were flying and sticking to her shirt. Eric said something 'bout static electricity and how it can be solved by putting a piece of Styrofoam underneath the piece you're cutting. He's so scientific yet so sociable. He's the RI Inventors Club vice-president and Networking Club president.

I should really sleep now. It's 2.10 am. Yesterday, Lucy, Nicole, Jen Nee and I did the lettering for deco till 2.30 am while Eric was probably sleeping like a log. Now I've so many things to do. Things to study, storybooks, AEP project etc but I think I like it when it's busy like this. I feel like I'm not wasting any time because I'm always doing something. I feel like I need more than 24 hours a day.

Love, Pei Yi

Sunday 12 July

Dear Mei Yee

Yesterday's Farewell was great. I had a lot of fun. The deco was a success. The Sec 4s loved it. Betty remarked it was one of the best they've ever had. I had a lot of fun dancing 'coz I tried to
taruh sajalah,
and not bother if it looked nice or not.

The Farewell was held in my school hall. Jen Nee and I went to finish the deco at noon. Alisa, being her usual self, clapped her hands sarcastically when we arrived, 'coz she thought we should have been there earlier.

There were quite a few performances. Ours was a play where we reconstructed the scene when we were having meetings to discuss the Farewell items. It was very funny. Matt and Pratesh (an Indian) danced a very funny dance.

We bought roses for the seniors. But Gaik Teong bought one for Nancy. First he asked Nancy, “Do you like roses?” Nancy, who's always mean to him, said, “No!” We forced him to give her the rose. He pretended to mumble some made-up form of “Eenie meenie mynie moe” pointing to us and then Nancy but of course ended up pointing at Nancy. Nancy accepted it at last.

Overall everything was fun but unfortunately, something was quite disappointing for me—no one asked me to slow-dance. Maybe it's 'coz Jen Nee and I had to do classroom duties for half an hour and it was during that half hour that they had slow-dancing but what if it wasn't because of that? I told Jen Nee I was bothered about why no one asked me to dance; is something wrong with me? Jen Nee said even if no one asks her to dance, she doesn't think that she's abnormal. Eric danced with many girls.

After the Farewell, Jen Nee and me “gossiped” and talked about relationships among the hostelites.

Jen Nee and I think that guys are so ignorant of girls' true colours 'coz they only see the outward side of girls, while girls can see the real side of girls. Alisa and Pau Leen must seem very nice to them. Likewise, Matt and Eric might turn out to be horrible people.

The other day, Jen Nee and I were in Toa Payoh when we saw a skinny, black, stray kitten. It looked so pitiful so I asked Jen Nee to buy it a McFillet while I watched it. While she was gone, the kitten stayed at my feet and then a petite, quite old woman came up to me and asked if it was my cat. She wanted to take it to a safer place. We found out that she carries baskets of rice and other food everyday to feed stray cats. She says she feeds 80 cats a day! She disapproves of sending cats to the SPCA 'coz they'll be put to sleep there. She said, people think she's crazy but she doesn't care. What an experience meeting someone like that! I can hardly believe it. She must be a bit crazy. But she's not doing the cats good, as she thinks she is, because this will only lead to more stray cats living terrible lives. The best thing to do is to put them to sleep. I just don't understand how people can mistreat vulnerable cats and dogs by throwing stones at them or kicking them! She witnessed a lot of those things.

This Wednesday, I'm going to visit a centre for ex-lepers with the Social Work Unit of my school. I wish I had joined the LDDS (Literature, Drama and Debating Society) in my school and also Networking Club ('coz you get to socialize with other schools) but I guess you can't have everything.

Sometimes when nice things happen to your friends, do you feel happy for them or jealous? Sometimes I feel the latter but I'm trying to get rid of that attitude. For example if Jen Nee gets paired up with, let's say, Cheng Hoe, Matt or Eric, and I'm alone, I guess I'll be jealous.

Love, Pei Yi

Wednesday 15 July

Dear Mei Yee

The 13th was Eric's birthday. He's fifteen. Jen Nee, Nicole and I bought him a birthday card. He replied with a very funny letter. Jen Nee drew Alvin the Chipmunk on the envelope. He thought that Alisa told us 'bout him looking like Alvin the Chipmunk. It seems that he was nicknamed Alvin even in Malaysia. So we were not the only ones to notice. So funny.

Today was Choir Club election. Nancy became President. I hope we'll have more performances 'coz Nancy puts her heart into the Choir Club. Another girl, Bee Kay, and I were nominated for pianist. Each of us had to sight-read this Prelude No. 2 by Gershwin 'coz at first they asked me to play anything but I couldn't 'coz I didn't have any notes. Anyway, the sight-reading was terrible 'coz it didn't really have any tune but I tried to pretend to be confident. I heard from Jen Nee that Bee Kay's playing was even worse 'coz she seemed very uncertain and nervous. I was SO glad to be pianist 'coz after my sight-reading I was quite worried. I don't know whether it's true or not, but Bee Kay kept saying she was so happy 'coz she actually doesn't want to be pianist. There are too few members in our Choir Club. It's not a very good club. I was playing a song for them to sing, and the lyrics had the word refrain in between the verses. Bee Kay said it meant the singers are to refrain from singing at those sections!

After that, I went with the Social Work Unit to the ex-lepers' home. The residents were aged above 65. They looked so pitiful 'coz they are disfigured. Some have amputated limbs and deformed faces. We talked to them. The way old people talk is very difficult to understand. They speak in dialects and they mumble. We watched them weave baskets and sew. I bought a cosmetics pouch although I don't need one.

Mr Koh (the substitute Maths teacher) is TERRIBLE. I argued with him 'coz he was teaching wrongly. I'm now convinced that he is absolutely hopeless in Maths. During Maths period, my blood boils. O how I miss Mrs Simons! 3S1 has already finished every question in the textbook and 10 Year Series for that chapter while we're still at the beginning. The thing is, he can't teach 'coz he himself doesn't understand. I have complained enough to Jen Nee and Alisa so I'm going to solve this problem by depending on myself. But it's going to be very difficult to beat 3S1; they have Mr Tan, who's a Maths genius. Mr Koh really makes me feel SO frustrated.