XG 1 - High school graduation

 

Today was the last day of school and students of Class 5-1 of Anevery private school decided to celebrate their high school graduation together. 

 

The matter of no longer needing to go to school five days per week was something to be celebrated! Some were also happy for other reasons, such as no longer needing to wear the school’s ugly uniform again.

 

A male student even dared to throw their uniform into the dustbin while they were still inside the school compound, cheering like he was holding a concert. He grew even more excited when his friends cheered for him.

 

What the bloke did not know was that his friends were indeed cheering for him, but for a completely different reason. By the time he figured out something was not right, he was already dragged away by the disciple teacher that had been standing right behind him with a piercing stare. 

 

Bros will accompany you when you experience joy and laugh at you good-humoredly when trouble visits you. \( ˙▿˙ )/\( ˙▿˙ )/

 

It was harmless fun… most of the time anyway.

 

Students from Class 5-1 will head to the Diamond shopping mall after school and most of them choose to change out of their school uniform to avoid getting attention, even if they were not actually skipping class.

 

“Huh? Guo Guo, you are not wearing a skirt?” Low Lin Ya stared at the girl dressed in a black comfy t-shirt with an anime character printed on it and finished the attire with dark blue jeans.

 

Wong Xue Guo, nicknamed Guo Guo by her parents and friends, tugged at the hem of her shirt. “It’s comfy this way.”

 

“Yup!” Nurul Hanani nodded in agreement, stretching her own jeans-clothed legs comfortably. “Lin Ya, your skirt is quite short.”

 

“No way! Then I’m the only one in a dress! Did I not tell you guys to wear dresses last night?” Low Lin Ya complained, ignoring Nurul Hanani’s last comment. “Both of you promised to take lots of photos with me!”

 

Low Lin Ya will be going to Canada for college, unlike her two close friends that will continue staying in Malaysia. She could not refuse her father’s orders as she still relied on her father for living expenses and could only go along with his plan. It was also a minus that the course she wanted to join was not available in her home country.

 

“My driver is here.” Wong Xue Guo quickly jogged to the school entrance to escape from Low Lin Ya’s sermon. 

 

Diamond shopping mall was a newly opened mall, which was a twenty minutes ride using a car. As for how the students will go there from their school, they either rode with other classmates or went to the destination by themselves. As for the three friends, they will be heading there by Wong Xue Guo's car. 

 

“We will take looooots of pictures with you later.” Nurul Hanani dragged Low Lin Ya to follow Wong Xue Guo as she coaxed her friend of three years. “It does not matter what we wear right? And you will get to look the best in our pictures!”

 

“Of course, it matters!” Low Lin Ya grumbled, but it did not hold much heat. This vain, rich young miss did feel some satisfaction that she will be the prettiest among the trio in the pictures later. 

 

However, past experience had warned her that even in their plain uniforms, Wong Xue Guo would still be able to look pretty.

 

Even right now in her childish shirt, Wong Xue Guo with a hint of mixed blood features still attracts other students’ attention as she passes by them, her long ponytail in neat plaits swinging behind her like a happy tail. Her height barely reached a hundred and sixty, but her limbs looked appropriately divided, lending her the illusion of looking tall and slender. But her eyes behind her thin, black-framed glasses were only on her driver’s silver car, walking straight towards it without stopping.

 

Low Lin Ya had already freed her hair from the confines of her similarly styled plait as Wong Xue Guo’s and artistically arranged her wavy hair into a stylish mess. After school hours, the teachers were laxer with the lighter rules and turned a blind eye to her hair. Even the teachers wanted to stop working after the final bell rang, and could not wait to go home.

  

Class 5-1 had a total of thirty students, which was quite a large number in a class for a private school. The cafe that the students had picked was truly patient to have twenty students, of which ten had opted out of the gathering, suddenly enter the shop without telling them to keep their voices down. 

 

“Grilled lamb and coke for me please.” Wong Xue Guo closed the menu and rubbed her hungry stomach. This was one of her rare chances to finally be able to eat western food!

 

Her parents only had healthy, steamed food for every meal, and Wong Xue Guo was forced to follow along. She has nothing against healthy food, but eating them every day would make anyone grow bored of it.

 

"I want roasted chicken and coke for me too!" Nurul Hanani, her best friend, dropped her order next. 

 

“Fish and chip, orange juice,” Low Lin Ya placed her order and swiftly held up her mobile phone before Wong Xue Guo. “Guo Guo, which movie do you want to watch? How about this Christmas romance?"

 

Low Lin Ya’s mobile phone was displaying a picture of a couple hugging each other with a large Christmas tree behind them. Wong Xue Guo and Nurul Hanani's expressions froze, with both feeling resistance to the romance film just because of the picture itself. 

 

Their class was having an early dinner so that they could watch a movie together later. However, the twenty students with different tastes in movies tend to have clashes in picking what type of movie they wanted to watch.

 

“Jiang An, what movie did you pick?” Nurul Hanani quickly directed the question away.

 

"I've already booked our tickets for the zombie movie!" Chen Jiang An, the assistant monitor of class 5-1, reported from the other end of the table.

 

"Keep your voice down," said Chen Yibo, the class monitor and also Chen Jiang An's cousin.

 

Once Chen Yibo spoke, everyone in class 5-1 would listen. Who would not listen to this top student with tall, budding handsomeness with a tender-sounding voice? He was one of the top flowers in their school, with a long line of admirers and fans. Chen Jiang An was also good-looking, but compared to his cousin, he was quickly deemed inferior by his decisive admirers. 

 

"How can you decide that for us!" Low Lin Ya scolded.

 

"I asked Guo Guo and she said yes!" Chen Jiang An defended himself.

 

"Zombies are more interesting than romance flicks right, Guo Guo?" A male classmate asked, to which Xue Guo hummed in agreement but did not dare to look in Low Lin Ya’s direction. 

 

Compared to that romance movie that will obviously be cheesy, Wong Xue Guo and Nurul Hanani preferred watching a zombie movie packed with action. Since the ticket was already purchased, students that wanted to watch different movies had to give up on their first choice.

 

“That’s horrible…” A female classmate whispered.

 

At first, Wong Cue Guo thought her classmate was complaining about their choice of movie. Fortunately, the classmate was looking at the large TV screen hanging at the corner of the cafe, with the latest news being reported. 

 

But it was a familiar topic, which had been going on for days about the weird cases of contagious disease. The first news about this case began last week from overseas, but it was still not handled properly by the government of the first country that was affected. Not only that, the disease was even spread to a few countries, including theirs.

 

"That place is quite nearby," Nurul Hanani noted in concern when the screen revealed the location of the new incident. “Let’s go home together later? We will be safer in a larger number.”

 

Wong Xue Guo agreed and then added her own observation points. “Don’t you think they look like zombies? Their flesh shrunk, growling like a hungry beast and launching themselves onto other humans with bared teeth, very alike. And don’t forget, it’s contagious and seems to spread through bites.”

 

Recently, Wong Xue Guo found a lot of zombie movies and manga to entertain herself. Hence her mind quickly led her to think about zombies when she saw those horrifying videos. 

 

“You think so too!” Nurul Hanani, her fellow friend with similar taste in movies, nodded eagerly. “I think this must be a group of scientists that create a strange, restorative liquid, only to have created a disaster! Those movies might hold some truth. Aish, they should have known better than to make those types of medicine.”

 

“Hani, your imagination is too cliché!” Someone yelled and others echoed with joking tones.

 

“Cliché, but it holds the truth, lah!” Nurul Hanani retorted. “I saw one of those videos on Instagram and I swear one of them was bitten badly and then she joined their ranks in the next video."

 

"That might not be the same person."

 

"They have similar features and wear the same clothes!”

 

“The government says it’s under control.” One of the most faint-hearted female classmates, Ada Gan, tried to sound confident, but the scary images on the TV screen had scattered half of her confidence away.

 

Although the government tried their best to suppress the videos of those infected humans and explain it was not dangerous to stop everyone from freaking out, their lack of explanation invited the opposite reaction to what they wanted from the mass instead. 

 

Fortunately, not everyone becomes panicked and undergoes a shopping frenzy to prepare to hide in their home for the long term. Instead, some of them have developed a ‘watch-and-see’ mind-set.

 

As for Wong Xue Guo's family, her mother had not mentioned anything about it or even told her to be careful. Her mother's concern was only for her father, working overseas. 

 

“The government only said that as lip service." Chen Jiang An was not impressed. “The only information that can be trusted is which country it starts from. Crocus!”

 

“Still, from Korea spreading to Malaysia in just one week is impressive!” The joker of their class, Patrick Cheah, joined in. “Did a Malaysian go to Korea and get bitten perchance? Then that fella came back and bam! Biting party! Everyone, scold that fella for bringing this weird disease back to Malaysia!”

 

“Don’t speak nonsense!” His friend scolded.