Unlike any other day, the atmosphere in the classroom the next day was palpably tense. And for good reason, too.
“Tolong lah, look at all of your faces—you lot look like you are going to be receiving a death sentence soon,” Ms. Zamira, who was acting as our co-form teacher, said as she cracked a joke. “It’s just your first semester results, that’s all. Don’t need to worry about it so much one.”
Mr. Lim gave a light cough and sighed. “Alright, class, shall we begin with the good or bad news first?”
“Bad news,” the class responded without hesitation.
“Hm.” Licking his chapped lips, he opened up his file and wrote down a number on the whiteboard: 40.
“The first number on the board, forty, represents the percentage of people in this class who achieved a pass or better for their overall grade this semester.”
“F-forty percent of twenty students…”
I paled. “That means that twelve people failed their overall results?!”
A collective shudder immediately went through the classroom. Liam bit his fingers nervously, while Xian Jing looked as if she was about to suffer a heart attack.
Unsurprisingly, I noted, Terasia was the only one who maintained an unbothered facade.
‘I guess school isn’t really that important for someone like her anyway…’
“Which is why,” Mr. Lim continued with a resigned smile. “I had to add a group project assignment at the last minute to try and pull up your grades. It’s certainly heartwarming to see that all of you treated the project seriously, and so, this is the good news…”
He wiped the ‘40’ away and wrote down a new number: 55.
“The final statistics for Class 19S07G are as follows: 55%, which is eleven of you, managed to pass your overall; five people scored a B and above for every subject, with two of the five scoring all As. As for those who still didn’t quite make the cut, please don’t be disheartened by your results—remember that at the end of the day, what matters the most is the A-levels at the end of the year. I hope that this will motivate you to study harder for the coming semester, understand?”
“Yes, Mr. Lim!”
I leaned back in my seat and sighed. “But 55% isn’t that good of a statistic either…”
“We did put in our best effort for the group project, and I’m sure that Mr. Lim has helped us out as much as he possibly can too,” Terasia said in a reassuring voice. “You shouldn’t lose hope that quickly.”
“Yeah, I know that…” I rocked my chair back and forth anxiously. “Still, this isn’t like a normal battle where you can easily see who the winner and loser will be…I hate how exams constantly make you second-guess yourself until the results come out on the last day of school.”
She shook her head and smiled.
“You just need to have faith in your own abilities, Avery. And I believe in you.”
With a wry smile, I opened my mouth to give a sarcastic reply, but the sincere look in her eyes made my voice involuntarily falter.
“M…mhm, thank you.”
“Putting all that aside, I will now be handing out your report cards,” Mr. Lim announced, gesturing at Ms. Zamira to prepare the stack of sheets on the teacher’s desk. “Make sure to get your parent or guardian’s signature on it, and file it nicely inside your report book before giving it back to us after the school holidays. So, in no particular order, can we have…”
“Wait, Mr. Lim,” Liam said, raising his hand up suddenly. “Can you tell us who are the two students who scored full As for everything?”
“I can confirm that it isn’t you, Liam,” Mr. Lim said without a hint of remorse.
Terasia choked back a laugh. “What a savage teacher.”
“Well, can’t say that I’m not curious about it too…” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “Though, I won’t be surprised if it’s Fang and Yun Li. Those two were tied for the highest rank points in the promotion exam last year, after all.”
The rest of the class was also eagerly discussing among themselves about the identities of the two top scorers, prompting Mr. Lim to silence the class with a tap of his marker against the board.
“Can I have a show of hands to see who are the ones interested to know the identities of the two students?”
Almost everybody raised their hands, and he nodded his head.
“Then, I will give out the report cards for these two students first. Fang, come to the front of the class.”
A burst of applause resounded in the classroom as the class president of 19S07G stood up with a straight back and received his report card from Mr. Lim.
“Nice one, class prez!”
“Damn, how much has he mugged for the A-levels already?”
“That must mean that Yun Li is next, right?”
“She’s always competing with Fang, of course it’s her! They’re practically rivals…”
Mr. Lim cleared his throat and glanced down at the second report card in his hand.
“Next, can we have Terasia come up to the front?”
At that very moment, you could have heard a pin drop inside the classroom. Everyone had their heads turned towards Terasia, the priceless looks on their faces almost making me burst into laughter.
“Erm…”
She gulped and shot a “help me” look towards me.
Biting my lip to stop a silly guffaw from escaping, I offered her a wry smile.
“This is what happens when you go overkill with your magic, idiot.”
-
The following period was Assembly, so all of us had to file into the school hall along with the rest of the school. Lao Da began his standard bland speech about the upcoming holidays and the programme for the next semester as we tried our best not to close our eyelids and doze off.
“Man, it sucks that I can’t even use my phone with all the teachers around,” Liam complained in a whisper before nudging me to get my attention. “Psst, Avery, let’s compare our results! Show me your report card, I’ll show you mine too.”
“Sure thing…”
I took a quick look at Liam’s report card, which was objectively worse than my own.
“Damn, how did you bomb Chemistry this badly?”
“Talk about your own Math grade first, bro.” He snorted and pointed at the bottom of the card. “Look, Mr. Lim even wrote in the remarks section that you need to ‘improve on your Mathematics’.”
“At least I don’t have a comment saying ‘please work on your punctuality and discipline record’…”
Somehow, time seemed to pass by faster as we chatted in hushed voices, and before I realised it, it was almost the end of Assembly period.
“With that, this concludes our last assembly programme for the semester,” Lao Da’s voice boomed into the microphone, instantly snapping both of our attention back to the stage at the front of the hall. “Before I dismiss all of you, here are some reminders for the upcoming holidays: one, do not get yourself in trouble; two, do not forget that you are a student of this institution and I expect each and every one of you to uphold the image of the school when you are outside; and lastly, remember to be punctual when school reopens on the 25th of June! I don’t want to catch any of our students climbing the school gate again, do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Mr. Lao…”
“Do I make myself CLEAR??”
“Yes, Mr. Lao!”
We begrudgingly shouted our answer, and the discipline master finally gave a grunt of approval for the teachers to dismiss the school.
“Man, that was so boring that I damn nearly snored in the middle of his speech,” Liam complained as we shuffled out of the hall. “Even the principal didn’t talk as long as that old geezer!”
I stifled a tired yawn and twisted my neck until it gave a satisfying crack. “At least the torture is over, I just want to go home and crash on my bed…”
“There’s still Mr Yong’s tuition class later, isn’t there?” Terasia asked, falling into step with us.
Liam covered his mouth in surprise. “Crap, I totally forgot to do the chemical bonding assignment that’s supposed to be handed in today! Wait, Avery, did you do it?”
“That’s…a good question, actually,” I muttered, trying to recall if I had ever touched Mr Yong’s assignment. “This week has been so hectic that I’ve forgotten all about it too.”
“Oh, shoot. Then, what about you, Terasia?”
“I already did it, but I left it at home,” she replied with a shrug. “So I can’t lend it to you now.”
“Damnit, does that mean I have to rush through it before tuition?” He groaned loudly. “I wanted to watch Kissanime when I get home, give me a break…”
“Hey, the same goes for me too, and I’m not complaining about it,” I said, giving him a light punch in his arm. “What do you say we do it together over WhatsApp?”
“Alright then, that’s a deal—make sure you come online later!”
