I realized my childhood was actually fun-filled, so I decided to start a so-called chain of stories about some memorable extracts of my childhood in a series of blog posts. This is the first post, so let’s begin 🙂
I went to Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School ( I know that’s a long name ) and like most other primary schools, we have morning and afternoon sessions. Primary 1-2 afternoon, the rest morning session.
When I was in P3, I was excited about being in the morning session because I felt this strong sense that I’ve already grown up ( but of course I haven’t then ) and I was extremely proud because back then morning session classes would share classrooms with afternoon session classes, and I remember in P3 my class shared classrooms with this primary 1 class, and my class was the older ( not to mention smarter ) class. Which also goes to say, the desk I use in the morning session is used by somebody else in the afternoon session.
I was excited to meet the person who shared the same desk as me, and so was my best friend then. My best friend then was a boy ( just goes to show a girl and a boy can be best friends ) but there was tiny problem. We weren’t allowed to stay back after school hours to loiter around the corridors of classrooms to see who was the person who shared the same desk as me. So we came up with a plan.
We would hide in the toilet until their recess time before sneaking into our classroom. But the thing was, we wanted to see his face but if we snuck in at recess he wouldn’t be in the classroom then. But that was the best our brains could think, so we rotated shifts. On alternate days, we would stay back and camp in the toilet until their recess time before sneaking to the classroom to scrutinize his stuff. It went on for about a week or so. From what my memory still recalls ( it has been 5 years ) he had a blue bag, and his handwriting was super big ( well okay all primary one kids have gigantic handwriting ). So one fine day while my best friend was doing his “shift”, he was unfortunately, caught.
Apparently while he was sneaking inside our classroom, a teacher happened to walk past and spot him in the classroom with the lights off. Primary school teachers always like to overreact, and she presumed my best friend was a thief and so he was caught. But luckily he was smart and he explained to her that he was in the morning session and he shared this classroom with the primary 1 class and he had come to collect something he accidentally left behind, and from his pants pocket he retrieved a pen. The teacher eyed him suspiciously but eventually she left him alone. He breathed a sigh of relief.
From then on, the after-school stalking activity stopped because we couldn’t afford to get into any more trouble or we’ll probably get our ass kicked by the principal.
And so we came up with another plan. Primary school students are so enthusiastic in their plans.
We decided to leave notes under the table, and hope that the cleaner doesn’t remove it before the afternoon session boy sees it. Hopefully he would reply to us.
So we got down to action. Paper and pen and a bright heart was all we needed. And so our first note was done. It went something like this :
Dear whosoever who sits at this desk:
I am your morning session senior, curious to know who you are.
What’s your name? How do you look like?
-Senior
School was dismissed, and my best friend and I deliberately lingered longer until the rest of the class had gone before we placed our note carefully under the desk.
The next day we didn’t get any reply, but the note was gone. Our hearts sank.
But we got our hopes high again and we wrote another note.
The second day, we were elated because there under my desk was a note.
We opened it with shaking fingers.
To: P3 senior
My name is Tommy. I am a boy.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was like seeing light after days of darkness. From then on we started writing notes everyday, until finally one day we did something overboard. I took my pair of scissors out and wrote on the scissors, P1 do not touch.
The second day Tommy left his pair of scissors there on my desk and wrote back to me P3 do not touch. And uh my form teacher happened to see the pair of scissors.
She called me and my best friend to see her, and we told her about our attempts to get to know our junior better. Of course, we were told off terribly for nosing into other people’s business and we were punished quite severely because we were made to stay back during recess time. Staying back during recess time back then was a big thing. Only bad kids would stay back during recess. My best friend and I were bad kids for that day.
Since then on, we stopped the whole thing about getting to know Tommy. In fact, his name was the only thing we got to know until today. But of course I don’t think he remembers us anyway.
Once in P5 I think I saw Tommy’s name on the notice board for I forgot what, and everything would flood back. Unfortunately at the end of P3, I lost my best friend because he got into the GEP stream and since then left Peihwa and left me.
But our memories will always be shared, especially our long phone calls discussing our very very retarded plans, thinking about it now. His name is Kho Wen Hao, I don’t know which school he’s in now. I can’t even remember which GEP primary school he transferred to after he left Peihwa, I think it was Henry Park, I can’t remember.
In the next post: Something between Tei Zhang Wei of 2L and I
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