CHAPTER 6 : Taste Of New Life

It's not wrong to be complacent.  It had been ten years since Dean had last lunch together.  The smell of sweat from the high school uniform, indeed mixed with the canteen mother's fried noodles, which was only topped with chicory.

 But that can't make anyone lose their appetite.  Everyone likes to jostle just to buy unsatisfying food for one to five thousand rupiah.

"Dean want some meatballs?  Here are the meatballs!"

 Dean raised an eyebrow because it was Ivan who suddenly put a meatball into his bowl, without even listening to his response first.

 "Van, eat.  If you give it all to Dean, when will you be full."  Devan across the table squinted sharply.

 Responding to his brother's attitude, Ivan put on a sullen face.  While Dean just chuckled, laughing at his two friends who didn't change.

 From the beginning, it was very difficult for Ivan to have lunch with them.  On a diet, he said.  Dean still doesn't understand why his friend insists on going on a diet even though he's in great shape.

 Meanwhile, Devan, who is actually protective, will not let his twin brother starve.  One other reason is because Ivan will always complain of hunger in the third lesson and it always irritates Devan.

 "Dean!  After school, don't go home yet, okay?"

 Dean was startled, almost choked on the instant noodles in his mouth when suddenly someone tapped him on the back from behind.  When he turned his head, Dean was again surprised by a classmate he was not familiar with before.

 "Yes?  Why?"

 "You forgot?  It's Monday!  Extra!"  said the friend, patting Dean on the shoulder a few times, then walked away.

 Dean grew even more confused.  Extracurricular, in his life he had never participated in anything like that.

 "Isn't this a bit too much for an extra character?"  Dean grumbled in his mind.

 After his classmate left and mingled with the crowd in front of the stall, Dean looked up again.  Staring at Ivan and Devan who seemed relaxed.

 "What extracurricular?"  he asked innocently.

 "Why ask me?  Think about it yourself!  You have so many extracurriculars that you forget which ones?"  Devan answered sarcastically.

 It would be wrong if Dean asked Devan.  Since the first, even though he doesn't hate him, Devan always acts like that.  Knowing that Devan would not answer him properly, Dean turned to Ivan by his side.

 "Van, what extracurricular?"

 "Swim.  The tournament is coming soon, right?"

 It took Dean a few seconds to process the information that had suddenly entered his head.  For a moment he just blinked, trying to be sure he had heard wrong.

 "I?  Swimming?"

 Dean pointed at himself while looking at Ivan and Devan alternately.  Then he could see them both nodding together.

 "SWIMMING?  HEI THIS IS EXCESSIVE!"  he cried in his heart.

 Dean hated water since childhood.  He had almost drowned in a pool the size of an adult's calf.  From then on, Dean refused to go to the pool.  Then how did he become a member of the swimming club?  Even to enter the tournament?

 Beset by confusion and despair, Dean lowered his head limply.  In his heart he wanted to curse the storyteller who wrote too much about the background of an extra character like him.

 But thinking again about the storyteller, Dean remembered one thing he had forgotten.

 "By the way, what year is it?"  he asked quickly after raising his head again and looking at Ivan.

"Two thousand thirteen."  Ivan answered casually, then stuffed instant noodles into his own mouth.

 "Month?  Date?"  Dean asked again, this time her looking at Devan.

 "Thirty, April."  Devan replied indifferently.

 Their answers were enough for Dean to understand something.  Somehow, Dean had been thrown into the past.  Or, it may not be that simple.

 "No, this is not the past.  I was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison it happened in the year two thousand and twelve.  Which means, this year I should be in prison.  But what happened now was that I was sitting here, having lunch and was in the second grade of high school.  Which mean ...."

Dean rolled his eyes.  A conclusion appeared in the mind of this adult male teenager.

 "What is happening now is different from reality.  False!  Illusion?  Or, just an essay?  I move in the writer's screenplay?  Like a character in a story.  If so, the one who understands the most about this incident is the author."

 "... Dra!  Deandra!"

 "Sssh!  What?  I'm thinking hard right now!"  Dean brushed off Ivan's pat on the shoulder.

"Then save your 'thinking hard for later! You can't just leave Amel like that!"

 Deandra blinked, and just realized the presence of Amel who for some time had been sitting across the table.  Precisely on the side of Devan who continues to put on a face as if he hates the whole world.

 "Hello there! what do you think so seriously?"  asked Amel while biting the dumplings from the package in her hand.

"I was th.."

 "Thinking about you!"  cut Ivan jokingly.

 "Dude!"

 Dean nudged his playmate in the stomach and managed to make Ivan groan.  Meanwhile, Amel just laughed in response to Ivan's jokes and their behavior.

 "Sorry, Ivan when he talks, he likes to loose his jaw."  Dean laughed awkwardly at the end of his sentence.

 "It's okay.  So, what are you thinking about?"  Amel smiled so sweetly.  Even the remaining peanut sauce on the corners of the lips could not reduce the sweetness.

 "Yeah... uh... thinking about extracurricular."  Dean replied a little stammered.

 "Ohh ... don't worry too much about it."  said Amel later.

 Amel nodded slightly as a sign that he believed Dean's words.  In fact, Dean just said it.  But it turned out that his words really bothered him.

 What used to be normal, now Dean was worried.  Before he had finished being surprised by being a core player on the basketball team, now they wanted to say that he was a member of the swimming club.

 What's more, Dean who had given up trying to connect with other people for ten years must have forgotten how to socialize.  Now he is worried about how he will face his club mates in the future.

 A thousand negative thoughts and fears buried Deandra.  Even in class, he couldn't focus, so the eraser on the blackboard slid smoothly several times to bring his focus back.

 "Ah!  Why are you afraid?  Remember your age!  They were just high school kids.  While you are an adult.  You can do this!"

 Dean shouted in his mind.  His hands were clenched into fists and held high.  A pair of sparkling eyes full of fiery passion.  So smoldering, Dean didn't even notice the astonished looks of his two friends.

 "here we go again."  Ivan commented, to which only a shrug from Devan's shoulder.

 Needless to say, it was time to go home from school.  Ivan and Devan immediately said goodbye to go home first.  They parted in the passageway between the exit and the swimming pool.

 Now Deandra is left alone.  Stepping hesitantly through the door to the indoor swimming pool, his school property.  With one sure feeling that he shouldn't be here.

 "Now!  Here comes Dean!"

 "Long live, son."

 Dean hugged his backpack tightly while smiling stiffly in response to the waving of several students by the pool.  Still hesitating, he stepped towards them.

 "Change your clothes first!  Warm up, and then just go straight in, okay?"

He just nodded following one of their instructions.  The coach doesn't seem to be here right now.  Mr. Mahendra is a fierce person, Dean is lucky not to have to meet him today.

 After putting the bag in the locker, change into swimming trunks and put on the headgear.  Dean approached the pool covering his bare chest like a virgin on the first night.

"What's wrong with him?  Have a cold?"  whispered one of the students who was surprised by Deandra's attitude.

 "I don't know, usually when he come, he immediately rush into the pool."  said his friend who was also whispering.

 For a moment, Dean just sat by the pool.  Even to dip his feet into the water he needed great courage.  Fortunately, not many are aware of his attitude.

 Except for his two friends, of course, who were whispering to each other earlier.  After getting fed up with waiting for Dean not to get into the water, they decided to get up and approach the young man.

 "Dean?  Come on!"  one of them patted Deandra's arm.

"No, you guys go first."  Dean smiled awkwardly.

 Strange, very strange.  The Deandra they know is none other than a tadpole demon who can't stay away from water.  That's why the answer Dean gave was able to astonish them.

 "Are you sick?"

 "No," Dean said, shaking his head quickly.

 "Then?"

 Dean was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say.  There was no way he could say he couldn't swim.  It would sound ridiculous and impossible for them to believe.

 "Oh, it's too late!"

Splash!

 The loud sound of something falling into the water was heard by everyone in this place.  One of his friends, who had been silent for a while, unexpectedly pushed Deandra into the water.

 Immediately noisy, several students laughed to see it was no exception the perpetrator of the push.  But for Deandra, there was only silence.  His eyes stung when he forced them open.

Dean struggled, trying to get back to the surface.  Water filled his open mouth for help.  No one understood, let alone realized that one of their friends was drowning.

"Asshole!  who pushed me before?  wait for my revenge!!"  Dean growled furiously in his mind.

 Anger made him want to beat up someone who had pushed him into the water.  But before that happened, Dean had to think of a way to get out of here first.

 Unfortunately, this pool turned out to be much deeper than he thought.  Maybe about four to five meters.  Even after he was out of breath and almost lost consciousness, Dean didn't reach the bottom of the pool.

 Tightness, his chest feels hot.  Dean had swallowed so much water that he didn't even know it.  Over time, he got tired of struggling.  In the end Deandra gave up.

 If anyone dared to say in front of his face that dead on drowning was aesthetic, then Dean swore he would beat that person up right then and there.

 "Wow... looks like this time i will die for real."  Even his mind gave up.

 Slowly but surely, Dean closed his eyes.  People say that near death a person will remember random bits and pieces of his life.  Dean also saw that, unfortunately for this young man, the memory fragments that appeared were not so pleasant to remember.

 To be continued....