Chapter 9

From this morning up until noon, the class was vacant. All the teachers were at a meeting. I chose to sit in the corner of the library to read some books. There was not much to do in the student council's office since there were a few new members who took on the usual tasks. I did not want to waste my time doing nothing or fooling around in the class. I wanted to make the best of my time.

Despite not having an extensive collection, I tried to learn from what little this library has. Lala was busy working on her group assignment alongside Genta and Rian. Actually I needed to work on a group assignment as well but my group members, Echa and Salma, said that they were busy. Why did my world revolve around those bastards?

"Please help arrange these books, Nilam." Sasi, the librarian, approached me.

I nodded at her. It has become my duty to arrange the books each weekend at the end of the class sessions. Most of the students here were too lazy to put the books back on their respective shelves. Worse, they would put biology books on the geography shelves, what a nuisance.

"Sekar, didn't expect to see you here." Sekar looked at me, she walked clumsily with a huge stacks of books in her arms

Sekar was not the sharpest tool in the shed but she made it up with her diligence, especially when it comes to group assignments.

"I gotta work on the group assignment, Nilam. Bondan and Ricky don't want to help me." poor Sekar, had to be placed in the same group as those two delinquents.

"What would you write about?"

"Environmental issue, maybe."

I nodded, that would be the easiest although many other students thought that it was hard. Writing it in Indonesian was already difficult enough, let alone writing it in English, which was only spoken by a handful of students in our class.

"I gotta get back to the class, I need to explain Echa and Salma's part of the assignment."

"That would be difficult."

I smiled at her remark. No one in their right mind would say that it was a piece of cake. Echa and Salma cared about nothing but their appearance and style.

My class was positioned in the middle row, at the far end of the second year of Science class' building. Students of the Science class were said to be the smartest and the most diligent. I wonder how they came into that conclusion when all that they cared about was the result, not the process. Heavens knew how they got that score. Did they know that many students bullied their way to get that high score? They did nothing but copied the answers from the smarter yet weaker students. It hurted a lot.

"Echa, do you remember your part of the assignment? You must do an interview to collect the data." I tried my best to tell her although Echa was busy hanging out with him. They were hanging out with their friends.

Echa rolled her eyes. I knew that this would happen. She would neglect her part of the assignment and made me do it all. It was always like this. Even so, I hoped she would change..

"I don't know how to say this, but I actually wanted to do that but I got a bad stomach ache right now. I don't think I can get it done today. Maybe tomorrow?" she bargained. I thought that was okay since the due date is next week. Working on it tomorrow would be no problem.

"Alright." she smiled like a child that has just got her hands on a candy.

"Well, get lost, you are an eyesore! That horrible face really makes my eyes hurt!" I nodded when Mondy said that. She was right, everyone would mock me even more if I stayed here. Echa, Ricky, and Mondy were the most popular kids in school. Unlike me, an ugly duckling.

"Excuse me." I said before I left them. Once again, me and Ricky acted like we never knew each other. Once again, he made a huge gap between us.

Was it wrong? Of course not. He had returned to his usual self. I hoped he knew that harassing a freak like me was boring and a huge waste of time.

@@@

"Salma, Echa, have you done your part of the assignment?"

SMACK!

I almost flinched when Echa slammed her book onto my desk, did I do something wrong?

"I told you that I was sick, Nilam! Which part of it that you don't get!? I have no time for that!"

"I was busy, too. Gotta do the chores."

Liar..

"But I have reminded you five days ago."

"To hell with that! Work on it alone like you usually did!"

"Compose yourself, Echa. Sorry, Nilam, but this is an urgent matter. I wish I could help but..I just can't."

You sly bitch…

"But–"

Even before I finished my words, they left. Tomorrow, we had to present our essay. How could they do this to me? I looked up because I could not let tears rolling down my face.

Nilam, don't cry.

I decided to go back to my desk and tried my best to finish the assignment. I had no time to weep and cry like a dumb girl.

"What the fuck is this!? You call this an essay!?"

I was surprised to hear Ricky shout while tossing out the essay written by Sekar.

"This is a fucking trash! It can only be used as a peanut paper bag!" He shouted again, while Sekar picked them up from the floor.

"B..But I've tried, Rick. I worked on it alone." Sekar pleaded. Luckily, she was a tad bit braver than I was. Had I been there, I would bawl my eyes out.

"Here, study this."

Did she really make that one himself? I did not care, that was not my business. I already had a bunch of problems on my plate right now. I did not want to mess it all up by getting involved with a delinquent.

@@@

"Auntie, why does my computer won't start!?" I ran out, how come it would not start? This morning, before I got to school, everything was fine.

"I forgot to tell you, Nilam. Earlier today, I tried to do something on your computer, but then somehow it shut itself down and won't start again."

What misfortune did I have to go through again now?

After being abandoned by my group members, now the only computer that I had broke down. It's 8 PM right now, how would I get my assignment done? I guessed that I had to go to a cybercafé to finish this assignment or I would be done for. I did not want to lose more grades on Teacher Marita's assignment.

"I gotta go to the cybercafé, Auntie."

"But–"

"I have an assignment to be done and I need a computer to do so. My grades would be ruined if I can't submit it."

"Alright, take care!"