Chapter 9

Zayn hummed the notes of his song as he slowly walked up the staircase. After eating his spaghetti for lunch, he was left alone to head to class. Kim had bumped into his club captain and was forced to talk to him. Kim told Zayn to head on first.

'Being in a sports club could give a fresh experience," Zayn thought.

In these few weeks since the start of school, Zayn's mind was clouded with thoughts that stressed and pressured him. It was not the first time he was overwhelmed with many thoughts, and he was conscious that he could overthink from time to time, but Zayn thought that recently his mind was more serious than just your random overthinking scenario, such as an event where a terrorist would hold hostage a school - which would very, very likely not happen.

Zayn was a member of the Robotics Club, a club that innovates and create mechanical electronics out of Legos, acrylic parts and electronic components. Strangely enough, however, Zayn never had an interest in the deeper side of robots and was devastated when he failed to join the Audio-Visual Club, a club that was close enough to be considered 'relevant' to his passion for electronic music. The school band would be another choice, but the difference in concept between orchestral and electronic music might wear Zayn down. Would it be wise for him to sacrifice the club points he got from Robotics Club to appeal for AV Club?

And his relationship with Lisa was not any better than before. After Lisa's heartfelt confession, Zayn's respectful let-down and deteriorating friendship between them, Zayn was only glad her pestering could stop when she was not in the same class as him anymore. Occasionally, when Zayn could see Lisa from afar, he would take a detour, avoiding her at all cost. He knew Lisa was far from giving up, and Zayn knew he should at all cost not be lenient and make himself easy-to-get. Zayn knew he has no feelings for her, and he couldn't return her feelings. It was practically his best course of action for himself, with the hope that Lisa would one day give in.

Zayn stepped into the classroom, where he could see Ms June arranging some papers at the teacher's desk. He acknowledged her presence as he waved at her, and took his seat. There was another one or two of his classmate aside from him. Zayn was picking up his bag from the floor with the intent to take out his History book for later but saw Ms June waving her hand as if hoping to catch his attention. Clueless, Zayn let go of his bag and headed to the teacher's desk where she was at.

"Still struggling?" Ms June was trying to continue the conversation they had somewhen last year.

"As of now, you could say that," Zayn shrugged his shoulders. Both of them have a proper and formal relationship as teacher and student, but from their way of communicating, it sounded as if they both were friends. "I do think it's too early to tell, though. We're only closing at the end of January."

"True, true... but don't stress yourself out. I keep seeing you look out of the window with those horrible dark eyes every morning," Ms June teased him, trying to enlighten his mood.

"Ma'am, are you still single," Zayn fired back in response to the previous comment that got on his nerves.

"That's rude, Zayn. I would like you to do a reflection on what you did. Hundred-fifty words minimum," Ms June quickly switched into being a serious educator. As they spoke, more and more students came in, as lunch was about to end.

"Wha- That's not fair! You can't just use your authority as a teacher like that!" Zayn whined, annoyed by her dirty play. Ms June, who was putting those papers she had arranged into her bag, hid her giggle away from Zayn.

"You shouldn't say that to a mature lady, young man. There's no need for reflection; I was just teasing you. Prepare for your next lesson," Ms June quickly left the class with her bag hanging on her right shoulder, entertained by Zayn's priceless reaction.

Zayn exhaled before he returned to his seat. He could see Kim, Amilia and Hana chatting away at their tables. The lesson started as soon as Mr Raju walked in.

***

"Kim, can you draw the map of Europe for me?" Mr Raju called him out, aware that Kim was not lending his ears in the History lesson.

"H-Huh? Oh... sure, sure," Kim stood up and walked to the board. He took the marker from Mr Raju's hands.

The class silently followed the trace of the old black marker, that made a screeching noise with every stroke. Kim started drawing from the top of the board, recalling the map that he had seen in the textbook last night. Looking at Kim's posture, one could tell he was confident of his drawing. A few students at the back of the class muttered and snickered, but Kim was not aware. Mr Raju carefully watched Kim finish his not so aesthetic drawing.

In five minutes, Kim was already back on his seat and Mr Raju was giving a good look at his drawing before continuing with the lesson.

"You know, Kim, I feel like your drawing is a tiny bit off from the actual map of Europe," Zayn whispered to Kim.

"Really?" Kim looked back at Zayn.

"Kim. Do you miss lower secondary?" Mr Raju asked him from the front of the class, with his hands on his hips.

"Not really? Why?" Kim answered from his seat.

"Because, Kim, you just drew the map of Asia... flipped vertically," Mr Raju gave a pitiful smile. The whole class started laughing softly. Zayn, Amilia and Hana held their laughter, trying to be good friends to Kim.

"Doesn't matter... I'll tidy it up a bit," Mr Raju took the duster on one hand and marker on the other. In a matter of seconds, the history teacher was done correcting Kim's hand-drawn map.

Kim placed his head on the table, after seeing a huge difference between his drawing and Mr Raju's drawing. Zayn just snickered at Kim's reaction, hiding his face behind the history textbook. They continued with the history lesson that covered the topic of the early stages of World War Two. Kim resumed not paying attention, as Zayn did too. Zayn rested his head on the table as he looked at the window to the right of him. At his current position, he could only see the roof of the opposite classroom building and the clouds floating by in the blue clear sky

Zayn could barely wait for the class to end. He started counting the number of small puffy clouds with Mr Raju's monotonous voice lecturing on the involvement of Great Britain and France in the Second World War. He could also hear Amilia and Hana having their conversation, although he couldn't make out the words from it. Zayn gave out a loud sigh. A sigh too loud that it interrupted Mr Raju's explanation on the declaration of war on Germany on the Third of September, nineteen thirty-nine.

The lesson paused momentarily and the whole class looked at Zayn, including Kim, Hana and Amilia. "Are you okay?" Hana found Zayn's sigh to sound funny but held her laugh to ask.

Zayn quickly raised his head and looked at Mr Raju. "Sorry... I was.. distracted with a thought for.. for a moment.." Zayn quickly made up an excused.

"Try to pay attention, Zayn. I don't care if your dog accidentally ate your homework," Mr Raju humoured a little.