AT THE LAST BELL

2 MARCH, TUESDAY, AFTER SCHOOL

I had wanted to savour my last days at Winderhill. Of course I imagined the experience with rose tinted glasses, but by the time school was out, I realized my highschool memories here were not really the picture perfect experiences I meant to take away with me.

For one, it included playing a tambourine, (a completely unnecessary and unskilled part), in The Last Hurrah - which I supposed wasn't working out the way Henry had envisioned it either.

Maybe he expected to get the girl and be cool because he was now the bassiet of the band. Maybe he even expected the band to sound good.

But alas, now his best friend had the girl, he sucked on the bass, and our band sounded even worse together than he did alone. We were that bad.

I'm not sure how they got through the auditions for the the talent time competition. I had thought of three reasons that could have gotten The Last Hurrah this far:

1.Maybe the other acts were just as bad and Winderhill was just a sadly untalented pool.

2.Maybe they sounded better without a tambourine.

3.Maybe Henry really did bribe the judges like Fluffy had said.

Not with money of course - Henry would never do something so obviously illegal, but a small gift of appreciation to the organizers, tickets to an actual performance where the judges could watch real talents on stage, a nice dinner at Momoshiro's or its equivalent?

{Fluffy, I was just wondering...} I mindlinked during science lab where we had to sit quietly at our benches and copy pictured of cells. The Science Department Head had decided that this would be our special after-exam activity, but Mrs Dawson was in the opinion that students were not to be trusted with microscopes or glass slides, so she did a demonstration - where we watched her use the microscope.

This was as exciting as watching someone use the computer from across the screen so you couldn't see what he was typing.

After that, she drew the plant cell and animal cell that she allegedly saw on the board for us to copy into our worksheet - I mean, "Activity Sheet".

{You said Henry bribed the judges to get us through the auditions? What did he give?} I decided to ask Fluffy. I promised myself to take whatever he answered with a pinch of salt.

I was just curious, not to mentioned bored to tears drawing weird shapes.

{Well, it wasn't a bribe exactly.} Fluffy admitted, {He overheard the teachers discussing the shortage of funds and offered to donate some money to contribute to the talent program they wanted to start up.}

Oh, so it WAS money? How unoriginal.

Anyway, science lab was very boring. I've come to realise that Mrs Dawson did not believe in giving her students experiences to remember in her class. She believed in not breaking equipment.

I will however, attempt to draw a little cell here and we'll see if I would still be able to tell if it were a plant or animal cell when I grow up and find my diary and decide to read it.

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|.`.|

|'O.|

| .°'|

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That's it. It's a cell. Really.

Moving on, the last bell was a welcomed relief. The whole class made a collective sigh and noisily clattered about to gather all their things to go.

The wooden lab stools were the noisiest. Particularly since Terrence knocked his over twice - both times purely by accident.

"Stop that!" Mrs Dawson screeched from her place behind her teacher's counter, "Those stools are even older than you are!"

Then she had nothing to worry about. they weren't likely to break. I mean, take our packhouse' original conference table - the old one was also older than I was too. The new ones kept breaking and now we had a stone table...which was already sporting hairline cracks. They sure didn't make tables like they used to anymore.

"Mr D wants to remind all students who are part of the theatre production to report directly to the assembly hall backstage today." Liam shouted over the the din as students noisily packed their things to leave.

This was when Mrs Dawson suddenly noticed the pile of activity sheets being stacked at the corner of her counter closest to the exit. She immediately started sqwacking, "DON'T hand those in! I don't want them. They were just for fun!"

Mrs Dawson probably didn't understand the meaning of that word, so I tried not to think anything derisive. I said, "I tried".

"Didn't I say you didn't have to hand these in? Take them back! Class Chairman! Where are you? Come take these back!" Mrs Dawson grabbed the worksheets and tried to stuff them into the hands of the passing students.

Naturally everyone avoided it. Poor Class Chairman! But Liam was chill as always, he even managed to toss his hair, crinkle his eyes in a half smile, "Sure, Mrs Dawson."

It was a wasted effort though. Mrs Dawson wasn't like the other female teachers in our school.

"Take them!" She ordered.

It was probably those tinted glasses in the darkened science lab so she couldn't see Chairman Charming right in front of her.

Either that or she was so old that Liam just looked like a zygot to her. Hahahahaha.

Yeah, I'm so funny.

Anyway, I got all my stuff and headed towards the assembly hall. If today was a music playlist, it was full of weird and boring songs, and I was actually looking forward to theatre rehearsal.

It definitely promised more fun than copying cell diagrams, and unlike The Last Hurrah, I actually had a real part to contribute to this performance.

I rushed down, meaning to get there early to revise my lines and get into my role. Hahaha, yeah, I surprised myself too. But the play was tomorrow, and everyone had worked hard, and I LIKED TO WIN. (Yes, I know it wasn't a real competition, but I wanted to be at least a bit better than Henry.)

I wanted Horneo and Bulliet to be a great memory for everyone. Especially, Jasmine, because it was her debut as a playwright, and because I was leaving Winderhill and I guess this was the one thing I could leave her with before I go.

"Sam! Over here!"

I startled at Priya's voice and then I startled again when I turned to her voice, only to have her hand clapped me on the shoulder from behind. This girl's stealth was nothing short of extraordinary!

"What?" I didn't mean to sound abrupt, but I had just been startled - twice. Luckily, Priya didn't take any offence to her cute junior's rude greeting.

"We're training outdoors today. The theatre club needs the hall for their dress rehearsal." Priya cheerfully informed me.

Oh. Today was Tuesday.

I looked over at where the other archery club members had been called aside and gathered outside the hall. Captain walked over, "Sam, you missed Friday's session."

"Give her a break, Captain!" Priya immediately came to my defense, "Her pack was at a war. And then she got injured. And then, when she came back to school on Monday, she had a bomb go off in her face!"

Ah, please let's not talk about that episode. It just felt embarrassing to hear. It's like the whole world watched a bomb go off on my face, like some hidden camera prank.

And I was pretty sure my face couldn't have been pretty under all that fire.

"Wow, that was scary!" Priya continued, "Was that your bloodline power? Like are you indestructible?"

"Something like that." I demurred, my embaressment turning into a modest flush now that Priya put it that way.

Captain cleared his throat, "I know you're probably going through a tough time, and I'm sorry for the loss of your warriors, I watched the Ceremony of the Departed."

"Ah..." I searched my brain to find the right response. What would Mum say?

I couldn't think of anything so I just shrugged, "It's okay. Don't worry about it."

Luckily, Captian just nodded like I answered sensibly and continued to his main point, "But rules are rules, and I have to be fair. You've ready received your first warning not to miss training again without advance notice or medical certification from a licensed doctor or healer, so I'll have to..."

"Oh! Wait!" I suddenly remembered, "I have a urm..."

I turned my backpack front to rummage in it for my file. Harvey said something about it, but I clean forgot till the Captain said it.

"I have a healer's thingie..." I found the printed sheet of document and handed it to Captain. He frowned at it and nodded, "Good."

Actually, I was supposed to give that to Mrs Hen, but I forgot.

Captain wrote a note in his clipboard and slipped the paper behind the top sheet.

"Urm... I need to give that to my form teacher too." I said.

Captain stopped, as if realizing, and then he decided, "I'll return it to you tomorrow. Let me show it to the teacher in charge and get a photocopy for the file first."

"Okay, thanks." I said. I guess it was okay. I mean, if anyone knew how the admin worked in this club, it should be the Captain.

"Okay!" Priya was very pleased, "It's a good thing you got that HC!"

Oh yeah, that was what Harvey called it too. An HC.

"I mean, it's not good that you needed a healer, but it's good it got you that HC." Priya quickly clarified.

"Yeah, I guess it was a blessing in disguise." I said. Since being caught in a war was apparently not an acceptable excuse to miss archery training.

"And now you're here today! So your attendance record won't be flagged." Priya beamed.

Wait... About that...

"Hurry up, Sam." Henry bossed as he walked past me. He was with Fluffy and EJ - weren't they supposed to be MY bodyguards.

"Where's Marcus?" I asked. Because it was weird to see Henry in school without Marcus at heel.

"Playing Romeo." Horneo huffed and stormed into the dark recesses of the hall.

"Oh!" Priya slapped her hand over her forehead, "You're playing the female lead right? So you have rehearsal now?"

I nodded, "Yeah. So I won't be able to come for training... I mean, I would like to, but the performance is tomorrow and this would be our last full dress and..."

"Hn." Captain nodded, "Then I'll just take this as your advanced notice. You can make up for the missed practice on Friday."

Oh. I blinked. Okay.

"Thanks!" I gave Captain my wide smile, and then just in case he would be sensitive like our sensitive Macho Coach Williams, I added more seriously, "I really appreciate your understanding."

Captian nodded, "Okay."

Which was a weird respond, but okay. It's not like I should criticize.

"Let's go." Captain was back to business again, he checked his watch to confirm the time, "We don't want a late start. Let's not waste training time."

"But not everyone's here yet!" Priya protested.

"Just leave a note on the front door for the late-comers." Captain decided. He turned to the other members and raised his voice, "Alright, let's go."

"Yes, captain!"

Priya finished writing something on a neon green post it and stuck it on the main entrance.

It looked very tiny on the large door. Let's hope its flourescence would get it noticed.

By the time I got to the backstage, most of the other kids were already there. I guess after yesterday's lackluster rehearsal, everyone was fired up to give it one last desperate push before tomorrow.

The atmosphere was serious, and all the monkey chittering and laughing and messing around with interesting costume or props that began the rehearsal yesterday were no where to be found. Instead, there was serious students, revising lines, comparing stage direction notes, applying their own make up base coat, checking their costumes to make sure everything was there...

I had a good feeling. It felt like something good was about to happen.

"Oh, luv. Did you do your own hair?" The costume lady asked when she handed me my first set, "That's lovely with the ribbon. Even better than yesterday's style."

Because yesterday had no style. My hair tie had snapped sometime in the explosion and I had just left it like that, and for some reason, not one teacher thought to tell the poor girl whose face had just been blown off on live broadcast to fix her hair, her very alive and flowy, shimmery and occasionally flaring hair.

Oh well, I guess I got to skip a step getting ready now.