Friends

Year 2003, 10 yo, Primary 4, Fengshan Primary School

I don't really remember what happened before these. It seems like everything that happened to me from birth till 9 yo did not occurred to me at all.

In Singapore when you are at the end of Primary 3, you will get streamed into 'categories' based on your academic performances. i.e. students with good results will go to EM1, average students in EM2, and below average students in EM3.
I was in the average class of course. I have never done well academically till I'm in secondary 3 but more on that later.

Whef friends. Actuallyn I'm in Primary 4, I had cliques of friends, 3 cliques of friends to be exact.

In class, I belonged to these girls - Joan, Cecilia (CC) and Xueli. They were nothing like my the other cliques. These girls are pretty, sweet and hardworking. The kind of girls that are labeled as 'hui du shu' students.

I have others friends I met in school whom eventually became a part of my life - Kunwei, Hao, Weiqiang but more on that later.

Then we have the neighbourhood gang - Weijie, Mao Lin, Jiana, Yen Ling. We all stayed in the same block. Weijie, Maolin and Jiana in level 6, Yenling in level 2, and me in level 9. We were all around the same age group hence we got along pretty well.

Out of home, I have the arcade friends - Peiyan, Jaz, Baosheng, Ivan, Nicholas and Yongkai. These are the friends I met at the arcade and we became very good friends (with the girls only. I was never the kind of girl that is popular with boys because of my tomboyish dressing)

Okay, back to my story. I had to post this because it is so funny. So, I am the arcade kind of girl. At the age of 10, I have much more freedom of going out then normal 10 year olds because my mum and dad are always working. Mum is a hairdresser at home. My home will normally be full of customers who come up to our flat for a hair cut. Mum is very popular because she is good in what she does, charges low prices for her service and she is always so nice and friendly to everyone. Dad is a bus driver. Hence, he is always not at home.

One day, I got a call from CC asking me if I want to go to the arcade with her. So awhile later, I met her and we head to library before going to the arcade. I asked her why must we go to the library first? And CC said, "Because I told my dad that I am going to the library, so we must go to the library and borrow a book first so that my dad will actually believe that I am out to the library and not the arcade."

This, is one hell of a memorable day. And I don't know why. What CC told me was stuck in my head till now. I still mock at her for this. For being a Daddy's girl but that's not the point. Perhaps it's because I never had to lie to my parents about where I want to go. I will just simply say, "Ma, I'm going out. Bye." and I'm out. I never had to explain where I went or what I do.