🌼-Luqman

“So, who’s this friend of yours?” I asked as the three of us walked over the infamous pathway lined with mathematical equations leading to the back gate.

“You wanted a Mandarin teacher, right? This guy is a Taiwanese native. He takes CLL. Confirm plus chop he can help you,” said Kenny as he walked backwards.

Mei had her hands in the pocket of her plaid skirt the whole time. Even her usually hasty footsteps were much smaller. Kenny’s eyebrows drooped down.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

As we pushed the turnstile, Mei let out a tense sigh and asked us to stop in our tracks. She held the strap of her sling bag this time and adjusted her spectacles.

“Do we really have to meet him at J8? I’m sure there are many less crowded places out there,” she asked.

“Hey, remember how I first met you? You were panicking like mad from the crowd, right? Now, it’s what? 4pm. Not so crowded, one. Just trust me,” he assured her.

I patted Mei on the back. She gave a forced smile and continued on with the short walk towards J8. True enough, it was relatively less crowded compared to the hell that I usually saw after our Geography lectures every Thursday afternoon. It was just us students and the usual housewives doing their rounds of shopping.

“Told you it wouldn’t be so bad,” said Kenny.

He stepped in front of us and surveyed the area. I wondered how this mysterious Mandarin teacher of mine would look like. Probably like one of the members of F4? Then, he waved his left hand, shouting his name.

“Yu-chi! We’re here!” he cried out.

A boy wearing Nanyang JC’s khaki uniform leant against the wall near Yoshinoya. He put his book down and looked up, allowing us to have a closer look at his face. That uniform definitely looked ghastly against his cool-toned tanned skin.

“Eh! Kenny!” the boy cried back.

We walked towards him and began to introduce ourselves to each other. He was only a few centimetres taller than me, but next to Mei, she looked like a chicken standing beside a flamingo. Even his chiselled facial features gave him a much mature aura compared to the three of us with our wide faces and chubbier cheeks.

“Hi, I’m Luqman. Nice to meet you,” I said as I shook his hand.

When I let go though, I realised that his knuckles were lined with scars. I wondered where he got them from. I wouldn’t be too surprised if it was from some repairing mishap since his hands were very calloused and rough to the touch.

“Hi, Yu-chi. I’m Mei Xing, but please call me Mei,” she said.

“Mei! Ni hao ma?” he asked.

Okay. That was a basic greeting that even I knew how to reply. Mei pushed back some locks of hair behind her ears and gave a nervous chuckle. Ah. I knew precisely why.

“Pai seh. I don’t know how to speak Mandarin,” she confessed.

The air had turned much stiller than a few seconds ago. Yu-chi gave slow blinks, like he could not believe what he just heard. Kenny cleared his throat and stepped forward.

“Yeah, Mei here didn’t take Chinese for her mother tongue. She took Malay because…why ah?” Kenny asked as he realised there were some information gaps in his explanation.

“Kenny, it’s okay. It doesn’t matter,” said Mei.

With that, he clapped his hands together and asked us where we would like to eat. I told him that anywhere Halal would do. Yet, my eyes could never leave Mei. She did look exhausted already despite being standing here for just three minutes.

“Yu-chi, are you vegetarian today?” he asked in a teasing manner.

He responded back in Mandarin, leaving Mei and I just as confused and left out. She tiptoed and with a playful jest, said “Nanti, kita cakap Bahasa Melayu di depan mereka.”

I was not quite sure if playing back was the right thing to do, but it seemed fun. We grinned at that idea and headed into J8 for lunch at McDonald’s.

☕️-Kumar

Harini and I found Éclair leading forward against the railing facing the football field and running track. She had let her golden waves loose and just rested her chin on her forearm. Before I could step forward, Harini stopped me with her left hand, giving me an assuring nod. Well, I couldn’t complain. There were some things that girls were better at doing with each other.

She walked towards her, calling out her name. Éclair did not reply at all. I shrugged my shoulders, wondering if I should give it a go. But could I do it? It was always Sam or Haresh comforting me whenever I was down. And well, boys did things so much more differently.

I disregarded Harini’s instructions for me to step out of this and leant forward beside Éclair anyway, enjoying the view of the soccer team’s orientation. Ah, Sam should be down there. He did say he would join the soccer team during his probation period. No, Kumar! Don’t look for Sam!

“You know, in those few minutes when you danced with Dae-hyun, I felt it. I don’t know what it was that I felt, but I felt it,” I confessed, remembering how precise and mechanical her arm gestures were compared to her fluid legs.

“Something’s troubling you, right? Back when I was in the ballet academy, my teacher once told me that you can tell what somebody’s going through just by looking at the way they danced,” I said, remembering Coach Ivana’s words.

Harini mouthed a silent ‘wow’ at me, probably shocked at my dance background. Then, she stepped back and allowed me to take it from here.

“I can’t tell you what’s troubling me. You won’t believe me, and you’ll probably think I’m stupid,” she said with her muffled voice.

“If you want to talk about strange things happening, I’ve probably seen worse,” I said with a chuckle.

Well, Sam could definitely attest to that. Strange shit happened way too often at Cat High. I watched as the sports CCA members filed into the field, ready for their mass warm-up. True enough, I saw Sam already reaching out to his other team members. I smiled, knowing that he was still the same asshole that I loved.

“How can I have fun and be myself knowing that I’ve kept such a deep secret from my parents? That I shouldn’t be living the life I’m living?” Éclair finally said.

“Are you willing to tell me what’s going on?” I asked.

She suddenly stood straight; her eyes fixated on something on the field. Was it a friend of hers?

“She’s here,” she whispered, her voice baring no trace of emotion.

Who was here? I looked down and saw that she was focused on the netball squad. I winced in pain as a sudden surge of electricity jolted through my body. Okay, bad idea to hold onto the rail…

Éclair’s hands were glowing. Sparks were flying out of her fingers. Harini shook her head and yelled at me to stay back. Oh, fuck. She’s a mage. She drew her hands back, creating an orb of electricity in her left hand before shooting it straight for the field. There was no way either of us could stop her in time.

“Sam! Watch out!” I cried out from where I stood.

He faced me and asked everyone to disperse in a radiating motion. I turned back to face Éclair. Her chest was heaving even harder. What was her target? And she was prepared to charge again. Harini gasped and lunged straight towards her, sending the next orb towards the sky, creating vivid lightning that cut the clear-blue sky into two.

“What the fuck is going on, sia?!” cried some people from the fields.

Éclair was struggling to worm her way out of Harini’s grasp. She kept screaming to let go.

“Harini! For your own sake, let her go or you’ll be electrocuted too!” I screamed as I saw Éclair’s hands charging up again.

🌊-Minori

Albert stopped filming and stood there as everybody made a calm beeline to the school hall. The lightning alert sounded despite the clear sky above us. Sam and the soccer team were the last to step in.

“That was so fucking weird, sia! We were just doing warmups and then skali, lightning struck the area near the netball team,” the other students whispered to themselves.

“Lightning? On a clear day like this? Aiyoh, what to expect. It’s Singapore’s weather,” said the girls behind us.

Nora walked towards us; the left side of her t-shirt slightly singed from almost being struck by lightning. At least the rest of her was intact! She looked up at the sky, wondering how it happened.

“At least we managed to evacuate the rest of the students. That was too close,” she said.

“Hey, don’t worry. I got it all on camera. Now that was a spontaneous display of leadership, if I have to say,” said Alb with a proud smile.

“Alb! I thought we’d give you the cue when it’s your turn to film!” Nora grumbled.

He sighed as his shoulders slumped down. I squeezed his shoulder and told him not to feel too discouraged. I mean, some people did almost die, so of course Nora and Sam would be on the edge.

“Sam!” cried a delicate and light voice.

A very tall Indian boy ran right towards us, clad in his PE attire and wearing neither shoes nor socks. It was like he left in a hurry. He pressed his hands against his knees, catching his breath as he pressed his hand against the pillar.

“Kumar?! What’s wrong?” asked Sam as he helped him up.

He mouthed something to Sam. Magic. Even Alb just stood there, frozen. Maybe it was a good thing Nora had no idea what they just said to each other. Yes, lightning. We have seen that somewhere before.

“Nora, we need to get you out of here,” said Sam.

“Why? What’s wrong?” she asked as Sam took her towards the dimly-lit area just outside the gym.

Alb, Kumar, and I followed after them. My heart was starting to pound against the walls of my chest, sending not just blood, but something much more mysterious, pumping straight through my entire body.

“It’s not real, right? How can this be the work of magic?” Alb whispered to me.

“It’s my friend. I’m really, really sorry about this. We’re trying to get the situation under control. I hope,” said Kumar before his face just started drooping altogether.

Nora stood beside me, folding her arms. Through the darkness, it was hard to make out just what was being written on our faces, but from the stillness of her silhouette, I knew she was in deep thought.

“I doubt I’ve pissed anyone in SJC off that badly yet. Unless it’s one of those girls from my secondary sc…” and that realisation hit her.

The room was illuminated again and this time, thanks to yet another surging orb of charged light racing towards us. All five of us ducked down, huddling close to each other.

“That’s it. I’ve had it,” said Nora.

“Nora, don’t! You’ll get hurt again and Jambu isn’t here,” I begged as I tried pulling her down by her forearm.

She broke free from my grasp and stood tall, legs apart, so that she could face her. Standing right in the doorway was Éclair herself. With her hair let loose, she looked wild. She was charging up even more energy with her clenched fists.

“Listen. I don’t know your name. What I do know is that I won’t allow you to hurt anymore students. Somebody could have been killed with…your powers. If it’s me you want, then let’s make this fair,” said Nora.

“’Under control’, you say?” Sam whispered to Kumar.

He gulped. I stood right up and took my position beside Nora. I was not going to let her hurt her again.

“No, Minori. This fight is between Nora and I. You and me, at the field near the language centre. Now,” said Éclair.

The boys and I stumbled back. There was no way Nora was going to win this. Not when she didn’t have any powers or Jambu to heal her. Nora nodded her head. Why were tears springing out of my eyes?

“Éclair, please. Whatever grievances you have with her, can’t you do it peacefully?” Kumar begged.

Behind me, Sam and Albert began muttering some phrases in Cantonese to each other. I was positive that I heard Nora’s name being thrown around in that private conversation.

“Stay out of this, Kumar. Nora and I have unfinished business with each other.”

🌟-Mei Xing

“This milo is so diluted,” I groaned as I downed the last sip.

Our burger boxes and cardboard fries holders were empty. Kenny rubbed his stomach and Luq continued drinking his iced lemon tea.

“Okay. First and last atas meal before June,” said Kenny.

“Same for me,” said Yu-chi.

Rather than having his hand over his stomach though, Yu-chi had his over his heart. Well, I have heard of the saying that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach, but I never expected his heart to be where his stomach was too. His facial expression began worrying me though. His already large eyes were even wider than before and sweat started dripping from his temples.

“Wah. Yu-chi, you okay or not?” asked Kenny.

“It’s nothing. Maybe I’m just feeling a little guilty for spending some extra money today,” he said to himself.

“If everything’s okay, why is my chest glowing then?” asked Luq as he lifted his collar a bit to inspect his glowing Anima Magi.

Even my own chest started glowing. Kenny stared at all three of us. Yu-chi? A mage? But his heart wasn’t glowing. Luq stood right up, but not before stacking all of our trays together so that he could return them to the receptacles.

“Wait, what’s going on?” asked Yu-chi. “Why is this happening to us?”

Kenny held his gaze at Luq and I. He did sign a confidentiality agreement after all and had to keep Yu-chi locked out. Yet, Yu-chi was already displaying some signs of being able to detect whatever magical activity was going on. Or maybe he just had strong psychic powers.

“He’ll have to follow us,” I told him.

After returning all our trays, we headed out of J8 and let the luminosity of our Anima Magi guide us. I kept searching for a thin, lilac line that were for my eyes only. Luq should have one of his own too.

“Will someone please tell me what’s going on?!” Yu-chi begged as we headed towards the field near the MOE Language Centre.

“Someone’s in danger. We need to help them. That was how I knew you were in trouble back then, Luq,” I said as I redirected my eye-contact towards him.

When we reached the field though, it was empty. There was no sign of life, but our Anima Magi’s lines of contact ended right in the middle of that field. Right on the opposite side facing the under-construction park was a boy with really dark skin and wavy brown hair. Wait. No wonder why he looked familiar. He held an iPad in his hands. He had the same look of confusion as us.

“Hey! Frankie? What are you doing here?” Luq called out as he cupped his hands over his mouth.

The boy waved right back. Just as he raced towards us though, he disappeared into a ripple of light. Okay. This was definitely magic. Yu-chi just rubbed his eyes, his eyes staying wide-opened.

“Siao lah! That boy just disappeared! What even is going on?!” Yu-chi exclaimed in Hokkien.

I turned around and asked him and Kenny to put one of their hands in either mine or Luq’s. This was going to be one wild ride. Kenny held Luq’s. What Yu-chi asked was something that only I understood.

“Mor huat,” I told him as I grabbed his hand. “On the count of three, we charge right in. One, two, three!”

With that, all four of us dashed straight into the invisible barrier. Yu-chi screamed, probably praying for Guanyin from little I can make of the distortion. Kenny just kept cheering. And after a while, we found ourselves spat back into the same field – only except, there was life after all. Frankie was sitting on his bum, holding his iPad tight. His pupils were trembling.

The crazy ang mor and a very tall, Amazonian-like Malay girl were standing face to face against each other. On each side were cages with electric pillars forming the bars.

“Mei?! Is that you?” cried a chirpy voice that sounded familiar yet distant to me.

“Well, look what we have here. The only other person who bothered in class,” said Sam.

I turned to the source and saw…no way. Ohpochok. Minori and Alb were in the cage on the side of the Amazon. How did my primary school classmates and annoying CG mate get dragged into this?!

“This is bad,” said Luq.

He was right. This was bad. Really bad.