With suspension of the meetings, I had plenty of time to revise and managed to attempt the mid-year examinations with great confidence. Ironically, the post-exam period would be even busier than the pre-exam period. Even before the first written paper, I already received an email from Darren, saying we needed to have an important committee meeting in the afternoon after the last paper. I did not know why he was so desperate for a meeting that he had to remind us that early. Eventually, it made sense to me when the other prefects in my class and I received the consent form for the Prefects Camp on the last day of the examinations. We had not planned the details of the camp!

As there were no supplementary lessons during the exam season, we could afford to have a longer meeting in the afternoon. We were told to gather at the cafeteria as per usual.

“What’s the plan for today?” Stuart asked.

“Wait for the rest and you will know,” Darren replied.

Within moments, we saw Kok Keong coming over with Daniel.

“You told us to strike our names out from the school bus list today right? I did it! Are you happy?” Kok Keong said to Darren.

Daniel, Jerome, Jia Jie, Elise, Willis and Vivian cheered and applauded.

“That’s the spirit. If any of you don’t feel like doing your job, just tell me, and I’ll happily cover you,” Darren said, then raised his eyebrow.

“What was happening all this while?” Kok Keong enquired.

“You’re aware of the break the teachers gave. They wanted me to help them with some admin work regarding the camp and Project Phoenix. I helped to type out the contents of the consent form given out this morning, and made sure there were enough copies for all for indicated interest via the online form. I have the full namelist of those interested. Good news! We made progress for Project Phoenix! The P1 and P2 teachers informed me that Math mentoring can be done on Fridays. For English and Mother Tongue, we have to separate the shortlisted students who are involved in I Can Read from those who are not. English mentoring under Phoenix will be held on Mondays while Mother Tongue on Wednesday. For the other levels, the teachers have yet to confirm. If you cannot remember what I said you can read the proposal which I shared with all of you,” Darren explained.

“You actually did so much work? All this time?” Willis asked.

“If nothing was done I’m sure all of us would be panicking! The teachers told me to confirm the list of mentors after the release of exam results for P3s and above. Elise and Jordan, you can start selecting the mentors for P1 and P2 soon, because they don’t take mid-year exams. Some of our friends submitted quite well-written responses. I read those by Lawrence, Izumi, Sean and Hannah. They’re not bad,” Darren said.

“Okay guys, since we don’t have lessons in school later on, do you want to eat out? I know you guys want to use your phones freely,” Daniel said.

“Yes!” Jia Jie replied.

“I didn’t bring money to school today,” I said.

“I’ll treat. Don’t worry. Let’s not occupy space here!” Jerome said.

“Wait! Is Ariana still with us?” Vivian asked.

“Erm...give her more time. She’ll have to show up at the camp anyway,” Daniel replied.

“Where are we going?” Nazreen asked.

“I don’t know, maybe we can think of what we feel like eating?” Xuanyu said.

“I feel like eating pizza!” Willis said.

“Hey! Same!” Jia Jie replied.

“Who else wants pizza?” Vivian asked.

“I don’t mind,” I replied.

“Same,” Stuart added.

We walked in the direction of Hyacinth Square.

“Let’s play a game!” Jia Jie said while we were walking. “Point to the person you think will be the school captain next year in three, two, one!”

My finger moved in all directions before it finally pointed at Darren. The reality did hurt. Those prefects with the most connections to the teachers-in-charge would have the upperhand of being selected to be the school captain. Stuart was the only one who pointed at me, while most of the others pointed at Daniel.

“I think the three highest rankers next year are quite obvious - Daniel, Darren, Jerome,” Jia Jie said.

“Won’t happen. There is a rule where all three cannot be of the same gender,” Daniel pointed out.

“What? Is it going to be me? I hope they don’t choose me,” Jia Jie said.

“Why do you think you will be chosen?” Xuanyu asked with a chuckle.

“Forget it,” Jia Jie replied.

“When we meet, we only talk about our projects. We don’t actually get to bond and understand one another better. I feel we should have done that at the very start if we wanted to maintain our harmonious friendships,” Daniel said.

“Indeed. We’re going to Pizza Hut right? We better cooperate with Darren and we can play after that!” Jerome added.

“You want to save time? Let’s discuss now!” Darren said.

“I’m amazed by how committed you are,” Kok Keong remarked.

“Even if I’m not committed, the teachers will pester me to hurry up. The dress code! Any ideas?” Darren asked.

“How about homeclothes?” Xuanyu suggested.

“Yes please!” Elise added.

“Should we make a new camp T-shirt, or use our current prefects’ T-shirt?” Daniel said.

“Don’t waste money on a new shirt! Use the current one!” Willis said.

“How is this? Wear homeclothes for the first two days and the prefects’ shirt on the third,” I suggested.

“Perfectly fine,” Jia Jie replied.

“I’ll key that in the proposal later. Are we catering food?” Darren asked his next question.

“Isn’t it a picnic?” Vivian asked.

“That’s only one of the days,” Darren replied. “I guess we should let the groups decide where to eat themselves, within our boundaries.”

“We are splitting into groups? How are we going to bond with everyone if we are sticking to the same people?” Jerome asked.

“I feel you bro. But...if we don’t have proper groupings, it will be chaotic and we’ll probably make headlines for causing a ruckus in the public place! I have to admit - we have to do this responsibly as members of the school and public. If we want to maximise the mixing around of people, we can alternate groups each of the days. Who is cool with this plan?” Daniel said.

“Please please please don’t. Stick to the same group,” Nazreen replied.

“Messy. Just stick to the same group,” Xuanyu added.

“I want to hear your opinion, Jordan,” Jerome said.

“I’m honestly fine with anything. Most importantly, we must have fun during the camp!” I said.

“Good point! Let’s vote! Those who prefer fixed groups, put up your hand!” Vivian said.

Stuart, Darren, Elise, Nazreen, Xuanyu and Vivian put up their hands.

“We’ll need another meeting to settle the final details with them. Someone has to present this time,” Darren said.

“Why don’t you pick the presenter?” Kok Keong asked.

“I’ll spare you this time. I choose...Elise!” Darren said.

“What? I can’t present alone! I need a partner!” Elise complained.

“Thanks Xuanyu,” Darren said.

“Oh no...do I have to write a script?” Xuanyu groaned.

“You can get someone to write it for you!” Darren replied.

Before we knew it, we were already at Pizza Hut. Since there were twelve of us, we had to occupy two adjacent tables. I sat with Elise, Nazreen, Xuanyu, Darren and Stuart. Darren hurriedly took his laptop out and started typing.

“What’s outstanding - the size of the groups, the schedule, the cheers, the games, the reflection questions, the budget!” Darren announced across the two tables.

“Must we really do cheers?” Stuart asked.

“Yes we need cheers!” Jerome replied. “The camp can’t be graveyard dead!”

“And will you write them for us?” Jia Jie asked.

“Don’t tell me we are writing them today. I’m bad at writing poems,” I said.

“Get Ace to help us then!” Elise suggested.

“Darren, you totally reminded us that we need cheers. Not only prefect cheers, but school cheers! For the camp we can get each group to write their own cheer. We can come out with one school cheer and one prefects cheer, or should we do it during the camp?” Daniel said.

“Why don’t we have a competition? Inform everyone about it now, get them to form groups and write one cheer for the prefects and one cheer for the school,” Jerome suggested.

Darren, who was busy typing, said, “Oh yes I better make an announcement on the website and send out an email to every single P5 prefect. I need to tell Tricia to broadcast to the P6 prefects and find a way to inform the P4s.”

“Thanks for your help, but I feel we should split the job instead of you doing all the work,” Daniel said.

“Yes, let the IC help out,” Jia Jie said.

“Sorry! I didn’t realise just now! What’s next?” Darren said.

“I think we really need to split the work now,” Daniel said while meddling with his laptop. “Wow! I salute you man! The revision history of both proposals show that they were entirely done by you! And you even edited them before the exam papers on the way to school?”

“Alright can we split this way? This table will discuss the schedule and reflection questions, while all of you discuss the budget and games. We’ll have to discuss while eating to make it quick!” I said.

The rest agreed. My table mates and I crafted pre and post-camp facilitation questions pertaining to their views about leadership, unity and community. We hardly covered the schedule of the camp while we were eating, only agreeing that the activities before lunch on the first day of the camp should be held at school.

“How’s everything going?” Jerome asked me and my table mates when his table was done with the food.

“Erm…” Darren garbled while slowly extending his finger to Xuanyu’s plate.

Xuanyu, seated opposite me, was the last to finish her food. She was still trying to pull the cheese off the pizza using her teeth while Elise was filming a video of her.

“Jerome, you guys can go off first. We’ll come up soon. Argh! The cheese keeps getting stuck in my braces!” Xuanyu said in a distorted voice.

“Check Facebook when you go home!” Elise told her.

“What? You’re going to tag me?” Xuanyu whined.

“If you don’t want that last bit, I can eat it for you,” Darren said, and gobbled the remaining pizza after breaking the segment Xuanyu was holding in half.

We then proceeded to the roof of the mall where there were study tables. They were in open air so we could afford to be slightly noisier when continuing our discussion. We presented our ideas to the other group when we were done, same for the other group.

After rattling non-stop about the games, Vivian came to the main point, “We forgot to ask Jordan’s group whether we can have the amazing race on the third day because we can bring in the idea of community. We have to travel to a lot of places in Aquapolis. The goal is to understand the needs of the different communities in Aquapolis better, which can help us with our outside-of-school projects, hopefully. How is that?”

“That’s impressive, really! It’s good to start off with something more slack at the beach, then move on to the treasure hunt and amazing race. For the islandwide amazing race, I think we can do research on the different groups of people who are less privileged in the different districts. We can interview people along the streets but I think we shouldn’t go from house to house,” I suggested.

“What? Amazing race should not be a talking and interview competition!” Xuanyu said.

“Yeah, it can be quite scary!” Nazreen added.

“It’s definitely not a competition!” Daniel laughed. “We can’t compete in such a way. Are we going to have cameramen following us with their heavy equipment around the country? Would you like it if I told you the group with the best interview will win a prize? I won’t, of course. The camp is a fun camp, not a competitive camp. Lighthearted and can fulfil our goals at the same time. We can have a cheer writing competition, but that’s secondary to the camp. What we want is a culture of harmony and not a culture of competition.”

Jerome and Jia Jie applauded.

“So that means someone shouldn’t be competing with the rest to do the most work here!” Kok Keong added.

“Yes! I’m sorry! I won’t do it again!” Darren snapped back. “The teachers were pestering me and I don’t want to call for emergency meetings during the exam season!”

We came out with a rough timetable for the camp.

Time

2 Jun

3 Jun

4 Jun

0845

Report to school

0900

Icebreakers

CA Reserve Hunt

Lakeridge/Nyan Race

1200

Lunch

1300

Sandcastle building/ picnic

Estuary Hunt

Greenpeak Race

1430

Break

1500

Turquox Karst/Limestone Avenue Hunt

Aqueris Ridges Hunt

Turquox/City Core Race

1600

Debrief

1700

Dismissal

“Credits to my father, we managed to get a spot for our debrief - Ministry of Community and Entertainment Building! Don’t worry, he got permission already,” Daniel said.

“Is your father a VIP?” Stuart asked.

“I won’t say so, but he’s a member of the ministry, not a politician though,” Daniel replied.

“Your father is getting volunteers to be facilitators right? Are we going to meet them soon? We need to get to know them and tell them our plans,” I said.

“Oh yes! Thanks for the reminder. Jordan has a point here, we have to coordinate with the facilitators. We may be the ones leading and planning, but bear in mind we are still children and still need to be supervised by people older than us. I know two of the facilitators, because they are my sister’s batchmates. My father asked for twenty volunteers, still waiting for the last three to sign up. When are you guys free next week? We can arrange a session.” Daniel said.

“Why isn’t Eunice a facilitator?” Jerome asked.

“She has a CCA event,” Daniel replied.

“I’m not free!” Kok Keong said.

“Yeah, I think I can’t go,” Xuanyu added.

“Are you serious about this? Are you trying to make us awkward?” Elise asked.

“Awkward or not, we have to stay with them during the camp,” Willis pointed out.

“I can’t go,” Nazreen said.

“A show of hands, who can go?” Jerome asked.

Jerome himself, Daniel, Darren, Jia Jie, Willis, Vivian and I raised our hands.

“That’s all? Come on! It’s a very important meeting! What will you guys even do next week? Study all day long?” Jerome said in a frustrated tone.

“Sleep! I need sleep!” Stuart replied.

“So do I!” Vivian said. “You don’t need 15 hours of sleep by the way.”

“Regardless of numbers, the meetup session has to go on. Now, who can meet up during the holidays? We can play, eat, chat and have some bonding time!” Daniel said.

“I’m going back to Shanghai to visit relatives the week after the camp and I will be there for two weeks,” Xuanyu said.

“I’ll be on holiday for one week,” Stuart said.

“I can share a calendar and we can indicate the dates we are not free,” Willis said.

I turned to Xuanyu, “Speaking of calendars, how’s ours going?”

She sighed, then said, “Help me, please. My brain can’t work.”

“Of course I will. We don’t know a lot of things yet, because Darren still needs to discuss Project Phoenix with the teachers,” I replied.

“I need to leave now,” Stuart suddenly said.

“Oh man we can’t do other things,” Jerome said in a disappointed tone. “We discussed the entire time. I guess let’s end here today.”

“Wait! Our discussion is far from over! I’m not saying you can’t leave Stuart, but I have important things to say. Can we meet online tonight? I promise I’ll listen to your opinions!” Darren said.

We all agreed.

“Thank you! The teachers want us to key in the details of the activities and include the reflection questions in the proposal. All consent forms have to be submitted by next Monday and I will send the namelist to Elise and Jordan for group allocation. Elise and Xuanyu, you can start working on the script for the briefing in week 10. We can make the briefing slides together as well. Yeah. I guess we’ll meet again next week..oh no! The Math Olympiad results! I’m scared!” Darren continued.

“You’re going to get Gold! Why are you scared?” Jia Jie said with a chuckle.

“I messed up quite a few questions, but that’s okay,” Daniel added. “For the meeting with the facilitators, I’ll update, and you can start forming groups for the cheer writing competition. Try not to form them from here. Thanks for coming guys!”

The next day, Vivian asked me if we could form a group for the cheer writing competition with our other prefect classmates. Most of them were keen, with the exception of Huayi. He was quite firm about himself not being involved in such prefect activities. He even managed to convince Eng Soon to exclude himself from the competition. I was puzzled. Why did Huayi become so against the committee that year? Did any of us offend him?

Daniel scheduled the meetup with the camp facilitators the next Tuesday. Vivian and I were told to wait for the 5A prefects able to attend at the front gate. Shortly after we arrived, Daniel, Darren and Jia Jie came.

“Don’t tell me it’s just the three of you,” I said.

“Three? Oh, Willis and Jerome are behind,” Jia Jie replied.

“Bad news! Bad news!” Jerome caught up with them, panting. “Willis...Willis said he can’t make it...at the last minute!”

“What? How are we telling them?” Darren asked with a dramatic facepalm.

“It’s okay. The meeting has to go on. We’ll find our way,” Daniel reassured us.

“Darren! How did you do for the Math Olympiad?” Vivian asked.

“I got Gold!” Darren replied.

“I somehow got Bronze!” Daniel added.

“And I got nothing!” Jia Jie said.

“I can’t relate,” I said. “I have seen some Olympiad questions before, and I don’t even know what they are asking for. This can happen for practice papers too. Anyway, where exactly are we going?”

“Shamrock Community Club. Are you guys fine with it? Inform your parents, it will take quite a while today,” Daniel replied.

“Vivian and Jordan, you guys don’t have phones right? You can use mine to text your parents,” Jerome said.

“I’ll text my sister instead. My parents know I have this meeting already,” I replied.

“Will Rebecca be fine if I add her on Whatsapp? I can inform her about your whereabouts in future!” Jerome said.

“That’s actually a good idea,” I remarked. “I don’t want them to worry about me.”

“Are we even eating?” Jia Jie asked.

“You won’t get to miss a portion of your daily bread,” Daniel replied.

Soon, we arrived at Shamrock Community Club. Daniel led us to a classroom…

“Salutations! Thank you for your kind help!” Daniel yelled at the top of his lungs upon pushing the classroom door open, posing with his palms facing the ceiling, which actually gave me a fright.

He and Jerome then went on shaking hands, hi-fiving and fist-punching the twenty facilitators. I shook hands with them and exchanged our names (and I forgot half of their names). Daniel’s father bought food for all of us and chatted with us. We got to learn more about his job scope. He was actually involved in both the entertainment and community divisions of the ministry. Besides being a volunteer executive, he would also coordinate community performances and sometimes perform. He would also provide free advanced guitar and piano lessons to performers - that was where Daniel’s musical skills came from!

After some briefing, we had to sort out how the groupings would be done.

“Twenty facilitators in total. I think each group can take two facilitators. The teachers are supposed to send me the finalised namelist by today. Jordan, I’ll send it to you and Elise tonight. Both of you will need to meet up either online or physically to do the grouping, up to both of you. You better give her a call to ask when she’s free,” Darren said.

“I’ll call her for you,” Jerome said, then whipped up his phone. “Very good! Not available! I’ll drop her some texts and I’ll forward her replies to Rebecca in this case.”

“There are supposedly 13 of us in this committee, now Ariana’s not here. Should we split into groups of six? Each group can have two of us and Ariana will join a random one. So, six is not too many right?” I said.

“Let me check the namelist I just received…” Darren scrolled through his phone. “Yes, six should be fine.”

“Should we actually pair each of us with those not here? I guess that means we have to do more work, because we have to guide them,” Jerome pointed out.

“I don’t mind,” Jia Jie replied. “Jordan, are you allocating?”

“Sure! I’m afraid there will only be twelve volunteers who can be facilitators. What will the rest do?” I said.

“Fret not! Our camp isn’t as easy as it seems to be and the rest can help with the games and possibly logistics,” Daniel replied.

I glanced at the twenty volunteers and asked, “Who really wants to be part of the six groups? Put up your hand. Just be honest, we won’t blame you.”

Four of them put up their hands and they were younger ones. Daniel’s father suggested having at least one adult facilitator attached to each group rather than two teenage facilitators for safety reasons. We then got them to decide who was fine with playing other roles during the camp. Soon, I allocated two facilitators to each of the committee members present, including myself. The two facilitators were Talib, a 22 year old undergraduate and Genevieve, a 15 year old Greenpeak Girls School student, also the batchmate of Daniel’s sister (you should know why I allocated her to be in my group).

The meeting ended. I honestly did not really enjoy it. What I did not like was that all the volunteers were mainly socialising with Daniel and Jerome. Daniel seemed to have known them all already, I might be wrong though, because Daniel thanked them for volunteering before the lunch and also introduced himself (unless he was putting up an act). For Jerome, he was quite engaged in interacting with them too. I kept wondering whether Jerome was truly autistic or not, since he seemed to have no problems with social interaction. I felt I should ask about it, probably through my closer friends Elise and Xuanyu.

Darren, Jia Jie and Vivian did not interact as much with the volunteers although social interaction was not a problem for them based on what I observed in school. I did not like how Daniel was getting all the attention - talk about the rich becoming richer! Anyway, I had agreed to join the committee so I should still give my best despite my suspicions of Daniel. Perhaps the meeting would be better if my closer friends were there.

“How was today?” I asked the other committee members (except Daniel who left with his father).

“Fun! And I should text Rebecca that you are coming back now,” Jerome replied.

“We are literally dead!” Darren squeaked. “I should ask for another meeting next week.”

“Didn’t you hear that most of the volunteers are not free next week? I think we just have to meet earlier on second June. Goodbye sleep,” Jia Jie said.

“I just realised we haven’t settled most of the games and it is in less than two weeks!” Vivian complained.

“We should just meet as a committee a bit more often now, if not we have to bring it online again,” I said.

I bade farewell to the four of them and decided to walk to Genevieve - for obvious reasons. I did have a chat with her earlier so I was fine continuing the chat.

“Hey! Where are you going?” I asked her.

“Home! I stay in Turquox...which is quite far from my school. Urgh…” Genevieve replied.’

“I stay in Middletown, so I guess we’re heading in the same direction,” I said.

“Yup! I understand from Eunice’s father that the prefects in FRPS want to improve school spirit. That’s quite amazing especially for kids your age!” Genevieve said.

“There’s no point being a prefect if you are doing it for the position. The teachers do all the work and you can’t really help with school matters much. Anyway, did Daniel know all of you already?”

“He only knows me and Hui Xin. We rarely meet. Eunice is quite popular and has many other friends so she seldom invites us to her house.”

“And so is Daniel! That’s why I find him dangerous. He’s just like this senior called Joseph who is very popular and became a prefect! What is worse about this Joseph was that he did a lot of bad things to the students in the school and still managed to be the vice captain!”

“Unfortunately there are people like that. Joseph will realise his mistakes one day. I doubt Daniel will be that bad. His father and sister and morally upright people so Daniel can’t deviate that much. Eunice is insane! She barely scraped into GGS with 262 for PSLE and got a GPA of 3.5 in year one, then improved to 3.9 in year two! She has two CCAs and is a very vocal community advocate as well!”

“Daniel shouldn’t be that smart. Darren is smarter than him for sure. My plan is to observe him to make sure whether he is good or not. We’ll see during the camp. Please help me to observe.”

Elise decided to meet me to do the grouping the next day in the afternoon. I had CCA so I could use the break to meet her.

“How was yesterday?” she asked.

“Not that fun. Daniel and Jerome were the ones having fun obviously,” I replied.

“They are always having fun. Jerome told me what happened already. Six groups right? How many signed up in total? For P6s we only have 11; for P5s we have 39, woah; for P4s we have 33,” Elise said while scrolling through the namelist. “Can you calculate how many should be in one group?”

After pressing buttons on my calculator, I replied, “13.8. So one group will have 14? Wait, I can’t do Math….oh! One group will have 13 and the rest have 14.”

“So each group will have two committee members. Do you want to pair up with me or split up?”

“Split? I guess we shouldn’t pair the main with the assistant IC. I want to pair with...Jerome!”

“Good choice. Pairing with Daniel is out. I pick Xuanyu.”

“Haha, Chinese geniuses. You guys will lead your group in Chinese right?”

“If the rest are fine with it, why not? Do you want to put Ariana with you? How is she by the way?”

“Yes I don’t mind. She’s still angry at Darren, I think. I realised Jerome wasn’t the one who should take most of the blame. Even Kok Keong was angry at Darren more. Don’t put Kok Keong and Darren together. I’ll say put Kok Keong with Vivian.”

“Darren can go with Nazreen. I think Darren is doing this quite well, although he likes to steal roles.”

“Hmm...Jia Jie with Willis and Daniel with Stuart?”

“That’s good. There are 39 P5s, minus the 13 of us there are 26 left. You can pick your groupmates first.”

“Let me calculate...I’ll pick four. Xin Jie, Elina, Elvin and Isabel. Is your older brother coming?”

“Unfortunately, no. I wanted him to come, but he said he will only come if he is in the same group as me. Darren heard from the teachers that we should try to split siblings up. He’ll be fine. He’s keeping my sister company at home.”

“Oh that’s so sweet of him!”

“I’ll choose...Clarissa-”

“Ooooh! How are things between the both of you?”

“Good! She’s nice and fun to talk to, so she’ll make a good group member. Three more right? Xin Ying, Ian and Izumi.”

“Waow! Izumi is my classmate. I have known her since P1 and she’s quite nice.”

When we were halfway allocating the other groups, Daniel approached us.

“Hello! How’s everything going?” he asked.

“Good so far,” I replied.

“Ah nice! How’s your preparation for your presentation? Need any help?” Daniel asked.

“We don’t have to do a nice one right? It’s just details,” Elise said.

“That’s totally up to you! But please bear in mind that we shouldn’t spoil the fun. Dress code, amount of money to bring and other items to bring must be mentioned. And details of the games too!” Daniel said.

“Wait, you said don’t spoil,” I pointed out.

“I was just kidding! Yes, please don’t spoil it. They already know the main activities! What I wanted to ask was whether we can have a committee meeting to finalise everything next week,” Daniel said.

“Yes we should have,” I replied.

“I’m not too sure if I can,” Elise added.

“I see, I’ll get back to both of you soon. The rest seem busy,” Daniel said.

There was something I did not understand. Why would one be busier after the examinations that one cannot attend such an important meeting?

Later that week, a harried Jerome approached me during recess.

“Bad news! Bad news! We are dead for the camp!” he said.

“Calm down. Tell me what happened,” I replied.

“We can’t even have a meeting now! People can’t make it!” Jerome said.

“Who can make it? We must meet those!”

“Yes. We need a dry run, if not the camp will be quite badly run.”

We had a final briefing with those involved in the camp the next Monday. Jerome gathered the committee members after the briefing.

“This is important, guys. We need to have a final meeting session before we meet the volunteers next Monday. Who is free this week?” he asked.

“I am!” I replied.

“Same,” Willis said.

“Who can’t make it for any meeting from tomorrow to Friday?” Darren asked.

Elise, Xuanyu, Kok Keong, Vivian and Stuart put up their hands.

“I guess let’s meet earlier next Monday to do what we want to do,” Kok Keong suggested.

“Are you sure? Do you want to wake up at five in the morning next Monday? I hope not,” Jerome said.

“Guys, this camp is our camp. We are blessed to have volunteers who are willing to dedicate their time to help us facilitate and oversee our camp but I feel it isn’t nice to push everything to them. We have willingly organised the camp to build community with the other prefects and junior leaders so we should make the best use of this camp to do so,” Daniel explained.

“But I can’t make it!” Kok Keong retorted.

“Fine! Let’s post announcements online instead! We need to meet earlier next Monday for the final briefing too! Who can’t?” Darren asked.

“Can I not go? I already met the volunteers and I need more sleep,” Jia Jie groaned.

“Up to you!” I replied. “Don’t panic if something goes wrong.”

“The reporting time is 8.45. Can all of us meet at 8.15?” Daniel asked.

We all agreed to that timing. I walked back to the classroom block with Xuanyu.

“Are you worried about next week?” I asked her.

“No, because I’m going to let you lead,” she replied and started laughing.

“Seriously are you kidding me?”

“I really think you can lead a lot better than me. Look at how I presented just now. Do you think I can lead a big group?”

“You can. Just try your best.”

I was literally worried. What had happened to the committee over the course of two weeks? Although Ariana had not returned, things did turn out better when Kok Keong returned. I sensed our enthusiasm during our meeting at Hyacinth Square. Why did everyone just lose their zeal after that meeting? There could be a lack of rapport among us, since the majority of the committee was from 5A and there were only four others from other classes - Daniel was possibly right! Wait, why was I siding with Daniel again?

I was eagerly anticipating the camp. I had no idea why. I was already awake at 5.30 before daylight came, visualising the exuberant faces of my friends and the other campers. Rebecca and Elijah were still asleep while I felt a surge of energy in me. After having some food, I sat at my table, staring at the paper on it - Math. It was the subject which frustrated me the most and I had no idea how people could score close to full marks for it. I stared at the paper for probably an hour and decided to leave my seat, since there was no point making myself frustrated which would ruin my zeal.

What could I do? I went to the living room, took Rebecca’s phone and switched it on. I opened Whatsapp and asked Jerome: Are you excited for the camp? He replied not long after, mentioning he was indeed excited, but at the same time worried that the committee would not coordinate well with the volunteers. He told me to join him in praying for the running of the camp.

I left the house and took a leisurely stroll to the nearest train station (not really leisurely because I was used to walking briskly). It was only 7.45 when I reached Hyacinth Station. Having the feeling that no one would be there yet, I loitered around the station until I saw someone from the committee - Elise, whom I could walk to school with.

“I thought I’m the only early one,” I told her with a chuckle.

“Daniel is already there,” she said, showing me the messages in the group chat. “Nazreen is reaching as well.”

“I woke up at 5.30 and tried to do Math but I couldn’t!”

“What a hardworking person! What did you get for Math?”

“83, quite bad. I don’t understand how your classmates can get above 90.”

“You topped your class right? Your other subjects must be good!”

“My English is not good! Science and Chinese pulled me up. Anyway, I won’t stop trying until I beat Daniel Lim Jia Jun!”

“Your Chinese is already better than his. He’s ninth in class and level. How far away are you?”

“Seventeenth in level! I didn’t know there’s such a big difference between 5A and 5B! Anyway, the volunteer in my group, Genevieve, is friends with Daniel’s sister. You should know why I put her in my group.”

“I thought you really gave up. Looks like you actually didn’t.”

“I need more proof. Since I have the chance to look for more proof, why not?”

“No wonder Huayi is being himself.”

“What about him? Oh, he was saying the cheer writing competition is stupid and told Eng Soon not to take part! Wait, we didn’t look through the entries!”

“Jerome is announcing the winners later. We let him do it because he likes to cheer. You should watch him cheer! He really puts all his emotions into the cheers! Remember the P5 camp? He cried during one of the cheers!”

“Wow, who actually...never mind. Serious question. Does he have autism? My classmate told me Jerome says he has autism to defend Ace.”

“Jerome keeps insisting he has. I don’t know how true it is. Alicia Tan says he has. Other people say he doesn’t. He likes to talk about religion a lot, and he links it to him overcoming the challenges autistic children face.”

“Overcoming challenges. He’s popular and can talk to everyone without any problem at all. I guess he overcame the challenge of interacting with people? That day, he and Daniel got most of the attention from the volunteers while the rest of us were quiet. See? The rich become richer!”

“Both of them hype up a lot when meeting new people. Be prepared. Daniel will have very high energy later, and throughout the camp.”

We arrived at the school hall, where the volunteers, Daniel’s father, the teachers, Daniel, Nazreen and Darren were gathered. The three committee members and volunteers were seated in a circle.

“Hi!” Daniel jumped up from the floor on seeing us. “Congrats for topping the class, Jordan!”

“Err...thank you. Hope you met your expectations,” I replied.

“Thanks for being early guys. To save time, you should meet your volunteer facilitators first. You should be clear on the games, reflections and so on,” Darren said.

“Oh no!” Elise whispered to me. “I forgot some of the amazing race locations! I think some of the treasure hunt locations too!”

“Lead for those you know, let Jerome do the rest. Just don’t make him mad,” I replied.

“Not making Darren mad is most important,” Elise said. “And I’ll wait for Jerome before talking to my group’s facilitators.”

I went on to talk to Talib and Genevieve. They were very clear about the routes to take during the camp and were willing to let me and Xuanyu lead the group while they monitored us.

It was 8.15. Kok Keong, Xuanyu, Stuart and Willis had not arrived.

When Willis came running in panting hard, Darren yelled at him, “What time is it? 8.05? If the rest start entering the hall now, they’re going to hear us! Isn’t that spoiling the fun?”

Xuanyu appeared as well.

“And you? Still taking your morning walk in the park? Can’t you see everyone is waiting?” Darren continued. After Stuart and Kok Keong arrived, Darren decided to give everyone an admonishment. “You guys are prefects! You should be role models to the rest! What kind of role-”

“Bro! Relax! This is a fun camp! Discipline is important, but please relax. Guys, I appreciate your efforts in waking up a little earlier today. I understand it wasn’t easy, but good job! Thanks Jordan for helping us to allocate the facilitators.” Daniel then looked towards the side doors. “I think I saw someone coming in. Can one of you go out to check?”

“I can!” I said and darted to the doors at the side of the hall. I looked around. “Yes? Is anyone there?” Thanks to my eyesight, I managed to see a portion of someone’s head behind a nearby parapet. I scurried towards where the person was and all I saw was a blue figure vanishing into another corridor. Weird. Who could it be lurking in the school grounds in the morning of a holiday?

I walked back into the hall. “You probably won’t believe what I just saw. There was someone outside, but he disappeared and went that way. Let’s just continue.”

“Wow wow wow! Time to tell ghost stories!” Willis said.

“Erm...I’ve heard a lot of ghost stories about our school, same for the secondary school and JC. Urban legends,” Vivian said.

“Forget about that. I think it’s just some naughty kid,” I said.

“Let’s hope whoever that kid is isn’t eavesdropping on us now,” Darren said.

“Oh yes! He installed invisible recording devices in the hall right?” Jerome questioned Darren.

The teachers then briefed us on our expected behaviour as leaders of the camp. As they doubted we would do a good job, the instructions they gave were mainly directed at the facilitators and other volunteers. The teachers did have a point. What kind of eleven year olds could lead a group of fourteen in activities which require roaming around Aquapolis? Well, we just needed to try our best and land on our safety nets which are the facilitators (they can’t guarantee perfect safety though).

Before we knew it, the campers were already streaming in and we had to gather in the locations our groups were supposed to gather.

“This is scary...you can do it!” Xuanyu said to me.

Was she actually serious about pushing the responsibility to me? I hoped it was a lame joke. All of a sudden, I felt a small figure push me from behind.

“Heyo!” It was Clarissa.

“Good morning! Are you excited for the camp?” I asked her.

“Yes! And we’re in the same group!” she exclaimed.

“And I am your group leader so I’ll make sure you behave yourself!” I said sternly. “Don’t take it too hard, just relax and have fun.”

Clarissa then jabbed Xuanyu’s waist from both sides, which made her scream.

“Oh my goodness! I shouldn’t have let Jordan put you in my group!” Xuanyu said, while slapping Clarissa’s back repeatedly.

“You two know each other?” I asked them.

“Yes she’s my CCA friend,” Xuanyu replied.

Talib asked me, “What’s the dress code for this camp?”

“Homeclothes on the first and second day, and the Prefects’ shirt on the third,” I replied.

“Are you sure that’s allowed?” Talib asked, pointing at Xuanyu’s outfit. She was wearing a spaghetti crop top with a pair of short shorts. He then approached her. “Are you sure you are allowed to wear a crop top for the camp?”

“The teachers didn’t say anything. Look at the volunteer over there. That’s a crop top. Mine is not. I just grew taller and it became too short for me,” Xuanyu replied.

“You better be careful if you wear that. Furthermore, you’re only a kid. You hurt more because your friend poked your skin just now,” Talib added.

“I wore this and other similar clothes before. Nothing happened,” Xuanyu replied.

“So now I know what you wear when you’re not wearing your uniform,” I laughed.

“Yeah, so now you know how many more moles I actually have,” Xuanyu replied with a chuckle, referring to the moles on her upper chest, back and thighs.

“I’ve seen her wear something like that sometime before the junior leader selection last year. She really has a lot of moles, I counted eight just on her right arm. She must be so daring to show them off! I just hide mine. Xin Ying’s here!” Clarissa said to me.

“Oh hello!” I greeted my group member, Lim Xin Ying, who was Clarissa’s classmate.

“Hi! Are you Jordan?” Xin Ying asked.

“Yes! Nice to meet you! Hope you’re excited for the camp!” I replied, while Xuanyu was talking to two P6 group members.

“Yes I am! Daniel said it will be fun. He also told me you contributed a lot of good ideas to your team,” Xin Ying said.

“What? It’s always him!” I replied. “Anyway, how did both of you know each other?”

“I forgot, I think it was in P2,” Xin Ying replied.

“See? All you have to do is talk about Daniel!” Clarissa said to Xin Ying while laughing.

“Do you still gossip about me with your classmates?” I asked Clarissa.

“If I have news for them, yes,” she replied.

“Let me tell you. I give up. I don’t want to warn people about Daniel anymore. Please tolerate me if I ask you for information. I’m just gathering information about him now. I want to prove myself that he is not dangerous like what he appears to be,” I explained.

Clarissa and Xin Ying exchanged glances, then burst out laughing. I frowned and looked at Xuanyu, who frowned back at me. What was so funny?

Another group member from our batch, Izumi Tanaka, arrived.

“You must be Izumi!” I said to her. “Are you excited for the camp?”

“Yup! I’m really curious to see what you guys have for us. I’m quite excited for Project Phoenix! I signed up!” Izumi replied.

“You do recess duties right? I think I saw your response. Elise and I will confirm your sign up after the camp. We have been quite busy with this camp,” I said.

All the other group members arrived and we were supposed to have our first round of icebreakers, where we introduced our name, class, interesting personal facts as well as what leadership meant to us. I let Xuanyu take the lead, but she refused and insisted that I do it. All the best to me then.

“I am Jordan from 5A. An interesting fact about myself is that I am a wayback person. I like listening to songs released decades ago. I can listen to a lot of genres but the ones I prefer are progressive rock, art rock, glam rock, psychedelic rock and new wave. Do you listen to any of these bands and singers? Genesis, T. Rex, Electric Light Orchestra, The Who, Pink Floyd, Yes, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Styx, The Doors and many more.”

“Another Brick in the Wall?” Xin Ying asked.

“That’s a really cool one! It’s one of my favourites! Listen to the whole song instead of just Part 2,” I replied.

“Can I call you Wayback Jordan from today?” Xin Ying asked, making everyone laugh.

“Sure! That’s an honour!” I said. “Anyway, leadership to me is something puzzling. Who gets to be a leader and who gets to take higher positions is puzzling. It’s pretty interesting too. I believe you don’t have to be a leader to show leadership because it can be done in our daily lives. I look forward to hearing your opinions on this. Xuanyu, you’ll go next.”

“Erm...hi, my name is Xuanyu. I’m from 5A. An interesting fact is that my cousins in China like to bully me by taking me to those tall glass bridges to see me cry and freak out. I think leadership is about being a good person and making others follow you in doing the good things.”

It was Clarissa’s turn after a few group members. “Hi! I’m Clarissa from 5C! Okay, no teachers near us. At the beginning of the year, I threw my bread into the fish pond without the gardener’s permission. The fish were too small so they didn’t eat the bread! It was funny when the prefect on duty tried to use a fallen branch to drag the floating bread out of the water. He then let me try and I fell into the pond! Luckily it was only my leg and not my whole body!”

“And that prefect is Daniel Lim?” I asked.

“Yes!” Clarissa said, trying to contain her laughter. “And...and...leadership is making sure everything is in order and being a role model.”

The self-introduction continued. Quite a few of my group members had difficulty explaining what leadership meant to them, so I decided to simplify the question to what qualities a leader should possess. I heard the common answers - kind, loving, well-behaved, and so on. Leadership felt like a greater conundrum with my group members being unable to explain what it meant to them. Anyway, I should not let my thoughts distract me.

The next activity was a game of Whacko - a classic icebreaker game to test if one remembered everyone’s names. Xuanyu and I encouraged Talib and Genevieve to join us but they told us to go ahead without them. Why would they reject having fun with us? I saw that the facilitators of other groups did participate in the games as well. I sincerely hoped it was not because of Talib’s disapproval of Xuanyu’s attire.

For the next game, Xuanyu let me lead again. She seemed serious about letting me lead the entire group throughout the camp.

“Alright, can everyone stand up. Stay in the circle,” I said, then told Xuanyu to take a few steps back. “For this game, can you hold the hand of the person next to you on both sides?”

“Ew!” a boy remarked and everyone began to hesitate.

“Don’t be shy. It’s just a game,” I said. After some persuading, everyone in the circle was holding hands except me and Xuanyu. “Close the circle. Both of us are going to demonstrate,” I said and reached for Xuanyu’s hand.

She took a few steps away. “No, no. Choose someone else.” She then joined the circle in between two female group members. Everyone began giggling.

“I’ll need a volunteer...you please.” I chose Clarissa.

“Me?” Clarissa asked.

“Yes, you,” I replied.

Clarissa stood up and shuffled over to hold my hand.

“Alright, so we’ll walk around the circle. Let’s do this demo in slow motion. You and your partner will walk around and decide where you want to break the chain. Clarissa, where do you want the chain to break?” I said.

“Between Solomia and Tan Xiao,” she replied.

“Alright, Solomia will grab Ian and leave the chain. Tan Xiao will grab Abner and leave the chain. I’m going to join back the chain with Xin Ying and Clarissa, don’t close the gap. The two pairs of you, run in opposite directions and switch partners when you meet. Whichever pair is faster will close the chain between Clarissa and Ashton. Whichever pair left outside will do what I did with Clarissa, repeat until time is up and the pair left will do a forfeit,” I said.

Thankfully, the group understood my instructions and the game ended well with Clarissa and a P4 boy needing to do forfeits.

“Any suggestions?” I asked Xuanyu, who just shook her head. “Let me think...Clarissa! Can you convince me why I should listen to modern music and not classic music?”

“Uh...because modern music is nicer and you can dance to them?” Clarissa said with a chuckle.

I stroked my chin. “Really? That’s completely false. Your mission failed! Do you want to try again?”

“Maybe because you can find modern music on YouTube and buy them easily?”

I did a dramatic facepalm in front of the entire group. “Fine! I’ll let you off this time! Let’s continue this at the beach! You need to be educated! Alright, Jansen! I want you to convince Xuanyu why she should go on a date with you!”

“What? Oh my…” Xuanyu blurted.

“You should go on a date with me because I can help you overcome your fear of tall bridges!” Jansen said.

“No! No! No!” Xuanyu protested.

“Hello everyone!” Jerome spoke on the microphone. “Hope the games are fun so far! Before we move on to the next part, we’re going to announce the winning cheers! The winner of the school cheer goes to...four of our friends from 4A and 4B...Abner! Adam! Kai Xian! Kelly! Can one of you come up to collect our prize?”

I turned to Xuanyu and said, “Jerome is going to announce himself as the winner after this.”

“We didn’t even participate. We know a group with Daniel will win so our class decided not to participate,” Xuanyu replied.

How true was that? I felt the reason was a lot more complicated.

“Next up, the winner for the prefects cheer! Are you ready...congratulations to...our 5B friends!” Jerome continued.

Was he referring to me and my classmates who wrote the cheer together?

“Vivian! Jordan! Rayana! Li Xuan! Sylvia! Can one of you come up?” Jerome said.

Vivian signalled at me to go up the stage. I pointed at Li Xuan to go up but she pointed back at me.

“Why don’t all of you come up together? Let’s be quick so we can leave for lunch early!” Jerome said.

After receiving the packet of sweets, I suggested that we should share the sweets with everyone else in the hall.

When I offered a sweet to Huayi, he said, “See? I don’t need to participate in this to get a sweet.”

“I don’t know what you have against us, but please understand our purpose for doing so,” I replied.

“Yes! That Darren did explain to us. Don’t wait for me to expose all of you!” he said.

How exactly had the committee offended Huayi? I had to check with Xuanyu whether she knew anything about it, but she did not. I had three issues on my mind already - leadership in general, Daniel and Huayi. I needed to put them down and focus on leading my group in the next activity - identity making. As expected, Xuanyu pushed the facilitation to me again, while Talib and Genevieve just stood around.

Basically, our group had to think of a group name and design our group flag. We were free to leave the school for lunch anytime, since the part of the beach we would be heading to was quite some distance away. I needed to check with my group members where they would like to eat.

“Alright, we won’t be catering food for the camp, which means we have the freedom to eat whatever we want! But we can’t spend too much! Any ideas?” I asked.

“Beachfront! Hopefully it’s near the place!” Clarissa replied.

“Wow you seem so excited about Beachfront, do you live there?” I asked.

“Long time ago. I like to go there to take pictures because the buildings look nice! I stay in Westvale now. Can we eat at Chiang Village?” Clarissa said.

“Oh yes! I’m texting Hui Wen about that now!” Xin Ying said.

“Do any of you not want to eat at Chiang Village? Don’t be shy,” I said.

“Chiang Village is good!” a group member responded.

“So, let’s think of our group name fast and draw the flag quick. We can think of what to eat there along the way. Remember, we can’t spend too much money and time,” I said.

“How about the food court?” one member suggested. “It is cheaper than restaurants, there’s more space and the food gets ready faster.”

“I like food courts. I brought more money today. Can I actually buy some cupcakes for the picnic later? I didn’t bring any food,” Abner said.

“Yes of course! Let’s get this done!” I replied.

We decided to call our group Kiln, which symbolised our aim to remain steadfast in times of trouble. Our flag was done as well, making us one of the first groups to be done with our task and ready to leave. While we were getting ready to leave, Elise came over, whispering something into Xuanyu’s ear. Elise then showed Xuanyu something on her phone and both of them glanced at me before they burst out laughing.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Something!” Elise replied with a smirk, while Xuanyu was still laughing with her hand covering her mouth.

“What is it?” I asked again, with a louder voice.

“Fun things!” Elise replied. “Where are you guys going now? Kiln? That’s a cool name!”

“We’re going to eat at Chiang Village at Beachfront. How about you?” I said.

“We’re still deciding. Maybe somewhere near school? I think Jia Jie’s group wants to eat at Beachfront too, most likely at One Tseng. Our group is called Kryptonite!”

“How’s Ariana?”

“She hasn’t really said anything since the introduction. Hope things get better.”

“Yeah, have fun!” Elise said, raising her eyebrow at Xuanyu, who continued laughing.

The journey to Chiang Village and lunch there was quite enjoyable. I had the opportunity to talk to each of my group members, regardless of the length of our conversations. It was a good start, although our group was not bonded to the extent where everyone could talk to one another. As for Xuanyu, she entrusted the befriending to me and was mostly talking to Clarissa and Izumi, and sometimes Xin Ying. The rest would occasionally talk to her as well. We managed to arrive at the beach early.

“You’re late!” Darren hollered at Jia Jie’s group, which was the last to arrive. “Anyone has an idea for a forfeit?” he announced to the rest of us.

“Do the school cheer!” I suggested.

“Sing the school song while holding hands and running in a circle!” a P6 suggested.

“Sure! Sure! Someone film it!” Darren said.

“I can!” Clarissa bounced up. “Add me on Facebook if you want to watch the video!”

“Are you serious? You are so daring to tell everyone to add you on Facebook! You really like taking pictures and videos!” I remarked.

“Yeah! I need to create my Instagram account soon! What’s your Facebook name?” she asked.

“First, I don’t have Facebook. Second, I don’t have Instagram. Third, I don’t have a phone!” I made it clear to my group.

“I have Facebook and I just got an old ZTE phone,” Xuanyu said, while holding on to our flag in the sand.

“Nicholas! Stop staring!” Talib chided a P4 group member, who appeared to be staring at Xuanyu, whom I told to sit.

Genevieve took out a portable speaker from her bag. “Okay guys, I can play some music. Feel free to suggest songs!”

“Smoke on the Water is a must to listen. The guitar riff is just - great,” I said.

“Is it the one you sang at the meeting? Guys! This dude actually sang a song during the P5 prefects meeting!” Clarissa announced.

“Didn’t I tell you the name of that song already? It’s called We’re An American Band. We can go one round and play it after everyone’s suggestion gets played,” I said.

We had a good time eating and building the sandcastles. I dropped some reflection questions I crafted with the committee along the way. From their answers, I understood their motivations to be leaders in school as well as their level of concern for the community. The next and final activity for the day was a treasure hunt at the nearby Turquox Karst and Limestone Avenue. I had qualms about that. We were supposed to have at least two outings as a committee to explore the places we would be visiting for the treasure hunts and amazing races. It ended up with Daniel and Jerome churning up ideas at the last minute. Xuanyu made me lead...again.

Thanks to my familiarity with the two national parks, navigating around was not a problem, which made my group find our assigned ‘treasure’ - a certain heritage tree and a limestone cave. We ended up taking lots of group pictures at various locations from various angles (something I loathed when done excessively) - thanks to Clarissa. I noticed in particular the actions of Abner Teo, who was great at ensuring the group stayed on task and constantly kept track of time. Was it time to recruit P4s into the committee? Only time would tell.

We were dismissed from wherever we ended. For group members whose parents would be coming to pick them up, facilitators and group leaders had the responsibility to ensure they were safely picked up.

“Are we meeting the rest?” I asked Xuanyu as we were standing around a carpark with Clarissa.

“Just go home, I don’t know where they are. Are you going back with us, Clarissa?” Xuanyu asked.

“I’ll follow you guys to the train station. I need to meet my mum at Nyan,” Clarissa replied.

“Ah sure! I hope you remember my song recommendations!” I said.

“Fine! There’s Smoke on the Water, Games People Play, Light My Fire...I forgot!” Clarissa said.

“I think there was Don’t Bring Me Down?” Xuanyu asked.

“Oh yes! I don’t really listen to rock,” Clarissa said.

“I listen to a lot of pop too!” I said. “You can check out ABBA, Bee Gees and Carpenters. Anyway, I think today was good, even though someone kept pushing the work to me.”

Xuanyu laughed and said, “I didn’t even need to help.”

“You were good!” Clarissa told me. “All of you are good! How did you manage to plan such a fun camp?”

“Good? The committee is falling apart!” I grumbled.

“What?” Clarissa asked.

“We were supposed to explore the locations together, but people say they are busy so it got messed up,” I replied, glaring at Xuanyu.

“I was busy!” Xuanyu said.

“We need a new member!” I said to Clarissa. “And I think you will do a good job. This committee started out well, and now people are getting sick of it and want to leave! Too bad! Jerome and Daniel were already going to explore. They said I could join them, but there’s no way I would want to go out with Daniel in a small group of three. So, I helped with the online research and Google Streetview.”

“It wasn’t a small group. There were more who joined them,” Xuanyu said.

“You must be joking right? I don’t remember hearing anyone else agreeing to join them,” I said.

“They’re not prefects. You know some of them like Xin Yi, Hannah, Ethan Tay, Alex. Some of the Indians went too. So it’s more like a friends outing,” Xuanyu replied.

“Those are his close friends?” I asked.

“I don’t know? He has a lot of friends,” Xuanyu replied.

“Let’s not argue about him, but the issue here is the committee. We have so many projects ahead, even Project Phoenix is in the works, teachers are sending in names and mentors are signing up. You should sign up too!” I told Clarissa.

“I really really can’t teach! I just can’t! Maybe I can help with the cleaning project,” she replied.

“It is not really teaching. It’s just helping them with their homework or any assessment book and you can choose the subjects you want to mentor. How about...if you don’t want to be part of our project, you can be a committee member!” I said.

“I can’t come to school on time and I need to go home after school, but I’ll still give you my full support!” Clarissa said.

Although the first day of the camp was enjoyable, I was still worried. The committee had put in so much effort in planning the projects. Were we just going to leave them hanging there?

The next day, there was no need for us to meet earlier, so we just needed to report together with the rest at 8.45 am. Being enthusiastic, I reached at around 8.25, to see that Ian, Abner and Ashton from my group were already there.

“Good morning! Thanks for coming early!” I said.

“I wanted to say thank you for yesterday, it was really fun!” Abner said.

“Thank me? I have to tell you, this camp was very badly planned, with a lot of last minute ideas, a lot of which aren’t mine,” I said.

“I know there’s a lot of walking and my legs aren’t ready for the hike later,” Ashton said with a chuckle. “But it was really fun because there are no trainers screaming at us all the time.”

“I should thank all of you for being such nice group mates instead. It is all of you who make the camp fun!” I said.

“Facts,” Ian added.

“I should thank all of you for Project Phoenix too! My brother is lazy and I can’t help him at all, maybe this can help,” Abner said.

“I don’t even know whether it will happen. Things aren’t looking good,” I sighed.

“We will always support you!” Abner said.

“Thank you, I think I should check with Xuanyu if we should have a feedback session after the camp for our group. I can tell the other committee members to do it for their groups too,” I said.

“I was told that you and Xuanyu are going to lead us in Chinese today?” Ian asked.

“It must be Elise,” I muttered to myself, then said, “Don’t worry! There are non-Chinese here so we must make it fair. Anyway, I don’t think I can conduct the treasure hunts in Chinese. I need time to prepare.”

“I heard you and Xuanyu are the best in level at Higher Chinese. I’m only partially Chinese, my parents know Chinese and I want to exempt myself already,” Ian said.

“What’s your race?” Ashton asked.

“Greek-Chinese. My father is also Greek-Chinese and my mother is completely Chinese, so I look very Asian,” Ian replied.

Soon, Clarissa arrived and Kok Keong approached me at the same time.

“Jordan! Are you interested in Xuanyu?” he asked.

“Why are you asking me this question?” I asked back. “You don’t even have evidence.”

“I have, so that’s why I’m asking you! I notice you always sit with her during Chinese lessons, you must sit with her during our meetings and you have to put her in your group.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. Are you interested in her so that’s why you are checking if others are?”

“No, I just feel that you are.”

“Are you saying that because you are interested in someone...like Elise?”

“You’re just lame! You don’t even know how to tell if someone likes someone!”

Clarissa began laughing at me. “Wow! Go and get your dream girl! Is she staying in Aquapolis for you or will you be going to China with her?”

“Don’t listen to him! Just don’t,” I said.

Xuanyu arrived and I told her about what happened.

“Yes, he’s interested in someone,” she said. “And that someone is Jia Jie.”

“Is that the short-haired girl over there?” Clarissa asked.

“Yes, both of them are in CO. But, Jia Jie likes Daniel,” Xuanyu explained.

“Ha ha ha ha! How many of them actually mean it?” I said.

“Right now those who like him the most are her and Xin Yi,” Xuanyu said. (Kwek Xin Yi was a very noisy girl from 5A) “But I think Daniel is gay.”

“Is he? Why?” Clarissa asked.

“The way he takes photos on Facebook,” Xuanyu replied.

“What about them? I want to see them,” I said.

“My data’s dead, but I can demonstrate,” Clarissa said, then put one hand on her waist and stretched her other hand at me, showing a peace sign.

“Alright…” I turned to Xuanyu. “That doesn’t show he is gay, but we can explore that of course.”

I did not understand. Which part of Daniel spelt that he was likable? I honestly hoped those girls would not be deceived by him. Anyway, the day was so exhausting that it would be very exhausting for me to describe what went on too. In short, Xuanyu let me lead (again…) but the heartwarming thing was that Clarissa would assist me when she saw I needed aid. Abner did a very good job encouraging us to persist. We had a total of three tiring treasure hunts that day, such that plans for a committee dinner got cancelled.

We were dismissed at Aqueris Ridges. Xuanyu wanted to sit down to rest before we made our way home. I decided to keep her company. Clarissa would keep us company for a while before meeting her family at Forge Harbour.

“Do you even need to rest for so long? My legs are short and I can still walk more than you!” Clarissa said to Xuanyu.

“I can’t talk,” Xuanyu whispered, while panting.

“How often do you actually exercise?” I asked Clarissa.

“On weekends? I bet you guys don’t even exercise!” she laughed.

“We just did! You’re not wrong that I don’t exercise in my daily life. I actually spend the time I could have used for exercise on music,” I replied.

Xuanyu, able to catch more breath, said, “I prefer to relax at home.”

After resting for a few minutes, Xuanyu and I bade farewell to Clarissa and headed to the train station. I really felt like chiding her for pushing all the leading to me, but I realised I should observe for just another day.

“Has Kok Keong ever asked you whether you are interested in me?” I asked her.

“Nope. Are you interested in anyone?”

“No, how about you?”

“Not exactly.”

“Not exactly means there is probably someone? Who is it?”

Xuanyu just smiled and shook her head. “I’m quite sure Kok Keong is interested in Jia Jie. My classmates talk about it.”

“One day I’ll find out who your crush is. Are there a lot of such relationships happening in your class?”

“Alicia Tan and Ace are dating. Darren and Jia Jie tried to date in P3.”

“Seriously? I can’t imagine both of them together. Are you sure?”

“Yes, Darren changed a lot after becoming a prefect this year.”

“I need to ask you something. What do you think of Ace as a person?”

“He’s quite good! I guess you heard a lot of things about him?”

“I heard a lot of complaints from Graham. Some of my classmates joke about him too. From what Graham described to me, Ace seems to have special needs. I heard he has to bite a towel and squeeze a soft toy. I think I was told that Alicia has to sit beside him all the time?”

“It’s true. Alicia once told me Ace has anxiety problems, but she didn’t really say anything afterwards. I think she doesn’t want to talk about it to others. Ace is helpful. When I sat near him, he would help me with English very patiently. Our class may be quite fun, but sometimes people will bully Ace.”

“That’s just bad! Ace didn’t even do anything to offend them! Anyway, is it true that Jerome has autism? Graham said Jerome will defend Ace by saying he himself has autism?”

“I don’t think Jerome has autism, look at how he leads - so much better than me! It’s true that he tells others he has autism. I don’t know why.”

“If he doesn’t have autism, would he be willing to lie to defend his friend? I should check with him next time if I can. Also, Elise said he talks about religion a lot.”

“Yeah, he was trying to convince me that God is real during the sleepover.”

“Sleepover?”

“For my class. You should have heard stories of this Alex guy. He got punished for pressing a girl’s stomach. He does that in class, to girls who are okay with it. He just grabs them by the stomach. He slapped my backside before!”

“Oh him! How was the sleepover?”

“It was quite funny at night! Everyone was arguing where to sleep, because Darren kept saying that boys and girls must sleep in separate rooms, then the rest said everyone can sleep together. Everyone woke up halfway because Alex was touching people!”

“Wow that’s creepy if you sleep in the same room as him. Anyway, my siblings and I do talk about boys and girls sleeping together ever since my sister’s P3 camp a long time ago. Interesting topic to discuss.”

The next day was the true critical one, as it would concern our future projects held outside of school. I did the research for the various places each group will go, without visiting them in person (no doubt that I visited most of them before). Each group needed to cover all locations assigned to them, where they would either interview people or answer questions set by the committee. Do you think it was easy to lead a group of fourteen to do those? I sincerely hoped that Xuanyu would do her part as a group leader. I hated to think that she was turning back on her decision to be a part of the committee.

All groups had to complete two tasks in Lakeridge town before completing one in Nyan town before lunch. For my group, our Lakeridge tasks were to locate a curved rental block of flats as well as interview a park ranger at Emerald Lake Park. What annoyed me was Xuanyu again insisting that I take the lead even though I let her lead a relatively simple task - lead the group to the rental block based on the members’ instincts (committee members were already given directions). After completing that task, a wrecking ball knocked me awake…

How did I not realise earlier that I was the only one leading my group the entire time? I only knew how to complain that Xuanyu pushed her responsibility to me and not consider the fact that I should give other group members the chance to lead. I gave Xin Ying the chance to do so for the interview with the park ranger. The questions were not provided so we had to generate them as a group.

“Okay guys, how many questions should we ask?” Xin Ying said.

“Ten?” Ashton suggested.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Talib said. “Do bear in mind that the park ranger is busy and we will be disrupting his job, so try not to have too many questions.”

“Yes, remember our purpose of the amazing race - to have a better understanding of the wider community. Our group is assigned here, so what do you want to know about this park or the ranger better that we can help them?” I said.

“How tiring the job is!” Clarissa suggested.

“What he hates about the job!” Tan Xiao said.

“Maybe something related to pollution and cleanliness of the park?” one of the P6 members said.

“How we can help improve the park and make the job of the ranger easier,” Abner said.

“Those four are good! Are they enough?” Xin Ying asked Talib.

“Don’t you think two of the questions can overlap?” Talib asked.

“I get it! Instead of how tiring the job is, we can ask the ranger to say his wishes for the park!” Xin Ying said.

I was satisfied. Giving others the chance to lead did work out. Our next task required us to travel to Nyan to interview someone at a sports complex. Solomia was given the honour of being our leader for that. Honestly, I did not have anything in mind when I chose the sports complex other than it being a place I went bowling with my siblings, Vera, Nicole and Kai Le the previous year. As such, my group members were debating on what the interview would likely be about, that Solomia was quite lost too. We were still clueless on what to do, until we felt we were running out of time and decided to interview a random basketballer. The questions asked were mainly pertaining to the atmosphere at the sports centre as well as life in the Lantana District of Nyan.

We finished earlier than expected, so Genevieve brought us to her favourite lunch location in Greenpeak town. Over lunch, we managed to discuss our Greenpeak task, which was to find two buildings along a supposed heritage trail. We completed the task early and were ready to head to Turquox town.

I realised - not only did Xuanyu refuse to lead, she also hardly contributed to the ideas that day. What could have happened to her? She did not seem particularly moody that day, but behaved the same way as she always did.

“Are you alright? Is there anything on your mind?” I asked her.

“Uh...yeah. Today is very fun,” she replied.

“Yes it’s fun, but are you sure you are fine?”

“I am. Are you trying to make me lead again?”

She sounded annoyed. Something was amiss. I looked at her again - all she did was grin at me with her mouth closed. Anyway, after our snack, we were supposed to conduct an interview with an owner of a shop at a shophouse of our choice. That task was relatively easier, since we could relate our questions to the living conditions of the poorer parts of Turquox.

Up next was our final task before reporting to the Ministry of Community and Entertainment (MCE) auditorium for our debrief. It was hilarious how the non-interview locations were mainly buildings, because buildings would come to my mind first when thinking of places. Before we knew it, it was time for the final segment of the camp. My group members were sad that all the activities had to come to a halt. Nonetheless, we enjoyed ourselves and the friendships we forged.

We were pleasantly surprised with a short performance by Daniel’s father before he delivered his word of thanks to the volunteers. What came after was a sharing by one of the MCE members regarding leadership and community service before the groups had our respective reflection sessions. I was glad that my group members had a greater sense of belonging to the prefectorial board and many were willing to take part in our upcoming projects, including Project Phoenix...but what about Xuanyu?

The committee members agreed to have a dinner and debrief session after dismissal from the MCE Building.

While walking out, Daniel said to some of us, “My group members thought of a name for our series of projects - FRansformed!”

“I don’t get it,” Vivian said.

“Oh it is basically a play on the word ‘transformed’ where the t and r and changed to capital F and R,” Daniel clarified.

“Sounds lame but why not?” Willis said with a chuckle.

Upon exiting the building, we saw Jerome sitting on the steps and leaning against the wall with a forlorn expression. Elise was standing beside him, shaking her head at us.

“Jerome! Is there anything wrong?” Daniel asked him.

Jerome grunted.

“If there’s something wrong you can tell us,” I said.

Jerome flicked his hand at me.

“Give him some time,” Elise said.

“Guys, do you still want to have your dinner?” Darren asked.

“But does Jerome want?” Kok Keong said.

“He’ll still come, let’s wait for him,” Elise said.

“Do you know what happened?” Jia Jie asked Elise.

“Let’s move back a bit. Give him some space,” Daniel said.

“He was okay all the time and after it ended he started to look sad and I found him here,” Elise said.

“Was there anything that happened during reflections?” Vivian asked.

“I can’t remember,” Elise replied.

Jerome moved a bit and said, “Ariana didn’t come up on stage when Uncle Jerome asked us to. The group photo too.”

“You are depressed because of that?” Kok Keong asked.

“Don’t say that!” I said. “Every committee member is precious. Losing one member can really make a lot of difference.”

“Yes, Jordan. Every member counts. This FRansformed committee means a lot to him and to us. Together, we have come so far. We are done with the first event we planned on the bright side! And together, we can take on whatever is ahead,” Daniel said.

Jerome began to stand up. “Thanks, Ariana isn’t the main reason, I’ve accepted that Ariana quit. I was just talking to Xin Jie and I said ‘thank God’. Xin Jie asked me which God and I just told him that it’s our God. Mr Sinnathamby heard it and I got told off.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong!” Stuart pointed out.

“I have to agree, but what exactly did Mr Sinnathamby say that was so offensive?” Darren asked.

“He accused me of forcing religion on others!” Jerome replied.

“If you know you didn’t force religion on Xin Jie, you shouldn’t be sad. Cheer up! Where are we going now?” Jia Jie said.

“Miekel Metro Centre is good,” I suggested.

“How about The Capital?” Vivian said.

We all agreed on having our dinner at The Capital, an old mall with a new modernised wing.

I turned to Stuart. “Can I find out from you how Daniel was during the camp?”

“Oh, I knew you put me with him for a reason. He’s just his usual self - high energy, good at speaking, good at leading,” Stuart replied.

“Did he do anything bad?”

“Our group is good, no problems given. I will be leading the discussion later and I was writing the questions on a crumpled piece of paper just now.”

Was that true? What Stuart said sounded believable. I was eager to hear what feedback Daniel would have during the discussion. Due to the noisy nature of The Capital, we decided to sit at the roof garden of the new wing and pack our food to consume there. Nazreen and Jerome volunteered to look after our bags while the rest of us went to buy our food.

Stuart began to speak when everyone was back, “One representative from each group can answer each question. Rate your group from one to ten and explain what’s good and bad about it. We can go according to group number. The first is Kiln if I remember correctly.”

I looked at Xuanyu, who was sitting beside me. She pointed at me to indicate that I speak.

“I would give Kiln an eight out of ten. We may not be the best, but I feel we were better than expected. Some of our tasks were completed ahead of time, thanks to awesome group members and I’ll mention some of them. Clarissa! It’s quite fun to have her in our group. She’s nice, friendly and will help the leaders if they need help. I like arguing with her about why she should listen to classic music. There’s this P4 called Abner who is really good at leading. He seems very concerned about our projects as well and is someone I would recommend for exco. Anyway, I don’t want to take up too much time and I just want to say that my group members are quite supportive of our projects and many are looking forward to helping us out with them,” I spoke.

“Aww...Clarissa is so sweet!” Elise remarked.

It was Jerome’s turn to speak. “I’m giving Kryptonite a one upon ten.”

“Come on! I’m sure that’s not what you’re thinking!” Elise said.

“I honestly feel it was that bad. I can’t blame her but Ariana didn’t seem to enjoy herself. She still gives me the feeling that she has a grudge against me! Do you think a group with grudges between members deserves a rating above one?” Jerome ranted.

“It’s okay Jerome, I know you are truly concerned about Ariana and you don’t want to lose your friendship with her. I was thinking that we could make something for her together, but Josephine said I shouldn’t be rash, because we won’t know why she’s giving us the cold shoulder unless she is willing to open up to us again. So Jerome, just relax, and you may continue,” Daniel said.

“I’ve been praying for all of us, including her. I want to thank Xin Jie, Ryan, Lee Oon and Vanisha for not complaining at all. As for the rest, they kept complaining they were tired or hungry and we only had a fifteen minute break today. Yeah, Ariana is not the only reason why I gave the group a one,” Jerome continued.

“You’re just lucky Jordan!” Kok Keong said. “Vivian and I are giving Awakening a four out of ten. Everyone said the treasure hunt and amazing race are too hard. We only managed to complete one interview because the others failed!”

“Oh. Any feedback on group members?” Stuart asked.

Vivian said, “Khairul from 5A is not bad at trying to lead the group, but the others don’t listen to his suggestions. I’m not sure what he’s like in class, those in 5A you should know. There are some very cooperative group members like Nicholai, Charlene and Somchai as well.”

“Across the River is getting a three upon ten!” Darren said. “Everyone was restless and it was hard to get them to focus. We have a problematic member. His name is Chew Huayi. He already said the camp was poorly planned on the first day and that the cheers were useless. He talked about us next, saying the teachers are making use of us so they can avoid being involved in the prefectorial board. His reason was that we are the teachers’ pets. That’s weird but we can look into him at a later date.”

“For Sunlight Rays, we are giving a six upon ten. Jia Jie and I didn’t have a good feeling about the camp at first. Our group members weren’t very interested even though the activities were what they suggested through the online form, but later on, it became better and I like my group a lot! We managed to complete all tasks even though many were quite rushed and tiring. Special mentions - Elliot, Kelly, Kayden and Elvin,” Willis said.

“Rocket to Starlight! We’re giving it...eight out of ten!” Daniel said.

“Another one,” Kok Keong remarked.

“I’m not being too strict or overly lenient, but Stuart and I are more or less satisfied with how our group performed. There might be disputes but in general we got along. Is there anyone taking these down?” Daniel said.

“I am! I’m trying my best to type on my phone without errors!” Darren replied.

“I’m sure all of us have more feedback so I guess we can all key them online when we are home so we can take our time to read them. Stuart, do you have anything else for us?” Daniel said.

“The feedback for the group members can be keyed on online, so now I would like everyone to share how you could have done better as a committee member. Anyone can start,” Stuart said.

I decided to start. “I feel bad for leading most of the camp and not giving Xuanyu, the facilitators and other group members the chance to try leading until today.” What was I saying? Did I not give Xuanyu the chance to lead?

“We make mistakes bro! By right, the facilitators shouldn’t be the ones leading but the ones to ensure discipline and the ones to help us in case of emergency. Yeah, no one said you can’t call on them if you need help with leading, by all means. I believe Talib and Genevieve felt you did a pretty good job leading, so that’s why they didn’t lead. They’re well aware of their roles!” Daniel said.

“Yup! I saw you were quite good!” Elise added.

Looking at Xuanyu, she gave me a sheepish smile.

“Yes! I totally didn’t give you the chance to lead!” I whispered to her.

“I didn’t need to,” she replied.

“For me, I was a bit lazy to do my job last week, so I only thought of three forfeits. I was already in a holiday mood last week and didn’t feel like helping out with the camp. I was lazy during the camp as well and only felt like chatting with others. So maybe if we have similar activities again I can try to focus on what I need to do,” Jia Jie said.

Vivian spoke, “I was supposed to help Jordan with research on the amazing race stations but I didn’t make an effort to remember that I needed to help, so the work was already done when I remembered. I’ll make sure I’ll have proper time management from now on, because I am still trying to balance between studies, play, CCA and FRansformed.”

“I have one sentence to summarise ourselves - Stinkier than a pile of garbage!” Darren said. “Admit it! Look at what garbage we’ve produced these three days! We lack the effort and persistence as a team! We need to reconsider our objective and reflect on this!”

“Oh yeah? You are saying this as if we didn’t even try!” Kok Keong remarked.

“I’m not saying all of us didn’t try. To those who did, thank you! To those who didn’t, you know who you are!” Darren said.

“Enough!” Jerome boomed while jumping up. “What’s the point of having a committee if we can’t even get along? I think we all forgot the purpose of FRansformed.”

“Calm down guys, this can be done nicely. Perhaps we can ask ourselves why we started FRansformed in the first place,” Daniel said.

“So there will be more harmony among students!” Elise replied.

“If that’s the case, why are we arguing and comparing who tried more? It’s everyone’s job and everyone’s burdens. Should there be any storms, we’ll brave them together. This is only the start. No matter how satisfied you are with your performance for this camp, you must be prepared for whatever projects ahead of us,” Daniel said.

“Yes boss!” Jerome said.

After some casual chatting about what interesting things went on during the camp, Jerome felt we needed to meet up more often during the holidays to not only discuss our future projects but also to bond.

“I’ll be on holiday!” Vivian said.

“Me too!” Xuanyu said.

“I have a church camp!” Jia Jie said.

I could tell Jerome was disappointed. “Is that all?” he asked with a sigh.

“Erm...I’m not sure whether I am free,” Nazreen said.

“I am free!” I said to give Jerome some assurance.

We were literally in a dilemma then. The teachers were already expecting us to give updates regarding Project Phoenix. If we were to delay any meeting, we would not be able to execute the project in time for our juniors to benefit. If we were to meet often during the holidays, those not at the meeting would lose out on bonding and discussions. The future of FRansformed was hazy. What was the right course of action?

Unfortunately, we could only have online meetings that holiday. Even with that plan, it was difficult for us to coordinate the meeting times due to some of us not having Whatsapp. Our goal for the holidays was just to finalise Project Phoenix and subsequent projects would be studied when school reopened. The good thing was Elise allowing me to contact her on Whatsapp using Rebecca’s phone so I could discuss the manpower allocations with her more easily. However, I was sad that I could not meet up with the other committee members besides the camp and upcoming leadership programme. I had begun to appreciate this group of friends more despite my suspicions of Daniel.

What could I do? Life still had to go on, although smoke was covering my vision of what could happen the next term. On a sidenote, Rebecca told me that Jerome was not only sending her updates about our committee meetings and my whereabouts, but also random pictures of the camp and small talk. What was he trying to do?

By the end of the holidays, it was already confirmed that only the morning slot was appropriate for the mentoring sessions, as the teachers felt it was highly pivotal for the at-risk students to attend remedials and supplementary lessons rather than informal mentoring programmes in the afternoon. That was slightly disappointing, since I had duties in the morning and would not be able to witness the execution of the project. Darren and Willis were the main project coordinators, as they had no issue reporting early every day and had no morning duties.

An astounding number of mentors came from 5A (including Izumi) such that during the manpower selection, I suggested to Elise to have a quota on the number of mentors from each class. She said that was not fair. I guessed she knew I wanted to help Vera secure a slot as a mentor...and she eventually did without the quota being implemented. For the older students, Daniel’s father managed to recruit parent volunteers, thanks to him being in the parent volunteer exco.

That afternoon before Chinese supplementary, we had our first committee meeting of the third term.

“Willis, are you okay?” Daniel asked.

“Yes. I have a feeling I slept for only two hours last night. I shouldn’t have procrastinated,” Willis replied, trying to eat with his head resting on the table.

“Oh and are you alright?” I asked Xuanyu.

“Yes! Are you alright?” she asked back.

“I am asking you a serious question. I am afraid something happened to you!” I said.

“Nothing happened to me!” Xuanyu replied with a chuckle.

“Wow! Why are you so concerned about her life?” Kok Keong asked.

“I don’t think you will understand. You weren’t there,” I replied.

“Where? Hmm…” Kok Keong said.

“What is it that you are concerned about?” Jia Jie asked. “If it’s not too personal do you mind sharing with us?”

“Yup! We’re a team and we have one another’s back!” Daniel added.

Xuanyu just smiled at me and shrugged.

“Forget it!” I said. “Anyway, how was Phoenix this morning?”

“Really messy. Really really messy. We spent a long time trying to find a seat for everyone. There were some children who didn’t show up so we had to send the mentors and even parent volunteers back!” Darren said.

“Bro! You sent the parent volunteers back? They have to sacrifice their mornings to help our friends here! We need to look into that further,” Daniel said.

“My bad! I realised we could have gotten them to oversee the rooms, because Willis and I have to keep walking up and down. Or we should just create a whole new exco for Project Phoenix. Kok Keong! You are doing recess duties so you can help us in the morning! You still take the morning school bus right?” Darren said.

“Why is it me? I need that time in the morning to take a nap!” Kok Keong protested.

“I think Varunya might be interested,” Jerome said. “She was giving ideas for a Math programme Phoenix could have when we met last week, so including non-prefects will be good.”

“Was there an outing?” I asked.

“Just a mini class outing unrelated to the prefects or our committee, just to clarify,” Daniel replied. “You can come for the 5A outings next time if you are keen.”

“Good to include Khairul as well,” Willis said.

“You know what? I’ll create a Google form to ask which prefects can be the exco for Phoenix,” Kok Keong said.

We had hardly any time left so Daniel decided to propose something.

“Before we end, let’s think whether we can organise a Teachers’ Day programme for the end of term,” he said.

“Choir has a performance!” Stuart pointed out.

“And so does Band!” Vivian added. “And every performing art.”

I sensed a large boulder growing on my back. No doubt that the teachers’ burden was reduced, but the burden on us was increased - to the point where we had to juggle other commitments. Would FRansformed really lighten the load of the teachers? Or would it make them worry about us more? We needed to discuss this further the next day.

“Today was much better than yesterday!” Willis said during the next day’s meeting. “But I’m stressed about Teachers’ Day and the next projects.”

“You are not even in performing arts! Why worry about Teachers’ Day?” Vivian chuckled.

“Scouts is tiring too! How much energy do we need to plan for Teachers’ Day? Who plans it every year?” Willis said.

“I heard they are going to stop Teachers’ Day celebrations next year. We must make sure they continue no matter what. In the secondary school the prefects plan Teachers’ Day,” Jerome said.

“The problem is - which teachers usually plan it in our school? If we’re taking over the planning for Teachers’ Day, we are probably going to delay the dismissal time with other programmes added in,” I said.

“That’s true! What other programmes are we planning? If the programmes require teacher or parent volunteer supervision, I doubt you can consider them cool,” Daniel pointed out.

“Obvious prefect supervision,” Jia Jie said.

“I’m quite lost. Are we having any other project besides this? The one on love for the school?” Kok Keong asked.

“Argh! I’m even more lost!” Xuanyu grumbled.

“I’m still helping you with the timetable. Don’t worry,” I told her.

“We need to be quick! The teachers are hurrying us! They want updates on the time and stress management projects soon,” Darren said.

“We’re not even settled with Phoenix and we’re jumping into a new project! I haven’t created the form for the Phoenix exco!” Kok Keong said.

“Phoenix should be settled! Just start on a new one! We can’t waste time anymore!” Darren said.

“Why are you so desperate?” Elise asked. “Which teacher is rushing you? I don’t think our prefect teachers like to rush students.”

“Yeah, that time they even made us take a break before our mid-years!” Vivian said.

“Relax! It can be done! Can we have a new project name first?” Daniel asked.

“Project Pegasus?” Willis suggested.

“Sure! Who’s up for a meeting to do a proposal tonight?” Darren asked.

“Count me in!” I replied.

“Another one? I can’t,” Nazreen said.

“Same,” Xuanyu added.

“I’m very tired,” Stuart said.

That night, besides me, only Daniel, Darren, Jerome and Vivian showed up for the online meeting. We hardly added anything to the proposal, since Darren and Jerome were arguing in the chat most of the time. Darren was insisting that we should forge ahead regardless of the number of members at the meeting, whereas Jerome wanted the entire committee to plan together. In the end, we decided to cease the meeting when Vivian disappeared without warning. I was afraid. I sincerely wished that Vivian would not be the next Ariana. I needed to talk to people about this besides my siblings.

Seriously. Why was everyone losing passion in FRansformed?