I was told to prepare a script for my beginning of year speech on the first day of school. I would be the assembly leader and the one leading the school song, since I was in Choir, which means I would be the only student speaking that morning.

Before assembly commenced on the first day, Daniel, Ariana and I hung around in the PA room beside the announcement balcony. Daniel was talking to the Media Club students on audio duty (as usual), while Ariana and I talked about prefect duties.

“Doing the new duty roster will be tough. I’m not even prepared for the meeting later. Did you prepare?” Ariana asked.

“I’ll just say whatever I can. Did Daniel prepare anything?” I said.

“No, can you just say everything?”

“Oh yes! You take the one next Monday. We should make a roster for presenting too. Give Daniel as few chances as possible. He needs to stop getting all the attention!”

“Shhh...he can hear you. The roster is a good idea, but we can’t stay in this room every single morning assembly. We must think of something.”

“Didn’t we agree that one person stays here while the other two go somewhere else? Next Monday should be Daniel’s turn to lead the assembly, yours is on Tuesday, then Hui Wen, then Jia Jie. Let’s use this order.”

“How about Friday?”

“Random pick - Isabel.”

Our teacher-in-charge came and handed us our new badges. The shiny red badge I received screamed ‘SCHOOL CAPTAIN’.

I whispered to Ariana, “I’m in charge, not him.”

It was about time for me to proceed to the balcony to make the first announcement that morning assembly was about to begin. I took out my script for the speech and had a good look at it.

“Confident?” Daniel asked.

“Of course!” I replied.

“Actually, making a speech in front of the entire school shouldn’t be a big problem for you. I suggest that you try not to refer to your script later. Think about it as having a conversation with your friends. You are telling the school about our good news! If you cannot, it’s fine, but I highly recommend not to look at your script and look at the students instead,” Daniel said.

Daniel actually had a point. Making a speech without the script would make it more personal. I decided to give it a shot. I went forward to give the reminder that morning assembly was about to begin. Was the school surprised they did not hear Daniel’s voice? Time would tell. When it was time, I called the school to attention to sing the national anthem. After the national pledge, school song, school pledge and principal’s address, it was my turn to make the speech - while trying not to refer to my script.

“Good morning principals, teachers and FRLites. Time flies indeed. We’re already in the middle of the 2010s, how has school life been so far? Good? Terrible? Do not worry, for we have a plan. Yes, a plan. A plan. A plan for all of you!”

That was not working out, so I had to improvise…

“This plan is called FRansformed. Capital F, capital R, small a-n-s-f-o-r-m-e-d.”

Alright, that was clearly worse.

“Why? Because we want to ‘fransform’ the school.”

That was totally unintentional! It was ‘transform’ on my script!

“We want to make the school better. We want everyone to love and care for the school, even if you don’t right now. We are working on new projects, which will be open to all of you to join. If you remember, we have a box for you to drop your ideas, the online form too. Those are still available and you can always give us your new ideas. Yes, if you have new ideas, do drop them in the box or the online form.”

I was clearly repeating myself.

“School is a place to learn and make friends, but are you succeeding in those? If yes, good for you. We want to give everyone a chance to do something for the school and the community, so don’t hesitate and get involved! What kind of Flowing River Primary do you hope to see in the years to come? A dull one with a cold atmosphere, or a lively one with school spirit? Thank you and enjoy the new term.”

“A round of applause for Jordan!” a loud voice yelled, seemingly from 6A.

It sounded like Ethan, because he did something similar before. It was during the previous year, after Alicia’s first time leading the school song. He got told off for yelling Alicia’s name and getting others to cheer with him.

“Quiet!” another voice yelled, which sounded like Huayi.

After giving the announcements and asking the teachers to take over, I took out my script and almost fainted. I jumbled up a couple of sentences and omitted some points.

“Good job! Keep it up!” Daniel said to me.

I glared at him. How sarcastic could he get? I knew he was laughing at me at the back of his mind.

“You call that good? The whole school is going to remember me for this bad speech! And you told me not to refer to my script? Now look at what happened!” I said with a slightly raised voice.

“Bro, calm down...I didn’t say it was compulsory to not refer to your script. I like that big step you took! Keep it up!” Daniel said.

Good job Daniel Lim! Because of you I fumbled during my speech!

We proceeded to the auditorium for the first mass meeting of the year. The teachers had given us the green light to lead subsequent meetings too. Ariana had asked Willis to help with the presentation-slide clicking. Daniel had asked Stuart and Hui Wen to do the slides together (which I have not seen). It simply showed the pictures of the exco and some statistics, according to Willis. I told the P6s to sit in front while the P5s at the back and the exco would occupy the first row.

I made a grab for the microphone. “Hi, thanks for coming to our first meeting of the year. Please settle down.”

“Settle down! Are all of you deaf? Listen to the speaker!” Darren stood up and boomed at all the prefects behind him.

Willis whispered to me, “This is what happens when you’re not the School Captain and still want to be one.”

Unfortunately so, but I decided to thank Darren out loud. I began shortly.

“Once again, thank you to all of you for coming. Hope you enjoyed your holidays. First, let’s start with our exco!”

Willis clicked. I turned and saw a slide with header ‘FACILITIES’, as well as ‘SL’ and ‘VSL’ at the bottom.

“For facilities, we have Rayana as our section leader and Vivian as our vice!”

Daniel signalled for both of them to stand up while Willis clicked. The prefects seated burst into laughter. What I saw was a jumpshot of Vivian with his mouth open and his hands touching his head and a picture of Rayana slurping noodles.

“Erm...alright. Next up, for staircases, Khairul and Kok Keong!”

The pictures were Khairul only wearing swimming trunks floating on his back in a swimming pool and a tired Kok Keong sitting on a bench.

“Class buddies! For the first batch of classes, Elliot and Xuanyu!”

Elliot was grimacing in his picture and Xuanyu’s was her doing a cute pose in a skimpy outfit. I knew who contributed the pictures!

“Can I ask who contributed these pictures?” I asked.

Xuanyu raised her hand partially and gave me an awkward smile.

“You? Not surprising. I’ll come after you later!”

The prefects roared with laughter and Jia Jie was totally hysterical, slapping her thighs repeatedly.

“Silence! Can you let the speaker continue?” Darren yelled.

“Thanks again, Darren. For the second batch of class buddies, Nazreen and Priscilla!”

The pictures were Nazreen sleeping on a sofa and Priscilla staring at her phone.

“Assembly! We have Hui Wen and Jia Jie!”

The pictures were Hui Wen with a shocked expression and a grimacing Jia Jie holding the Chinese textbook.

“Are you ready for the secretary...Stuart!”

It was a picture of him yawning.

“Who are our vice-captains? Introducing...Daniel and Ariana!”

Daniel was in an awkward dance position in his picture while Ariana was eating a burger in hers. The prefects were chatting among themselves. They were probably confused about why Daniel was not the Captain.

“Hello! Continue the conversations later. I am Jordan, your school captain. Can I have silence please? You can always continue your conversations after this.”

The picture was a sweaty me, taken during the exco outing. I did the ‘I am watching you’ gesture to Xuanyu.

“It’s time to get serious, really. I want to congratulate all of you for making it as prefects. Ask yourself. Why do you want to be a prefect? Why didn’t you say ‘no’ when your teacher chose you? You shouldn’t be a prefect because you want to show off. If you’re staying here for prestige, the door is there, you are welcome to leave. Really. You don’t get a testimonial for completing primary school so nobody will care much about your leadership positions in primary school. If you’re staying here, you must have the heart to serve the school. I don’t care about how much you love the school, just do your part.”

The next part was the analysis of survey responses collected during the outing. Ariana suddenly felt confident of presenting and asked if she could take over. I let her, but reminded her not to let Daniel say a word. The results showed that the majority of P6 prefects gave a neutral rating for how much they enjoyed their experience thus far. Jerome and Xin Jie would conduct the survey for the P5s on that day and the next Monday. Ariana announced that we would have separate morning meetings to address the survey the next Monday and Tuesday for the P6s and P5s respectively. After she ended, I called for the exco to stay behind.

Huayi approached me. “Dude! How on earth did you become School Captain? This is a mistake! You guys think you are so great and can fransform the school?”

“If you think you can do a better job, give us your ideas! I don’t care how many you give but I will look at them. If you are not interested at all, just quit. Don’t forget to write me your letter of resignation!” I answered.

Huayi glared at me and walked out. I gathered the rest of the exco while our teacher spoke to Xuanyu.

“How can the both of you use those pictures? I know you want to crack jokes but this is not the right time for it! And you didn’t do anything when the photographer’s picture of herself was the odd one out! Next time, use the pictures taken for installation last year or more proper ones!” I chided Stuart and Hui Wen.

“Yeah! I knew it was her because I saw the pictures on Facebook and hers wasn’t an unglam! I was dying!” Jia Jie chuckled.

“Did you two go on dates?” Kok Keong asked with raised eyebrows.

“Can all of you honestly stop this Xuanyu prank? I don’t find it funny. We didn’t have time to do the duty reshuffling, but we must by next Tuesday. When are all of you free to meet up for an important meeting?” I said.

“Anytime! I don’t have Friday fellowship this month. Who is free this afternoon? There’s no CCA so maybe we can go out!” Daniel said.

“Not me,” Kok Keong said. “I don’t know when I can join again. I really need to take care of my siblings today.”

“It’s okay, family is important. Let us know if you need help and send my regards to them. Ask them if I can come again. The rest? Are all of you free?” Daniel said.

“I’m not,” Stuart said.

“Are you going to sleep again?” Hui Wen asked.

“No, my parents want me to go home. Just email me what I need to do,” Stuart said.

The rest were able to make it. They just had to inform their parents. We needed to settle the main duties of the exco and probably some plans for FRansformed.

“Willis is quite shocked that you are the Captain!” Ariana told me while we left the auditorium.

“Everyone was!” Rayana added. “Huayi kept saying it was impossible!”

“I already told him that if he’s not interested, he can just leave. We must get our other prefect classmates to deal with him,” I said.

“Even Li Xuan and Sylvia were shocked! Let’s see what they say when we are back in class,” Vivian said.

I entered my class, walked by Vera, Clarice and Joey back to my seat beside Sonia. Had anyone seen my red badge? I doubt any of them knew that the Captain wore a red badge. Not even my teacher (the same one) bothered to ask. Sonia was the first to ask me, right before we were dismissed for recess.

“Your badge is now red...what? School Captain? I thought Daniel is the Captain?” Sonia said.

“Who told you? They’re wrong! Surprise!” I replied.

“Woah! Good job! How does it feel to be the Captain?”

“Amazing! I can finally overpower that Daniel Lim Jia Jun. I messed up my speech because of him! He told me not to refer to my script! He only started learning the bass last year and he’s already better than me. He knows a lot more songs than me as well. He is friends with all the P6 prefects, so I must befriend all of them too. I can’t let him get all the attention to himself!”

“Good luck with the friend-making man. I’m a quiet girl. I can’t make friends.”

“You did a good job befriending me! You aren’t that bad!”

I was about to exit the class when I found out that Vera, Joey, Clarice and Graham had left without me. That was the first time Vera did not wait for me. Besides the issue about going out with Joey, I did not have any problem with Vera. She was her usual self during the outings with my siblings and other friends. Things seemed suspicious.

I caught up with Li Xuan.

“We’re still sitting at the same seats, do you like that?” I asked.

“Of course not. Why were those pictures used?” Li Xuan asked with a chuckle.

“Hui Wen’s idea. She downloaded them from Xuanyu’s Facebook page. Forget that. Were you surprised that I’m the Captain?”

“Yes! Everyone was! People were already saying that Daniel is the Captain but now it’s you!”

“Isn’t that good? I can finally stop Daniel from having all the power to himself! I didn’t take the position from him, he gave it to me.”

“That must be very nice of him!”

“I don’t know what his motive is, but I’ll see.”

At that point, Vera appeared beside me.

“I drank too much water, so I went to the toilet,” she said.

I was relieved. She did not leave without me! I signalled to Li Xuan to stay silent, as I wanted to see if Vera noticed my red badge.

“I’m going out with the exco today!” I told her.

“Ooh! Have fun! Is there Project Phoenix next week?”

“No, I need to discuss with the exco.”

We went to sit with our friends in the cafeteria.

“What? You’re the School Captain? No wonder you made the speech in the morning!” Clarice said. She was really sharp.

“I thought you said you are the Vice?” Joey asked.

“Ha! Surprise!” I said.

“Yay!” Vera clapped her hand gently.

“I’m sorry about the horrible speech I made, because Daniel Lim told me not to refer to my script while making it. Look at how nasty one can be! So, we’ve kept a secret from the school to be revealed today. Daniel was really selected by the teachers to be the Captain, but on the last day of school last year, he told me I had potential and wanted to switch with me. I don’t know why he thinks so highly of me but I agreed, so I can finally overpower him. He needs to stop getting all the attention in school,” I rattled.

“You made a mistake,” Graham said. “You’re going to do badly this year.”

“How do you know? I studied twice as hard in December. I finished reading the Science and Chinese textbooks. My siblings helped me. Since our teachers don’t care, I started doing the English stellar worksheets. My goal this year is to beat Daniel Lim’s PSLE score. I want to learn a new instrument. I told Leo to start learning one too,” I said.

“You want to learn a new instrument? You’re making things worse. Isn’t Leo doing quite badly? You’re making him do worse!” Graham said.

“I’ll prove to you that music does not affect your grades!” I said.

“Why didn’t you come out with us?” Joey asked.

“Didn’t I say I had an outing with the prefects? I’m going out with my exco again later, because we need to settle some duty stuff,” I replied.

“You’re always busy with the prefects! Why can’t you spend time with friends?” Joey said.

“How am I not spending time with friends? I need to make friends with all the prefects before Daniel overpowers me!” I said.

“Can you stop? Don’t make her cry again!” Graham said.

“Yeah! What happened to working in peace with him?” Clarice said.

Vera asked me, “There is no recess duty today? I see a lot of 6A prefects over there.”

“There isn’t until sometime next week, and I’m going to accidentally walk over there after I finish my food,” I said.

Joey did not seem happy. I did not feel guilty at all for not spending more time with my group of friends, but craved for more time spent with the prefects. When I walked over to where the 6A students were seated, Willis called out to me.

“I forgot to say, congratulations!” he said.

“Oh, thanks.” I replied.

“Why did you and Daniel keep your position switch a secret? You guys are funny! Izumi said.”

“Yeah it’s not even April Fools!” Hannah added.

“Will we have a FRansformed meeting?” Elise asked.

“I don’t mind having a committee or project outing again, but I need to discuss this with the exco. Do you still want your morning and recess duties?” I said.

“I still want them. Will you change?” Elise said.

“We will try not to change, but we have to make sure everyone does enough,” I said.

Being the School Captain was exciting yet daunting. The first day was not that bad. Many of those I talked to were not opposing my appointment as Captain. Was anyone against me? That was unlikely, since I did not do nasty things to others. Anyone who opposed me because of Daniel would be truly naive. I needed to prove to the school that Daniel should not get all the attention. How about Huayi? Rayana had agreed to join me in convincing Huayi that the exco truly wanted to help the school.

After school, the exco, except Stuart and Kok Keong, gathered after school. Jerome and Xin Jie wanted to join us too. Daniel let them join because he wanted them to have an experience of an exco meeting and to facilitate communication too. We proceeded to Lakeridge Point for lunch then to Emerald Lake Park for our meeting.

“Hope everyone is comfortable sitting down here. May I know who will be doing the typing today? Stuart is not here,” I said.

“What do we need to type?” Rayana asked. “I know a lot of you have experience in this because of FRansformed.”

“I can let you type. It’s not hard. You can just type whatever we say. Stuart is the one who will help to make it neater,” I said.

“I can help too!” Khairul said.

Rayana and Khairul took charge of typing in the discussion points that day. Ariana and Jia Jie volunteered to guide them.

“Firstly, thank you Jerome and Xin Jie for joining us today. Do you have anything to say?” I said.

“I should be thanking all of you instead! Xin Jie and I wanted to join the meeting today because we feel it will be easier to discuss the survey results. We were afraid we would disrupt your exco’s work, but thanks for letting us come,” Jerome said.

“Come on! Don’t feel bad! We’re very happy to have you here! We welcome anyone! We’re an open door exco!” Daniel said.

“Open door? You mean we let anyone in?” Elliot asked.

“Do you think that can happen?” Jia Jie asked.

“Alright, back to Jerome and Xin Jie. How was the work?” I asked.

“Bad! You people just give me a namelist and expect me to know who they are? I gave up during the outing after I found out I asked Ian twice. It’s quite hard for me to look for the P5s too,” Xin Jie said.

“I asked a few just now. Abner and Adam helped me to ask all the prefects in 5A. Abner asked some from other classes too and some random P5s texted me,” Jerome said.

“Abner! What is he trying to do? You must stop him!” Jia Jie said to me.

For a second, I thought she meant I should stop Abner from overpowering me. It seemed unlikely, because Abner was not well known in school as far as I knew. I realised what she meant when Xuanyu spoke.

She said, “Abner messaged me a lot during the holidays. I think Alex is right that he likes me.”

“What? Abner likes you?” Hui Wen, who overheard, asked Xuanyu.

“He doesn’t!” I said.

“How do you know?” Priscilla asked with a chuckle.

“I heard from someone, I think it’s Lawrence or someone else in 6A that Abner likes Xuanyu because of what she wears,” Vivian said.

“Did Sean say something similar?” Jerome said.

“Who likes someone because of what she wears? That is stupid! I know people like people because of looks, but does she look good enough for Abner? And is her skin nice enough?” Khairul said with a chuckle.

“She may not now, but I believe she will grow to be pretty,” I said, and everyone started making noises.

Why did I even say that?

Back to the topic, Jerome and Xin Jie said that many of the prefects enjoyed the activities such as the camp we organised, but they found their duties quite challenging at times. We decided that consultation was the best way to find out how the prefectorial experience could be improved. We had done consultation on a larger scale for FRansformed, but we realised we also needed to do so on a smaller scale in the prefectorial board.

“Next is the duties. For next week, can we go in this order for assembly leaders? Daniel, Ariana, Hui Wen, Jia Jie? I will ask Isabel to lead on Friday. We had feedback that previous exco members don’t really have anything to do. So, on Monday, we’ll give you time to break out into your duty groups and get to know them and get feedback and so on. Your badges have different colours from the rest, so make sure it’s for a real reason. We are also exploring new duties, so does anyone have suggestions?” I said.

“Not sure if it’s allowed but can we have prefects rostered for mental health?” Jerome asked.

“Isn’t that Project Pegasus?” Vivian asked.

“No, these prefects should be ready anytime to deal with issues,” Jerome clarified.

“Do you want to take charge of it?” I asked.

“I don’t mind helping out but I’m not sure if I can be the leader because I need to lead the Boys Brigade,” Jerome said.

“Good suggestion. We can actually combine that with Pegasus. Maybe we can think about whether we need more morning duties? More recess duties? Which areas in school need more prefects?” Daniel said.

“More morning duties,” Nazreen said. “A lot of kids make noise and run around.”

“The latecoming duty prefects handle them! But I can tell them to go earlier because we usually go around 7.15,” Hui Wen said.

For the next few moments, Daniel read out the feedback he got from seniors and what could be done to address them. Then, we talked about the smaller-group meetings.

“We plan to have smaller group meetings to understand our prefects better. Ariana, Daniel and I will take two to three each. They can take place in the morning or during recesses and lunches. We don’t need a lot of time. Shall we let some non-excos do the schedule?” I said.

“Yes, yes. Nominations?” Daniel said.

“From my class, I’d nominate Irfan!” Hui Wen said.

“Irfan? Does he even care? He didn’t even want to go for the outing!” Xin Jie said.

“Get him involved then!” Daniel said. “That’s the point of decentralising!”

“6C? How about Clarissa?” Jerome asked.

Xuanyu whispered to me, “How?”

“Nothing. I need to ask her again,” I replied.

“How about Huayi from 6B?” Rayana asked.

“Huayi! Are you sure? We need to gang up with the other prefects in our class first!” I said.

“Wow what’s going on?” Priscilla asked.

“Just getting someone involved!” I replied.

“I just texted Clarissa. She can help out,” Jerome said.

“Oh nice! I’ll look for her next Monday,” I said.

And you told someone you will go after her!” Jia Jie said.

Many prefects had to leave early so we ended the meeting before we could talk about FRansformed. What a long day! I already felt the pressure! Abner Teo felt like someone worth observing, but he showed no signs of danger so far. The competition with Daniel was still on.

The next Monday, prefect duties had not resumed, so I stayed in class before assembly. I gathered Li Xuan and Sylvia to talk about persuading Huayi to take up the role as scheduler for the small group meetings. Vivian came later and agreed to join us.

“Can I ask you for a favour?” I said to Huayi.

“What is it again?” he asked in an annoyed tone.

“We’re giving you the chance to help the exco. Do you want to help?” Vivian asked.

“What are all of you trying to do? Tell me what it is!” Huayi said.

“The School Vice Captains, Ariana and Daniel, and I are having small group meetings with all of you to know more about you-” I said.

“The three of you don’t need to know anything about me! You’re just power hungry. Just mind your own business!” Huayi said.

“They care about you, that’s why!” Rayana popped in.

“Wh- why am I surrounded by all of you?” Huayi said.

“Because we want to show you’re doing a good thing if you help!” Sylvia said.

“Indeed!” I said. “We’re giving you a chance to help to create the schedule for these meetings.”

“No!” Huayi said firmly.

“Just do it!” Sylvia said.

“No! You being Captain is a mistake!” Huayi raised his voice.

“No it’s not! It’s your mistake for not helping!” a voice from outside the class shouted - it was Ethan.

“You again! Why do you always have to care about what’s happening here? You got kicked out because you didn’t do a good job!” Huayi yelled at him.

“Right! I willingly quit because people have a stereotype about prefects! If you’re shouting at me like that, people can report you so that you’ll be fired! I’m not a prefect but I still helped with FRansformed and the Teachers’ Day dinner and Daniel says I’m good! Did you help? No!” Ethan yelled back.

“Hey hey hey! What’s the issue?” Jerome came and told Ethan to go back.

Jerome walked in and tried explaining to Huayi, but he refused to help. Sylvia volunteered instead. Jerome then apologised to us and left.

Ethan raised a valid point! People often believe that prefects must behave in a certain manner. Was that true?

After assembly, we had the P6 prefects meeting. I got Xin Jie to host the first part of it. Stuart took charge of keying in the ideas.

“Our target is for the average rating of our prefect experience to increase to eight by the end of this year. Can you give some suggestions on how we can improve?” Xin Jie said.

“What can we do? We need to study for our PSLE!” Huayi said.

“Yeah, I want to get into Express!” Isabel added.

“Relax man!” Daniel said. “It’s an exam but it’s not that big a deal! You still have bigger exams coming up!”

Darren spoke, “We want to be inclusive! So we must give the weaker prefects tuition!”

“Sure! Any other suggestions? Anything about the selection of prefects?” I asked.

I wanted to see if anyone had opinions on that.

“Do voting!” a girl said.

“Wow! Voting of leaders! Don’t bring democracy into the school!” Daniel said with a chuckle.

“Demo- what?” Xin Jie said.

“Anyone else? Don’t be shy, we can put up a Google Form if you’re not comfortable sharing here. I think there will be a lot of problems if we do voting for prefects. Thanks for bringing that up,” I said.

No one else said anything until Daniel tried prompting. I had no idea what kind of sorcery Daniel had to do that. Anyway, Willis, Clarissa and Izumi wanted more activities.

Next, Stuart showed the duty roster for assembly leaders for the next two weeks. I then facilitated the updating of duties, and got Izumi to replace my previous morning duty. When it was time to have the chit-chat sessions in duty groups, Daniel told me, Ariana and Stuart to sit into any group we wanted to know more about. I joined the Assembly group.

“Hi!” I said as I sat beside Hui Wen.

“Hi!” Hui Wen and Megan replied.

“I don’t really have a duty area to lead so I join you today. Should we have a chat with the other assembly leaders too?” I said.

“If there’s time, yes! They’re all over the place! What do you guys want to talk about?” Jia Jie said.

“I have never seen all of you doing your duties before, so I’m curious about what you actually do and how you find it. Can we start with you? What’s your name?” I said to a girl, whom I later found out was Kamon Chanthahom.

“Kamon. I do my duty at the back gate. I catch latecomers. I think my job is quite hard because there are students who don’t listen to us,” she said.

“That was why I wanted to switch with Vivian!” Isabel said. “Now I have to come back because he is the Section Leader for some recess duties! Oh and my name is Isabel for those who don’t know.”

“How do you feel about coming back?” Hui Wen asked.

“No feeling, I just hope it will be better,” Isabel replied.

“Yeah I hope those hooligans won’t give us trouble!” Megan added.

“You mean people like Channing?” I asked.

“He doesn’t come late for school,” Jia Jie said.

“Oh, I didn’t ask my brother. He’s now my brother’s classmate and I heard a lot of bad things about him. So, morning duties should resume by Wednesday after the exco meets the P5s. Hui Wen will be leading the assembly so I’ll take over her on Wednesday. Daniel and Ariana will sometimes check out what you’re up to as well, because we’re studying new morning duties,” I said.

“What kind of duties?” Isabel asked.

“Patrolling,” Jia Jie replied. “Because kids make too much noise in the morning.”

The teachers gave the green light for recess duties to be resumed that day. Prefects on duty during recess were given permission to be late ten minutes into the next lesson, as they needed time to consume their food. I was allowed to do so when I was overseeing those on recess duty. I went back to class and told Vera that I would not join her and the rest for recess that day and probably another day that week. She told me to have fun.

That recess, I ended up eating bread in the cafeteria because I decided to brief Sylvia about her task first. I then headed over to the aquarium to look for Clarissa. I patted her head.

“Er...I don’t think I really have any feelings for you now,” she said.

“Oh, great. Who do you like now?” I asked.

“No one, and you’re here quite early today!”

“I’m now allowed to have the extra ten minutes! But I’ve eaten because I was briefing Sylvia in the cafeteria.”

“Oh! You’re the Captain! How does it feel to be the Captain?”

“Awesome! I can finally overpower Daniel! He needs to stop getting all the attention, really. I need to brief you about the small group meetings.”

“Jerome already did.”

“Then tell me what you remember.”

“The meetings are in groups of two or three? Everyone will meet you or the two Vice Captains? I’m supposed to create a Google Form with Sylvia and send it to everyone? Then make a schedule?”

“How will you decide which prefect to allocate to me, Ariana or Daniel?”

“Ask them?”

“No! Don’t do that. Just make sure the three of us get around the same number of prefects. Try to allocate based on their preferred time.”

Even though I had eaten, I still stayed behind to interact with the other prefects for the additional ten minutes. Ariana and Daniel were there too, but I chatted with Elise and Clarissa mostly.

The next morning, we had the same meeting with the P5s, hosted by Jerome. They were more proactive, with many suggestions coming in. One boy identified the areas which needed prefects to patrol in the morning, such as the first floor corridors and cafeteria. Another suggested having after-school duties, which was strongly objected to by the rest. Some were quite enthusiastic about Project Phoenix and wanted to help out as overseers. Jerome announced if the P5s would be keen on a pilot Project Pegasus, a few were.

That batch seemed to have potential. Daniel suggested to me that we could have the P5s to indicate if they were interested in being an exco member and what position they would prefer. That was actually a good idea.

The next morning, I looked for Jia Jie upon reaching school. Together, we looked for Megan, Kamon and Isabel. Isabel had not arrived yet, so I told her classmates to tell her to meet us at the ground floor upon arriving. We then looked for the P5s in charge of catching latecomers and proceeded to the ground floor. One of the P5s was Adam Rabiul, who was one of the more enthusiastic responders the day before.

“We confirmed the new duty roster yesterday. We should get some to patrol the school in the morning,” Adam said while we were walking along the first floor classrooms.

“The problem is that a lot won’t want to wake up earlier and patrol the school when they are still tired. Looks like we’re the ones doing it,” Jia Jie said.

“Yes, we have to. If you can, be here by seven and I think you can walk around until 7.15, then standby at both gates,” I said.

I managed to get a better idea of what these prefects on latecomer duty usually did. The next day, I decided to oversee the recess duties, first attaching myself to Viktoriya at the field.

“Hello! How are you?” I asked her.

“Bad! I can’t believe we’re already P6! I’m feeling the stress!” she groaned.

“You’ll do fine.”

“You’re like Daniel! Yesterday during recess he said that primary school is easy and we shouldn’t study the whole time!”

“Unfortunately I have to agree with him. The syllabus is so little that I get bored of studying the same thing over again. I look forward to secondary school.”

“I wish I’m as hardworking as you.”

“Don’t worry. Anyway, do you have any problems with your duty so far?”

“People just don’t listen to me, what can we do?”

“Their problem. Anyway, did Huayi tell you anything this year?”

“I think so? He talked about a crazy kid from 6A and…”

“And?”

“Do you want to hear? It’s about you.”

“I know he doesn’t want me to be the Captain, but too bad! He has to deal with it. He doesn’t like how a lot of us in the exco are from the FRansformed committee. A lot of kids from 6A are crazy.”

“How do I join that committee? I kind of want to help watch the morning tutoring.”

“We did ask everyone to join last year. Even Huayi was there when we announced. I need to ask the teachers when Project Phoenix will resume. Last year, Darren, Willis and Khairul were the ones watching. I can let them know you want to help. You can get some others to help too. We’re letting non-prefects have chances to take charge. For the survey, we put Jerome and Xin Jie in charge and for the scheduling for our small group meetings Clarissa and Sylvia volunteered to help.”

“Jerome is not in the exco? He behaves like one of you! Oh wait, his picture wasn’t up there.”

I was glad that Viktoriya was willing to help, as Darren would be replacing Daniel as a class buddy in the morning. I went to look for Eng Soon in the library next.

“How’s your duty so far?” I asked him.

“Good! Nothing much to do,” he replied.

“Do you want more things? You can take over Khairul for being one of the ICs for Project Phoenix in the morning.”

“Must I come to school earlier?”

“Mentors reach at seven. You can come a bit later, but not too late please. Before I forget, what has Huayi been telling you?”

“Rubbish. I don’t listen to him. He keeps saying the exco is bad and Daniel will be a better Captain. I don’t mind either of you as the Captain.”

“We must show him that Daniel won’t be a better Captain. Even now, he’s trying to overpower me.”

“What does he do?”

“He doesn’t show it obviously, but you can tell during meetings. I’m serious. Just ignore Huayi and help us more. I need to tell Li Xuan to do more work too. Huayi will feel left out and guilty one day!”

That was great! I got Eng Soon to help out with Phoenix. The teachers gave us the go ahead to resume the project the next week, which was a good thing.

That weekend, I was watching the second episode of The Voice Kids Aquapolis with my siblings. We were getting bored until we caught a glimpse of a familiar face… It was still the blind auditions and Daniel was in the waiting room entertaining the other contestants with You Give Love A Bad Name. I thought I was hallucinating at first, but it was clear that Daniel would love going for such competitions.

He was actually interviewed. He said, “I love music! It’s a fun way to inspire and make others happy!”

Say that into Graham’s face! It was expected that Daniel would entertain others during such times. I wondered how many friends he aimed to make by participating in The Voice Kids. Would he clear the audition?

When it was time for him to face the audience, a familiar riff began playing - Light My Fire. Did he actually take me seriously when I told him to sing that?

“Hello everyone? How are you doing? This is Light My Fire! Rock on!” he said.

He was the only contestant who said such things so far, and Rebecca said he was really bold to do so (more like attention-seeking). Daniel started the song off quite well in our opinion, until the end of the second chorus. He did a split, bent down and screamed “Fire!” into the microphone. The camera switched to show the expressions of the shocked judges. Daniel did the same thing another time and for the last line of the song, he screamed it and ended up in a prostrate position. He then shouted “Thank you!” before getting up.

I was actually laughing at him. He was foolish enough to take my suggestion for the audition song. In fact, I had no idea he was going to participate in a competition. Early into the song, the judges seemed to be contemplating hard on whether to press the button. In the end, they agreed he had passion but should organise his personal concert rather than participate in a competition. Ha!

English mentoring for Project Phoenix resumed the next Monday. I decided to attach myself there, as I had not seen how it was actually run. Vera and I walked to the venue together and we bumped into Jia Jie on our way.

“Did you watch The Voice Kids?” I asked her.

“Yes! I was about to ask you! Daniel’s so going to be famous!” she said.

“What? What happened?” Vera asked.

“When you go home today, watch the replay of Saturday’s episode. Skip to Daniel’s performance,” Jia Jie replied.

“He was foolish enough to take my suggestion! I told him to sing Light My Fire and shout the lyrics! See! He got disqualified!” I chuckled.

“You’re so bad!” Jia Jie slapped my shoulder. “You could have gotten him into trouble! I told him to sing Payphone but he said other contestants will sing it and it’s better for him to sing something more unique!”

Vera and I proceeded to the venue where we saw Xin Yi.

“Did you guys see Daniel’s audition? I didn’t even know he took part! I should have gone there to support him!” she said.

“But too bad! I told him to sing Light My Fire like that and he listened to me! Wow!” I added.

“Yeah, the judges though!” Hannah said.

“The judges were telling the truth,” I pointed out.

“Hey! You’re here today!” Abner came and said to me.

“Yes I’ll be having a look here today,” I replied.

“When’s Project Pegasus starting?” Abner asked.

“I need to discuss with the rest first and we’ll get back to you,” I said.

“We should start something!” Hannah said to Xin Yi.

“Thanks, but don’t do too much. I need to give the non-exco prefects things to do,” I said.

“Hey, Aloe Vera is getting ignored,” Xin Yi whispered to me.

“Vera!” Hannah shouted to Vera who was blanking out. “Join us!”

I walked to Vera. “Yes! Come and make friends!”

“Hi Aloe Vera!” Xin Yi said.

“Don’t be mean!” Hannah chided her.

“It’s okay. My buddy for this English mentoring likes to call me that,” Vera said.

“Your name is Vera?” Abner asked Vera, who nodded gently. “My name is Abner.”

“I just thought of something. Project Daniellimjiajun!” Xin Yi said.

“Really? Project Daniellimjiajun? What can we do about it?” I said.

“Watch Daniel sing and dance!” Xin Yi said.

“He’s going to be so tired! Get some others to join him!” Abner said.

“Tired? Have you seen a tired Daniel before?” Hannah asked Xin Yi.

“No? He can sing and dance nonstop!” Xin Yi said.

“Wow! Maybe this project can be about entertainment?” Abner said.

Did I hear wrongly? Daniel would never go tired? I believed the two of them were merely exaggerating. He could have the stamina of an athlete realistically speaking.

Anyway, the session began soon and I told Willis and Khairul that I found new prefects to oversee the project. Khairul went up to fetch Eng Soon and Viktoriya down, then with Willis, briefed them on what to do. I occasionally talked to some student mentors and was glad to discover they enjoyed the project.

During recess, Daniel called me and Ariana for a short chat regarding the small group meetings. He printed out the allocations for us and got us to think of questions to ask them. We came to a consensus that questions to ask should pertain to prefectorial expectations and goals. I would have my first meeting with Xuanyu and her classmate Cynthia the next recess, and another with Li Xuan, Vivian and Sylvia during lunch the next day.

I totally did not prepare any questions. I met Xuanyu and Cynthia with a blank mind.

“Do you know the purpose of this interview?” I asked.

Why did I say ‘interview’?

“To get to know each other and talk about some prefect things,” Cynthia said.

“Yes. I want to find out how your life as a prefect has been so far and what you want to achieve. We can start with you,” I said.

“Erm...I was quite surprised when I got selected at the start of P5. I was quite excited too. It’s nice to be a class buddy and it feels good when the students of the class call me when they see me. What do I want to achieve? I don’t know. Xuanyu can start,” Cynthia said.

“Kill me already! My job is so hard!” Xuanyu groaned.

“It’s just the start. You will learn. What problems do you have so far?” I asked.

“I don't know what to do! Elliot, Nazreen and Priscilla don't know too! We just walk around and go back to our classes,” Xuanyu said.

“Hmm..we'll talk about that during our next exco meeting. What do you want to achieve?”

“Just enjoy my work and learn to lead. Now I feel bad for letting you do everything last year!”

Indeed, we had settled the problem of the idle Captains and Vice Captains, but not the somewhat idle Class buddies Section Leaders. They should not only walk along corridors in the morning. I had to get opinions.

During lunch before supplementary, I had the meeting with Li Xuan, Sylvia and Vivian.

“So, I’d like to know how you found your prefect experience so far,” I said.

“Tiring, but worth it,” Vivian said. “I think I can manage my time better now. It’s quite fun to plan activities and lead others.”

“That’s good! What do you hope to achieve as a prefect this year?”

“Become a better person. I want to learn to be more patient and be able to manage more duties. I also want to be closer to all of you guys and have fun during our meetings and outings. I want to be a good senior to the P5s and new P4s coming in soon and help them improve themselves.”

“I can see you’re doing a good job. Sylvia! How about you?” I said.

“Quite fun! You and your exco are really awesome! I didn’t expect you guys to let me do some work! All of you are really nice too! What I want to achieve is new friends and more support,” Sylvia said.

“For me, the experience is also tiring, especially when I need to present. I thank the exco for giving me a chance to take charge of things. I hope I can improve my speaking skills, because I am quite scared of presenting,” Li Xuan said.

“I shall share what I hope to achieve too. Leadership is a mysterious concept. I want to discover the truth behind it,” I said.

“What do you mean? I remember you talking about this when you talk about Daniel. It’s about selection of prefects?” Vivian said.

“Yes! If only I could help the teachers with the choosing of junior leaders next month! I want to end all this unfairness!” I said.

“Try asking the teachers! I don’t think you can help them with that. What can you do? Appoint more non-exco members to be spies for the candidates?” Vivian said.

“I’ll think about that. Another question. What do you think about your class buddy SLs and VSLs only walking around and doing nothing else? Xuanyu raised this,” I said.

“What can they do?” Li Xuan chuckled.

“From what I understand that day, the exco are trying to get to know us and how we are doing as class buddies?” Sylvia said.

“Yes, that's what the exco is trying to do for each group of prefects. Priscilla told me that she’s not sure what to do for the class buddy prefects in the morning. I told her to wait for instructions. I think we can discuss. No rush,” Vivian said.

Being the Captain was certainly not easy. More and more problems were dropping in. Besides these meetings, I also had the refining of the exco members duties and the pilot Project Pegasus on my plate.

I had more small group meetings that week, until Friday, when we had our second exco meeting, which included Clarissa and Sylvia. It was shocking to discover that many did not have goals for themselves. That included some of those I spoke to, like Novan and Felicia. On the bright side, there were some who set very clear goals. As such, we concluded that we should introduce more bonding activities as well as possible life skills workshops. But, who would lead those workshops?

We then talked about the refined duties of the exco members. Daniel pointed out that the Section Leaders and their vices need not do additional work in the morning or during recess, but rather engage the other prefects and possibly act as mediators should any issues arise. That made more sense, admittedly.

Jia Jie then began talking about the pilot Project Pegasus. She said Hannah, Zoey, Xin Yi and Lawrence had already begun planning for it. So far, they suggested the best time for the project to be executed would be before morning assembly, meaning it would run concurrently with Project Phoenix. I felt bad as a Captain. Non-prefects were so much more proactive than me. I had to start asking for opinions the next week.

The next Monday morning, I decided to oversee Project Phoenix. Meanwhile, I asked Willis, Viktoriya and Eng Soon for their opinions regarding the plans for Project Pegasus. Viktoriya and Eng Soon were fine with having it concurrent with Phoenix, whereas Willis raised concerns about students involved in Phoenix being unable to attend as well as lack of manpower. I looked forward to hearing more opinions during recess.

While walking to the cafeteria during recess, Joey asked me, “Will you be eating with us today?”

“I’m sorry. I have urgent things,” I replied.

“Again? Can't you take a break?”

“I want to, but I need to stop Daniel from overpowering me. He always gives better suggestions than me! I’m already very sick of this. He’s only a student and he’s treated like an idol! This girl called Xin Yi who wants to start a Project Daniellimjiajun! I can't let it be called that! What is he? A rockstar, a person who attracts loads of girls, loads of attention, a 'perfect' leader, a genius. Really, I need to stop him.”

“What a loser. You shouldn't have become the Captain because it made you worse! You said things between you and him were okay last year.”

“I hoped so, but I changed my mind after the gathering at his house. Can you believe it? He's going to win Leo in his knowledge of songs.”

Vera asked, “What does Leo listen to again?”

“Insanely more than me! He listens to a lot of prog, a lot of stuff like New Order and Kraftwerk, Steppenwolf, boy bands like Boyzone and Backstreet Boys, a lot of disco like Boney M, a lot others like Beyond, Grasshopper, Steven Liu and a lot of Japanese songs I don't know. He has a whole checklist of albums on his computer,” I said.

“Together both of you can learn more songs than Daniel! You can do it!” Vera said.

“Thanks, I really needed that,” I said, raising an eyebrow at Joey.

I made my way to the garden to talk to Elina. I waved at her, but she instantly turned away (or did I see wrongly?).

“Hello!” I greeted her.

“Hello,” she replied, trying not to maintain eye contact with me.

“Is everything fine? How’s your duty?”

“Just don’t bother me.”

“It’s something important and I need your help. We’re starting a trial Project Pegasus and we want to know what's the best time for it.”

“Why do you keep bothering people? You shouldn’t have swapped with Daniel!”

“Honestly, are you kidding me? I am doing my job and what makes you think that Daniel will be a better Captain than me?”

“He just is, don’t bother me.”

I was taken aback. I sincerely hoped that Elina was in a bad mood and did not mean what she said. She had been quite friendly to me but she seemed to become hostile. I looked for Elise and confided in her. She had no clue about how Elina had been but she supported the proposed timeslot for Project Pegasus and said I did a good job as a Captain. The same went for Clarissa. I then went back to the cafeteria to have a chat with Rayana.

“What do you actually think about Pegasus being at the same time as Phoenix?” I asked her.

“It’s good, but we need more prefects to help with it,” she replied.

“Yes, non-prefects are good too. Do you think Daniel will be a better Captain than me?”

“I don’t really know. Why?”

“Elina said that. She’s quite cold too.”

“I don’t want to say this but a lot don't like you being the Captain."

"We'll prove them wrong then! Daniel can't get all the power!"

It was only the beginning of 2015 and people were already opposing me? I ranted to Vera about it. She said she saw Daniel greeting many students he came across every morning and he had been doing that for a long time. What a popularity chaser! I wanted to try doing the same.

The next morning, I thought it was a good time to try out greeting the students, so I stationed myself with Hui Wen who was patrolling the vehicle drop off point. She clarified that Daniel did not station himself somewhere to greet students, but rather did so throughout the day. She was right, because I saw him doing that. I told her to join me in greeting students, and she agreed. After five minutes of greeting students, we decided to stop. The way they responded to us was starkly different as compared with Daniel. Seriously, why would that person be so revered?

That recess, I was not in the mood to talk to prefects, so I asked Vera to eat with me solo. I ranted about what happened in the morning and how I felt about Daniel to her. As usual, she could not do much, but would provide a listening ear as always. Suddenly, Hannah approached us.

“Hi! Want some good news?” she said.

I sighed. “I hope it’s about Pegasus.”

“Uh...not really. During your exco meeting you guys talked about a life skills workshop?”

“Yes. What about it?”

“Ethan Tay is starting the first session on Thursday morning.”

I slammed the table and stood up. “What? Has he gotten permission from the teachers? How did he learn how to conduct the workshop?”

“Just come on Friday! It will be held at the tables beside the field. I think Sean is helping Ethan.”

“You don’t look good,” Vera said.

“I don’t know how to describe my mind now,” I grumbled.

“It’s okay, I know it’s not easy to be a Captain. I can make a list of things you need to do with you. If you need any help you can ask me or any of my friends. You can do it!” Hannah said.

That should be the attitude! The teachers were really blind to not nominate Hannah to be a prefect. She had a better attitude than most of the current prefects. I really felt the pressure. We had not done anything about the FRansformed committee. Elijah told me to write my plans down in a notebook, so I wrote some ideas I had if I had power to do enforcements, such as interfering in the junior leader and prefect nomination process. I had to get approval for those, someday.

On Thursday morning, Hannah told me to watch the first life skills workshop. I met Ethan, Alex and their classmate, Sean Plantier at the area beside the field where some other students were gathered.

“Hey bro! What do you think of these workshops?” Ethan asked.

“Good, but think twice. You’ll need to make sure these kids get back by 7.20, or else...you know what. I’ll speak to the three of you plus Hannah during recess,” I replied.

There were about ten juniors who turned up.

“What is this workshop about?” one of them asked.

“Good question! We’re going to teach you something fun!” Ethan replied.

“Yes! You can use it in your daily lives!” Alex added.

“Sean is giving out some papers. Follow his instructions! He’ll tell you what to do with it!” Ethan said.

To my horror, the boys were actually giving a lesson on how to scare others by folding a paper and flipping it! I stopped the lesson and told everyone to return to their classes.

“What are you doing? It’s not even 7.20!” Sean complained.

“I don’t care. I want to speak to the four of you during recess. Whoever reaches first, reserve a table for the five of us,” I said.

I honestly hoped no one got into trouble for conducting an informal ‘life skills workshop’. Serious action needed to be taken by the exco. I had to call for an urgent meeting with the exco the next day, but would it happen?

During recess, I ate with the four.

“I’m not here to scold anyone, but I want to ask one thing. Who gave you the permission to conduct that workshop?” I said.

“Ariana!” Alex replied.

“Do you know you need permission from the teachers?” I asked.

“Why can’t we do our own workshop? It does not have to be officially registered under FRansformed right?” Ethan said.

“What’s the purpose of that paper-folding prank?” I said.

“For fun! What’s wrong with pranking? Poking fun is a life skill! Why are you so serious? Try this prank on Xuanyu and see!” Alex chuckled.

“No! It’s Aloe Vera!” Ethan corrected him.

“Guys, just stop. It’s good to help the prefects but we must cooperate with them and not do things our own way!” Hannah said.

“Thank you! It was a mistake that you weren’t nominated!” I said to her. “To make it clear, the life skills workshops are for the prefects and won’t be open to non-prefects yet.”

I went back to find my group of friends.

“Are you okay?” Vera asked.

“No. I need to call for an urgent exco meeting, because some people decided to conduct a ‘life skills’ workshop without permission,” I said.

“Who?” Joey asked.

“Some Sean guy, Alex Peh and Ethan Tay,” I replied. “They were teaching others how to fold paper and make it pop.”

“Ethan Tay En Hao? He comes to our class for Chinese and likes to prank our Chinese teacher with that! Whenever he does it I want to punch him!” Clarice said.

“And he likes to put his leg on the table,” Joey added.

“Hard to imagine he was a junior leader,” I commented.

I bumped into Hui Wen on my way back to class.

She said, “When you need a non-exco prefect, get Irfan.”

“Oh! Thank him for me! Can you also help to tell the other exco members that we need to have an urgent meeting tomorrow?” I asked.

“I’ll try, and I can make it!”

As expected, many could not make it, so I ended up only meeting the Vice Captains, Hui Wen, Jia Jie and Khairul. We agreed to have a vocational director to oversee such life skills workshops. Hui Wen again insisted that Irfan (whom I have not talked to) should be the one for it. Daniel suggested putting Project Pegasus on hold as well as to merge the entertainment project suggested by Xin Yi and Abner with it. In the meantime, we had to recruit manpower for both the project and the life skills workshops, which called for the need for a potential human resource team. Look who was giving the valuable suggestions again.

The next Monday, Hui Wen told me to speak to Irfan during recess. I agreed and followed her to look for him.

“Hi, you are Irfan right? I am your Captain, Jordan,” I said to Irfan.

“Yeah! As if I don’t know! You think I’m stupid?” he snapped back.

“Alright, I know you’re not stupid. I believe you have what it takes to take up a role as our Vocational or Human Resource Director.”

“What do you mean? You are the one who asked Hui Wen to keep annoying me about a role right?”

“More like the other way round. Come on! Take it up! It’s a chance to improve yourself!”

“What kind of Captain are you? Always forcing people to do things!”

Rayana’s words seemed to be much more true. I wondered what kind of power Daniel had to make himself so revered. Fortunately, I had friends who supported me being the Captain. It was not too bad after all.

I then proceeded to Staircase 5 to talk to Elise, where a harried Jerome approached me with Nazreen.

“Emergency! Discipline case!” he told me.

“Yes, what is it?” I asked.

“Alicia! You won’t believe what she did! She slashed Alex!” Jerome said, panting.

“Calm down and tell me the whole story.”

“I’m so traumatised! She’s my close friend since P1 and I’ve never seen her like this before! She even scolded vulgarities at me!”

Elise said, “Alicia used a pair of scissors to slash Alex’s elbow area. She was crying for one whole hour! I think she just got sent to the discipline master.”

“Why did she slash Alex?” I asked.

“Because Alex was using the paper bomb to scare Ace,” Nazreen replied.

“Paper bomb? You mean the folding of the paper and then swiping it?” I said.

Nazreen nodded.

“Alicia was angry at Alex for bullying Ace. She’s really protective of her boyfriend,” Elise said.

“Yes. Ace can get panic attacks by such things so we need to pay extra attention to him. This world is unfair! People with special needs are bullied! We must stand up for them!” Jerome raised his voice, about to cry, attracting attention from others.

“Agreed! We must help them,” I said.

“This is an unfair world! We, people with special needs are not treated as equal with the rest! We should help them! Is that right?” Jerome announced out loud.

Did Jerome just include himself as one of the people with special needs? I had to find an opportunity to ask him, but I was more concerned about Ace, so I asked Jerome to bring me to him for the rest of recess.

“She’s still sobbing,” Jerome said with a sigh as we approached the counselling room.

Jerome knocked on the door, opened it and had a few words with the counsellor before asking me to enter.

“Hi Ace, I’m Jordan, your school Captain. May I know how you are feeling now?” I spoke to Ace Soon, who was shivering helplessly.

“Go away...you merciless humans…” Ace said with a quivering voice.

Alicia cursed at me and told me to stay out of the matter. I felt really bad for Ace. Action needed to be taken urgently. Jerome said action had already been taken against Alex and we needed a mental health project.

Indeed, such unforeseen events inevitably increased my workload. I decided to prioritise the Ace issue, as I felt it was most pressing.

The next day, I felt like sharing the issue with my group of friends.

“People in this world can be really mean. Why does Ace Soon keep getting bullied?” I said.

Graham interrupted, “Because he deserves it! Who asked him to be such a retard?”

I fumed. “Hey! Can you pay attention to what you’re saying? Do you think he chose to be like that? You need to learn to accept people!”

“I just feel like flushing him down the toilet bowl! I can’t stand him!” Graham added.

“Are you even human? If you grow up to be like this, everyone will hate you!” I snapped.

“You’re the mean one here! You’re being nasty to Graham!” Joey chided.

“Defending someone who is clearly in the wrong? Next time, if you see him beating up people on the streets, you will support him? Same logic! Don’t tell me you agree with his views about Ace?” I raised my voice.

“No I mean you’re being too mean!” Joey protested.

“I am standing up for the right thing! You shouldn’t stop me from doing so!”

“But...but…” Joey began to sob.

“Can you just stop?” Graham said.

“I won’t stop unless you change. If I find out that you were one of those bullying him, I’ll make sure you write an apology letter to him. To be fair, I ask the others who bully him to write too. Don’t stop me, I’m the Captain!” I said.

“Are you really going to do that?” Joey asked.

“I said don’t stop me! Do you want to write an apology letter as well?” I threatened.

Joey continued sobbing while Graham gave her tissue papers to dry her eyes.

I did not understand how people could view people with disabilities in such a ruthless way. I had to meet Jerome for a chat during lunch that afternoon.

“Do you mind if I can have a private chat with you?” I asked him after I finished my lunch.

“Sure! It’s about Ace right?” Jerome said.

We walked around the garden and aquarium.

“Thanks so much for your help!” Jerome said. “A few of us are trying to help the couple. They are much better now. Alex was punished already.”

“Can I have the names of those who bully him?” I asked.

“Alex, Sean, Gani, Reginald and Audrey. Please don’t report Ethan Tay and Xin Yi. They like to do the paper bomb prank but they don’t ever bully Ace! They are his good friends too and always take care of him!”

“Don’t worry. If I have no evidence that they bully him I won’t report them. Can I know whether Graham had ever bullied him?”

“He did. I remember him saying a lot of nasty things.”

“Thanks. If you think of more names, do let me know. I’m making them write apology letters to Ace.”

“Good idea! I’ll email you the full list by tonight. Daniel said we can merge our mental health project Pegasus, but I feel the mental health project should stand alone, because it’s a really serious thing and we can’t let anyone else get bullied.”

“I want to ask you something. Is it true that you defend Ace by telling others you have autism?”

“It’s true that I’m autistic. I couldn’t talk for the first two and a half years of my life! But thank God, I’m much more confident and vocal now. I still have my problems. I struggle with criticism a lot. I can get very emotional when I see others being bullied, especially if they have special needs.”

“I see. How is it that you can make so many friends in school?”

“I’m an extrovert. I need to interact with a lot of people.”

“What is an extrovert?”

“Someone who gains energy from social interaction. We were doing personality tests during a sleepover and I found out I am eighty plus percent extroverted. Daniel’s ninety plus.”

“Hmm...what’s my percentage? Anyway, I’m really happy that you overcame your challenges! Thanks for sharing! We need a meeting on Friday to discuss the mental health project, if you see the other exco members, do help to inform them.”

I had to call for that emergency meeting. What about the Vocational and Human Resource directors? We had to forgo them for now. The more impending bullying situation had to be stopped first. As for Jerome, I was amazed.

That night, Alicia sent Rebecca a complete list of students who ever bullied Ace. Alicia also mentioned that Jerome and Izumi would be assisting me in scouting for the students to write the apology letters, but I felt it was good to educate them about mental health first.

The next morning, I took Alicia out of her class for a chat. She clarified that majority of 6A were quite nice to Ace and would try their best to treat him well. She sincerely hoped that the forfeit of letter writing would be effective to stop the bullying, but she was insecure. I was glad that she wanted to be an active contributor to our new mental health project.

On Friday, I was told that Willis elected himself to be the Human Resource Director and Hannah insisted to be the Vocational director despite being a non-prefect. She was even insistent on joining our meeting.

“Why are you here?” I asked her when we were about to set off to our meeting location.

“Why can’t I come? I’m your Vocational Director!” Hannah explained.

“I’m sorry to say this, but for now we only allow prefects to be that. Of course, you can work closely with the actual director. Nothing wrong with that.”

“Just let her come, bro!” Daniel chuckled. “Don’t set too many boundaries! We’ll talk more about the two new positions later!”

Jerome and Willis joined us too. Surprisingly, Kok Keong was able to make it. To kickstart the meeting, Jerome presented his idea about the mental health project and almost went hysterical when explaining the different groups of people we needed to reach out too. He said the school’s special needs programme was insufficient, as it only engaged the students with special needs without educating the rest on learning to accept them.

“What will be the name of the project?” Kok Keong asked.

“Project Leo? I don’t know why but I’m visualising a lion’s face,” Khairul said.

“Please don’t name it after my cousin. Maybe a name that’s related to love and acceptance?” I said.

“Project Agape! Agape means unconditional love! We must love everyone regardless of what disability they have!” Daniel pointed out.

“Ooh..nice!” Jia Jie commented.

I had to agree that was a good name. Indeed, we should love everyone unconditionally, even if it is hard to do so. What else would Daniel suggest?

Elliot spoke, “Beside mental disorders, can the project include people like me? I was born deaf, so I wear hearing aids. In kindergarten, my classmates called me a robot. In lower primary, my classmates liked to avoid me and said I carry radiation. I think Vivian should remember. I was teased for being short too. Thankfully I’m not the shortest in class now.”

“Don’t be mean to Clarissa!” Hui Wen said with a chuckle.

“In that case include people like me too! People who lost family members!” Kok Keong suggested.

“You’ve gotten over it? You seem a lot happier today!” Willis remarked.

“Much better. I want to thank those who helped me, especially President Daniel,” Kok Keong said.

“Even you are calling me that. Please don’t,” Daniel said.

“Who started it?” I asked.

“I can’t remember, but I believe it’s someone in Band,” Vivian replied.

I did not feel good. As the School Captain, I failed to ensure my prefects were taken care of. I let Daniel overpower me once again. We then talked more about the two new roles.

I said, “We can’t let non-prefects take positions! Remember our goal? We’re supposed to let all prefects realise their full potential.”

“But no prefect is willing to take up right?” Hannah asked.

“Actually, have you asked every single prefect whether he or she is willing to take up the role?” Khairul asked me.

“No, that’s why we need a Human Resource Director to help!” I said.

“I thought Ariana said we shouldn’t ask people from our class?” Xuanyu asked.

“Yeah, we must ask more from 6D to 6G,” Ariana said.

“Guys, we are all part of the school, prefect or not. Not wearing this green uniform doesn’t mean you don’t have a voice,” Daniel said.

“Hello! Are you going back on your word? It was your amazing idea to let every prefect realise his full potential and now your whole class wants to get all the positions?” I said.

“You misunderstood, friend. I did try to get some prefects to help-”

“You tried? Everyone just rejects me! They think you are so great and listen to you?”

“Hear me out, bro! Novan, Lloyd, Felicia and a few others said no. It’s not nice to force them!”

I did agree with Daniel, but I wanted to test how he would respond to me. How amazing that he could still smile and not shoot back at me!

I said to Hannah, “Here’s the truth! You’re just good! Too good! The teachers were blind to not choose you! We need more people like you!”

I was not satisfied. I was losing to Daniel again. I managed to redeem myself by suggesting a team which sheltered students from nearby sheltered areas to school on rainy days. Daniel supported me on that. What I had to do was help with the recruitment of manpower the next week.

Somehow, I prioritised getting a proper prefect to be in charge of Human Resource. One recess, I approached Megan.

“Do you know what’s happening among the prefects recently?” I asked.

“Project Pegasus? I heard you guys want new exco positions too,” Megan replied.

“Yes! Can you be our Human Resource Director? You will help with asking for volunteers and playing around with others’ positions.”

“Nice, but I’m a bit tired and I can’t really ask around. You can try asking Lloyd and Kok Weng. They are there.”

I walked up to Lloyd Karimov.

“Hi, I’m your Captain, Jordan. Are you willing to take up a new role in the Prefectorial Board?” I said.

“Why am I asked this a second time? Daniel already asked me and I’m not willing,” Lloyd replied.

“Oh, I didn’t know that!” I chuckled, when Daniel actually said during the meeting that he did ask Lloyd.

“What’s wrong with you? You can’t even do your job well! All you want is to overpower Daniel and be the king of the school!” Lloyd said.

How did he know I wanted to overpower Daniel? Seemed like I told too many people.

“Yes! He was trying to overpower me first! He needs to stop getting all the fame in the school!” I said.

“He is nice unlike you!” Lloyd raised his voice.

“Give the Captain some respect,” Leo popped in. “He’s not that bad.”

I thanked Leo and turned to Kok Weng.

“So, do you want to try?” I asked him.

“I can volunteer for your project but I don’t think I can take the stress from being a leader,” he replied.

“That’s what being a prefect is for! You are fortunate to be part of our batch because the exco welcomes more helpers. Do you know why you were selected in the first place?”

“No? Maybe because I’m well-behaved?”

Alright, this did not sound right. Choosing a prefect for his good behaviour was definitely amiss. If that was the case, why was Vera not selected? I had to take action. I needed to propose my ideas to the teachers-in-charge.

During lunch, I met Xuanyu to tell her my ideas. I explained how the junior leader selection process was rigged and how we needed reliable student spies to aid the teachers. Xuanyu agreed to assist me. She was someone of integrity whom I could trust, teasings from others aside. We then went to the staff room to look for our teacher-in-charge, who bombarded us with a series of queries questioning the feasibility of my idea. We got outright rejected. There went my chance to prove I could give better ideas than Daniel. When would there ever be fairness in junior leader selection?

Funnily enough, our teacher wanted us to stop all the FRansformed-related work by early April so we could focus on our examinations. I felt they were quite done with all our pestering for their approval. I told Xuanyu that we must not stop and should find a way to continue work. She was slightly reluctant, but did agree that FRansformed activities should not stop.

I went back to class and spoke to Li Xuan, “I need your opinion. Mrs Edgeworth just told me to stop all FRansformed-related work by April. We can’t do that right?”

“I don’t know. It has been quite tiring to help with Phoenix, especially when the kids always ask me questions, but I think I can talk to them better now,” Li Xuan replied.

“That’s good! Anyway, we can’t stop! We must hand over the P5s if we want to stop!”

“You guys are seriously not stopping?” Huayi barged in. “You still want to force others to do this work during exam season?”

“Yeah! All of you are going to flunk the papers if you don’t stop now!” Graham added.

“Really? I still got my first position last year and I’m now working very hard to beat someone in PSLE! If you don’t understand what’s going on in the prefectorial board, it’s best that you don’t comment,” I said.

“Can you just stop?” Joey said.

I sighed and turned to Li Xuan. “This is depressing. People are doubting us, even the teachers. Mrs Edgeworth did not like my idea of student spies, so we can get ready to see the wrong people being selected as junior leaders this month.”

Clarice then told me that Joey had a crush on Graham, which was why she became more protective of him. That reminded me to order Graham to write the apology letter to Ace.

I went up to Graham. “You have a task. Do you remember what it is?”

“How about..no!” he replied.

“You need to write an apology letter to Ace. I want you to apologise for every single thing you did to him. See me tomorrow morning. Oh, and Joey’s taste though.”

“I am not interested in her.”

After supplementary class ended, I looked for Alicia and told her to gather her classmates whom she reported so I could brief them about the letter writing. She agreed.

The next morning, I met Graham and the students from 6A whom Alicia reported. Izumi and Jerome would help with the other students during recess.

“All of you should know the reason why you’re here! Every human on Earth is worth the same! It doesn’t mean that someone with disabilities is less valuable and should be treated like rubbish! You know who you are addressing the letter to! You need to write the letter sincerely from your heart and apologise for every single thing you did wrongly to him. Get it done by tomorrow and submit them to me. If I’m not happy, I’ll make you rewrite until I’m satisfied. Is that clear?” I said.

There was no response.

“Is that clear?” I raised my voice.

“Yes!” the students shouted.

That recess, Elliot volunteered to help Izumi and Jerome in scouting for the remaining students who needed to write letters. Jerome had an enormous social circle so he had no problem identifying the students. I decided to tag along. We found the students very quickly and I began to deliver the same briefing. Halfway, one of the boys darted away holding something.

“Why can’t I hear anything? My hearing aids!” Elliot gasped.

“Hey! Someone grab him!” Izumi yelled and brisk-walked to the boy who snatched Elliot’s hearing aids.

Another boy tackled him and Izumi made a grab for the hearing aids.

“You’re so in trouble!” she said.

We went back and I continued briefing.

“Who are you to force us to write apology letters? The prefects are so messed up!” the same boy remarked.

“Why are you rude? We’re doing this for your own good!” Jerome replied.

Indeed, opposition, opposition and more opposition. Even the teachers were not happy with us starting on Project Pegasus and Agape so soon. What could we do?

The weeks leading to the installation ceremony were pretty boring - basically studying and preparing for the speech I would be making. I felt like touching on how mysterious the concept of leadership was without sounding controversial. Thus, I decided to begin by saying how the selection of prefects always puzzled me, thereafter mentioning its complexity which I realised while being a prefect myself. I then talked about what I felt a leader actually is and how everyone could be a leader.

I was expecting open jeering during my speech, but there was not. Perhaps it was because parents and teachers were present. After the ceremony, Huayi approached me as expected.

“What kind of speech was that? Forcing everyone to listen to your views!” he criticised.

“If you weren’t interested you shouldn’t have listened! Your choice!” I replied.

“I had to, because I was curious to know what more trash you have for us!”

Elise said, “Hey! There’s no need to keep attacking him! He has done his best.”

“I have not!” I said. “My goal has not been reached yet…”

Later during recess, Ariana approached me.

“This is not good! Follow me to Staircase 3!” she said.

Ariana took me to Staircase 3, where Darren, Jerome, Xuanyu, Lawrence, Abishek, Varunya and Sean were gathered.

“Ah! You’re here!” Jerome said to me. “We are still waiting for Darren Tan and Xin Yi.”

“Forget about them! I don’t know where they are!” Ariana said.

“What’s the issue here?” I asked.

“Explain yourself,” Jerome said to Darren.

“Didn’t I say I am just getting help?” Darren retorted.

“You are messing things up!” Ariana said.

“We’re just helping! What’s wrong with that?” Sean said.

“I appreciate your kind intentions, but please be more aware of what you are doing,” Jerome said. “Let’s get to it. Darren, I know you want to help, but you are repeating the same mistake of doing all the work. Stop hiding it. If you truly wanted to help, you wouldn’t have secretly gotten them to help you. Right, Lawrence?”

“I know we shouldn’t have continued without asking the exco. I felt bad for not helping Darren Gore so I helped him,” Lawrence said.

“I just realised you wear the same shirt every day!” I said to Lawrence. “Anyway, what exactly happened?”

Varunya explained, “We were doing the proposal for Project Pegasus and the lifeskills workshops.”

“You know what? Someone upload them. Thanks Darren,” I said.

I was surprised that I said that. The exco members were unhappy that Darren again took charge of the planning without informing the rest, even getting other classmates to side him. On the other hand, I decided to appreciate his efforts, even though he was doing it for himself. I believed the rest of us were too busy to even do additional planning so Darren was of great help.

Later that term, we submitted our proposals to the teachers and had an exco meeting regarding the handover of FRansformed to the P5s. Daniel asked all of us to give names of P5s whom we thought would be favourable successors. I gave Abner, Adam and Lanxiang (my Choir junior). Similarly, most of the others nominated Abner and Adam too, together with a Kelly. The exco and the previous FRansformed committee members would be doing a recruitment drive for new committee members one morning, closer to April.

In late March, I was feeling pressured. Homework was piling up and I still had to settle the FRansformed handover. I was eating with my group of friends during recess one day.

“If any of you know any P5s who can manage big projects do tell me,” I said.

“Not again,” Joey muttered.

“You really made a mistake. If you aren’t the Captain, you won’t be so stressed,” Graham pointed out.

“I have to be the Captain. I’m not letting Daniel decide everything. It’s quite sickening to see him get attention from everyone day after day,” I said.

“Do you know how many people hate you for making them write apology letters?”

“Those people are blind! They don’t know how to be human!”

“And you had to make the guy who took the midget’s hearing aid write a second letter?”

Vera said, “Elliot? He’s from my CCA. Quite a nice guy.”

“Yes. That guy needed to learn a second lesson,” I said.

Was what Graham said true? I long sensed that I was being hated, but I felt unjustified. People were hating me for absolutely wrong reasons. After finishing my food, I decided to leave the table for a walk. Vera followed me. We bumped into Hui Wen at the garden.

“Are you feeling the pressure?” I asked her.

“Yeah, I’m so failing the exams! I haven’t asked any P5 about the FRansformed exco yet, because I don’t know who to ask!” Hui Wen said while bouncing.

“I’m not in the mood to ask, because I don’t understand this school again. Why am I hated for no reason?”

“Ignore the haters! You have a lot of support from us!”

“Thanks, but I don’t get it. Let’s try talking to Elina. Hope she actually responds properly.”

I stepped forward to Elina.

“Hello! How are you?” I asked.

“Fine,” she mumbled.

Hui Wen joined in. “Wow! The weather is so cool today! I want to go home to take a nap!”

“Same here!” Elina responded. “I’m so tired from all the homework.”

“I have to settle the handover too!” I added.

“Please do not let our juniors suffer,” Elina said.

“I won’t. The P5s are so much more enthusiastic than our batch. I’m confident they will lead the school well,” I replied.

“Things are not good now. If only Daniel was the Captain.”

“Not again. Why does everyone think he’s so worthy to be the Captain? I agreed to switch with him so the Joseph Adams case won’t happen again! Look at what that Joseph is doing in secondary school! If we don’t stop Daniel, he’s going to get so much power and we can’t imagine what happens next!”

“Pretty sure both of them are very different,” Hui Wen said.

“Yeah! Unlike you, Daniel is sincere and cares a lot about others. If you don’t believe me you can ask the whole school,” Elina said.

“Exactly! He’s the nicest guy ever! He helped me when I was bullied!” Hui Wen added.

“I believe you, but it’s not good for him to get all the attention in the school! Others need the chance to get attention too!” I said.

“That’s why people don’t like you. All you care is your own power. I heard you don’t love the school. So why did you become the Captain? To get attention and power, not because you truly want to help others. You need to stop being arrogant. Reflect about it,” Elina said.

I wanted to protest. Unfortunately, recess had ended. How could Elina say that I did not want to help others? If that was true, I would not have gotten apology letters written for Ace. In fact, Ace was very grateful for my initiative, so were some others in 6A. I might not love the school, but I did care for the welfare of students. Anyway, I had to put that aside and focus on my studies and the handover of FRansformed.

One lunch, I decided to meet up with a few of the P5s interested in succeeding the FRansformed committee.

Abner approached me. “I’m so excited man! We’re at that table!”

“Wait, only 5A prefects? What about the other classes?” I asked.

“Maybe another day? They’re quite eager too!” Abner replied.

I joined him and his friends, which included Adam, two girls called Kelly Chun and Grace Laycock as well as Yang Kai Xian.

“Hello! Thanks for volunteering to take over FRansformed!” I said to them.

“Start the briefing already!” Adam said.

“It’s not a briefing. I don’t even know whether I can handover now because the teachers haven’t even said anything about our latest plans. Today is just to get to know you. I have spoken to Adam and Abner before,” I said.

“I’m Kelly, and I want your position! Just kidding!” Kelly said.

“I’ll gladly give it to you but you must clear the interview first!” I said. “Anyway, I am really grateful to all of you for helping us out. I wish my batch did the same. A lot of them are unwilling or just complaining that I’m the Captain.”

Grace said, “I’ve heard those comments. I don’t think you’re as bad as they say.”

“Thank you! I’m just tired of hearing Daniel here and Daniel there. Anyway, Daniel aside. The teachers said the mental health project most likely won’t work out, so I want all of you to push for it to work. Same for the sheltering of students during rainy days,” I rattled.

I clearly said I wanted to get to know the P5s but I was clearly rattling about the projects. What happened to building relationships?

“Jerome told me already, so I roughly know what you guys planned. I read through your plans for the lifeskills workshop and Project Pegasus so don’t worry and focus on your PSLE,” Abner said.

“Thanks, but I’m really interested in how your batch will run FRansformed,” I said.

“What’s your number? We can add you to a group chat,” Kelly said.

“I don’t have a phone so I’ll miss out on your fun stuff...sad. Email me or I can give you my brother’s number,” I said.

“Let’s not disturb him, we’ll email you. Some of the prefects from 5B want to help too. I think they are Sameer, Alyssa and Charlene,” Kelly said.

“Only 5B? What about the other classes?” I asked.

“A handful,” Kai Xian replied.

“We must stop the same mistake from happening to your batch. For mine, most of those who participate are from the first three classes and the rest just criticise and complain. So, make sure the prefects of every class contribute. I think Darren suggested tutoring the weaker prefects but our batch obviously failed! Start now, really,” I said.

“That’s a really good idea to help us bond!” Grace said. “This Darren is good!”

“He is, but I know he does a lot of additional work to impress the teachers,” Abner said.

“How do you even know so much about us? Let me test you. What do you know about Chew Huayi?” I said.

“A lot. I have to warn you. Pay more attention to him if not something bad will happen in October. But don’t worry, we’ll help you behind the scenes. Do you know Huayi has been telling Xuanyu a lot of his plans? Don’t tell her I told you,” Abner spoke.

“Woah, who’s winning?” Kelly chuckled.

“Didn’t I say we both don’t like her?” Abner said.

“Yeah I thought our Captain likes Hannah?” Adam said.

“Enough of those pranks. Tell me more about Huayi,” I said to Abner.

“Huayi talked to Vivian, Nazreen and Elise about his plans too and I know what they are. Again, I won’t tell you,” Abner replied.

Was Huayi really planning something against me? I did not really trust what Abner said because I doubted he actually went to ask my friends, though it seemed possible that he asked Xuanyu, whom he regularly texted. If he did ask all of them, he would probably be the next Darren and would not stand a chance in getting an exco position. That would happen if he was manipulative enough to make sufficient connections with my batchmates to get a position.

Anyway, I met the three from 5B whom Kelly mentioned the next lunch. They were willing to work with the 5A prefects to succeed my batch and to encourage students from the other classes too. I was still somewhat worried, but the enthusiasm of the P5s allayed my worries to an extent. I was too tired to think about what Huayi would do to me, as I was more determined to do better than Daniel in the examinations.

What happened in the coming months? Things were pretty much on a standstill, with only Project Phoenix running. Kelly contacted me regularly to update how she and the rest were doing. I decided to pay more attention to Abner if I had the chance to, occasionally asking Xuanyu about him too. Xuanyu verified that he was indeed communicating with a lot of P6 prefects. She said Abner was quite nice and fun to talk to. Well, that was true…

I actually had more time to reflect on how I performed as the Captain. The more I thought about it, the more I realised the flaws in my leadership. Elina was right that I was arrogant and wanted power mostly. Thinking about the times I abused my power to command others made me regret utterly. Why was Daniel so well-liked? He had power, but was truly altruistic (but still, I was determined to compete with him).

With the suspension of prefect meetings, I had more time with my group of friends in class. We began understanding one another more and I grew closer to Joey, Clarice and Graham. I decided to write apology letters for Graham and Joey, as I was quite harsh to them previously. I realised they were actually quite forgiving and Graham did show improvement in acceptance of others. Only time would tell…