The final examinations were over and I kept my fingers crossed - would I succeed in beating Daniel? That aside, I was eager to resume the planning for FRansformed full force. Even before the papers ended, I already started arranging an outing with the eight P5s I talked to in April. Secretly, I invited Ariana and Xuanyu, such that Daniel would not be aware. We decided to meet after the Childrens’ Day celebration.

At the start of the day, I looked for Xuanyu and told her to watch where Daniel headed to after school and thereafter tell me before meeting up with the rest. She agreed. After the celebration, I managed to see that Daniel appeared as though he wanted to stay behind to socialise, so I quickly left with Xuanyu and Ariana.

“Can I go to the toilet to change first? I want this dress off so it’s easier to sit,” Xuanyu said.

“Let’s not spend any more time in this building! Did the P5s tell any of you where to meet?” I asked.

“Abner says Block 303,” Xuanyu replied.

“Where are we even going?” Ariana asked.

“Let the P5s decide. They’re the star of today’s outing,” I said.

We proceeded to the meeting point. Alyssa, Sameer and Charlene were already waiting there.

“Hi! Sorry for the wait. Did you see the rest?” I asked the three.

“Aren’t those them?” Charlene pointed to a group of five walking towards the block.

“Who are the two people with you?” Sameer asked me.

“They are my exco mates. Vice Captain Ariana and Class Buddy SL Xuanyu. They will be joining us today,” I replied.

“What about Daniel?” Alyssa asked.

I tried to calm down before speaking. “Busy as usual.”

“Heyo guys! How was PSLE?” Abner appeared and asked.

“Nasty,” Ariana replied.

“I don’t know what to say,” I replied, while Xuanyu shrugged.

“It’s over! Just have fun now! You’ll do great!” Abner said.

“Are we going to change or not?” Grace asked.

“Yeah, Xuanyu, why did you ask us to bring clothes to change?” Kelly asked.

“Don’t you think it’s easier to sit with shorts?” Xuanyu smirked.

“I brought a skirt to change though,” Grace said.

“Since when did you tell us to bring clothes? I didn’t bring anything,” I said.

“She told Abner who told us,” Adam replied. “I didn’t bring too. I’m lazy to change.”

“Yeah someone wants to show off her figure!” Abner said, raising an eyebrow.

They changed at a nearby mall and we then made our way to Chiang Village because Abner liked it a lot.

“Alright, back to the serious stuff. What do you want Project Agape to cover?” Abner asked.

“It’s to support the current special needs programme because we feel it’s not enough,” I replied.

“Yes Jerome did tell me and I agree. I’m a special needs kid too! I have ADHD, but I don’t attend the school’s programme,” Abner said.

“What? You have? You’re one of the smartest kids in level!” Alyssa asked.

“Yes! It’s not easy to identify an ADHD kid. If I get you guys correctly, our project is supposed to raise awareness and help people bullied right? I’m very open about my ADHD so I don’t mind us having an assembly session to talk about it,” Abner spoke.

Alright, that was a great revelation about Abner. I felt I was wrong to criticise his behaviour. Indeed, he was very fidgety and liked to haphazardly talk to people. I did observe him doing it to the P6 prefects. I had an urge to ask Xuanyu more, but Abner did not want her to know I knew about the Huayi issue.

“Dude! We are taking our exams soon and you want to do an assembly programme? And it’s your fault too, Jordan! Just kidding!” Kelly chuckled.

“Did someone once mention having a Project Daniellimjiajun?” Grace asked.

“No please, not that,” I remarked.

“It was Xin Yi!” Abner said. “She wanted a project where Daniel performs for everyone!”

“Didn’t he just post an Ed Sheeran medley on Facebook?” Sameer said.

“Oh I think I watched it. He remembers all the lyrics and his piano skills are mad,” Xuanyu said.

“Yeah he knows so many songs!” Charlene commented.

“But not as many as my cousin who has listened to more than a thousand albums from the 50s to the 90s!” I said.

Adam spoke, “Insane. Daniel told me he wants to start a band.”

“He can just play all the instruments himself!” Alyssa said.

“I get Xin Yi’s intention, but we should expand the project to let more people perform. You guys wanted some cleanliness project too right? I would suggest you involve the whole school and conduct it after our exams next month,” Abner said.

“Jordan! How are things with Hannah?” Grace asked me.

“I know what that question means now. Why are you asking that?” I said.

“There’s a rumour that you’re interested in Hannah!” Kelly said.

“Honestly, are you kidding me? Another one of those pranks? Who started it?” I said.

“It must be Zoey!” Ariana said. “She says you keep praising Hannah!”

“Oh yeah!” Xuanyu remarked.

“I mean, she has good character and deserves to be a prefect,” I said.

“I think Lawrence told me the rumour,” Abner said.

“Lawrence? Is it that guy?” Kai Xian asked, chuckling.

“Yes! The one who wears the orange shirt and green pants every day!” Kelly said. “That’s pathetic!”

“Yo Xuanyu, will you wear the same outfit every day in secondary school? I remember seeing you wear that before!” Abner said.

Ariana whispered to me, “That’s why people think he’s attracted to her because of her outfits.”

“Since when do I wear the same thing every day?” Xuanyu raised her voice. “I don’t go out a lot so I don’t have a lot of clothes. My clothes are mostly of the same style, but different colour. Maybe I should buy some v-neck tops and mini skirts and post on Instagram more.”

“Woah! My parents don’t even allow me to wear what you wear!” Kelly said.

I had a lot of fun with that bunch. We discussed productively about the projects, meanwhile sidetracking for jokes. But there was a problem. The eight of them would seem to have an edge in succeeding my exco. I had to find a way to make it fair for the others.

The school organised some post-examination activities for us. We were supposed to plan booths to raise funds for our SL trip to Isla Saga and also attend some workshops (not those suggested by us). Throughout the months of prefectorial inactivity, Daniel picked up hip hop dancing, which made him suggest that the prefects do a hip hop dance performance during the trip and prom. Somehow, I was keen.

For the fundraising event, I teamed up with my group of friends. Except Clarice who already directly applied to a sports-based school, Graham, Joey, Vera and I decided to continue our education at FRSS together. The question was my prefect friends. I knew some like Stuart, Vivian, Rayana and Li Xuan were planning to go to FRSS as well. How about the rest?

Coincidentally, there was a hip hop workshop and I signed up for it. Daniel signed up for it without a doubt. Vera and Joey signed up for some graphics design workshop together. The first day of the workshops was also the day of a proposed exco meeting.

“Hey bro! How’s your weekend? You went out some of our P5s?” Daniel said.

“Yes it was quite fun! I heard something about a prefects dance performance,” I said.

“Khairul, Hui Wen and I are thinking about having that. We’re planning to ask everyone. The three of us are currently agreeable of using hip hop but we’ll take other suggestions too,” Daniel replied.

“I heard that so I decided to join this workshop even though I’m not a fan of hip hop,” I said.

Li Xuan was also at the workshop so I approached her.

“Hi, you like hip hop dance too?” I asked.

“Not really...I joined because of Agnes,” she replied.

Daniel said, “We’re planning to invite the P6 prefects to do a dance performance for our Saga trip and prom. Do you think hip hop is a good genre?”

“Yes I quite like watching hip hop dances. I have not performed before so it’s a good chance for me to try?” Li Xuan said. “And which secondary school will you go to?”

“Flowing River!” Daniel replied.

Alright, I heard it with my own ears. The rumours about Daniel wanting to remain in FR were actually true.

“Huh? Why? You’re so smart! You’ll get 270 and go to Greenpeak!” Li Xuan said.

“I don’t want to sound offensive but I prefer co-ed school culture. I have friends from GI and they say I won’t like the culture. Plus, I feel attached to this school and want to join Dance,” Daniel explained.

“I see why you prefer co-ed schools...Anyway, who else I know plans to go to FR?” I asked.

“Quite a lot of your classmates do. For my class, so far I know Izumi, Xin Yi, Lawrence, Hannah, Ileana and Yeremy want to. Many others want to wait for their results before deciding? You?”

“Most likely FR because my siblings and friends are there,” I replied.

“Yeah I’ll go there too. Don’t really know what other schools to aim for,” Li Xuan added.

After that first workshop session, Daniel asked me to ask around for opinions about the dance performance. I pushed the responsibility totally to him because I admitted defeat. Things would not work out if I was the one asking around.

That afternoon, we finally had an exco meeting with full strength. It turned out to be a more lighthearted one.

“So, how have post-exams been?” I asked.

“Very good!” Kok Keong said.

“I can finally sleep,” Stuart said.

“More dancing!” Hui Wen said.

“Oh yes! The dance! How’s the response?” I asked Daniel.

“I didn’t have the chance to talk to everyone. Quite a few are not even interested,” he replied.

“Why don’t we create a Google Form? I’ll do it tonight!” Kok Keong said.

“Yes, good idea! Does anyone here object to hip hop?” Khairul asked.

There was no response.

“Okay, how does a pair dance sound? That means a boy and girl pairs up,” Hui Wen said.

Xuanyu began shaking her head.

“You mean we have to hold hands and all that?” Rayana asked.

“Yup! You need to overcome your awkwardness with the opposite gender!” Daniel chuckled.

“Erm...okay,” Rayana said.

“Can I dance on my own?” Xuanyu asked.

“Don’t spoil it bruh,” Khairul said. “You have such an amazing companion called Jordan who is waiting for you to hold his hand!”

“Since when? Please don’t start another prank. Why don’t we have some in pairs and some solo?” I said.

“Wow. Let’s see the numbers first,” Daniel said.

“Daniel, who will you pair up with?” Jia Jie asked.

“Woah woah woah! Who will be that one lucky girl?” Khairul said.

“Jia Jie!” Vivian said.

“She has to decide between Daniel, Darren and Kok Keong!” Ariana said.

“I won’t say anything,” Kok Keong said.

“Ariana, do you want to do the allocations?” Daniel asked.

“Sure…” Ariana replied.

“I can help too!” Priscilla added.

“I kind of want to pair up with Irfan to see how he dances,” Hui Wen said.

“Who is in that hip hop workshop? We need choreographers,” Khairul said.

“Me, Jordan, Li Xuan and Farah. They are keen on performing but I’m not sure about choreographing,” Daniel said.

“We can ask them in the Google Form right?” Priscilla said.

“That works,” Kok Keong replied.

Next, we talked about the FRansformed projects. Since Project Pegasus severely lacked manpower and did not have the go ahead from the teachers, we decided to discuss the feasibility of the cleanliness project, which we agreed on naming it Project Aquarius. Due to the limited time and manpower, we felt the project should not be mandatory, but rather on a voluntary basis. We decided to have a recruitment drive later that week.

“So, which secondary school are you aiming for?” I asked to sidetrack a little.

“FRSS!” Daniel said.

“You’re still so set on going there? Wait until you see your results!” Khairul chuckled.

“Yeah! You had the time to go to the arcade ten days in a row!” Jia Jie added.

“Is that true?” I asked.

“It is,” Nazreen replied.

“I’m quite sure Darren Gore and Roshita will do better than me, but I guess I’ll be fine with whatever score I get,” Daniel said.

“Darren got into Tesla long ago! I really hope I can get into Chengyi. Not getting into Tesla has already lowered my chances of studying Medicine,” Jia Jie said.

“You want to do surgery right?” Daniel asked.

“Yes! Have you made up your mind?”

“Same thing - I’m not striking Medicine out. The problem with me is that I have many interests so I will take more time to narrow down to a specific occupation. I can easily read those medical textbooks Eunice likes to read.”

“I think I will stay in FR too,” Hui Wen said. “My friends are staying and I’m too used to this place.”

“Same,” Elliot said.

“I want to go to GI, if not Starlight,” Khairul said.

“Starlight? I want to go to Lunar Girls IP! I heard their Soccer team is mad!” Ariana said.

I turned to Xuanyu. “What about you?”

“Er...don’t know,” she said.

“Go to Chengyi with me or follow wherever Jordan goes!” Jia Jie said.

I had already become numb to those teasing. We then talked about exco selection.

“Okay guys, we previously talked about some P5s who will make good exco members. I know Jordan is very particular about how they are chosen-” Daniel spoke.

“Yes I am! The sad thing is that those who do more work will more likely be selected, so we must think of a fair way to choose them!” I said.

Vivian said, “Maybe we can interview every one of them, and get them to do some group activities.”

“Wow that’s a good idea! But unfortunately, their exams have not started yet! Do you think we can come up with something in the last two weeks?” Daniel said.

“Of course not! What we should do is make a Google Form and ask them if they want to be in exco and what position they prefer most!” I said.

“That’s not bad!” Khairul said.

“Yes Jordan, so the teachers can customise the questions more. We’ll let them know!” Daniel said.

The next day, the form for the dance performance was sent out and we spoke to Li Xuan and Farah regarding the dance choreographing. They were not confident of their abilities to do so, but decided to help because they had nothing better to do. While resting after some dancing, Daniel suddenly remembered we needed to do recruitment for Project Aquarius, so he announced it to everyone in the workshop. Xin Yi was also there so she joined Daniel and I in encouraging the rest to join. I ended up appointing her to be the non-prefect in charge of broadcasting during the next morning assembly, then urged Li Xuan to join her. However, Li Xuan strongly objected to it.

During recess, we decided to look for a second person to help with broadcasting. Ethan was very eager to join his ‘public nuisance accomplice’ in doing so but was stopped by Jerome to prevent a prank speech. We later settled on Izumi, who never had a chance to make an announcement to the whole school.

During assembly the next morning, Izumi and Xin Yi delivered an announcement regarding Project Aquarius. Like what we discussed, they said the project would most likely be held externally to clean places outside of school. It was also announced that a recce trip would most likely be held that Friday.

When I returned to class, I was approached by Huayi.

“What did I just hear? An announcement for a new project? It was only announced today and you guys are telling me there’s a recce trip in two days time?” he said in a sarcastic tone.

“If you’re not interested, we won’t force you to participate,” I replied.

“Yes you have said that many times already. I’m quite sure those who sign up are going to be the same old people. And the same old P5s who sign up will be the next exco,” Huayi said.

“We are already trying to change the way the new exco is chosen.”

“You all think you have so much power?”

“We are just telling the teachers. It may not even happen,” Li Xuan barged in.

“She’s right,” I said. “We have a purpose for doing all these! We want to create a prefectorial board that meets the needs of all students and teachers.”

“But you’re failing horribly, because the wrong Captain was chosen!” Huayi smirked.

Li Xuan protested, “No, the right Captain was chosen!”

“Yeah! Heard that? If you continue behaving like this, I’ll make sure I won’t go to the same secondary school as you and won’t associate with you from next year onwards!” Vivian came and chided Huayi.

Huayi maintained his smirk. He did not seem convinced. Abner was probably right about him plotting something against me, but I just had to wait and see.

“Don’t worry, you’re doing quite a good job already. I’m quite tired of hearing his comments. He’s just jealous,” Vivian said.

I was in a state of shock. I had never seen Li Xuan standing up for me (or anyone at least). What made her do so then? As for Vivian, I agreed with him that Huayi was jealous of the exco prefects and those active in FRansformed. It was honestly foolish of him to continue being jealous while not putting in the least bit of effort to contribute. I seriously did not understand him. Admittedly, I was jealous of Daniel, but I bothered to do something rather than complaining and criticising. I was trying to guess what Huayi would do to me, but I doubted he could do anything given that he was a powerless prefect and others could easily stop him.

The next day was the last day of the workshops. As the next week had four days of script marking, Daniel, Li Xuan, Farah and I agreed to set the next Thursday as our first dance practise session.

I was randomly resting after some dancing and suddenly felt a slap on my back.

“What’s that?” Daniel said and his hands ruffled my back.

I heard the sound of tape and other students began crowding around him.

“Guys, guys, there’s nothing to look at. Just sit back and relax,” Daniel said while crushing the paper which was taped to my back.

“What is it?” I asked him.

“I’d suggest you don’t look at it,” Daniel said.

“Let me see it!” I reached out and tried to grab the paper, while Li Xuan curiously inched towards me.

I was totally appalled. People in this world could be so small minded. The paper showed a distorted picture of me with the word ‘SCANDAL’ under it. There were smaller words explaining how I would get close to some girls to manipulate them. Alright, Elijah had been teased by being called a playboy before and I could finally (or rather again) relate to him in that aspect. That was not all. The paper went on elaborating how I dated one prefect and dumped her to date another for power. It also stated how I tried to impress the teachers so I could be the Captain and how I liked to exploit non-prefects to run my projects. Absolute nonsense!

“Aren’t you the one who pasted this on my back?” I raised my voice at the boy whom others were pointing at.

“It’s not my fault! Someone asked me to paste it!” he protested.

“Bro, if someone asked you to do it, must you really comply? Did you spend time thinking whether it’s the right thing?” Daniel asked.

The dance instructor tried to intervene. Daniel thanked her for her concern and gave short explanations regarding some of the drama in the prefectorial board.

The boy said, “I know it’s not right, but I was forced to do it!”

“Which class are you from?” I asked him.

“6C. I don’t even know the guy who made me do this!”

“I know who it is. It’s Chew Huayi!”

“I don’t know who he or she is!”

“He is a prefect from 6B!”

“No! The guy is not even a prefect and I don’t know which class he’s from!”

Daniel, who was trying to calm the other students down, turned to the boy. “Can you describe him? I can try to identify him.”

“Don’t bother,” I said to Daniel. “Stop thinking you know everyone in school!”

“I don’t want to argue with you regarding that, but we need to stop this defamation because you truly don’t deserve it!” Daniel said.

“I’m bad at describing people but I’m honest that I don’t know the guy!” the boy said.

That did not seem good. I sincerely hoped that was not the only poster lurking around the school. Daniel decided to give the boy a chance before reporting him, but was determined to ask others in 6C to help crack the case. Li Xuan and I agreed that things were not that simple and that Huayi was certainly the one asking the boy to paste the poster.

During recess, Vera and Joey immediately rushed to me with harried looks.

“You’re doomed!” Joey said.

“I don’t believe this! It must be a lie!” Vera added, while removing a piece of folded paper from the pocket on her shorts.

“That poster? Someone pasted it on my back just now!” I said.

“Report him!” Joey said.

“I wanted to, but that Daniel Lim Jia Jun wanted to give him one chance!” I replied.

“Yes? Did you call me?” Daniel appeared. “Can I have that poster?”

Vera handed the poster to Daniel, who said there were additional words on it. It turned out that the poster was similarly pasted on Vera’s back, but had more words explaining how she was my ‘slave’ and how I cheated on her in P5 so I could get more power among the prefects. Joey told Daniel the person who pasted the poster was immediately held back by the teacher at the workshop for further action. Vera gave Daniel the student’s name too. Was Huayi that capable?

Abishek then approached us with the same poster, but complained about how a boy scratched Xuanyu’s back before pasting the poster at the toy car workshop. That poster stated how Xuanyu was my main victim of exploitation for power. Not long after, Hui Wen came with the poster which targeted Clarissa. Another poster targeted at Elise came as well. Daniel, Hui Wen, Jerome and Ariana tried to disperse the mob which formed around us.

“Don’t worry bro, you’ve got our backs. Nothing bad will happen to you!” Daniel said to me firmly before he and Hui Wen left to find our prefect teachers and disciplinary staff.

Vera told me to follow them. I hesitated, because I felt I had succumbed to Daniel’s overpowering and he would settle the issue by himself so it was pointless for me to be present. After Vera said she would accompany me, I agreed to follow them.

Before meeting the teachers, I said to Daniel, “Let me do the explanations. You just need to stand there.”

I took the posters from Daniel’s hands and began telling the teachers what I knew about the issue. I raised the point that the prime suspect was Huayi due to what Abner had hinted. Hui Wen added that Huayi kept asking her things about me and she found it suspicious. The discipline master instructed Daniel to fetch Huayi from his duty area.

“I haven’t seen those posters before! I wasn’t the one who made them!” Huayi protested.

“Who is it then?” Hui Wen asked.

“Why are you asking me? Didn’t I say it’s not me?” Huayi said.

“Please tell the truth!” the discipline master shouted.

“It’s really not me. I’m a prefect. I’m aware of the double punishment we will face. Why will I do this to my Captain? It’s not being a good influence to the rest,” Huayi explained.

I spoke up, “You are saying the opposite of what you mean! I have plenty of evidence to prove that!”

I gave the teachers names of prefects who could prove that Huayi was certainly lying. They made him and the other students who pasted the posters on me and my friends stay back after school. I was glad. People ought to face the consequences for their wrongdoings.

I was bothered by the defamation, but I tried to brush it aside by thinking of the recce trip I would have with the Aquarius committee the next day. As expected, the same people signed up for it. The best part was Vera being willing to sacrifice her gaming time to join us. We wanted to encourage Joey to join too, but she was not keen. The other people who indicated interest in joining the committee were the same 6A students and the Abner gang. Alicia and Ace joined too.

The next morning, I went to the 5A classroom and called Abner out.

“I need your help now,” I said to him. “I need you to tell me exactly what Huayi said to you.”

“Is it because of the incident yesterday? Huayi never told me anything about sticking posters. I did tell Mr Sinnathamby that Huayi has the highest level of suspicion, but he said no!” Abner said.

“Was that all you told him?”

“No. Mr Sinnathamby and the other teachers told me they trust Huayi did not do anything wrong! Even those offenders said it was not Huayi!”

“What? How can they not know who made them do it?”

“I was told the offenders don’t know the person’s name and the person has a very common look! So I told the teachers to investigate Irfan!”

“What do you know about him? And why does Hui Wen keep making him do things?”

“Not much I know of, but he complains about you a lot so he’s a possible suspect.”

I was quite sure Irfan was not the only one against me. In that case, should I report Lloyd and Elina? Abner was really daring to report Irfan without evidence. Fortunately, the commotion had not escalated to the extent where Daniel and I were asked to swap places.

After school, those going for the recce trip met at the foyer. Everyone in the exco turned up except for Kok Keong and Elliot, and Daniel needed to leave for church earlier. Most of the 6A prefects turned up and Xin Jie joined us too.

“Where are we going today?” Alyssa asked me.

“We’re deciding soon, don’t worry,” I replied.

Abner popped in. “Guys, we have a new friend joining us today. Meet Rachel. She wants to join the exco.”

“Why are you here? You need to study for your exams!” Xin Yi said to the P5s.

“Study for exams? Since when are you so nerdy that you have to tell them to study?” Ethan said.

“Relax man!” Abner said. “President Daniel tells us not to worry about exams because they are just small parts of life and we’ll take even harder exams next time. Right, Daniel?”

“Absolutely! You’re doing well enough anyway!” Daniel said.

“Can’t you tell I was kidding?” Xin Yi screamed into Abner’s face.

“Gosh, she’s crazy,” Vera whispered to me.

Darren suddenly spoke, “Ladies and gentlemen! Thanks for volunteering to lead Project Aquarius! Today, we’ll be surveying Emerald Lake Park!”

Since when did we agree on going there? Did Darren make the decision himself again?

“What? I thought we’re deciding where to go now?” Grace asked.

“Yeah, the form said that!” Kelly added.

“Can I say something?” I said. “Kelly is right that the form didn’t state we’re going to Emerald Lake Park.”

“If you think about it, it’s the only place we can go because we will only create jams if we pick up litter in other places,” Sean said.

“It’s not. There’s Shamrock Park too, and we can always split up,” Xin Jie said.

“You know what? You’re right! We should split!” Darren said.

It was already the end of P6. What else could Darren do? Darren and a few others headed straight to Emerald Lake Park while the rest of us headed for Shamrock Park.

I was walking with Vera when Zoey came and said, “Hannah is waiting for you to talk to her! I can take care of Aloe Vera!”

“Why don’t you tell her to come over so we can walk together!” I said.

“Hey! You’re calling me over? We haven’t talked for some time man! How do you think you’ll do for PSLE?” Hannah said.

“Yes we haven’t talked. The papers were not bad. Hope I’ll get three A*s. You?” I said.

“Same. I want to go to FRSS like you but if I do too well my parents will force me into another school!” Hannah said.

“I don’t want to think about exams,” Vera chuckled.

“Before I forget, we have to choose a project leader for our upcoming cleanup. We can have a debrief afterwards and see who’s suitable,” I said to Hannah.

“Sean wants to be the leader,” Hannah said. “I’m thinking whether he will do a good job.”

When we arrived at Shamrock Park, I got them to form small groups to survey the park. I formed a group with Vera, Alicia, Xuanyu and Xin Jie.

Alicia asked me, “Do you want to come to my birthday party?”

“Is-” I tried to speak but got interrupted by her.

“Is Daniel going? No, he’s not. He’s going out with his church friends. I know you will ask so I’m asking you when he’s not around. I’ve asked our Choir friends too! You know who won’t go right?”

“Yes, the same people. I’m interested! What will we do?” I asked.

“Play at the adventure park at the beach!” Alicia replied.

“Oh nice!” I turned to Xuanyu. “Are you going?”

“No...the prefects’ one at Aqueris was bad enough! I’m going for her Wednesday party. Daniel’s going too,” she replied.

A while later, Jerome, Xin Yi, Nazreen, Varunya and Lawrence were seen with their hands full of rubbish.

“Ew! Why would you pick up rubbish with your hands? You should have gotten some tongs!” Kelly complained.

“My bad, I was too excited,” Jerome chuckled.

After they returned from a nearby toilet to wash their hands, we decided to set off to join the rest at Emerald Lake Park. We saw Alex, Jia Jie and Sean holding trash bags.

“All of you came here to pick up litter without us?” Ariana asked.

“It’s such a good place for cleaning up! We should just confirm our location here!” Sean said.

“Yes, and I have a new idea. We can talk to members of the public about the environment and how they keep the parks and green spaces clean,” Darren added.

“Yes! Environment Club is so good! Wow!” Ethan remarked.

“Uniformed groups we’re in are better!” Willis said. “I think we don’t need a recce trip. It’s quite clear where we can go.”

“Yes I agree! Why did we even waste time coming here?” Grace said.

“Don’t say that! It’s good to come out and bond!” Daniel pointed out.

Abner randomly said to me, “Irfan confessed and he’s going to be punished!”

“So he was the one behind it?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but I know he admitted himself and told the teachers who the guy who made those people paste the posters was. I don’t think they managed to catch the main offender.”

“Can you even trust our school’s teachers to catch him? I bet they can’t! The teachers are so bad that I don’t bother paying attention in class. I hope I can escape to some secondary school where the teachers are better!” Alex said.

I was curious about how Abner got all the information. It was a relief to know Irfan confessed, but something was still hanging in the air. Could Abner be the mastermind instead? He might have an ulterior motive, looking at how many connections he was trying to make with the P6 prefects. Wait, I should factor in his mental condition before jumping into conclusions.

We decided to appoint Grace as the P5 prefect in charge of the first session and Abishek be the P6 in charge. We agreed on having two groups, one of which is smaller than the other. The bigger group would be stationed at Emerald Lake Park while the smaller group would be at Shamrock Park before joining the rest. The date was confirmed and the teachers were informed to craft the consent forms.

The next Tuesday, I had more chances to catch up with my friends at Alicia’s birthday outing, since it was not a serious FRansformed meeting. Alicia did say previously that I could invite my close friends like Vera as well, but as expected, she did not want to mix around with others. Most of the people present were from 6A. As for our CCA friends, only Stuart, Raju, Chloe, Vernice and Natsuko were keen.

I was supposed to meet up with some of my CCA friends, but Jia Jie saw me and decided to join.

“You’re waiting for Stuart and the rest?” she asked.

“Yes, how did you know our meeting point?” I asked.

“Jerome told me, and I want to meet your Choir people too. I forgot to ask you if you’re okay. That poster incident must have been hard on you!”

“I’m better now. In fact, I have been trying to endure the nonsense of these immature prefects who oppose me since January. I don’t think it’s that simple.”

Chloe came and chatted with Jia Jie for a while before we continued the conversation.

“As I was saying, the issue is more than the posters. There’s a mastermind who planned everything!” I said.

“Who?” Chloe asked.

“It’s not clear who the main one is, but Irfan admitted he was the one who made the people paste the posters,” I said.

“What? He’s quite nice in class, but likes to say bad things about you,” Chloe said.

“Yes, that's why prefect selection in our school is a mistake!” I said.

“Have the teachers gotten back to you about the new exco selection?” Jia Jie asked.

Vernice and Natsuko arrived.

“Are you guys talking about the poster incident? Those people were really bad!” Natsuko remarked.

“Yeah! The person who did it is actually a prefect from my class!” Chloe added.

Jia Jie broke the ice with the girls for a short while before Stuart came. He claimed he overslept and almost forgot about the outing because he wanted to sleep. That made me recall Stuart’s attitude throughout the past two years. He did not turn up for every single meeting and often complained he was tired and wanted to sleep. Completing his assigned tasks was not a problem, but he seldom contributed ideas. I should not blame him, because there was always someone giving the ‘better’ ideas.

We proceeded to the nature park near Ripple Plateau, where the rest were. Some mothers of 6A students were there too. Ethan immediately came to give us light handshakes, asking for the names of my friends. Jerome followed too.

“Seems like quite a lot from your class are here!” I said.

“It’s less than half the class! Alicia doesn’t want to invite some people. I think you know why,” Jerome replied.

We went over to talk to Alicia while we walked towards the adventure course.

“Wow! You’re really fortunate to have so many classmates celebrating your birthday with you!” I said to Alicia.

“Exactly! My class is fun, but we don’t celebrate birthdays as a class and we don’t know everyone’s birthdays,” Chloe said.

“Mine is worse and makes me want to graduate fast!” I said.

“How have you celebrated so far?” Natsuko asked Alicia.

“On Sunday I went out with Ace, Jerome and Ethan Tay. Yesterday, the four of us and Xin Yi went to the KTV, then to Aquarius Water Park where Ileana and Elise joined us. I need you guys to help teach Ace how to sing. It was so funny yesterday! And Jerome’s singing is not bad!” Alicia said.

“Yes, he sings well. I think I asked him to lead the school song before,” Stuart said.

“He’s not from Choir so he can’t lead,” Vernice pointed out.

“Oh, right,” Stuart said.

I looked around. Most of the FRansformed contributors were there. Alex and Sean, who liked to create fun, were weirdly not present.

“Why are some people from your class not here?” I asked Alicia.

“I really want to enjoy this week so I didn’t invite people who will spoil the fun. You know who they are,” she replied.

“Why isn’t Lawrence here?” I asked.

Zoey said, “It’s so obvious!”

“He’s so stingy that he doesn’t even want to come out!” Izumi added.

“More like his attire’s not suitable for today’s activities and he doesn’t want us to see him wearing something else!” Zoey chuckled. “And Hannah wants to talk to you!”

The adventure course had three levels of high elements, a rock wall and a zipline. Ethan, Xin Yi, Zoey and some others wanted to do rock climbing first. My Choir friends and I decided to go for the high elements.

“Which level should I go? The third one looks scary,” Alicia said.

“Let your boy decide for you!” Jerome said.

“Hmm...I want to see you high as a kite on the third level. Since it’s your last birthday as a child, you should have the spotlight and be the first in the queue,” Ace said.

“If I’m on the third level, where will you be? The high elements is no joke!” Alicia said.

“With you, I’m not scared!”

“Please be in front of me so I know you’re okay!”

Jerome said to me, “They’re so cute!”

I proceeded to the third level with them, Elise, Chloe and Vernice. Stuart and Natsuko initially wanted to go to the second level, but later went down to the first. Ace was the first to start, followed by Alicia. Ace seemed pretty confident. Jerome explained to the rest of us that Ace’s anxiety attacks would more likely act up during stressful situations such as assessments and bullying. Ace enjoyed reading, writing and acting, which would help him forget about his troubles. We also found out that Alicia had made the effort to take care of him throughout primary school.

After we were done with high elements, we went for rock climbing. Ace was not keen, so Elise volunteered to rest with him. Alicia and Ariana went first, so Jerome began to talk to the rest of us about mental health.

“Something I don’t understand is the discrimination of people with mental issues,” he said. “Look at Ace. He has so much potential. I don’t know why people in this fallen world have to treat him as if he’s worth less than a cent.”

I said, “Same. Nobody deserves to be insulted because he has a mental issue. What happened to our Project Agape?”

“Gone down the drain! Chloe, Vernice, will both of you be going to FRSS?” Jerome asked.

“Yes,” they replied.

“Nice! I’m most likely heading there too. I’d appreciate if you guys help if we have Agape in FRSS. I’m not really suffering under the autism spectrum, but I feel the urgent need for others to be helped,” Jerome said.

“Why aren’t you affected by it?” Chloe asked.

“Because he’s awesome!” Elise replied.

“Please bear with my long explanation. When I was two, I couldn’t speak. My family knew something was wrong so they sent me to the psychiatrist and I got diagnosed. I was affected by it, Chloe. I messed up many friendships and got very depressed. I was a little too direct and invasive. But thank God, it turned out for the better in primary school. Alicia and Ace have been my classmates since P1. Alicia was very nice to me.”

“Yes she’s quite nice!” Chloe commented.

“Ace was kind and helpful too, but always bullied. Daniel was from another class and managed to find out so he would come and talk to him. I think we were only P2. I soon became good friends with Daniel and started to observe how he talked to others, so my social skills improved. I could go up to someone and ask ‘How’s your day?’ without any problem!”

“No problem?” Vernice asked. “You must be very brave!”

“No, it’s because I’m an extrovert. I need to talk to people. You should try the personality test. I’m 85 or 88 percent extroverted. Daniel’s is 95 percent; Ethan’s is 83; Jia Jie’s is 78; Alicia’s is 64 I think. For introverts we have Darren Gore - 67; Sean’s is 58; Xuanyu’s is 77 and Nazreen’s is 86.”

“Why do you remember these?” Chloe asked. “And I didn’t know that Darren guy is an introvert!”

“That’s all I remember!” Jerome chuckled.

We went to play at the beach afterwards. Ethan suggested having a sand art competition.

“I’m going to draw your face!” Xin Yi said.

“I’ll draw the entire you, fatso! And I’ll call Alex to play with your belly fats!” Ethan said.

“I’ll now draw a slenderman who is you!”

Elise said, “That’s how they like to joke with each other, even though Ethan isn’t that thin and Xin Yi isn’t that fat.”

I walked up to Alicia.

“Just curious, which secondary school are you aiming for?” I asked.

“I want to stay in FR. I’m convincing Ace too! He wants to go to DPHS!” she replied.

Jerome spoke to Ace, “Hey bro, join us in FR. Your princess-”

Alicia stepped on Jerome's foot. “Shush! They can hear us!” She was referring to their mothers.

“Yeah, your girl-” Ethan said.

Alicia kicked Ethan. “I’ll make sure you pay if it gets leaked out!”

“I think I want to go to FR. I forgot DPHS is a boys school,” Ace said.

“I’ll most likely be there too! Hopefully we’ll be in the same class!” I said.

Alicia then had her second birthday cake. We played for a while and left. For the next two days, I did not do much, but looked forward to the first dance practise session. Daniel’s father had helped to book a dance studio at Forge Harbour Central Community Club for us. Daniel asked me, Li Xuan, Hui Wen, Khairul and Farah to come at eight in the morning to start on the choreography. Daniel had the courtesy to let us contribute, but we were too clueless about dance so we let him, Khairul and Hui Wen choreograph.

The rest came, so Ariana and Priscilla announced the pairings. Somehow, there was an equal gender ratio.

Ariana

Khairul

Priscilla

Darren

Jia Jie

Vivian

Nazreen

Ian

Xuanyu

Jordan

Rayana

Xin Jie

Hui Wen

Willis

Izumi

Elvin

Cynthia

Kok Keong

Elise

Novan

Li Xuan

Jerome

Sylvia

Daniel

Xin Ying

Eng Soon

Clarissa

Elliot

Viktoriya

Joash

Isabel

Stuart

Farah

Kok Weng

Almost all the boys were keen on the dance, except for the two expected ones. Hui Wen wanted to dance with Irfan, but she said he had been banned from the prefectorial board after the incident. Ha!

“Sylvia is the lucky girl!” Khairul announced.

“You need to control yourself,” I told him.

“Hey Clarissa,” Elise said. “You are not paired with Jordan.”

Clarissa turned to me. “You can practise with me sometimes. It will be hard for you to practise if your partner is Xuanyu. At first I was afraid my partner would be too tall but Elliot is a really good choice!”

“Whereas Xuanyu is taller than me. I don’t even know if height matters because I was blindly watching when Daniel and the dancers were trying out the moves,” I said.

All of a sudden, Ethan and Xin Yi popped in.

“What are you intruders doing here? Get out!” Jerome said to them jokingly.

“Who sent you here?” Willis asked. “Hannah? Is she going to invite the whole school to the dance too?”

“She’s not coming! Heh, good idea to have a hip hop dance for prom!” Xin Yi said.

“Yes it always is, but the level won’t be willing to learn a dance just for that. You’re here because you have nothing to do before meeting Alicia and the rest?” Daniel said.

“Right! And where’s that loser prefect from 6B? The one who thinks he’s so great! I need to harass him!” Ethan announced.

“Chew Huayi? He’s not here, as usual,” I replied.

“What’s his number? I seriously need to give him a call!” Ethan said.

“We don’t encourage such behaviour here, bro,” Daniel said.

“Yeah! If you have nothing better to do, just get out and don’t disturb us!” Xin Jie said.

“I wonder if Abner and friends are coming without notice,” I said.

Xuanyu took out her phone. “He kept asking me if he can come just now.”

“I like how you didn’t add his contact,” I said.

“Ask the expert!” Daniel suddenly shouted and a certified dance instructor came to aid us.

The instructor really saved our time! If not for him, we would not have progressed so quickly. We would be split into two groups, one of each would dance a scene before a combined one. Daniel, Khairul and Farah would be leading the first scene while Hui Wen, Li Xuan and I would lead the second.

The instructor was mostly helping my group, because Daniel seemed very competent to lead the other group. I had no idea how he could get so good at choreography (better than Khairul) having only picked up dancing a year earlier. Xuanyu was doing fine at the start. I could see she had interest in dancing. When it was time to test out a move which involved me holding her hands and giving her a quick spin, she hesitated.

“It’s just a dance. Hold me hands only during the dance and we can continue our lives without holding hands after that,” I said to Xuanyu.

Willis whispered to me, “You rejected her like that, wow. She doesn’t like guys to touch her. Nothing much we can do.”

“Come on...we’re just holding hands like everyone else. I won’t harm you. I promise,” I said.

Clarissa said, “I can practise with you first! Hui Wen! Teach Xuanyu how to spin for now!”

For the rest of that session, I practised all moves which required contact with Clarissa, and sometimes Hui Wen. I was worried. We were the only pair which could not coordinate. The others were nice to help encourage Xuanyu, but would we end up coordinating eventually?

The next day, I was called to the discipline master’s office regarding the defamation case. Irfan was there, no longer wearing his prefect uniform. After apologising to me, he revealed that the mastermind was a P5 boy from Floorball. I instantly knew Huayi was the main mastermind, as he could make use of his connections to execute the defamation. Too bad, he was foolish enough to use his CCA junior. I asked the discipline master to call Huayi too, because I highly suspected him.

“It wasn’t my idea. It was his!” Huayi accused his junior.

“Why would it be me? It wasn’t even him who told me to do it!” his junior protested.

Those two lines were incredibly flawed. Huayi’s junior should have accused Huayi if he did not want to take the responsibility. I took the chance to expose what Huayi had been saying about me and the exco. As morning assembly was about to begin, the discipline master decided to hold him back and continue the investigation later.

My time had come. I could call on people to back me up. I recalled Abner saying that Huayi spoke to Vivian and Elise besides Xuanyu. Thus, I called Vivian, Xuanyu and Elise to go to the discipline master’s office with me during admin period. Ethan volunteered to go too. I was contemplating whether to get Abner as well, as I had some suspicions, but Xuanyu said it would be great to have him there too.

Huayi said, “There is no use if you bring so many people because I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“You did! All the arrows are pointing at you!” Abner said.

“If I could bring one more person, I’ll definitely bring Rayana. She told me that you want revenge on Jordan,” Vivian said.

“Why would I want revenge?” Huayi protested. “Jordan didn’t do anything bad to me.”

“I didn’t. I tried my best to treat all of you well. Ask yourself,” I said.

“Guys! Stop!” Ethan shouted. “Dude! Are we blind? No! Are we deaf? No! Stop treating us as if we’re senile and own up!”

“Who are you to shout at me? There’s no evidence that I did it!” Huayi said.

“Since February you have been telling me that you’ll make sure Jordan will have a tough life,” Xuanyu said.

“You told me too!” Elise added.

“Yes! The culprit is him! Can I turn on my phone to show my Whatsapp chat with him?” Huayi’s junior suddenly said.

Huayi tried to deny, but could not redeem himself when asked to open his Whatsapp chat with his junior.

“I get that you’re jealous, but you did nothing but complain! You could have just told me how you felt and we’ll give you more work to do in FRansformed. Fine with me! I hope you don’t carry this attitude with you to secondary school. It won’t help you at all!” I chided Huayi.

Like Irfan, Huayi was banned from the prefectorial board. The two black sheep were out.

“You really shouldn’t be the first to be kicked out!” Elise said to Ethan.

“I’d rather be kicked out than remain with those loser prefects! I think the secondary school has even more of them!” Ethan said.

Alright, that was a strong statement, corroborated by what Elijah and Rebecca had been telling me. I would see in a few months.

The next Tuesday, we had our second dance practice after school. We began by recapping the first half of our assigned scenes. Again, I had to trouble Clarissa to practise the spinning part and Hui Wen had to do it with Xuanyu.

After a few moves for our second part, Hui Wen announced to our group, “Get ready for this! For the next move, girls, you have to put your hands on your guys’ shoulders when he squats, look at each other, smile, hi-five, grab his hand and pull away. Let me show you. Willis! Squat!”

The prefects began murmuring, even those from the other group.

“It will get more fun later. Right? Daniel?” Hui Wen chuckled.

I said to Xuanyu, “You are the one touching me, not me touching you!”

Xuanyu just giggled, while Clarissa came to me. We were the only pair with such an issue and I admired how Xuanyu did not seem embarrassed. Later, Xin Ying complained about the way we were being taught the dance. She would rather the entire dance sequence be crafted instead of deciding together after each step. Many agreed.

The other group was ahead of us. Elise said Daniel and Khairul had been trying out many different moves during their free time in class.

“Sorry guys!” Daniel spoke. “We have failed to take note of what's best for us. We now understand that you want the choreographers to decide the move sequence first. Last call - any more volunteers? We’re graduating from here so soon! We must enjoy our final moments as a prefectorial board!”

Clarissa, Jerome, Jia Jie and Darren volunteered.

“I guess we can finish up the choreography now?” Jerome asked.

“What do the rest do then? Nothing?” Xin Jie asked.

“Of course not!” Daniel chuckled. “You can bond with others! If you want, you can practise the steps we learnt!”

Daniel and Khairul decided to help my group do the choreography while Izumi tried to engage the rest in a game. We ended the session with a run through of the dance for the first half of each of our scenes.

The next day, the choreographers had a session to choreograph the final scene, which involved all prefects. Daniel encouraged the non-dancers to try leading the dance the next session.

We had our third practice session the next day. I decided to lead my group, with Clarissa as my demonstration partner, while Hui Wen went to help Xuanyu. A while later, Hui Wen called Li Xuan and Jerome out to lead instead, so Clarissa and I could go back to practise with our partners. Li Xuan was a little shy to lead, but Jerome was very encouraging to her.

“Boys, stand behind your partner and put your right arm in front of her shoulders. Girls, grab his elbow.” Li Xuan said.

I put my right arm horizontally in front of Xuanyu and she backed out.

“Not too close,” she said.

Hui Wen took the trouble to practise with both of us. I wondered what made Xuanyu like that, although she knew I would not harm her.

“Turn around to face him. Right hand on his shoulder and push him,” Li Xuan continued.

“Go Xuanyu!” Jerome shouted.

After the session, Jerome told Xuanyu and I that we might need a contingency plan, should Xuanyu continue to avoid the moves which required contact. Xuanyu had no comment, so Jerome suggested we change our moves completely. Of course, I did not want that.

Our next session was held the next week, the only session before our overseas trip. We were getting closer and closer to graduation. Would Xuanyu and I really need to change our moves? We did the same old thing of switching partners, such that I could tell Clarissa was very sick of it, yet Xuanyu would still casually giggle at it.

At the end of the session, Daniel asked Xuanyu and I to stay back for a short while to run through some new moves with us. We would still appear in the second scene, but would have our individual solo moves. We were supposed to meet in the centre of the stage where we would do similar moves which mirrored each other. Xuanyu gave up halfway. What could we do now?

On a sidenote, the teachers finally gave in to my request for the aspiring exco prefects to indicate interest in the specific positions. I was eager to see the names coming in, but I had to wait until after their examinations.

During the overseas trip, a bunch of 6A students actually performed a dance. I heard it was initiated by Hannah and choreographed by Daniel. That should be the spirit, unlike my uninterested classmates. I hoped that Hannah would be in my secondary school class and Daniel would change his choice of secondary school. That would be a great combination.

The examinations for our juniors ended around that time. I held a briefing for the P5 prefects to give them an overview of what the exco would do and some of our FRansformed plans left hanging. I showed them the online form for exco interest indication and told them I would have chit-chat sessions with candidates before their actual interviews. Yes, just me, enough screen time for Daniel.

I became busier. I had to settle the chit-chat sessions, Aquarius and the dance. The night after the briefing, I received ten responses, five of which from Abner, Kelly, Grace, Adam and Alyssa were for School Captain. That would be a close fight. Many of the candidates wanted to see me the next day, which also had a dance practice session.

I had great conversations with the candidates, who were very motivated to lead the school. I saw hope in that, but not in the dance. Prom was exactly in a week and Xuanyu was still adamant to switch to the new dance moves, let alone cooperate with me.

The next day was our first Aquarius session. There was an excess of volunteers so Abishek decided to prioritise the P6s. I spent my time guiding Grace, also discussing ways to engage the younger batches to participate. Again, Daniel made a big contribution by providing loudspeakers and many trash bags. Why was he always prepared?

We had three practice sessions the next week, of which the third would be held at the prom location.

“A little last minute, but we have yet to confirm the attire.” Daniel announced while flashing a presentation on the screen. “Please wear jeans if you have or other comfortable pants that are not track pants. For the top, make sure there are no visible drawings or logos in the middle. You guys need to wear denim jackets or long-sleeved shirts over your top.”

“Denim jackets are preferred. If you don’t have, ask Daniel, but he has a limited number,” Khairul added.

“We aren’t wearing those for the actual prom! Wear the dance attire to school on Thursday and bring your prom attire along!” Daniel said.

Xuanyu said to me, “I think I won’t dance. The jacket and pants will make it worse.”

“Are you kidding me? The ballroom is probably going to be so cold that you need them. You’ve put in such much effort practising and you’re quitting like that?” I said.

“Yeah, Jordan won’t do anything bad to you. Just hold his hand!” Willis added.

Clarissa came and forced Xuanyu’s hand into mine.

“I’m letting go, tell me how you feel,” she said, but Xuanyu let go.

“I want to know what is stopping you,” I said to Xuanyu, who just smiled and shrugged.

“Just hold his hand!” Elliot said.

“You’re dancing in front of every P6! Would they want to see a weird couple?” Xin Ying said.

“Stop! You’re giving her pressure. Let her get used to it herself!” Jerome said.

Xuanyu showed no signs of discomfort, but rather found the switching of partners during the moves involving contact amusing. We had to trouble Hui Wen and Clarissa again. Even others were complaining about that.

I had no idea what to do, so I said, “If you can hold my hand and do those moves together today, I’ll buy you something.”

Xuanyu’s expression changed.

“Buy me a Samsung S6!” she chuckled.

I facepalmed. She was hopeless. I zoned in and out when the next round of practise began, until the first move which we needed to hold hands…

“Hello?”

“Switch,” I said.

“You didn’t spin me!”

I heard cheering. Was I dreaming? Xuanyu finally held my hand? We quickly caught up with the beat. I did not have to worry about that again!

Some of us in the exco proposed to the teachers to have a handover ceremony the next morning with all prefects and junior leaders present rather than the next year. I was eager to know who my successor would be…

The ceremony commenced with the teacher thanking my exco for our contributions, before the following table was flashed on screen.

CAPTAIN

CHUN SAU WAI KELLY

5A

VICE CAPTAIN 1

ABNER TEO QIAN

5A

VICE CAPTAIN 2

GRACE MARINA LAYCOCK

5A

SECRETARY

TAN RUI HAN

5B

SL ASSEMBLY

ADAM RABIUL BIN MOHAMAD OSMAN

5A

VSL ASSEMBLY

SUGAWARA JOYCE

5C

SL CLASSES (BATCH 1)

ALYSSA KUAH

5B

VSL CLASSES (BATCH 1)

SATO AKANE

5B

SL CLASSES (BATCH 2)

VIJAYARATNA KALIMUTHU

5D

VSL CLASSES (BATCH 2)

CHEN LANXIANG

5A

SL STAIRCASES

ASHTON LOH JIA XUAN

5C

VSL STAIRCASES

TAN JIATONG RYAN

5A

SL FACILITIES

KIRSTEN ERIKSDOTTER

5B

VSL FACILITIES

STEFANIYA ANTONOVA

5C

The incoming exco was asked to stand. Abner began jumping and shaking others’ hands. I had a good glance at them - nine girls and five boys? That was incredibly skewed. The top three positions were pretty much expected. I was glad that Lanxiang made it in. It had been a long time since I talked to Ashton, but I remembered I saw some potential in her.

Both batches of exco were asked to stand in front while the teachers handed my team the new badges to be pinned on our juniors’ uniforms. I pinned the shiny red badge on Kelly’s uniform after she removed her ‘PREFECT’ badge.

“We have to celebrate this!” she said. “Suggest a place to go!”

“Ask the rest. I need to talk to all of you. Friday’s a good day,” I said.

“I’ll Whatsapp you?”

“Again, I don’t have Whatsapp. I'll tell you my new Gmail address.”

Later, the P6s had some informal photo taking sessions, where we could form groups and bring props. As expected, no one in my class brought props and we had our photographs taken in cliques, whereas 6A had arguments on how the groups should be formed. They brought all sorts of props like balloons and soft toys. One even brought a mini fish tank.

The final day of primary school had finally come. All P6 prefects were allowed to ditch their uniforms for once. As I did not fancy suits, I decided to wear the jeans for dancing throughout the day and change my T-shirt to the long-sleeved shirt I would wear for the dance. I brought suspenders too.

The prefects involved in dancing set off immediately after lunch. Our teacher took us to the backstage area of the ballroom to put down our items, and when he turned on the lights…

“Hey! Hey! What’s up? Come on and join this dance! And I’m not Megan’s brother!”

We saw Abner fidgeting about, then the familiar hip-hop song played and he pulled Kelly out for the dance.

After a while, Abner shouted, “Now!”

Two pairs - Adam and Grace as well as the Secretary Rui Han and Alyssa emerged. When the song ended, a lot more P5 prefects emerged out of the blue and threw confetti.

“You guys are always full of surprises!” Daniel chuckled.

I approached Kelly. “What brought all of you here?”

“We want to see all of you together one last time! Our outing is tomorrow right?” she said.

“Yes. I’ve asked Ariana to come along. She said Daniel can’t make it and told us to go ahead. Where are we going?”

“Kelly’s house!” Adam replied.

After some practising, it was time for us to get our makeup done. One of the makeup artists was Cuthbert, and Stuart and I had a good catchup with him. Before we knew it, the dancers for the first scene were already getting in position…

“Ready?” I whispered to Xuanyu.

“Yep,” she replied.

I gave her a light handshake before we set out. The dance was really enjoyable despite the music genre and I was sad it ended so quickly.

“We should really meet again someday to do this dance!” I said out loud when we returned backstage.

“Lives get busier next year,” Darren said.

We then changed into our prom attire.

Before returning to our seats, I said to Xuanyu, “Dance together later?”

She gave an awkward smile and nodded.

I returned to my seat. Unsurprisingly, my class only filled two tables. I sat with my clique (except Graham) and Vivian’s. Eng Soon sat with us too because he was the only one in his clique present.

“Jordan! Look at Vera!” Joey said.

“Wow! You look amazing today!” I said to Vera, who clad in an orange sleeveless dress

“I haven’t worn a dress for years, and this will probably be the last time in many years,” she replied.

After some food, we had our first mass slow dance. I looked over where 6A was. Xuanyu seemed busy talking to Izumi. I decided to pair with Vera first, until Vivian told me to switch with him and I paired with Joey instead.

Later, the P5 prefects sang a song for us on stage. I would miss out on their activities the next year, but I just wanted to graduate quickly and have a fresh start in secondary school. Looking at how enthusiastic they were set my mind at ease.

“Jordan! Hannah wants to dance with you!” Zoey said to me when the next dance was about to begin.

“Sure! Why not?” I followed her to Hannah.

“Sorry, Darren Tan wants to dance with me first. I’ll catch up with you later. I thought you are dancing with Xuanyu?” Hannah said.

I caught Xuanyu’s attention and we proceeded to the dance floor.

“What do we do?” she said awkwardly.

“Just hold my hands and follow my steps,” I said.

“Okay…”

“And this dress looks great on you!”

“Okay...I just realised you’re wearing the shirt for the dance.”

“Yes. I don’t fancy suits. Are you worried about our results?”

“Yeah, I think you should choose a better school if you want to avoid Daniel so much.”

“I’m quite sure he will change his mind and go to GI.”

Prom ended with numerous photo taking sessions which almost drove me nuts, especially Joey who kept asking me to join her group pictures. I caught up with the prefects and some 6A students before leaving.

The outing with the incoming exco started with lunch at Estuary Colonnade.

“Why are both of you in uniform?” Alyssa asked Abner and Kelly who just arrived.

“Awards Ceremony! I got first in class!” Abner replied.

“And I got a character award!” Kelly said.

“Oh, the award that Daniel gets every year?” I asked.

“Yes. He was at the ceremony and now he’s meeting other people,” Ariana replied.

While eating, Grace asked me, “How many dance partners did you have yesterday?”

“Three?” I said.

“I had more!” Ariana chuckled. “You know my class, and how does it feel to have Xuanyu holding your hand?”

“Why are you asking me that? Now I owe her something!” I said.

“I saw both of you yesterday and it reminded me of the camp last year when she refused to hold your hand! What’s up next?” Ashton smirked.

“You said you owe her something? You're going to buy her a ring!” Lanxiang said.

“Off topic, but did you notice that Lawrence wore something different yesterday?” Abner asked.

“Yes he wore a different shirt but I’m quite sure he wore the same pants!” Kelly chuckled.

“You’re right,” Ariana said.

“He unironically said he wanted to be a taxi driver!” Abner added.

“Nothing wrong with that, as long as he likes it,” I said.

“Lol I don’t get how he likes to stinge on clothes and wants a low-paying job,” Adam chuckled.

“Maybe he saves money now so will have enough next time,” Rui Han pointed out.

“And Daniel said taxi drivers are getting pay increases and more bonuses,” Kelly added.

Daniel yet again. Could I stop hearing positive things about Daniel for one day? I already knew how ‘great’ he was and did not need reinforcement on that.

We went to Kelly’s home nearby after lunch. Ariana and I took the chance to talk about the prefectorial board.

“So, how confident are all of you about taking over next year?” I asked.

“Very!” Abner replied. “Thanks to Daniel for taking care of all of us since we were P4. He taught us the values of unity and compassion and we’re now clear of what direction to drive the future prefects to.”

“Daniel again? You can’t give him all the glory because he’s not God,” I highlighted.

“Oh, right,” Abner said.

“But you see, he has been putting in so much effort trying to bond all the prefects,” Grace said.

“Yeah, and look at his class! There isn’t a division between the boys and girls. I see boys shaking girls’ hands!” Kelly added.

“Back to the question. Who is not confident?” Ariana asked.

No one dared to respond.

“We’re already planning!” Kelly said as she ran to get her laptop to show us their updated proposals.

Akane, Alyssa’s vice, began talking about how they planned to organise regular activities for the class buddies to get together and identify problems in their duty areas. Grace brought up new ideas for Project Aquarius and Rui Han talked a bit about Project Pegasus.

I was satisfied. I could graduate without worrying about them. I told them I would like to meet up sometime the next year, but would I be free enough to do so?

Soon, November almost came to an end and I was back in the school hall with my friends. I was too anxious to even catch up with my 6A friends, so I sat still in between Vera and Clarice.

“I think your name will be up there,” Clarice said.

“Being the Captain doesn’t mean I’ll naturally do well,” I replied.

What was the chance of me hitting a score of at least 250? I was never one of the top fifteen. Based on what I heard from my 6A friends, Roshita or Darren had the highest chance of being the dux. I sort of hoped Daniel would do well so he would change his choice of secondary school. Not long later, a list of names were flashed on screen, all of which belonged to 6A students.

Alex’s name was at the top of the list...no way he would be the dux. The next was Ariana’s. Alright, they were in alphabetical order, not rank order. As expected, Daniel and Darren’s names were up too. Ethan was leading cheers where the class would chant the names and clap. Back to the list, I saw an ‘Ethan’...never mind, it was the other Ethan in their class.

“See? I told you I didn’t do that well! I’ll beat you at O or A Levels!” Ethan shouted out loud.

“Will you? I don’t see the word ‘smart’ in ‘Ethan Tay’!” Alex shouted back.

I saw a new list of names. Xuanyu’s appeared first…

“Hey! I’m right!” Clarice said.

I glanced at the list faster. Khairul’s, Roshita’s, Sean’s, Jia Jie’s and Zoey’s names were there..and right below Zoey’s name was mine! How was that possible?

“Woah Jordan! School Captain!” Ethan shouted while most of the 6A students turned to look at me.

“Bro, you’re supposed to stand up!” Daniel chuckled.

I stood up, then followed the rest up on stage for photo taking. Daniel went around shaking hands with others.

“Congrats, bro! Your hard work paid off!” Daniel said.

“Yes! Good job man! How does it feel to be the only one from 6B up here?” Khairul asked

“Good? I wonder how I actually did,” I said.

Vera was the first in my class to receive her results slip.

With a shocked expression, she said, “All As? 242? What?”

Joey instantly hugged her. “Wow! You’re smart! Let’s see if I can beat you!”

“Graham will beat me!” Vera said and Graham remained expressionless.

Jerome called me and I went over.

“How is it?” I asked him.

“Lower than I expected but good enough! 246!” he replied.

Willis said, “Daniel got 252. Look at Darren! He’s complaining about his score. Let’s go!”

“Just stop! You have so many chances. You have six years in TI to prove yourself! You don’t have to do it now!” Jia Jie said to Darren.

“Yes! But I got cheated by this school! Now I know my past six years were a complete lie!” Darren said.

“Hi, congratulations!” I said to him.

“Thanks, but it’s not good enough!” Darren said while stomping the ground.

“261 is legendary! Come on!” Jerome said.

“That’s really amazing!” I added.

“I needed 270!” Darren protested.

“Jordan! It’s your turn!” Vivian shouted.

I walked to the table where my teacher was with pride. Having my name flashed on screen was a good enough achievement. A* for Science, A for English, Mathematics and Chinese as well as a distinction for Higher Chinese with a score of 250. Close call.

“That’s so high!” Joey remarked. “I only got 236! But according to Elijah we can be in the same class right?”

“I hope…let’s see,” I said.

“I got 219, but that’s fine. We can still find time to meet next year,” Clarice said.

“How did Graham do?” I asked.

“Where did he go? Did he leave?” Vera asked.

“He said his parents wanted him to leave. I peeked at his results. He got 226,” Joey said.

Xuanyu and I caught sight of each other and I waved at her.

“Let’s take a picture!” Joey suggested and asked Xuanyu to take a picture of us holding our results slips.

I decided to chat with Xuanyu for a while after the picture was taken.

“How?” she asked.

“250. You?”

She showed me her results. She had two A*s - Chinese and Math, got a distinction for Higher Chinese too and a score of 254.

“I think I’m not going to FR. Sorry,” she said.

“I see...I don’t really like FR culture but I stay here for my friends and siblings. Anyway, I’m just here to get an education. Oh! As promised, I bought something for you. Actually, my siblings and cousin paid for it too.”

It was a phone cover.

Xuanyu said, “I was just joking! But thank you! I got this keychain for you. Thanks for being my Captain.”

“You bought it just for me”

“No, I gave others too. I’m flying back to China tomorrow, but I’ll be back before Sec 1 starts.”

“Will you go back for good one day?”

“I don’t know, but I know I’ll still be here for JC.”

“I’m going to miss you a lot. I hope we can have some prefects reunion next year.”

“When you get Whatsapp, tell Jerome and he’ll add you into our chat. I want to tell you a secret.”

“Which is?”

“Why I hate it when guys touch me. You’ll be happy when you hear this - Joseph Adams is bad. I lied when I said he’s not. He scolded me for no reason and pressed my belly until it was very painful. Then I think he got some guy to touch me. It was scary!”

“I’m sorry it happened to you. Joseph is Joseph. The secondary school now knows he’s bad. I think my friends are waiting for me. Have a good trip and we’ll meet again...someday…”

I walked back to Vera, Joey and Clarice and Xin Yi began shouting, “Captain! What did you get?”

“250. You?” I said.

“237! Aloe Vera! What did you get?”

“242,” Vera replied.

“Woah! I think we’ll be in the same class! See you on posting day!” Xin Yi said.

Vera, Joey, Clarice and I left with our mothers for lunch. Elijah and Rebecca joined too.

“I feel worried for Graham,” Joey said. “I didn’t have a chance to talk to him much just now. I hope he’s fine.”

“How did he do?” Rebecca asked.

“226. He worked very hard but his parents forced him to go for his piano exam during PSLE, and I think that exam is a retake,” Joey replied.

“He could have asked me to teach him. But it’s sad to see someone hate music so much. The world loses another keyboardist,” Elijah said.

“True, it’s sad he can’t be your classmate too,” Rebecca added.

“We should play a game and guess who our classmates will be!” I said.

“Definitely not me,” Clarice groaned.

“Jerome, Xin Yi, Ethan Tay,” Vera said.

“Sonia got the same score as me! What did Vivian get?” Joey said.

“He didn’t say,” I replied. “I’m curious to find out how the majority of 6A did. I know Jerome got 246. Willis got 245. Xuanyu got 254. Ariana got 253. Khairul got 256. And Darren Gore is salty over his 261.”

“That guy lol. What did Daniel get?” Clarice asked.

“252! I’m so close! If he goes to FR, I’ll make sure I beat him in every single exam!” I said.

I still did not understand the general reaction to Daniel’s results. People were expecting him to score at least 260, but his level ranking since P5 clearly suggested it was not possible. Really, wake up FRLites!

Around a month later, we received our posting results. Indeed, Vera, Joey and I were posted to FRSS. On posting day, we met for lunch with our parents. Clarice was not there, unfortunately, as she had to report to National Sports Academy, where she had long secured a vacancy.

“Woah! Leroy sent me a picture of our class list! We are in 1A!” Joey said.

“Since when did you start communicating with Leroy?” I asked.

“It was after prom, when you were busy with your prefects. I mean, Leroy shared the same table with us. He asked me where I got my dress from and how much it costs, then he asked for my phone number,” Joey said.

“He’s interested!” Vera chuckled.

“But I’m not. I’m trying to see the names!” Joey said and Vera moved herself closer to Joey to have a better look at her phone’s screen. “Vanetia...Daniel!”

“What? He was serious about it? Is he the only one with above 250 there?” I said.

“Wait...woah, Ethan Tay, Leroy, me, Sonia, Jordan, Jasmine, Milenka...Tham Yee Sin Hannah! Jordan, you care a lot about whether she’s here right?” Joey said and handed me her phone.

I scrutinised the list. Daniel was indeed in it. I hoped he actually appealed out, because I doubt FRSS suited him. There were many familiar names like Abishek, Jerome, Elise, Xin Yi, Nazreen, Alicia and Ace. I was surprised Xin Ying and Kok Keong made it into the top class too.

“Wait, Zoey is not here? I thought she said she wanted to come here,” I said.

“If there’s a Zoey in our class the teachers will confuse both of us!” Joey pointed out.

After lunch, we headed over to our secondary school hall where the registration was taking place. I walked over to Nazreen who was looking at our class list.

“Hey!” I greeted her.

“Hello. You’re in this school?” she asked.

“Yes, I can’t really think of other schools to go to. Is Daniel really here?”

“He’s right there.”

Nazreen pointed in the direction of Daniel, who was socialising with Jerome, Ethan and a few others. Alright, I was going to be stuck with someone. I should have my escape plan done soon.

“I guess I’m stuck with someone. What do you think our class will be like?” I asked.

“Very noisy. You’ve heard Daniel's voice so many times, but don’t worry he doesn’t talk as much as Ethan Tay. Most of the noise will come from Ethan and Xin Yi. Gani can be quite noisy too,” Nazreen explained.

“Those from 6B aren’t noisy. We’ll expect a lot of cheering?”

“Yes. Mainly from those people. Jerome and Alicia are quite loud when leading cheers too.”

“I forgot to introduce you to my friends. They went to sit there.”

Nazreen and I went to join Vera and Joey.

“Meet Nazreen,” I said.

“Hi! My name is Joey!” Joey said.

“Hello. I didn’t see your name on the list,” Nazreen said.

“It’s Lam Cho Yee, but call me Joey. I’ve seen you in primary school before. You were a prefect! What was your CCA anyway?” Joey said.

“Badminton,” Nazreen replied.

“Sonia’s from Badminton too! Where is she?” Joey said.

“Sonia’s really good. She’s one of the best in the girls team. She’s not here yet I think,” Nazreen replied.

“Vera and I were from Chess. What CCA should I join next year?” Joey said.

“Speaking of Chess, is Elliot in this school?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Nazreen replied.

“Same. I didn’t have a chance to talk to him after prom,” I said.

Vera pointed away. “He’s there.”

“Sup!” Varunya joined us.

“Did you really finish that pile of work you bought?” Nazreen asked her.

“Ahaha! I wish! I got lazy after doing two-thirds,” Varunya said before turning to me. “Oh hi! What’s your PSLE score?”

“250. You?” I said.

“245...sad,” Varunya replied.

“Heyo! What’s up?” Ethan came and shook hands with us.

“Is handshaking a 6A thing? I feel like it is,” Joey said.

“We do it naturally, thanks to Daniel who tells us to make peace!” Ethan said, signalling at Daniel who was talking to Lawrence and another boy.

Daniel walked over. “Hello guys! Hope you’ve had a great holiday! Hi Joey! You’re in 1A too?”

“Since when did both of you know each other?” I asked.

“Last year, when you were busy with Clarissa and other people during recess,” Joey replied with a smirk.

“You appealed in, sis? Didn’t see your name there,” Daniel said.

“My birth name is Cho Yee but I want to be called Joey. Heard that? Heard that?” Joey raised her voice.

“Okay, okay. Tell our teacher later. See you around!” Daniel said and left to talk to others.

“Oh wow! I didn’t realise you’re already here!” Jerome said to us when he turned his head around.

He made a simple gesture, making Elise, Xin Yi, Alicia, Ace and another boy come to sit near us.

“This is Yeremy, Ace, Alicia, Xin Yi, Elise,” Jerome said. “Where’s Abishek?”

“Frederick told me he’s sick,” Varunya said.

“Sick of studying? Was he really studying throughout the holidays?” Ethan chuckled.

“Yeah! 248 and still wants to study some more?” Alicia added.

“Hey! What’s this talk about?” Izumi popped in.

“Wow! The smart kid is here!” Ethan said.

“You’re saying that to a 6A kid who’s now in 1B? When you think of Izumi you shouldn’t think of smart, and if you think of smart you shouldn’t think of Izumi,” Izumi said.

“What he means is that you will become smart in secondary school!” Jerome said. “Wait, guys...we should let Joey and Vera introduce themselves!”

“It’s okay, Joey can talk,” Vera said.

“You’re not talking? Okay, I don’t know what to say but we were from Chess Club. This girl is a gamer. She plays a lot of games,” Joey said, referring to Vera.

“Wait, where’s Hannah?” I asked.

“Xuanyu is going to be sad if she sees you caring so much about Hannah. How? Did you contact Xuanyu?” Izumi asked.

“No…” I said.

“I don’t think Hannah checked her phone at all. She didn’t even respond in the group chat,” Jerome said.

“Zoey? I thought she would come here?” I said.

“She’s too smart for here!” Xin Yi said.

“Let's read out from the list from our 6A chat,” Jerome said while taking out his phone.

“You can’t use your phone in school!” I said.

“You goody two shoes!” Xin Yi said. “It’s not even a school day. Be our school Captain in 2019!”

“I need a break,” I said.

“Zoey and Ariana are in Lunar Girls. Roshita and Josephine in GGS of course. Jia Jie and Xuanyu in VLGS. Alex and Marcus in DPHS. Sean, Khairul and Ethan Johanan in Starlight,” Jerome said.

“Good that Alex got into a boys school!” Alicia said, then turned to Ace. “See! You shouldn’t have gone there.”

“How did Jia Jie do?” I asked.

“She’s a legend! She suddenly got 258 and suddenly got fourth in level!” Ethan said.

“Who’s fifth?” Joey asked.

“Khairul. Sean is sixth,” Ethan replied.

“Wow! You guys have a Whatsapp chat? 6B doesn’t!” Joey remarked.

Ethan, Xin Yi, Alicia and Jerome began laughing.

“Seriously? That’s pathetic!” Ethan laughed.

“Okay, it’s actually not funny. Forget the unhappy times in 6B and move on! You’ll have a fun and fulfilling four years in FRSS!” Jerome said.

I was eager to find out what this class 1A would be like in a matter of days. Joey agreed that our new classmates were very friendly and welcoming. We managed to see Graham sitting with his parents at the designated area for 1B. He seemed distressed and was constantly reading a book. Unfortunately, we did not have a chance to catch up with him.

What did I have to say about my experience as a School Captain? It was tiring, and made me feel incompetent. All the credit still went to Daniel although he was of a lower position. He had the courtesy to give others a try, but still got all the attention, which made no sense at all. To see things in a positive light, being stuck with Daniel could help me dig deeper to find the answers to my questions.

I met different kinds of prefects. Supportive ones, and jealous ones. Hopefully, the undeserving prefects would learn their lessons and the deserving ones would continue to be good influences. Who actually deserves to be a leader? What does it take to be a leader? Would continuing my education in FRSS give me the answers?