White was all Alicia could see. Mom cooking breakfast was all Alicia could hear. Ugh, she missed Motel 91 already. Waking up with the sun, rather than before it, was a blessing she never learnt to appreciate until now.
Muscle memory guided her through the motions: wearing her uniform, packing her bag, and sleeping on the couch until Mom finished cooking breakfast.
She had breakfast while Mom tied her hair. When one yawned, the other followed seconds later. After she was done, they got into the car and drove off to school. It gave her ten more minutes of sleep.
That made all the difference.
Piano echoed throughout the canteen, coaxing her back to sleep a third time. When she woke up again, she identified the mysterious pianist to be Kat.
She no longer felt sleepy.
She ran to the piano bench and hugged her. Kat’s reflexes struck, almost leaving her with a black eye.
“Fuck! Sorry! You scared me!” Kat apologised.
“I’m back!” She cheered, flapping her hands.
It took Kat a moment to recognise her. But once she did, she hugged her back. “Oh, my god! What the fuck? How?”
“I returned home.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to give my mom a second chance, and we talked. So now, things are better between us.”
“Nice! See? I told you. Just talk, man.”
She nodded. They hugged again. Alicia recapped her life at Motel 91, while Kat caught her up with class gossip: Kevin is now dating Ying Wen’s friend, and that caused a rift in her circle. When her mom came to question her, everyone theorised about her disappearance. The consensus amongst the class was that she left because of O’Levels stress or Vinn.
She then recapped the talk she had with Mom, most notably her diagnosis session next week, while Kat recapped her own life: She exempted herself from FCE (Fuck the coursework), Minty is wearing the cone because of a rash, and the class invites her to play Cyber-Strikers when someone in their clique was on MC.
She’ll help get Alicia invited.
They continued rejoicing until morning assembly.
The teachers gave her a half-hearted welcome back to soften the blow on the homework she had accumulated, and how far she was behind from her peers.
They encouraged her to work twice as hard to catch up. Doomsday was around the corner; literally. The teachers weren’t crying wolf anymore. Ugh, she missed Motel 91 already.
To her surprise, Faizah, William and Pav welcomed her back too. A classmate (besides Kat) not only noticed her return, but was also glad of it. She thanked them, sounding less sincere than she’d hoped.
And she used this as an opening. “Would you like to play Cyber-Strikers with me and Kat?”
“Oh, we don’t play that. Sorry.” They returned to their seats.
At least she tried.
As the boring classes droned on, Kat inquired about the only part of her story that intrigued her: Zack. It wasn’t enough for her to mention their relationship. No, Kat demanded an extensive breakdown of every instance of romance which occurred.
Kat was like a scientist conducting research on this newly discovered phenomenon.
Alicia went along at first, reliving the butterflies in her stomach as she explained what butterflies in her stomach felt like. But when she neared the end, her enthusiasm faded.
“...and then we broke up.” The butterflies died.
“Oh, that sucks.” Kat went mute, scratching her head. “Talk to Ying Wen about it? Since she also had a breakup? I don’t know what to say.”
She didn’t either.
They avoided this sour topic with another sour topic: homework. Kat had been collecting it for her, even doing some for her occasionally, and broke the news with no hesitation. “Dude, you’re fucked.”
Alicia gulped.
“You have to do like five million revision papers for every single subject, and be done with your coursework.”
She sighed.
“But fuck that shit. Just let them throw you in detention, and you can just skip.”
“Mm.”
“Also.” Kat leaned in and whispered, “All the revision papers are the past year’s papers, you can just find all the answers online.”
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She would’ve protested, claiming she needed them to revise. But with only a month left to doomsday, did it even matter? Rather than fretting over how to ace her O’Levels, she fretted over how to deal with the fallout of failing them.
Everyone would be upset, of course, but that wasn’t the worst part. Students who failed O’Levels had two options: either go to ITE (she heard from the grapevine it was a bad school, hence only failing students ended up there), or retain for a year and take O’Levels again.
All of this again. But that wasn’t the worst part.
The worst part was who her fellow failing students would be. The lazy. The rowdy. The delinquents; Vinn. O’Levels again with Vinns as her classmates.
Mom would be heartbroken.
Then came Kat with the counter-argument: retaining was good. If she retained, she could reset the clock on doomsday. Kat was likely to fail O’Levels too, which meant they could spend an extra year together. Plus, she could also exempt herself from FCE, and ignore her subjects that didn’t fall into her L1R4 (the five out of eight subjects counted to her O’Levels score) to throw off some dead weight.
That sounded reasonable to her. But would it to Mom? Time for a second talk.
But first, her grand reunion with Minty. He licked every corner of her face and refused to stop. Whenever she came closer, he primed himself with his back arched like a missile, ready to strike at any moment.
When she stood up, he struck, running laps around them and jumping about. They decided to go to Alicia’s, while Minty played. Kat’s dad offered them a ride there and to take care of Minty. His car, in contrast to Mom’s, felt like a Ferrari. Her favourite part of it was the touch-screen control panel. No clunky buttons.
The two girls sat at the back, with Minty between them. As the car went over speed bumps and sharp turns, the dog stuck to its owner like dried glue.
They arrived, and on the man’s command, Minty crawled to the passenger’s seat. Though it was unlikely, a part of her still wished Mom wasn’t home.
She wasn’t. Kat flipped through the channels on the TV, complaining that there wasn’t anything good on.
Alicia took a box of cookies with no post-its on it (meaning it wasn’t a customer’s) and shared it with Kat. The taste made her stim in excitement.
“My Mom made these. She has her own bakery!” Alicia flaunted.
“Then why don’t you know how to cook?”
“I do now.”
Alicia cooked the noodles, while Kat fried the eggs.
After lunch, Kat settled on some cheesy romance movie. She watched it with one eye, whilst the other played Cyber-Strikers. Mom promised to buy her a new one on the day of her autism diagnosis. The anticipation was killing her.
At the emotional climax of the movie, where the two leads kiss, Kat had to say, “How did you get a boyfriend before, like half the people in class? That’s crazy. I’m jealous.”
“Don’t be. Being a girlfriend is exhausting.” She shrugged.
“What? How?”
“You have to care about what he thinks, and force yourself to hold his hand or go on dates just to be a good girlfriend. I don’t like it. I don’t understand why people find it romantic.”
The movie showed the two leads walking along the beach, “How can you walk comfortably with sand on your bare feet? What if you step on a seashell?” Alicia complained.
“Hm. Interesting.” Kat said, “Maybe you need to find a guy who likes tacos and Cyber-Strikers next time.”
“I’d rather just discuss it with you.”
Kat lost the round and passed the phone to Alicia. Alicia, who grew rusty after not playing for months, lost the round too. The lack of upgrades on Kat’s Sniper only added salt to the wound.
Kat stayed until evening, helping Alicia search and copy all the answers with minor changes to hide their blatant plagiarism.
Mom came home, laughing and chatting with Jacob. Alicia’s hair stood up as a reflex screamed at her to hide Kat away. But she restrained it, and helped Mom with her bags instead.
Mom was surprised, yet not opposed to Kat’s existence. She asked if Kat wanted to stay for dinner (Kat said yes), and cooked them egg fried rice. Alicia’s hair stood back down.
“Who’s that?” Kat whispered in her ear, pointing to Jacob.
“My Mom’s boyfriend. She’s considering dating again.”
Kat blinked in confusion.
“I don’t have a Dad. He’s an asshole.”
“What? You never told me that!”
She could’ve sworn she did, but she stood corrected.
Jacob introduced himself to Kat, asked if Alicia remembered him, and sat on the couch. The two girls felt and fought against a pressure akin to gravity to initiate conversation with him. They sought refuge in Alicia’s room.
Dinner went well. Mom and Jacob chatted with each other, and was considerate to not include her until her plate was empty. Kat watched cute dog videos, drumming her hands as fast as the food was delicious.
After they cleaned the plates, Mom offered Kat a ride home.
She was stuck with Jacob for the next hour. Mom tasked them both to get along while jotting down customers’ addresses on post-it notes.
Jacob initiated conversation with the tiresome openers: How are your studies? Are you stressed for O’Levels? Don’t be. All the best!
She answered with, “Thanks.”
Next, he played a game of twenty questions: Do you like cycling? Do you like baking? Do you like reading? Do you like movies (and if so, which ones)? Do you like music (and if so, which ones)...
Alicia answered “Yes,” and “No,” accordingly
“So… your mother is going to get you a new phone and laptop. That’s exciting! Have you thought of which model you want yet?”
“I want the laptop with the rainbow lights, like your one.”
“A custom-built PC? Cool. What parts do you want?”
She tilted her head.
“Here, let me show you.” He whipped out his phone and gave her a crash course on tech and custom-built PCs. The crash course opened her eyes to a whole world of unexplored knowledge. The anticipation for a new phone grew stronger.
“Can I research the PCs on your phone?” She asked sheepishly.
“Sure.” He hovered over her as she searched, chiming in with opinions and elaborations on what she found. This new world of rainbow lights and mechanical keyboards left her in awe. After the addresses were done, they took it to the couch and scrolled all night until she found her dream computer.
It wasn’t those with the rainbow lights (they were expensive and enormous), but a smaller one that could tilt its screen 360-degrees to be converted into a tablet. The price, according to Jacob, was also reasonable.
Satisfied, Alicia searched for her dream phone next, which left her in a friendly debate with Jacob of Apple vs Android; her, the Apple defender. Mom came home and took her side until Jacob conceded.
Jacob headed home for the night soon after, leaving Alicia eager to see him again tomorrow. Maybe having Jacob as her dad wasn’t the worst thing in the entire world.
They headed into Mom’s bedroom for a second talk, where Alicia requested to be exempted from FCE and to retain. A flare of anger flashed across Mom’s face, which left as soon as it came, like a shooting star.
Mom took a deep breath before giving the counter-argument. They went back and forth until they reached a consensus: Alicia may retain, but she may not exempt herself from FCE, because it was a subject she excelled at. Mom would rather she ignored her weaker subjects instead.
Alicia told the news to Kat tomorrow. They rejoiced with a game of Cyber-Strikers with their classmates in the computer lab. Kat got her invited.