Extraordinary Losers 2 (2 page)

“Area of a parallelogram is ½ x b x h… Area of a circle is ϖr
²
…” Mundi muttered.

Janice began munching on her donut and I … well, I was just distracted by their heavy breathing and their palpitating heartbeats.

We followed her to the main office, looking around, not knowing what to expect. She stopped, sighed heavily and then pointed to the staircase next to the office.

“So?” I asked. “What is it?”

“Look closer, behind the staircase!” she said.

We all went nearer and to our horror, an appalling image came to view! It was absurd!

On the wall, a shocking image greeted us. There was a caricature of the principal, Mrs Priya, riding on a scooter. She wore a wicked grin and the mole on her chin was blown out of proportion. Her features were so distorted that we all stifled a laugh. The caricature of Mrs Priya was hideous! What's worse, children in our school uniform wearing clown hats were gathered all around her on the bike. The school flag was wrapped around her head like a bandana. A party horn was sticking out of her mouth. Beside the image, the words “Brightstar School For Fools” had been sprayed on.

We stood there, perplexed.

The next morning, the whole school assembled under the early morning sun. All of us belted out the school song and national anthem like we really meant it.

Just the previous week, all of us had sung begrudgingly. Our music teacher was promptly summoned up on stage to lead us in the singing of our school song. An opera singer wannabe, she sang in such a high pitch that some kids developed an instant headache. A few, thanks to the lack of breakfast and the extended time under the hot sun, even fainted.

No one wanted that experience again, so from then on, we gave the school song our all! Mrs Priya stood on stage, smiling at us approvingly.

After the singing session, Mrs Priya scanned the sea of Brightstar students and sighed deeply into the microphone. The microphone screeched and I covered my ears. “Bright… Brightstar… pupils… Today is a very sad day.”

There was a tremor in her voice. We thought she was about to weep, when all of a sudden, her sadness turned into anger. She eyeballed each of us, her eyes wide, before continuing her speech.

“Brightstars, do you know what happened yesterday?” She sighed again. “The most distressing remark ever made, and on our school walls! Someone or some people sprayed the remark ‘Brightstar School For Fools' on the wall outside the office. What's worse, there was a caricature of me on it!”

Unconsciously, she fiddled with the mole on her chin. The children (especially the lower primary kids) began to chuckle, thinking that it was quite funny. The upper primary students knew better.

“Silence!” Mrs Priya yelled, her arms akimbo. The microphone vibrated a little. “This is very serious! How dare you children laugh?”

Mundi shook his head, protesting.

“If you are the culprit, come forward now,” she urged. “Better to confess now before we catch you! Be very sure that we will get to the bottom of this! I don't care if it takes weeks or even months! We will get the culprit.”

All the teachers, including Mr Grosse, Miss Jacobs and Madam Siti, had worried looks on their faces. I saw Mr Grosse lean over to Madam Siti. Quickly, I scraped out any ear wax as fast as I could and strained to eavesdrop.

“ … bad. This is not the end. Mark my words, there will be more to come.”

Madam Siti turned to him and nodded. Something really serious was brewing in Brightstar Primary School. Was there really more to come? What was the motive of the vandalism? And was our school in grave danger?

I turned to Mundi, Clandestino and Janice. We looked at one another, the same thought going through our minds. Was it time to be extraordinary again?

From a distance, I could hear people muttering. Justin and Leonard turned to each other.

“What a cool piece of artwork,” they said, sniggering.

Could it have been them? Did they do it to take revenge for what happened to them one week ago in school? When they had been punished?

We didn't want to be seen chatting about the vandalised wall, for fear teachers might misconstrue our actions and think that we were the culprits. So I mouthed “notice board” and rushed to the Guitar Club notice board to pin up my message to my friends. There was definitely time for a poem, even at such a time.

Then I raced off, hoping my three friends would be able to solve the riddle in the poem.

During the first few periods of class, no one could concentrate.

Our Math teacher, the lovely Miss Jacobs, sashayed in as usual. “Good morning Class 5B,” she chirped. She was still quite sprightly despite the frightful assembly. Our classmates seemed to have forgotten about the whole incident. They went about their business as usual, panicking over homework while trying to settle down.

Janice, Mundi and Clandestino were at the edges of their seats, perhaps because of the note I had left them.

“Class, if you know anyone who could have done what Mrs Priya had talked about, do come forward to let me know. Okay? Your names will be kept confidential,” Miss Jacobs appealed sweetly.

“Yes, Miss Jacobs,” came the reply.

Leonard raised his hand. “Err, Miss Jacobs. I notice that the message rhymed. Like a poem.”

“You mean ‘Brightstar School For Fools'?”

“Yes, ‘School' and ‘Fool' rhyme.”

“Okay?”

“So… the vandal might have been a silly poet like Darryl. He loves to rhyme!”

The class broke out in laughter. Everyone pointed at me.

“I love to rhyme, but I am definitely not a vandal,” I said.

“Well, only you know…” Leonard said with an evil wink.

“Loser!” added Adam, the new basketballer in class.

Miss Jacobs noticed the harassment and raised her voice. “Boys, if you do not have evidence, do not blame anyone. Clear?”

Leonard, Justin and Adam sniggered.

“Good. Now let's get on with our lesson. Do all of you have your Math textbook? Can you turn to page 34 on ratio and percentage?”

My mind could hardly concentrate on Math. It was the last thing on my mind right now. The clock ticked so slowly, like it was running out of battery.

“Darryl! Are you paying attention?” Miss Jacobs asked.

“Yes, Miss Jacobs. I am. I am looking at the board.”

“He is thinking about the graffiti on the wall!” Justin cried out.

“Yes, you are looking at the board, but your eyes have been on the same spot for the past 10 minutes. I am already at this corner of the whiteboard. But you are still there.” She pointed to the spot where she was drawing models just minutes ago.

Wow, teachers do know if we are really paying attention. All this time, I thought pretending to look at the board was enough. You mean they actually follow our gaze? Amazing. I should really go to Teachers Training College one day.

“Oh yes, erm… Sorry?” I said sheepishly.

“A hundred per cent bona fide loser,” Leonard remarked. “Miss Jacobs, he can't hear well because his ears are all blocked up with ear wax!”

“No…the-the-there-there-there's a-a-a reason.” Mundi gulped.

There was silence. The whole class turned to Mundi. He had never spoken up before in the presence of any teacher, but here he was standing up for me!

“There-there-there's,” Justin repeated. “The mute boy speaks!”

“Hee hee,” the class tittered.

Clandestino was about to interfere when the clock struck 10 am. Recess. The four of us waited for everyone to file out of class.

“Hey, thanks, Mundi,” I said. “For trying to stand up for me just now. I was afraid you would reveal my secret.”

“No. I would never do that, no? But y-you-you…s-s-s-sure you think it is a g-g-goo-good idea? No? To volunteer?” Mundi hesitated when he thought of the note I had left on the notice board.

“Yes, why not?” I said. “The only way we can study the vandalised wall and gain clues is if we volunteer to clean it. We can't be staring at it all day.”

“Yes, we will definitely be too obvious if we keep staring at it,” Janice added.

“They might think we're the ones who did it if we hang around that area too often,” Clandestino concluded. He was often mistaken for a bad kid since he was quite unkempt and untidy.

“I will end up cleaning it in the end, so you guys might as well just help me. Right?” I said.

The three of them raised their eyebrows.

“Why you?” Janice asked.

“Hello, Janice. I am the notice board rep, remember? We do nothing. That's why ALL the notice board reps usually get called up for stuff like this. Remember, one night when there was a thunderstorm and all the dead leaves got blown into the compound? The next day, who got called up to clean the premises?”

“The P5's and P6's notice board reps. No?” Mundi remembered.

“Spot on, Mundi,” I said. “Remember that time when the principal felt that the books in the library were too dusty because nobody had read them, and she needed a group of kids to clean the books. Who did she call?”