The Corner (9 page)

I nearly shrunk away in terror
when I heard that he was into demon-worshipping music. Mandy and a
few other girls were always discussing about how rock and metal
music were real bad influences. How was it possible for someone
like Anton, who looked so normal, studious and decent, to be
listening to those music based on sinister themes? He really needed
a girl like Mandy to bring him out of the darkness.

I stared at Anton, hoping that
by focusing on his face, I could banish those negative thoughts to
the back of my mind. I was worried that he could sense them.

While I was expecting him to
continue the topic on music, he suddenly asked, “Which club are you
in?”

I didn’t expect him to ask about
me. “Math—” I stumbled on my words.

Being in the Mathematics club
didn’t exactly sound glamorous. If only there was one for History
that I could join. Appearing to be knowledgeable always beat that
nerdy image anytime.

“That’s all?”

I nodded, feeling like an
unmotivated bummer who joined an ECA group that required minimum
amount of commitment. “It’s the only one I’m interested in.”

The ends of his lips curled up.
“That’s cool. No point wasting your time on something that you’ve
no interest in.”

I seriously needed some ice
cubes to cool down the heat gathering around my cheeks. I turned
away to keep my face hidden from his view. “Thanks.”

Silence followed. After a few
seconds, I saw through the reflection that he was taking out a
large, thick paperback from his bag. Then he flipped the pages to
around the middle section of the book and began to read it. I
squinted my eyes to see that it was a Physics textbook for the
fourth year students. Wasn’t he in his third year?

For the rest of the journey, we
hardly talked to each other. I found myself appreciating that
silence we had between us. There was no pressure to communicate
with each other. I didn’t have to constantly mull over what was the
correct thing to say. Sitting by his side was more than enough for
me.

When the bus reached the bus
stop before mine, I got up to get ready to alight from it.

Before I could, awkwardly,
request Anton to shift a bit to let me out, he stood up to make way
for me while dragging his guitar to the aisle.

“Cya,” he said with a beam on
his face.

My heart was beating in a wild
and crazy manner. “Bye.” It was the only word I had managed to
utter.

I went on to get off the bus. As
I was walking to my school, I couldn’t contain the excitement I
felt at knowing the guy of my dreams. It seemed so unreal, just
like a dream. I pinched the fleshy part of my palm to confirm that
it did happen. After pondering for a while on whether to tell Mandy
about my encounter, I decided to keep mum about it until I knew
Anton better. I could give Mandy a pleasant surprise when I was
ready to introduce him to her.

After assembly, my classmates
and I marched to our classroom as per our usual morning routine.
What was unusual was that the corner girl was nowhere in sight.

***

For the next few days, Anton had
been coming up to sit with me whenever we saw each other on the
bus. At first, I was worried that he might avoid me on purpose
since not many people wanted to be associated with someone like me.
Well, he had vanquished my doubts. Maybe he empathized with my
plight of being a loner. Based on my demeanour, it was kind of
obvious that I had few friends. Even though we only chatted a bit
while on the bus, his presence had a calming effect on me. I was
unsure if he was the reason for the non-appearance of the ghost,
but the fact remained that she didn’t show up again after I had
befriended him.

So I was in a considerably good
mood since then … until I heard the rumour that had been
circulating around the school on a Monday morning.

It caused unrest among the
students, and many were discussing about it during the breaks
between lessons.

“It’s unfair to us! I enrolled
into school because of the EFA program. Otherwise, who wants to
study in this stinking old school?” complained Kelly who was
sitting on her table and facing Mandy.

I remained seated at my table,
listening to their conversation from a distance away. Since that
incident, I no longer hung around with Mandy’s group of friends.
They might not say it, but I could sense that they were suspecting
me to be the culprit who destroyed their artworks. I liked to be
alone anyway, so it was fine by me. I was surprised that the girls
were flustered by the possibility of Lawson Girls’ High opting out
of the
Education For All
program. It was initiated by the
Accastle government in the year 1990, in a bid to promote
meritocracy in our society. Thanks to the program, I could get into
Lawson, an aided school, based on my grades only and paid the
school fees at subsidized rate.

Alice, who was sitting beside
Kelly, pointed out, “Maybe the facilities will improve after
independence? Donations from those super-rich parents will make
huge differences.”

Kelly argued, “But it’s the
matter of principles. I’ve the expectations of paying this fixed
amount of money for the school fees. All of a sudden, I’m told that
I need to pay much more. Irresponsible of them to do this! Should
have told us beforehand that they’d this kind of plan in mind. Then
I can make an informed decision on which school to get into.”

Mandy appeared to be in a
downcast mood. Throughout the break, she was just listening to
Kelly and Alice going back and fro about whether it was beneficial
for them if the school cut away the support of the government. Why
did she feel upset about it? I was the one most adversely affected
by that change. How were my parents going to afford the exorbitant
school fees? And the school would surely organize lots of
fund-raising events when the government no longer funded it. It
wasn’t easy to transfer to another reputable school. I was totally
screwed.

Squeezing my eyelids shut, I
kneaded my temple in frustration. When I opened my eyes, I saw an
additional entity standing beside Kelly.

With her side facing me, the
corner girl was staring at Mandy. There was a gaping laceration
running down the entire length of the ghost’s forearm. The edges of
the wound were slathered with blackened blood. The skin there was
peeling off to reveal the raw, bleeding flesh underneath, and I
could distinctively hear the sickening sounds of the fragile
membrane being plied off by gravity.

What had happened to her? What
did she want with Mandy? I didn’t want my friend to make a
connection with a ghost. It wasn’t pleasant at all, no matter what
the girl’s intentions were.

I tried to shout, “Mandy?” It
sounded more like a squawk.

Mandy spun around to regard me
with a questioning look before excusing herself from the group.
Then she walked to my table. “Yeah?”

That apparition hadn’t moved one
bit. I ignored her and whispered to Mandy, “You seem out of sorts
today.”

She sighed before replying in a
hushed tone, “Yeah. I’m deciding between staying put in this school
and transferring to Oxland High. If the school fees are going to be
the same, might as well go to Oxland.”

“Won’t you miss Kelly and the
other girls?”

“That’s the problem. I like you
guys.” Then Mandy stared at her feet while mumbling, “I’d put in so
much efforts in making new friends here”—she looked up at me—“but I
also miss those in my elementary school. Most of them had enrolled
in Oxland.”

“Why did you choose this school
then?” I doubted that it was because of the lower school fees.

“For the subsidized fees.”

I was shocked by her reply.

She continued in a listless
voice, “My dad is just a senior director in a technology company.
My mum is a housewife. It’s not easy to maintain our current
lifestyle. So I thought I could lessen their burdens by studying in
Lawson instead.”

I never knew that a family like
Mandy’s needed to be thrifty also.

Wanting to cheer Mandy up, I
shelved aside my own worries and said, “I got to know Anton
already.”

***

“Morning,” Anton greeted in a
hoarse voice when he was near my seat.

“Hi.” I watched him settling
down beside me. “Are you alright?” I queried in a hardly audible
voice. Actually, he seemed to be off the weather for the past few
days.

“A sore throat. Didn’t help that
yesterday, I had wasted two hours tutoring my cousin while enduring
the pain.” He grimaced in agony.

Feeling awful at the sight of
his pain-ridden face, I sprang into action by fishing out my water
bottle—good thing that it was blue, my favourite colour, instead of
the girlish pink—and offering it to him. “I haven’t drink from this
yet … and it had been thoroughly washed.”

He smiled and declined with a
shake of his head. “I’ve my own. What I need is no further
agitation to my throat.”

“Oh.” I was quite disappointed
that he rejected my offer. “It must be tough teaching your
cousin.”

“Will not be”—he cleared his
throat—“if he bothers to listen. It’s a waste of time talking to
someone who’s not listening.”

“You seem to value time a
lot.”

He blinked his eyes once and
then cocked his head to one side. “Shouldn’t we? All of us are
living on borrowed time. Who knows when the lease is up …”

Did something happen to Anton
before? His philosophical mindset got to come from somewhere.
However, I dared not probe into his private life.

“It’s meaningful.” Those
heartfelt words were the only ones I could say aloud at that
moment.

“Just my thoughts. I’m glad that
you appreciate—” His throat seemed to feel irritable again.

I wanted to scold myself for not
bringing along the mint sweets that day. They could help a lot in
soothing his ailments. At the same time, I was listing out his
possible reactions to my suggestion of introducing Mandy to him.
Would he find it a waste of his time?

I braced myself, ready to find
out the answer.

After
analysing the map that was computer-printed on an A4 paper, Mandy
rolled it up and told me to follow her. We trekked across the
school compound of St. Andrew Institution, past the canteen and
down several bright, airy corridors to get to a secluded spot on
the fifth floor of a building. It was a clearing with several
wooden benches, paired with long tables, dotted around the place.
All were unoccupied, except for one. We were looking for that lone
boy there.

I had figured that the best time
for Mandy to meet up with Anton was the short break before her
gymnastics lessons started. Anton didn’t mind since he would be
doing his school work during that timing, thus not interfering with
his tight schedule. In addition, I did found out the reason for his
tardiness for his gymnastics practices: he made it a point to
finish up his school work of the day before moving on to anything
else. It helped that his regular hangout place was very quiet, so
it would be conducive for them to chat with each other.

Mandy was, of course, excited to
talk to him. Watching him from afar and not unable to know him
better—those only intensified her pinning for him. I hoped that
with the introduction, she could find her happiness, especially
after putting behind those worries about the possible rise in
school fees.

The students in Lawson’s top
classes had petitioned to demand the school fees to remain
unchanged after the school was granted independence. The principal
yielded to the pressure and announced that the current students
would not be affected by the change in status. Thereafter, I was in
a more relaxed mood to plan the meeting-up session.

After noticing that we were
walking towards him, Anton took a glance at his watch before
looking up and smiling warmly.

The moment we reached the table
that had notes, books and A4 notepads scattered over it, Mandy
extended her hand to Anton. “Hey, I’m Mandy.” Her poise and voice
exuded pure confidence.

“Hi.” He took her hand to give a
firm handshake. His face had that usual nonchalant expression, and
he appeared to have recovered from the sore throat.

I just realized that I had never
touched his hand before … much less shake it.

With athletic grace, she went on
to settle down on the bench opposite him and prop her elbows on the
table. “I saw you practising for quite a number of events. Are you
competing in all during the upcoming interschool competitions?”

A smug smile manifested on his
visage. “Yes, of course.”

“That’s cool,” Mandy cooed.
“Which one are you most confident in getting a gold?”

“Parallel bars,” he answered
without hesitation.

As the two were talking about
gymnastics—the sports that both of them had great interest in, it
dawned upon me that I was an outsider. I wasn’t needed there. My
job was done. My presence only hindered the development of their
relationship. I had no reason to talk to Anton anymore.

Stinging sensations were
crawling into my eyes.

It was time for me to make
myself scarce. “Uh, I need to go home now to settle some matters.”
I tried so hard to stop my voice from breaking into sobs.

When they looked at me, finally
becoming aware that I was still around, I murmured, “So … Bye!”

Mandy waved her hand while
saying goodbye to me. Anton bade farewell with an unreadable
expression on his face. He must be eager to see me off. I turned
away to strut out—well, sort of—of there.

While heading out to the bus
stop right outside St. Andrew’s premises, tears pooled around my
eyes. My nose was getting stuffy. I bowed down my head, not letting
anyone witness my sorry state. I had always assumed that I would be
okay with Mandy dating Anton since I had no chance anyway, and she
was my friend. Yet it hurt so much when I saw them together. I was
just a link—I meant nothing to them, especially Anton. Recalling
those memories of the times I had spent with Anton and knowing that
those belonged solely to the past already, I couldn’t hold back
those tears any longer.