04: The tour and a full-court shot

“Please Pau, help me with this one. Why am I even assigned with this task? I’m also a new student here, you know?”

“That's your punishment, remember? Also you’re here for one and a half month already, you should know the school layout by now”

“Then why not other classmates, haven't you all been here ever since grade 7? At least accompany me with this”

“Sorry Francis~ most of us are busy. Especially us on SG. You don’t have anything to do, right?”

“Ugh… Fine, I’m just going to do a touring job then… make sure this is gonna add something to my grades!”

“Goodluck Francis! Ah, and remember don’t flirt with her!”

“I won’t!!! Damnit!”

The one I’m talking to just now is named Paulina, although all of us call her “Pau”. She is the current president of the Student Government, a really charismatic leader and one of the reasons why the school is still functional due to her influence on the teachers and Principal.

Pau’s appearance is not that remarkable for someone who has the highest authority among the students, unlike Erika (the class president) who wears glasses that indicates her strong diligence.
Her only noticeable appearance is her hair tied into pigtails that were laying on her shoulder. At first sight, anyone would have thought that she is just an average high school girl. That “normal” appearance adds a lot on her being a reliable leader, anyone would let their guard down around her because they could see at first glance that she is really approachable.

I will let you in on a big secret: She’s slightly weird…

She behaves normally but she has a habit of doing some unusual things
For example, instead of waving her hand to someone she is greeting, she put both of her palms forward and made circles. She does that even to teachers, the Principal, and even police officers outside the school.

She also made a choreographed dance step to our school hymn for some reason.
When I asked my classmates who knew her about it they just said “Well, that's just Pau”
After a month and a half in this school, I just stopped wondering about it.

Now let's get back on track.

Right now I’m in the middle of this slightly awkward job of giving a tour of our school to a transfer student. We already went to several deteriorated buildings and told her some stories about it, now we are on our way to the school’s gymnasium (which is also deteriorating)

“Can I call you Francis?”
she asked me some minutes later after being called Uhm and Hey.

Well it's not like she has any ill will for doing that and I never introduced myself formally anyway.

“Hahaha! It's okay, anyone calls me that.”

I laugh for the sake of not making her uncomfortable, and apparently that’s the end of the conversation.

Although, I was curious about something so I’m just gonna ask her right away

“Hey, uh… Velle, isn’t it? Why did you choose to transfer to this school?”

“Uhm, it's because of my family’s business. They want me to go to something nearby”

“No, I mean, why in THIS school?”
“There are other better schools in this area, you see this is almost an abandoned place, right?”

I hope I don’t overstep my bounds by asking this questions, I’m just genuinely curious why she picked this school

“Oh, so that’s what you mean. Haha~”

“I picked this school on my own volition and I already knew about the situation here before I got transferred.”

“But if you are asking me why did I choose this? Hmmm… maybe because I think it's going to be fun?”

Fun… huh…

Well it’s not like I can’t relate with what she said.
Back in my previous school, I found it dull that we only study all the time and to have fun is to either be a delinquent to get the excitement of disobeying the school rules or be a diligent student to make yourself believe that studying can be fun.

Maybe it's just me that didn’t try to explore the fun things I could have by being a normal student.

When I got into this school, at first I found the situation as something creepy and sad. The school is really big, but there’s less than a hundred students attending. There are less than ten teachers. A lot of classrooms are deteriorating. Not even one student enrolled as a freshman this year, and every senior student transferred into another school.

For some reason, the people in my class are giving life to this almost abandoned school by doing the best they could do to have fun. Being a new student in this class section, I don’t know how they keep smiling considering the place they are in. But I know for sure that I am having fun being with them.

I could agree with Velle for finding this school as “fun”. Attending this school gave me a lively experience. Most of the time it’s because a lot of situations are on the border of not being normal and everyday those situations keep surprising me even now.

Like in this basketball gymnasium, there’s a guy right here who just made a full-court shot. Twice.

Hmm?! My eyes are not joking, right?

Did some guy really throw a basketball from another side of the court and made a perfect full-court shot? Twice?