In Continuum.

Joker

Once again,back from the bloody camp and at the comfort of my home,blogging.I must say that i was in a rather foul mood this whole week,this gloomy frustrated self,though i am not sure why i felt that way either.It must have been the fact that we had a little more to do this week than the previous weeks,the way we get merely an hour of rest before every activity and all the ridiculous extra chores to do,frustrated me to a point whereby i was literally cursing to myself in front of everybody.Which was rather strange,but oh well.

Today the schedule was extremely kind to us,with the commanders away and the company sinking into a sort of serenity usually found only on weekends with everybody booked out.The afternoon brightly lid the corridors,and the sparrows pecking away between the tiles down below at the courtyard,as i strolled up and down the corridor listening to Wolfmother,a band i found out about only a week ago.

Im not exactly sure why,but their song "Joker and the Thief" reminded me of my days in Primary School.Or rather,the way the social circle worked and was structured.Perhaps it was because of the fact that i was reading "This Side of Paradise" by F. Scott Fitzgerald,about Amory Blaine's school life in Princeton that provoked this little memory of the past,but whatever it was it sure placed a smile on my face as i thought back at the innocent times back then,and of course the stupidity being the chief ingredient in everything we did.

I remember back then,even innocent kids like ourselve had social class system.There were different groups,or rather type of people in every class,and the variety was very little back then.The joker of the class,was perhaps the most sorted after position i remember,and here's a little rundown on how we consciously,or sub-consciously divided ourselves in classes.

1)THE Girls
Now,im not just talking about ANY bunch of girls in the class.I am talking about this specific group of girls,always hanging around together,signing each others' autograph books and getting a kick out of making fun of other boys,bitching to the teacher about how another boy in class supposedly looked up her skirt,and of course if one of these girls happen to be the class monitor then all the names on the board while the teacher is away,would be the boys'.Primary School is the very first place girls,or rather most girls,train to be in cliques,which would prove to be a very effective defence mechnism in life especially in JC,though however self-destructive it is in nature.

Anyway,these girls could be noticed with their distinctive laughter,the way they always point and laugh at whatever you do,sort of like the role model of every other girl outside that group.Every girl wanted to be like them,and every boy loathed them,hated them with a burning passion.

2)The Prefects
Arrogant,boastful,and full of themselves.Those are just some of the personalities of prefects,in general of course.Back in my school days,prefects had to wear ties,and they were maroon in colour i remember.With those ties,notepad and a pencil they wield those like swords or clubs,at other kids talking during assembly.Like the counsellors in JC,they always tend to group together,and seldom engage in any other activities with the other people,simply because they saw themselves as people of a higher class,and that the other schoolmates from the middle or lower classes were expendable,disposable,rubbish.They were,in other words,snobbish.

3)The Untouchables
Or the social outcastes.These people were nowhere,simply because they were strange in so many different ways.I remember in lower primary,our class had this girl called Kelly.She was a strange girl,with a bad hair("The Bowl")and those ridiculously huge pink spectacles,and who can forget the buck tooth.She was memorable,in a very very undesired way.Anybody could hear her laughter from three classrooms away,because she had this shrill and ear-piercing laugther that was commonly compared to the likes of a goose.I remember a little rhyme we came up with back then,and i can still remember it till this day:

O-E-O-E-O
Kelly bo ching ko!(Kelly's not wearing any pants)

Then there's Chee Wei,the strange artist back in Primary One.Just when you think Nobita from Doraemon is as unrealistic as it gets,this guy is perhaps the personification of Nobita.Seriously,i never knew that it is humanly possible to attain a big fat zero in a test,until this guy came along.He sat next to me back then,and had eyes so small you could blindfold him with a fishing line.The teachers hated him,simply because he was rather bad at his studies.Nobody was quite sure if it was his brain that wasnt working,or his passion for drawing.I must say though,that during one of the lessons he was drawing a battleship instead of whatever was happening in class,and the detail to that ship was astounding,back then anyway.

Of course,who can forget Brandon Ong.Brandon was universely hated by everybody.I was a little guilty when he added me on Friendster actually,and i wonder if whatever the kids in class did to him caused any permanent damage to his fragile soul back then.Though not nearly as bad as Chee Wei,he scored really badly for every single exam as well.I remember his mother coming for a Parent-Teacher meet,and his mother came in this ridiculous black dress with purple flowers all over,and those big curls in the head.Brandon was next to her,with his "hole-y" shoes and yellow uniform,hair in disarray and the lot of us could almost make our flies swirling above his head.Because really,he was a mess even as a kid,looking dirty and being dirty all at once.Kids kicked at the back of his chair for nothing,and he used to turn back and give this really helpless shout back then,but people just laughed at the way he retorted,or the way he laughed,the way he ran,just everything.

4)The Dirty Boys
Soccer was the in thing back then,and nobody bothered to bring a ball,or was rich enough for a soccer ball anyway.Flattered cans replaced round balls,and at the sandy area at the back of the school everyday during recess,you will find a bunch of chinese boys going against the malay boys.

For those,however,who disliked soccer,there were the basketball courts.Well,somebody would bring the ball for some reason.I guess flattered cans couldnt work as bouncing balls.Anyway,so everytime after the bell rings,the boys would grab the ball and dash down to the basketball courts and battle it out until the bell rings once more.

Back in class,all the boys who played whatever sports would smell like dirty socks and rotten fish.Because really,the way the uniforms stuck to our backs was excruciating,and i guess children have this inability to smell their our stench.I swear if i smelled myself back then i wouldve washed myself with bleach and acid.

5)The Joker
Like i said,the most sorted after position in class.There could be just one joker,or a number of them in one class.One would be battling with another,to see who can catch the class's attention longest,or make them laugh the longest,or anything along that line basically.They would bring little tricks,funny comic books,or the boy who imitates the retarded character from the latest TV show.Oh,and they are usually the ones to pass notes around the class with the teacher's sketch inside,only fatter,uglier,with mucus flowing out of his or her nose and a funny line or two scribbled beside the sketching in bad Primary School type handwriting.The cursive writing lesssons sure didnt help,im sure.

The joker was perhaps the most admired position.THE girls wouldnt like to admit that,but they secretly have some sort of respect for these jokers.The arrogant prefects stay their grounds as always,thinking the jokers as jesters of the court,to please the king(teacher),and see them as mere lifeforms of a lower class.But you wouldnt want to mess with the joker,because the joker usually have a bunch of lower class followers,and they would do anything to get the joker to the top of the food chain.That of course,includes finger pointing,name calling,note passing,all that childish immature stuff.

All right,so that was a brief breakdown of what happened in my primary school days.Of course,i shouldnt reveal which class i belonged to(Not the joker),though im sure most of you can guess by now.Hope this entry reminded you of those stupid and innocent days.Till the next entry,ciao.