In Continuum.

There is a person in school who, regretfully speaking, shares the same characteristics as a rodent. It is not difficult to find him in school, because he tends to be circling the same corner of the school all day long in between classes. He disappears from there when he has classes, and then he'd be back in the same spot, just circling and mumbling to himself until it is time to go home. This man is probably the weirdest person I have ever witnessed, perhaps even more so than all the class misfits in high school. The group of us in school calls him Dwight Schrute, the guy from The Office. They have the same glasses, the same kind of hairstyle, and both of them have this strange and creepy aura around them that never fails to freak somebody out. It is that look in their eyes, or those little gestures they do when they think that nobody is looking. Let's just call him Dwight from now on, though he seems to be far less likable than the fictional character on television. For one, I am very sure that this guy doesn't have a girlfriend whatsoever. No-bleeding-way. 

I first noticed this person because of the way I'd meet him at the same spot in school every morning. Here's what happens in the morning when I get off the bus, in the case whereby I don't know where the classroom is. I'd get off the bus at the bus stop, take a walk up to the main school building. Take the staircases that lead up to the atrium and then check out the venue at the electronic board there. For a period of time, however, I'd meet this same guy in front of the sliding doors, and he'd always be there wearing the same thing and doing the same things. He'd be pacing up and down the corridor with his hands usually stuck in his pockets, and always mumbling something to himself and under his breath. Once in a while, you see his hand waving and pointing at something in mid air, as if to calculate something mentally and making mental notes to himself. Then he'd resume his eager pacing up and down the corridors, and that is basically what he does for the rest of the day. 

It is difficult to miss him in school, because the atrium is a place in school with rather heavy traffic. You have people from different schools moving about from one point to another, crossing each other in this very place. The atrium would be like the central business district in town, where all the roads lead to and all the people congregates. So you have a bunch of different people bumping into one another, people from different schools and different wardrobes and whatnot, and then there's this guy dressed in white almost every single day. I am pretty sure he is not some ex-student of the school who hung himself in the toilet or something, because my friends have also seen him wandering the corridors before. He wears white every single day that I have seen  him, he even has the same pair of white pants on everyday. Seriously, at this age and time, who wears white pants?  There is always a white speck amidst the anonymous crowd in school, and that's him - our very own, Dwight.

Today, the presentation group stayed back in school to work on the presentation on Wednesday, and all the seats and benches around the school were pretty much taken up. So we ended up on the edge of the atrium, seated on one of those uncomfortable black metal seats attached to those uncomfortable black metal tables. We were desperate anyway, and it was unlikely that we'd find any other available seats in school anyway. At that point in time, the thought of the atrium being Dwight's territory did not cross my mind, and the three of us basically settled down while Jonno went for his philosophy lesson. We had our books laid out before us, my Macbook opened and the presentation slides loaded on the screen. We were all minding our own businesses when I noticed, from the corner of my eyes, a curious shadow from the other side of the window panes staring down at us. I turned my head to where the gaze was coming from and almost got the shock of my life.

Dwight was standing there with his hands in his pockets, and he was leaning on the metal railings and staring at us intently with his cold and dead eyes. I've never looked at him with such attention and detail before, and the first time doing so made me want to run away home and look for my mother. It was creepy to make eye contact with that guy, because he always looks at people from the top of his spectacles. So you always get a feeling as if he is some sort of wild predator, looking for his next prey. He reminded me of a pedophile visiting a theme park for the sake of little children playing on the roller-coasters. It was a very disconcerting feeling indeed, and I directed my gaze back onto my Macbook. Still, from the corner of my eyes, I followed his white silhouette as he retreated away from the glass panes and disappeared around the corner like a shark's fin disappearing beneath the surface of the water. But like all horror movies, they always return sooner or later, and almost always with something worse to offer.

As expected, he returned a minute later on the same corridors, chanting something under his breath and mumbling to himself all over again. He was pointing at something in the air, and he waved his fingertip around as if by doing so he'd cast some spells or to create fire on his fingertip. He probably paced up and down the corridors for about fifteen times, or at least that was how many times I managed to keep track of him while doing the project. He'd appear on this end of the corridor where we were, then walk to the other end of the corridor before taking an u-turn and then coming back all over again. Once in a while, he'd come into the atrium itself and walk the perimeters like a hyena would around the border of its territory. But other than that, he remains in his safety zone, his own happy place along the corridors. I nudged Naz today to check him out, and we noticed some rather horrific things about Dwight that we've never noticed before.

Before today, he was just that weird guy on the corridors, the same guy that stared intently at Fangxun for no apparent reasons once. We called him the secret admirer of Fangxun, but apparently he stares at everybody for no apparent reason. Today, he became the wandering spirit of the atrium, and that status became further elevated for the fact that he wears white every single day. He has old scars and new ones on the skin of his arms, dotted all over like a chicken pox or other more horrific disease. It must have been due to the frequent scratching spells you'd observe him do every once in a while, running his fingernails over his skin as if his life depended on killing the itch. The worst part is probably the way he'd scratch his oily hair every twenty seconds or so, and then put his fingernails to his nose to smell it. That was observed by Kania, Naz, Jonno and I today, and I can say that we were all pretty amazed and disturbed at the very same time. He'd bury his fingers into his hair, scratch attentively at one spot, bring his fingers out and inspect carefully at the discovery between his fingernails. Then he'd smell it as if nobody's looking, then move on with life.

You should have seen the way Naz's face contorted into the look of utter confusion and disgust. In his mind, he must have been trying to come up with reasons why anybody would do such a weird thing in the eyes of the public. But then again, judging from the queer ways he has been ever since we knew about his existence, the answer to that question is simple: there is no answer to his strange ways in school. He seems to be living in a world of his own, always wandering the same spots in school and doing the same things over and over again. I wonder if he is a student in this school, because he doesn't do anything that'd convince us that he is an employee here. Besides, he carries a black school bag around every once in a while, and he doesn't look very old either - probably around my age, or a little older. And I thought the weirdness of the koi pond girl would never be overtaken. 

There used to be a girl in school who appeared pretty often during our music classes, and she had hair that reached her butt which she'd flick around as if it is a bundle of hay. The problem with her hair is that they are badly tended to most of the time, looking like a bundle of wires growing out of her head more than anything. If she isn't staring blankly into space before class begins, she'd be combing her hair over and over - though it hardly helps really. She is, like Dwight, a loner in school without any friends. She'd disappear after class and then reappear again next to the koi pond, squatting next to the edge and talking to the fishes at the very same time. We have all seen her talking to the fishes before, and it was a pretty strange sight I must say. It became even weirder when she disappeared from school altogether, though the lot of us half expected her dead body to be floating in the middle of the koi pond, with half her face eaten away by the fishes. No, she did not fall into the pond by accident, she merely refused to come to school. When she finally came, her long scary hair was gone. She had it cut short, but it didn't look like she went to a hairdresser either. The ends of her hair was straight, as if she simply took a pair of scissors and cut the rest of her hair off. She doesn't talk to the fishes any longer, they probably had a fight. Or maybe Dwight confronted her for invading his territory, nobody knows.

Whatever it is, it was still a creepy sight to see him staring at us through the glass panes with those deathly eyes. It was weird to be viewed upon like caged animal, when we really are the normal people here. I wonder what he does at home, I wonder if he even has a home. I wonder how it'd be like to be him for a day, then I gagged at the mere thought of it. It was distasteful and repulsive, and I couldn't believe myself for harboring such a thought for even a second. Still, he's an intriguing subject to look upon in school most definitely. And like the rodents in night safari, it's not difficult to find him.