Diary of an Asian Kid

20 Jan 2011

20 January 2011, Thursday

Last day of school before winter vacation for everyone except us ninth graders. The whole school had to assemble in the gym by seven thirty. Of course, everyone showing up on time is impossible.

I ran into Debbie in the crowds of people milling about outside the gym. We searched fruitlessly for anyone from our class, but we didn't see anyone. Debbie said they must be playing cards in the classroom (which, by the way, we're not supposed to go to today). She turned out to be right, when after a good ten minutes hanging around in the gym, Pan and a few others showed up.

Assembly was, as usual, mind-numbingly boring. The principal and the Head of Departments kept droning on about things that we all already know. Because Debbie and I were the first in our class to arrive, I sat at the very front with Pan, which was okay. He talks to me a bit once in a while.

There were awards for three people per class who did the best job on their Floral Expo (long ago, now) worksheet. Yvonne and Christopher both got a certificate! I was snorting in an attempt not to laugh too loudly when their names were announced.

We all got a free ticket to the Gauguin exhibit at the National Art Museum. Hmm, I'll see if I can get Alice or someone to go with me. I'm quite interested in that. And I got an extra ticket, because Pan didn't want his.

School ended surprisingly early, at least for us (I think the 7th graders had to stay behind to practice some kind of cheerleading routine to be performed at a sports contest held at our school), at eight fifty. Hooray!

I went to find Yvonne right after we were dismissed. Christopher was with her, having borrowed her cell phone to call his mom. We parted quite soon, though. Yvonne and I walked to the front gate to wait for Alice. After a bit with no sign of her, Yvonne called her home to ask if she'd come to school. It was then that I remembered Alice saying she'd go to the library if it was open. I groaned at myself and told Yvonne, so we walked back into school and found her at the toilet.

It was still raining, so we decided to go to my house until it was time for the movie. Mom was home when we got there, but thankfully, Victor wasn't, so it was quite quiet. We fooled around in my room with the iPhone, mostly. Yvonne is hopelessly hooked onto playing any kind of game on cell phones. And she makes funny noises while playing, too.

Sometime after ten, Victor suddenly barged into my room with no warning, pointed at Alice and Yvonne, then went "Aargh!" quite loudly. He'd brought his best friend, Jed, home too. Because Victor provoked her, I had to stop a fight from breaking out between him and Alice. There's no love lost with them, I'm afraid.

We left at eleven and started to walk to the Gongguan business circle. Alice and I weren't hungry, so we just sat and talked with Yvonne while she ate at a Japanese restaurant. We saw a lot of our fellow students from Longmen, and even more from various other schools. It's everyone's last day of school, it seemed.

For me, the continuous drizzle rather ruined my enjoyment of the day in general. I've found out that sunshine, at least during winter, really lifts my spirits.

We bought drinks and headed for the cinema. It's on the periphery of the business circle, and the outside of the building looks a little run-down. The inside was okay, though. After buying three tickets for 'The Borrower Arietty', we went upstairs, bought popcorn, and settled into our seats just as the movie started.

'The Borrower Arietty', a movie by Studio Ghibli, was quite good. Sadly, the ending was really lousy: all the characters are full of hope. The end. We don't actually find out what happens to them. I'll look for the book when I have time.

As there were a lot of people queuing outside the toilet, we decided to go look for one later. Yvonne grew increasingly frantic before we managed to locate a toilet at the large indoor wet market in the area.

It was a long walk home, so we took a bus. Our ride was actually only two stops long. Well, it did save some time.

Alice had to be home by three, so she collected her things and left with Yvonne. I got out the laptop and wrote until we were due to go to the potluck with Victor's third/fourth grade classmates. Mom was bringing along pasta, yum…

The potluck was held at George and Andrew Huang's house. The former is in my grade (He's in 901, and has got diabetes. He looks perfectly normal, though.) while the latter was in the same class as Victor before. Their mom was the one who had the idea for harmonica lessons; they had them with us too.

There were two kids that I'd never seen, but I knew everyone else. All the kids, except for George, were in the seventh grade or lower. Irritatingly, every single one of the seventh graders was taller than me! Hmph.

Before the food was available, I mostly hung around feeling a bit awkward. It was better when we started eating. I sat at the table with two other girls and the adults, while most of the boys were sprawled on the carpet before the TV playing video games.

The conversation at the table was really interesting (translates to 'funny'), even if I didn't feel exactly comfortable. After a bit, the adults shooed us off to play with the other kids.

I ended up playing cards with Victor, George, another classmate of Victor's, and a fifth grader that I didn't know. I won some, lost some, but still had a good time. I really like playing card games; when the boys in our class played poker in the eighth grade, I'd play with them as well. Now that they've gone back to Yu-Gi-Oh!, not so much.

Isabel Lin, a girl who was Vincent's classmate but is not currently in Longmen, kept rooting for George to lose, all because he blocked the road. It is his home, after all. Was it funny? You bet. She kept telling me that I had to beat him.

It's a wonder that the neighbors didn't come to bang at the door, asking us to keep our noise level down. Between us kids playing cards, and all the moms' chatter and laughter…it was really noisy.

After a while, the boys got tired of playing cards, so they went back to the video game, an ancient Nintendo something. I watched them play, laughing along with them when it was silly. When they got tired of that, they started racing to see who could commit suicide the fastest. I realized that I've never seen a boy who doesn't like to play video games. Not a single one.

When George's mom was going around trying to take pictures, she asked, "Who's a pretty girl?"

Andrew immediately yelled, "Me!" We all roared with laughter. And yes, he is a boy. Though I've seen a picture of him dressed up like a girl, and he did look quite pretty. Urgh…it gives me a bit of the shivers.

Before we left, George asked me why was I still using a headband (I've been using them since kindergarten. I've always had short hair). I told him that it's very convenient.

"But less people in junior high use them, right?" he wanted to know.

I grinned. "Yes, even Debbie doesn't use them anymore." He was in the same class as Debbie in primary school, and I did recall that she always used headbands then. She changed to using a clip soon after the seventh grade.

George nodded. Why did he want to ask me this? I wondered, I really did.

I got home at around a quarter after ten, and I still had to wait for Victor before I could shower. I have to go to school tomorrow! He's so annoying sometimes.