The real me

Chapter one: Prefect days

No one is perfect, right? I think so too. No matter how hard you try, you maybe get better or see yourself staying at the same spot. No one is perfect. But of course, unless you act perfect. Look at your role models, for a moment. They act very perfect, don't they? All I am trying to say is, no matter, really, no matter how hard you act and try, you just aren't the person you want to be, right? The real me is what I am going to show you.

I am just a normal school girl. Prefect and all. People think that once you are a prefect, you're perfect. But no. Here is my life as a prefect. Every morning, I wake up early as my house is further away from my school. At 6.50 am, I arrive at school and read my book waiting for my prefect duty to start. My prefect day and the school day starts at 7 am. It sounds early but I am already used to it. At 7 am sharp or sometimes 6.58 am, I am patrolling the school grounds reminding schoolmates to read their book or to stop talking. I understand that they only get some time to talk to their friends but I think they really should put their studies before their friends. I did not understand that before I was a prefect. I am fortunate that my teachers allowed me to be one. I was always shy with my teachers but when communicating with my schoolmates, I feel more comfortable and that I had more confidence.

But something made me feel depressed. Whenever I walked near to some schoolmates, they would immediately say, "Prefect!" and spread the word. After that, they would stop talking and read their books. I felt that I was disconnected from the schoolmates and that I wanted to let them know I was just doing my job. Sometimes, some just don't listen to you.

The real me would not scream. The real me would not be so angry when people were not reading their books. Of course, the fake me had to replace the real me to take charge. The fake me has to cover up my real me. To cover up the real voice that I once had the power of. I knew that the real me would stop the fake me. But I felt like the fake me was implanted in me, coming up whenever the real me was going to make a mistake.

I am very easy-going but no one sees that do they? To make them listen to me, I just have to use the harsh way. That's what the fake me wants anyway. The next job after morning duty is to raise the flag. Right after patrolling. I have to raise the school flag during the morning assembly. Usually, the school flag has to be slower than the national flag so the school flag team has more of a job.

When I first started during Primary Four, I volunteered to do one more prefect duty so my duty list was a little more packed than the others. During recess, my extra duty is to make sure that no one goes up the stairs before the bell rings and that no one will run up the stairs. Yes, it involves screaming again. I have to eat my food quickly and go to the staircase area to help out. Of course, I do not complain because I volunteered to do so.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention one more prefect job that I had been assigned to during the start of the year. The new batch of Primary Ones arrived and the prefects had to help to guide the Primary Ones to their respective classes. It was so fascinating that I was once their size and so naive. Now that I am older, I am more mature and I know that more is going to come as I grow up.