A Round Trip to Love 1: LONG WAY HOME

Chapter One

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My essays tend to stray a little from the given topic or lack sophistication in my choice of vocabulary, oftentimes costing me some marks. Besides that, my overall grades were basically good, or more accurately, one of the top aggregate students. This explains my over-confidence when the results for the midterm exams were out, I made a bet with Fatty and the rest that I would be able to attain a level placing in the top fifteen. This was a safe bet for as long as I could get a pass for my essay, top fifteen is a piece of cake.

However, when the placings were released, I was ranked sixteenth.

Still reeling in shock, I had no choice but to honor the bet and treated Fatty and the gang to the student cafeteria's best fried noodles. Each person ate two big plates, and along with the noodles that disappeared, so did half of my week's allowance. ( My brother and I get our allowance weekly from our parents. ) I was dissapointed; my essay had surprisingly received a good pass, yet I could not make it to top fifteen? I took out the seven scripts and went through each one of them carefully: out of a 100, Chinese 87, Mathematics 90, English 92, Physics 89, Political Science 86, History 69. History is the subject that pulled down the average; it actually fell below 70 marks. Reluctant to give in, I went through the script thoroughly, hoping to spot a calculation error of one or two marks. The fifteenth rank went to Lu Feng, who was also from our class, and he made it with just one mark higher than my score. If I can scrap just one more mark, I can share the fifteenth spot with him. This is not about honour but more crucially, about whether I will go hungry this week.

Upon this last ditched effort, I made a discovery that made my blood boil and my face turn red. I got a full score for the multiple-choice questions, the teacher gave a big red tick, but neglected to add a single mark out of the twenty marks in total to my final tally.

Twenty, twenty marks...... Amongst the top fifteen, even half a mark could change everything, let alone TWENTY marks.

Me lying in the top bunk bed of the eight-people shared dormitory originally awaiting a death sentence from starvation, immediately sprang up, look to reclaim my money back from Fatty before confronting my History teacher to get my rightful marks. As soon as I lifted my head, I saw Lu Feng, who sleeps in the lower bunk directly below me, dash through the doorway excitedly, his hands holding an expensive-looking paper box.

"Cheng Yi Chen, come and check out my CD player."

It was the year 1996, in our small village back then, it was a time where many children would be lucky to own the heavy cassette tape players, and carrying an AIWA Walkman was already a privilege compared to the MD-Player. I could not help being filled curiosity and admiration as I examined the black gadget, while completely forgetting my personal policy of not bothering myself with Lu Feng.

Only half a term had gone by since the start of school,and the cliques in which the boys hung out in were already more or less formed. Lu Feng and I belonged to two different elements that would never mix under any circumstances. I was a typical good student and an obedient son. My brother who is a year younger than me was still in his first year of junior high school while I was classed as a gifted student, advancing a few grades straight to the first year of senior high school. Besides my exemplary academic achievements, the other aspects of me were not as exemplary; my family's financial background belonged to a very normal household. Both my parents earn an average salary and have to support one son who has zero concept of finance managment, and the other studying at a prestigious school. I was taught from young that nothing was more valuable than gaining knowledge from books and grew up with the threat, "If you cannot get into university, then you can go back to our hometown and plow through our ancestors' fields that extend for miles", hence, I have never compared myself with others. Be it in terms of meals or attire, as long as it is edible and wearable, I am contented. As expected from one of the top nerds of the school, I had the most appropriate hairstyle that aligns with school rules, the most common sight of me is in front of a desk, wearing my old-fashioned glasses, occupied with schoolwork.