Chapter 3

It feels like a set-up

“I’m sorry, what?” Asked Ivan, whom had been distracted by the loud noises of the Homo sapiens in the bus.

“I said, it feels like a set-up. This whole school trip thing” Sighed Syaza.

“So, what you’re trying to tell me is that the teacher spent hundreds to sponsor us all to this trip, just for a set-up? Yeah, sounds pretty reasonable”

“Not that la Ivan, Miss Ann-Marie is nice enough to set the whole trip for 5S, but WE here as seniors-becoming-chaperone-for-the-trip is definitely not a coincidence. I think Yuki, Darren and our lovely juniors here” – Syaza rolled her eyes – “purposely request for us two to be here. You do know how they love teasing us both, right?”

“Yeah, that might be true but looking at the bright side, we now have more quality time together, with the juniors I mean” Said Ivan with a grin.

“Like why in the world would I spend my precious time with you” Mumbled Syaza, yet still unable to hide her mouth from shaping a cheeky smile. “Wait till I get my hand on Yuki, she is so dead!”

“Right.....” Ivan drifted his eyes to the window.

                At the other side of the bus, Kelly Low was busy convincing Sham Siv to watch YGOTAS, her high-pitched voice can be heard even a mile away. Poor Sham could just nod her head in agreement.  Twin sisters Jesline and Vivien Tang overheard the conversation and joined in; their previous desire to sleep abandoned them as the four girls chat away in the bus.

                Shu Ern and Arreya were weirdly silent in the bus, still regretting their decision to join the bus trip instead of going shopping. In their mind, they could almost imagine the racks of fashionable dresses being crowded by shoppers, sparing not even an inch of the cloth for them.

                “Cheer up girls, you still got me right?” Benjamin said brightly.

                “Oh Benji, how would you know, those fabulous clothes will moan without us!” Weep Shu Ern.

                “No, my personal tailor can make up for all of it, no?” Winked Benjamin, immediately winning both of the girls’ heart.

                “Hmm..... tough proposal, at what cause?” Asked Arreya, her eyes already gleaming back to life.

                “The cost is that we all enjoy this one week of adventure and have fun!”

                “As you wish, master” Giggled both girls simultaneously.

                “Hey Farid, what are you doing?” Asked Ashvin.

No answer.

                “Suit yourself” Ashvin shrugged, trying his best not to be upset, since the situation of the bus was not suitable enough for him to sleep, he decided to find a friend to talk with. Since Farid – who was sitting in front - was now out of the list, he turned to Ru Yin and Chong RuYin who sat behind him.

                “Tham, Chong, what are you guys doing?”

                “Boring ourselves to death, wanna join?” Replied Tham.

                “Sure”

                “Ah shut it Shen, don’t mind him Ashvin, he’s just a little carsick. We were discussing about what interesting thing might happen when we got to the place. I mean seriously, why can’t Miss Ann-Marie just tell us where exactly is the destination? At least we can plan everything earlier” Chong said, a little bit worried about everything.

                “Well that’s the surprise Chong. Just let it go for awhile will you?” Shen snapped.

                “Woa, relax dude, and please hold it in kay? I don’t want to clean the whole bus up because of you” Chong rubbed Shen’s back, trying to calm his friend down.

                “Getting carsick doesn’t means that I’m going to barf, moron. But I’m fighting over a seriously huge headache over here”

                “Ah okay then. By the way, anyone actually talked to Sayyid yet? I mean, he’s as quiet as robo-guy over there, and he’s practically mute!”  Chong pointed to the particular guy who ignored Ashvin’s question earlier, the one who was shutting himself from the world with the help of his iPod.

                “First of all, Farid’s not mute, he can talk.... I think” Ashvin said. “and second, yep. I talked to him when we was waiting for the bus to come. He’s pretty nice, but mind seems to be somewhere else. Like he’s thinking over something important.”

                “Like the regrets he had for moving from his old school to this hell? Possibly.” Shen said, his fingers rubbing his forehead gently to decrease the headache.

                “Hell? I prefer mental prison thank you. For example, Kaveeta there, as you can see, is with her minions trying to make Kay Chloe’s life more miserable. If you look to the left, you can see Tim trying to sneak a frog into Lucas Yeoh’s shirt. Now look at your back, you can see our psychotic vice president, Clarissa Kor nagging Gynie Yeung concerning her way-to-colourful dress and care free life. And don’t even get me started on gigglish Ash Nair and Syasya Aqilah gossiping behind us.”

                “Well looking at the bright side, at least they’re not sleeping” Ashvin tried to justify their actions.

                “Natashya Khoo and Celine Wu is”

                “Ah just shut up will you?” Shen found his limit.

                Among the noisy students, Shixin Chng sat alone, looking through the window. In her hand was a small picture that she held firmly, like it’s the dearest thing for her. Though constantly, her eyes will drift to her classmates and settled on that guy. But then she’ll shook her head and continue on looking through the window, trying hard not to let the same thing from happening again – and yet she still do so.

                Three hours later, the commotions in the bus fade as the students start to feel drowsy. One by one felt asleep. Cheah, who was busy working on his short story, stopped for awhile and looked around him.

                “Umm..... Aifa? Don’t you feel odd? Everyone suddenly felt asleep, even Tim, and I thought he can’t sleep.” No reply, apparently Aifa had also joined her classmates in the land of dreams.

                “Great, even I feel drowsy” Yawned Cheah, but he tried to stand up to stretch, refusing to sleep because he wanted to finish up his work, but his feet failed him and he drifted to sleep, but not before he saw a rather peculiar sigh; the bus driver and Miss Ann-Marie were wearing oxygen masks...