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...

Starstruck Battle Royale - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It’s just a harmless school trip

                 A particular school day had been rather interesting for class 5 Starstruck. Partly due to the fact that Tim, the class clown, had been caught by the newly appointed homeroom teacher, Miss Ann-Marie for trying to slip a fake snake into her purse. He was punished so severely by the new, stunning teacher – by standing in front of the class for the whole period with the fake snake on his head without making any noise – that the teacher had earned new respect from the whole class in a short span of time.
                 “Okay, class, since the semester break is coming, are you planning on doing something?” Miss Ann-Marie asked innocently – while still glaring at Tim who tried his hardest to not laugh.
                 “I don’t think so, teacher, my parents will be busy overseas so I’m stuck at home“ replied Ashvin, the class president with a tendency to be kind to everyone.
                 “Noob” whispered a voice – Felix’s – from behind, causing some giggles from his pals, Darren, Adrian and the mischievous girls.
                 “Me and Arreya are planning to go to the big mall in the city, I heard the cute new dresses are already there to be purchased by us” Shu Ern winked at Arreya who winked back, God save their dads’ credit cards after they’re done with them. Some other enthusiastic students expressed their wishes to visit some places, some even said that they’ll just hibernate for the whole holiday.
                 “Farid? Are you with us?” The concerned teacher asked a silent boy who seemed to not be interested with the commotion. The boy named Farid looked up from his desk, blankly stared at the teacher and continued watching the wall. “Yes, Miss, I’m still here” replied Farid dully.
                 “Ahah, don’t worry, teacher, he’s always like that! Maybe he’s stuck in his own world?” Chuckled cheerful Lucas, trying his hardest to ensure that the new teacher was not offended by Farid’s action. The class buzzed on with excitement as they wait for the final bell for the first semester to ring, signifying the end of school for the semester; Tim seemed to be extra eager to end the class, seeing that he had been standing for a really long time now.
                 “Too bad if you already planned something for the holiday, because I’m proposing for us to celebrate the end of the semester together, how about that?” Ann-Marie’s sentenced echoed around the class; sparks begin to shine in the students’ eyes upon hearing that.
                 “Do I have your attention? Ah good, I’m thinking, since we’re free for 2 weeks, what about we all go on a school trip to somewhere fun? You know, like a fun park or someplace intriguing” Said the teacher with a smile a teacher shouldn’t have – especially among her own students.
                 “But teacher, where exactly? What about the fare, permission letters and such?” Asked the curious vice president of 5S who seems to find flaws and problems even as tiny as an amoeba.
               “All can be taken care of, I’ll call all your parents for the permission and even better, the fare will be sponsored by me, I came from a rich family, you know! The only requirements for you guys is to be standing by at the school gate with clothes and other necessary things enough for a 4 day trip. 1st of June, everyone agrees?” Miss Ann-Marie cheerfully explained that the location of their destination is to be remained a secret, but she promised that it will be “a trip of a lifetime” for everyone. Almost every student agreed with the plan immediately, even suspicious Claire decided that there’s no harm in that.
                 “Daryl, you’re going?” asked caring Aifa who perfectly knows that Cheah’s discomfort with other people.
                 “I don’t know, Aifa, maybe not” answered Cheah nervously to the only human in the school that he found comfort with talking to.
                  “Come on la Daryl, it’s just a harmless school trip. When else can we find a golden opportunity like this? I’ll definitely be going so I expect you to do so too. Come on, don’t make that face! It’ll be fun.” Aifa said innocently, completely unaware on how wrong her statement was.

Starstruck Battle Royale

Prologue

When the time comes, will you kill your own friends?

Class 5 Starstruck is like any other troublesome class you could think of. Teenagers together with different interests, pasts, and ambitions going to school, interacting with others and influenced by common things humans do. But 5S is special in some way; these 37 students had once been taught by a teacher. A single, fragile teacher who had chosen death over life. Perhaps this article could best describe the incident.

Local Teacher Commits Suicide

A teacher from SMK The Star has been found dead in her apartment on February 1.  The body was found by her neighbour, who reported hearing some weird noises from her apartment so she decided to check on Chow Qing, 37, who lives alone. “I was worried that she was being robbed or something, because I definitely heard some grunting and furniture being knocked down” says the neighbour who wished to remain anonymous. Needless to say, she was shocked by seeing Chow Qing hanging from the ceiling a rope around her neck.

Upon the arrival of the ambulance, Chow Qing was confirmed dead by committing suicide, local police did not find any clue that lead to murder. From the testimony from her neighbours and close contacts, it is believed that she was highly depressed for the whole week. No note was found in her apartment signifying that she had voluntarily committed suicide but with lack of evidence, the police closed the case and filed that Chow Qing had killed herself due to depression.

This particular incident is rather intriguing, considering that Chow Qing, who was the homeroom teacher for class 5 Starstruck had been trying her best to move to another class but her applications was rejected hardly by the principal. From here, a question wanders around the school; what had the class done that was so bad, that a teacher committed suicide?

This particular incident is rather intriguing, considering that Chow Qing, who was the homeroom teacher for class 5 Starstruck had been trying her best to move to another class but her applications was rejected hardly by the principal. From here, a question wonders around the school; what had the class did so bad, that a teacher committed suicide?