Chapter 11: Fifth grade

Date: 01-05-2015

The final exam was almost there and I was working very hard to get first place. I even stopped going to the study group. Any free time I got I spent studying in my room. I had bangs under my eyes.

The final exam started and I did my best in every exam. I was hoping finally I would get to be in the first place. But I was disappointed when the results were out I got second place. I was short by 3 points. Everyone was happy and cheering me on for getting second place but I wanted to rip my report card into pieces.

My family was happy about my results but I was in a sour mood for two days. After that I thought why I was so determined to get first place anyway. I didn't care about it before so what changed. Maybe it was the incident with the math teacher or maybe I just wanted to be the best student in my grade but what for! It's not like I would get something I want if I became first in my grade anyway. I continued to think about what I wanted to do. At that point in time I was earning two thirds of my father's income. I just didn't want to spend the rest of my life as a simple working man in an office. More than anything I didn't like being told to do something. If I wanted to live my life the way I wanted I needed money and a way to earn money. I wasn't that much concerned about the law or anything like that. I just calculated the risk of doing something. What would I do with money if I couldn't spend any. Just like that I had a school free month in front of me. I spent the whole month playing videogames and selling videogames. I would try different foods from different places anytime I wanted. Usually it was in the afternoon. I tasted fast food, street food and fancy restaurant food. It was my idea of a great day.

Before I knew it the month was over and school was starting again. I was in fifth grade.

Fifth grade was simple for me because I had already adjusted to school life. I started my fifth grade determined to find out how I wanted to live my life. It was the first day in fifth grade everyone was talking about how they spent their free time. Some went back to their hometown, some went to different countries to visit exotic places, some were just having fun doing whatever they wanted. I didn't say anything. I just listened and if anyone asked me what I did I would skillfully skip the question and start talking about what they did. Then our new homeroom teacher came and announced our position in class. After that we were given our new syllables. My position was second place. I mostly talked with people from the study group. Apparently they all had a great time last month. I pretended that I cared about anything they said but inside I was screaming "just shut up".

The next two weeks went by and our sports day was announced. I didn't even participate this time. I knew I wouldn't win anything and didn't want to embarrass myself. Some students did drama and poetry but again I didn't do anything because most boys didn't do drama or poetry.

I saw Simanto in drama and I thought he did a good job but most boys just made fun of him. After sports day our homeroom teacher wanted to choose our class president. This time I didn't want to do it but most of my classmates forced me to be a class president. I just didn't like the job. Our new homeroom teacher decided it would be democratic so it didn't matter who wanted to be a class president. Because of this we had more candidates this time. But unfortunately I won. And as vice president Keya was chosen. Keya was mature for her age. She was short, had long black hair, brown eyes, a fair face and a calm personality. Which is alright as a friend but as a vice president it would be a problem. She was just too agreeable. I had to train her otherwise I would have to do all of the work and clean up the mess she made. And so the training began.