Chapter 8

The distance between school and home is not too far, just leave the housing complex then turn right and go straight. The total distance between home and school is about fifteen meters. It is very close and can be reached on foot to maintain body health and also protect the earth from vehicle fuel pollution. Yes, even though it can be traveled by bicycle, I prefer to walk while looking at the leaves on the trees and the sunlight filtering through the tree branches. If I don't focus on the road on my bike, I'm afraid of crashing because just walking sometimes I almost hit a tree or a bench next to the sidewalk.

I just thought I was going to hit a tree and luckily I immediately realized it and got a warning from the office workers who saw me about to hit a tree to be careful.

I breathed the morning air which was not fresh because of air pollution. The shady trees around the sidewalk no longer seem to be able to filter dirty air due to the large number of motorized vehicles and factory smoke. Even though I'm not an environmentalist, at least I still have affection for the environment.

"Nayana," shouted my friend Derin in front of the sidewalk leading to the school gate.

I waved my hand and ran towards him but my steps were stopped when a white sedan from two thousand and fifteen threw a cola can onto the road. My brain always comes up with extraordinary ideas, I ran to grab the cola can and threw it on the roof of the moving sedan. Yep, right on target and I laughed with satisfaction.

Several students who saw my action laughed and he was no exception. What, wait. Am I not seeing wrong? That's Nareswara, the neighbor who just returned from Seoul. Why is he here and why is he wearing the same school uniform as the students at my school? No, this is a disaster and I have to avoid it. Must.

When I ran to enter the school gate, I saw the white sedan stop and the driver got out of the car and saw the cola can that he had thrown away carelessly lodged on the roof of his car. The driver was looking around and I'm sure that person must be looking for who threw the cola can at his car. I don't care, the important thing is that now I have to enter the school gate and when I got close to Derin, whose face looked like he wanted to praise me, I immediately grabbed his hand and ran together to enter the school gate.

We were short of breath when we entered the school gate and I didn't feel like stopping running because I was afraid Nareswara would find me. "I'm going to the toilet first and you go to class first," I said to Derin whose face was red because the cold and hot air in his body met each other.

"Wait," Derin stopped me. "Where's your math notebook? I want to copy my homework."

I opened my bag and handed him a math notebook, saying, "Don't crumple it, don't tear it and it has to be as it was before." After seeing Derin give a thumbs-up because he couldn't speak due to panting, I ran back into the school and headed for the girls' toilet.

While in the toilet, I sent a message to Derin that I would enter class just as the bell rang and he had to put my math notebook on my desk before I entered the classroom. This is crazy, why am I avoiding Nareswara so much even though we have been friends since childhood and we are also neighbors? I should have greeted him with longing because I haven't seen him for a long time but for some reason, I still don't like him. He took too much attention from Mother and Mother praised him too much. He and his twin sister always get the number one praise from Mother, but I like his twin sister because she is always kind to me, while Nareswara is always mean to me.

A short story about our friendship when we were little. Me, Nareswara, and his twin sisters Betari and Garvi are childhood friends. We were friends and grew up together. My family and Dierja's family have been neighbors since my parents only had one child, namely my older brother. Because we were both new to the complex, our parents were close neighbors and were like brothers, and even together our mothers were both pregnant. After the twins and I turned four years old, we had new neighbors, namely the Garvi family. Because the four of us are the same age, we are good friends and always play together.

The sound of the bell rang, and I rushed out of the toilet cubicle I hated having to see upperclassmen who were excitedly dressing up. I ignored them because I wasn't interested in what they were doing. They should rush out of the toilet and go to class to study. Not even busy continuing to dress up because the bell has rung.

I entered the classroom and hoped that I wasn't in the same class as Nareswara because I didn't want Nareswara to ruin my mood in class.

"They say there's a new student and he's handsome. He's transferred from Seoul," rumored the female friends in the class and I wasn't interested in hearing what they were talking about anymore about the cool guy transferring from Seoul.

"Good, not scratched," I muttered after checking the mathematics notebook that had been placed on the table.

The classroom door opened and Mr. Handoko's face appeared behind the door. He was looking around for me because today the archery practice schedule was from the first hour to the last hour. I deliberately came to class first and was late for practice because I wanted to leave some homework to Derin.

"Nayana," shouted Mr. Handoko and made his friends focus on Mr. Handoko.

"I'll leave my homework first, sir," I replied enthusiastically. Then took out three notebooks and walked to Derin's desk.

"Normally, I'm entrusting you with the payment of state duties because you want to carry out military duties," I said to Derin and he saluted me.

"Enthusiasm for learning, everyone," I shouted to my friends excitedly.

"Enthusiasm for carrying out his military duties," several friends shouted at me.

If you ask, why does Mr. Handoko always look for me and care so much and like to nag me when I don't come on time for archery practice? The answer is that he has the ambition to make me a mainstay athlete so I can enter the Indonesian national archery team. To be honest, I'm not too ambitious to go there because I don't want to be an athlete even though some people say I'm talented at archery. My goal is to take part in archery because it looks cool so that my Mother can brag about it to her friends.

I am talented in archery, Agha is talented in the world of art and my sister is talented in the world of cosmetology even though she is only in the seventh grade of junior high school. Look, I'm different from my two siblings.

"You have to be disciplined so you can take part in the selection to become a Provincial athlete before advancing to become a National athlete."

I just nodded in understanding and my eyes saw the figure of Nareswara who was walking in the opposite direction from me with the homeroom teacher. To avoid meeting Nareswara, I invited Mr. Handoko to walk through another hallway on the pretext of warming up. Mr Handoko also agreed.

I also walked using a cockroach-style technique that detects opponents through the antennae on their heads. Wait, do cockroaches have heads? Ah, I don't know, I'll just surf the internet to learn about cockroaches. What I have to do now is avoid Nareswara.