OD 31: After The Storm

This OD covers my daily days from the 7th to the 20th of April. About Achi-chan, the National Exams, and the week before.

Tuesday, April. 07/04/2015 14:55

Hey there, boys and girls.

Goddamn, the air sure is humid. I got all sweaty from just sitting down.

Man.

The rain just stopped, and while I'm waiting to go swimming, I'm writing this. This will be the second time I swim after my long hiatus from the pool. It'll be another long, lonely swim. My brother stopped swimming altogether since he got into 10th grade because of his busy schedule. So its been a lonely swim year.

I had to stop swimming for a while, I think it was almost 2 months of absence because of exams week. The second tryouts, the third, then mid-semester exams, and end-semester exams. With only two weeks to rest between tests and even those two weeks were used to do reviews, remedial, and to study for the next one. And now, there's the graduation exams.

Lately, whenever I swim, I swim alone. And because of that, I don't play to Dillon's house. I go straight back home because I don't have to wait to be picked up. Then I stopped swimming because of the exams. But just the other day, yesterday, Dillon chatted me on Line. My phone rang for the first time since forever. He asked me why I haven't been visiting for some time and I explained it to him. It was short. Very short. And the last time he chatted me was last year, when I asked for his account name. I thought to myself,"Is this a sign? Nawh, it can't be." For a second, I believed it was a sign. The Dillon I know usually never bothered to make the first move, but people change, so who knows. And since he asked me why, I said I would come over today.

Then it hits me. "Why didn't I plan to visit Audrey's?" I thought. I want to see her, talk to her, about anything. There are things I want to talk about with her, but I also think its not really necessary. I'm afraid I'll annoy her, and she'll shut the door on my face, definitely, but since I have nothing to lose, why the fuck not?

But then again, I already said I'll go to Dillon's house. What a lame excuse, huh.

15:28 I saw Audrey. I'm currently stripping myself to change clothes, talk to you later.

Wednesday, April. 08/04/2015 15:54

Damn it, I forgot I was supposed to write this yesterday. Yesterday when I was on my way to the pool, on the intersection while I was waiting for the green light, I saw Audrey. She went past me from behind and stopped on my left side. I saw her, it must be her. She was in a motorcycle. There was the rider, her little brother, and her. There's no mistaking it, I know it. Its her.

I almost froze but managed to look away. Dammit, what a coward! We were going the same way, and I passed her. After that, she disappeared. I wonder if she recognized me? My short haircut should be memorable enough, but if its the only thing she remembers she might get me mixed up with my brother.

21:30

I think I forgot to tell you boys and girls that my grandma from my mother's side came over last Saturday for a medical checkup and the usual rotation. I'm sure I've mentioned it before but she has breast cancer and had gone through surgery once, and soon might undergo her second surgery. I don't really know the details so I'll stop here, and talking about any kind of surgery will almost always gives me goosebumps anyway.

What I meant about the usual rotation will be explained momentarily. Grandma coming over here is also to act as a substitute for my dad. You see, he went to visit his dad's graves for his... 100th day of death. I don't know how to say it in English, sorry. He went alone, not taking mom with her like last time. He went last Sunday and is planning to go home tomorrow if everything went as planned. Today should be the day he visited the grave, so everything is done and he can come home tomorrow.

What I meant about the rotation is this: mom has 3 siblings, so there's 4 of them. I forgot whether if mom is the eldest or the youngest. Since mom's dad passed away, grandma has been living in her children's house in a specific order. She's gonna stay in one sibling's house for around a month or longer before departing to another sibling's house, and it cycles that way. She sold her house after grandpa died and the money is given to the four siblings. My mom immediately used the money to go to Arab for her umroh. I think umroh is some kind of a religious pilgrimage. I was still so small, I can't remember anything except for when everyone cried before she departed.

Monday, April. 13/04/2015 09:30

Okay, this is it. Today is the first day of National Exams, and I'm wearing a very uncomfortable suit right now. White shirt and black cotton trousers? The last time I wore something like this was when I took my junior high school grad exams. I'm at school, I arrived way earlier that I plan to come. My parents are here. They took a day off just so they see me take the exams. I said they shouldn't, but they insisted they want to come and see where I'm gonna take the test. I said to them they would only add more pressure and makes me more stressed out. "Its for only one day, honey." Mom said.

There are some things that need to be taken into consideration. First off, there are no second wave exams in my area. You are given another chance to participate if you missed it if, and only if you are hospitalized and you have proof of it. Otherwise, you're done. See you again next year. Secondly, if you missed the test once, you're done. See you next year. Thirdly, if you don't have your ID card on your person, be it because you forgot to bring it once or because you lost it, you're done. See you again next year. Fourth, if you somehow wreck the paper and need to ask for a replacement, be it your question paper or your answers paper, you must start from scratch because both paper are coded to each other and replacing one means replacing both.

17:36

Ah, fuck!

Indonesian and Chemistry tests today. I fucked up on Chem, I'm sure of it. Well, shit happens. I want to say "Let's move on." but because I know this is gonna have a long term effect on my life, I couldn't just dismiss it so easily. But, there's this thing. I don't know how to say it in English, but its like this: the passing grade is 50% National exam scores and 50% academic scores, so if I did bad on the tests it can still be boosted by my academic score and vice versa. So I still have a chance, I just don't know how much.

After I write the previous entry, I went inside a bus, a small bus. I'm gonna be using that bus to go to the exam's location until Thursday. I picked the very front left window seat because I get motion sickness very easily and I need to look at the road. I didn't expect a teacher would be sitting next to me. She's an elementary grade teacher and her name is Achi, in like, Teacher Achi, or Achi-senpai, or whatever. And I thought, "What a cute name!" the first time I heard it, which was last year in midterms week.

Achi-sensei, Achi-senpai, Achi-chan, Acchan. I want to say Achi as a nickname but its already her name. Wow, my inner weeb is bursting with excitement whilst I'm writing this.

And she's cute, totally my type. Oh, god. She looks unbelievably young for a teacher, seriously. She looks 16~19-ish, but I know she doesn't. I can't keep track of reality around her, like, she's a teacher? For real? Her voice, build, AND behavior further convinced me to think that she is the same age as me. I have never sat next to a girl for longer than 45 minutes, and she didn't didn't change seat for almost 2 hours. I believe I was unconsciously making stupid faces the whole duration trying to not look like a creep, heh.

All she does in the bus, beside being a teacher, are either using her phone or asking questions at me. Here are some of the questions I remembered her asking me:
* where I live (and she gleefully said "wow, its the same direction to my house!" and I believe it actually doesn't)
* which school do I attend before I entered HSKS (a common question asked by people that doesn't meet me frequently but now have a lot of time to waste with me)
* do I like cheesecakes, and have I tried the one made by a specific cheesecake shop (a weird question. I said yes and I've tried it, mom bought it for the whole family. She started talking about it with a wide, honest smile. She was at bliss. I can understand her feelings, I mean, the cake was super good but also super ...expensive)
* am I hungry (it was lunch time. I straight-up said no, then she said she was gonna buy me something if I was hungry when we get off the bus. Dammit.)
* am I sleepy (She was, I wasn't, but I was yawning a lot. If I'm yawning like that, it means I'm already having motion sickness. Just a little bit more before I start getting dizzy, and eventually throw up. Thank god I didn't.)

After I finished the test I went home with my parents instead of using the bus. Instead of going straight home, dad made a few stops because mom wanted to buy some stuff, I couldn't remember what but I got ice cream.

The school we joined with isn't as bad as I thought it would. I mean, its hot because it has no fans or air conditioning systems, and the facilities are made of wood and are broken down, but its got a clean toilet and that's always a good thing.

20:30

I figured Achi is supposed to be her nickname, not her real name. Now, all I gotta look for is her real name.

Tuesday, April. 14/04/2015 22:30

I got home at 19:00 and holy shit did I stink. I reek of sweat and smoke. And my ass hurts from too much sitting.

Today was pretty much the same as yesterday with the exception of not having my parents around. And not having Achi-chan around. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. *giggle*

Today I went home with the rest of the bunch, and it was very tiring. I can't believe just sitting still in a bus can be exhausting as hell. After finishing the test, the first thing I did was hanging out with the other IPA guys that have finished. I was sweating a lot in class, and lots more in the bus.

Ah, I forgot to mention, IPA and IPS students are doing the tests in a separate location. IPS got dropped off at their location first, then the bus goes to my location because its farther away.

We got stuck in multiple major traffic jams on our way to pick up the IPS guys. There I spent several hours sitting uncomfortably, and when I stood up, my butt hurts. I only stood for a minute before getting on the motorcycle and sat through another traffic jam.

Wednesday, April. 15/04/2015 21:28

Same as yesterday, really. The difference is today I found out I have a very bad case of smelly feet. I never smelled my own feet so I never knew, I mean, why would I lift my foot only to process its odor with my nose?

I was taking off my shoes and socks, and I picked up a faint smell of sweat from below. I bent down and felt the scent getting stronger. I tried to wash it off when I took a bath. I really tried, I brushed my leg furiously. After the bath I studied for a bit, then I smelled it, a faint smell of sweat. I traced it back to my feet and that's when I realized I have smelly feet. Its no ordinary sweat odor, its smelly feet.

Smelly feet!

I thought it was my shoes! Turned out to be me.

Yeah, I'm making such a big deal out of this.

Friday, April. 17/04/2015 10:00

I just made a big fucking fool out of myself. I should've not come to school today. So, there was this assignment, it was to make a story out of a set of ideas. What I didn't know was after I finished it I have to act it out in a drama. My team got picked to perform first. No one wants to act. I know I'm gonna be stuck here forever if no one does nothing, so, out of desperation I acted the script alone. Everyone was just watching. My script wast to act as if there's someone who needs help crossing the road. I did that all by myself. I dragged an autistic kid like an object and I acted as if he wanted to cross the road. After my performance, my team didn't say shit, so I said the drama is over and that was the end of the script.

Sometimes you gotta act first to push other people to act. Or to put yourself in shame.

But fucking seriously?

In the end, I didn't finish my mission which was:
- go to school
- get any info about next week's schedule
- go home

Monday, April. 20/05/2015 12:22

I learned a lot about Achi-chan on the last day of National Exams, which was last Thursday. There's something in her story that peaked my interest, but I figured I'll put it in the next Untimed post because it doesn't have anything to do with my daily life, which is what OD is for.

Technically, last Friday was the last day of school but I still came to school today to accomplish my mission, which have been stated above. I came today to ask if I have some empty scores or if I haven't finished an assignment. I don't have anything missing but I'll still come tomorrow for my yearbook photograph. So, yeah, unless something suddenly came up and I was to be called to school after tomorrow, I'm free.

Unrelated to the topic: I seem to always mistype ' h ' with ' g ' and its getting annoying. I'll make a full article of this on the next Untimed if it keeps happening. Maybe not exactly the next Untimed but I'll write about it in some other post.

***

One thing: I want to try something new.

You see, I always type this in my notepad on my phone before finally copying all of it into the blogger app. If I post stuff through it, it doesn't have any page breaks if seen from desktop view. My blog looks good on mobile but on desktop my posts are not, like, cut(?) and become shorter like in the mobile view.

Look at my home page. Every post is posted there without a page break that requires you to click on them and it takes you to another tab, and it makes my blog very heavy to load. Maybe its the music player, but still, even if my blog only loads four post on its home page, its very heavy.

I'm gonna try to make it looks good on desktop. I'm gonna make a summary of this post and put a page break before you can read the whole post.

So, yeah. I guess that's it. I'm not gonna write any new OD until May because I wanna enjoy my time. I'll still post Untimed or Stories if I happen to finish it before May comes.

With that said, see you later!

- Aex