My heart raced, my blood pumped hysterically. I had always looked forward to the first day of each school year. This year was not any different. As the bell rang for us to assemble in the parade square, I stepped into the gate. I scrambled to take the last position and scanned down the row, and then I smiled to myself. This is my forth year singing the national anthem and taking the national pledge in my primary school. We proceeded to our classrooms after the assembly, the new classroom, the classroom where all the adventures of my forth year in primary school was going to take place. This was it; new year, new classroom, new classmates. I smiled to myself, hardly able to contain the joy, of attending school, in me.

Someone was late, and on the very first day of school! When the latecomer arrived and stepped into the chaotic classroom together with the teacher, no one took notice of her, except me. At that age, I could not deny that to me, she was astoundingly beautiful. Somehow, she just shone and that was what made me sit up and notice her. Finally, the pupils settled down with much effort from the teacher. Our form teacher that year was Miss Tio. Miss Tio introduced the latecomer as a transfer student from another primary school, her name is Nicole. Miss Tio assigned her to sit in the empty seat next to me, just what I had secretly wished for. When Nicole took a seat, I passed a note to her. The message within was first to welcome her to our school and, out of curiosity, the reason she was late for school today. She just took a glance and raised her head to smile at me, then towards the whiteboard. What did that mean? I wondered to myself in silence.

I was getting very restless; my eyes were fixated on the clock on the wall. Five, four, three, two, one… Ring! The bell indicating recess went. The whole class jumped up from their seat in joy and cheered. We quickly thanked the teacher and grabbed our wallets. Recess is a time for us to play our favorite game of hopscotch. Without forgetting, I tapped Nicole on the shoulder and invited her to join in our game, I was sure the others would not mind that. My group of friends included my very best friend, Denise; Adeline, Melissa, Junnie and Tricia.

“So, why were you late for school?” I attempted to ask Nicole again. “Well, I was not late. I was held back in the principal’s office due to some administrative issues with my transfer here,” she smiled. I realized that I love her smile. It was megawatts, with her teeth shining brighter than the brightest bulb I had ever seen. I yearn to see her smile again. I was full of curiosity about her, something about her just seemed very mysterious.

Soon, we began to spend every of our recesses together. Gradually, I stopped playing hopscotch with my group of friends and hung out with her in the canteen instead. We brought our own lunches from home and enjoy tasting each other’s mother’s cooking. My friends were, however, mad at me. This I know the reason why, because we had spent our recesses in the past three years together playing hopscotch without fail. Then, this year I began to not show up for our games because I was too busy hanging out with Nicole, who secretly revealed to me her dislike for my group of friends. To attain her approval, I gradually drifted away from my group of friends and became best friends with Nicole. I was very disloyal then, I admit to that. However, I got my desserts. Not only has my group of friends began to shun me, Nicole also did the same thing! What was happening? I was perplexed. Her change in attitude was drastic and shocking. I reflect upon my own self, what did I do wrong to anger Nicole? I could not come up with an answer.
I was without friends anymore. I was alone; it was my whole group of friends, which Nicole has also joined, against me. Everytime I see them in school together, laughing and joking around and having fun playing hopscotch during recess. I thought Nicole hated the game of hopscotch, not to mention the company she was with? I know I was wrong in abandoning my friends for Nicole before, but what else did I do wrong? The thought and their gleeful faces haunt me in school during classes, after school at home and in my dreams when I’m sleeping. In that few weeks, I had lost around ten kilograms, I had no appetite for food and suffered from insomnia.

One day, Denise called me up at home. I was so happy she finally spoke to me. She started, “Jane, I noticed that you have been losing much weight, is there something that is troubling you… Hold on, why am I speaking to you, you hypocrite.” Thoughts raced, my palms went sweaty. I beg your pardon, I thought to myself. I was only being disloyal, since when did I become a hypocrite? I asked the questions in my mind aloud. Denise soon started spilling out everything that has happened in these past few weeks. “And that’s why you’re a hypocrite. Just admit it, Jane,” she ended her peculiar story. It turned out that Nicole had been spreading rumors behind my back claiming that I had complained about my friends in front of her. She made up many lies to make all my friends and classmates hate me. I was appalled! A wave of emotions and train of thoughts rushed through me. I had never felt so betrayed but I attempted to explain and salvage myself from this confusing situation.
“Denise! You must trust me. I did not say all that about you! I am declaring the truth to you and please do not believe what rubbish Nicole has said. I know I’ve been a complete disappointment to you all, but I will never say those things about you all. Trust me,” I let it all out in one breath.
“Trust you? After you had abandoned your group of friends?” she seemed to mock me in a very sarcastic tone.
“I know I’ve really been bad and disloyal to abandon my group of true and good friends, but I’ve been blind before and I learnt my lesson. Give me one more chance please,” I begged her. Fortunately, she agreed.
The next day in school, I resumed the life I had before, going to recess with my group of best friends. I was glad the overlook on my part in the end helped to learn a lesson of being a better friend than ever. What left me shock till now is the great change that took place in Nicole. This change in her was inexplicable, drastic, and I was totally shocked. Later, I learnt she had pulled exactly the same stunt on her so-called best friend when we moved on to primary five. I never did regret stop being friends with her.

Dear Principal and Vice Principal,

In this dialogue session, I would like to discuss with your about the need for intensive revision for our O'level express chinese candidates. We all know that the first sitting for the O'level express chinese examination will be during the June Holidays. That is only a short while after sitting for the md-year . It has come to my attention that, unlike neighbourhood schools, our school do not conduct any intensive revision classes for the potential candidates sitting for the paper due to being the minority. Despite having two mock examinations prior to the actual O'level paper itself, it is still not enough revision to ensure scoring a good grade for the examination. I had spoken to many of my neighbourhood friends and all had agreed that even though they found the intensive revision lessons to be a chore, but it has helped them greatly in their preparation for the paper.

Hence, I beseech to you to conduct intensive revision for express chinese students before their O'level paper. I hope that you would consider the above suggestion favourably.

Thank you.