See You Tonight

Chapter 6: Extracurricular Transport

It's been about 4 days after I became a high school boy. Not much happens after school orientation ends. I was still stiff in class. I was alone in my chair every hour of rest. I just observed the atmosphere of the class that was getting closer and closer.

The seat that has been empty since the first time is still empty. Apparently, the number of students in this class is only 24 out of a maximum of 25 students. No wonder there is one empty seat left.

I just found out about the empty seat problem which turned out to be a student in our class of only 24. It often happens to me that what I think is often missed. Maybe I just thought too much about it.

Even though I still do not have friends I have enough to memorize the faces and names of my classmates.

Ayu the class leader. Aji the vice-chairman of the class. Agatha the treasurer. Wita the Secretary. Risa the singer who represents our class during the art. Erni who had time in minimarket. Ahsan, the student whose seat is behind my chair. Ema, the student sitting right in front of my seat. That's the guy in my class that I memorized his name and face. If one of them asked me to speak, at least I would already know their names.

It seems I have made tremendous progress. Usually in Junior High, I only remember 5 names and faces of my classmates after one school year. The rest, I only vaguely remember their faces and names. Sounds weird, but that's how I was in Junior High.

***

Today is the last day of my first week at school. Yes, today is Friday. In my school we only learned for five days each week. So, we (students) have a lot of free time on weekends. The plan is on Saturday, my mother and sister will visit the grandparents' house in this part of the city.

"I left first, ma'am" I said as I left home.

"Yes Lang...Careful" my mother replied.

This time I went to school alone. My sister who usually left with me this morning went with her friend. It feels a bit lonely if you go to school alone like this.

***

Five minutes until the bell goes off. It seemed like all the students had already left, just waiting for the bell to enter.

"Announcements, for each class leader from grades 10 to 12, are expected to gather immediately in front of the teacher's room. Thank you," suddenly an announcement was heard from the speaker installed in the front corner of the classroom.

After the announcement was over, our class president headed straight to the place mentioned in the announcement. I also saw from the window, the class leader from another class had also started to hurry.

The atmosphere of the class that was a bit quiet, now turned into a bit boisterous. They wondered what was the purpose of the gathering of the class leaders? They also exchanged opinions with their conversation partners. Again, I just watched from a distance.

After a few minutes passed, finally the class leaders who had been called were seen again. Likewise with our class leader, Ayu. He entered the class with a lot of paper. I don't know the contents of those papers yet.

"Please pay attention for a moment, friends, this is an announcement" said Ayu in a firm tone from the front of the class. The atmosphere of the class that was quite boisterous, now immediately immediately silent.

"So, there are two news. The first is that today we do not have hours of lessons alias go home early because the teachers have a meeting. Yang ke du--," had not had time for Ayu to finish the second news, the atmosphere of the class again turned into boisterous even more boisterous than before.

"Take it easy first friends..," Ayu again tried to calm the class to be conducive again. The boisterous atmosphere gradually became conducive.

"The second "news is that this is an extracurricular questionnaire for you. Please fill out what extracurriculars you are interested in. Collection time one week. So, you should have decided what extracurriculars to take before Friday next week. For the list of available extracurriculars, it is already in this questionnaire. You guys just fill it up. Up here do you understand?" continue Ayu.

"Already," the students compactly replied.

"Well, if you understand. For representatives and secretaries can petrify me to share this with friends?" say Ayu again.

After that, the question was distributed. When I received the questionnaire, I had no thoughts whatsoever about what extracurriculars I should follow. At least I still have about a week, so I can save this question before deciding what extracurriculars to take.

After stuffing the questionnaire into the bag, I immediately got up from my seat and hurried to leave the classroom. Because today came home early, I feel like I'd like to take a walk around here for a bit.

I started walking out of the school gate. My first destination was probably to visit a shophouse complex located not far south of my school, probably only about 100 meters away.

After arriving at the shop complex, I saw various shops. There are those who provide stationery, clothing stores, shoe stores, bag shops, there are also those who open food stalls, and there are still many others.

My gaze was immediately fixed on the last shophouse that opened the meatball stall. Looks like I haven't eaten meatballs in a long time. I want to eat meatballs, after all, I also like meatballs.

I went straight to the meatball stall and ordered. Then I sat down at one of the empty tables.

After sitting down while waiting for my order to come, I reopened the extracurricular questionnaire that had been distributed. I saw an extracurricular list written on it. I started thinking about what extracurriculars suited me.

In my Junior High School, students were allowed not to follow extracurriculars. So in Junior High, I did not follow any extracurriculars.

I stared at the questionnaire deeply. The deeper I look, the more empty my mind becomes. I really have no idea which extracurricular to join.

Finally my order arrived. I ordered meatballs and iced tea. I prefer iced tea over iced orange, which is why I ordered iced tea.

I put enough vinegar in my bowl of meatballs. I do like the taste of meatballs that are a bit sour. Then, I poured a small spoon of sambal and soy sauce to taste. Honestly, I don't really like food that is too spicy.

After that, I started stirring the meatballs that had been mixed with vinegar, sambal, and soy sauce slowly until evenly distributed. Then I started eating it. The delicious and rather hot taste of the gravy and meatballs, made me temporarily forget about the extracurricular questionnaire. I also ate a bowl of meatballs with greed.

***

Seriate