Chapter 3 - School Start
Monday, 2nd January 2051.
It was the first day of school in 2051 and on this day started Akmal's journey as a Form 4 student. Form 4 to Form 6 was an important time for teenagers in Malaysia.
They would take the SPM at the end of their Form 6 year and the result of this examination would determine their place in society later.
If they did well in SPM, they could further their studies at University. If they did not do well, their chance of furthering their studies was low but even with that bad SPM result, they could still find a suitable job if they put in an effort.
Be that as it may, no matter how good or bad they did in their SPM examination, their future was based on their effort. If they worked hard, even without any certification, they would live well.
Akmal walked to school when it was 7 am. Class started at 8 am but there was a morning assembly every day and it started at 7:30 am. So, the students needed to arrive at school before 7:30 am.
Akmal attended the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Pendeta Za'ba. It was a secondary school located in the middle of the Taman Paroi Jaya neighborhood.
Other than SMK Pendeta Za'ba, there was also an elementary school called Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Paroi Jaya nearby. If Akmal was walking from SMK Pendeta Za'ba, it would take only two to three minutes to arrive at SK Paroi Jaya.
Taman Paroi Jaya neighborhood used to be filled with terrace houses but after time passed, there were quite a few apartment buildings built nearby.
Akmal lived in the old Taman Paroi Jaya neighborhood. His father had been living there since childhood and he graduated from SMK Pendeta Za'ba too. At the time, there was only up to Form 5 at the school.
After the education reformation, there was a Form 6 at the school too. Also, as there was an addition of a year, the school needed to expand too.
SMK Pendeta Za'ba was not the old small school with two four-storey class buildings, it had more class buildings now.
More than that, the school was separated into several areas. The first two areas were the class and teacher's office building.
The first area was for students from Form 1 to Form 3 and the second area was for Form 4 to Form 6 students.
In between these two areas was the morning assembly field. The morning assembly was not done in the hall but an open asphalt field. The hall was only used for important events or ceremonies.
The third area was a few buildings where the library, the laboratories, art room, music room, and so on were located.
The fourth area was where the canteen, convenience store, surau, and hall were located. The last area was where the sports-related stuff was located such as the field, and gym for a few sports.
Since the secondary school's syllabus was as good as Diploma students in the past, the facilities needed to showcase that too, and thus, secondary schools were now almost at the same level as small-scale colleges.
People who lived outside of the neighborhood needed to get out early if they did not want to be late to school.
Since Akmal lived in the neighborhood, he had the leisure of going out late to school. After a few minutes of walking, Akmal could see his school.
At this moment, there were a lot of cars sending students to school. Not only cars but there were even motorcycles rode by parents and students too. The bicycle was popular transportation too.
Akmal entered his school a few minutes later. Since it was the first day of school, the road was jam-packed with cars.
As Akmal entered the school's area, he could see many students wearing the same school uniforms as him.
In Malaysia, elementary students and secondary students were all mandatory to wear the designated school uniform.
For male students, no matter if they were Muslims or Non-Muslim, they would wear a white-collar shirt with different colored trousers for elementary and secondary students.
For female students, if they were Muslims, they would wear a long-sleeved long white blouse with a long skirt. They would also need to wear the hijab but this was their preference. However, 95% of them would wear a hijab.
As for Non-Muslim female students, they would wear a short-sleeve white-collar shirt similar to the male students and a colored skirt.
Akmal headed to the assembly field and just sat wherever it was possible. Since he did not know his class yet, he had to wait somewhere else.
Soon, the assembly started. As usual, the Ustaz or the prefect would read the dua. After that, the principal gave his speeches and since it was the first day of school, his speech was longer than ever.
After that, the teacher made a few important announcements and one of them was regarding the Form 4 students.
Akmal and the rest of Form 4 students needed to hand out the form given to them two weeks ago. The teachers needed to record and assign them to their respective classes.
There were quite a lot of students this year that applied to the Science Stream and they were qualified for that too.
The Science Stream had two courses and they were Pure Science and Science & Technology. Akmal took Pure Science and this course had three classes due to how many people were applying for it.
Each class would have at most 30 students and they were called the PS-A, PS-B, and PS-C. Akmal was assigned to PS-B and he immediately went to his classroom.
Upon arriving at his class, he saw a few familiar faces. Some of them were his former classmates and some were students he had seen before.
There were also students who he had never seen before. Probably they never crossed paths with each other before or they were newly transferred to this school.
Akmal chatted for a bit with his former classmates before he went to find a seat. Since it was the first day, he could sit wherever he wanted.
He did not think long and took the last row's table at the side of the window. He preferred the back seat because he could see the whole class from there.
While waiting for the other classmates to arrive, Akmal observed everyone in the class. Some of them knew each other and among them was a student he did not recognize. There was also a lone wolf among his new classmates.
Akmal kept observing everyone and soon, a tall, big, round, and chubby guy entered the class. He did not recognize this student either.
The big guy looked around and stared straight at Akmal.
'...Does he know me???' Akmal wondered and the big guy walked toward him.
The big guy stood in front of Akmal menacingly blocking his view of the class.
"???" Akmal was flabbergasted as he was 100% sure he did not know the big guy.
"Is this seat taken?" the big guy spoke.
"..." Akmal was speechless.