This morning, Aldi gave me an impossible assignment again. During the flag ceremony, members of the student council stood behind the students, made sure that the ceremony went smoothly, while guarding both the front and the rear gate. This task was supposed to be assigned to the male student council member because this was the entry point for the delinquents who could not make it in time to school. But why did he assign this task to me? No one else but me, alone. As usual, I could not deny his assignment. I comply with his order like a fool I was.
"I hope everyone will make it in time." I mumbled to myself. I hoped the heavens above would fulfill my wish. I don't want to be sacrificed again by the student council to face those delinquents. Especially his gang.
HOP!!!
I jolted when I heard something fall right beside me. Well, it appeared that my luck won't be there for me, again. Instead, my luck forced me to meet him again, in this situation. I was certain that he would misunderstand and harass me even more.
"Shh..don't snitch me out, okay?" he said. His brown eyes looked straight into mine, forcefully interrupting me.
Subconsciously, I took a few steps back and nodded in fear. To be honest, I was so afraid that he would bully me like he did days ago.
For a moment, I thought to myself; Was it really a good thing to be a delinquent? Being late and leap over this high gate; was that an achievement for them? Was that a truly great accomplishment?
I glanced at Ricky's arm, his uniform was slightly torn and there was a scratch there. I was certain that he scraped his arm on the barbed wire atop the gate when he leaped over it.
"Excuse me." I said. He raised his eyebrow in confusion.
I grabbed an adhesive bandage from my pocket and I gave it to him. While it happened, I thought to myself that I should not do this. I should not give a damn about whatever happened to him. I really wished that I could just ignore him.
"What?"
"Your arm."
"Oh." He said. He grabbed the adhesive bandage and ran away.
Then I realized something; he had changed. He had already trimmed his long hair. Now it looked neat and clean. I wondered why that delinquent complied with the principal's order. I thought that everything that the teachers said to them would just enter their right ear and exit through the left ear. Was Ricky any different from the rest of them?
No way.
@@@
"You must be really tired. I really can't stand it, you shouldn't be a student council member! How dare they assign such an arduous task to my best friend here? You were lucky that the head of the gang was in a good mood. Had he been in a bad mood, he would surely ground you to a fine dust, oh my poor friend Nilam!"
Look, had I not needed that scholarship, I would steer clear of the student council and focus on my study, instead of being enslaved. But there was no helping it, being involved in at least one school's official organization was mandatory to those who wished to earn the scholarship from Pelita Mulya High School. Among all the school's official organizations, I thought that the student council was the lesser of a thousand evils.
"You gotta stand up for yourself, Nilam. How long would you let this drag on and on?"
"I don't want to make a fuss, Genta, Lala. This is the only way I can keep everything in order, I hate to be involved in more trouble."
"But what about your rights?"
"Come now, sweetheart. Nilam already made up her mind. Let her be, I bet she'll cry in a few days and that is when she'll come back to us."
"Eh, what? Sweetheart? When did I allow you to call me that!?" Ah shit, here we go again.
"You guys can go home first, I gotta clean up the class before I go home. Then I'll hit the bookstore."
"We'll help you!" Lala seemed so eager about this, but I didn't want to bother them.
Genta nodded just as eager as she was, while embracing her. She quickly shoved him away.
"Nah, you can go home now."
"What if Ricky's gang harasses you again?"
"I'll be fine." What a pretentious girl I was.
"You sure?" Genta doubted me. I nodded again.
Maybe…
"Nilam, my mother is sick, I'm sorry I can't help you clean up the class today." This wasn't the first time Salma played that sick mom card. Did she really want her mom to fall ill for real?
"But, Salma, Echa didn't attend the class today. Only us and Rian left."
"Look, there's Ricky." I forgot that Ricky was on the same cleanup team as me. But, did he really have to clean up the class? I mean, who would dare to order him to clean up the class? I bet no one dared to.
"But–"
"Thanks, Nilam." I lost count of how many times this has happened. Well at least I got Rian, he always did his cleanup duty. I wondered, though, why did he stay in school two hours after the class was over?
"You can sweep the floor, Nilam. I'll get the window and the chairs cleaned."
"Yo, weirdo!" Ricky shouted, I believed that he called for Rian.
Rian looked back in fear while brushing my shoulder. I knew that he was asking for my help but there was not much that I could do either. Especially since there was no one else to help us.