Lot came out of class II A while wiping sweat. He was panting for breath, like he'd been through a thousand push-ups. Today he was late for class. However, there are still some children in the class who are still busy working on the grade promotion test. He knows the quality of the brains of his friends who are still in class, are below average. He don't know how it can be. In the past, before entering the school, there were rumors that SMP Edu Plus, the name of the school, was a favorite school. Each class has only three classes. Only smart boys can enter because they are screened from students with high scores. Ironically, there is an older classmate who stayed in his class and is now in the same class as him.
Then, what about Lot's own achievements? Always in the top five, even last semester he ranked first. However, for this class promotion he is pessimistic that he can get first place because yesterday he made a big mistake. Forgot to check the IPA exam answers so there are some blank numbers. There are some questions that he has marked but forgot to do. When receiving a question, he did the easy part first, especially the multiple choice questions. While the questions that he considered difficult, or he was still unsure of the answer, were ignored by giving it a mark in the form of pencil scribbles. Eh, to have no idea he actually ignored it!
Lit came out of class II B and greeted him, "Hi Lot, did you go well with your test today?"
Lot replied, "Better than yesterday."
"What happened yesterday?" asked Lit.
Lot replied, "My brain is frozen and makes a lot of errors."
Yesterday, after working on a science question and making a technical error, while working on the Indonesian language problem, he also got an error. So far, although Lot's hobby is writing poetry or writing articles for the mass media, none of them have been published except in school wall magazines, but his head feels like it's about to explode when it comes to the Indonesian language. So far, the report card number is the lowest for this one subject, only around 6.5. From the first grade, the score is not far from that number. He don't know, Mrs. Endah is why she is so stingy in giving grades. Can't the number 6,7 be rounded to 7?
"Where are you going on vacation?" asked Lat, who suddenly appeared from the door of class II C. This kid likes picnics.
"No idea yet," said Lot. "Maybe I'll just spend the holidays fixing up my treehouse."
"I don't have any idea of a vacation either. My dad's project is in trouble. The bill has not been paid," said Lit. His father is a real estate developer.
"Your papa said that so you don't have to ask for a trip abroad, right?" said Lat.
"That's right, I swear. Now my mother cooks kale every day."
"Every day eat kale? I do not believe it! Your body is not deflated!" Lot grunted and said, "Well, yes, what Lit meant was eating kale mixed with lobster! He ate it on plates." Against the denial of his two friends, Lit swore that what he said was 300% true!
Lot, Lit, Lat. The name is unique because all three start with the letter "l" and consist of only one syllable. Is that their real name? Yes, it is. Their parents did not promise to give such a name. And, it's a coincidence that the three children are fertile. His friends like to call them Trio Tubby, Trio L, the Over Weight Trio, and even Trio Balloon. To those titles they responded casually. And, none of them intend to diet. Let the fat thing be happy, they said.
Lot's height is 145 centimeters with a weight of 80 kilograms, round like a ball with white skin and straight hair with a rather long shrimp tail.
Lat's body weight is 79 kilograms with a height of 145 centimeters, his body shape is a bit boxy, brown skin with spiky hair. Lit's weight is 78 kilograms and his height is 146 centimeters, his skin is black with frizzy hair.
They live in Lubang Buaya, not far from the Pancasila Sakti Monument, Jakarta, Indonesia. Among them, Lit was the most fashionable. He's a collector of glasses. But what he likes is sunglasses with bright colored frames. Tacky but he doesn't care. Theya are known as friendly children. They come from the same elementary school. When they were in elementary school, they were classmates. But in junior high school they were deliberately not placed in one class, to be fair, so that classes A, B, and C have sumo masters.
Lot is very obsessed with dangdut songs. He fought desperately for UNESCO to recognize dangdut as a world song. He has repeatedly sent letters to the secretary general of a UN agency and only once received an answer that his proposal was being considered. He didn't care even if it was just a simple answer. "Dangdut Never Die!", is the slogan he always carries. If there is time, every break, he goes from class to class to sing dangdut. At school he already has many followers, not to mention on facebook and twitter.
What about Lat? Among them, this child was the richest. Since childhood, his grandmother had been trained as an entrepreneur. Now he has 20 vegetable carts that he rents out to vegetable vendors, each for Rp. 5,000 per day. Now he is exploring to finance several people to sell push meatballs. Lat is also a music lover, namely keroncong. Transmission of his grandmother who idolized the late Gesang with the songs Bengawan Solo and Jembatan Merah. Lat was also encouraged by Lot to fight for keroncong music on the world stage.
The origin of keroncong music comes from a type of Portuguese music known as Fado which was introduced by Portuguese sailors and merchant ship slaves in the 16th century in the archipelago. This music came from Goa (India) to Malacca and then played by slaves from Maluku. Initially this music was called "moresco", referring to the name of the dance from Spain. By Kusbini, one of the songs was re-arranged and became famous as the song Keroncong Muritsku accompanied by stringed instruments. Lot is really thinking ahead. But Lat was still reluctant, concentrating more on business.
Lot asked Lit and Lat to go home immediately. He said, so they can take a nap because the next day they still have to fight against math test. This was the first time Lot felt very lucky because the math test fell on the last day. So, if his brain is burnt later because he spins a lot, it won't be so painful because the exam is over. That's right, as soon as Lot got home, he immediately fell asleep, forgot to eat and forgot to take off his shoes. But he didn't forget to take off his clothes so he only wore a singlet shirt. His round body like a balloon is exhibited in such a way. Not long after, the fat Lot was snoring in the bamboo halls under the guava tree in his yard.
Someone comes out of the house and approaches him. She tidied Lot's clothes and school bag. "If his body was rubber, like a balloon, I would have pierced it with an orange thorn for a long time to make it deflate," said the old woman, Morice, a Caucasian woman who had been his caregiver since childhood. Strange, this is the first time a Caucasian has become a housemaid. You see, it's everyone's right to be a housemaid. Anyone can, as long as they want to live it. If the body is a balloon, after it deflated, it is blown up again.
"Lots, wake up! There's a fire!"
Lot immediately jumped up and rubbed his eyes. Confused and looked around for the source of the smoke. But there was no smoke billowing thickly in the sky.
"Be patient, let me burn the garbage so that the smoke rises," said Morice. Lot grumbled. Lot was still sleepy but sat up. Morice laughed and told him to change and eat. "After that want to sleep again, please. Tomorrow is still an exam so you not have a cold because you don't eat." Sincere advice. Lot called Morice "grand" or "grandmom", to respect that Morice was a Caucasian.
While Lot was eating his cell phone rang. Yeye, her classmate who was the last to leave the class, said that Lot had forgotten to give his name and number on the answer sheet. Luckily, there was only one answer paper which was not named so the supervising teacher could confirm that it belonged to Lot. Lot grimaced. His brain crashed again.
"Why is my brain? What happen?" asked Lot to himself.
He remembers. It was because of Odora's greeting that made him couldn't sleep for a few nights. His sleep quota, which should have been seven to eight hours per day, was eroded to the point of wear out because he always remembered what Yeye said, when the first grader who always had two pigtails greeted him. In fact, Yeye had warned him not to be proud, because the greeting from Odora had something to do with Morice's candied chili. Odora is Yeye's cousin. At that time Odora went to Lot's class to meet Yeye. Incidentally, Lot brought sweet chilies and Odora got a share, eh, the child is addicted. Yeye reminded Lot that the greeting from Odora was a hidden bill for more sweets to be brought. Lot ignored Yeye's warning, because basically he likes girls with long hair in two braids. At that school, only Odora had long hair and two braids. Actually, there are quite a lot of students with long hair, but not in two braids. What if there are two, three, or four girls in the school with long hair and two braids? Don't worry, all will go into Lot's mind.
"Grand, where's Siprit?" Morice said that she didn't know. Lot was looking for something. He held rice in his hand. There was a voice in the water guava tree, "Prit! prit! prit!" A sparrow flies low. Lot opened his hand. The little bird perched on his hand and pecked at the rice. Lot stroked Siprit's head. The sparrow has become his friend. The story is that Lot first found a juvenile chick that was being attacked by weaver ants. Lot helped it. The ants that were ganging up on it were removed and the bird was fed with rice and survived. Maybe, the sparrow child was learning to fly and had bad luck.
If Limbad, the magician of Indonesia, is proud of his owl then Lot is proud of Siprit. Lot built a special nest for the bird to protect it from mice, cats, or ants. The sparrows had brought several other sparrows into the garden several times. Surprisingly, when the other birds left, the Siprit stayed behind. In fact, if it wanted to go with it's entourage, Lot had already given up. But that didn't happen. The sparrow is also slang, making friends with Lot's friends, especially Lat and Lit.
In the morning, in class, the first thing Lot did was to make sure that the answer paper had numbers and names written on them. If the answer paper does not have an identity, it will be a loss for him. Tired and dizzy working on it can't score. Today he left class late again. In addition to the exam questions, he also had to be busy expelling the image of Odora that was floating in his eyes. Oh, how are you? He thought that this semester his rankings would sag like untied underpants.
After the exam, the age class promotion does not immediately go off. There is a class meeting, a sports competition between classes that lasts a week and will end the day before the distribution of report cards. Lot was actively involved in the event because he was good at volleyball in his class. His body is fat. But don't ask if you have jumped on the field, the smesh terrifies your opponent. Once the smash broke the ball. Maybe, the ball is too old and old so the rubber inside is bubbling here and there, well, when it hits it, it explodes. Because of that many were amazed by the strength of his hands. Try telling him to try again with a new ball, 1000 times the smash won't break, even his hands are swollen. In the past, it was only the "just lucky" factor.
On the sidelines of the match, Lit met Lot and told him that he was going on vacation at his grandmother's villa on a hill in Sukoharjo, Central Java, Indonesia. Lit invited him along. He didn't go on vacation with his parents. "How about you, come or not? Lat had already signed the form. I'll send you a form after this match!"
"Just use the form like you want to register for school!"
"After the fans exploded, boy!"
"Okay, I think after this match. Did cousin of Yeye also apply?"
"Odora you mean? She is not interested in adventure. I got a tip from Yeye if Odora chooses a picnic to Ragunan over a mountain hike!"
"Are we going to climb the mountain?"
"At least climb a small mountain, mountain of rice!"
"Wow, I wouldn't be excited if Odora didn't come!"
"Relax. I'll let my grandmother's neighbor tell her to braid her hair in two!"
"I'll take the sparrow with me."
"Great idea. There, let him practice eating rice in the fields!" said Lit.
Finally, because Agus, the class leader, was injured, the Lot class only finished runner-up in the volleyball match. So far, Agus has been Lot's sparring partner. Agus who gave the bait to Lot to dismesh. Because his regular ball feeder is absent, the smesh often dies, even gets stuck in the net. The day of class promotion arrived. As before, Morice disguised herself as Lot's parents to get a report card. Of course it's a stark contrast. Lot's parents always said they were busy looking for merchandise. His parents are convective businessmen, especially batik. Many batik is imported from the batik centers of Yogya, Solo, and Pekalongan. His parents' showroom and shophouse are in Cililitan, not far from the terminal. His parents' place of business was burned down along with other places during the 1998 riots in Jakarta and other big cities before the birth of the Reform Order.
Lot's prediction was also correct. His report card scores have fallen somewhat compared to the previous semester. His ranking also dropped, now in second place, 0.5 difference with his rival, Siva. In fact, Lot didn't really care much about report cards. But he was once advised by his father that if someone does not use his abilities, including the ability of his brain to the fullest, it is the same as not being grateful for His gifts and that is a big sin. But there is a beautiful gift on the report card, the value of the Indonesian language rose to 7.1.
"Mrs. Endah is starting to be nice to me! Not so stingy anymore!" he exclaimed, happy. Stingy? Isn't that value made based on objectivity, not because of likes and dislikes?
Lit looks for Lat to confirm his involvement in the vacation together. Even though Lat had already registered, the child also said that the certainty was waiting for the father and mother meeting. His mother had agreed that he would join Lit's vacation but his father had not given the green light.
"How about it, Lat? Have you got a passport from your parents?"
"Already. But with pretty heavy conditions. I don't get pocket money. Pocket money is taken from own cash. In fact, I'm trying to develop a push meatball tofu business!" Both of Lat's parents worked as bank employees. "As the son of bank employee, why don't you practice being a banker? Many people lend money for a certain fee. If you become a loan shark, you will quickly become a tycoon, so Mr Lat, "said Lit.
"I don't want illicit money," Lat muttered. The young little entrepreneur told that since childhood he had made an account, but all this time his savings book and ATM card were held hostage by his parents. He said, so that the money increases and continues to grow because it is impossible to undermine it. While the money from his business was told to be developed by trying a small business. A small business doesn't mean a needle business, you know.
How come the history of the Trio Tubby can be so compact? It's not just a body shape and name factor. They both have experienced terrible events. When they were in elementary school, when they were camping together in a village, while swimming in the river, suddenly a flood came and they were swept away by the current. Fortunately, they found a banana trunk that took them aside. Since then, the three of them are like brothers.
The day and time of departure. Lot, Lat, and Lit were escorted by Om Rinto, Lit's father's driver, to Lit's grandmother's house in a Landrover. Lot took the Siprit along. Why not just leave it? Afraid that the bird was not taken care of. Isn't there Morice? Yes, but Grandmom is already too busy with household chores. The sparrow was put in a small cage kept making noise all the way, "prit! prit! prit!" That is why there has been a boom in people keeping sparrows because this bird does not know stress and only sounds. But the sound was just the same, monotonous, whether it was sad or happy it's voice was like that. The journey had already taken ten hours. Trio Tubby were nodding off in the car.
"We'll be arrive!" cried Lit, letting them know that their journey was approaching their destination. They've been on the road for eight hours.
"Where's the hill?" asked Lot. The area there is still flat. It's still a rice field. Even though Lit said that his grandmother's villa house was located at the foot of a hill.
"There, just calm down," said Lit, "I'll let you know when we get there." Lot and Lat sleep again. "We have arrive!" shouted Lit, when they reached their destination.