Friday afternoon, which would be the usual time to do club activities, was now allocated for students to prepare for the culture festival. Handicraft club, along with other arts-related clubs, was tasked to decorate the school neutral zones: The gate, field, student hall, canteen, et cetera. We got busier the closer we were to D-day.
Last week, 9 days before the festival, I was busy decorating the canteen. It was planned that the canteen will be utilized by the cooking club. Given that we have six food stalls, the handicraft club and the cooking club joined hands to decorate each stall with distinct cultural features. One of the features to make was gates.
It seemed that last year, gate frames were made for the culture festival, and it was stored in the clubs' storage room. Since it was still in good condition, we decided to use it again. The only thing different would be the decoration. For this year, the cooking club decided to cook cuisines from Aceh, Banten, South Kalimantan, Lombok, North Sulawesi, and West Papua. There were a lot of ornaments to create, but we didn't have to build the wood frame from scratch. We had it better compared to last year.
Another good thing was that we weren't expected to finish everything in one go. That was why, when my part of the job was done, I would sneak away from the canteen and go straight towards class 1-A-A. Since I said that I'd help out with decoration, it became a responsibility I couldn't ignore.
Along the way, I could see students crouching on the ground, doing whatever they were expected to do for the festival. Some others would brush past each other, transporting various stuff from one place to another.
I swiftly went up to the first floor and went through the hallway to my class. As I passed by class after class, I took a glance at them, curious about their progress. All in all, everyone seemed to be quite lively, as evident from the laughter emitted from inside their classroom.
When I reached my classroom, though, the vibe became more peaceful than in other classes. No laughter can be heard from the resident of the class. A quick glance at the expression of the people inside, and it can be easily concluded that everyone was being very serious and passionate in preparing for the upcoming festival. Yep, peaceful. People might call it gloomy, but I refuse to acknowledge it.
"Oh, Uril." A girl nearest to the door greeted me. Sasa, who was occupied with her share of work, took a brief pause to wave her hand at me.
"Sorry, it took longer than I thought. How was it?"
"No problem, no problem!" She said with her angelic soft voice trademark. "More than that, you should take a quick rest first. We're not in a hurry."
I took a seat near her and decided to observe her for a while. On her desk, a small red Ondel-Ondel mask made of plastic was facing the ceiling. Sasa herself was busy attaching colorful synthetic feathers onto the mask.
After Chandra, et alia was done with their research on Betawi culture, we decided to turn our class into some sort of gallery. We'd make miniatures and drawings, then put an explanation below it. As for the performance, we settled on doing a duet stand-up comedy using Pantun.
I had expected everyone's cooperation in this, but I think it was a bit of a stretch. I looked around the class, and surprisingly there were only 10 people inside, including me. Beside Sasa who was making an Ondel-Ondel mask, there were Kevin and Azka drawing on A4 papers. Chandra and his two friends were writing infographics, while Indah, Shakira, and one other person I don't remember the name of were rehearsing for the performance.
While some of my classmates did get a task by their club, several others were deliberately ditching our class preparation. This might be a wild take, but maybe they went six feet under.
I returned my focus to Sasa and decided to lend her a hand. "Let me help you."
"Eh? Are you sure?"
"But of course. I'm taking part in decorating the class, remember? It's not like I'm much of a help to the others."
We proceeded to finish the Ondel-Ondel mask, then move on to making a photo frame with the design of a traditional Jakarta house. Time flew by like a rock falling from the sky. And then, without a warning whatsoever, a downpour happened.
"Whoa, that was too sudden." I commented on the rain.
"Mhm. Today was sunny until a moment ago." Sasa added while looking at the window. Raindrops were trickling on it, making needle-like shapes.
I looked at the clock, and the hour hand was pointing at 4. It was the supposed time for everyone to go home. However, since I didn't bring an umbrella with me, the rain ultimately bound me in this school.
Despite our obvious inability to leave the school, Indah went to the front of the class and told everyone in the class to cease their activities. "Everyone, thank you for your participation. I know that we might not be able to leave soon due to rain, but don't push yourself too hard. We still have 8 days before the start of the festival, so take it easy. Again, thank you very much."
After Indah said that, everyone present in the class started to finish things up. The props we made were taken from the closet at the corner of the classroom. When everything had been neatly stored, Indah locked the closet, and everyone went out of the room at the same time.
I stretched my arms to release a bit of my fatigue as I walked through the corridor with Indah and others.
"You must be tired, Uril." Indah said to me with an apologetic look.
"Same goes for you."
While having a double job is tiring, I could say that Indah had her own share of burdens. She tried her best to make sure our class preparations stay on track and didn't hesitate to plug help at every part. It might be a bit unusual to lead the class like that, but she was the core of everything. Without her, who knows what our class will become?
Our group dispersed as soon as we reached the first floor. Kevin went towards the gate to wait for his brother to pick him up. Chandra and his friends went in the same direction, while Azka went towards his weeaboo club. Meanwhile, Shakira and that one guy I didn't know had already vanished. All that was left was me, Indah, and Sasa.
But it seemed that Sasa was about to leave, too. She took out a raincoat from her bag and quickly put it on. Suddenly, her figure changed into that of an obese aunty.
"Wait, why do you have a raincoat in your bag?" I asked out of curiosity. No one predicted that rain would happen, after all.
As if she had won a nonexistent competition, Sasa smiled triumphantly and put her hands on her waist with pride. "Ohoho. The raincoat always exists in my bag! Uril, you don't remember the idiom, do you?"
"But the idiom said to prepare an umbrella, not a raincoat..." I said to her with an awkward smile.
Well, it was of no importance whether she brought an umbrella or raincoat. I was more concerned about the hygiene of her raincoat. She didn't deliberately let it grow mold in her bag, did she? There was no mold or mushroom as far as I could see, so I guessed she was going to be fine.
"Thank you so much, Sasa! Be careful on your way home." Indah said, then they proceed to cuddle each other for a few seconds.
When they were done with their ritual, Sasa waved at us and stepped out of the school with the utmost care of her steps.
"Let's wait over there." I said to Indah while pointing at the school's right-wing bench.
"Yeah, sure."
I went ahead with Indah following behind like a duckling. The bench was within a tackle distance from us, and we reached there in no time. As we were about to sit, a sudden loud 'thud' could be heard from behind. Prompted by it, we rotated our heads at the same time.