Next Monday after Shakira's falling incident, Indah went on full offense. As soon as the bell rang to end the study session, Indah rose from her seat and went toward Shakira's table. She, who would usually hang out with Sasa, irregularly said, "Sorry, Sasa. I'm going with Shakira to the bathroom."
"Ah, then I'll follow along," Sasa spoke innocently.
I looked at Indah, and she seemed troubled about what to do. I guessed that she hadn't said a thing to Sasa. I wasn't sure why, but maybe Indah didn't want to involve Sasa in this matter.
I decided to butt myself in. "Wanna go to the canteen with me, Sasa?"
Sasa looked at me in puzzlement. Even Kevin, who was talking with Azka, suddenly turned his head towards me in disbelief, while Indah gave me a disdainful gaze.
'Was it really that unusual for me to ask her?' I thought to myself.
Out of awkwardness, Sasa gave me a smile and said, "Er, sure. But I have to go with Indah first, so..."
"Er... Then, wait a moment, okay?" Indah said to her and quickly approached Shakira.
"You guys are weird today..." Sasa said to me, noticing the unnatural phenomenon in her surroundings.
"Very fishy," Kevin added.
"What are you guys saying? Nothing happened." I said to them. Though perhaps my voice was unconvincing. I was not trained to be an actor, so that was to be expected.
I looked back in the direction of Shakira's table and saw Indah standing near her. Sitting right beside Shakira was her tablemate, Laras. She was looking at Indah with a loathing face. Though I couldn't see Indah's face from my angle, I believed that some tension was happening there.
Not long after, Laras and Shakira went out of the class, the latter walking with a crutch. Indah seemed to have failed her own operation and returned to us, unfortunately.
"Er... She said she won't come, so... Let's go, Sasa." She said, and then both of them went out of the classroom.
Still in the void, Kevin asked me, "Dude. What happened?"
I looked at Kevin for a while. 'Nope. I shouldn't tell him.' I said in my head, then proceeded to tell him, "Nothing happened."
Kevin was seemingly unconvinced, but he didn't press any further. Instead, he invited me to come with him to the canteen.
'I got to inquire Indah later.' I planned in my head and stood up from my chair.
****
As planned, I questioned Indah when we were on our way to the busway station. She said, "That Shakira... She was too unassertive. I was inviting her, but she went with Laras instead. Even Laras sounded more like making a command. Ugh... Remembering it makes me frustrated."
It can't be helped if Shakira decided not to take our hand. Sure, for us observers, it was stupid of her not to; but we also didn't know what went through her mind. Our only obligation was to be available for her whenever she needed us.
Indah tried the same thing the next day, and again, it was to no avail. I wanted to assist her, but she said, "Thanks for the offer, but I need you to focus on the festival."
Even when she said that, I kept insisting to her that I would try to help despite not knowing what to do; to which she responded with her hard-headedness. A quarrel happened for a moment, and the result was my defeat.
So I did as she said. I focused my mind on my task for the festival and decided to trust Indah entirely. Little by little, the decorations were done. But my heart was weighed as I made them. Nevertheless, I and my classmates managed to clear all the tasks by Friday, which would be one day before the festival begins.
"Decorations, ready," I announced as I put the Ondel-Ondel mask on the wall.
"Phew..." The girl beside me, Sasa, was letting out all her fatigue through her mouth. "Finally done."
"Uuuu... I'm nervous... Can I really do it?" Shakira, who was going to perform tomorrow with that other classmate, was telling us of her worries.
Shakira was wearing a Jakarta-style Kebaya, complemented with Sarong. Her attire was lent to her from that one guy I gave up remembering the name of. The reason she wore it today was to test it out, which, I had to admit, was a bit too tight for her. That guy, who was supposed to be her stand-up partner, said that he didn't have the correct size. Had I known this beforehand, I would've stolen—I mean, borrow one of my mother's Kebaya. Another reason she wore it was to 'familiarize' herself for tomorrow.
Indah, who was accompanying her for the entire rehearsal, put her hands on Shakira's arms. "You'll be totally fine! I'm sure of it!"
Shakira's eyes glimmered. "You think so? Thank you, Indah." She said to Indah, and then they proceeded to hug each other.
When they were done snuggling, I asked Shakira, "How's your ankle?"
"Well, as you can see, I can walk normally now. But I can't be too active until it heals properly." She said as she stuck out her previously injured part.
I nodded, implying that I understood.
"Alright. Let's go home!" Indah said, then we went out of the classroom with huge anticipation for tomorrow.
****
I buried my face in my bed after my usual self-study session. My mind began to wander about, delving into various scenarios I anticipated will happen tomorrow. In my imagination, from the moment the festival starts until it ends, everything went without a hitch.
I rolled my body, and now I faced the ceiling of my room. The LED lamp in the middle was illuminating my room brightly. However, it didn't phase me at all since I looked away from it.
My mind brought me to the matter of Shakira. There has never been any other incident happening ever since that time her ankle sprained. Perhaps it was thanks to Indah's not-so-subtle intervention in these past five days that Laras could be kept contained. I hoped that tomorrow and in the future, this matter would conclude by itself.
"Grinning alone in your room... What happened?" My thoughts were distracted by the lady of the house, also known as my mother.
I felt like I was caught doing something embarrassing, so I frantically said, "N-nothing."
My mother covered her mouth and started to give me playful looks. "Don't tell me, you're thinking of a girl?"
"Of course not," I responded as soon as her question ended. I felt more embarrassed that her guess was spot on, but I refused to admit it.
"Awww... You're no fun. Why do you even listen to your father's crappy advice?" She said as she entered my room and sat on my bed.
I sat up from lying down to give her more space. I stayed silent instead of answering. That question of hers had become a running rhetorical joke in the household at this point.
Urged by my silence, she asked again, "So, tomorrow's the infamous culture fest?"
"Yeah. I did my best on the preparations, so the only thing left is to enjoy it."
"Atta boy." My mother reached her hand to my hair and started to make a mess out of it. I stayed still without any resistance.
Such is my mother, a person with traits so warm and cheerful that made people comfortable to be around her. However, when she went into working mode, even she wouldn't bat an eye at me; one of her traits that earned my respect. And such respect was what influenced my aspirations. I decided to take the same path as her and become a successful designer.
After she had her fill of destroying my hairstyle, she got up and left my room.
"Oh, by the way," she spoke once again before leaving. "Your dad and I will visit the festival at noon."
"Yeah, sure," I said nonchalantly, since I knew that students' parents were given free tickets to enter the school festival. "Just don't go around headhunting girls for me."
Hearing my response has incited laughter in her. "You just gave me ideas. Don't blame me." She said and vanished out of my sight.
"Oi! Forget what I said!" I shouted at her teasing remark.
Being outplayed by her has brought out the feeling of regret inside me, and it made me cover my face. I was busy letting go of the feeling until my phone vibrated and let out a 'ping'.
I got up from my bed and reached for my phone on my desk. The screen lit up because of the fresh notification. Swiftly sliding my thumb on the screen, I opened the phone and instantly saw a message.
'Uril. I'm gonna visit your school tomorrow.'
I clicked on the message, and it took me to one of many contacts on my phone. The message was from Sukiman, the former student council president of my year back during middle school. He was also my best friend, and we were still in good contact.
'What time are you coming?' I typed my message and sent it to him.
A reply quickly came to me, indicating that he was active on his phone at the time.
'I dunno, what time will you go to school?'
'I'll be there all day.'
'Then we can hang out all day too. I have nothing to do tomorrow.'
I looked at his message in disbelief. He was notorious for being a playboy back during middle school, and that notoriety was what earned him the title of student council president.
As a way to confirm his lie, I messaged him, 'You, free? What about your girlfriends?'
Soon after, a message from him came.
'I have no girlfriend. LOL. I repented, man. I wanna be a sage like you.'
I was convinced that his message was a joke.
'Whatever. See you tomorrow.'
'See you tomorrow (wink).'
Thus, our small online conversation ended. I was still bored, so I scrolled around my messaging app and decided to see class 1-A-A's group chat. Since I had turned off notifications from the group chat, many messages piled up.
I scrolled up to the first message I hadn't read. From there, I started to scroll down message by message. I was looking for anything important, but it seemed that there was nothing but small talk. And then, as I was about to exit the chat, a message came and it made me feel repulsed.