Taking out his chalk, the teacher faced the chalkboard and wrote a couple of equations quickly. Following suit, everyone took out their own homemade chalk, chalkboards and notebooks. The chalk and chalkboards were for practice, while the notebook was for more permanent notes. On the first lesson of each year, the teachers would always dedicate the time to teach us how to make chalkboards and chalk. Additionally, if the school could afford it, they would also hand out notebooks to us.
Feeling the old and worn out pages, I flipped over to the page where I placed the dried flower bookmark as a placeholder. Moving that gently aside, I started scribbling the notes I deemed necessary on the gray page. For those that seemed less necessary, I wrote them on the corner of the chalkboard.
Slowing down here and there to allow us to copy, it wasn't until the old and familiar school bell rang where the teacher stopped. With his last stroke on the chalkboard, he bid farewell to the class in his strict voice and left the classroom.
"Mr Kell sure doesn't like to take a break!"
Wailing as soon as he deemed the teacher out of earshot, the boy sitting next to me, Linel, scribbled the last equation into his notebook and shook his wrist in pain.
"At least he doesn't wipe the chalkboard after he's done!"
Complaining, the person in front of Linel cried out as he frantically wrote in his notebook.
"Don't say that! My wrist already hurts from thinking about it!"
The voices of more people chirped up as the sound of pencil on paper slowly stopped.
Linel, the instigator of all this chaos, closed his textbook with a sigh and reached out to snatch the news book from under the table.
"Hey Dan, lend me this for a while!"
Taking the book faster than I could respond, Linel flipped over to the latest page and started reading as fast as he could. With eyes scanning the pages wildly, it only took him a couple minutes before he flipped to the previous page to eat up the information too.
"Damn, they actually managed to arrest him."
Clicking his tongue, Linel finished reading and returned the book back under my desk, sighing.
"And here I was thinking that he wouldn't get caught so soon."
Leaning back on my chair, I glanced over at Frank, who had turned around with Linel's words and shook his head together with him.
"Same! I really hoped that Andrew would at least be free for longer. It hasn't even been that long!"
The two boys shared their disappointment as they erased their chalkboard for the next lesson.
Following suit, I was about to join in their conversation when I felt a small tap on my shoulder. Turning around, the girl behind me had a hand covering her mouth as she whispered to me.
"Could we see that book too?"
Starting with herself, she then pointed to several of her friends who were looking my way. In response, the group of girls made a zipping motion on their mouth as they stared at me with pleading eyes.
"Make sure not to get caught."
Warning them, I reached my hand under the table and passed them the book. With smiles and nods, they then huddled together over the book as they read it.
"It seems your book is as popular as ever."
Hearing a smirk in that voice, I turned my head over to Linel and gave him a scowl. Beside him, Frank was covering his smile poorly with his hands and the three of us took a small break in between lessons to tease each other.
"Class! Get ready for lessons!"
A shrill voice came from the door as the next teacher entered the class with a frown. In an instant, everyone quietened down and returned to their seats. Flipping over our notebooks, we all gave each other a grim smile at the writing hell that was to come.
"Good luck!"
"You too!"
Communicating with our eyes, we then steeled ourselves and grabbed the pencil in one hand and the chalk with another.
"Now then! We will start chemistry class!"
The teacher was about to go onto her long and boring lecture when she turned to the chalkboard then paused. Frowning at the equations on the board, the chemistry teacher took out a cloth from her pocket and wiped the whole board clean. Then, with one stroke of her chalk, she filled half the board with weird symbols.
"All right, class, let's start with this molecule first!"
She took a deep breath, as did we all, before the whole classroom was filled with the sound of chalk and her voice.
Frantically writing down word after word, shape after shape, I didn't have the time to pay attention to the time as I filled all available spaces with words and drawings. Finally, after what seemed like 5 minutes and 5 years at the same time, the bell signaling the end of the lesson rang.
Being cut off mid-sentence, the teacher glared at the bell but didn't continue. She took out a large water bottle from her bag and downed half of it in 5 seconds. She then big farewell to the class as she moved on to her next lesson.
"See you next week!"
Leaving with a wave of her hands, the whole class slumped over their tables in agony and groaned once they were sure she was out of earshot.
"There's still three lessons left!"
With another wail, Linel held his wrists. Nodding our heads, we took advantage of the five minutes of rest we had until the next teacher came to drink water and massage our wrists.
"Here! Your book!"
From behind, the girl who tapped my shoulder did so again and passed me back my news book. We shared a nod as the book passed hands and I snuck the book back under my table, just as the next teacher came in.
Dragging through the next three lessons, I diligently wrote down everything I could before they were erased forever from the chalkboard. Finally, when the last teacher finished his lesson on the bell, the whole class stood up from their seats and filed out of the classroom.
"I swear my wrists will never get used to all this writing!"
Linel complained from beside me as we held on tightly to our backpacks. On my other side, Frank had a dead look in his eyes as the three of us made our way out of the small building that was our school.
Due to the limited budget our Middle street had, our school was actually a repurposed theater. And so, our classroom was actually a private box used to watch the stage with its windows blacked out with black paint. The same black paint used to make chalkboards.
Walking through the private corridor, we braced ourselves for the crowd as that private corridor joined up with the main one as each student squeezed out of the building through three large double doors.
Joining the stream of students flowing out from their own classrooms and corridors, we shuffled out of the school and immediately turned left.
Walking further and further away from the school, we let our feet carry us to our usual destination. Instinctively turning here and there, Linel stood in the middle as he ranted on and on about school life and each teacher. On his right, Frank nodded his head and jumped in several times to add to the complaints. And on his right, I mainly laughed at the misery every teacher gave to the two hate-pulling students.
After zig zagging through several streets, we finally came to a stop at our after school destination. The MDVA cemetery.
The MDVA cemetery, which was at the crossroads between Bottom street and Middle street, was a big, white and well maintained building. It had no signs of moss or dirt on it, the air conditioner was on for the entire day everyday, and the walls shone whiter than any of our apartments had ever been.
Opening the glass doors of the large building, we stepped into the air conditioned reception area and made a beeline for the door on the utmost left. Then, after opening that door, we took the stairs to the 3rd floor to where Frank's brother was buried.
Pushing open another set of doors, we entered a special air conditioned room. The entire floor was covered in artificial dirt and tombstones. White, pristine tombstones. They were all 5 feet apart from each other, giving each family enough space to feel alone with their loved ones.
Walking down the flower lined path, we passed several of the tombstones until we came to a certain row. Heading into that row, we finally stopped at a pristine white tombstone, looking just like the rest, only with the name 'Will' carved into it.
"Good afternoon big brother."
Standing behind Frank in silence, the two of us listened to him speak lovingly to his older brother as he kneeled down on the artificial dirt. Starting with a normal voice, the sound slowly quietened until it was a murmur. However, I could still make out his starting points, the date and today's news from the news book.
I stared at Will's tombstone. Unlike some of the tombstones behind, his tombstone was mostly bare. Frank didn't have enough money to buy flowers everyday for his visits, and streetside flowers probably weren't a good choice.
On the topic of flowers, I found myself taking a journey in my mind back to the first day when Frank had brought me here.
That day, just like any other, the two of us had walked out of the school with smiles and complaints leaving our mouths. Frank had then, all of a sudden, quietened a little and requested a favor from me. And although I didn't know what it was, his serious and solemn expression made me hesitant to ask.
Walking down the same route we did today, we passed by a flower shop then. At that time, Frank's eyes had lingered on the flowers. But as he reached into his pocket to feel his coins, I saw him reluctantly tear his eyes away from them.
Out of instinct, and my mother's words of always giving a helping hand to others if possible, I had dug out some money to buy one small white flower for him. Even today, I could still remember his wide and teary eyes as I gave him that small flower.
And the flower had been one of the best choices of my life. Although that flower shop had long closed down, and finding the money to even buy a flower seemed impossible nowadays, I was still glad that I had managed to offer even one flower to this tombstone. Even if it could only happen once.
Breaking away from my past memories, I shifted my gaze to Linel who was staring straight at Will's tombstone. Linel was a new friend, and as such did not have the privilege to offer a flower. However, looking at how serious the usually playful Linel was, I think even Will wouldn't be mad that he couldn't bring anything. Not if Will was the kind and forgiving older brother that Frank liked to reminisce to us about.
Suddenly seeing movement from in front of the tombstone, Frank stood up ad brushed the small artificial dirt off his knees. Then, running his hand across the carvings on the tombstone, I head a peaceful 'goodbye', 'see you tomorrow' and 'I love you' before he turned his head to us and smiled.
"We can go home now."
Seeing this smile, Linel hung his arm around Frank's shoulders in a comforting manner. Then, the two of us made our way down the cemetery.
On the way down, we passed by several other familiar looking families. Nodding our heads to them in greeting, we reached the second floor.
"Do you want to visit your brother today?"
Pausing my footsteps, I turned my head to look at the glass doors leading to the second floor tombstone area. I hesitated. But in the end, I still shook my head and led the way down the next flight of stairs.
"No. There's no good news today."
Climbing down the stairs, as I neared the bottom, I felt a warm arm around my shoulders. Turning my head, I saw Linel's infectious smile.
"If you ever need us to accompany you, just tell us! Or not. We'll gladly go for a surprise trip to see your little brother!"
Beside Linel, Frank also gave me his best comforting smile.
Grinning at the two of them, I signaled for Linel to get his arm off my shoulder and the two of us walked out of the cemetery with a more light-hearted mood than usual.