The First Ever Encounter

Every good ending stories begin with "Once upon a time", sounding like those stories are millennia old. My story is not that old, nor filled with witchcraft or witches (unless you consider me as one) to begin with such powerful statement. Nevertheless...

I still consider it to be a happy ending. At least for this chapter anyway.

Hence...

Once upon a time, there lived (still very much alive until now) a girl who is very ordinary and well, average type of girl. You get the idea, nothing fancy. Not a Nasha Aziz lookalike, no super sense in fashion, nothing special. Except if talking non-stop is taken in as a talent.

Life began to turn a bit upside down when she first entered her diploma class in 2007. Boy, the first moment waiting for class to begin on the staircase actually made her silent. "This couldn't be happening. Ah, probably other girls are late". Trying to be positive, and keep cool. To her horror, until the end of the first day, no other females were seen in classes except for lecturers. But she still keep her calm, thinking that there would be girls joining in for second intake.

So, second intake came. Third week after her first day. She got all excited thinking her miserable lunch time would end and that she would finally had a classmate to go lunch with together! Hence on that Monday she went to class with hopes as high as the visible KLCC towers, only to be crushed into half at exactly 8.30 am when not a single female soul entered the class. "Maybe they got lost. I had a hard time finding the studio the first time as well"

With the leftover hope, she went into the next class and the next and the next until Monday flew like a bird in Furtado's song. Tuesday came and went by, then Wednesday came and went by, then Thursday passed by like a bullet train, finally Friday. By midday Friday, she was left with no hope whatsoever. All crushed. Into a trillion mini positive auras that were released from her body and vanished into the thin air... With no trace of coming back. Her fear was true. She was ALONE...in a group of 40 boys who barely even notice or care about her existence. Oh shitttt.

Lucky her she managed to make friends with a few girls from different courses during the orientation week. For three quarter of overall lunch time total during that first semester, she spent em with her girlfriends. Supposed if she had not known them, she would be admitted into an asylum due to loneliness overload. These girls became her backbone, and honestly one of the many reasons why she managed to get through those days.

Her roommate was the princess-like Shazmin, her everyday lunch partner, math and LK tutor was Yaya and her many other girlfriends include Fiza and Tila (her toiletmates), Momoe & Nadia (Yaya's toiletmates), Fiqah, Siha (Shazmin's coursemates), Nia, Hana, Durrah, Kemal, Wani, Ecah (among of Yaya's many classmates), Farah (a girl she met during orientation who became my roommate for a day), Nadia (aero girl) and many many other awesome girls that she met during the years.

Her first "hang-out" with her actual classmates was a trip to Jalan TAR. No, not for entertainment purpose. It was to buy the LK board and stuffs. The trip was made with Haziq, Tok & Kek. To be honest, she can't even remember her classmates' faces. Hehe. Not until a few weeks, naah a month or so after. All she can vaguely remembered were two guys who got into her nerves on their first day, a guy who looked back sympathetically at her when she was mentally abused by the two boys, a boy who talked to her first, two VERY tall guys, two very adorable chinese boys whom she went out for board shopping with and Haziq the supposed tour guide for the shopping trip.

As a requirement for this girl to get a paper with Diploma in Mechanical Enginering written on it, she had to undergo a subject called "Teknologi Worksyop". For the first year, it was divided into a few sections (she could only remember and name 3); aircond, automotive, welding. The first workshop class was to be held at a workshop, obviously? A place where she had no idea where and how to get there. So she planned on asking random girls hoping that they are seniors who know the way. While she was walking aimlessly, she got a call from an unknown number. Oh, class rep (Nasa) asking where is she, so she said she was lost. He gave directions on the phone, as if she is that good with directions. "Dekat dengan helicopter" Huh? Is there a helicopter here?? Eventually after she made super many calls to that class rep, she got there. A few minutes late. Tens of minutes actually because two minutes after she got there, the class was dismissed. Just a brief introduction anyway.  So she asked what she had missed from someone and then ciao senor!

The first workshop class she had wasn't even helpful. She felt like an outcast. Really, especially during automotive part. There was this test for that workshop, where they had to change the engine oil, dismantle & assemble the starter. The first trial, she did something wrong which caused the starter to be thrown into the dustbin. Her actual test went pretty okay. Except for the fact that after she had managed to locate and open the oil tank cap underneath the vehicle, did her workshop instructor came by and said "Oh, perempuan tak payah tukar minyak hitam. Tapi, awak dah buat, takpelah".

Haahhhhhh??!

Never mind.

But she had liked welding classes. Those were two fun weeks! Of course her piece whatever T-connection metals weren't exactly can be considered perfect welds, but she believed if given more time and chances she could improve. Sadly, those 2 weeks were the only time she had managed to weld things. Whatever workshop she went in after wasn't in her memory now probably because they were not to her liking.

Algebra had this group stuffs. During the group formation time, the lecturer had asked whether the students wanted to form their own groups or would they prefer for her to set the groups. The sole girl honestly, secretly, quietly wished from the back of the class that the lecturer would form the groups instead. Ha Ha Ha. The boys were grumbling. She alone was happy. So she had a few other guys in her group. Whom she barely recognise or remember and team work sucks big time ! They barely spoke 100 words each time they talked.

Mid sem break arrived. Yeayyyy! So she thought. Now something came up. Something VERY shitty. FYE camp. Huh? What is the function of a camp anyway? Apparently all mechanical (both pure and aero students need to go). She was "WhatttttTTTTTTT?!" Pft! Worried about sleeping alone in the tent, she quarter heartedly packed her bag on a sunny Saturday and took a cab with Shazmin to campus from the residence college. There were two buses arranged to transport these innocent teenagers to the campsite, one from Kolej 1 (campus) and Kolej 2 (secondary residence college). This girl was staying at Kolej 2. But since she wanted to straight away go back to her hometown from the camp (uncle was supposed to pick her up from campus and she didn't want to wait alone in a literally empty Kolej 2), she decided to "tumpang" her bags at Nadia aero's room in campus.

After putting her bag and all, she went to have breakfast with Min at Embun Cafe. She was scooping fried beehoon when her phone rang. Unknown number.
"Hello. Siapa ni?" "****. Mana kau?Bas nak gerak ni?" "Oh, aku dah kat campus" "Okay,bye"
Why ***? Two reasons : She's slightly pekak and she was blur, had not even heard or known the name before. So with whatever feeling, she ordered her drink, sat down, about to eat when another call came in. No need to bother writing the conversation. It was the same as above. Then a few text messages came in from of course more unknown numbers. Oh some are from Kek and Haziq. One of the callers might be class rep. She was amazed. So, they noticed her existence. That was a 'touching' moment for her. Aww, they care. At least a little bit. Ha Ha Ha.

The Kolej 2 bus came to campus, and apparently she had to board the bus according to the course. Argh! What a waste! Aero boys were hot. Heheh . Bus ride to camp was okay. A few teasing, joking moments. She did not dare to sleep throughout the journey. Afraid of pranks that they might pull off.

But FYE was a very important event in the girl's life. Not because it was fun or did she learned anything useful there, but at that camp, she met with three other aero girls whom she never met before. Khai Li, Qira, Diba. At first, the ordinary girl wasn't able to talk much with the other three girls. Possibly because she is a bit quiet in the beginning of new friendships. But, knowing them had made her life changed a few semesters fast forward.

You see, this girl is VERY often easily mistaken as a snob. Perhaps because of her face features that made her look like one if she doesn't smile. The fact that she was dead quiet and awkward in new relationships do not help either. Imagine, her long time best friend had once said this to her...

"Aku sebenarnya sangat geram dengan kau dulu masa darjah 6. Dengan buku banyaknya, dengan spek bulat and baju pengawas, kau macam bajet bagus and sombong je. Sebab tu masa kau tegur aku masa Form 1 tu aku jawab biasa-biasa je. Tapi, dah lama kenal kau. Baik juga kau ni." A stab in her heart at first, but then... she got that a lot. So, it's sort of the truth. Well, testimonials from Diba and Qira were not much different from the girl's best friend.
 
She spent the night sleeping with these girls in a chalet. Supposed to be in a camp, but their accommodation got upgraded yaw! Yeay. Her friendship with the girls got improved, well they did share the same room, walked in the woods together, basically did everything required in the camp together. Then, the end of FYE. Hurrah!!!

After one week break. Oh, back to reality, where life seemed lonely because stars have gone hiding behind some massive planets.

One Monday, she was wearing her mom's pink baju kurung with a pair of her old white heels. What do you expect? Sneakers? Come on! She was originally from all girls' school ! Her friends had been wearing heels and hanbags since the age of 14/15 years old. How on earth did they passed the TGV staffs for The Exorcism of Emily Rose if not for those overly mature accessories??

Anyway, that was the day where everything changed for her. Like slowly changing, not abruptly. But that was the first day she had lunch with her classmates. All began when a boy called Shook talked to her after class about something and suddenly asked "Kau nak pegi makan tak dengan kitorang?" Being hungry and Yaya was not on campus to have lunch with her, she agreed. So, this boy led the way. There were two cafes in the campus. But he didn't lead her to any of those. Instead, they went to the campus gate and got out. It was blazing hot! She was sweating like hell. Hungry and dead curious on why the hell would these guys have lunch somewhere so far ? I mean, why would one logically waste a few joules of energy to have lunch?? But she did follow him silently, patiently on the surface. Lucky she was trained to walk long miles with heels. Hence, it was not much of a problem to her.

Then they arrived at sort of a food court. There were two different restaurants available, selling what we all call "Makanan Panas". Her first impression of Selera Semarak was, "Oh, my! Mana datang semua manusia ni".

It is true they say, that relationships are made stronger over food, about food bringing people together. The food served was of normal taste, nothing sensational but relatively cheaper. But there was one MAIN reason why they endured the extra miles to eat... CIGARETTES!

So yeah, from then on her relationships with her vicious and sharp tongued male classmates  got a little bit friendlier. It was no longer in and out of classrooms without Hi's or Goodbyes. It was still awkward in some senses and she still had a tinge of doubt whether she was able to complete the course until degree but it was getting better. She was able to recognise her classmates even outside classrooms, remember some names, smile at some of the boys.

It wasn't that before the 'lunch turning point' she was forever silent. She did speak to some people. For assignments she wasn't able to solve (LK particularly), and when Yaya was not able to draw the shape, she did asks some of em for help. But that was that. It is not in her nature to keep her mouth shut anyway. She is otherwise quite loud.

Then the final three weeks of the semester. Physics' lecturer wanted every student to prepare a presentation each on any physics related subjects. Yeay! She secretly liked presentations and speaking in front of people. Although she never really mentioned it out loud. Out of 40+ students, only a few stayed until the end. Majority have gone back early after their turns. So she presented in front of the leftover students and lecturer. There were only about 10 students left. That moment when she saw there were only a few students left when her turn came, her heart was blooming with joy. Yes, she like presenting and stuffs, but she couldn't muster the confidence to present in front of all those boys. Not yet.

That was the last class for the semester. She finished all of her classes (skipping a lot throughout the semester) with a very special memory made during the presentation day. Which only she, the lecturer and some boys left who paid attention knew. :) What happens next? Who knew? She might've flunked her final exam. Or she might have secretly requested to her academic advisor for a course transfer...

Perhaps that is a story to be told in a few days time:)