Story Compilation with Unlikely Friendship Theme

Unlikely
Friendship

By: TESL 1

Somehow Life Puts
Us Together

By Ainaa Syafiqah binti Mohd Shah

Pandemic, boredom, and living alone. That was the case
for Ayla, a 20 years old Malaysian female who had run out
of ideas on how to spend her days. One normal day, Ayla
had the urge to do something more thrilling. Perhaps
something out of her comfort zone. She then had this
intriguing thought- ‘How fun would it be if I were to become
someone’s pen pal?’. It was a sudden instinct, and Ayla
knew how difficult it would be to find a penpal. Was she
supposed to scout through the Internet or was she supposed
to ask the people around her?

A few days later, Ayla was scrolling through her social
media when she suddenly stumbled upon an advertisement
regarding an app called ‘Slowly’. It was an app that allows
people to become pen pals with anyone from around the
world by exchanging letters digitally. ‘This must be fate,’
Ayla thought, because such an app appeared during the
time she needed the most!

So, Ayla dove further, resulting in creating an account for
herself- wishing to connect with only fellow Malaysians.
Nevertheless, life had other plans; Ayla forgot to change
the settings of the app, hence she received a letter one day.
Delighted, yet stunned as the letter was from Poland!
Realising that the sender was someone from another
country, Ayla became reluctant. She contemplated whether
to ignore the letter. Ayla’s main concern was how they
might have different points of view on everything.

‘We have so many differences... I’m not sure whether we’re
compatible to become pen pals,' Ayla pondered. She read
the letter. Apparently, the sender was a person named
Jacob from Poland, and he was 27 years old. His reason for
sending the letter was the same as Ayla- both wanted to try
something new.

Ayla decided to step out of her comfort zone and reply to
the letter. She wrote a brief introduction about herself- age,
nationality, current studies, and other basic stuff. As time
passed by, you could say it was one of the best decisions
she ever made. Ever since that day, Ayla and Jacob started
exchanging letters. The letters’ context was getting longer
and longer, and they even sent some pictures of their
hometown. There was this one letter where Jacob stated he
was married and inserted a picture of him and his wife. They
even had a big black dog! Ayla was glad that she made the
right decision to exchange letters. Both of them were happy
that they were able to discover new things about each
other’s religion and culture. As the pandemic became more
perilous, they took advantage of the app to exchange
information about their country’s situation, and how their
countries are trying to solve it.

Ayla and Jacob were getting comfortable with exchanging
letters that they did not even need to worry about when
they did not receive a reply. But there is a reason why the
saying ‘too good to be true’ exists. Ayla did not receive
Jacob’s reply after sending her previous letter. She thought
it was normal, and she knew how life was different for each
person. Previously, Jacob would explain why the reply was
late. Nonetheless, a month passed, yet there was still no
reply.

After a month, Ayla decided to send a letter once again by
asking whether everything is alright. Again, she did not
receive any replies. Ayla started to wonder about all of the
endless possibilities as to why such a thing occurred, and
she would always think of something to ease her mind.
‘Perhaps his phone is broken’ she comforted. But after
several months of no replies, Ayla thought how Jacob might
just be tired and bored of exchanging letters, or perhaps he
wanted to exchange letters with someone else. Such
thoughts sent a pain to her heart, but that was the only
reason she could think of. It seems like from the very first
place, it was impossible for two people from the opposite
world to become friends.

Suddenly, Ayla received a letter from Jacob pertaining to
his abrupt disappearance. Apparently, Jacob’s wife had
experienced a miscarriage and the whole situation caused a
blow to them. In order to rebuild their spirit, they took some
time off. They went on a short trip around Poland and Jacob
tried his best to make his wife happy. After explaining his
disappearance, he then apologised how he was unable to
write for such a long time and hoped that Ayla was still
interested in becoming friends. Arya understood how
difficult the situation was for their family, thus she wrote a
reply stating how everything is alright and she was
delighted to know they could still be friends.

Afterwards, Ayla and Jacob continued exchanging letters.
They both updated each other about their lives, and
although the letters were not frequent, they still tried to
make time to write back. Looking back, Ayla did not expect
how their friendship would turn out like this. Who would
have thought that two people from different cultures,
nationality and age could be bound together without even
meeting each other!

To Make a Poet
Out of A Painter

By Athirah Ahmad Ramizu

They met on a Sunday morning, the heat of the sun
enveloping the fields with a soft glow, a perfect day
to be outside. The many occupants of the small town
can be found outdoors enjoying the warmth of the
summer. This includes Virgil, walking around
aimlessly, holding a ragged baseball, its weight
familiar in his palms.

As he walked idly he caught a glimpse of a large
mansion surrounded by hedges, "Ah, the snobby rich
guys live there… man what do they need all that
space for," he thought snidely. Emboldened by a
sudden rush of courage- and a pinch of foolishness-
he strode towards the mansion, an idea in his head. If
he threw the baseball over he'd have an excuse to
snoop around, just to take a look, nothing more. He
took his chance and tossed the ball into the air,
watching it curve spectacularly over the towering
hedge before plummeting inside with an impressive
thud… followed by a pained scream.

"Uh oh… I hit someone didn't I? Probably socked a
snobby rich kid right in the face knowing my luck… I
can't get into any more trouble, Ma's heart probably
can't take it," his heart thumped against his ribs like
a jackrabbit's as he squeezed himself through the
tight opening in the hedge and popped through the
other side just to see a dark-haired boy sprawled on
the yard, the offensive culprit, his baseball settling
not too far away.

Virgil stood there, a heavy feeling in his heart. The
hands fisted into his pants starting to sweat as he
stared down at the unmoving boy. When suddenly
the boy sat up, "Ouch, that hurt!" he exclaimed,
clutching at his face, "who hit me?!"

Virgil kneeled down to peer at his face. Seeing big fat
tears spilling out of the boys' milky blue eyes while
fresh blood trickled sluggishly out of his nose. "H-
hey? Look stop crying please you’ll get me in trouble
here! Just shush, okay? You can even hit me back
okay?" he tried placating the boy who only
responded by shaking his head and crying even
harder, "I- I’ll even give you my painting! Just shush!"

"Give me your painting? Now you're just making fun
of me aren't you? Isn't it enough you hit me in the
face!" he sobbed out, "What use do I have for a
painting anyway! I don't want it so stay away!"





Virgil stood up again, irritated by his words, "N- no I
wasn't! I mean I know my painting isn't worth that
much but I wasn't making fun of you-" he glared at
the boy finally noticing his eyes, a cloudy blue colour,
the pupils of his eye not once contracting even in the
bright sun as realisation hits him "-you're blind aren't
you… and I just made a fool out of myself arghh!"

"Look, let's just call the guards and get you inside,
seems like the baseball got you good… you're
bleeding" he sighed, resigned to his fate.

"No! It's okay, don't tell the guards! They'll never let
me out alone if they found out this happened … just
help me get cleaned up in the kitchen?" the boy said
as he took Virgil's hand and they both walked
towards the mansion.

As they walked towards the kitchen they started
talking to one another, or more like Virgil started
spouting nonsense and telling jokes as the boy
listened attentively, he even started laughing at his
lame jokes once or twice. And that's where he
learned that the boy's name is Hugo.

"Wow, I thought the mansion looked ridiculous on the
outside! Look at all this!" Virgil said in awe, "it’ll look
so impressive in a painting! I mean, look at that
chandelier! Talk about overkill amirite?"

"Really? Does it look that impressive? I've never
noticed before," Hugo said in a deadpan voice
gesturing at his eyes.

"I'm so sorry Hugo, I didn't mean to-" he stopped
apologising when he heard Hugo laughing, "-did you
just make a blind joke? That wasn't funny! I really
thought I screwed up!"

"It was funny to me! That's for sure! I wish I could stop
being blind for a second if it meant I could see how
your face looked," he exclaimed loudly, his sentence

interjected with bursts of laughter.

This continued on as they walked all the way to the
kitchen, both of them exchanging silly stories and
making jokes without overstepping or offending one
another. Here Virgil found out that Hugo enjoyed
reading storybooks in braille and Hugo discovered
Virgil’s passion for the arts.

While escorting Virgil out of the mansion Hugo
stopped in his tracks, “You got me all curious talking
bout your painting and the chandelier and all, I really
wish I could see it all… I mean I’ve read books and
they all described how things ‘look’ like… the colours
and all that… How beautiful is all that really?” he
said longingly.

Virgil rummaged through his back pocket, taking out
a crumpled painting and stuffing it into Hugo’s
hands, “Here keep this safe for me, maybe I’ll come
back tomorrow and tell you all about it! I mean you
like stories right? I guess I can try describing the
painting in words, dunno if you can tell yet but I do
love talking!” Virgil said in an attempt to lighten the

the mood. He also needed a reason to see Hugo again
tomorrow so this is as good of a reason as any.

And they continued to meet, day after day. Talking
about anything and everything under the sun. Hugo
shared his books while Virgil painted the sceneries
from his stories, working hard to describe his vision in
words.

“This piece I painted just now is full of warm colours,
you know? I think it suits the tone of your book. Just a
mix of reds, yellows and oranges, a bit heavy on the
yellows though. If I were to put it in words I’d say that
those three colours are exactly like it’s called. Warm.
It’s like sitting outside during a sunny day, and you
can feel the gentle heat of the sunlight on your skin.
It’s like drinking cold lemonade, citrusy and full of
bright notes. If it had a voice, I’d say it sounds like
laughter. Just light and bright and full of warmth and
joy. That’s how I’d say the colours work in this one. I
even added more texture with my brushstrokes if you
wanted to ‘feel’ how the paintings are,” Virgil said
with a look of concentration on his face.

“Thanks for never getting tired of doing this for me… I
mean I think it’s quite impressive you know?” Hugo
said while trailing his fingers over the bumps and
weaves of the paintings.

“What’s impressive?” Virgil asked.

“Us being friends I guess? Like, who would’ve thought
right? A blind boy and a painter! Sounds like it came
straight from the books.” Hugo replied with a small
smile on his face.

“I think that’s nothing. I think that you’re even more
impressive,” Virgil said, looking at Hugo softly, not
that Hugo could tell.

“Me? What on earth is so impressive about me?” he
questioned back, his voice rising in disbelief.

“I mean, here you are making a poet out of a painter,”
Virgil replied to Hugo obligingly, as he always does
and he always will.

The Other Friends

By Nur Ain Afiqah Binti Mohd Sabri

Alice is Rosie’s one and only close friend. Rosie does not
have the desire to befriend anyone else since she does not
feel like she fits in the society that she lives in. Somehow,
Alice is the only one she can befriend even though she is the
complete opposite of her, she talks a lot, she says whatever
she wants, she is free-spirited and lively. Alice is the only
person she treasures the most despite their difference.
However, she always keeps this one feeling by herself as she
does not want to face any trouble with Alice, whom she
trusts the most. That feeling keeps bothering her every time
something goes wrong with their relationship.

Rosie decides to keep it by herself day by day and does not
let Alice know what she truly feels. As Alice is unaware of
Rosie’s unspoken thought, she keeps on crossing the line.
Rosie’s mind keeps thinking of those moments. She knows it
is common among friends to joke around, give opinions,
annoy each other, things like that are usual but she could
not seem to enjoy it at all.

As things get heavier, some voices appear inside Rosie’s
head and keep whispering to her as if they are her new
friends, telling her to do something that would unexpectedly
make her feel calmer and better. Then she realise, she could
not think of Alice as a friend anymore. Friends would not
make you feel uncomfortable like what she is experiencing
right now. Now, how does she get rid of her? The voices get
louder, suggesting Rosie to kill Alice and go to jail, which is
not a bad solution since she got no one in her life anyway.

One day, Rosie invite Alice to her room. They chit chat until
late at night. It was fun until Alice starts to point out Rosie’s
insecurities, her dark skin, her tangled curly hair, her
childhood scars. In the end, Alice said that Rosie is beautiful
despite those imperfect features. Rosie smirks and laughs at
Alice’s ridiculousness as she smacks Alice’s head with an
axe. Alice is bleeding non-stop and eventually stop moving.
Rosie skinned Alice’s white, fairy skin and pluck out all of her
straight hair. It was satisfying to her, as she does not need to
deal with Alice’s nonsense anymore. Rosie calls the police
and surrenders. She does not think that staying in jail would
be a bad move since she does not have anyone outside the
world anyway.

The voices disappear and as she silently lives behind the bar,
silently, slowly killing herself with loneliness. She thinks
again, if she let out her feelings, would things be different
now? Why did she listen to the voices? Her last breath
misses the appearance of her only true friend, as she ends
her own life to redeem her mistake and be with her friend,
who might be waiting for her or cursing her out of her life.
There are only two possibilities, as she regrets, she just takes
the risk, as long as she could explain the real reason for the
tragedy, it’s the voice inside her head.

Just Like the
Other Girls

By Norfarah Hannani binti Aziz

JUST
LIKE
OTHER GIRLS

By Farah Hannani

I used to think that I was different from other
girls. I was different from the other girls who wear heels
and skirts, put effort into their looks, the ones who always
keep up with the trend, and had their own clique. I
convinced myself that I was fine on my own and did not
have to follow the others for validation. Thus, I tend to
alienate myself from others, justifying my behavior by
claiming that I was "not like the other girls". However, all
these thoughts changed when I was in high school.

One day, my Science teacher assigned us to do
a group project on the solar system. I was in the same
group as Alicia and her other two friends. Alicia was
considered the “it girl” in school. She got a nice face, a
shapely figure, always keep up with the latest fashion
trend and had a big social circle. Her friends were equally
like her. She and I were in a totally different league. With
a heavy heart, I moved my feet to sit with them. I was
taken aback because they actually had started a
discussion about the project. They decided to discuss
more at Alicia’s house in the coming weekend. I just went
along with it.

The day had come. I was sitting in Alicia’s room
for the first time. No one said anything for a few minutes.
We were just waiting for her to return to her room after
getting us some drinks and fruits. Then we heard the door
open. Her mom was kind enough to prepare us some
refreshments. Then, she sat with us and broke the
silence. “Do you have any idea how we should do the
project?” she asked. Her friend, Christine answered her
“Actually I do have some ideas. Maybe we can make a 3D
solar system model.” “I was about to suggest the same
thing too. We can also add a few explanations about the
planets on the model.” “Nice suggestion. What about
you, Sarah? Do you have any other ideas?” Alicia asked
me. I was touched that she actually included me in the
discussion.

I thought I was going to be an outcast in the
group. “I think what Christine suggests is good. Besides, it
is not hard to make a model. I have a rough idea of how
we can create it”. “Good, I think we can decide our roles
in the group. I can help with buying all the materials
needed for the project,” said Alicia. “Then, Sarah can
help you with listing the things needed. Meanwhile, Mia
and I can start searching for all the relevant
information”, said Christine. “Sure,” we all said in unison.

I had to admit that they were very good at their
jobs. They took their job seriously as any other girl would. I
had a misogynist that girls like them do not care about
grades but I was terribly wrong. As the evening
progressed we slowly began talking more in-depth about
ourselves, not just about the project. They were actually
very friendly and easy to get along with. Slowly, I found
myself enjoying the conversation that we had. Then, we
decided to call it a day and continue the project the next
day. We managed to finish the project in a short time.
“We actually make a nice team”, Mia suddenly blurted
out. “I know right. It is fun to work with you, Sarah” said
Christine. Alicia just nodded and smiled. Agreeing with
what Mia and Christine said.

I felt a lump in my throat. The guilt was eating
me because I was being prejudiced about them. Inhaling
some courage, I said “Hey, I would to apologize to you
guys. I am sorry because all this time I have judged all of
you without really knowing you guys.” “It’s alright. We
get that all the time,” said Alicia. “It hurt at first but then
we decided to just ignore it” she added. “I am ashamed
of myself. I always tell myself not to judge others but
then I unknowingly did it when other people do
something I do not like” I said. “You can join and talk with
us anytime you want Sarah” Mia said. “Really? That
would be great! Thank you so much”.

I enjoyed their companionship. Our friendship
started off awkwardly and rather unwanted.
Sometimes they would invite me to their house and
spend time with them. I went from thinking there was
no way she and I could ever be friends to "This is going
to be a terrific friendship,". I learned a lot from them. I
should not stay away from those stereotypes because
that would prevent me from experiencing things that
‘other girls’ were into such as shopping and dressing up.
Turned out, I actually enjoyed doing them. There was so
much I had in common with ‘other girls’. I guess I am
just like ‘other girls’ and I love being with ‘other girls’.

Too Loud for Quiet
Too Quiet for Loud

By Farihah Jazmina Hasbullah

First day of high school and so many different reactions
were given by the students. However, two were so obvious
that they caught everyone’s attention. One was so loud
and cheerful, but the other was so quiet and gloomy. Two
different personalities end up catching each others
attention. Zack, who is known for his loud voice and
cheeky personality, was chatting with his friends, laughing
loudly at their fool jokes, and suddenly became quiet when
he saw Shaun.

Shaun kept staring out of the window, sighing soundlessly.
The loud voice of Zack did manage to turn his head for a
second just to find out who was behind the voice. It was
only for a second, yet their eyes managed to gaze at each
other. The class suddenly went quiet. People start to talk
again when Shaun breaks the eye contact first and
continues staring out of the window.

Weeks have passed and no more eye contact or anything
else happens between those two boys. Until one day, Zack
and his friends decided to cause a ruckus by playing catch
in class. “Throw it back, Zack! Don’t keep the ball to
yourself. ” Akon was eagerly ready to catch the ball, but at
that time he was standing in front of Shaun. “You better
catch it, loosehead.” Zack threw the ball with all his
might, but because it was too fast, Akon suddenly felt
scared. He ended up moving aside and “BAM!”.

The ball hit Shaun’s head and pushed his face against the
window handle. Shaun groaned, “Arrgghh”. People
gasped, and the girl who was sitting behind Shaun
suddenly screamed, “Blood!”. Zack started to panic and
quickly yelled, “Somebody gets our homeroom teacher. I’ll
bring Shaun to the health room. ” Zack rushed to Shaun
and carried him in piggyback. Along the way, Shaun kept
cursing, which shocked Zack.

“I don’t care what you want to do or who you gonna hang
out with, but don’t involve me in any of your silly plays. Not
to mention, you are always loud and it is a hell to my ears.
Can’t you just shut up and respect others? Why do you
have to go berserk, scream, or talk loudly? Even when you
eat, you chew so loudly that it makes me want to throw up.
” Shaun was complaining the whole time and even cursed
a little bit. Rather than feeling angry, Zack feels remorse
and guilt. He promised himself to atone for his actions. He
would take care of Shaun until his wound healed. The next
day, Zack stayed with Shaun the whole time, which
brought their classmates into shock and awe as they were
seeing two different people yet sitting next to each other.
One was trying to get the other one to talk, while the other
one kept showing his annoyance towards the whole
situation.

"Can you stop with all of these? I’m tired of it and your
existence is already a pain in my eyes. ” Shaun finally let
out his anger. He and Zack were walking back to his house.
Zack just smiled and walked away. A few months have
passed, and since then, Zack and Shaun have been
together wherever they go. When one of them was not in
school, they would feel lonely and realize that they had
already adapted and felt comfortable with each other's
presence. There was one time when Zack didn’t attend
school for a whole week. Shaun was worried, but
unfortunately, he didn’t know Zack’s house. Then, a week
later, their homeroom teacher tells them the bad news.
Zack was sent to the hospital because he was abused by
his father physically. His condition was critical and the
doctor said there might be some effects physically and
mentally.

Shaun didn’t wait for school to end, in the middle of his
teacher’s explanation; he ended up running out of the
class and going straight to the hospital. There, he can see
Zack’s condition with all these wires connected to his
body, the bandages, and the wound. The doctor said that
Zack was in a coma and they didn’t know when he would
wake up. Shaun was crying beside his new best friend.
Days turn into weeks, which turn into months, which turn
into years.

Finally, it is the day of their graduation. Now, Shaun can
interact and talk to his classmates. The incident made him
realize life is too lonely when you are alone. Suddenly, the
phone rang. “Ring, ring, ring...” He picked up the call and
quickly got into the car. His butler drove as fast as he could
towards the hospital. Shaun was out of breath when he
arrived at the ward.

“Hey quiet boy, I think we have a lot of things to catch up
on.” Shaun nodded.

A
FOUR-LEAF

CLOVER

By: Nur Sakinah binti Samsuri

Every year on my best friend's birthday, her parents

gave flowers to this significant girl in their life. It's

a tradition I intend to continue even now that she's

no longer here. I stopped at the flower shop on the

way to her funeral to get some roses, which are her


favourite flower. I couldn't forget how her face

used to light up with excitement as she welcomed


me on the front porch.



"Hey Miza!" I gasped after hearing a loud voice

from the other side of the road.



---------------------------------------

It was Hannah, a thespian in our school. She started
doing plays in form one and never found a way not to
be in one. Wizard of Oz, Romeo and Juliet, she was in
pretty much everything. She mainly got small parts,
but everyone was amazed at how spot on she could
take those small parts. We were best friends for a
very long time. Since we both are in a debate club,
we had a pretty easy platform in which to make jokes
and talk about. She would crack a joke about blue
being a terrible colour and we would then get into a
debate on why tomato is not a vegetable. She also
wrote beautiful sonnets about love and thrilling
poems every night. If you were to read what he wrote,
you would be extremely confused as to why he
wasn't published. She always found a positive
meaning and lifted my spirits up so many times that
she may be the reason why it's so easy to write about
her now. Our friendship felt almost genetic in a sense.
I attribute most of his amazing mannerisms to her
parents.

It all started back when I was in high school and two days
prior to the paramount and nerve-wrecking examination,
I had to accept the fact that my squinty eyes were no
longer functioning. It was the day I found out that I was
unable to look at the classroom whiteboard in front of
the classroom without wearing a pair of spectacles.
When I opened my eyes from a deep sleep that morning,
everything suddenly became extremely blurry and my
vision was somehow dazzled, as if somebody had
pepper-sprayed my eyes. That exact situation reminded
me of that one day when I accidentally stumbled upon
an article on visual problems when I was doing my
Biology revisions in the school library. Based on the
article, kaleidoscope vision is a short-lived distortion of
vision that causes things to look as if images are broken
up and can be brightly coloured or shiny. Maybe it is just
the quick effect of the overly bright light in my bedroom
striking my eyes, or it is true that this particular morning
was the beginning of me becoming a girl with a
kaleidoscope vision.

Instinctively, the first words that came out of my mouth was, "Oh,
great timing. A few days left before an important examination and

I'm already vision impaired."
Being an independent daughter who lives just a few blocks away
from school, I've insisted on just walking to school and embracing
the hustle and bustle of the streets instead of going to school by
car, being dropped and fetched by my mother every day.
Therefore, I supposed that after years of walking down the streets
to school and back, I was quite confident with myself that I would
be able to go to school safely without any problems as I was
physically and mentally healthy in my high school years. But unlike
any other day, something unexpectedly different occurred on that
day. After a couple of minutes of walking down the small streets
on the way to my school, my eyes become teary and dizzy, so I
stopped for a while and sat on the pavement along the roadside to
calm myself down. Then, I peeked at my wristwatch and it was
already 7.20 a.m. Without wasting any more time, I got up on my
feet slowly and carefully, kept on continuing my journey to school
as I was supposed to arrive before the school gate closes, which is
at 7.30 a.m.

While walking, I could feel that people were glaring at me as I
staggered like an inebriated person along the roadside full of
pedestrians. In a split second, I had came to my senses that I
was actually standing in the middle of the road. I was panicked
when I saw the traffic light on the other side of the road had
turned green and a giant big truck which was already speeding
towards my direction honked repeatedly towards me. To my
surprise, I heard a familiar voice called out to me and suddenly
a pair of strong arms grabbed on my school bag that I was
carrying on my shoulders in a swift movement, causing me to
forcefully walk backwards and fall on my back on the roadside.

"Hey Miza! Are you alright?" The voice asked me in a
worried tone. Still in a shock state, I, who was still lying
on my back on the ground, nodded slowly. In that very
petrifying moment, I could feel that everyone nearby
the road who witnessed the horrifying incident was
staring at me with shocked faces and some of them
were yelling at me for being careless. Not knowing how
to face the situation, I suddenly burst into tears and
felt very thankful and relieved for the mysterious
saviour's fast action of rescuing me.

Then after a few minutes of reflecting on the incident and

getting myself together, I got up and found out that the

person who saved my life earlier was actually Hannah. I

thanked her repeatedly even though we had never talked

to each other at all before, despite being classmates for


almost two years. She was quite garrulous even after what

happened earlier. We casually chatted for the first time


about random things like school, sports and the memories

of this small street. When we finally reached school, we


explained the details of the incident and what caused us to

arrive late at school towards the security guard. Then, both


of us headed straight to our classroom with concerned

looks and murmurs from the whole class. Mrs. Afifa, who

was busy writing on the whiteboard, was distracted and

finally turned her head to find us standing at the classroom


entrance.

Mind explaining the

exact reason why you

and your friend are late


today, Miza?



Before I had the chance to speak up, Hanna suddenly blurted out,

"Yes, we are late, but if I was not there to help her, she would


have been hit by the truck". She suddenly stopped and looked at

me guiltily as if it was supposed to be a secret. To hinder the

awkward silence, I continued, 'We are really sorry, Mrs Afifa. I


promise that this will not happen again in the future." She looked

at us and nodded slowly, trying to understand the situation.

After sitting down, I could finally take a

deep breath as if to restart my whole day


with a new energy. I quickly took out a

piece of paper, wrote something,


crumpled the poor paper into the shape

of a ball and tossed it quietly towards

Hanna. The paper trash contained a

short note that said "THANKS AGAIN!" on

it. She then turned his head towards my

direction and portrayed a smile as a


reply.



From that day onwards, we became

good friends and constantly walked

home from school and went to school in

the morning together to prevent the

previous incident from happening again.

—--------------------------------------------
"Hey Miza!" I gasped after hearing a loud voice from the other


side of the road.



When I looked up, I saw an officer approaching my car.

“Pardon me, but we are now able to take your statement.” I

told the officer about the open door, making the emergency

call, hearing footsteps, and running back to my car, but then I

got to the part I knew I had to lie about. I wanted to show the

officer the photo of the killer I took and tell her how he had


waved at me, but I then lied. “Then, I just sat in my car

waiting for you to arrive. I'm sorry I'm not helping, I had to

process all that happened,” I said while tears streaming


down my face.



“I understand” the officer replied, “You did your best under

the circumstances. You can go home, we’ll call you if we

have anything pertaining to the investigation. Go get some


rest”



I was blinded by anger and sorrow as I pulled out of the

driveway. I had just one goal in mind, to track down her killer


on my own.



THE END

The
Good-For-Nothing

Obsession

By Annis Rosdi

The long fierce rivalry at last met its end after the
supernatural accident in school. They both are still
not on friendly terms yet now good enough to be
called acquaintances. Up to this day, they are each
other’s challengers while silently uprooting for one
another. How do I know? Because I was there.

The only valid relationship between Amihan and
Kasturi was the so-called born-to-be nemesis. The
girls competed in everything until one day, their
rivalry went on its peak where one became the
accuser and one became the perpetrator.

I recalled, it all started on the early morning of the
school’s sports day. Amihan went to school earlier
than usual to have light practice at the school field
by herself. It was then when she unintentionally
witnessed her rival perform a nauseated ritual behind
the library.

Strangely, days after that, supernatural cases
whereby female students got possessed in a queer
ways happened occasionally. However, the most
queer fact was that the victims recently went to the
library. Therefore, Amihan steeled her heart to talk to
the perpetrator at the crime scene.

Of course, Kasturi blatantly showed her unpleasant
face upon those slanders. Their fight was tense.
Pissed off with Kasturi’s rudeness, Amihan confessed
how she witnessed Kasturi perform a ritual behind
the library. Kasturi’s eyes bulged.