Creative Writing Program 2021

"You are lame! Everyone knows these games!” the boy gave a big sigh
before sitting down. The other boys seemed to agree with him by nodding
their heads. "It's hard to talk with people who are below standards like you.
You don’t even have your own mobile phone! What time are you living in?
Stone age?"

Her ears perked at the word "standards". Not playing games and not
owning a mobile phone is below standards? What standard is this?
Standards of wealth?

"This is bare minimum Bryan! That's what my mom told me! People who
don't even own a phone are below average standards!", not knowing when
to stop, the boy only getting more heated up with the topic of Bryan being
below standards. Bryan with a troubled look lowered his head in shame,
unable to make any comebacks.

"Boys! Can someone please help me carry these chairs to the hall?” a
male teacher cutting off the conversation, with beads of sweat pouring
from his forehead, "I need 7 boys."

All the boys stood up to help, but there were only 6 boys at the
moment.

. "I want to help too!" She raised her hands, standing up to help too.
Those chairs are not that heavy anyway, she can carry two chairs at a
time too! However, she was immediately stopped by the teacher

"It's okay, girls should not be carrying heavy stuff. You wouldn’t want
your hands all muscular right?" he smiled with a wave, the male
teacher asked her to sit back down, "I'll go look for one more boy from
another class."

She blinked as the teacher walked away. She wonders, is this another
one of those standards too? A girl’s hand should not be “muscular”
because of beauty standards, only girls with slim arms are considered
the standard beauty. Girls are supposed to look as pretty as a flower
vase, so is that why beauty standards exist? The little girl could not
help but sigh in defeat. Everyone knows girls and boys are different
but are we really that different?

“Hey sweetie, you can help me carry these books instead. Can you
help me?”, while she dazed off deep into her thoughts, she caught
another teacher’s attention. This time it was a female teacher instead,
with pretty makeup and nicely styled hair. She was carrying a huge pile
of books that is nearly a quarter of her height.

“Sure, teacher.”

She has always been a curious girl, always in a world of her own. She
likes to think things that are “useless”, at least that was how the adults
around her described it. That is just how things are, it is useless to
think about things that are already fixed by society, they say.

“Yes Madam, your son is not doing well in his academics. He failed
his Malay twice already. His other subjects are barely passing,” she
heard another teacher in the staff room on her phone, “perhaps
reducing his basketball practice? If he could not keep up with the
standardized examinations he would need to go to remove class.”

Getting bad results in a test is a big no-no to students because that
is how adults evaluate their worth. All parents freak out about it.
Especially in standardized tests, they tell us how students will be a
failure in life if they cannot meet these standards in examinations. The
adults always tell her, she needs to meet these standards to go to a
good university or college and survive in society. Standards make
everyone freaks out and worry about things that are far out of their
reach. She used to think that a passing result suffices the standards, but
the adults seemed to think otherwise.

A passing result would never satisfy “expectations” that are
masked by “standards”.

“You can leave the books here, sweetie.” The teacher’s voice broke her
thoughts again. After she put the books on the teacher’s desk, the
teacher smiled at her and replied, “thank you for helping.”

She looked at the teacher who was putting her books and things
down and sat down on her chair with a sigh. She stared at the teacher
for a while, the teacher returned her gaze out of curiosity.

“Can I ask you a question, teacher?” She finally gathered the courage
to ask her the question that was running in her head since morning.

“Sure, what is it?” The teacher turned her chair, making sure she was
facing the young girl.

“Do you like to put on makeup? My Mama put it on because of beauty
standards.” Although she thinks makeup is pretty, one day she hopes
she would not put it on because of beauty standards made up by others.

“It is just silly standards, but I do like looking pretty to make myself
happy.” The teacher combed the little girl’s hair to the back of her ear.
The teacher hesitated for a split second and continued, “Standards are
tricky, and they make people forget that we set them up as a
measurement for ourselves, not to judge others. We are all unique in
our way, so why should we be tied down to only one standard? Am I
right?”

“But is it bad?” Standard sounds like an evil villain at this point, she
could not help to think that because they do not look happy when they
are chasing for it.

“No, having standards is not bad. Living up to your own standards is a
healthy thing, it makes you happy and satisfied. It is bad when we
forget about our own standards and chase other people’s standards. It is
a blurry line that we need to make clear.”

That day, when she got into the car with her mom in the driver
seat, she finally settled down her conclusion about “standards” for the
day, all ready to answer the question her mom asked her this morning.
“So what do you think about standards?” Her mom looked up to the
rear-view mirror, smiling at her daughter who has a toothy grin on her
face.
“I hope I can live up to my own standards, Mama.”

By:

Alicia Wang
Shin Ping

2 PISMP MT 1

REFERENCING & PLAGIARISM

In the past decade, people have often sought after the issue
of referencing and plagiarism in academia. What is referencing?
Referencing is the way toward citing the sources scholars have
utilized in writing their essay, assignment or piece of work
(University of Kent, 2012). It allows the reader to access their
source documents as fast as possible to verify, if necessary, the
legitimacy of their contentions and the proof on which people who
read their academic writing are based, while Ronald (2018)
defines plagiarism as “the appropriation of another person’s ideas,
processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit”.
This includes material or thoughts from any sources, either
distributed or unpublished, regardless of whether print,
web-based especially articles which are freely available or even in
various media such as audiovisual.

There are many reasons students may decide to plagiarize or
cheat, ranging from the more genuine lack of knowledge to
outright dishonorable intentions. One of the most frequently stated
reasons students choose to steal others’ intellectual property or
cheat include they are used to a collaborative model of knowledge
production (Michelle, 2017). Mah and Ting (2013) stated that in
exam-based education model settings such as Malaysia, students
are unable to comprehend the severity of plagiarism, especially on
the off chance that they had been thought to memorise model
answers for public examinations. In cultures where individual work
is regarded as having low social value, students may turn out into
a literary theft because “the word ‘plagiarism’ many not mean
much” to them (Zobel & Hamilton, 2002, as cited in Ting et. al.,
2014). Does one need to acknowledge parental influence on the
development of one’s thinking? What about a peer’s suggestion to
add an example to a paper? Also, what about the academic
writers who repeat phrases and ideas that many others have used
before them? As a student, thousands of questions just popped up
in my head.

Poor English proficiency can be attributed to the cause of
plagiarism in countries where English is not widely spoken such as
China, Japan, Taiwan. As the evidence, the English proficiency
level for Japanese was ranked 53rd in an annual survey of 100
non-English speaking countries and regions by EF Education First,
down from 49th place in the survey a year ago. Among Asian
countries, Japan lagged behind Singapore, which came in 5th, the
Philippines, in 20th, South Korea, in 37th, Taiwan, in 38th, and
China, in 40th (Jiji, 2019). Students especially from China struggle
from both lack of vocabulary and the knowledge to cite correctly.
Sometimes, this hurdle is just one too high to even think about
jumping and makes some resort to pay to dubious essay mills to
write for them instead (Kong, 2017).

The non-English speaking population learn a wide range of
things in their English classes, yet they have no space to put it to
use. Furthermore, since right now there is no such space for
actively and effectively using the language, the result is that people
simply do not know how to use it. The weird truth is for some
people, being able to communicate in English often does not feel
necessary but rather like an optional skill that’s nice to have but isn’t
indispensable (Keisuke, 2019). Because of this, some Chinese
students copy and paste materials they find on the web and do only
little modifications. In some cases, they even copy directly from
Wikipedia, when they are given English-language writing
assignments. To these students, replicating without appropriate
attribution is simply “not that big of a deal”.

The first defence against improper citations and plagiarism is
appropriately teaching students and researchers with respect to the
conventions for citing information, the various types of plagiarism
and the consequences when it is considering as an affront to public
morals infringement. One study published in 2014 indicated that
institutional policies on plagiarism in Malaysia need sufficient
guidelines and instructions for ethics education and training (Chan
et. al., 2014). Students and researchers must be very familiar with
the requirements to correctly cite previously published or
unpublished works and how quotes are to be used when exact text
is extracted. Subsequently, educators should educate their students
about proper citations, doing academic research for school papers,
and plagiarism. Referencing is a formal system and there are rules
and standards to follow when formatting citations and references.

The American Psychological Association (APA) style is the
most common referencing style used in Malaysian universities,
especially among IPG students. Other styles include MLA style,
Oxford style, Harvard style, and Chicago style. These styles are
subtly different, and different colleges and departments may ask
you to use different styles (Massey University, 2020). When doing
proper citations, students should use information from an article,
with a ton of changes in language and organisation, also make
changes in the amount of detail, cite the source and include in a
reference list. They should also quote a significant sentence by
copying the exact words with quotation marks, cite the source and
include in the reference listAt that time there will be no excuse for
students to cite sources inappropriately in their papers. Incorrect
citation implies that the ideas and information in a paper are the
student’s, despite the fact that they actually belong to another
author. Overall, it shows a lack of respect for the academy and
depreciates the university experience for all (Gregory et. al., 2019).

Lecturers should ask students to resubmit the task as this is
also one of the strategies to avoid the potential pitfalls of being
accused of plagiarism in academic writing. Despite students may
grueling for it, the good is that this is an approach of guiding
students away from plagiarism. Although it goes far wrong when
students plagiarise, plagiarism is not a crime in and of itself. In fact,
it is a wrongdoing and is not necessarily against the law.
Essentially, if you use a big piece of another person’s work without
authorization, it can be viewed as copyright infringement. Thus, the
penalty for plagiarism should not carry permanent negative
consequences on the students. For instance, the resubmission of
the assignment does not influence their grade in the assignment or
the course. Instead, this gives them a second chance to do well in
the assignment. In China, some degree programs will not permit a
student to graduate until the student publishes a first author
peer-reviewed original copy in a scientific journal of relatively high
impact. Students under such pressure are also naive to some sorts
of plagiarism, making them more likely to commit plagiarism
unintentionally (Armstrong, 1993).

Plagiarism committed in learning institutions can follow you
later in the future. Presumably, some students do cheat. They
intentionally take the results of others' hard work, use it to gain
credit for themselves, and learn little or nothing. Plagiarism is
unprofessional, illegal, and disregarding, so staying away from it
at all cost is the most ideal strategy for students. Professors often
say that it is better to miss the deadline rather than submit a
plagiarized assignment and they are totally right about that (Scott,
2016). Besides, the act of showing accurate citation convention
will indicate your respect to intellectual property.

REFERENCES

Armstrong, J. D. (1993). Plagiarism: What is it, whom does it offend, and how
does one deal with it. American Journal of Roentgenology, 161(3), 479–484.
Retrieved from https:// www.ajronline.org/doi/pdf/10.2214/ajr.161.3.8352091

Chee-Ming, C., Ahmad Shakri Mat Seman, & Alina Shamsuddin. (2014, May
27 - 29). Plagiarisim: A review of why Malaysian students commit the academic
dishonour. Paper presented at 2014 International Symposium on Technology
Management and Emerging Technologies (ISTMET 2014), Bandung,
Indonesia. Retrieved from https:// core.ac.uk/download/pdf/42954176.pdf

Gregory, C. G., Laura, K. B., Sung, N. S., & Tang, S. (2019). A primer on
plagiarism: Resources for educators in China. The Magazine of Higher
Learning, 51(2), 55-62. Retrieved from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00091383.2019. 1569974

Jiji. (2019, November 9). Japanese ranked 53rd in English skills in annual
worldwide survey. The Japan Times. Retrieved from
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/11/09/
national/japanese-ranked-53rd-english-skills-annual-worldwide-survey/

Keisuke Tsunekawa. (2019). The weird truth behind why Japanese people
can’t speak English. Retrieved from
https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tokyo/in-
tokyo_suburbs/article-a0002216/

Kong, L. (2017). Plagia-what? How the concept of academic integrity splits the
world in half. Retrieved from
https://www.studyinternational.com/news/plagia-concept-academic-
integrity-splits-world-half/

Mah, F., & Ting, S. H. (2013, June 28-29). Academic literacy: Plagiarism in
pre-university students’ academic writing. Paper presented at International
Conference on Learning and Teaching 2013, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
Retrieved from https://www.
researchgate.net/publication/259939925_Mah_F_Ting_S_H_2013_June_28-
29_Academic_literacy_Plagiarism_in_pre-university_students'_academic_writi
ng_
Paper_presented_at_International_Conference_on_Learning_and_Teaching_
2013_ Shah_Alam_Selangor_Ma

Massey University. (2020). What is referencing? Retrieved from
https://owll.massey.ac.nz/ referencing/what-is-referencing.php

Michelle, N. C. (2017). Top 10 reasons students plagiarize & what teachers
can do about it (with apologies to David Letterman). Retrieved from
https://kappanonline.org/cleary- top-10-reasons-students-plagiarize/

Ronald, R., Leo, E., & Raf, D. (2018). Becoming metric-wise: A
bibliometric guide for researchers. Cambridge: Chandos Publishing.
Retrieved from https://www.
sciencedirect.com/book/9780081024744/becoming-metric-wise

Scott, R. (2016). Plagiarism in academic writing: How to identify and avoid it.
Retrieved from
https://collegepuzzle.stanford.edu/plagiarism-in-academic-writing-how-to-identi
fy- and-avoid-it/

Su-Hie, T., & Muriatul Khusmah Musa. (2014). Plagiarism norms and practices
in coursework assignments. International Journal of Education, 6(1), 73-89.
Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271065220_Plagiarism_Norms_and_
Practices_in_Coursework_Assignments

University of Kent. (2012). What is referencing? Retrieved from
https://www.kent.ac.uk/ai/
students/whatisreferencing.html#:~:text=Referencing%20means%20acknowle
dging
%20your%20source,style%20guides%20for%20stylistic%20information.

By:

Yeoh Xiao Ni

2 PISMP MT 1

Save me from myself

A man’s voice speaking, awakened me from a long slumber. Slowly, I
opened my eyelids. My head felt heavy and my neck felt very numb.
The voice… where did it come from? My head turned to find the owner
of the voice, but vision was blurred as if there were water droplets on
the eyelids blocking the view.

Was it tears? When did I cry? I could not remember anything at
all. I wanted to wipe the tears but I was handcuffed. I gasped, why am I
like this? What actually had happened to me? I wanted to scream for
help but surprisingly my mouth was tied with a cloth.

I was so panicked that my heart beat so fast, as if kicking my chest
from the inside. Cold drops of sweat began to appear between strands
of my hair. Seriously, what had happened to me? My anxious breath
sounded loud behind the cloth.

Tap. Tap. Tap
Wait, wasn’t that the sound of shoe soles? Did someone approach
me? I was so frightened that I decided to close my eyelids tightly.
Would this person save me? Dup dap. Dup dap. Or otherwise? My heart
was beating fast again.

My chest heaved rapidly along with the rhythm of my roughly exhaled
breath. The atmosphere got colder abruptly as the sound of the steps
stopped.

My hair was pulled suddenly from the side, by one cold hand. It
was not rough but thanks to that, I gasped again along with cold sweat
flooded my face non-stop. My earlobes were touched by those pointed
fingers with sharp nails.

“Finally awake, my dear?” a hoarse voice whispered in my ear.
Uncontrollably, this anxious breath got heavier. My eyes shed tears out
of fear, that my shoulders shrugged. Looking how terrified I was, he
leaned closer, wiped my tears and gave me a peck on my forehead.
Weirdly enough, I felt coaxed. Wasn’t he here to end my life? What was
this comfort in this uneasiness that I felt?

“Ops, sorry for crossing the boundaries! Seems like my Incubus
instinct drove me to go that far!” he apologised while busy untying
both my hands and my mouth. He held my wrist and dragged me to
follow him. I had so much things to ask him such ‘where is this place,
how does it look like, and why am I here, and who is he? Is he someone I can
trust?’.

But the only question that I dared to ask was, “Incubus? Are you a
demi-human?”

“You looked like you have more to ask than that, my dear. Anyway, yes,
I am a Demi. An Incubus Demi. Or what these people nowadays call, a
shameless creature who seduces and charms women.”

Somehow, I felt like I asked the most horrible thing to this man.
He said facts but I felt guilty.

“Haven’t you heard about demi-human, my dear? They are
different types of demi-humans. They are immortal and can
regenerate very quickly.”

“I knew about that but we never know if someone is a Demi until
they die.”

“That’s right, my dear! You died once and ‘born’ as a Vrykolakas.” I
did not know why this man sounded so excited about me being a
Demi. For me, it was like waking up from your death.

But wasn’t it funny? How did I stay blind even after the
‘reincarnation’ as a Demi?

Oh, wait… I died? Seriously, I died!? When?

“We died together in an accident two months ago, my dear. I was
driving recklessly, bumping into a blind woman who was passing by. It
may too late now, but I deeply apologise for my behaviour,”

Without me asking, this Incubus Demi named Jarred told me
everything. The crash was so bad that we both died. As civilians busy
getting help, both Jarred and I regenerated in our blood-stained
clothes, with the same appearance as before but with horns that
resembled our new race. However, it was not long after that we were
taken by force by numerous people in white uniform to the
Government Experimental Laboratory. The government wished to
conduct mind modification upon us Demis and make a weapon out of
us.

‘Hmm… Although they want to make a weapon out of me, not that I can
handle combat with this disability,”

Are Demi-humans harmful to humanity? Well, I would say that
they are not. After all, a Demi was a human before they died. Few
seconds after their death as a human, they regenerated as Demi. But
they know nothing what type of Demi they would be. Usually new
Demi identify what kind of Demi they are through their appearance.
For instance, the Succubus (the female Incubus) know it when they got
horns that release pheromones that attract people to them with
intense sexual drive. Therefore, to survive, they become more cautious
with what they wear. They even wear hoodie during summer, and
never once dare put on make-up after the reincarnation.

I’ve heard that the folktales about the Succubus that they really loved
to lure any men to satisfy their lustful desire and will erase the poor
men’s memory about having any affairs with them. They are the
cruellest, wobbling other people’s household with their ulterior move.

Put the folktales aside, these modern days’ Succubus are far more
different than that. Succubus Demi even cried out of fear when there
are people surround them with sexual intention. After all, these
Succubus Demi were humans, and it is a human nature to feel
threatened being followed by bunch of perverts. There is also a type of
Demi-humans called Vrykolakas, who is similar to a vampire but they
are already adaptive to the same diet as normal people. However, their
bodies still need the ‘proteins’, therefore, they are provided with blood
supplies from the butchery but they are restricted to consume only 50
milli Litres once a week to avoid any risk of their cannibal instinct to
be awakened if the consumption is not carefully handled.

For the past 100 years, humans have co-existed with
Demi-humans that if there was a road accident or fire occurs, where
suddenly the victim who appeared to be dead in the blink of eye woke
up again, there would not be people startled or ran in fear because
everyone is well aware about the rebirth of the Demi.

In fact, in school there Is also special subject; Demi Education, to
expose students to the existence of Demi-humans. This awareness is
needed because who knows that one day the children would grow into
Demi. It is as if students learn about puberty so that they would not
panic in the process of puberty in the future.

However, our cunning national government used this
opportunity to advance the country’s military. Since the new rule,
Demi’s safety has been threatened. They were hunted down and
captured by the government to be used as weapons of war. They were
taken to an experimental laboratory to alter their body structure and
manipulate their way of thinking for extreme purposes, simply with
the thought of ‘destroy enemy like a leaf chewed by caterpillars’. This
modification will make them lack of emotional feelings which would
not make them rethink before killing the enemy.

The Succubus will be the country’s representative dealing with
the other countries’ representatives. The objective is the Succubus will
be able to lure and charm people which will result in them
unconsciously reveal the top-secret information of their defence
which will benefit our government very much. While the other Demi
such as Dullahan, which known as the creature with no head but
famous for their incredible strength of a warrior.

Their population is very small because only people who died with
severe injury at the head or died beheaded will be reborn as Dullahan.
And among those, only 30% are Demis. Based on the folktales, the
reason why they have no heads is because they were beheaded by the
enemies during battle but with their gifted strength, that never turned
down their bravery and wills to fight. The government thought it was
the best idea to include these Dullahan Demi in the military and
judging from their ability to regenerate even after bearing all the
damage during war, the enemy’s nation will be eased to be conquered.
Not to mentioned, the government won’t have to spend much to cover
medical or surgical costs for serious injuries, equipment costs and
maintenance of military weapons because Dullahan is the solver to
these problems. Good action in frugality but what about the human
nature of not wanting to shed blood on each other? Dullahan’s loving
nature is snatched away by mind manipulation activities conducted by
the government lab.

“Is it a sin for me if I turn away from the government of my own
country which extinguishes the nature of humanity from someone
who are half-humans, in order to destroy other humans for the sake of
some humans’ self-gain?”

Maybe I thought about it so much that subconsciously, the
question slipped out of my mouth.

Moments later, I heard laughter that came with sarcastic remarks.
“Wow, you sure emphasise the word ‘human’ a lot, my dear.”

“If it was not for their self-gain, then tell me why does Vrykolakas
Demi, whose diet was supposed to be blood from the butchery, now
feed on human flesh?” I said that in a mixed tone of frustration and
anger.

I heard it. I heard the conservation of two so-called scientists
when I was confined. They were talking about manipulating the
mindset of Vrykolakas Demi to feed on human flesh of the enemies.
Their brains would be inserted a memory chip which contained bunch
of the enemies’ faces. So, when they see faces that match with the data
installed in their minds, they would greedily attack for their flesh like
a beast. Wow, a very modern method of ethnic-cleansing.

I got fed up with all these that my head felt dizzy suddenly. Come
to think of it, I haven’t consumed my ‘proteins’ since I was bestowed
with this new identity. How long has it been? Two months, is it? When
the least consumption must be done once a week. I just realised now
that I was extremely starving. And why did suddenly everything smell
so appetizing? I must be crazy, there was no way rice, cakes or noodles
somewhere around this government lab.

But I was sure, I was really near with the food since the
mouth-watering aroma really strong.

I am hungry! I am hungry! I am hungry! I am hungry!

I want it! I want it! I want it!

“Tiara, wait! No, let him go! Let him go!” Jarred’s loud cry
shattered my daydreaming. He was trying to pull my head with all his
might.

What happened? My mind has now cleared but my body moved
on its own. My mouth was wide opened, salivating ridiculously. I could
feel that my fangs were pressing on something. What could it be?

Not that I could think about it when I heard a little boy crying for
help. He sounded very close to me. Now that I realised, his voice
sounded uniform with the movement of something I was pressing on.
Was it his arm? What was I thinking, pressing my fangs on his arm?
Am I trying to eat him?

I tried to let go of his arm, but my body won’t follow my mind. No!
No! This is wrong! I can’t be eating my own mankind.

“Jarred, help me…” I could not imagine how ugly my face right
now. A monster shamelessly begged for help in tears while mouth
stained by bloods.

Seeing how I got carried away with my emotions, Jarred took the
chance to hit my head really hard that I automatically opened up my
mouth to groan in pain. Thanks to that, the little boy got to run for his
life.

“What was I trying to do!? That was his arm, right? Where are we
right now? Don’t drag me to somewhere with so many people. Is he
bleeding much? How old is he?”

Suddenly, my body was hugged. It felt really calm and warm. “He
is saved now. I’m sorry, my bad. I intend to walk you around the park
for some fresh air. I didn’t see this coming,”

“Okay, let’s go somewhere else where there’s no people around,” I
begged once again, a in very unstable breath.

“Relax, okay? We can stay here, since everyone has left this park
after the commotion,”

I knew it. I should not exist. I better be dead and never
reincarnate as a Demi. I just shattered people’ happiness. Wow, I never
felt so frustrating to be alive, and be volunteer to be died.

“Don’t you wonder how we could escape the government
laboratory building with no obstacles?” after a long pause between us,
suddenly Jarred voiced out. Now that I thought about it, how was there
no any interruptions from the security guards at all back then.

“It was because of you. The experiment upon you can be considered
failed. All the so-called scientists’ effort installing the data of the
enemies’ faces in your mind, is useless, because you’re blind, you can’t
sense and detect their faces through your vision. So, you attack
everyone which is the reason why the whole building was very quiet.”

My jaws dropped at once. He must be kidding that I cannibalised
everyone.

“Then why was I still handcuffed when I woke up? If I really was
the last man standing,”

“It was me who did that. Now, I feel grateful to be reborn as an
Incubus because thanks to that, I could charm anyone I like, and they
would obey me no matter what. So, I managed to stop you. However,
my charm did not last long therefore, I had to tie you so that you won’t
brutally attack civilians because I am sure you wouldn’t want that too,
right?”

How was that supposed to soothe my heart after all the brutality I
had done. After all, I cannibalised my own mankind. How could I be
forgiven?

“Is there any way I could do to heal this toxic habit? I want to live
as a normal Vrykolakas Demi.”

“There is… I heard that a Vrykolakas can nullify the ‘curse’ by
consuming other Demi.” As he said that, he back-hugged me so
tightly.

“As you finish feed on the Demi-being, you will be able to live as a
normal Vrykolakas again.” This time, he intertwined his fingers with
mine.

“So, you can build a family and live happily with your children,”
his voice trembled. Why did I get bad instinct about this? Why did he
sound very sad?

“Wait, you are not telling me to eat you, right? Ha ha…” what an
awkward laugh. I could sound more realistic.

“I am in debt with you. If I drove carefully at that time, you won’t
be dead and had to go through all these. Please accept this as my token
of apology,” Wasn’t it funny how he could say all that with so much
confidence.

“As if! Let me go! Stop!” I struggled to let go of my hand from his
grip. What a stubborn man! The more I resist, the stronger his grip. He
then landed his both palms onto my cheeks.

“You are now under my charm. You ought to follow my orders.
Feed on my flesh and please live happily,”

As I kept on trying to escape, a kiss landed on my lips. I felt warm in
eyes. As the thoughts of how I wished these eyes could see the face of
my ‘flesh donor’, an image of a young man with red eyes and
shoulder-length grey hair with red horns, greeted my vision that was
blurred with some warm water droplets.

“Beautiful,” that was the last word that I uttered before I lost
consciousness.

By:
Nia Karmila Binti Muhammad Sayuti
2PISMP TESL3

My First And Last Friend

I hate myself. I hate myself for being a loner that no one wants. I got
no friends, no family, and no acquaintances. Life is so dull and I find it
not exciting. Wake up early in the morning, have breakfast and go to
class, then return home and sleep. The same routine every day that
does not look like having an end. Life is so boring. Maybe dying is
better, is what I thought.

However, now that I am facing death, it does not feel that good
anymore. I am scared. My shoulder is blistering from the burn and my
feet are bleeding. It is also getting harder to breathe. The building is
collapsing, one by one the wall, the beams and parts of the roof are
falling, and causing damages that are extinguishing my hope. I am
alone in this unexpected predicament due to a silly mistake and it
looks like I will die alone.

“…ear..ease resp..ond..”

Am I hearing it wrong? Is somebody here?

“Can anybody hear me? Please respond!”

I am not hearing it wrong. It is indeed someone’s voice. I cried for
help and that was the last thing I remember.

Days passed and I am now healthy. I heard that the fire was caused by
an overheated pan which causes the whole building to burn down but
it was kind of weird because the staffs that I know would never
overlook it. Nonetheless, there are no death casualties. I am glad. I
also found out the name of my savior. Her name is May. She is a brave
girl, known for her kindness. She would help anyone that she would
find in trouble. I like her. I want to be her friend. From that day on, I
approached her and we become friends. We would watch a movie and
eat pizza, rolling skate during the weekend, and do charity work when
there is free time. It feels really good. For the first time in my life, I feel
like life is fun thus I hope that it will last long.

But fate is playing with me. Beginning with the fire accident,
May’s life, day by day was going downhill. She once introduced me to a
lovely cat that she owns. It was a white Persian cat, very soft and fluffy.
It makes you want to hug it all day. Unfortunately, it was found dead in
the drain in front of the school with its beautiful hazel eyes gone from
its eye sockets. I still remembered May cried all day in front of its
grave. She looks so pitiful and sad. I sympathized with her but the only
thing that I can do was giving her comforting words.

Not long after that, May’s boyfriend, Derrick cheated on her and
disappeared. I did not know whether May was angry or sad. She cried
at one point and then shouted with anger. I pitied her and wondered
why her life was turning into this. Derrick’s girlfriend, Sally also
disappeared two days after Derrick disappeared. Rumors spread that
May is a terrible girl who took revenge on others that annoyed her. The
revelation that May was there in the kitchen when the pan overheated
makes the rumor worsen. May’s good reputation turned downhill. She
was scorned and it took a great toll on her mental health. Everyone
said that she was the culprit of the fire accident and caused Derrick
and Sally’s disappearance but I know that it is not true. May would
never do that.

The ultimate thing happens. May’s abusive family was
slaughtered on Christmas Eve and May was the only one who was not
at home. She was brought in to question as a suspect and
unfortunately, she got no alibi to prove that she was not guilty. I was
worried and scared. What if May is indeed found guilty? What should I
do? I know that she is innocent but there is no proof that she was not
the culprit. In the end, I confessed that I was with her that night thus
she was released from suspicion.

May cried the moment she was released from the police station. She
said that she was alone now and no one was by her side. I consoled her
by telling her that she was not alone and I believed that she was not the
culprit. May is a nice person and however bad people treat her, she
would never harm others. I hugged her tightly and brought her home.
May calmed down a little after having a nice nap and meal. She said
that she feels like someone is purposefully targeting her. Making her
losing the trust of others, and then framing her as the murderer.

It is all to make her go into jail but May insists that they would not
receive any benefits from this thus she wonders. May also said that she
feels like someone is following her but she could never catch the
person. May condemned the person for harming her loved ones
instead of facing her face to face. May decided to catch the culprit but I
stopped her. I do not want her to be in pain because I know she will get
hurt from this.

Thus, I have to do what I should do. I cannot let May in danger. I finally
got the friend that I wanted and my boring life just change for the
better. Hence, I could never let her do that which would change
everything.
I looked at the wall of my house and rub it softly. I pressed my head
onto it.
“Now, surely we will be together forever and you will not be alone
anymore.”

By:
Norkhalidatul Simaa’ Binti Abd Khalil
2PISMP TESL3

Academic Struggles During the
Pandemic

Since the old times, education has been essential for us. It is important
for us to gain knowledge in this world because knowledge is power.
With great knowledge, one can lead their own people, one can create
something new and one can change for a better life. Knowledge and
education help us to get better jobs as well. However, everything has
change since we were strike down by the pandemic COVID-19. We
were surprised of the pandemic. Many has lost their jobs and many
companies, institutes and other places have been shut down.
Academic session in school and institute has also changed to a new
learning style. During the pandemic, students have been struggling in
their academic because they cannot yet adapt to the new education
style. As a student, I have been struggling in my academic during the
pandemic as well.

There are a lot of factor that lead to academic struggles during the
pandemic. We were having less physical class because all of the
lectures are now online such as the online meeting, assignments and
tutorials. I find it really hard to understand when we are not having
physical class.

The reason is because my friends and I could not participate actively in
class because it is hard to interrupt in online learning session.
Sometimes, we were given work and we go offline and do the work on
our own. That makes it even harder as we could not ask our lecturers
directly if we are having any doubt. Online lectures are not clear in
some instruction and we are having difficulties trying to understand it
by ourselves. It is hard to discuss with our friends either.
Furthermore, it is hard for all the lecturers to convey information
through social media such as ‘Whatsapp’ or ‘Telegram’. Sometimes, the
important information is missed by the students and they could not do
work well.

Other than that, this online learning has made us struggle in
academic especially in groupworks. During the pandemic, most of the
students were at home, so we students are not sitting together on a
round table to discuss the work given. It has been hard to discuss any
groupwork online. It takes longer time to discuss even a simple work.
Not only that, some discussions just do not seem to work out well. As
we know, groupwork takes a lot of effort from each and every person
in the group. It will be easier to share knowledge and skills when we
are gathering physically. It turns out the groupwork product will not
be as good as when we are doing it face to face with each other.

It is real hard because we do not live in the same part of Malaysia.
Some of us lived in Pahang, Kedah, Kelantan and even in Sabah and
Sarawak.

Internet connection problem has also made the academic session
a struggle for the students. This is because when we are doing online
learning, one must have a strong internet connection. However, this
has become a problem since not all students can afford to purchase for
wi-fi. Most of the students must buy their own data plan to use the
Internet for online classes. Sometimes students like us ran out of data
and cannot attend class. We are having difficulties to download the
media sent by our lecturers. We struggle to learn when we are not
having a good Internet connection. There are times when we are able
to join a class, but because of the slow line, the lectures are not very
clear and we ended up learn nothing. For those with weak Internet
connection, they have to cover a lot of ground as they cannot hundred
percent focus on the online lectures. They have to study on their own
and read a lot by themselves.

During the pandemic, we must depend all of our researching
through the Internet since we cannot go out often to go to the library
or buy books from bookstore. It is hard since we are not having good
Internet connection.

It takes a long time to search for some information online when our
Internet connection is not good. Moreover, the information we found
from the Internet are not hundred percent true. There some media
that convey the wrong information. If we are able to go to the library,
we can find a lot of books, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias and
dictionaries. The information from a book can be more trusted than
the Information from the Internet. Most of our assignments depends
on the information we found from the books, so it has been a struggle
for us to do our assignments during the pandemic.

The pandemic has ruined most of the students learning schedule.
Some lecturers are old enough and it is harder for them to get the
hang of the online session than the youngsters. Due to that, some
lecturers might be giving work late to the students and some
instruction online may not be as clear as when they speak verbally to
the students. This has made most of the students struggle and made
them lost interest in learning. The students started to not taking their
coursework seriously and finally graded lowly in class. At home, the
get mixed up with chores and students cannot focus in their class.
Their started to do work at the last hour and struggle to get ideas. It is
not a good thing to do work last minute but they have no choice since
they are struggling in their study as well as living their life at home.

In conclusion, the pandemic COVID19 has made our life harder than
before. Lots of people have struggled during the pandemic. Doctors,
firefighters, policemen, teachers, lecturers and even students.
Academic session during the pandemic is a real struggle for students,
teachers and lecturers. Many challenges occur that have made the
students falls into depression because they cannot study well. The
struggles have made most of the students lost their interest in studies.
This will be a terrible outcome if the COVID-19 cases are still
increasing from time to time and the student have to proceed with
online learning sessions. However, the government has done any
possible way to prevent to COVID-19 cases from rising. We really hope
that the pandemic will end soon and everything goes back to normal
as how it was.

By:
Muhammad Yusof Bin Kamarudin
2PPISMP TESL1

LA

"Laila, wake up", she opened her eyes slowly as she heard someone
woke her up and shook her body gently. She mumbled a small 'okay'
after she recognized that it was her sister, Alia that stood there in her
room. "Mom told me to wake you up because the breakfast is ready",
her sister explained to her and she just nodded.

"You can just stop babying her. She is a grown up person, can't she
just do everything on her own? Why do you have to wake her up
everyday?", Laila heard her brother, Arman, shout from outside her
room and already felt annoyed as soon as she woke up. "Please mind
your own business, you've got nothing to do with my life", she replied.
She got too tired to bicker with his brother almost everyday. This is
different from a few years before when she lived at the boarding
school. Now, because she has done sitting for 'Sijil Peperiksaan
Malaysia' (SPM), she has to face his brother everyday and always end
up arguing with each other.

She snapped back to reality when she heard her brother asked her
to shut up. She sighed and followed her sister who had left the room a
while ago. She took a shower and joined her family at the dining table
for breakfast

After they had finished eating, Laila went to the living room and she
called her father when she saw him walking in front of her. "Dad, may
I go out with my friends this evening at the mall?", Laila asked her
father. "Sure, but how do you get there?" her father said. "About that,
can you drive me there as usual?", she asked again. "Oh, I'm sorry my
dear, this afternoon I have a meeting with the teachers at school.
Maybe you can ask Arman to send you there?". Hearing his name,
suddenly Laila heard her brother say, "Why does she always have to
burden me? You really can't do anything without asking everyone to
help you, aren't you?". Laila rolled her eyes and felt her heart hurting
due to his brother's words. But, she felt relieved because her father had
made her brother agree with his order to send Laila to meet her
friends.

As she arrived at the mall, she straight away went to the specific
restaurant where they had planned to meet each other. It is actually
her friend's small birthday celebration. After all of them were seen to
be there, they talked while waiting for their foods to be ready. "Nini,
how was your celebration with your family yesterday? I'm pretty sure
you got a bunch of gifts from your family members, right?" One of
Laila's friends asked the birthday girl.

"Yeah, my father gave me the tablet that I have been craving for since
last year and I still couldn't stop feeling amazed with the cake that my
brother bought for me", Nina said while laughing. Laila asked her,
"Why is that?".

"When I cut the cake, I'm so surprised to see that there was a box
inside the cake. As I opened the box, I saw a bracelet inside it". All of
them including Laila were shocked and laughing at the same time
after listening to Nina's explanation. A moment later, their food
finally arrived so they started to eat while continuing their
conversation.

After Laila had gone back home, she opened the door to her room
slowly and walked to her bed before she sat on it with a frown on her
face. She recalled the conversation that they had with the birthday girl
just now. She felt jealous because she seemed like a person who had a
good relationship with her brother. Well, at least not like her and her
brother, who are always getting on each other's nerves. Without her
even having the courage to stop them, the tears from her eyes started
to run down her face uncontrollably. At that very moment, she
questioned everything. Why does his brother hate him so much? Does
she always burden him? What is she supposed to do? She closed her
eyes and lied down to her bed.

Not knowing the answers to all of the questions, she tried to calm
herself and drifted off to sleep not long after that.

The next morning, Laila woke up early as she slept quite early
last night. She decided to take a shower and prepare some
breakfast for her family. Maybe her brother was right, she is not a
good sister and daughter. She felt hurt by that thought, but she just
wiped it away and went out of her room.

While she was cooking, her mother went inside the kitchen
and just smiled at the sight of her daughter who was cutting some
ingredients. She left the place and let Laila do whatever she
wanted. After finished cooking, Laila called her family members to
eat together. "What has gotten into you?", she heard her brother
suddenly ask sarcastically. "What do you mean? Is making
breakfast also a fault?", she replied. "Nothing. It's just weird seeing
you did all of these", Arman said.

Laila just kept silent and ate quietly as she did not want to
cause any tantrum in front of her family. After she had finished
eating, she washed the dishes and went to her room. Again, she sat
on her bed and cried her eyes out. Suddenly, she heard her phone
ringing. She wiped her tears and took a deep breath before
answering the call from her friend.

"Hello, yes Anna. Is there anything you want to talk about?", Laila
asked. "Yes, actually I want to ask you about my power bank. Can you
check whether you have taken it by accident?", Anna asked her back.
Laila checked her bag and saw the said power bank. "Oh, yes, it is here.
I'm sorry Anna. I didn't notice it before", she apologized to Anna. "It's
okay Laila, no worries, you can just return it back to me", Anna
reassured her. "Then, how about we meet at the playground near your
house? It is also close to my brother's kindergarten, so I can just meet
you there while picking him up?" Anna suggested. "Yeah, sure Anna.
Meet you there later. Bye!", Laila said before they ended their call.

Laila noticed that the tears on his eyes were already dried. She
then stood up and walked to the corner of her room to pick her
laundry. She planned to wash it. As she was walking toward the
washing machine, she was thinking about the possible ways to ask her
brother to send her to meet Anna. The reason is because her father and
sister were not at home and her mother could not drive. So, the only
choice left is her brother. She can just actually walk herself there, but
the playground is not that close from her house. That was why she just
wanted to try asking her brother.

That afternoon, after Anna has informed Laila that she is going to pick
her brother in a few more minutes, Laila went to find Arman. She saw
him with his phone sitting in the living room. She walked toward him
and called him. "Are you busy right now?", she asked. "No, why?",
Arman answered her question but his tone showed no interest in their
conversation. "Actually, I want to return my friend's power bank, can
you send me to the playground because we have agreed to meet there.
Laila saw an unpleasant frown on her brother's face because she heard
him speak in a high tone, "Could you stop being troublesome? I want
some rest too after working everyday. You can just walk there, right?
Stop behaving like a kid!", he said there and stomped his feet toward
his room, leaving Laila alone there.

Laila just took a deep breath and went to her room to take her
belongings and Anna's power bank. Knowing that no one can send her
there, she decided to only walk to the kindergarten by herself. She told
her mother about that and her mother just nodded as has already
understood the situation after hearing Arman shouting just now.

While Laila was wearing her shoes, she saw his brother unlock his
car. She also heard him mumble some words to his phone. Maybe he
wanted to meet his friends. She thought.

As Arman was still in his car, adjusting his seat belt, she noticed that
Laila was already on the road after leaving their house. Thinking that
maybe he was not that cruel to let his sister walk alone while he was
already in his car, he honked the horn as a sign to call his sister. As
Laila stopped and turned her head, in a blink of an eye, Arman saw a
car hit her sister which caused her body to be thrown away
somewhere. He was so shocked, yet he could not believe what he just
saw. He rushed out from his car to find his sister. A few seconds later
he saw her mother and other people from the neighborhood area came
running to see what was happening. He could feel her mother hugged
him tightly as his vision became blurry due to the tears falling
uncontrollably from his eyes. He let out an unstoppable scream as
everything what just happened broke his hurt into a thousand pieces.

As they arrived at the hospital, Arman watched Laila being
brought to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He did not know what to do
or what to feel, he felt so lost and started to blame himself for letting
Laila walk by her own in the first place. All of the scoldings that he had
done to Laila, came back flashing in his mind. He is not a good
brother, he always hurt her, he did not give her the love and care she
deserves. She is his sister, why did he always treat her badly? All of
those thoughts kept running in his mind.

Without him noticing, an arm made its way to hold the broken man. It
is his older sister, Alia. The action made him cry even more. Suddenly,
he wondered what might happen to Laila, is she going to survive? Will
anything bad happen to her?

"I'm sorry, I'm a bad brother. I'm sorry if anything bad happens to
you. I'm sorry Laila, I'm sorry", he kept apologizing and mumbling
Laila's name in his sister's arms as he felt so worried and could not
control his emotion.

Arman, Alia as well as their father and mother waited there
patiently. Even though the tears in Arman's eyes had started to dry, he
still could not think straight. He promised to himself that after Laila
has woken up, he will apologize to Laila and will not treat her badly as
he always did before. He told himself to buy Laila everything that she
wants to eat when her condition is finally stable.

Excuse me", The call from the doctor made Arman snap back to
reality. All of them turned their heads toward the doctor's direction.
"I'm sorry, we've tried our best to help Laila, but her condition is very
critical. Because of that, we're unable to save her…", The remaining
words that left from the doctor's mouth could not be heard or
processed clearly by Arman.