The Start

Her love for him was merely fraternal, she reminded herself once more. Her gaze flitted to where Zachary sat behind her, with her classmate... They were so deeply engaged in their conversation... No. She told herself firmly. No. She was not allowed to feel jealous.

Her mind drifted from the present classroom scene to the events during lunchtime.

"I'll take that," Jamie snatched the handphone she held and dashed off. Jenn could hardly believe her ears as Zachary took the handphone over and gasped, "Thanks so much, Jamie! Thank you..."

She had searched for him frantically in order to return his handphone, even being late for her CCA... She was bewildered. Jamie simply grinned smugly and shrugged. Thoughts pooling in her already befuddled mind, she turned exasperatedly to face Jamie.

"He thanked the freaking wrong person!"

A sharp tap on her desk snapped Jenn back to reality. They were still pleasantly chatting with each other... enjoying each other's company... She diverted her attention to the teacher once more.

"Jenn, can you please work with Zachary for the lab practical?" the teacher smiled and nodded at her.

"Ermm... prepare that slide for Euglena. And remember to add Protoslo as well," Zachary gestured impatiently at the small bottle of pond water with Euglena culture and the several glass slides that lay beside it.

The slide slid out of her wet hand, crashing to the floor.

"S-Sorry," she mumbled.

"How could you be so clumsy? Look, we'll have to start the experiment all over again!" she heard his unencouraging voice behind her.

"I'll get it." Jenn bent down to pick the broken pieces up rather unsuccessfully, sending the bottle of safranin stain rolling off the very edge of the table as well.

"Get out of my way! You're really making a mess out of this place... I'll work with Jamie for next lab practical!" Zachary did not care to hide the evident irritation in his voice, nor the very fact that he was put off by her.

*****

Home, did not hold much encouragement for her either. Her busy parents never had any time for her. They had unrealistically high expectations of their daughter... And they always showered her with many gifts. Didn't they understand that she would love them no matter what? All she wanted was their time... To listen to her... She just wanted to be closer with her parents. They never seemed to care about her problems... It was just about making money.

"Sweetie... How was the English test?" That was the first thing her mom asked the moment she stepped home. "I had a really tough day. The client was so unreasonable; and the boss seems to keep picking on me!"

"Fine... It was okay," Jenn lied through her teeth. She shoved the crumpled English paper beneath a pile of textbooks and assignments.

"How much did you score?" Her mom seemed to read her mind.

"43.5... out of 60."

"And the highest?"

"58." Jenn could feel the tension in the room building up like a pressure cooker. The smile on her mother's face evaporated as she handed the paper over meekly; the taut silence between them broken only by the sound of firearms from her brother's computer game.

"I work so hard each day and endure my boss' scoldings just to pay for your school fees, and 43.5 is what you give me? Your grades have been sliding. I don't go to work for nothing, I have to bring the money home to pay for all your tuition fees, piano lessons, and what-nots... It's not my future; it's yours! It's no use when I work so hard to get you into a good school, and you can't make it to university! You're banned from the computer," Her mom glared sharply at her.

"But... It's not fair!" Jenn protested weakly, as she felt hot tears welling up in her eyes. "Well, I never seem to see you scold kor --" she pointed at her brother who was glued to the computer. "Kor is always at the computer all day, and he won't vacate it even when I need to use it for a project! You are so biased!" She directed her last sentence at both her parents; her dad's car had just pulled into the driveway, and he stepped through the front door, tugging at his tie.

"Not only is it fair, but it is final." Jenn's mom always had the last say.

Jenn tried to protest, but the sobs that were choking her from deep within prevented a rebuttal of any sort. Disappointed and frustrated with her parents' attitude, she stormed off to her bedroom and slammed the door. Flinging her bag across the room, she wept miserably.

*****

Everything suddenly went quiet.

The lights flickered and the room was enveloped in darkness. Jenn did not even realise how loud the humming of the air-conditioner actually was until it stopped.

"What's wrong?" She glanced toward the transom which was half-open. A shaft of light shone in, illuminating everything dimly, creating the effect of sinister shadows in the room.

"Lights out, I guess," Zachary, the only other person in the PE room, suggested. At least he's were on talking terms with me now, he was so grouchy yesterday, Jenn thought. "We'll get the stuff and go."

Zachary tucked the badminton rackets under his arm and headed for the door.

"Dang. It's jammed."

Jenn yanked at the door too. "Remember this door can only be unlocked from the outside? We had to use our student cards to access the room... and now, the electrical supply is cut off, so we're stuck in here." she reasoned.

"Wow." Jenn could recognise a sarcastic remark when she heard one.

Zachary groaned and sat down at the far end of the room, staring blankly ahead.

It was minutes later when he finally decided to break the ice. "I don't like Jamie," He glanced at Jenn, who was spinning a badminton racket.

"I never said you did."

"Well, when Nicholas teased me, you agreed with him," Zachary muttered bitterly.

"I just laughed."

"You did... I remember hearing you say 'nice one, Nicholas'... And I'm sorry about yesterday at the bio lab... You seemed quite upset."

"Did I?"

"Yeah. You were so moody and stuff like that... I wanted to call you when I reached home, but I was real scared you would get mad again. I approached you in the canteen to see if you were okay, but apparently..." Zachary faltered at this point, his voice trailing off. "I'm sorry, okay?"

Jenn smiled. "I was never angry with you!" The lights flickered on again and the air-conditioner was humming once more. Both dashed to the door at once.

"Freak! It's still jammed!"

"Aha... Gotcha jinx!"

Jenn grinned at Zachary. The storm was over; and they were friends again... And behind them, a test paper graded A+ peeked out of Jenn's bag.

Yes, today would be a wonderful day.