Chapter 06 - 2nd Chance in Life

While the first term of secondary 4 was officially over, I could still recall various fun time events that occurred during that time. The most memorable was me joining the IMF’s BBQ. It was my first time participating in the event let alone I was part of the organizing team. We invited a few people but only 2 agreed to attend. Dave was one of them who had agreed to attend.

The 2nd agreed attendee was Dwayne’s new friend in secondary 4. Her name was Conner and Dwayne treated her as his foster sister. Good thing I still understood what that meant at that time. Dwayne met Conner on the first day of secondary 4 where she approached him and befriended him. I remember seeing them chatting happily during the secondary 4 briefing which was held on the 2nd week of the first month.

Although Dwayne treated Conner as his foster sister, he was having illusions before he decided so. He thought that she could be the one for him as she was the only one who came directly and befriended him. Soon, he discovered that Conner was just treating him as a very good friend and thus decided that she would be his foster sister for good.

In the mean time, Jul was busy preparing everything related to the BBQ. He had to uncover his magical BBQ pit and had it cleaned before it can be used. Jul and I went to source around for fresh food stuffs that were suitable for BBQ. At the end, we still came up with fish balls, chicken wings and sausages. There weren’t any new foodstuffs that we could think of at that time. Thus, we decided that the BBQ will go with the above 3 menus.

The BBQ was held on a misty Saturday morning. That morning was especially misty and we could hardly see the sun at all. However, the weather only lasted for a few hours before the sun woke up. We started our fire at around 10am while the 3 of us, prepared the ice and drinks that would be served when the guests show up.

At around 12 noon, Dave showed up along with Conner to our surprise. You would’ve guessed what we were surprised about. As Dave and Conner joined in, the BBQ became livelier. We had several kid-like games where we felt stupid playing them, though we had fun with them.

On 1 occasion, Dwayne needed a fork and asked Jul to get one from his old home. As Jul left hastily, Dwayne forgot to remind him that he needed to run to the back door to call for Dwayne’s grandmother so that she can open the door for him. Thus, I had to run after Jul to tell him that and on my way back, my shoe broke and it made me felt completely embarrassed at that time.

The BBQ ended at around 2pm when Dave had to leave in a rush. Conner left along with Dave as she said she also needed to make a move. She also said that Dave could be a bodyguard somehow and would be better if they walked along together since they would take similar paths along the way. As such, after they left, we began cleaning up and at around 3.30pm, we have completely cleaned the whole place up. This was how my first BBQ experience ended.

Things continued to move forward as I lived on day after day with nothing but studies and studies. This was because I again flopped in the exams. The worst achievement of mine was in the additional mathematics paper where I scored almost the lowest among the class. I had to work extra hard to compensate on my slacking but it seemed that things still wasn’t working out.
As for Jul nothing much did happen except for the fact that he became close friends to Koori. As he met Koori only in this year, it was surprising that he could become so close to her. Jul began to feel a little too close to comfort and was beginning to gain a strange feeling towards Koori. This was again completely wiped out when he remembered the events about Vanesse. Still, Jul was observing Koori without himself noticing.

At around the month of July, Koori began to reveal his boyfriend to the public. He was none other than Leon from the next class. Leon was a very tall guy and was quite charming. Naturally, any girl could fall for him and Koori did. Witnessing that, Jul was a little disappointed but it wasn’t deep as he still remembered his vow in the past. As Jul watched from a far, Koori and Leon’s relationship continued to blossom.

An unexpected event happened to Jul during a laboratory session. When the chemistry teacher was announcing the results of the mid-term exam to the class, Jul noticed Mel, a girl from his class, running back to class with tears. I, who was just back from the toilet, witnessed Mel running back and soon after Jul followed. Jul was actually bold enough to run out of the laboratory session to check on Mel.

Upon seeing Mel in tears sitting at a corner in the class, Jul knew that he needed to do something to comfort and calm her down. He began to ask her on the reason she acted this way. At first she was reluctant to explain but Jul pursued further and finally she did. She said that she heard voices among the class calling her an idiot as she had gotten the lowest point in her chemistry exam. She also said that she couldn’t bear such poisonous words and began shedding tears.

Coincidentally, Jul brought his all time secret weapon, Swiss Dark Chocolate to school on that day. He gave her a few and told her that what he hated and feared most were neither brute men nor savage beasts. He said that what he feared most was seeing a girl shedding tears in front of him. He added that he would not stop comforting the girl until the moment she stops crying. Upon hearing those words, Mel stopped crying and thanked Jul for everything as everybody returned back to the class after laboratory session was over.


While those were the events that happened to Jul, something totally unexpected also happened to me. It happened on the first day of the final exams. I remember it was a Monday where the Malay language paper was tested. As usual I went to school for the exams and sat next to Jess looking at her whenever possible.

When it was time to head home, I walked home alone as nobody was following me that particular day. When I reached the T-Junction near the school entrance, a medium speed motorcycle rammed on me and the next I remembered was I was on the floor unconscious for a second or 2. In my heart I thought that my life was over but I wasn’t satisfied if my life ended that way.

My brain continuously brought flashbacks on the times I spent with Jess. I was also shown clips of Jess’ smiles and laughter. I can hear myself speaking to my heart that I wouldn’t be giving up at a time like this. I still haven’t expressed myself to Jess and so I could not die. With the encouragement that I still needed to confess to Jess, I miraculously stood up with a deep cut on my palm and with a little pain on the bones a few centimeters above my testicles. If the bike was a shorter one, I would have lost my testicles for good.

As I stood up, I can remember how the incident happened a little by little. I remember I was crossing the T-Junction after looking left and right. I had a habit of looking left again before crossing but the moment I stepped out to the junction after my 2nd time looking at the left, a bike was seemingly squeezing among the cars sped right at the moment he saw an opening. The opening was the same spot I was standing and thus I got hit by him. I noticed that both of his side mirrors were totally bashed and the bike fell to the ground as well. The good thing was I could still stand up and my glasses were still in one piece. I miraculously continued my walk towards home. A kind lorry driver who was in the long queue asked me if I was alright. I told him I was fine and he asked me whether I wanted to lodge a police report. Before I could decide, the biker just ran off with his bike. I could still remember that biker was wearing black shades and a black jacket with him. His bike was black as well.

Still, I was glad and thankful to God that I was still alive. I was so grateful to God for giving me a 2nd chance in my life. If the bike were to be at a greater speed, I would have been flung further. It was a good thing that I was only flung for a few centimeters away from the bike.

So, with all the events that had happened, I began to understand that I should treasure my life and be cautious of every vehicle on the road. I understood that we should accomplish every possible deed as soon as possible as events like this could be repeated without any notices in advanced.