THE TIMETABLE
5.20
Much too early, the song blares forth from the phone
Sleep not yet out of her eyes
She trudges to the bathroom
Washes up
Eats breakfast
One step out the door
Into the metal carriage waiting for her
6.20
The school is empty and silent
Save for the whistling and howling of the wind
The trees tremble with barely concealed exhaustion
Of a morning too soon begun
She sits at the desk and waits
7.20
The classroom fills up with students streaming in
Heading straight for their desks
Phones out, earpieces in
Heads on the table, clocking their sleep in
7.40
The students stand as one
Mouths a firm line underneath the opaque masks
Silence from them all as the anthem of national and school pride plays out
A ceremony of sorts, she thinks to herself, and raises her right fist
A ceremony we stopped participating in
Years back and still counting
Comfortable silence lingers in the classroom
As they stand united as one
English
Always a race against time
The question header at the top of the whiteboard
A goal in sight, competition for all
Math
Always too many periods
Too many brain cells gone after a long day at school
Sciences
Always a confounding complexity
A riddle of sorts
Too difficult to solve
Humanities
Always tugging at our heartstrings
Turning our eyes to the issues that plague the world around us
Mother Tongue
Always the foreign language
The bane of our very existence
The passing mark not too far away…
Recess
Lunchboxes taken out, the aroma of various cuisines drifting through the classroom
The students mingle around
Eating and talking and talking and eating
Perhaps a clip or two can be shared
Eyes glued to the screen
Or an action-packed game played
Classmates in reality, comrades in arms
No fun is ever lost here in the classroom
For fun comes not from the activity, she notes,
But from the people one is with
3.30
When there used to be a hall filled with rackets and nets
Shuttlecocks flying everywhere
The voices of her teammates cheering as one
She now finds herself tucked away in the comforts of her home
The absence of CCA prominent
Like a gaping hole now filled with loneliness
Her hand empty where a racket once was
Strings pure white, frame a bright mirage of purple and orange
A strange cold seeping now into the palm of her outstretched hand
A space she fills with the mountain of worksheets, exercises and textbooks in front of her
Exams are unavoidable, she reminds herself
Everyone else is working hard too
The first year became the last year
The first period became the last ever
Here in the classroom, the students are silent
Reminiscing the times spent on the school grounds
Another ceremony, she thought
But as the bittersweet atmosphere was upon them
She believed that for this ceremony,
All would join in
No longer students entering as individuals
But friends and peers leaving as one
She took out her phone and turned on the camera
Snapping a picture of this family all together
The daily timetable, forever on repeat
From the day the empty classroom filled with its occupants
Til the day the classroom becomes silent
Empty once again
