LA-Draft 2

“Precisely! The creator of that game is a genius!”
The class was in chaos, most of the students were chatting in their cliques, the class’ clown was fooling around in the front of the classroom, and another was standing on the chair singing. Everybody turned a deaf ear to the monitor’s request to keep the noise level low.
The classroom’s door swung open. It was Mr. Lim. Instantly, everybody returned to their seats.
“Class greet!”
“Good morning, Mr Lim.”
Everybody sat quietly, no one made a single sound as Mr. Lim had a reputation for being the fiercest teacher around. Clearing his throat, Mr. Lim said, “Class, today, I will be returning you your Math test papers, some of you have done exceptionally well, yet, the same cannot be said for certain individuals. Edgar Tan! Come here right now!”
The severely underweight boy walked up to him slowly, not sure of what to expect.
The teacher threw his test paper onto the ground, exclaiming, ”Edgar Tan! You have done badly again! When will you learn to be more responsible and hardworking?”
Edgar was on the verge of tears, he slowly walked back to his seat. He thought to himself: Am I such a failure? What did I do to deserve such grades? Is this going to go on forever? I promised my dad I would at least score an A2 for this test.
After school, Edgar was reluctant to go home. Heading towards the school gate, he thought it might help to head to the game arcade at the shopping centre nearby. To Edgar’s surprise, his father was waiting for him at the school gate! Mr.Tan was smiling and waving at his son , Edgar felt guilty. He was stunned, at a lost for words.
While they were eating lunch at the shopping centre “Plaza Singapura”, Mr. Tan asked, “Son, so how was school today?” Edgar told his father that it was a fine day for him. Somehow, Mr. Tan sensed that something was not right, and told Edgar not to try to lie to him. Being forced into a corner, the boy confessed about his results. His father’s face turned pale. Feeling afraid of what his father might do to him, he said, “I am sorry, Dad, I tried my best! I just can’t seem to beat Samuel! He scores high marks, he is so boastful! I want to beat him, but I can’t.”
After lunch, Edgar walked home with his father silently, he did not even utter a single word to his son. When they reached home, Edgar went back to my room quietly, and laid in his bed, staring into space. Suddenly, his dad rushed into the room, carrying a stick with him, saying,” Son, I am left with no choice, but to leave matters to the rod! I try to be nice to you, I try to give chances, I try not to hit or hit you!”
With that, his father began “caning” him, as Singaporeans call it. Edgar cried loudly due to the excruciating pain. 10 minutes later, Edgar lay on his bed, looking at the wounds on his legs, he sobbed. He fell to the ground, his eyelids felt ever so heavy. Soon, Edgar Tan fell into a deep slumber…
Edgar had a dream, all his classmates, his father, and that biased Mr. Lim surrounded him. They were mocking him with hurtful words! He felt his mind spinning!
“Your grades are ridiculous!”
“You fool! You will never beat me!”
“Useless fool!”
“I am going to call your parents!”
“Loser!”
“Hopeless failure!”
Edgar seemed to be under too much stress, in his mind, he could hear Samuel, Mr. Tan and Mr. Lim mocking at him! He can hear the world’s laughter!
Edgar was jolted awake when the hour hand on the grandfather’s clock struck an hour. Glancing around, he suddenly noticed the mess his room was in. He remembered his father flipping his bag over to search for his worksheets. He remembers his father knocking his desk over…
He thought back in the past few years…
All the while, from Primary 1 to Secondary 1, Edgar’s grades were either lower than average or ranked last in class. Yet, his father always told him it was fine and things would somehow work out. Perhaps his father has been too patient with him. It has been so many years after all.
Few days later, Edgar’s class’ results for going to be released. Edgar’s heart was beating rapidly. He was extremely nervous. Then he heard Mr. Lim’s thundering voice, “Edgar Tan! ” Edgar went up to take his test paper. Mr. Lim shouted, “ What are your brains for? Can you tell me?! Why is it that your grades are getting from bad to worse?! This is the streaming year, if you want to go to Technical Stream, you are welcomed to get the hell out of this classroom!” Returning to his seat, Edgar looked at his test paper hoping to pass at the very least. Edgar sighed and buried his head in his hands. It was an F9 grade, 29 marks.
When class was over, Edgar was about to walk out of the classroom when Samuel stopped him in his tracks. He questioned sarcastically, “ Brainless pig! How many marks did you get for this test? Why did you look so sad? Well, you can’t believe what I scored, 80 out of 100!”
Edgar muttered,” I scored 29 out of 100.”
Samuel laughed,” Did I just hear 29?! What other names can I call you?! Shouldn’t you get a license for being that dumb? Not even an E8! I would love to insult you further, but I can’t be bothered. So long, moron!”
Edgar shook his head vigorously, he could not believe it. Edgar shouted,” This can’t be true! Can someone tell me that this is just but a dream?!”
That afternoon, I sneaked into my room from the doorstep as silently as possible, hoping not to attract the attention of my father. Just when he successfully enters his room, a strong wind passed and slammed the door shut!
In the master bedroom, Mr. Tan was woken up by the loud noise. He then proceeded to open the door and brought along a door stopper.
Opening the door, Mr. Tan was just in time to see Edgar still carrying his school bag and holding the test paper in his hand. Without hesitation, Mr. Tan snatched it over. Edgar’s heart was in his mouth. His father threw the paper on the ground. Within seconds, Mr. Tan returned.
Edgar shivered, now, it was not just a “cane”, it was a bunch of them tied together with rubber bands!!!! Edgar walked backwards, quickly squatting in a dark corner of his room as his father ran towards him with the sticks.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
In this modern day and age in Singapore, grades are everything to a student. Singapore is known for its education, which is known to be quite competitive. “Kiasu”(paranoid) parents send their children to tuition for all subjects in hope that their children would be able to achieve good academic grades. Very often, parents do not consider the stress their child would feel. In Singapore, such cases are common, especially to weaker students. Most of the time, the child is afraid of complaining to their parents about stress in fear of getting beaten up.
Sometimes, they just have to let go.