Being a Mum
Journal Entry: Fri Jun 23, 2006, 12:53 PM
Before reading, please be aware that there are a number of issues which might offend you, so read at your own risk.
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Back during high school, there was be a guy who's about 4 years younger than me. Due to some odd circumstances, we start acknowledging our 'status', he called me 'mum', and I'll call him 'sonny' or whatever which is equivalent to it in other chinese dialects or languages.
So it's been 3 years since I've left high school, and I recently made a return to help a friend decorate the notice boards for her club. And there again, I met my 'son'. Oh how much he has grown over the years. He's still short though and that childish attitude of his is still there. I guess some things won't change after all.
He stayed a while to help out. So happens that day was Open Day, or in other terms the day where parents are supposed to meet their child's school teacher where the teacher will bitch about their kid, if they want to get into trouble that is.
Naturally being concern, I asked him when his 'real' parents will arrive.
"They're not coming. They're busy."
If it is one thing I hate, its this kind of situation. I understand parents can be really busy, but to NOT attend their child's once a year event? Note that there is a chance he might be lying, or maybe he didn't inform his parents. Whichever the reason was, I came up with the craziest idea.
"Fine. Let me meet your class teacher as YOUR mum".
He stared. Mouth wide open. And we both giggled at the idea. He challenged me to see if I'm serious or not. At that point I wasn't so sure myself, so I went along with his challenge, and went to his class. We stopped outside the class and I had a glimpse of his teacher.
"Hmm...she doesn't look sharp." She was there, sitting down at her table reading the papers.
I start digging out some information from him about his mother. Just in case his teacher starts asking me some weird ass questions. And that's when she turned around. She spotted me, went to her table, and took out his report card.
Shit. Guess there's no turning back.
So in we went, after contemplating for minutes. His classmates were practically staring at me. One blurted out,"Hey, is that your sister?!"
Oh shit. Take note that if I answer "yes", I might lose the authority to pick his report card for him. Not that it's a big problem, but changing roles in 1 minute doesn't work well with me. So I answered casually....
"No...I'm his mother *smile* "
Mouths wide opened. I swear there's a big ROFL sign stamped on my brain at that moment. His teacher -which will remain anonymous until the end of this post- was shocked too. No surprise. She commented,"Wow, you looked really young". Another kid blurt out, "Yeah, you looked so damn young". I thanked them for their compliments, sat, and got down to business.
His teacher displayed his report card before me. I didn't take notice of the marks, but some grades written in red caught my attention. Take note again, whenever grades are written in red, that means the student had failed in that particular subject. I raised an eye brow and stared at him for a moment.
"Uhh....as you can see, your son has been neglecting his studies lately. He's been focusing too much on his extra-curricular activities."
Understanding his situation because I used to be like him, my reply was, "Yes, I understand...he'll stop doing that soon" and looked at him. "Hear that...?"
"Yes..."
Continuing..... "So how is he at school...? Was he being naughty or up to anything?"
"Your son has been skipping class too often. It's so hard to find him sometimes. He's always somewhere, except this class."
Gawd.....sounds exactly like what my class teacher told my parents 3 years ago.
She even pointed out the lowest grade. "As you can see here, he only scored 9/100 for Morale Studies"
WTF?! It's understandable though. Easy as the subject name had sound, it wasn't at all. The education ministry keeps on revising the format. I for one know how tough it was because I had to take the same bloody subject 3 years ago. Casually trying to make a conversation, I added an enquiry about them changing the format and such.
After that, we ran out of topic. I was about to leave when his teacher asked,"Since we have our school festival coming up, would you like to contribute something? Like cooking up some nasi lemak(a Malaysian dish)...or...?"
HOLY shit. I can't even cook a decent meal to save lives. That's when he came to the rescue. "Teacher have you forgotten? I'm supposed to be baking chocolate cake for our class!" Another note; he can bake pretty good cakes, or so I've heard. "There you have it", I promptly replied, pushed the chair backs slightly, smiled at her and took leave with my 'son'.
Slowly we walked out of the class, and upon leaving the door, I looked at him. "What the hell? 9 for Morale Studies?".
"Hey I warned you earlier, I didn't score that well".
"Well you better study more for it. And your Malay language too. Any lower and you're gonna fail your major examination."
Note: In Malaysia government school exams, failing the Malay language subject is equivalent to failing the entire exam, regardless of scoring A+ for other subjects like English, Biology,and etc.
Now looking back at it....I wonder if it was really 'motherly' concern or was it just me nagging as usual?
From the third floor we moved on to the next school block, went down the stairs and laughed our ass off at what we just bloody did. Whether the teacher bought our whole 'mother and son' scheme thing, no one really knows. But who cares. It's not like she's going hunt him or me down if she finds out.
..and ironically, I passed by her at the very same building 3 years ago.
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NOTE: I DID NOT GET PREGNANT LOL, just in case there's some misunderstanding along the way.
Nervous
