As per standard routine, I pack all the textbooks into my bag. I don’t know why I still do this when very few teachers actually use a textbook on the first day of school. However, I still do the same thing every year nonetheless. It is strangely light this year. But there isn’t anything to shove into the bag for an extra sense of security.

I scoff at the thought. Why should textbooks even provide a sense of security? Ridiculous, really.

In comparison, my difficulty in getting to sleep is much more reasonable.

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We are put through a series of sleep inducing talks in the lecture theatre, where we are officially introduced into the Gifted Programme and split into classes. Okay, I exaggerate the sleep inducing effect, since the concept is inherently intriguing enough to keep us awake for a good portion of the time. However, it sure looks sleep inducing if the bunch of boys in the front are throwing shreds of paper at each other. On the first day of school at that—talk about making a good impression. I guess it doesn’t count for very much to the lot of boys.

Then we are let off for lunch. For some reason, the teachers still insist on us lining up—according to height no less—before we are let off for break. This is something I fail to understand, since the seniors do not seem to be put through the same treatment. Thank goodness they relaxed it and do not make us hold hands like back in my old school. My other school. Saying old school sounds weird.

Then there are retching noises and an instant stink. The girls at the back are shrieking. Some lanky, pale boy just threw up. I can’t help but check my eye roll. What is so unsettling that requires you to vomit in response? Even the girls are doing just fine. So frail. Miss Lee comes rushing over, a concerned look plastered all over her face, to the boy who vomited. The sickly looking puddle on the floor all but kills my appetite for food. Everyone else is expectedly disgusted—though trying very hard to hide it.

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With that, the vomit boy gains notoriety. For, what else, vomiting on the first day of school. 

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The class has twenty five people, which is much much smaller than I’m used to. The classroom feels exceptionally empty by most standards—there’s actually space for us to sit on the floor. Nostalgic, the last time I sat on the floor was probably in kindergarten? I’m guessing that sitting on the floor will be quite commonplace seeing that the layout has a central empty space for floor sitting. We’re sitting in groups—five groups of five—instead of the standard rows.

Yes, it is also true that boys outnumber girls. There are 17 boys to 8 girls. This gender balance is consistent throughout our level, and it seems to be relatively typical of the school too. It seems to be estimated at two boys to one girl.

There seems to be a fear that the boys will bully us, so a group either has two girls or none. I spent the last three years in a girls’ school, so even though it’s just a seating position, I’m glad to have a girl beside me.

This girl comes in the form of Nicole. Don’t know much about her yet, except that she comes from a prestigious mixed school in Seoul. She seems to be friendly.

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I colour the top left hand of my worksheet yellow, in one of the many new norms of the school. Every group is assigned a colour, which the teachers use to check the submission of documents. One indicates the colour by colouring in the top left hand corner of your worksheet.