"Love. Hatred. Betrayal."

-Faith-

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"To enquire about our services, press 1. To enquire about curret promotions and offers, press 2..."

Daddy was calling HSBC Bank to seek clarifications on one of the advertisement published on the newspapers. On and on went the answering machine, even up till the point of pressing 6! Daddy rolled his eyes as we tried our hardest to suppress our giggles.

"What number am I supposed to press again?" Daddy mused as the answering machine rattled on incessantly.

"Daddy, just press #. It's better to talk to the person. Otherwise, they might transfer you to the wrong department," she piped up from the backseat. They were in the car after visiting an exhibition. Daddy read about a discount promotion somewhere, but it was not evident at the exhibition. Hence, the call.

Answering machines can really get on your nerves. Not only do they NOT serve their point, they create unnecessary heart attacks. One word: pointless.

Imagine if there were to be an answering machine in her house.

"Good day, you have reached the Lim residence.

To speak to Eric Lim, please press 1
To speak to Amy Soo, please press 2
To speak to Clara Lin, please press 3
To speak to Clarence Lim, please press 4
To speak to Esti, please press 5.

If you are looking for someone other than the above, I'm afraid you've dialed the wrong number. Please hang up now. Thank you."

And after struggling through all the numbers, if the person were to be absent from home, you'll be greeted by another jovial answering machine.

"Hi! XxX's not at home at the moment, please leave a message after the beep."

Beep!

Wonderful, isn't it?

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"So it's 3 adults and one child, right?" the person at the counter said, keying the price into the calculator.

Daddy and Mummy decided to travel again at the end of the year! YaY! They claim it's to reward her and her brother after their Os and As, but she thought it was more likely that they want to see the world before they grow too old. Oops! They are not old at all. Seriously.

"Huh? One child? Who's the child?" her mother asked, a little shocked. Her mother had this highly amused look on her face and arched her eyebrow, shifting her gaze from her to her brother. Both of them were definitely above the age 12. Positive.

"Her la!" the person said, pointing at her.

"Me?! Are you sure?" she cried out, aghast and bewildered at being called a child.

"No, no! She's already 18! She can't be a child," her mother said amidst giggles and the whole family roared with laughter.

"What? No la. Can't be," the person said, smiling before continuing writing. He seriously thought they were joking with him.

"No, really. She's 18. Look at her date of birth," her mother said, patting her hand onto 'her' shoulders, while still laughing at the ludicrous situation they were in. She grinned and did not know what to say.

This time, the person put his pen down and looked straight at her.

"You mean to say she's older than him?" he enquired, pointing at her brother at the same time.

"Yup! She's my eldest, and he's my youngest," her mother answered, nodding her head.

The person looked at her again, frowning a little.

"You're sure you're not 11?"

"Yeah, i'm sure," she said, feeling a little ridiculous at having to answer such a question. 11 and 18 were miles apart!

"You've got to be kidding," he said and laughed before quoting another price.

Oh well, the price was jacked higher. What a stupid mistake!

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"Hi Miss, have you heard about the promotions and discounts we are having?" the waiter asked, with a smile plastered onto his face.

"Erm, no. What discounts do you have?" her friend enquried, trying her best to be as well mannered as possible.

They were seated at Mariott hotel, about to embark on a pioneer journey never attempted before. Having high tea! 3 of her friends were having their birthday and upon special request from one of her friends, they were sort of compelled to treat them to a scrumptious meal at a hotel. Goodness. What life! Just like a 'tai tai'. (FYI: There were indeed a lot of tai tais there. They were very nice and friendly!)

"Well, for HSBC card holders, you are entitled to 15% discount. For OUB card holders, you are entitled to 10% discount..."

Her eyes widened at the mention of credit cards. She glanced at her friends and realised that they were stunned and speechless. Credit cards? Whoah.

"For DBS card holders, you are entitled to paying for 3 when you have 4 person eating. In your case, it would mean paying for 6 instead of 7," he ended off smiling, waiting patiently for their reply.

Silence engulfed the table for a moment as they digested what was being said. Perhaps some were marvelling at the fact that the waiter did not discriminate them just because they were students, but it was more the fact that they were asked if they even possessed credit cards! Suddenly, as though being woken from a stuphor, their heads snapped to one of her friends, known to be the richest. Quickly, her friend rummaged through her wallet, looking for her cards.

"I think my mother took my cards!" her friend complained in disgust as she took out all her cards. (Again, WOW.)

"Which cards again?" she lifted her head and asked the waiter again as sweetly as possible. The waiter was apparently highly amused. Nevertheless, he repeated everything again.

Out of her bag, her friend took out another stack of card and flipped through them again.

"I really think my mother took them!" her friend said laughing. The whole table was laughing by then. The idea of credit cards alone was enough to send their lips curling.

"Sorry, perhaps when my friend, who hasn't arrived yet would have," she replied, trying hard not to laugh. The waiter smiled and left.

Just then, the remaining 2 of her friends arrived. Thankfully, one of them had credit cards with her, but that will only be needed when they pay. Right now, onto the food!

The desert was splendid! The wide array of selection is enough to send you drooling. Ranging from satay to Japanese sushi, there is so much to choose from that it is highly impossible to eat everything. Somehow, she could not help but want each of every item. Even the main course looked highly appetising. The wonderful aroma of the food was so fragrant that even if you were full, you would crave for more. The delicacies were each intricately cooked and the garnish on each dish were exquisite! It's no use writing it down in words. One would have to experience it to really feel how delicious and fulfilling the dishes were.

Again, an outing with them never ends without photos being taken. Memories are better cherished with photos!

(Ok, Maybe it doesn't look so nice in the photo)
All in all, she took 3 cups of sugar, and lots and lots of delectable food. Yummy!

"Clara, you are SO gonna get diabetes," her friend commented.

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"yYy is not coming anymore," her brother said, reading aloud from his handphone as they alighted.

"Not coming? But that means, there's only the 2 of us!" she protested.

"Never mind la. We can watch by ourselves also," her brother said, nonchalantly.

She shrugged and sauntered towards the shopping mall. True, she brought her brother out along on most outings, but never were they out together alone before. At least not to watch a movie. Feels a little weird.

"May I take a look at your I.C please?" the counter asked just as they were about to buy the tickets.

They glanced at each other and grinned before placing their ICs onto the counter. A few minutes before, they were still betting on who would need to produce their IC. Guess they both won the bet.

After purchasing their tickets, they browsed through the shops in the mall. There were not much to see, and not much to buy. The mall was packed like sardines! Hardly enough space to maneuver. Soon, they gave up trying to pick their way through the crowd and decided to enter the cinema way before schedule.

As they piled out of the cinema, question marks hovered over their heads. The whole movie was puzzling and frankly speaking, a little boring. To think her brother had been looking forward to it ever since his exams. Disappointment was clearly written on his face. Love, hate and betrayal were some complicated issues tackled in the movie. Perhaps too complexed for their simple brain. Either that, or the movie was just not good.

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The papers were being passed down. The atmosphere was tensed. Everyone crossed their fingers, hoping for the best. As for her, she knew it was a goner.

"Oh, I failed," she whispered sheepishly as she glanced down at her paper.

Her friend laughed. She looked up and stared at her friend.

"You are so funny, Clara!"

Just then, her friend received her paper.

"Oh, I failed too."

They looked at each other and grinned.

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Another paper was being passed down. This time, it was chaotic. Hardly organised at all. Everyone was still tensed and nervous, but hands flew everywhere as they frantically passed the papers down the row, hoping to glimpse the result now and then.

"Clara, you freak!"

What?! she thought as she passed a paper to her friend.

"Clara, you're nuts!"

Again, she was confused. Another paper came. It was not hers. She passed it on.

"Oh my goodness, Clara, you're so smart!!"

"Clara!! You idiot!!"

Soon, everyone was saying how insane she was and she had no idea why.

After what seemed an eternity, her paper landed in her lap. She finally knew why everyone was shocked. The result was indeed a little surprising. She smiled. 88! Yes! Finally, something to be glad about after all the failed papers.

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They ran into the lecture theatre only to find at least a hundred pairs of eyes staring at them.

"Girls, please quickly settle down. You guys are VERY late," the lecturer reprimanded them through the mike.

They looked around wildly for the class, but like them, the class had arrived late and were scattered all over the lecture theatre. There were no space left! Many already had to make do with sitting on the floor, but even the floor looked occupied. After tons of 'excuse me', they finally found some space at the corner of the lecture theatre where they could not see anything at all. Oh well, she just wanted her paper.

The lecturer droned on and on. It seemed as though they might not return them their papers after all, but that was impossible. It has already been a week! Surely, they do not need that much time to mark their scripts. Moreover, general paper (GP) was their first paper, and that was like, taken 3 weeks ago! Everyone fidgeted in their seats, wishing that this could end sooner.

"Can all class representative please collect your papers from your teachers and give it out to the class?" came the announcement. Everyone one perked up and suddenly looked alert again.

Since everyone in her class was scattered, it took a while for the class representative to locate everyone. Even so, papers had to be passed down since there was hardly space to walk.

"Yay! Clara, I'm so happy! Can I hug you? Look at my marks!" came a shout from her right.

She peered at her friend's result and her eyes widened as she broke into a grin.

"Congrats! That's SO good! I think i'll do worse than you. I won't mind you hugging me," she added cheekily.

Her friend embraced her and she could feel that her friend was truly elated.

On the other hand, to her left, it was a different scene.

"Huh, how come like that," her friend said, all forlorn, staring at her results in contempt.

"You passed the overall right? At least you passed," she said, attempting to comfort her friend. However, before she could say anything else, another shout came from her right.

"Clara! Look at your results!" her friend to her right nudged her.

She turned from her other friend and realised that her papers were already on her lap. She turned them over and stared dumbly at them.

"What'd you get?" her friend asked, a little concerned after seeing her reaction.

Without uttering a word, she showed her papers to her friend.

"Clara, you improved! I think you're the highest in class," her friend said with much conviction.

"No no, dont' think so. There'll surely be people who have done much better than me in class," she said, but her friend was no longer listening. She leaned back against the wall and smiled. The overwhelming sense of euphoria was so nice. Just sweet!

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"Do you know how to calculate how much improvement you have made in your results?" her mathematics teacher was saying. "You take your prelim results minus away your promo results, divided by 100 minus away your prelim results."

Soon, everyone was pressing away on their calculators.

"Huh, mine is negative leh," someone commented.

"Means deprove la!" (FYI: There is no such word as deprove.)

Everyone laughed.

"What do you think is the maximum range of results you can obtain?" her teacher asked the class. What can you expect from a maths teacher?

"The result can range from negative infinity to 1. If it's positive, you've improved. If it's negative, you know la," her teacher said grinning. "Your class is about 0.1 to 0.3."

Everyone started muttering among themselves, commenting on whether they have made any improvements at all. Some were lamenting on the abundant careless mistakes they made while others were grinning happily.

"Who has the largest number?" someone piped up.

"Your class ah.." he began as he pondered a while. "I think your class is Clara."

Everyone clapped. She smiled and could feel her face reddening. Aww, gosh! she thought to herself. It was rather shocking too. Here's the thing. She has topped her class in maths ever since promos. One would think that it should be those who did not do so well in the past to have improved the most and not the highest to have improved the most. Seems illogical, doesn't it? She seriously doubt her teacher. It just cannot be true.

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The result slip was being passed around. Everyone had to sign against their results to affirm the authencity of the results. She glanced at her results in dismay. Sure, some were nice, but there were more results that were more of a scar. She sighed, but could not say anything. Relative to her friends' results, it was considered OK. She signed next to her results and passed it on.

"Hey, Clara! You did our class proud! You scored the first A in class!"

She turned and grinned, laughing at that remark. It only goes to show how bad her class is.

"Must continue to improve during As ok? Score A star star, and do TJ proud!"

"Sure," she mused jokingly, and laughed. That was highly impossible, of course.

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"Do you want to know your ranking for GP?" her GP teacher announced.

Everyone nodded fervently.

"I say we dropped!"

"No, I think we improved, so we should have moved up!"

Soon, everyone was voicing their views out loud.

"Okay, okay. Silence! I don't know what was your ranking last year, but comparing to your June Common Test, your class increased in rankings."

Everyone cheered. Some were staring at each other in amazement with their jaws hanging. This just seemed impossible.

"Last common test, you were ranked 18. This time, your class is ranked 7th!" her teacher said as she beamed at the class.

Everyone cheered again.

"Your class' highest is 60.3 while your class average is 51.2," she continued on.

"Then, we should thank the highest!" someone commented.

"Why don't you say, we should thank the lowest for not being so low?"

Everyone laughed.

"Who's the highest?"

"Your class' highest is..," her GP teacher said as she looked down her list. "Clara. Where's Clara?" her teacher asked as she looked up from the list of results.

She raised her hand as the class applauded her.

"Clara arh, everytime so quiet in class. Never share, so must deduct 5 marks!"

Everyone laughed again.

"But then, deduct 5 marks also won't die right?"

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Alright. Now some updates on her results. After reading the horrendous experience of examinations, try not to expect too much. No, try not to expect anything at all.

The school simply enjoys torturing their students. Just a few papers and they take a whole entire week to return everything. The ruthless ones return each paper bit by bit. Raining hail storms onto you, one after another. Day after day.

GP: 62 [B3 - First! =D]
Maths: 78 [A - First! ^.^]
Biology: 50 [D - ='(]
Chemistry: 51 [D - ='(]
Economics: 56 [C - Second! =P]

See biology? Remember how she mentioned that 50 marks flew away? She really hates it when she is right. Right for all the bad things too. Drats.

Results were a TOTAL disappointment. Basically, they reek. Like shit. (Pardon the word. Wanted to use the word faeces, but then it would sound so.. so refined.)

She could have done SO MUCH BETTER!

This is bad, bad, BAD!

So screwed now. SCARED!!

Nearly half the time, she either did not complete reading the question, or she misreads the question. What exactly is wrong with her?! Careless mistakes adorn her script and stupid expression mistakes became rampant. ARGH! If only she had been more cautious in time management. If only there were less careless mistakes. If only she opened her eyes bigger and read EVERY SINGLE WORD on the paper. IF ONLY!

-sobs sobs-

What if the same thing happens during As? NO!! She wants As.. Sweet looking As.

Wait till the percentile is finalised. It's going to be SO much worse than this.

God save her!

#$@%#$%*^&*

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P.S.: I'm so sorry if you feel bothered that she's boasting so much about herself, but this IS her blog so it is kind of natural that it will centralise about her. I'm so sorry, but you can choose not to read if you don't want to. I'll try not to write so much about her next time, but this time it's really irresistable! It's not everyday you get to score such results that are pleasing to the eye. Moreover, this will most likely be the last time, so, just bear with ok? So sorry. Just hoping that whoever reads this will be happy too, and not annoyed at her arrogance. (Is that really arrogance?)

Anyhow, happy happy happy for some of her results! Just SOME.

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"I will keep my word, of course.
When the time comes,
I'll still do what i said i would.
No one will stop me,
because no one will know."

-Faith-