Chapter 3.2: Erika

“Now, tell me what happened.”

The nerdy girl still seemed like a mute, while I really didn’t want to admit my mistakes and get myself into trouble.

“You!” Rufus scolded, making the nerdy girl look up while still showing a calm face, which again, I admired.

“What is your name? From which class? “

“My name is Valeria Guntur, Sir,” she said dryly. “I’m from class X-A.”

“Hmm, as I thought, you are not an arbitrary student ….”

“Hey!” I protested, and felt offended. “Sir, so are you saying I am an arbitrary student, is that so?”

“You’re an extraordinary student,” Rufus replied, and I immediately nodded in agreement. “With your grades, you should have also entered X-A class, but because of your negative behavior …”

I immediately frowned again. “Sir, if you want to praise me, just give the praise, you don’t have to end it with humiliation as deep as an ocean!”

“Eh, Errrika, have you ever heard this saying? Please don’t chase fame, if you are the best version of yourself, fame will chase you…!”If you want to be the thing, don’t be overacting, please …!”

Gosh, this teacher really wants his nostrils plugged! How can he talk in a pretentiously cool manner?

“Sir, how dare you say that I don’t have it, instead it’s your jokes Sir, really dry, not cool, very yucky.”

“You, you really talk a lot when you complain to the teacher,” Rufus said with a face of someone really wanted to commit suicide. Well, there were a lot of people who looked like that after getting depressed because of having to deal with me. “Now, try to use your nagging to explain this shoe case.”

Case. Tch, who was overdoing it now? When I looked away and turned towards the door of the room, I heard Rufus’ sigh through his large nostrils.

“Alright. How about you, Valeria? What can you tell me? “

I quickly turned to the nerdy girl. She shrugged and smiled an innocent smile, “I just forgot to wear shoes, sir.”

“You know, if you are caught lying, there would be fatal consequences?”

The nerdy girl was just silent while looking at Rufus with her big eyes.

“You will miss today’s lesson, and if there is a test, you will not be given a remedial.”

The nerdy girl’s reaction remained the same, as if she was frozen in place with a staring Rufus-with-a-stupid-face pose, while I started to feel uneasy. It looked like my butt was a little itchy.

“This incident will also enter into the student record, and your parents will be called.”

Uh-oh. Now that was creepy. The nerdy girl’s face was pale like a hospital wall, and I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Sir, please! Stop it.” I shouted while cursing myself who was always weak at seeing the tears of a girl. “No need to threaten this and that again! Yes, I took her shoes! Satisfied?”

“Why? I’m not threatening, Errrika. What I said earlier, everything is true. “

But the face of that teacher on duty did look very satisfied, with an inappropriately triumphant smile. Huh, if I could pull that really thick mouth, I’ll let him taste the feeling of not being able to smile anymore!

“Now you are a good kid, Errrika, and return the shoes.”

“Since when can I be a good child?”

Even though I was grumbling, I also took off the shoes and returned them to the owner.

“Sorry,” The nerdy girl said slowly as she received her shoes back.

This girl was really bad. It should be me saying sorry. But, of course, I couldn’t possibly comfort her in a gentle and feminine way, so I snorted and said, “Don’t be shy. Everything is really my fault. “

“Now, Valeria, you may return to class.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the nerdy girl hesitate at the door of the on-duty room — as if she had considered pulling me away — before finally leaving alone.

Meanwhile, Rufus happily started giving me detention tasks that were not that difficult, but tedious.

“As for you, Errrika, you have to write a paper about the importance of wearing shoes to school.”

What???

“Sir, even without explanation, everyone is wearing shoes, …”

My words were interrupted when I saw Rufus’ wide and ugly grin.

“But you are not wearing shoes, this is concrete evidence that not everyone is wearing shoes. Hence, in this world, only you need to write a paper about the importance of wearing shoes. Alright, there is no need to protest anymore. This is the lined folio paper, write it down completely, okay! “

I looked at the folio paper which consisted of two sheets. 

“Back and forth?”

“Of course, yes. Otherwise, why would there lines behind it? “

Arghh!

With my spoiled mood, I took a seat and started writing.

The Importance of Wearing Shoes to School

The reason I’m writing f̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g̲ stupid paper people won’t read.

The history of shoe making cannot be found everywhere because it is too boriiiinnngggg.

The most unfortunate thing in the world is shoes, because their work is being trampled by people since they were first created.

Actually, personally, I think it’s not important to wear shoes, sandals, or even slippers to school. However, it seems that my opinion is not accepted by everyone, especially the teachers. And especially by Sir. Rufus, our teacher on duty. Therefore, one day, when I accidentally forgot to wear my shoes to school, I was punished and told to write this useless paper.

Nowadays, shoes are one thing that is not at all important compared to their brother, sandals. In terms of practicality, sandals are everyone’s first choice. Besides being comfortable to wear and providing access to fresh air on our toes that smells easily, sandals are also cheap and can be purchased by all people.

Unfortunately, the school never allows students to wear sandals to school. I secretly suspect that there is a big conspiracy between the school and the shoe factory to sell unsellable shoes to students, so that the shoe factory doesn’t lose their profits, while the school gets a share of the profit. This can be proven by our principal, Mrs. Rita, who recently replaced her car with a new Innova¹. Also, Mr. Idris, who suddenly brought the One Heart² motorbike and was even whistling the song³ in the teacher’s restroom.

Uh, wait, seriously. I should not mention the teacher’s restroom. I might be suspected of causing trouble there. Well, it was not like I never have. When I caught Mr. Idris, I was hiding the toilet’s scoops from the teacher’s restroom in the school storeroom. But, they didn’t know who the perpetrator of the crime was, and they didn’t need to know.

The sound of snoring made me sit upright. Geez, that Rufus was already snoring on his throne! I approached Rufus, ready to pull out his super big frizzy hair, when suddenly a better idea occurred to me. Yes, instead of being stuck in this useless room while writing useless papers, I’d better run away for a while to the bakmi⁴ stall and come back as soon as possible after dumping one or two bowls of noodles in my stomach.

And this snorer wouldn’t even know.

I tiptoed towards the door. My movements stopped in midair as the snoring faded away. With my heart pounding, I looked back …, and immediately sighed with relief when I saw that Rufus was still limp in his ugly chair. With the dexterity of a trained thief, I managed to silently open the door and close it very slowly.

Done! My lovely bakmi stall, I’m coming!

1. One of the type of Toyota’s car

2. One Heart motorbike = One Heart is actually jargon of Honda since 2015. In Indonesia, this jargon is closely related to Honda’s Automatic Motorbike due to the advertisement of the type of motorbike on tv. So people called the motorbike as “One Heart motorbike” though the motorbike has its own name.

3.  Related to the Honda’s One Heart advertisement, the ads were very booming at that time and its song was everywhere. If you want to check it out, you could see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4xHiV6WW9Q

4.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakmi or in short it is similar to chicken noodle.