Okay, This Is Going To Be One Heck Of A Long Post, So I'm Gonna' Break It Up Into Many Parts.
I'm Also Going To Write It In A "Story" Format.
Spot A Mistake? Send Me A Message Via MSN Or The Tagboard.
The Arrival
It Was Wet, Damp And Cold. I Was Carrying An Overfull Bright-Blue Backpack That Made Me Look Gay. I Looked At My Watch, 10.56am, I Was 16Minutes Late. I Walked Beneath A Shelter, Looking For Anyone With Spiked Hair, Glasses And A Rabbit-Like Face.
I Found Him Almost Instantly, He Stood Out Like A Red-Head In A Crowd Of Blondes.
"Louis, Hey!" I Called Toward Him. He Looked Up From His Newspaper And Looked Around, Grinning Like An Idiot Fox All The While. He Located Me And Chided Me For Being Late.
We Boarded A Bus Moments Later To Head For The Hougang Train Station, To Meet Up With A Few Other People. While In The Bus, I Was Busy Sending Text Messages To A Good Friend Of Mine And Louis Was Calling Natalie And Reading His Newspaper.
He And I Got Off At Our Stop And Walked Toward Where Zuben And Gang Were. We Met Up, Then Exchanged Some Small Talk. It Was Then That Louis Asked Me To Call Bruce, I Kindly Obliged, Even Though My Mind Was Screaming, "Why Can't You Do It!?"
I Fished Out My Cellphone From My Pocket And Dialled Out Bruce's Number. He Picked Up My Call And We Chat For A Bit. I Found Out That He Was At Some Coffee Shop, Slacking And Eating Breakfast.
We Headed Towards Bruce's Location, Stopping By A "7-eleven" Convenience Store On The Way, I Got A Packet Of "Doritos" Chips. When I Saw Him, He And His Mom Were Eating Fish N' Chips, Eggs, More Eggs And Even More Eggs.
Everyone Sat Down, We Occupied 2 Tables In Total. I Took Out My Bag Of Chips And Ate While Everyone Else Went Off To Buy Food.
I Teased Cheryl In An Attempt To Goad Her Into Getting Angry, But I Failed (First Time Ever!). She Just Seemed Drained Of Energy.
Anyway, I Learnt That Louis Had Brought 12 Packets Of Tissue Paper For This Camp, The Neat-Freak. Bruce's Mom Forced Me To Eat Some Of The Food They Bought, Saying That My Chips Were Unhealthy. I Reluctantly Agreed. I Ate And Found The Food Delicious, Despite It Being From A Hawker.
When Shen Cai Arrived, We Were Already Late, But That Fact Didn't Stop Him From Buying 2 Slices Of Kaya Toast, 2 Half-Boiled Eggs And A Glass Of Drink (I Can't Remember If It Was Tea Or Coffee..). He Gobbled It Up At Surprising Speed, Much To My Surprise.
We All Were Supposed To Rush To An Overhead Bridge To Cross The Road And Take A Bus From There. But Only Louis, Bruce And I Did So, When We Were On The Other Side, Bruce Realized He Had Led Us Blindly. In Short, We Were On The Wrong Side.
We Crossed The Bridge Again. By Then, It Was Already Raining.
I Reached In Time To See Cheryl Get Into A Cab And Disappear From Sight. I Asked Stephene Where She Was Going And I Was Told That She Was Sick. So That's Why She Didn't Get Angry!
We Rushed To The Bus-Stop And I Had Been Charged With The Task Of Getting Stephene's Sleeping Bag To The Bus-Stop Dry. I Was Only Partially Successful And My Hair Had Been Soaked Wet With Rain. I Took Out My Towel, Ignoring The Weird Looks From Strangers, And Dried My Hair.
We Got On The Bus And I Resumed My Frenzied Text Messaging While Everyone Else Talked About Some Old Lady Getting Killed By A Chicken-Man. Or Something Like That.
When We Reached Camp, Stephene And Natalie Were Copying Down A Letter Multiple Times For EVERYONE Who Didn't Receive Some Letter, A Minor Formality. They Both Ended Up With A Stack Of Copied Letters In The End.
Louis Brought Me To A Washroom And Styled My Hair With His Wax, My Chips Were Finished, Kee Kai Still Looked Gloriously And Wonderfully Stupid, Vanessa Was Already There And The Canteen Was Packed. Soon, Everyone Went To An AVA Room For Some Administrative Stuff. Then We Learnt That Whoever Didn't Receive A Letter Could Ask Any Instructor For It. When I Heard It, It Was My Turn To Be An Idiot Fox, I Laughed Loudly And Everyone, That's 120+ People, Heard Me. Bruce Then Said That I Could Be Kee Kai's Best Buddy. I Also Traded All The Biscuits And Other Drink Powders I Had For Coffee, Lots Of Coffee.
I Laughed Because It Was So Absurd, Stephene And Natalie Had Copied ALL Those Letters For Nothing! We Were Later Brought To What Would Be Our Dorms For The Next 3 Days And 2 Nights. I Threw My Bag On The Floor And Headed To The Hall For A "Team Challenge". I Sat Down And Waited.
I Turned Around To Look For My Friends, Then A Girl, A Little Shorter Than Me, Whacked Me Right In The Face.
I Got Confused, Why Did She Hit Me? I Asked Her With The Tone Of A Cynical Man. She Replied Something Rudely. I Have ForgottenWhat She Said.
I Then Said, "Thank God I Have A Thick Skull, You're Gonna' Have To Hit Me Harder If You Want Me To Feel Pain."
She Replied With A 'Whatever'.
I Let The Matter Rest, After All, I Can't Hit A Girl. Soon, We Were Briefed On The "Team Challenge". Then It Started.
Long Story Short, We Lost One Game, Due To Zuben, And Won The Rest. I Then Met This Guy, Jin Cai, Muscular And Full Of Gloriously Blind Courage. He Ate So Much Red Chilli, He Almost Cried.
At One Point Of Time, There Was This Little Game With Flour All Over The Floor. After It Was Over, I Saw Another Little Girl, About One Head Shorter Than Me. She Reminded Me So Much Of Melissa. One Way Or Another, We Somehow Became Friends And We Kept Putting Flour On Each Other's Shirts. I Learnt That She Was Primary 5, That's When I Realized Something. She Was Tall! Well, Tall For A Primary 5, At Least.
First Night
When It Was All Over, We Went To Our Dorms To Get Our Clothes And Bathe. I Went To The Washrooms And Saw 1 Girls' Washroom And Two "Staff" Washroom.
I Remembered That The Camp Instructors Said That The "Staff" Washroom Was 'Out Of Bounds'. But That Didn't Stop Me From Using The Staff Washroom To Bathe, Because I Wasn't Ready To Admit That I Was So Desperate To Bathe That I Had To Use A Girl's Washroom.
I Was Told That They Had A Guys' Washroom At That Girls' School. Well, They Didn't Lie. They Had A Guy's Washroom.
Keyword: A, A Washroom. That Means ONE. "A" Means ONE. One Guys' Washrrom, At The Canteen, And It Didn't Have A Shower.
Back To The Story, I Bathed In The Staff Washroom And Headed Back To The Make-Shift Dorms Where Many People Asked Me Where I Bathed. I Told Them Bluntly That I Used The Staff Washroom. Then A Few Other Guys Decided To Follow My Advice And Used The Staff Washroom Too.
In The End, Only A Handful Of Guys Used The "Out-Of-Bounds" Showers. And We All Laughed At The Guys That Used The Girls' Washroom.
When We Were All Done, We Had A Mini-Service. It Was Long.. I Waited..
And Waited.. And Waited..
Long Story Short, Lotsa' People Fainting, Crying, Screaming, etc.
I Named It "Holy Torture" A Long TIme Ago, Well, Last Time I Went For This "Holy Torture", Or "Deliverence" As It Is Called, Nothing Happened To Me. No Fainting, No Screaming, No Crying, No Flying, No Killing, No Seeing God, etc.
I Later Headed To The Canteen For Dinner.
I Then Learnt That The Little Girl's Name Was Jessica. And That "Miss Hit People In The Head"'s Name Was Yan Xin.
We Had Nasi Lemak For Dinner. The Air Was Filled With Noises From The Conversations Being Held All Over The Place. I Joined In Some Of Them And Continued To Chat With Jin Cai, Jessica And The Weird Lady, Yan Xin.
I Then Left Everyone At The Canteen And Practised My "Circus Tricks" While Everyone Else Painted Their Team Flags. Then Louis And Shen Cai Came Up Together And They Had A "B-Boy Battle".
It Was Hardly A Battle, Shen Cai Totally Trashed Louis, It Was Extremely Amusing. In The End, We Moved Dorms Twice, My Whole Body Ached, I Found Out That Zuben Could Do Front Handsprings And Met A Bunch Of Other B-Boys.
Shen Hong And I "Prayed" Before Sleeping. Well, I Didn't Sleep. And That Made My Friend Angry At Me, That, Coupled With The Fact I Was Rude Towards Her When I Sent My Messages Made Her Even More Angry.
I Then Went To Sleep, It Was Well Over 4am When I Decided To Sleep. Or Did I Really Sleep? It Was Hard To Tell, I Kept On Tossing And Turning And Was Vaguely Aware Of Everything Going On Around Me.
Path To Forgiveness
I Officially Woke At 7+am. I Apologized To My Friend Like Crazy But She Still Didn't Forgive Me. I Then Bathed, Brushed My Teeth, Stretched My Hurting Bones And Muscles And Went To The Canteen For Breakfast. We Had Bread. Not Much Of A Breakfast. I Later Went With Everyone To The Fields And It Rained.
It Was Around Late Morning When We Had ANOTHER Church Service, And Some Devotion Thingy. We Also Watched A Movie Titled "The Pursuit Of Happiness".
They Stopped The Vid Halfway And We Had Lunch. I Went Down With My Friends, Eager To Eat. I Lost My Appetite When I Saw The Food, Nasi Lemak. AGAIN.
I Still Ate It, Anyway, Then Jessica And I Tried To See Who Could Make The Funniest And Stupid-est Looking Face. I Was Still Apologizing To My Friend And Even Stated That I Was Willing To Do Anything To Make Her Less Angry.
After Lunch, There Was This "Workshop", It Was Hardly A Workshop. More Like A Lecture. A Lecture On Boy-Girl Relationships. Then We Had Some "Praise And Worship" Session. To Me, It Was A Waste Of Time. But Something Queer Did Happen, Some People Started Laughing For No Reason, Others Cried. Leon And I Looked At Everyone, The Sight Was So Bizarre And Absurd, We Almost Laughed. He And I Went Out Of The AVA Room And I Continued To Beg For Forgiveness In My Text Messages.
Forgiveness
We Later Had Dinner, It Was A Buffet. Unfortunately, I Was One Of The Last Few People To Get Our Food Because I Was Busy Trying To Make My Friend Less Angry.
I Soon Lost All Resolve, And Deigned Myself To Losing A Friend. I Sent One Last Message Saying; "Then I Shall Wait, Wait Until You Either Forgive Me Or I Forget You." With That, I Tried To Distract Myself By Immersing Myself By Chatting With Jin Cai, Jessica And Yan Xin.
I Got Everyone's Handphone Number And We All Assembled Ourselves Outside Of The Hall. While Outside, My Team Kept On "Bombing" The Other Teams, Haha. Louis Lost All His Voice, Jin Cai Lost Most Of His Voice And I Lost Some Of It, We Three Were The Key Pleyers In The "Bombing". But Louis Is The M.V.P.
When We Went Inside The Hall, We Had Another "Praise And Worship" Session. Even Though I Lost My Voice, I Still Forced Myself To Sing The Praise And Worship Songs. While Singing At My Loudest, I Received A Message.
I Immediately Stopped Singing And Fished Out My Phone And Read It. It Was From My Friend. We Exchanged A Few More Messages And She Forgave Me, But She Said She Was Still A Little Angry. After The Session, I Went To Bathe And Watched The Rest Of The Movie, "Pursuit Of Happiness" And Watched Another Movie, "Paying It Forward" With Zuben, Leon, Jessica, Agnes And Yan Xin.
We Also Ate Supper, Some Spicy Chicken..
After That, I Went To Eat An Apple. Vanessa Said She Wanted One, So I Took Another Apple And Tossed It Her Way. She Was So Scared, She Dodged It Totally And It Hit Hui Min.
In A Way, Hui Min Deserved It, She Always Curses Shaun And I Whenever We Are Not There. God Will Curse Those That Curse Me, LOL!!!!!!!
Then I Slept Early This Time, For Fear Of Making My Friend Angry Again.
How Old Is That Chicken?
I Woke At 7+am Again, Did The Usual. Messaged My Friend An Early Greeting. Learnt Some Wu Shu From Jin Cai, Packed My Bags And Was Starting To Get Gastric Pains. I Checked The Time, 7.39am. Breakfast Started At 9.30am. I Looked Around The Dorm For Food, I Saw A Tray With Some Of The Spicy Chicken Leftover From Last Night's Supper On A Table. It Wasn't Covered With A Lid. The Chicken Had Some Weird Green Fungus On It.
I Ignored The Fungi And Ate A Lot Of The Chicken, It Tasted Good.. I Then Practised The Little Trick Jin Cai Taught Me Till 9.30am.
I Went Down And Greeted Jessica, Then Waited For The Food. It Was Bread Again. I Ate It Anyway, I Was Starving And My Gastric Pain Was Coming Again.
We Later Went To The AVA Room To Share Who Made The Greatest Impact On Us, etc.
I Said That They Were Jin Cai, Jessica And Yan Xin.
Jin Cai Because He And I Could Relate To One Another And He Taught Me More Than Just Wu Shu.
Jessica, Because She Was Like A Little Sister To Me.
And Yan Xin, For Whacking Me In The Head, It Isn't Everyday Someone Whacks You In The Head For No Reason. And By A Girl!!!
Anyway, Everyone And I Went To Clean Our Make-Shift Dorms And Pack The Rest Of Our Stuff. I Met Up With Vanessa And We Went To A Bus-Stop.
I Saw Jessica And Samuel, Jessica's Elder Brother, And We Got On The Same Bus. I Then Realized That Vanesssa And Samuel Were VERY Alike. Jessica And I Made Funny Faces And Challenged To See Who Could Crouch Lower. She Won, Again. She Always Wins The "Who's Shorter" Game.
Vanessa And I Got Off The Bus And Boarded Another Bus, We Took The Upper Deck And I Resumed Messaging My Friend. We Then Had A Mc Donald's Meal Where I Dropped 2 ENTIRE Large Coca-Colas On The Floor. The People There Replaced It For Free. xD
We Went Home And I Fell Ill, I Had A Parched Throat, A Mouth Which Continued Producing So Much Saliva I Had To Spit It Out, I Couldn't Swallow Food Without Feeling Pain, My Nose Was Blocked And Runny, My Whole Body Hurt Easily. I Felt Fragile. I Slept Extremely Early And Woke Up Today, Still Sick.
And All Because I Ate Moldy Chicken.