My Classmates
We are a noisy lot, that is what our teachers say about us. This is largely due to Ah Keong. He is the noisiest of us all. His voice is like that of a bull frog but volumes louder. It seems that he cannot talk softly. Actually he does not talk, he shouts. Perhaps his living with his family of ten children has something to do with it.
In this noisy bunch lives a boy who hardly ever opens his mouth. This is Padma, the boy who sits next to me. He is such a gentle and soft creature that one would think that he is a sissy. This is not so. No one dares call him one for he is a member of the school's Karate Club.
Then there is Doris, our class monitor. She sits right in front of the teacher's table. She is such a model student that all the teachers love her. We all love her for she does not boss us around. She has given up doing that long ago. All she does is to make sure that the teachers have sufficient chalk and that the classroom is clean.
Right at the back of the class sits our class sleepy-head. Mat seems to need more sleep than others. He catches cat-naps in between lessons. The astounding thing is that he can fall asleep almost instantly. The moment the teacher leaves after a lesson, Mat's snores start up and we know he is at it again. Remarkably he wakes up when the next teacher arrives.
Every class has a clown. Our class has Jack, otherwise known as "Jacko The Clown". He is always up to some prank or other, putting tails on the boys' pants, frogs in the girls' desks and powdered chalk on the teacher's chair. So when we hear a girl scream or see men-teachers strolling around with chalk on the seat of their pants, we know that Jacko has struck again.
The other classmates too have their own unique personalities. Each contributes his or her part to our class. All in all we are a group of young children who perhaps are a bit noisy at times, but on the whole are well-behaved and pleasant to be with.
sissy - a boy who other boys dislike and laugh at because they think he is weak or interested in activities girls usually like, or a person who is weak and cowardly
boss around - Tell someone what to do, give orders
astounding - very surprising
