[ I got owned ]

I got owned

This is the story of the last day of my school, year 2006. I was in form 3 then, and we had just had the PMR Examination four weeks ago. During those 4 weeks, not many of my friends showed up at school. Perhaps they thought that they need not to go to school anymore for the rest of the term. Normally they’d do something else; sleep, play console games, hang out with friends, go to movies, read a good book and anything else non-related to education. This last day of school, a Friday, was the same. But I decided to go. After all, I felt bad because I skipped school for nearly two third of those four weeks.1

8.00 a.m., I was already at the gate of the school, sent by my father. I got sick at the very sight of the gate, but I went on. After all, something interesting could happen that day, being it was the last day of school, I thought to myself. And so, I stepped into my class, 3 Cendekia.2

As expected, there were no more than 15 students of my class present. You could count their heads, I would say. Ain, Thaqifah, Fatin Rezal, Maisarah Omar, all of them were there. Of the boys, I saw only Nagendran, but that was only for a while. The girls, they were playing the usual UNO game, which became quite unpopular these days between us; they played it just to kill time. “What a bore”, I said to myself and went outside.3

I went over to Leana, my schoolmate, and I saw her with Adila, who later became the best student in Selangor for her PMR, and Dayana, another friend whom I’m close with. We chatted for a while, about the state of absolute boredom, seeing that school ends in about 4 hours and then decided to go to the library.4

The Ac in the library was fully operational so we decided to stay there until it was time to go home. I brought a book with me, Kafka on the Shore and discussed it with Adila, who lent it to me. Pot on the other hand was sketching in her book a figure of a dragon. While Dayana, she picked up this classic Malay novel about a man and his grandson living in a forest. Quite tragic, she says. Then we talked about Stalin, when I found this book titled ‘100 most influential people in History’ which was laying somewhere on a table. A moment later we were interrupted by a rude voice.5

It was apparently this senior, Asyraf who was quite known for his infamy. He was the worst guy you would have ever known. He was suspended twice, one for threstening a teacher with a knife because they confiscated his bag, and another for setting fire at our school lab. Anarchy, he says. What a fool he was; misinterpreting the true meaning of anarchy.
He without shame, butted in our conversation; apparently he has been listening to us for a long time, somewhere behind the racks. He was mocking us, saying we were morons, talking about something we were highly incapable of and said the only thing we knew about Stalin was he was a “Russian” and a “bad guy”. It was absolutely horrendous, him humiliating us. I was extremely annoyed and so I said “You think you’re so smart eh? That you’re awfully better than us? How about a match then?”

At first Asyraf declined. He said that he does not want to humiliate us, that he was a gentleman (when he was obviously the opposite), but I persuaded him, saying that he was a coward, and that really fired him up.6

“Fine. Let’s play chess. You do know how to play, don’t you?’ he pointed me.
“Heh, of course,”
The sad truth was, I was never really good at chess. My last game was with my 6 year old sister, and I lost to that kid. It was a foolish act to accept a game of chess, because I know I would lose. But I did not want to back down in front of him. It was I who issued the challenge.7

My friends, they took the chess board from a junior who was playing with her friends. Bullying was common with us. We arranged our pieces, mine black and him white. As we did this, he said “You’re going down,” I just let out a nervous laugh, about how ironic the thing he said.8

We started the match, and I was eager to finish it because I wanted it all done as soon as possible; thoughts ran in my head of what will happen if I lose. I moved my pieces without thinking much (even if I did, it won’t change the situation). Him either. Then I got worried. Perhaps he thought that I was an easy prey. The match lasted for about an hour and we fought in silence. 9

Then came another disgraceful scene.
We were interrupted. For good.10

“Both of you, stop. Don’t you dare play chess again. You’re totally ruining the game,” It was a familiar voice, Nagendran’s with his friends, who showed up so sudden. “You people do not know how to play chess. Here, this – and there – and this is a weak spot but you black you don’t use this opportunity. You could have won in, say, three moves,” And he continued talking and laughing with his friends in the same phoney voice. I should add here that he was the school representative for the Chess Competition; meaning that he’s a genius at chess. Asyraf and I, we left the library. We were utterly destroyed He then faced me. 11

“Dude, I’m sorry I thought I’d lose to you so that you could mock me and we’d be done forever and I don’t have to meet you again. But both of us sucked. We’re not done yet but well uh, school’s finally over so we could have another match next time.12

“Right.... you’re afraid,” said I, eyeing him, or tried to.
“Look, call it a truce. Next year, okay? I’ll fight you another game so until then we’d better practice. Okay?”
Well, whatever,”13

The bell rang and Asyraf turned his back after waving at me and he, he went off, disappearing in the midst of the crowd. My friends, they were all laughing at me.  My secret of sucking at chess was exposed. Willy-nilly, everyone had to go home and no one really cared about what happened that day. My last day ended just like that.14

I never saw him after that. We never had that match. I did train myself with my friends and I am better at chess now, I was prepared to have a rematch. Asyraf never showed up. He was expelled. It occurred to me that he never intended to have that rematch and was just trying to escape. Making up excuses. Good ones. What an idiot I was. I got owned.
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