Chapter 6: 5 [a group project]

The drone of the ceiling fans overhead lulled my senses until my eyes grew heavy. It was unbearably warm and humid in the classroom too—the slowly-revolving fans seemed to be blowing hot air out of their blades and onto my face. I tried to fan myself with my exercise book while listening to Mr. Lim with half an ear.  

“The LGBT community should not face discrimination, but pushing for rights can be very socially divisive and contentious because our country remains quite conservative,” Mr. Lim said in the most dullest voice a teacher could manage. “And to wrap up our discussion, these are the key reasons why gender persists to be a big issue in the year 2018. Please note this down, class, because it is one of the more common topics tested in the A-levels.” 

I secretly took a picture of the marker-filled whiteboard with my phone. Beside me, Terasia was playing with her pen in her left hand, seemingly oblivious to the lesson being taught. I watched as she twirled the blue Sarasa ballpoint in her left hand all the way round in a circle, flipping it gently between her fingers and catching it between her thumb and middle finger. 

“You’re good at this, aren’t you?” I murmured. 

“Hmm, I’d do much better with a longer weapon,” she said absent-mindedly

Weapon? I frowned as I watched her spin the pen again with a hard flick of her wrist, effortlessly switching the direction of the spin after each full rotation. 

A flowing, unending black blur. 

Swinging and slicing through the wind like butter. 

“Shall we dance…?”

A tiny voice from a distant past whispered through my mind. But before I could search my hazy memory, a loud, sharp noise shattered my train of thought.

Mr. Lim tapped his marker against the whiteboard repeatedly. “Listen up, class. Before we end our GP lesson for today, I will be giving each of you an assignment.” 

A collective groan resonated throughout the classroom. 

He sighed and crossed his arms across his chest. “Now class, I’m not that heartless, alright? The deadline for this assignment will be next Monday’s lesson. One weekend should be more than enough to complete it, if you put down your phones and concentrate on your tasks.” 

“In addition—” Mr. Lim wiped the whiteboard clean and wrote seven headings along the top: ‘Group 1’, ‘Group 2’, ‘Group 3’ and ‘Group 4’ “—this assignment is a group project, and the twenty of you will be split into four groups of five. To make things fair for everyone, I have randomly chosen the groups earlier. Please refer to Fang’s message in the class chat to find out which group you belong to.” 

As if on cue, everyone’s phone buzzed with an incoming text message. I quickly took my phone out and checked the class chat group. Sure enough, there was a lengthy message from the class president detailing the members of each group. 

Group 1

Avery 

Seberas

Xian Jing

Yong Yu

Terasia

“We’re in the same group!” Terasia exclaimed when she checked her phone. “Isn’t that great, Avery?”

I raised an eyebrow and gave her a knowing look. “You didn’t…” 

She huffed, “why would I use that over such a trivial thing?” 

Meanwhile, in the front row, Liam held his head in his hands as if he was in excruciating pain. Not only had he been assigned to a different group, Group 2, his group consisted of the two most serious people in the class—Fang and Yun Li. It was practically being thrown straight into the lionʼs den. 

“The topic for this assignment is gender equality around the world. Each group will be required to conduct research on a country of their choosing and present their findings on the particular country’s state of gender equality in a Powerpoint presentation,” Mr. Lim announced. “I want to see sources and dates of your research, as well as relevant examples and their respective impact on the country’s society as a whole. There is no minimum word count, but I do expect quality presentations from each group.” 

A small sardonic grin appeared at the corner of his lips. “I should remind you all, class, that this assignment is 20% of your overall grade for the term.”

Upon hearing the last sentence, the entire class instantly paused their chatter and tensed. We all knew that one-fifth of the term’s overall grade in a single assignment was not a laughing matter anymore.

Mr. Lim smiled and glanced up at the wall clock. “There’s still some time before the end of the lesson, so I’ll allow everyone to gather in their groups now and start their discussions. You should have decided on a country to research on by today. Please text your country of choice in the class chat to prevent any overlaps. Class dismissed!” 

Immediately a cacophony of chairs scraping against the floor burst out as everyone leaped to their feet and searched for their respective groups. Since Terasia and I were sitting in a corner of the classroom, the other three group members came to sit around our desks. 

“You’re the new transfer student, aren’t you?” The lanky, long-haired guy who looked like a stereotypical jock eagerly asked. “Name’s Seberas, nice to meet you.” 

“And I’m Yong Yu, his friend,” the bespectacled, round-faced guy next to him introduced himself. “We were in the same CCA together.”

“What’s a CCA?” Terasia asked out of curiosity. 

“It’s what we call the extracurricular activities here,” I explained. “Like after-school clubs and student societies, for example. Though, we have stopped attending our CCA activities since last month to prepare for the A-levels. ”

“Yup! Yong Yu and I were in the Badminton club,” Seberas chimed in. “I believe Avery’s CCA was Journalism, right? Then Xian Jing, you were in…”

“Chinese Orchestra,” the girl with pigtails replied in a quiet voice. “O-oh, by the way…I’m Xian Jing. Pleased to meet you, Terasia.” 

“The pleasure is all mine,” she said happily. “Ah, right. So what are we supposed to do now? How do we go about finding and battling this ‘research’ thing? Though I’m very much confident that I can kill it in one strike.”  

We all turned to stare at Terasia with wide eyes. 

“Battling?” Seberas blinked in surprise and laughed. “No, no, it isn’t a Pokemon or whatever you’re thinking of. Basically, we have to go on the Internet and Google articles about a specific topic, then compile the articles and sources that we found into a presentation. That’s the gist of this group project, anyway.” 

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“The…Internet?” 

“Terasia, you don’t know what that is?” I whispered in her ear. 

“I know it’s the equivalent to magic in this world, but I can’t make much sense of it till now,” she muttered back. “Forgive me, I’m still not so used to being in an environment without active magic.” 

“Why are you two talking about magic all of a sudden? Is it from some anime show?” Yong Yu let out a chuckle. “I can’t help but notice that you seem close to her, Avery. Have you two met before?” 

“We’re in the same tuition class,” I said, shrugging. 

“Shit man, means she’s already taken,” he murmured to Seberas. 

“All you think about all day is hitting on cute girls, don’t you?” Seberas gave him a good smack on his forehead. “Ahem! Back to our project, we should start deciding on choosing which country to research about. I suggest that we choose the United States since we can find the most information on it. It’ll also be a country that Terasia is familiar with.” 

 Xian Jing turned her phone around so that her screen faced us. “U-um…it’s already taken…”

Group 1: -

Group 2: -

Group 3: USA 

Group 4: China

“Damn, why are the rest so quick to choose?” Seberas remarked, taken aback by the message in the class chat. 

“Yo, guys, I have an idea,” Yong Yu said. “Why don’t we choose an obscure country instead? It’ll definitely make our presentation stand out from the rest.” 

“Sure,” I replied. “But what ‘obscure’ country do you have in mind?” 

“How about one from the Middle East?” Seberas suggested. 

“Idiot, what gender equality is there to research about in a Middle Eastern country?” Yong Yu smacked his forehead as well. [Disclaimer: Author’s own opinion] 

“Oh…” Seberas shot him a glare and nodded his head at Xian Jing. “Do you have any ideas, Xian Jing?”

“H-huh, me?” She gave a flustered look back. “Um…obscure…well…we can try something like…Malta, I suppose.”

“Malta, huh.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know where that is, but I vote for it. Does anyone else have a different suggestion?” 

We shook our heads in unison, and Seberas quickly typed a message into the group chat. “That’s settled then, Malta it is! Will you guys be free for a quick discussion after school tomorrow?” 

“I have…um…tuition tomorrow evening…” Xian Jing said. “But if it’s a quick one…”

“It wouldn’t be longer than half an hour,” Seberas said with a reassuring smile. “Will that be okay with you?”

She tentatively nodded her head, and when he gestured towards me and Terasia, both of us shook our heads. 

Yong Yu raised his hand cheekily. “Leader, I want to go home and play League—” 

“You can shut up about LOL,” Seberas immediately said. “And what do you mean by ‘Leader’?” 

“I mean…” He shrugged. “If not you, who will be the group leader?” 

“About that…” Seberas looked at the rest of us and gave a shrug. “You guys are really okay with me being the group leader?”

“I don’t mind,” Terasia said. “I’m not that shameless as to lead my men into unknown territory when there’s a more knowledgeable person to take up the mantle.” 

“T-that’s a little too much praise for someone like me…” He flashed a self-conscious smile and nodded his head. “Alright then, I’ll be the leader of Group 1. Everyone, listen up—we must get that sweet ‘A’ grade for this project, understand?” 

Only Terasia and Yong Yu shouted back ‘Yes, Leader!’ in enthusiasm. I merely smiled, while Xian Jing looked as though she was dying internally.

 

Results of today’s group project discussion

Countries of choice:

Group 1 (Leader: Seberas): Malta

Group 2 (Leader: Liam): Lebanon

Group 3 (Leader: Nurul): USA

Group 4 (Leader: Wei Rong): China

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