by Steffie Goh (S2 2021)

             Buzzing with excitement, I rushed to open the door. My face was almost split in half by the large grin on my face. “He is finally here!” I thought to myself excitedly. I swiftly unlocked the door, only for my grin to fall off my lips. Shock pulsed through me as I looked into the face I had never expected to see at my doorstep. The unexpected guest’s mirrored my own.

              “You?” Both of us exclaimed in unison, shock clear in our voices. It could not be…

              Harmony Secondary School was the school that I attended. To me, it was like a second home, filled to the brim with kind, understanding teachers and great friends. Overall, I loved my school. However, there was one person that I simply disliked… Michael Lim. He was very competitive and seemed to have something against me. Michael and I belonged co-curricular activity (CCA), soccer, which meant that every Thursday, we got to see each other’s “wonderful” faces, and try to outdo each other on the soccer pitch.

              “Della Lim and Michael Lim hate each other.”

              The whole school knew about our rivalry, mostly because of our little fights in the canteen.

              Harmony Secondary School was not that harmonious after all.

              One day, I was walking into the canteen, and saw that Stall Six was selling my favourite chicken rice, and there was only one plate left. “Chicken rice!” I exclaimed excitedly in my mind, and made a beeline to the stall. I was a few steps away from my chicken rice! Then, an annoying familiar figure stepped into my path of sight. Michael. He handed over three dollars to the stall vendor, and took the last plate of chicken rice. He looked at me, and gave me a mischievous smile, before eating the food in my face. I glared at him, wishing somehow doing so would let the plate of chicken rice appear in my hands instead of his.

              During soccer practice, I was doing my stretching exercise when I noticed Michael’s precious soccer shoes. An idea formed in my mind to get back at Michael by taking his shoes. Coach Teng would be jumping with fury! As I quickly walked towards his shoes, hands reaching out to grab it and shove it into my bag, another thought formed. If Michael’s shoes were missing… Coach Teng would kick him out of the team. This was not the first time had forgotten to bring his shoes. My hands clasped around the pair of shoes. “One plate of chicken rice is not worth getting him kicked out of the team,” I mumbled to myself.

              I placed the shoes back down.

              “Consider yourself lucky today, Michael,” I thought out loud. I might dislike him, but I would not want to see him kicked out of something he loved.

              “Hey!” Just then, a voice nearby snapped. Michael grabbed his shoes and glared at me.

              I sneered, “I didn’t do anything to them!”

              Both of us glared at each other before storming off in opposite directions.

              Today, we were having a friendly match. All members of the CCA were split into two teams, red and blue. It just so happened that I was in the blue team, while Michael was in the red team.

              Five minutes later, I was sprinting across the field, dribbling the ball towards the goal post. One more shot, and my team would win. The score was five to five. I deftly moved the ball away from my opponents, passing to my team members. I ran towards the goal post, hoping that I could help my team members. I looked at the clock, there were 30 seconds left. Then, the ball suddenly spun towards me. I stopped and directed it towards the goal post. One good kick, and I would win.

              As I raised my foot to kick the ball, a sudden weight slammed into my side. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground clutching my now broken arm. Then, a loud cheer was heard from the other side of the field. Michael Lim stole my ball and scored again. He was the one who pushed me. As my teammates helped me to the sick bay, I caught his eye. Instead of looking proud that he had won, his eyes conveyed a type of… regret?

              That night, I turned on my phone to talk to my cousin Mike. We had not met since we were four years old, but we were close. “Today, some boy broke my arm!” I sent him a message.

              Instantly, I got a reply. “Are you alright?” Along with a shocked emoji face.

              I looked down at my bandaged left arm and huffled, “Other than being unable to write for a while, I will be fine.”

A minute passed, before he replied, “Today, I accidentally injured a girl. I think I broke her arm…” Then, he added, “Strange, the same thing happened to us today,” Our conversation ended that night.

              The next morning, I came to school only to find a bag of my favourite chocolate chip cookies on my table. I squealed and ripped open the bag, devouring it. “Who placed it here?” I wondered. “Think later, food first.” I shoved another cookie into my mouth, and smiled. From the corner of my eye, I saw a shadowy figure disappear from outside my classroom.

After school, I learnt from my parents that there would be a family gathering tonight, and Mike would be coming over! I was so excited that I had forgotten about my homework, and was running around my house, helping in any way I could with my uninjured arm.

              That night, as I passed around the food among my relatives, the bell rang.

Buzzing with excitement, I rushed to open the door. My face was almost split in half by the large grin on my face. “He is finally here!” I thought to myself excitedly. I swiftly unlocked the door, only for my grin to fall off my lips. Shock pulsed through me as I looked into the face I had never expected to see at my doorstep. The unexpected guest’s mirrored my own.

             “You?” Both of us exclaimed in unison, shock clear in our voices.

             Now, I stood face to face with Michael Lim at my doorstep. “You are Mike?” I gaped.

             “And you are Della, my cousin Della?” his eyes wide with shock, glancing behind me like he was expecting another ‘Della’ to appear.

             It turned out, Mike was Michael, and my cousin was someone whom I both liked and loathed. We sat silently for a good five minutes, before throwing questions at each other. All of our relatives laughed at our unusual friendship, causing me to flush red with embarrassment. I later found out that the bag of cookies was given to me by Michael- Mike- Michael- I did not even know what to call him now! It was an apology gift, as he dared not stand face-to-face and apologise.

             “I know we were not on good terms in school, but could we start over and try to be friends?” I asked, extending my hand. He smiled and nodded, shaking my hand.

             A year later, we were good friends. There was still the old rivalry between us, but it would end up with us laughing at each other. The canteen ‘fights’ became helping each to buy their food. The soccer CCA ‘fights’ were the same, but we always helped each other, returning whatever we stole from each other.

             An expected encounter turned into an unexpected friendship.

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