Addiction Burns

Punishment

The next few days, while Mr Peng didn't give away all his lesson times, during the most of the lessons that he did appear, there was much tension, although as the days went by he softened and started to treat everyone better. Everyone, that is, except Nova.

He no longer considered Nova part of the class. Everything that came out of his mouth referred to the class as having 30 people, when actually there were 31 in 312, including Nova. It was as if he was neglecting Nova's existence. Nova could not take it anymore, and when the time came for everyone to sign to acknowledge their marks for the Math and Additional Math papers, Nova simply put a cross there. When Mr Peng demanded why he had done that Nova retorted, "You don't consider me part of the class!"

"You choose. You sign that, or you follow me down to the General Office and tell the principal everything to get me fired!" said Mr Peng. Of course, Nova had no choice but to submit, since he earned many dirty stares from his classmates after that. That day, after he reached home, he locked himself in his room, buried his head in his pillow and silently sobbed for about 10 minutes. After that, he unzipped his pencil case and took out his beloved rusted penknife. And took 5 swift swipes across his wrist. After that he slowly slid across the wrist, the friction spilling blood which dried quickly. This calmed him down somewhat.

The next few weeks, Nova regularly feigned illness to either skip school or lessons, and also told his classmates about his cutting experiences, just to get the attention of Mr Peng and the rest of 312, and to make them worry about him. While this mostly backfired, Mr Peng stopped his emotional assault, but still blew hot and cold frequently.

One day, Mr Peng came into class and said, "312, I have signed us up for a mini garden making competition. This one will have a lot of CIP hours. I'd any of you have time to stay back and contribute, please do. But I need a lot of manpower over the next few weeks." Most of the class volunteered, since CIP hours were very sought after. Nova, as an effort to patch things up with Mr Peng and 312, also volunteered to stay back to help.

That day, he told his mother that he would be home very late because he'd be participating in CIP, and stayed back with most of 312. He had cordial conversation with some of them while cutting cardboard to form the garden, although Mr Peng generally did not talk to him.

Suddenly, while using a penknife to slice a piece of cardboard, Nova accidentally stabbed his index finger. Immediately he said, "It's an accident," before running to the toilet where Gerald met him later and passed him a plaster. After that, nothing else happened.

After the class left, Nova decided to make his way to the city area to unwind. He toured the streets and also went into one of the posher shopping malls, called Paragon. He tweeted, "At Paragon now!:)", never knowing that such a mild action would make him regret in the future.

Two days later, Mr Peng was once again blowing hot and cold to the class. He was infuriated that none of them had gotten all their work done, and wanted to check each and every one of their exercise books. He started checking the books, one by one, from the side away from Nova's. Nova, knowing very well that he had not completed the work and that he would be done for, constantly stared at the clock, praying that it would be faster than Mr Peng's checking.

One by one, Mr Peng called out those who had not completed their work and gave them fierce dressing downs in front of the entire class. Many were shocked and upset, with Winnie left in tears. Finally, just when Mr Peng was about 5 seats away from Nova, the bell rang.

"I'll continue checking later, you all better be prepared or you'll be slaughtered!" Mr Peng warned loudly. The lesson after recess break was supposed to be English, but Mr Peng had swopped the period with Miss Neo. Nova knew that he had to do something, fast. He lay on his desk, head buried, looking feverish and pale. Lay Chun walked over and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I think I'm not feeling well, I feel cold, maybe it's hypothermia again," said Nova, and hinted that he had to be sent to the sick bay. Lay Chun sent him down, and as per protocol, informed Mr Han. Nova spent the time in the sick bay reflecting, deciding that after Mr Peng's lesson he would return to class.

Upon returning to class, Mr Han was there, and he started to interrogate Nova.

"You're not pretending to be sick right?" He asked. Nova shook his head.

"Where did you go on Monday night?" he continued.

"I went to Orchard," came Nova's weak reply. Mr Han then asked if he had told his mother, to which he gave a negative reply.

"Please go down and see Mr Brian Tan, Mr Peng and I cannot deal with you and protect you anymore." Mr Tan was the discipline master and Nova knew he was in hot soup.

"I've been told that you have been tweeting things about Mr Peng, and it's not just once or twice. Did you know that this breaks multiple school rules and you can be caned?" asked Mr Tan. He also showed Nova a tweet that he had retweeted, which was inappropriate, but Mr Tan claimed could offend people and thus violated a school rule.

"But it's a retweet!" Nova protested, but Mr Tan just enlarged his already bulbous eyes and screamed at him. Then he asked, "Where did you go on Monday night? Why didn't you tell your mother?"

Inside, Nova felt extremely indignant, wondering why the actual fuck must all these affairs be interfered with by the teachers. He's just digging up each already done everything that he can use against me, that disgusting unscrupulous bastard.

"I want you to write an apology to your mother, and also to serve detention for the next 5 school days, 3 hours each session, no excuses," said Mr Tan. Nova had no more hope for his life.

On the way home, Nova stopped by a supermarket and bought a packet of salt. He then went home and started crying. This is it. I give up. I must die tonight. He opened the pack of salt and started consuming mouthfuls of it. He then opened the medicine and multivitamins drawer in the kitchen and starting to pop all kinds of pills into his mouth, taking at least 50 in a go. He then went to sleep.

At about 9pm, he woke up, exasperated to find that he did not cause any damage and was instead perfectly fine. He took out his penknife, sobbing as he started to carve on his wrist again. He then texted Samuel that he would kill himself at 3.23 am the next dawn, to which Samuel replied, Don't be ridiculous.

I've lost all hope, Nova thought to himself, carving even more lines violently and more quickly. When 3.23 am came, he opened his window and started for the ledge, fully intending to jump down from his apartment in a bid to fall to his death. He repeatedly told himself, It only takes 5 seconds to decide to jump. However, he had no courage to do so and after 5 minutes of struggling he went back to bed, crying himself to sleep.

The next day when Nova returned to school, Samuel greeted him and said, "Please don't do this. I know you will not kill yourself. I want you alive," and then he hugged him. At least someone cares, Nova thought, full of emotion as he returned the hug.