How to NOT be an Asian Failure

3. Get Into a Good School

As the principal was announcing the top scorers for the PSLE, my mum hovered around my shoulder. "Kai Le," she impatiently urged, "where's your name?" 

My eye twitched slightly so she wouldn't see. We were supposed to be sitting in our classes, with our parents waiting behind the school hall. Obviously, my mother could be denser than lead when it came to following social norms. She sat next to me, earning the curious if not judgemental looks from my classmates. 

"Ma, can you go to the back," I whined. Kelly Lee, one of the cuter girls in class was giving my mother several annoyed looks at the way she was loud enough to be a disruption to my classmates. 

"How can I go back?" She shot, "you haven't stood up yet. How will everyone know I'm your mother otherwise?" 

My eye twitched again when Kelly, once again, turned around and gave my mother another are-you-serious look. Mortified couldn't cover how I felt. 

"And that's all we have," our principal announced. "Students, you may now look for your form teachers to get your results." 

"Kai Le!" My mother exclaimed, "how can you not be a top scorer? Do you know what this means?" 

I flinched. I did. And now, because of her big mouth, so did the rest of my classmates. I wanted, so badly, an earthquake to suddenly hit Singapore so that my classmates could focus on something other than my public humiliation and that the report cards could suddenly just disappear. 

After my mother's words, I no longer had a desire to get my grades back. If it wasn't good enough to get me into Raffles, then what was the point. 

"Kai Le! What's wrong with you today?" My mother pushed, "why are you just sitting there? Collect your grades faster!!" 

I scowled as I saw several of my classmates giggling at my mother. I was furious. Did she have to always speak her mind?

I stomped (I really did) my way to where my form teacher was. Her eyes softened a little as she passed me the card. I impatiently tore away the strips at the edges to the point where I started tearing the report card as well. My mother took it away from me with a comment about my being incompetent. 

As she peeled away the edges, she handed it back to me. 

"So how did you do?" She questioned. 

As I slowly looked through my grades, everything looked in order. A for English, A for maths, A* for science, A for Chinese and an A for higher Chinese. By all accounts, it should have been good. 

Then I saw my score. 

240. 

As I stared at it, I was numb. How could I possibly have gotten such a low score for my grades? "Kai Le! What did you get?" 

I might as well have tossed the cursed sheet of paper to my mother. I watched as her face fell when she read the score. "Huh? Why so low?" She scanned the entire sheet of paper as if she'd find a more favourable score. "I pay for your tuition for what?" 

I winced. 

"We will talk about this when we get home," she said in silent fury. 

I watched jealously as my classmates all went around comparing grades, wishing that I, too, could join them. Unfortunately, I had my mother around, which made most of them avoid me like the plague. Especially since many of them weren't particularly fond of her. 

I gave my primary school one last look before I left. 

My mother paced the living room while my father casually lounged on the recliner. "What are we going to do?" She asked, stressed about my results.