"Gaes! Gaes! Come and join my tutorial cum review today!"

Gaes—From 'guys,' mostly used by Twitter's users and now Tiktok's too.

Not even a minute after the bell rang, the class was already in chaos. The loudest one, Cintya, invited the others to join her tutorial. I didn't even need to cast a glance to know that those girls surrounded her table and made a fuss.

If she invited them to do a tutorial, it meant she recently bought a new make-up tool to be uploaded to her YouTube channel, while other guys in the class would sometimes appear in the video to make it more lively. I didn’t know whether Cintya was as patient and humble as a monk or their shamelessness as wide and deep as the Pacific Ocean.

"What did you buy, Sin?" Meta asked, she was sitting next to Cintya.

Putri, Linda, Mirna, and Lisa should have gathered at their table too. As usual, messed Cintya's makeup tools up.

"This one is the newly released mascara by mekover, really good I tell you. I used it yesterday. Try it."

Mekover—It's Make Over, all.

"Waterproof, huh?"

"Why is it so watery?"

"That’s why it’s good, it won't clump on the eyelashes."

Listening to them, somehow my eyelashes felt a bit itchy. I had no idea why.

"Eh, where's your liptint?" Linda took all the stuff out of Cintya's pouch.

While Cintya was still applying the eyeliner on in front of the recording video, she merely gave a short response, "Find it then."

It's not me that paid attention to them doing their make-up—please, I'm not that free. It was just, coincidentally, Iko sitting at the table behind me, calling me out.

"Eh, you're the treasurer, Nin?"

I just showed a face that said “I don't care if I'm really the treasurer or not” all over it. And Iko scratched the side of his forehead which I was sure wasn't itchy. "Yaelah, Nin. Selow, I merely ask."

My stoic face was back. At the time I turned my head to the door, I saw Iqbal who entered the classroom screaming out loud. That guy’s timing to return to class was just right, surely right after the second break time bell rang. When I arrived at the first break time, that guy also disappeared when the first break time was about to end. I suspected that he joined the classmeeting's technical guidance just to skip classes.

t.n. If you were confused, let me explain. So, Nina came on the first break, there was still Iqbal in the class. And when the first break was about to end, Iqbal went out the class (the reason is to join the classmeeting's technical guidance). Class started again and now, the second break time, Iqbal came in again right on time while the others with same reason were already in the class before the second break.

"Woi! Woi! Woi! Big news!"

Why the hell, every time he comes in, he shouted. I mean, could he just selow even a bit?

"Fuck! It spilled down!" Lisa yelled and cursed Iqbal out loud, "You! It spilled on my skirt because of you! Fuck!"

"The skirt is getting red!" Linda panicked and yelled too.

"Aduh, you guys, don't be too loud, let me review first!"

Aduh—Similar to OMG but with way more exaggerated gesture.

I hadn't seen them, so I didn't know how big the fuss was over there.

"It’s your fault, Bal!" Lisa yelled again, not caring about Cintya who already rebuked her.

I felt bad that her video was so messed up. Well, the truth was… that was the risk she had to take if she involved these hillbillies. I, too, had experienced it when I was shooting a short film last year. I felt like… aging ten years older after that shooting.

In front of me, in front of the blackboard, Iqbal just shook his head with a hurt face. "You did it yourself, still I'm the one who got the blame. What a girl."

(Cewek memang) What a girl—A saying used to generalize one thing a girl did as if every girl does the same.

t.n. Here, Iqbal said that every girl always blames others for things that actually are their own fault.

Because of his comment, Lisa was fuming with anger.

Suddenly Iqbal and Lisa started playing chase and catch in the classroom. The others cheered, making things more heated. Even Cintya stopped her tutorial, instead, recorded their chase and catch on camera while laughing out loud. Forgot that the liptint they wasted was hers.

Indeed, what an idiot.

To make it more and more heated, I even heard Putri blabbing about the news of Lisa confessed and was rejected by Ketos, and reached Ketos' ex's ears, all of it because of Iqbal.

(Ketua OSIS) Ketos—Means Student Council President. It's too long so I simply use Ketos.

I still remember it vividly, an incident that anyone in the school would never forget. You could imagine it simply like the fight scenes in those sinetrons that Mbak Siti liked to watch, they grabbed and pulled each other's hair as if whoever won could get Ketos.

Sinetron—Indonesian TV series.

Mbak—Means 'older sister' but not really to call a woman who is older than the caller. Calling someone by their name (front name or short name) is weird if you were not their family or friend. Like, someone you know but not close enough to be counted as friends. They prefer use titles like mbak/mba/embak/mbakyu or teh/teteh or kak/kakak or mpok/empok and so on...

It turned out that Iqbal was a Caladium purebred.

(Biang keladi) A Caladium purebred—Means the source of problem, the culprit.

t.n. Actually I can easily translate that part as 'the culprit was Iqbal' but it sounds boring. While Caladium itself many times used to describe someone with an unbridled act. (E.g. (Tua-tua keladi) 'Like an aged Caladium' means someone who gets older yet still acts like a child/teenage. Or (Air di daun keladi) 'Water on a Caladium' means someone who won't listen to others' advice.)