I have not blogged in such a long time, I've almost forgotten how to log in.

A little something from my desktop blogging... (that's not worth much reading)




A Malaysian Story

His laughter came in short spurts as his breath caressed her hand. It stank of onions and goodness knows what else he had for lunch. Not only that, his rear end took up a third of her seat and he started talking loudly to his friend who was apparently seated two spaces to the right with no one sitting with him. Why must he talk into my ear? Gabrielle turned to face him, gave him a polite smile. “Would it be alright if you sat next to your friend? It’s quite disturbing for you to talk so loudly.” Apparently, Mr. Onion-Breath didn’t seem to see her or hear her protests as he continued braying along in his mother tongue. Definitely not Malaysian.

She glanced towards his friend and put on her ‘ask-your-friend-to-sit-with-you’ face but it obviously had no effect on him whatsoever. Onion-Breath’s friend started to say something and had that nasty look on his face. All of a sudden, the guy beside Gabrielle started elbowing her side. Like you didn’t take my seat already! She gave him a frown which was answered with a leer. Ok, I don’t like that look. She did a quick glance downwards to check what she was wearing. A collared T-shirt underneath a zipped-up sweater and baggy jeans. I’m not wearing anything body hugging or stare-worthy but hey, I’m being sized up like a piece of meat for sale. Which apparently to them, I am and I’m not even photogenic! She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and started to look for another seat as she wasn’t prepared to suffer the whole ten hour bus trip to Cameron Highlands. Why on earth didn’t I get onto the bus earlier? Oh no, I just had to go and gossip to my best friend, Michelle, about Chan Wei and his latest tryst with his girlfriend, Yee Sie, and they got caught on the university’s security camera. This has not happened once and it seemed so easy for them to get caught again, purposefully or not. Now, I’m stuck here with this buffoon because of my gossip-mongering. Michelle was lucky as her boyfriend had already gotten onto the bus beforehand.

Gabrielle spotted an empty seat near the front of the bus but she couldn’t see who was sitting in the other seat. Better there than here. She was halfway out of her seat when she felt a hand on her arm. She looked downwards and saw that it belonged to none other than Onion-Breath. Now, I’m annoyed. She tried to pry his fat fingers off her arm, but his grip tightened. “Please let go of my arm.” Moron. She had the courtesy to be polite and not say that in his face. Because his friend was two seats away, she was outnumbered. She wanted to land one in his face right there and then but since he already took up a third of her seat, she didn’t dare. He started flexing his arm muscles but clearly she wasn’t impressed. I may not be as beefed up as you are but I’m certainly no wilting flower. She wrenched her arm out of his vice-like grip and at the same time heard a growl behind her. “Hey, buddy, do as she says.” She whipped around and came face to face with Vincent Wong. He plucked her backpack out of her hands and started to shuffle her along the aisle towards the front of the bus. Omigawd, was that where he was seated? “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Onion-Breath nearly yelled. Vincent nonchalantly nudged her along without giving the beefy-red face a backward glance. “Gabrielle!” Now what? She peered over Vincent’s broad shoulders and saw her best friend, Michelle, - who was happily sitting with her boyfriend at the back- giving her the thumbs up. Like she didn’t know that I liked this Vincent guy for almost three years. And counting. Maybe because he’s never shown his evil side. Now you get to see it since you’re going to sit beside him. Oh, be quiet. It might not even be his seat.

Gabrielle felt her face turning red and hope to God in heaven that he wouldn’t notice it. Thank goodness Michie didn’t call me ‘Gabby’ or ‘Gabs’ as I don’t feel like I have the gift of gab at the moment. I’m quite tongue-tied. She parked her butt onto the seat near the window and noticed Vincent put her backpack in the overhead compartment before he sat beside her. “You get headaches when you don’t sit near the window right?”
“Huh?”
“Headaches. When you don’t sit near the window?” He looked at Gabby with a slight furrow on his forehead.
I’m not THAT dense until you have to break up your sentences. I can hear you but right now you’re sitting next to me and…“Yeah. How’d you know?”
“My sis has the same problem. She never talks or reads in the car. If she does, she complains of a headache and then blames me for it. I usually show her an interesting part of a book that I’m reading or start talking to her which will force her to look at me as we were taught from young that it’s rude for the talk to not look at the talker when he is talking.”
“What?”
“Alright, I get it. I’ll zip it.”
She wracked her brains to say something. The silence is deafening! “Thanks for helping me out.”
“No problem. You’d do the same. I always help those in distress.” Especially you, he muttered under his breath. Ever since he saw her tenderly bandaging the wounds of his kid sister not once but twice after she tripped and fell, he liked her instantly. That was in high school. Coincidently, they also enrolled into the same university.
“Excuse me?” She thought she heard him say something else that nearly made her jump out of her skin.
“Nothing. Just glad to be of help,” he said with a straight face.
She looked outside the bus window and watched as traffic passed by. Then, she returned her gaze to his face. His eyes were closed. “Vincent?” she whispered. He’s out like a light! She took this opportunity to study him. Not bad looking or too tall, hair done up in a way that make girls swoon. Brawn AND brains rolled into one. He can now add caring and charm to his list of accolades and what a delicious dessert we have. Gabby’s eyes went dreamy and she stared straight ahead but not seeing what was in front. Not that she usually did that. She never wasted her time on ‘what could have been’ but this one was an exception. She wasn’t going anywhere soon, and so was the guy beside her. Vincent tried to control his grin as he looked through the slits of his eyes. Oh, she didn’t notice him looking at her when she stared out of the window. He feigned sleep just as soon as he noticed she was about to turn her head. She suddenly broke out of her trance and caught him grinning through half-closed eyes. The cheek! He saw me staring into space! Worse, he could have seen me cow-eyeing him! Please, you’re neither kid nor teenager anymore. Get a grip. Gabby mustered enough dignity to look straight ahead and pretended not to notice. Vincent settled down to get some real shut eye and thought to himself, what a bundle of amusement she is.

Several hours later, when they filed out of the bus for dinner at a rest area, he insisted that he’d follow her in case the beefy-looking guy decided to give another go at her. Great, my knight in shining armour. Gabrielle rolled her eyes in disbelief and continued to eat her dinner. Vincent ate two plates of what she was eating plus vanilla ice cream. Talk about a hearty appetite. Michelle was nowhere in sight. Probably lip-locking with her boyfriend in the bus as an appetizer before coming down for dinner. After wolfing down her rice with potatoes, fried chicken and a salad, a glint of wickedness overcame her and she proceeded to walk towards the toilet. Not bothering to look back, she entered the toilet. She came out of the toilet with her hands wet from the tap water and was immediately hit by how deliciously handsome Vincent was, casually leaning against the pillar. She raised her eyebrows and then marched towards and up the bus. He followed suit. “Wait up. What’s wrong?”
“Just tired that’s all,” she thought it was a smooth lie but it almost felt true due to the 20 pages of A3-sized drawing assignment the day before and another 18 pages for design class. She only slept for 3 hours for both days and it was taking its toll. She didn’t sleep on the bus because she was too busy taking in the scenery even if it was just merely greenery and vehicles. She never slept on long legs of journey anyway especially when she’s in a bus. Seated next to a guy.
“Hmm. You should take a nap then.”
Gabby had no intention of sleeping just yet but in a few minutes time, she was dozing off. She was so tired that she didn’t even feel Vincent gently rest her head onto his shoulder.

The swerve of the bus jolted her awake. One thing about going uphill was the winding road which made her dizzy. Another was the smell of the tires due to the friction. She gingerly sat straight so as not to wake Vincent up. How did I end up sleeping on his shoulder? She was a light sleeper, not like her brother who could sleep through a fire alarm. She noticed something was not right as the bus driver’s head went up and down like a person about to nod off to sleep while watching a boring movie. Gabby looked towards the lecturer but Ms Malika was sound asleep. She was about to say something when things took a turn for the worse. The bus hit the divider and careened down the side of the hill. Vincent woke instantly and instinctively wrapped her into his arms. The last thing she saw was the world rotating 360 degrees before darkness consumed her.

Where in the world am I? I must have read another mushy romance-crime novel and fallen asleep. Her fuzzy memory cleared up and she realized what had just happened. Gabrielle tried to get up by pushing herself off the grass but the stab of pain in her right palm caused her wince. She sat up slowly and looked at her palm. It was almost too dark to see anything but one didn’t have to be a brain surgeon to know that it was damp, not with sweat, but with sticky blood. “Hello? Is anyone hurt?” She strained to catch a sound but heard nothing. God! Where’s Michelle? Ms Malika? The bus driver? Vincent? She turned her head towards where she thought was the highway and saw the number of headlights increasing. She could faintly trace out the silhouettes of people leaning over the divider to take a look but not one of them had a handphone to their ear. These people are just going to stand there and do nothing?

Adrenaline rushed in and she yelled as loudly as she could. “Call for help! 999!” That did it. The highway became a flurry of activity in what seemed like an eternity as the police redirected traffic for the fire department and ambulance to get through. Gabby kept calling out for anyone who was conscious or hurt but not an answer was given in return. Maybe they’re unconscious, or … She didn’t want to go down that lane again. She lost both of her parents. Her father, to another woman and then a car accident. Her mother, to cancer. She remembered crying at her father’s funeral and three months later, she was at her mother’s funeral, only that this time, she had no more tears to give. After the funeral, the first thing she did was look for a job. She only had her younger brother and worked part-time at a small designing firm, whose boss she knew through her ex-classmate, to put food on the table and pay bills. Thankfully they managed to get scholarships to public universities and she intended to keep it that way. That was why she never really bothered about guys or any guy in particular. Until now. “Gabby?” A hoarse voice she recognized sounded like a blessing to her ears. “Are you alright Vincent? Where are you?” Then, she realized that her handphone -although old tech- had a torchlight at the end. That will have to do. She ignored the pricks of pain and fumbled about for her phone. She stabbed at a few buttons and the light finally pierced the darkness. She waved the phone about and found Vincent, a few feet away, curled onto his side. She crawled over to him and assessed him.
“Do you feel any pain anywhere?”
“My left arm I should think.” He protected me. She moved his hair aside with her left hand and saw a deep gash on his forehead.
“It’s alright. Help’s coming,” she tried to comfort him as he clenched his jaw and grimaced.
She moved her phone around her and saw the damaged bus. The collision with the divider had certainly not sat well with the bus driver who was the first to hit it and he wasn’t a pretty sight. The bus looked like it was cleaved in two. Besides the two of them, no one else seemed to be moving or moaning in pain. She tried to look into the bus and to her horror, she recognized Michelle’s blinding pink hair band on a head that didn’t look like it belonged there at the back seat with her boyfriend. One of the reasons why she never ever sat at the back of a bus. Gabrielle hurriedly looked away and tried to blot out what she had just saw thinking that her eyes were playing tricks on her, or that this was just a terrible nightmare. She didn’t turn weak at the sight of blood but this was too much for her to take. And what was once her best friend in the bus, now became just another statistic along with the rest of them who died by the hands of irresponsible drivers. Life wasn’t a bed of roses but lately, it seemed like it was a bed of thorns. She swayed giddily in her sitting position as white stars blurred her vision. It was only a moment after that she realized that the men in fluorescent yellow uniforms were abseiling the hill in harnesses.

“Miss, please let me take a look at your injuries,” a medic asked Gabrielle as the fireman that carried her up in the harness, lowered her feet on solid ground. She was shaking so badly, she could barely stand up but the medic held her arm and brought her towards the back of the ambulance, away from the sight of the lined up bodies on the road. She recognized a severed finger not far away because of the silver ring that was still on it. The pale sausage-like finger was not hard to forget after it gripped her arm not more than a few hours ago. It was all she could do but throw up at the side of the road. A man in blue approached the ambulance.
“I’m Detective Wan Hafiz from Bukit Aman who just happened to be passing by and am now helping with the search and rescue team. Can you tell me your name miss?”
“Gabrielle Yang. Did this really happen?”
“How about you sit down here and let the medic tend to your cuts. You can tell me what happened,” he patted the bed in the ambulance.
“What about Vincent? Is he alright?”
“The young man they just brought up? He’s going to be fine. The medics say it’s just a gash and a broken arm. Nothing a few stitches and a sling can’t put right.” He tried to sound cheerful but then he realized it was a wrong move.
“I think my best friend died in the bus. I saw her… her hair band.” Gabrielle started crying silent tears.
“Shh… It’s ok, you’re safe now.” Detective Hafiz waited for her to talk.
“The bus driver…”
“Yes?”
“He was nodding off. That was the last thing I remembered right before he hit the divider. Would that be able to help you in your investigations?”
“That would, very much.”
“Do you know how many of us survived?”
“So far, only two of you. Where were you seated?”
“In front, on the right. I was there with Vincent. I think he must have pulled us down as the bus spun off the road. But I have no idea as to how we managed to get out of the bus.”
“You’ve been helpful and you should rest now.” The detective put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and was gone.




Monday 6 April 2009
Omg… I wanted to write this for MPH-Alliance Bank National Short Story 2009 but then, I realized that it sounded too ludicrous to continue and so I gave up. *snort* sigh, there goes the first prize of a laptop. T.T I hope you didn’t strain your eyes or nod off after the first few lines. I guess I don’t have the gift of writing stories… bwahaha.

It rained heavily today. We were all decked out in formal clothes only to be told that the rest of us wouldn’t have a mock presentation but face the real presentation with outside panels next Wednesday. This stinks. I think. So anyway, we went out for lunch and since they were already starving, I skipped changing clothes (I take LRT mah, don’t expect me to wear skirt and heels…). After eating, it rained like crazy! We were trapped! In the shop. -.-“ Waited for the rain to turn into a slightly less frightening torrential pour and we walked back to uni. In the rain. (We genii – plural for genius – forgot to bring our umbrellas – I got a new umbrella!!! –). With the help of a huge, translucent plastic bag which covers food from the flies that could shelter four people. Man was it fun! Even cars honked at us. XD

P.S. this entry was written on my desktop since panda complained in a subtle way that I was to update my almost non-existent blog…

P.S. 2 pictures will be later, say mebbe after my finals… 24 april or so…btw, I have 5 subjects this semester but only 3 exams. The other two are folio compilations and presentations. Next sem, (if I pass my subjects) I will only take four subjects! (with long hours I guess…).




Today:

Look at the dismal entries for this year!!! Can you believe I wanted to submit a story like that?? OMG... I nearly passed out with embarrassment re-reading it... (dunno why I'm posting it anyway...) It's like a romance-crime story gone wrong. Sheesh. I should take writing lessons. I've gotta write 30 pages worth of assignment info and I'm only at my 5th page. And I'm still here. DEADLINE: Monday 13/4/2009

Someone please be my superhero and help me finish this mess!!!

A week has passed. And guess what? The 'wtfb' thing doesn't work! I told you so! How do you do a strikethrough word like the sentence before? I had to type it in mic. word then copy and paste. Any better ideas?? Please don't tell me you do that. Nothing interesting happening this week so you don't have to hold on to your seats. Sitting here, wracking my head to blog about something is like watching toenails grow... Come on, come on...



The chocolate spot surprised and irritated her. Here she was, reading a brand new novel, and all of a sudden this 'magical' splotch seemed to fall out of the sky! She looked upwards only to go nose-to-nose with a chocolate ice-cream grin of the brat who was peering over her shoulder. Being a babysitter had it's merits, as she loved kids but this one was downright trying.

"Don't stand behind me like that and try to paint Mona Lisa on my book! Look what you just did!"

The kid continued grinning like the complete irritant he was and started for the living room, leaving a trail of melted, unhappy (yummy) chocolate in his wake. Smacking herself in the face, she shook her head and hurriedly went after him because he was about to sit on the sofa with a choco-stained elbow. Reminding herself why she took this job. Not only for the huge pay (after 6 babysitters had had enough of the little guy who brought ants nests as pets into the house) but for one sole reason:















THE REALLY CUTE HUNK THAT LIVED NEXT DOOR! Ho-yeah! The guy whom everyone claims is 'the prize' or 'the next Dempsey' had caught her attention all right. The only problem is:














She's never seen him before! It's been a week since she's been here and still no sign of this 'six-pack' hottie. That's what her over-the-top girl friends claimed when they saw him washing his car (rolls eyes). In actual fact, they came over to help her 'unstuck ' the little troublemaker's (Ben) mom's Thai silk skirt from the vacuum cleaner. Alison, Sue Zanne and Kath ended up staring (quite rudely) for a long time at the little car washing episode playing out right in front of their eyes while she had to explain to Mrs Joe about Ben's 'innocent spring cleaning'.

"Ben, stop wriggling about! You're gonna dirty the sofa." (Thank God for tissue paper and an apron. Quick thinking. Now my clean clothes would never get dir- )

"BENJEMIN JOE! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TRYING TO DO?! STOP TRYING TO DYE MY HAIR!" (Aw righto... No more ice-cream for you, you spoilt child). Looks like it would be a weekend therapy of ice-cream for her instead.

A movement on the veranda caught her eye. She swiveled. "Did you see that?" Ben became quiet all of a sudden. She frowned in thought. The Joe's were out for their wedding anniversary dinner and would only be back by midnight. She remembered latching the gate because she knew that the toddler would try to be 'ad-fen-churs-rous' (as he would say it). And this was a rich neighbourhood where bungalows were abound like ants to sugar. She wasn't taking any chances man. So why did she feel a sudden unease? Who or what was that?

She looked at Ben, who was now sucking on his chocolate thumb. Oo-kay. He didn't seem so troublesome now. She put him down and spied Mr Joe's golf bag. An array of irons and putters greeted her and she took the longest. Ben clutched the back of her jeans as she advanced to the veranda, not noticing the chocolate stain of which Ben's grubby fingers left. Reaching the veranda, she had goosebumps all over and as she raised the club, she noticed a Hawaii-style shirt floating towards her.

She gave a yelp and brought the iron down hard on whatever that was . The reply that came back was "Ooof" and a thud. (Stupid! You could have switched on the lights!) The mass of dark shadow groaned and












"WAIT! DON'T HIT ME! I just got back from Hawaii and I locked my house keys in my car. Don't hit me. Don't."

The light on the veranda came on and she saw the guy whom her girl friends had been raving about ever since the car wash drama. (Oh-my-shootie-crud. It's that - ?). She turned her head and saw Ben grinning by the light switches (He's smarter than me. Another smack on the head). Sigh and idiocy. She turned and the only thing she noticed was the swelling on his forehead.

"I'm Patrick and I live next door. I just need to borrow the phone. My hand phone died."
"Unkle Patwick!"
"Hey there, Ben..."
"Badd aim, Gabwie-ewwa" Ben giggled.

What could get any worse? Aside from the whack which she gave him, he looked exactly as her bff's had said. Only better. His dreamy (Dempsey??!), brown eyes, tall, tanned. And he was standing right h -

"Can I come in...?"
"Can I trust you?", she asked in return.
"You could knock me out if you wanted to", he grinned. (OMG!!! Even cuter!!!)
"Shoot, I'm really sorry about that."

She turned and hurriedly went into the kitchen for some ice. She came out to see no one around and she nearly screamed for leaving a toddler with a potential kidnapper when she heard giggling upstairs. She tore up the stairs two at a time (more exercise I've done in the past 3 years) only to see Patrick washing the toddler's sticky fingers and putting him into his jammies. (Looks like it's not going to be such a bad night after all).




I was really bored... Haha... I don't have essay word limits anymore and En Isk won't say that I the story is getting typical/draggy. XD Perhaps, I don't really write these kind of stories for Eng essay anyway. I remember writing an essay about killing a cockroach for exam. :p Btw, I don't like Dempsey cuz he's soooo not good looking. But hey, everyone has different opinion.