Bonnie & Clyde

I was never active at school with sports but I liked watching other girls run, play handball and badminton, tho. I used to play badminton with our maid as a kid, but somehow astigmatism developed as I grew older. I remember trying out for the school badminton team, but I just couldn’t focus. The shuttlecock flew towards me to the right and I aimed to the left, my racket slicing through the thin air into nothingness. Needless to say, I became the class clown.

I tried running, but my PE teacher said the way I ran “macam bawak bakul!”

Hmph. So much for inspiring teachers.

Other sports team didn’t want me because I couldn't run, couldn’t throw OR catch.

The remaining sports I could consider was gym ‘o’ rama, where a thousand over girls from my school performed on National Day a little dance number at Dataran Merdeka, along with other schools.

But.

We had to wear a scary looking round-necked, long-sleeved, knee-length, frilly, red and black satin costume while performing a little dance holding a white stick with a pink pom-pom tied to each end made from raffia strings. Depending on where you are positioned, some of us wore yellow and black, and the pom-poms were pastel yellow.

I never felt fuglier in my acne-adorned teenage years.

After 6 months of practice, we performed. Looking back, the whole routine sucked. There was no creativity, no innovativeness, no gracefulness. Basically it’s just a bunch of young girls running around awkwardly in gramps’ sexiest getup, waving their arms about. The climax of our routine was the ‘wave’ effect we achieved with the pom-poms.

Why did I go for it then? We were paid for every practice attended. If I am not mistaken, the total sum was RM150++. We were also allowed to skip classes (we were in form 4, our so-called honeymoon year). Eventually, we got to keep the costume and the pom-poms, but we had to return the white sticks. But that's not really a perk, is it?

And of course, there were boys. But fat chance of me attracting anyone in this curtain of a costume. What a waste cloth! The teachers must have known, hence the approved costume and dance design! :D