Beneath the forest canopy

School pranks

Rumors traveling like spiderwebs across the school corridors

Piano, disturbances and riddles...

One could not see apart the distinction of the false reality

They relied on the crowded mind power to differentiate an honesty

But tangled in the web of truths,

one will be eventually be caught in it,

when the truthsayer starts lying too

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We were told the school had constructed a statue near the fountain,

but it looked so realistic, we felt like being pranked

Geese was the bold one, poking the statue with a twig

Surprisingly, the statue wouldn't barge

Me: Are you a statue?

There were no response, the eye pupil never flicked

Juma, the dumb one, run towards the statue and stopped inches before hitting the girl

But the statue remained motionless

Eventually we got bored and head for the bus stop

When the school bus came, we spin our head and got spooked

The fountain girl was standing right behind us

Her skin was porcelain white

Her posture was straight upright

And her facial expression was blank, just like a statue's

Throughout the bus ride, the other school girls were staining our reputation behind our backs

Immediately, we turned into perverts

And no girls dared to cross our paths

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Cinder of sadness and soil of guilt buried into our footsteps, we started distancing from each other

Blink: Where is the girls' restroom?

Me: That's a strange question for I am a guy

Blink: The girls' restroom have been renovating for so long

Me: I heard they are adding a swimming pool in it

Blink walks away and discussed with Sphere

Sphere walks to Geese: Have you heard that they are making a swimming pool in the girls' restroom?

Geese: Huh? Your restroom haven't completed yet? The boys restroom already have water slides in it already

Sphere walks away and discussed with Jenny

Jenny talks to her beside classmate (Juma): Do you have water slides in the boys' restroom?

Juma: There is even watery playground and water catapults

Blink, Sphere and Jenny walks together to the renovating girls' restroom: Maybe they forgot to take away the renovating sign

They peeked in but was disappointed, it was still half-renovating

The embarrassed male construction workers quickly move out

So the girls continued their business, when they left the restroom, they decided to check on the boys' restrooms, just a diagonal peek without entering

They saw an ordinary restroom, and the incoming boys were laughing at them

"Perverts"

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More and more students fell into the trap of fiction, people became unhappy and unwilling to trust each other anymore

The principal announced: No more lies, no more pranks, grow up and join a school club today

Blink: The school clubs are optional, we can go home now

Sphere: I should tell everyone then

Jenny: Does that means I dun have to setup table and sit there to recruit new members?

The school club event was mostly empty, everyone already went back home

The principal and the senior club members waiting to recruit members were disappointed

Discouraged, the principal started making school clubs optional

Everyday, after school, we just went back home and watch TV

Our lives became entwined with the shallow television shows

We are separated from each other, sinking into our home's sofa

Me: Mum, dad

Parents: Why are you back so early? Dun they have tuition or school clubs?

Me: I think many of the school clubs shut down already because of lack of participants

Parents: Dun worry about it, we will talk to them about it

Me: Can't you bring me out for shopping instead

Parents: We have to work, silly

Within a few months, the school have constructed a community garden, everyone started hanging out there for the fresh breath of air and chit chatting with mates

Blink: People should really know more about this zen garden

Me: It seems like a half effort of combining the nearby forest together by dismantling the school fence

Sphere: That makes it more natural, see all the wildlife and fresh air

Geese sipping on his sugary drink

Jenny playing with her tarot cards

Juma slogging a hoe on his back

Me: What are you doing?

Juma: Plotting a pathway, people hate stepping on the mud on rainy days

Eventually, we used those cheap gravels to plot the road, and bring abandoned school chairs and tables to the wild garden and make it into a more welcoming resort, students can eat or study here now

Every now and then, a lady would come over and teach about the forest animals and plants, she gave us pots to cultivate our own herbs and cages to house our caught wild pets

On senior year, the lady turns out to be a biology teacher and is in charge of the science club, she happily registered all of the participants as science club members even including our previous junior years and had wrote good remarks on our academic transcripts

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Radio: Auntie was lost

Me: She seems to be heading towards the world war 2 cemetery

Radio: Nobody have visited there in years, and there is a cliff there

Me: Understood

I am 30 years old with muscular thighs, bringing a survival bag, I walked steadily along the forest grounds

The stick insect on the tree log stopped moving when it spotted me

The yellow-chest bird stopped chirping when it sensed me

The black salamander whipped into the river after hearing my boots trampling on crumpled leaves

Me: Auntie, you can't take the tree

The old auntie had dug out a bonsai tree near the cliff and carefully wrap it with a newspaper

Auntie: Mind your own business

I flipped open my identity purse

Green tree symbol circling a mountain diagram

Me: I am a park warden, this is kinda my business

The auntie gave up and returned back the bonsai tree

Auntie: But this tree looks so good

Me: It looks good because it is settled on a cliff, the wind blew against the branches and shaped it this way, the direct overhead sun spur a crown direction growth of its canopy leaves, once you bring it back to your home, it would starts to decay, even if you managed to save it with artificial lights and pesticides, it would start bending out of shape

Auntie: You are very knowledgeable

Me: Just trying to convince you madam, this cliff is made of soil not rocks, it would sink any time

Auntie nods her head and I brought her back to park entrance

Radio: She's safe? Dark is setting

Me: Yes, Juma, patrol concluded