The Form 3 Incident

I remember the time when I was in Form 3. There was an assignment that needed to be handed over; a History assignment, in fact. The teacher requested it to be 'written with a computer', (I swear that was what she said!) and so being it completed using a word processor it had to be printed out.

Now, History was my favorite subject; I've always managed to score high marks in my tests, but alas for my SPM the examiner only gave me a bloody C. Talk about injustice. The facts were precise, writing was neat, it had the makings of an A paper. What the hell went wrong? Why did they have to ruin my life?

Ok, that's a bit too much.

Err.. where was I? Oh yeah, the assignment. It so turns out that I completed the assignment, and printed it out (back then my printer still existed) a week before the submission date.
Where is this going actually, you ask me?

Well, my best buddy cum classmate, Vincent's printer ran out of color ink , and my BC-05 just managed to print out a page with full-color, leaving another 2 looking like they've been left out in the sun for 2 days.

So, I accompanied him to the mall to get his assignment printed; where the mall had loads of CCs, cyber cafes if you will. We went asking around and the price was just too expensive, a color page was charged RM1.50 back then. I know, it might sound inexpensive now; but then the price was too much, furthermore we were just 2ndary school students.

We opted to go look for some shops outside the mall, and happened to chance upon a printing shop located in a housing area. The shop had tinted glass, so you can't look inside unless you press your nose on it. Initially Vincent was hesitant, but I assured him that I'll do the talking.

We went in and was greeted by a pretty girl sitting at the front desk. Clearly she was a receptionist and addressed us in Mandarin. Now, I've got a confession to make. During my school days, I studied in a Malay school, and was brought up in an English-speaking environment. Therefore, my command of Mandarin was almost null back then. So when she addressed us in Mandarin, I was unable to speak.

There was a photocopy machine just beside the entrance, Vincent and I kept staring at the photocopy machine while whispering among ourselves;

Vincent: Ei, she's talking to u la! (stares at the photocopy machine)

Me: I don't know how to speak Mandarin la! Die la! (stares at the photocopy machine)

Vincent: Who was the one who said he's gonna do the talking?! (continues to stare at the photocopy machine)

Me: How should I know? I didn't expect she'd talk in Mandarin. You know I'm banana-man! (continues to stare at the photocopy machine)

Vincent: You talk la! (staring hard at the photocopy machine)

Me: YOU talk la! (staring hard at the photocopy machine)

This kept on for 5 minutes, and all the while the girl was standing patiently and smiling kindly at us. At last, vincent plucked up the courage and told her we had something to print. She asked what was the material, whether was it for the school magazine and she asked us how many pages; 200, 300 pages?

We were shocked and told her that we wanted to print only..... 3 pages. She surpressed a giggle and kindly told us that this was a printing press and the minimum pages to be printed would be at least a 100 pages. Imagine our embarassment then. First we made a fool of ourselves by staring at a photocopy machine for 5 minutes, and then learnt that this place don't print your everyday school assignment.

We blushed furiously and apologized profusely as we scurried out. She was kind and told us to try the cyber cafe which was located a few lots away.

In the end, we went back to the CC at the shopping mall, with Vincent asking for the printing money from his parents.