Sudah 4 bulan Ahmad menjadi ketua kelas 3 Cemerlang. Ahmad ingatkan bila dia masuk darjah 3, dia boleh berlari-lari keliling kelas semasa cikgu pergi mesyuarat. Dia ingatkan dia boleh menyertai liga lawan pemadam yang dianjurkan oleh Ramzul semasa darjah 2 dahulu. Dia ingatkan dia boleh melepak di bawah pokok pisang sebelah kantin dan bersembang pasal wrestling yang dia tidak minat pun. 

Tetapi sekarang, Ahmad tidak boleh lagi.

Ahmad sudah menjadi ketua kelas. Entah mengapa Cikgu Kamariah terus melantiknya menjadi ketua kelas tanpa proses demokrasi. Ahmad terasa hak-haknya sebagai seorang kanak-kanak dicabul oleh seorang wanita tua.

Setiap pagi, Ahmad tiba di kelasnya pada pukul 7 pagi. Setibanya dia di kelas, dia akan memadam papan hitam dan menepuk-nepuk pemadam papan hitam di dinding luar kelasnya untuk menyingkirkan habuk kapur.

Kalau ada orang yang tak sapu sampah mengikut jadual tugas yang ditampal di belakang kelas, Ahmad kena menjadi garang kepada orang tersebut. Pada usia 9 tahun, memarahi kawan supaya mereka berbuat kebaikan adalah sangat tak cool. Mengajak mereka curi pemadam di kedai buku adalah cool. 

Sepertimana biasa pada hari Isnin, semua murid berhimpun di dataran untuk perhimpunan. Tetapi kerana Ahmad ketua kelas, dia kena duduk paling hadapan barisan sekali. Ahmad sedih. Dia tidak dapat main baling-baling batu kecil ke tudung budak perempuan. Dia tidak dapat menyanyikan parodi lagu Negeri Selangor dimana dalam satu liriknya berbunyi "Rakyat baling batu, bawah duli Tuanku".

Tetapi perhimpunan pagi hari itu lain sikit. Cikgu Fauziah Ibun mengumumkan bahawa hari ini ada pertandingan keceriaan dan kebersihan kelas. Kelas yang menang akan dapat hadiah. Ahmad berhenti mendengar selepas perkataan 'hadiah'. Ahmad membayangkan yang liar-liar. Kelas 3 Cemerlang ada carpet. Kelas 3 Cemerlang cuti seminggu. Kelas 3 Cemerlang dapat pergi rombongan ke Cameron Higland percuma.

Sejam sebelum waktu rehat, semua guru berada di bilik mesyuarat. Mungkin itulah sebabnya Cikgu Fauziah Ibun membuat pertandingan tersebut fikir Ahmad 15 tahun kemudian. 

Semasa cikgu-cikgu bermesyuarat, Ahmad perhatikan tiada siapa pun yang ambil port pasal pertandingan itu.  Kelas 3 Maju tengah huru-hara. Kelas 3 Rajin tengah battle Digimon. Budak darjah 5 berlari-lari sepanjang koridor. Budak darjah 6 lepak di tandas ramai-ramai.

Ahmad memerhatikan kelas pimpinannya. Lantai tak bersapu. Langsir herot-berot. Meja cikgu senget. Meja murid berterabur bila Ramzul dikejar Syafikah yang hanya mahukan bekas penselnya balik. Ahmad tidak pandai menjerit. Jadi Ahmad cuba menyelesaikan hal itu dengan tangannya sendiri. Literally.

Ahmad tidak marah apabila budak-budak kelasnya tak tiow dengan pertandingan tersebut. Tetapi Ahmad marah apabila tiada budak-budak kelasnya yang mahukan hadiah tersebut. Ahmad menghalakan kemarahannya dengan mencapai sebatang penyapu di belakang sudut kanan kelas.

Disapunya kelas sehingga tiada habuk dan sampah kelihatan di lantai. Dengan kaki-kaki orang disapunya sekali. Kemudian, Ahmad mengelap tingkap pula sebelum mengemaskan meja cikgu. Disusunnya bunga di atas meja cikgu seperti yang dia lihat maknya selalu buat. Selepas itu, Ahmad menyusun satu demi satu meja budak-budak kelasnya. Disusunnya buku mereka kemas-kemas di bawah meja. Susunan meja juga diperkemaskannya. Zarina yang conscience nya tinggi tak macam budak-budak kelas lain membantunya menyapu lantai kelas yang kembali kotor selepas Radhiatun membuat sampah pemadam.

Sampai waktu rehat, Ahmad puas hati melihat keadaan kelasnya. Kemas, bersih dan teratur. Ahmad dan Zarina menyusun kerusi cantik-cantik sebelum keluar rehat.

***

"Kamu semua gotong-royong bersihkan kelas ke tadi?"

"Tak. Ahmad sorang yang sapu kelas semua" balas Zarina kepada Cikgu Kamariah.

Ahmad menikmati Apollo Chocolate Wafer seperti tidak mendengar apa yang Cikgu Kamariah tanya. Budak-budak 3 Cemerlang yang gampang tidak menolong Ahmad juga turut menikmati Apollo Chocolate Wafer yang dimenangi kelas 3 Cemerlang.

I got a big interview tomorrow. To get this interview, I endured two series of phone interviews. Goddamn. How many interviews a brother have to do before he can get the damn job? Ah yes. I resigned my job as an R&D Engineer two weeks ago. It's a good job but I don't wanna be cooped up in a lab all day long. I need a fresh challenge.

And what better time to be unemployed than now. Merely one week away from fasting month and then come the Hari Raya. God, I hate Hari Raya. Every year, I have to face a gauntlet of judging eyes from my aunts, asking me how much my salary is, why the hell I'm driving a shitbox instead of some BMW or Toyota, why I don't have fucking IPhone..It's sad that we're living in a society that judge people by his/her possessions.

I try not to think much about the interview. It's just gonna made me worse. I read in Reader's Digest that I found in a garbage bin couple years ago, try to set our mindset as a 'value-adder', not as a 'job-seeker' whenever approaching an interview. Basically, I have to make a distinction out of the other job candidates. Maybe I'll be wearing my pink shirt tomorrow. Then, the interviewers will be all like - "Oh...that pink shirt guy! He's gorgeous innit?"

God, I haven't been this nervous since the countdown of 100m dash final of Sukan Tahunan Sekolah Kebangsaan Doktor Abdul Latiff in 2000 - which I finished second last.

Since I was a kid, I have always loved music. I was selected as one of the Chinese dance performers when we had this inter-kindergarten dance show back in 1995. I auditioned and got picked to play drums for school orchestra only to find out we had to play Cindai during Hari Penyampaian hadiah in 1999. Man, I thought orchestra was just as cool as Iklim.

On 2002, I saved up my monthly allowance money to buy a walkman. Back in my days, a walkman was not considered an item of luxury. Everyone had one. It doesn't matter what brand did you buy (Sony, Aiwa, Panasonic, some weird cheap-ass China-made brand, what else..?), because as long as you had one, you were cool. I bought a decent Sony walkman worth RM70.

When you have a walkman, it's always nice to have some cassette tapes too. Apis Awang is famous because of his incredible cassette tapes stack lined up nicely in his locker. I used to stare at his collections in awe. And he was real particular and cautious when I wanted to borrow his cassette tape because at that time a cassette tape worth at least RM25! That was half of monthly allowance money!

But I saved my money anyway in pursuit of my first cassette tape. I didn't go for a blank cassette tape which you can record songs in it to make mix tapes. I wanna buy a real record from real artist. Not Ceramah Motivasi Pelajar Cemerlang tape. Eventually, I saved up enough money and bought a Blink 182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket tape in Terminal Seremban.

To be honest, I didn't even know why in the world would I buy a Blink 182 tape. I didn't even knew them. Heck, I didn't even knew what 'take off' means back then! I just picked the tape out of moment of randomness.

Now, it has been 9 years I've been listening to Blink 182. People told me to get over this 'crappy' pop punk thing and start listening to some real punk stuff. Like Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains and all those hardcore stuff. I did but I won't get over pop element in rock music. And that's when I learned to respect other people interests.

The latest Blink 182 album was released two weeks ago and I bought the record (and the old records too. It's sort of my effort to get my brothers to start listening to them). But I've got one question for you guys...

Is it me or listening to your favorite records from childhood just give you the chills and a feeling of deja vu? Can a record be some sort of a time machine?