Page 46 - 2023/24 Kaleidoscope Volume9

SM1 - 2nd RuRR nner Up - Hiew Jun Ian (4AC Zhong)

“Ring...” the electronic rooster woke me up again. As I looked outside, the sky
was clearly cloudy and it was, in faff ct, raining. I took a look at my phone, alas! It

was already 6:30 a.m.! I had set the alarm foff r Saturday on a Friday morning.
Frustrated and panicking, I dragged myself to shower and have breakfaff st as I

mumbled about having such bad luck in the morning. Little did I know, things
were about to take a turn foff r the worse.

I made my way to the train station half-ff asleep. When I made it there, I
plopped myself onto a bench and started gazing at the rainy mountains. “What a

nice weather to sleep in,” I thought, “If only it could be Saturday today.” I
watched and watched as the station started fiff lling up with people. When people
started to shove themselves onto the platfoff rm, I suddenly realised something

weird. There was no train! I looked at the schedule boarrdd and noticed that the
next train was coming at precisely 47 minutes. That’s a faff r cryy frff om the usual 4-
minute interval! I looked online and foff und out that a faff llen tree had blocked the

train tracks. At this point, I was fuff rious.

47 minutes later, the train fiff nally foff und its way to us. I was boiling in fuff ry as I

fo f f und out I was boarding a train fiff lled with sweaty businessmen and annoyed
students like me. I did not want to reach school late, so I had no choice but to be

packed with them. It turned out that I was going to be late anyway, as the ground
below my destination station was flff ooded.

Apparently, a river nearby started overflff owiinngg hhhaaalff an hour ago. My teeth were
grinding as I could have reached school on time if that tree had not faff llen on the

train tracks. Having no choice other than staying in the station, I called my class
teacher and explained my situation. I was then infoff rmed that school was cancelled
today as the compounds of the school were flff ooded as well. “Calm down, Ian…” I

told myself,ff “Things are not going to get worse than this…”

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