An Unknown World

It is now recess time.

Everyone went out of the classroom to go to the canteen and some went to other places instead of the canteen.

Barry, who would always spend his break time alone, has now accepted an invitation from Ethan, who invited Barry to join him to eat together with him and his other friends at the canteen.

Ethan waits for Barry outside the class as Barry is busy cleaning up his place and prepares everything that is needed for the next class.

The other reason why Ethan did this is because of one of their past conversations they had recently.

At that time, while they were doing their homework in class, Barry had asked Ethan about bringing him to tour around the school while exploring throughout the whole school compound together.

One of the places that Barry requested him to explore was the canteen. So that is why Ethan brought Barry with him to the canteen, along with his intention of making Barry to be more open and sociable with other students.

When Ethan noticed that Barry has already come out from class, both of them headed straight towards to the canteen.

As they reached the canteen, only now was Barry able to see how the school canteen looks like.

The canteen is behind the school hall and is next to two school blocks which are connected with it. The school canteen is long in length but not really wide in width. Half of the flooring of the canteen is covered with peach-colored tiles, while the other half is just concrete cement. There are also a lot of tables and chair made of steel.

When they step into the canteen, Barry saw that the canteen was crowded with students lining up to buy food and drinks. Even all the tables were full of students who were eating and drinking at the table.

But luckily for Barry, he has brought some snacks from home to school. So he does not need to buy any food at the canteen.

Ethan then shows Barry around the canteen. There, he learned that the canteen is divided into two parts.

One is run by Chinese, while the other one is run by Malays.

There is also a small place reserved only for teachers to eat their meals. There are three places where students can wash their hands. One is next to the Chinese-ran canteen, another one is next to the Malay-ran canteen, and the other is next to the one-way entrance-exit of the canteen.

After Ethan has finished showing Barry around the canteen, he then brings Barry to meet with his friends.

But before he could do so, he asked Barry to wait for him somewhere close to the Chinese-ran canteen as he buys food there.

Barry did what Ethan had told him to do and waited for him at the corner of the said canteen.

As Barry waited for Ethan to buy his food, he mumbled some words to himself.

“Wow... the canteen is really crowded with people at this hour, huh? It’s a good thing I don’t need to buy any food here at all, since I have brought some of this chocolate milk flavored layer cake snack with me. If not, I would go hungry if I were to queue up just to buy food. But the other thing is that even the tables are all used up. Where would the others eat then? While standing up? That’s too bad. But I guess there’s no use saying this if the others haven’t finished their food...”

Not long after that, Barry saw Ethan came out from the queue with his food and they search for a place to sit down.

Luckily for them, the table where Ethan’s friends are sitting down still has two more spaces available, which just fits for both of them.

Both of them headed towards the said table and sat down there to eat their food.

There, Ethan greeted his friends and introduced Barry to his friends. Likewise, he also introduced his friends to Barry.

“Guys, I would like to introduce to you all a new member into our group, that is Barry. Barry, these are my friends, Colin, Eric, Hillbert, Joe and Ryan.”

Barry then introduces himself again and reached out his hand to Ethan’s friends. “Hello, my name is Barry. Nice to meet you.”

The first one to reach out and shake his hand was Colin.

“Hello, nice to meet you, Barry. I am Colin. I am a school prefect, and I am also one of your classmates in class.”

“Oh... is that so? Okay then.”, Barry answered.

The next one to reach out and shake his hand was Eric.

“Hey there, Barry. I’m Eric, one of your classmates in class. Nice to meet you.”

Then it was Hillbert’s turn. “Hello there, Barry. Nice meeting you. I am Hillbert. I am in the same class as you and so are the others here.”

Next, it was Joe’s turn. “Hey, Barry. The name’s Joe. Nice to meet you. As what Hillbert has said, I am also one of your classmates.”

Last, Ryan reached out his hand to Barry and shakes his hand.

“Hello, Barry. It is nice meeting you. As the rest of them have said just now, we are all in the same class as you. You might not really remember all of those who introduced themselves in class... But we know you because of how you introduced yourself in class that day in a rather awkward way, if I were to say so myself.”

Barry’s face turned red and sighed as he recalls how he introduced himself on the first day of middle school. As he has turned into an introvert, this literally affected him heavily on introducing himself in front of a crowd of people.

Ethan realized the situation they were in, so he brought up some topics and held a conversation with his friends along with Barry while eating their food.

When recess time was almost over, Colin asked them to finish up their food and leave the canteen as soon as possible.

As they finished eating their food, all of them washed their hands and went to the exit.

There, Colin stood in front of them to check on the students’ pockets.

Barry, who had just visited the canteen for the first time, is perplexed with the current situation he is in.

Ethan then explains about Colin’s role as a school prefect of the school to which Colin also helps to confirm what Ethan has stated to Barry, which helped him understand the situation.

As soon as they arrived class, the next subject teacher enters the class and the class soon resumes.

When school time has ended and the school bells ring, all the students pack their bags and lines up outside the class to go down the stairs.

When Barry and Ethan have reached outside the school gates, both of them said goodbye to each other as Ethan’s bus has arrived to pick him and the other passengers up.

Ethan heads to the bus stop, while Barry just looks at him going to his bus.

Barry then enters the school compound to wait for his mother to reach his school.

Not long after that, Barry runs out from the school compound in full speed as he saw his mother’s car has arrived to pick him up from school and they left for home.