report card

One six-pointer said to another six-pointer when they collected their A-Level result slips:

"Eh, I didn't get 4 As. You too right?"

"Yah, so?"

"Instead of value-add, we are the value defects!" he said then breaking into a guffaw.

He was streamed into the exclusive Gifted Education Programme back in Secondary School. She wondered if these alphabetical grades mattered in the greater scheme of things.

To her, golden girls and golden boys are just social constructs. Social constructs meant to stress out the rest of the population into elitism. And she bought into this social construct most of her life, she thought, staring at her classmates who would become doctors, lawyers...

"Doctor, lawyer, Indian Chief. Poor man, rich man, Begger man, thief" went a childhood rhyme for a game where the length of your forearm would magically determine what you will be when you grow up, as your playmate measures your arm so so carefully, criss-crossing her thumbs.

She stared at her result slip. Mediocrity is relative too. What would her 3 As be in the seas of 4 As?

Average.

Value defect. Yes. But so what.

She was never the golden girl and they are just too perfect too be human. To be flawed.

And most importantly, Real.