Age 12: A Little Heart-Pounding

By { Justinn } - Wednesday, May 25, 2016 - No Comments

Age 12; the age where we are neither a child nor an adult. Do you remember yourself at that age? I only remember sitting for exams and feeling nothing but immense stress throughout every paper because it was either make or break for all graduating students. Puberty had probably hit me a little later, since I didn't show any apparent sign of such be it biologically, emotionally or psychologically. Nope, I wished that I had a growth spurt but my height remained quite consistent and changed very little. Even today, I still wish that I could be taller. Just don't ask how tall I am.

I don't think that any of my classmates had developed crushes on others, not that I had actually asked anybody but the atmosphere back then was down to academics and getting overwhelmed by the intentional segregation of classes. The teachers were all strict and extremely focused, and nobody really dared to rebel for fear of implicating their parents. However, in the rare case of an off-season, when the entire class got to relax, read comics and play games, a group of us would sit in a circle and start bantering. It was probably nothing deeper, though the little teasings and such had revealed certain changes among us.

What is love, or more specifically, romance to a 12-year old? The subject on first kiss quickly escalated among the girls of an unknown elementary school. Ayase Hanabi, Aoi Yui and Ogura Marin wondered about the ideal first kiss. That soon shifted to the boys in their class, whom were generally viewed as annoying. The exception was Takao Yuuto, the most popular boy. Yuuto was gentle, kind, rather mature for his age, and had a crush on Hanabi. He would act as a sort of hero in prickly situations, which had the vote of approval from the girls. Hanabi began to see Yuuto differently after a fateful incident. She used to think that he was just another boy around.

The teasing from the boys was often the teacher's headache since the girls would refuse to have anything to do with them, fighting back one another and such which created considerable tension in class. When Yui had her first period, her plight was blown up by the constant snide remarks from some of the boys, though they didn't specifically refer to her period (they never realised anyway) but how she could collapse from a stomach pain. After Yui was brought to the infirmary, those boys came over with her bag and apologised, thanks to Yuuto.

Rivalry was also in the air, though I find it rather unbelievable that it could happen among pre-teens. A plan to sabotage the recorder test had backfired after an insistent Hanabi refused to adhere to Hamana Kokoa's manipulation. Of course, Kokoa had attempted to direct the blame onto Hanabi, but she was after all a rather dumb girl (or Yuuto was just too clever) who would just do anything in an effort to crumble others. Hanabi was saved by Yuuto amid the chaos, and he nonchalantly said that the two of them had already kissed, to the sheer horror of the class.

Age 12; the age where we are neither a child nor an adult. What else had been present in your 12-year old self? If you could re-live your 12-year old self, what would you like to do? Where would you want to go?