1 #1. Salt, Pepper and Some Seasoning

If there was an academy for being a high and mighty person who thinks they're above everyone else just because they've been at high school longer, then Diah would pass with flying colors.

"Remember now, you and everybody else in your grade have to refer to me as Kak*." She would tell me once in a few weeks back when I was in my freshman years. "Actually, your classmates in particular. I don't know if you befriend them all, but some of them act like jerks to me."

For that last sentence, I'm not surprised.

It was their call. I had nothing to do with it.

But until the day we all graduate, they're all in the same class as me."

It's not that Diah was a bad example of a high school senior, but it's her being extremely selective as to who she's nice with and who she isn't.

Sometimes, she can be nice to me and a couple of other guys. Other times she can try and act tough to others, even the teachers. Everybody, myself included, had to deal with her up until she made it to the 12th grade, and right now, Erma Arifah was the one butting heads with her.

This all started back during our first day entering SMA 2, where Diah was one of the commitee members for the school orientation. At first all of us looked up to her as she greeted us and organized our groups, while keeping a watchful eye. One of the most notable cases of orientation was a team bonding event, where there was about 12 groups of 5. In my group, Erma Arifah was late for team based activity involving water balloons.

I had befriended Erma even before we were a group, and I learnt that her father had gotten into an accident, fracturing his leg, and because her mother had to take care of him, she had no choice but to take the bus to get to school. On that particular day, the roads were crowded, and we almost waited for an hour, although she did give us a heads up from the day before. Diah however, wasn't going to have any of it.

"You may have informed your friends and the committee from before, but this isn't tolerable." Diah remarked in front of my group. The other students watched with intent of witnessing if a fight was going to break out. "How are you going to be a disciplined individual if you make this kind of mistake."

"So you're saying I won't be disciplined if I make just one mistake?" Erma said.

"People make mistakes, but you had us and your group especially wait for you. We were supposed to begin around 50 minutes ago, and it's almost an hour now. Now, since we are having a team bonding event, might as well give you a certain lesson that teaches about it." She then turned to the other students. "All of you will move on with the activities, while group 3 over here will be doing pushups at the field."

"You're kidding me." Erma said in under her breath. "Just give me the punishment, let them go."

"No, this is a team effort. You win together, you celebrate together. You lose, you all pay the price together. In this case, it's doing pushups because you Erma, were late."

"Team Effort! They had nothing to do with this." Erma pointed at the 4 of us.

"Be grateful that you're just doing pushups!" Diah exclaimed. "Otherwise I would have all of you eat chili. Raw."

"You dirty-"

"Erma stop fighting Ka Diah!" the guy beside me, Oscar, said. "It's a team effort so just deal with it. Besides, you probably should have woken up much earlier if you knew you were taking the bus."

"Shut up." Erma said pointing at him. I think she really shaken up about what happened to her father.

Diah took a step forward toward Erma. The former's eyebrows furrowed. "You watch your attitude, this is your own schoolmate, one of the many people here that you're gonna study with until you graduate. Show some respect."

Erma sighed. "Okay, Diah."

"It's Kak Diah." the senior's voice was firm.

"Kak Diah." Erma said quietly after a deep breath.

"Good, you better refer to me and my friends as Kak seeing how we're your seniors."

"All you've done is be in this school longer than me. Big deal."

Eventually one other senior came in and stopped the confrontation. We did about five sets of pushups. One set being ten pushups, and we weren't told to stop midway. Diah was there watching us like a hawk. Erma was focused on the pushups, but her constant groaning and breathing made me think she was fueled with anger.

"Take note everyone." Diah called out to the other students. Make sure you don't act like your friend here." She looked at Erma, who was sweating and her fists were all tight. "And don't forget. Respect those around you including us seniors. You respect us, and we will respect you. We will remind you to refer to each us, including the 12th graders, as Kak. That is all we ask for. No more than that.

Erma was wrong to go up against Diah, especially since we lived in a society where anybody gets judge by anybody, and later she was the talk of the chatters that happen around classes. She didn't seem to care though.

Not a single care in the world.

If you told her that a cockroach was on her shoulder, then she wouldn't care.

She and I didn't have the same class back in our freshman year. Surprisingly, she was nice to me, at times accompanying me to eat lunch and helping out with my assignments. At same time however, she avoided speaking to Diah, let alone hear her name being called out. We became classmates since we both had picked out Social Studies. Overall, her grades were average, and to me and the others, we were treated with respect.

"Diah doesn't really care for us. She's out with her own grade."I disagreed, saying that despite her harshness, and despite demanding to be called Kak. There's still some good in her. Erma countered. "She'll graduate without us sooner or later. Even if I'm nice terms with her, it won't be permanent.

"I'm not saying you should be friends with her, but being enemies just makes it worse for you.

The two of us were eating at the cafeteria, where recess was going to be over soon, and the next class would come. One senior whom I recognized from the student body, Dion, approached our table."

"Hey sorry to disturb, but Diah wants to see you."

"What does our senior want with Saqina here?" Erma exclaimed, but his eyes didn't seem to notice her.

"It's urgent she says." Dion remarked. "It's not going to take long."

Diah's classmates gave me a couple of greetings, and let me waltzed in to her class. The said person in question was sitting at her table on the right end of the classroom, third seat from the front. Her legs were crossed, hands on table, and she was looking down.

It's always logical in high school, or maybe outside of it, that when somebody has their head down, they're feeling down. Common sense. Although at this point even I'm confused why she wants to talk to me about an urgent matter. The sound of processors occurs in my head, scanning any possible reasons

I understand her, then again who doesn't understand her? I thought.

Her other friends don't understand her. Pretty weird considering they've been with her since their own freshman years. Another thought.

They may have tried talking to her, but to no avail. Another thought came into mind. If some people here were her actual friends, then they would try harder. Something happened recently between her and her classmates and they don't want to talk to her. That last thought was most likely, but if they were as mature as their age and how they made it clear to juniors that they are adults, then they should move on….unless the issue is really really bad.

"Saqina". Diah called me by my nickname, in relief.

"Kak Diah."

"Sorry to drag you here."

"It's no trouble at all." I tell her. "What's the problem?" I took a seat next to her.

"You ever felt something's been taken away from you?" Diah said. "I'm not talking about money or a friend. Friends come and go. I'm talking about something's that close to family." There was some sorrow in her voice. "No, nobody in my family has passed away. I'm grateful for that."

"Is somebody...missing?" I asked, before asking myself whether or not I should have opened my mouth.

"Yes and no."

"Pardon?"

"Yes, somebody is missing from my family. No, as in it's not a somebody." She then reached into her bag, and in her hand were some pictures of hamsters. There were 3 of them, each having a different coat of fur. My heart felt lighter at the sight of tiny cute hamsters with seemingly chubby cheeks.

"Are they all yours?"

"Yes." Diah recalled. "I've had them since middle school. My parents bought them for me as a graduation gift at the time. The one with yellow fur? She's called Lemon. Gray fur, Jocki, and brown fur, Brownie. Last Tuesday my family and I went out for dinner, and by the time we got back from the city center, our house was ransacked including my room. We didn't really know what was exactly stolen, but my hamsters were gone."

"Was there anybody from your neighborhood that saw anything suspicious while you were away?"

"Well now that you mention it, my neighbor's maid did see two people wearing black hoodies. One of the hoodies had a blue elephant at the back. Up until now I've had missing posters posted on social media, hoping somebody would find them. Yeah I know, it seems unlikely considering they're small and some hamsters can look alike, but I have faith in any good person who would find them."

"I don't have a pet myself, but I can understand what you feel."

"Those hamsters were my mood booster whenever I felt down." Diah said with some anger in her voice. "Don't get me wrong Saqina. Friends are great. They are, but they won't always be there for us, and it's nobody's fault. The hamsters, I know it must be weird like, talking to them even though they don't understand you, but the fact that they can't talk back, means they can't judge. The last thing you need in life is feeling down and then get down even more when you get judge."

"I don't think it's weird." I told her. "If I had a pet stolen from me I'd feel the same way."

"Thanks for hearing me out." Diah tells me with a smile. "Say, does Erma still don't like me?"

"I don't really know." I tell her. "I normally don't question it."

"If you meet her, please do ask her for me. It's not just my hamsters, but the fact that National Exams is going to come up in a few more months, it's intimidating."

I wished her the best of luck, and told her not to worry about her hamsters. As I got back to class, the bell rang, and most of my classmates were ready to get seated. Erma looks at me with a strange look.

"So, how'd it go?"

"She had a problem with something. Wanted to talk to me to sort it out

"Pretty strange for her to have a heart to heart with you if she did have a problem."

"Okay no offense, but if you still hate Kak Diah, then you should drop it."

"Whoa hang on there." Erma held her hands up. "I don't hate her. I just don't like her. Hate is such a strong word Saqina. You know better. Besides, if she didn't demand me to call her Ka and respect her, then I would have done it."

"You're not wrong, but you're equally wrong for demanding her to follow what you want instead."

Erma wanted to reply, but instead went silent. Her mouth straightened. "Okay, you got a point. I'll drop it."

On this Saturday morning, Erma had invited me to her home, which was empty as her parents had left her the house for the day whilst they were going visit her grandparents at Jakarta.

"I'll see you later at around eleven." I told my mother who dropped me off in front of her house. My phone felt unusually warm, and I frowned when I looked at the sight of it.

Low battery, I thought. Maybe Erma could lend me hers. I went to her door and she opened it for me. Inside, I could smell something cooking in the kitchen. Erma's hair seemed messy. Bad hair day probably.

"I'm making us some soup." She said. "If you want to charge, you can borrow my charger. It's in my room, the one with the open door. You can't miss it."

Her room had things everywhere, where was even a teddy bear. I spotted her white charger connected to a socket, and I plugged my phone. I took a moment to study the room. As much as I don't wanna judge, Erma's room seemed like a mini tornado went inside. Pillows were misplaced and the blanket was scattered on the floor, a blanket and some clothes to be more exact.

I wasn't going to tidy the whole thing, but I'll do her a favor by placing the blanket and some clothes on top of her bed. After a few pieces of clothing, I noticed a black hoodie standing out of the colored shirts she had.

As I turned the hoodie around, the hoodie had a graphic on it.

A blue elephant, my mind spoke to me.

No, Erma couldn't have been a thief at Diah's house. It was clear enough to me that those two aren't really friends. Plus that hoodie seemed to be be massively produced and sold in the country.

"Saqi!" Erma called out. "Soup's ready."

"Coming." I replied heading to the kitchen and taking a seat. I was here to enjoy breakfast with my classmate, so there was no point in questioning her.

"Smells nice."

"Thanks." Erma said bringing the small pot to the dining table. I sat at the opposite seat, with her filling in my bowl with the soup she's made. I let it cool down a bit before I tasted the broth first.

"This is nice." I smiled. "What you put in it?"

"Usual. Salt, pepper and some seasoning." Erma said as I helped to myself getting a glass of water. "Other than you know, accompanying me here, there's another reason why I invited you

"Oh?" I began tasting the broth spoon by spoon, along with spinach she's added."

"I need to talk more about Ka Diah."

I rolled me eyes. "You said you'll drop it."

"I didn't say when I'll drop it did I?" Erma countered. "Besides, these things take time. You can't rush it."

Fair point, I said to her.

"Besides. The soup might make you see reason."

I didn't have a clue or even a guess as to what she meant by that. Poking my spoon into what felt like meat, I raised a seemingly round piece of meat with some fur on it. It looked dirty and smelly, and I could spot the tip of a nose and mouth.

My heart dropped as my hand holding the spoon was shaking.

"I got this meat from a certain senior you and I know." Erma said, her mouth forming a grin.

I dropped my spoon, and screamed at the top of my lungs.