Back when I was in Form four my best friend decided to try out for a prefect position. Obviously we all thought she was nuts and tried to talk her out of it, but then she's stubborn as a mule so it was all for naught. Three months after we told her she was crazy, she put on the blue uniform and proudly pinned her prefect badge on her left shirt pocket. And proceeded to be bullied into utter submission by the 'bad boys' in the Form 5 classes.

Crucial lesson of the year: nothing changes, school lines were still drawn the same way.

Because of her position, I got to know the KM of the school, whose name is Ooi Keng. He jokingly refered to himself as Ketua Maksiat, and he was one of the less anal KMs in the history of our school. He doesn't lose his head whenever an infrcation's committed, and he doesn't pop a green vein yelling at students who're apparently deaf when it comes to bring bossed around by prefects.

Since Form four freshies don't go around mixing with worldly, sophisticated Upper Six guys, I don't thik he ever knew who I was, apart from maybe 'that tall specky girl'. I remembered him as being very reasonable and approachable, so unlike all the other anal retentive KMs we've had in the past. The next KM after Ooi Keng would forever be remembered in the annals of SMKDL history as being the Most Anal Of Them All.

Yesterday I got a phone call from my best friend, informing me that Ooi Keng has passed away because of denggi. Our ex-KM was working in Sabah, and left his fever untreated until it was too late for anyone to do anything.

He was 25 years old.