The morning dew hasn’t dried yet. The classrooms are still empty when Anto is already sitting at the school gate. This is the third time he’s come so early in the morning. And usually, he’ll stay there until he sees Lupus approaching from a distance. Walking as usual. Cool. With a canvas bag whose strap is made soooo long that he has to hang it on his head to prevent it from dragging on the ground. He leaves his bag hanging behind. It might be a hassle, but Lupus likes it. Meanwhile, he continues to mumble while chewing gum. But he still manages to sneak around.
“Hey, To. How’s your mom? Good?” Lupus greets Anto while struggling to turn his head because of the heavy bag. Then he walks again without waiting for Anto’s answer. He doesn’t go straight to class, but makes a quick stop at the canteen. Checking if there’s anything he can snack on. Luckily, Aji, Boim, and Gito are there.
“Well, it seems like our clown crew has arrived!” Lupus greets and parks himself next to Aji, a Javanese guy who loves eating dodol. Everyone turns to look at him.
“Announcement! Announcement! Boim here has a new nickname, besides being the three-durian playboy!” Lupus shouts while patting Boim’s shoulder. Boim, who was sipping his hot coffee, starts coughing.
“What nickname?” Aji immediately gets interested. While Gito pretends to be cool, his ears are still eager to hear.
“World’s Biggest Prostitute!”
“Hush!” Aji widens his eyes. Boim gets angry, while Gito bursts into laughter.
“Yeah, yeah, didn’t you see the performance last night? The story is that Boim wanted to be stylish. Wanted to imitate Boy George. He put foam in his hair, wore lipstick, eye-shadow, and of course, the flower-shaped hat like Duran Duran. Well, he looked kinda cool like a girl. But then, on the way there, he stepped on someone’s foot on the bus. He got yelled at, ‘You prostitute!’ and Boim didn’t want to back down, so he shouted back, ‘Well, you know it all. My disguise was all for nothing!’ That’s what he said.”
Boim gets even angrier.
“Sialan, tau dari mana lu! Bohong! Bohong! Jangan percaya! Kalau percaya gue jitak lu!”
“Bener kok. Silahkan percaya. Bukti-bukti kuat. Waktu itu kan saya lagi naik bis yang sama dengan Boim. Dan sempet nggak ngenalin juga waktu kamu baru naik, Im. Lagian yang heran, kok tega-teganya orang itu ngatain kamu perek. Padahal kamu jenggotan begitu.”
Dan pagi itu pun Lupus dikejar-kejar Boim. Keliling-keliling lapangan. Kepala Lupus sempat benjol juga kena sambit pisang goreng.
Keluar main kedua, mereka nongkrong di kantin lagi. Di situ ada meta sama Nyit-nyit lagi ngebakso. Eh, Hit-nyit itu nama orang lho! Nama aslinya sih Yunita, tapi temen-temenya manggil dia Hit-nyit. Karena setelah diselidiki ternyata anatomi tubuh dan warnanya mirip-mirip… kunyit.
“Hit, kamu kalo jalan sama Meta kayak adik-kakak aja. Emang sodara ya?” celoteh Boim sok akrab sambil mencomot pisang goreng. Kedua cewek itu malah duduk membalik, membelakangi Boim.
“Lho, mereka emang sodara kok!” Lupus tiba-tiba ikut nyeletuk. “Cuma lain ayah lain ibu, tapi satu pembantu… hehehehe”
“Saya nggak tanya sama kamu!” Boim menjawab ketus. “Eh, rumah kamu di mana sih Hit?”
“Di sini!” jawab Hit-nyit cuwek sambil menunjuk ke lobang hidungnya. Ih!
Boim sempet kaget, tapi dasar playboy, dia tak menyerah.
“Kalo gitu deket sekali dong. Boleh nggak main ke rumah?”
“Boleh aja. Tapi punya ongkos nggak buat pulangnya nanti?” Lupus nyeletuk lagi.
Aji dan Gito ketawa. Dan Anto yang juga diam-diam ada di situ, ikut tersenyum. Belakangan ini, Anto memang selalu membayangi ke mana Lupus pergi.
Pulang sekolah, si Boim ngajakin pulang lewat Palmerah. Cari suasana baru, katanya. Gito jelas nggak setuju, soalnya dia harus pulang ke Blok M. Maka cuma Lupus dan Aji yang setuju. Mereka pun berjalan menelusuri jalan-jalan Palmerah yang gersang. Saat itu Boim nampak gaya sekali dengan kaus barunya. Warnanya gila-gilaan . Pink. Tapi ini masih mending. Minggu kemarin, dia pake warna kuning mencolok.
Sampe-sampe Lupus nggak bisa nahan diri untuk meledek,
“Yo, you guys wanna see a walking disaster? Look no further than Boim.”
Seriously, only Boim and Ruri have the guts to wear casual shirts during PE class. They refuse to wear the uniform. It’s all about pride, they say. And even if they get scolded by the teachers, they don’t care.
At a traffic light, Boim got acquainted with a girl who seemed to be in college. But Boim just brushed her off. Lupus and Aji were eavesdropping from behind.
“Are you still in high school or already in college?” the girl asked.
Boim, realizing he wasn’t wearing the uniform, immediately acted all arrogant, “Of course, I’m in college. At UI. And these are my two friends, Lupus and Aji. They’re still in high school.”
“Oh really? What’s your major?”
Before Boim could answer, Lupus chimed in again, “Yeah, miss, he’s already in college. He studies computers during the day and gets punished at night.”
Aji burst out laughing. Boim got furious.
At two o’clock, they split up. Aji and Boim had something to do in Kebon Jeruk, while Lupus went home alone to Grogol. He chased after a passing mikrolet.
“Watch out for your head! Watch out for your head!” the driver shouted, trying to slow down the mikrolet (because they’re not allowed to stop there!) – And – bam! – it happened, Lupus jumped and his head hit the low mikrolet door. It made a loud noise, like an exploding stove. All the passengers turned to look at him.
“Are you hurt, kid? That’s why you should be careful, like I told you.”
Lupus just grinned. He wanted to rub his head, which felt swollen, but he held back. He pretended to be tough, even though… damn, it hurt like hell.
“If it hurts, just rub it, don’t pretend to be tough, Pus!”
A voice from the side startled him. Lupus turned, and there was Anto standing next to him.
Yeah, lately Anto has been stalking Lupus’ every move. Not for any particular reason, he’s just curious. What’s so special about Lupus that makes him liked by so many friends? Girls and guys alike. Plus, he’s often praised by teachers for his brilliant ideas, even though they seem simple. Like the idea of making the school yearbook, where he did almost everything. From choosing photos, adding funny captions, writing the introduction, basically everything. The result was just average. Nothing extraordinary. And even the dumbest person could do it exactly the same. Seriously. But, weirdly enough, the students loved the book. Even though if I made it, it would be five times better than that! Anto thought.
But he couldn’t help but wonder. Why does Lupus have to come up with the idea for the yearbook, not me! Anto has also read Lupus’ poems that were published in the magazine. They weren’t that great. They were actually kind of cheesy. Just read one of his poems:
Vegetable Soup
Vegetable soup is my favorite dish
Because I eat a lot of vegetable soup
The ants that used to swarm around my soup are gone now
Because… it’s sour…
So, what’s so great about it? Even Boim, with his complicated way of thinking, could come up with something better than Lupus’ poem.
And after stalking Lupus for the past few days, Anto started gaining confidence. He could be like Lupus. The one who likes teasing people but is still liked by his friends. The one who has a girlfriend in the first grade but still rides a bike with Vera. The one who’s not good-looking, but not too bad either.
Anto could be like Lupus.
So the next day, he tried everything Lupus had done. When he left for school, he let his bag strap hang long like Lupus’ bag. He hung it on his head and walked in a funny way. He almost got hit by a pedicab. He even started chewing gum, even though he almost choked on it a few times.
And every night, he wrote as many poems as he could, as good as he could. In a few days, everyone would be amazed by me. By my poems! Anto shouted in his mind.
That morning, Anto was ready with his poems. He walked a little more confidently towards the school gate. As he passed by the magazine wall, he sneered at Lupus’ poems displayed there. Then he went straight into the classroom. He had a plan, after playing outside later, he would submit all his poems to the school magazine wall editor.
The first, second, and third lessons had passed.
During break time.
The kids outside were laughing and having a good time. Anto, who was preparing his poems, was a bit late to leave the classroom. He peeked his head out of the window to see what the kids were making a fuss about. Boom! His heart suddenly started pounding. The kids were surrounding the magazine wall! What’s going on there? Curiously, Anto went outside. He pushed through the crowd of kids who were laughing in front of the magazine wall. Once he made it, Anto was stunned as he looked at the photos displayed there, with a big title above: ‘LUPUS SOLO PHOTO EXHIBITION’. It showcased funny photos taken by Lupus during the ‘Red and White High School Art Night’, with equally funny captions. There was a photo of Boim dressed as a drag queen, a photo of the headmaster sleeping, a photo of the PE teacher flirting with the biology teacher, a photo of Gusur flirting with Fifi, or a photo of Mr. Punk slipping on a banana peel. It was just hilarious.
Anto walked home. He walked along the empty sidewalk that the kids had passed earlier. The poems that he had prepared were still in his bag. They weren’t going to be displayed after all.
Lupus’ photos earlier weren’t that great. Some of them were blurry and out of focus. Anto, with his Nikon camera, could definitely take much better photos. But he’s not going to do that. He now knows that one of Lupus’ victories is his wealth of ideas. It’s easy to imitate something that already exists, but is it easy to create something new? And who knows what else Lupus will come up with next week if Anto starts copying his photo style now.
At the bus stop, Anto ran into Lupus, Boim, and their friends teasing girls passing by.
Anto approached them.
“Hey, Anto, haven’t gone home yet?” Lupus greeted cheerfully.
Anto just smiled.
I heard you got the highest ranking during the shadow report distribution last week. Seriously impressive!” Lupus said, shaking Anto’s hand.
“Oh, it’s nothing special. How about you?”
“Don’t worry, still the same old me. Failing with success. Hahaha…”
Anto laughed along.
And now he discovered one more important thing worth emulating from Lupus. The way he always sees life as so beautiful…
