The silent night broken by raucous birdsong.

Ugh... It's morning already?

"Eh, wake up already. You need to go school, right!" Yati prodded Don awake.

"No la..." Went Don systematically, "I already graduated from my school already, what!"

"Today you need go new school!"

Oh ya, hor.

It was the third of January.

- - - - -

6.15 am had Dominic knocking on Don's door.

"Wei, you ready already?"

"Almost, la."

They would have to meet Leonard and Zhong Kang at Compass point in...

"Five minutes, leh!" Dom glanced at Don, who smiled at him cheekily.

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"What do you think Millennia would be like?" Don questioned. His reply came in the form of a shrug.

I just hope it'll be good.

- - -

Introductions start. Friendly-mode.

"Hey, hi."

"Hi."

"Oh, this is Weiwen."

"Zhong Kang."

"Leonard."

"Hey."

"Hey."

Introductions over. Revert to guy-mode.

"Hey," Dominic nudged Don. "TKGS girl."

"Yes, yes, I know... Huh? Where?" Don just HAD to look.

What? I'm single!

Throughout the entire span of two hours, the foursome had this little game going on. It's something like "I spy", but only with female students. Preferably all-girl schools.

So we're basically talking "yellow" Crescents, Polka-dotted St. Marges', any of the pina-fored convents (like the Tanjong Katong girls), Sleeveless Nanyang, Sailor-suit Methodist Girls...

Now that you think about it, that's alot of schools. And ALOT of girls.

Oh, and why did we do it?

*looks down*

I don't know. =D

- - -

An eternity later, we finally got off Bus 66. There, in its newly-built splendor, the building of Millennia Institute.

"Wa-sey. We should actually be happy that we going to this, leh," Dominic said, to the curiosity of the others.

"You see ah, how many places in Singapore can be called 'institutes', leh! There's Raffles, Hwa Chong..."

"Err, Dom. I think they're called INSTITUTIONS. The only other 'institute' in Singapore is... well..." Don hesitated.

"Woodbridge." It was an unanimous answer.

- - -

"Let's cut this short. It gives me a headache describing anything about Millennia."

Day One

"Welcome to Millennia. Our theme this year is De Novo, which means 'a new beginning'."

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Orientation sucked.

Still, the houses had awesome names (Or rather, they were called clans).

Wa, like MMORPG!

The following clan names of Millenia are defined by Don.

Aldora- Clan of fantasy-based origins. Wielder of magic. At war with Electra.
Electra- Clan based on the industrial revolution. Wielder of science. At war with Aldora.

Sol- Clan in the space-age. Wielder of advanced technology. At war with Utu.
Utu- Clan in the Mesozoic Era. Wielder of brute might. May or may not have discovered fire. At war with Sol.

Hesper- Clan with a royal bloodline. Intelligent and charismatic. Suspended treaty with Idalia.
Idalia- Clan of paganistic origins. Religious and disciplined. Suspended treaty with Hesper.

Kyra- Clan of noble folksmen dating back to medieval times. Wielder of alchemy and synthesis. At war with Mahana.
Mahana- Clan of tribal savages; islanders. Wielder of ancient knowledge and voodoo. At war with Kyra.

Stories could be written to explain their on-going buay-song-ness, but doing so would consume an obscene amount of time.

Let's just leave it at that, shall we?

Don was sorted into Kakina. Jujuba. Hamana. Banana. MAHANA FOUR.

Ooga ooga booga! *waves spear in hand, whilst adjusting feathered mask*

~

The only programmes were lectures , introducing all the Pre-U 1s to the various 'new' stuff that has been implemented.

Like we've not done our research.

Lectures, lectures, and more lectures. Four long hours of lectures.

Which sane person would stuff hundreds of teenagers into a seemingly non-air-conditioned 'hall' for four whole hours?!

Combination choices, introductions to subjects, blah blah blah. Oh, and chinese is still compulsory, even for those who have taken Higher Chinese in secondary school.

But... I've been told...

Nope. The fuckers lied. Chinese is STILL compulsory, even for the HMTL students.

Lazing in the grassy knoll with Dominic behind the school seemed to be a better way to pass the time.

And it was.

- - -

Day Two

9.15am

"Aren't we late for school?"

"And go for the gawd-knows-how-long talk on discipline by a horribly-accented teacher?"

"Let's be late."

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A little over an hour later did Don and the usual gang reach Millennia.

So how do we enter the school? There's sure to be some security and at least a locked...

The front gate was wide open. No patrol guard was on duty.

Okay... That'll do.

As expected, the disciplinary talk was still ongoing. Surely they had to do something to pass the time? A deck of cards answered their call... for just about the span of ten minutes.

The cards were confiscated.

"Don't you know that playing cards are prohibited in this institution?"

Institute, damnit.

The teacher looked closely at the uniforms of the foursome that were playing. Three of them came from Nan Chiau, which left Don pretty much out of the whole scene.

Wow, being a minority sure pays off!

"Did Nan Chiau allow students to play cards?" Another hypothetical question was asked.

Zhong Kang shot back, "We play during break times. You can ask the discipline master."

Oh yeah, good shot! Punch harder, under the ribs, under the ribs!

"Yea? How about we give a call to your DM?"

"Go ahead, la."

"Eh, if he call, then how?" Don whispered to Dominic, out of earshot of the bespectacled man.

"Aiyah, don't worry," came the reply.

Sure enough, the tie-wearing chimpanzee came back moments later 'telling' the foursome not to play cards in MI, even though they COULD in their previous school.

Ha! Knockout! K.O.!

A glance or two was thrown at the parting man before Don finally asked, "So your DM really knows that you guys play cards, ah?"

"Duhh. He not blind one, lah. Just close one eye, lo."

Damn, Nan Chiau's DM sounds awesome.

~

Cheer was back in the air as the games started. Mahana lived up to its name.

It was a total rampage as Mahana beat Kyra by an excess of more than a dozen people in Poisonball, and a quick win in Captain's ball.

Yet, the councillors had to play devil's advocate and stop the 'wet games' (damnit) due to "lack of time".

It was time for the MI dance, the dance between a lovely couple comprising of a male and a female, both whom have not been aquainted before and most probably klutzy with footwork.

The dance was a bloody two-steps-to-every-five-seconds kinda dance!

"Step left, step right, now step left again... Now right again... Guys, put your hands behind your back when you dance..."

Dance dance revolution presented a higher difficulty.

Bleh.

- - -

Day Three

The last day of orientation.

Finally!..

.. And then it's back to classes?

It was Games Day (if you don't count the four hours wasted before the games).

Yay?

Balloon popping @ 11am. A balloon is tied to your ankle, and you have to protect that piece of inflated rubber while attempting to pop the balloons of others. Free-for-all clan match.

Don got eliminated within the next five minutes. =(

It was a backstab, I swear!

Nevertheless, Mahana still won with at least dozens remaining on the field.

Ha! Take that, Kyra!

~

Scavenger Hunt wasn't too bad, either.

Thirty-five random items were chosen. Rules?
Get the most items without leaving the stadium to win.

Part of the list would be these:-

Live insect- Catch an ant!

1.5l Coke bottle- There was one discarded by the side of the stadium.

Parker pen- The word 'Parker' was written over the word 'Pilot' with permanent ink.

Blue handphone strap- Someone painted her PINK handphone strap blue with marker ink.

Puma bag- Plenty in the stadium! =)

A piece of paper with at least a thousnd words on it; must have integrity with this item- The gals started writing nine hundred and ninety eight 'Intergrity' words on foolscap paper. The other two words present on the paper were 'Millennia' and 'Institute'.

NTUC plastic bag- Someone had it store his compact umbrella.

6kg medicine ball- A few were lying around the place.

Batman mask- Draw, then cut out! ROFL.

Nail file- Don had one in his bag. *blushes*

Gatsby hair wax- Don didn't have that in his bag! Someone else did. Haha!

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.

Mahana produced twenty good items, tied for first place in this particular game. (The batman mask was counted as acceptable, yay!)

But just when you thought that Mahana, being winners of EVERY game (hehe), would SURELY be winners, something catastrophic had to happen.

The whole versus clan thing is played by awarding points. Win a game, get a hundred points or something. Think Harry Potter, without the magical bull. The lower your points, the bigger loser you are.

So while Mahana was the only clan so far to achieve 600+ points, she had her OG cards stolen by the other clans' orientation group leaders. One lost card would fetch a negative fifty points. Mahana lost four of them due to negligence of her OG leader.

Or was it a conspiracy? They prolly just did that to balance the scores up...

But nevermind that, Don and the other Mahana Bananas went on a skirmish to reclaim the missing placards. That meant doing manual labour for the other clans' OGs, forfeits... the such.

It was damn fun, though.

Of course, doing these would void the point penalty.

Prize presentation followed the performed dances and skits by the various clans and their clan parades.

"Best skit..."

"Kyra!"

"Best mascot..."

"Electra!"

~

"And last but not least..."

"... The overall champion of De Novo 2007, drum roll please..."

Oh, get on with it and proclaim us winners already! xD

"MAAAAA-HAAAAAA-NAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The flag was hoisted by Don and the others, leading the hundred-strong Mahana-ians in a 400m run around the school track.

"EVERYWHERE WE GO!"

"Everywhere we go!!"

"PEOPLE WANNA KNOW..."

"People wanna know!!"

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And as we have fallen down, we pick ourselves up, and start anew... Together.

De Novo. Is this really a new beginning?

Bleh.

Mi sTiLlz dUwNz g0eS MI !!11!!~~