The OKE in Karaoke

There is one who is the smartest. One with photographic memory. One is the most confident. One is the prettiest. One is the most humble. One is the liveliest. One is the, hmm .. I really can't speak for the last one. Well, perhaps the last one is the most fashionable.

It looks like that I'm about to write about characters from TV Series. Like Heroes, for example. But no, I'm not talking about them. I am not talking about the new characterization of the seven dwarfs either. I am talking about my high-school best friends.

Crazy might be the right word every time I'm looking back through all this years. The magic number would be thirteen. That much years have passed since we were aware of each other's presence for the first time. I wasn't really clear on what brought us together, though. We don't live in the same area, we neither act similar nor have the same interests.

We were not three pairs of "teman sebangku" and an odd man out. We didn't belong to a gang (well, I kinda call this a gang, though in the end) or club or anything. We were not the coolest, meanest, baddest student in our high. But we were together. And I think the chemistry was simply there from the beginning. That, and crazi-/unashamed-ness.

And that "beginning" might be the long hard walk from Depok (a Jakarta satellite) to my high school. A grueling 30-something (perhaps) km walk. That might be it. We realized that the chemistry was there, even though we knew each other some months before that.

Lately, after nine years of not socially befriending them, I slowly but surely patch things up with them. FYI, I so suck at maintaining relationships. So, don't blame me for a nine years of lack of corresponding or else. And in my defense, nobody was telling me that they were staying in Jakarta and not going to go to college out of town. And after this patching up things going on for a while, now I am shocked to find new things about my friends.

I find them much more knowledgeable than I thought they were. Well, OK, not knowledgeable on topics that I am, but still they can fill me in on some things. Well, lots of things. They are also really helpful and selfless. I, outta the seven, am the youngest. So funnily, I felt like they take care of me the most. They are always enthusiastic, and unlike other people's impression of our high school, not easy to become "pundung".

And the best new thing I found in them, happened two weeks ago.

We went karaoke-ing. I haven't popped my cherry on that department, so of course I was nervous. I don't know how they will judge me singing karaoke-ing since I was totally inexperienced.

So we went in the booth. One of them asked, "What do you want?" I just said, "I'll see how you guys doin' it, after that I'll jump in." I can't tell you how scared and terrified I am. This is my first time, for crying out loud. First timers are allowed to be nervous right?

I find it hilarious though, after like 15 minutes or so, I found myself in a different place. I started to enjoy myself. You know, not in a masturbatory kinda way, but having a good time. I started picking up songs, and most important, we started bickering about who sings what, when, with whom, and who's next. That is the first symptoms of enjoying karaoke.

But the new thing I found in them was not the fond of karaokeing with them. It is the fact that despite of not having a training in singing or music, none of them is tone-deaf. To be honest, I found this really surprising. So that night, singing in duets is never a problem, harmonizing with your partner won't screw the performance, and going solo is entertaining in a good way.

We were singing "Fame" in the picture. The lyric we were singing was "I'm gonna live forever."

You bet we are after this.