The weekend was spent on the municipal competition in maths, where I think I won something - the diploma doesn't say anything but "taking part in". But then on next photo I see I was on the intermunicipal one later, so I must have been among the first three.
IIRC, it was in the building of the viša, to which I was already used from previous years. We had to bring our ruler, compass, pencil and head - the paper was provided on the spot.
There was some qualifier for this on 24th march, Tejka was in it too, perhaps this was at Zmaj. She wanted to sit with me, not from any romantic interest but to sneak some solutions from me. I got a nosebleed on the way there, so I showed her how I am and she got disgusted and left to sit far away. I stopped the bleeding with a cold wet handkerchief to the nape, which means I had those before, I knew what to do.
On 25th they took me to Belgrade to see a cardiologist (Josipović?), who said I'm OK and I should join the PE and generally work out as much as I can. OK, I'll fix the bike, but I don't intend to start PE now, not two months before the end. Perhaps in gimnazija (so going to trade school was off the table now). The very next day we had a day of planting stuff around the schoolyard, and I was digging the pits for the saplings. And there it was, the increased hartbeat, just like it always does. I decided to ignore it and keep digging. And it went back to normal.
Miljka wasn't communicating much with me. Didn't quite go cold, but didn't say much either for a number of days. Now with the current sitting arrangement (which was interesting to see, I didn't remember it at all, but I wrote down the layout) I was alone in the fourth desk of the row-to-the-door, and she was next to me in the middle. And I had two chairs, and when I came to class that day, the chair closer to her, where I usually sat, was broken - one leg missing. The chairs were made of iron tubes, about inch wide, with 6mm plywood seat and backrest screwed on. The screws would go missing, the backrest would hang on just one or be completely gone (but one screw would still be there to hurt your back). Some ply would leave the seat's corners, which was death to girls' stockings. And since we all loved to rock in these chairs, some of the back legs would inevitably bend and, sometimes, break. The house majstor would weld them when he had the time, using acetilene and oxygen gas bottles, which he had somewhere in the basement, in the boiler room.
So I sat on the wallside chair, away from her. The next paper slip came with "why did you move to the chair by the wall again?". One of the chaperones on duty, S., who used to mock us from time to time, would pass innuendos on my chair position, because I was sitting by the wall while Zvojko was my deskmate; when he left, I switched to aisle side, yes, closer to Miljka. So the slip was referencing this whole situation and the innuendos all at once.
I removed the bad chair into a far corner and took to sitting in the middle.
I was the orderly that week, which means it was my duty to wipe the blackboard (which was green), and she would write nonsense like "my silly one" on it, and then Lidija would counter her... which I had to wipe as fast as I could, they'd sometimes leave me just a minute.
And I learned why her folks don't like mine. Once upon a time dad was a member of some body where it was decided about something that her dad should get (a job perhaps, or a lot to build a house), and he voiced his low opinion of the guy, as an unreliable easy come easy go guy, which may not be decisive but was remembered. They even came to visit to see if he would change his mind, but he wouldn't budge. Then, some other time, her mom asked mine something about Teja (who was their initial link, i.e. they got to know each other through her), and mom wasn't even on speaking terms with Teja at the time, so she dismissed the issue in unpleasant terms ("into three mothers' cunts"). Trying to soften down this issue got her just a "what do you care, why do you meddle" from mom. Then at one of those parents' meetings her mom said (being a teacher herself and thus professionally distrustful of young guys) "you're allowing your son too much, he's always here [on ruža, that is], they're always hiding in some corner, they may even be smoking in there" - "and you weren't, at that age?" - "no I wasn't. You don't even know what they do there!" - "I don't, and I don't want to know and I don't care" - "I wouldn't allow that" - "Well you don't have to". That was about the last drop.
On 29th, it being a sunday, I fully intended to sleep until noon, but guess what - they woke me up because Tejka was coming. I couldn't believe my ears, but there she was, heard her voice. I decided to pretend to not be quite woken up, just to have some time to understand the situation. That's the only role I was capable of playing at the time, anyway. There she was, with Vladimira I washed my face with cold water, that woke me up.
Now fully capable of understanding, I tried to ask about the reason for the visit. Maths competition, something about that (we all took a part in that). Nope, the math notebooks were just an excuse. "Then I don't know any reason for this gathering." "Well just like that". "When it's so, then we'll teach you to play remi [aka rummy]. You have long fingers..." - at which she gave me a bewildered look, not knowing how to understand that, is it some innuendo or what - "... which is good, this is played with a double deck, with all 110 cards, yes, with jokers". Soon it was about "lucky in cards, unlucky in love" or vice versa - Tejka kept getting best deals, while Vladimira was getting worst possible, nothing to combine.
I heard more funny events from the last doček, something about Zvojko knowing where Sarča stashed a bunch of beers and serving her from there, while the guy screamed about being burgled. The game is unfinished, they split before noon and there was a french tv series around that time that I kept watching (and didn't want to miss on the final episodes). Still clueless about which series it was.
And, ahem, Tejka doesn't like Korni grupa. It's alarming how quickly we come to something on which we don't agree. With Miljka it's probably the same amount of disagreement, but for the whole month we didn't come to mention any of those.
Tejka came again on 31st in the afternoon, three more rounds of remi, and she was doing fine until I had a real good hand and just reversed the score. She suddenly lost the will to play and left. The real reason for coming was, of course, that my mom not only allowed smoking (guests only) but also offered cigarettes. Though everyone I knew was smoking something a notch classier ("Morava" or "Drina") than hers ("Filter Jugoslavija"). I saw her to the gate. She said "if you want to escort me, take a jacket". "OK then, I'll go to ruža after." By her entrance into Lesnina we stood long and talked, about most of everything, including complexes, like Ž's foreigner complex (he joined us in 7th grade). I described my method as understanding what's my complex, which then makes it go away. Then I develop the next one, deal with it the same way, and move to the next. And then about Miljka - who is not so naive, must not be when mom is so harsh, it takes a lot of luck to be born under a good one. Her mom is asking in detail where she was, whom she met, and then disapproves if any of the guys are smokers. All in the next room so Tejka can hear everything. What's it like when they're alone?
She didn't have the key to the apartment, so we went to ruža together. Dragana made confused faces when told about the remi game, all the player's slang "going hundred", "expose oneself", "go out", "triling", "off hend", "be toilet" were impenetrable. The last one requires an explanation: the running score can go up or down, and if one accidentally hits a zero, it's written as 00, to denote exactly that and not some error in accounting. The double zero is a sign on toilet doors in trains and ships, perhaps hotels.
Escorted her back, but one of the Ž. twins insisted on going with us.
On 1st of april I didn't trick anyone, but the whole day was fun. We made more mess in the classroom (played rugby with the trash basket, broke a window; made one more hole in the cupboard). Bad news, it seems there's an entry exam for gimnazija - serbian, maths, foreign language. I hope I can take english, I'm better at that after nine months than with russian after four years. In the afternoon, Tejka and Vladimira came to play remi, but just left their maths notebooks and went to pick the third. Came back with Dragana. Eventually escorted her to ruža. Rain started so I went home.
On 4th was that defining moment when we wanted to arrange a party (school dance is still a no-go) and gathered in the smokers' corner, i.e. the rear wall of the school, where it extends about 80cm beyond the basement wall. I was supporting the school, ie. my head was touching the overhang, which was a first. There was always some space above my head. When Tejka came, I realized that I'm now taller than her. One complex less.
So we did have a party (don't remember where, my place?), with just the one light behind the couch, to make records switching possible, and we didn't play anything fast, just slow stuff. I mostly danced with Tejka, some with Dragana. We split around 20.
Talk of the day:
Tejka - Dragana, do make some coffee
Dragana - I don't know what's where
Tejka- Well start learning, who knows when you may need it
Dragana- Who knows, all of this may be mine some day...
Perhaps she was in trouble with Gradivoj again. But they made up the next day.
Yesterday, the big Day of The Zmaj show, outside on the PE terrain (that was the official name of the playground - soccer field, track, sand pit for the long jump, smaller field for voleyball). Tejka was in some trouble, looked like she cried a lot, left her to Dragana to comfort her. Didn't let me in on the issue then. In the evening, party at my place. Then at some point she said something to Dragana and then she started to cry. Unhappy, obviously, something about total lack of joy in life, only brief moments of tenderness and then long nothings in between. She sounded like a real suicide candidate, to which I asked whether the trouble, whichever it was (she was thankful that I didn't ask to know), was worth it. She said there's a box of 50 plivadons and she intends to drink them all. Being under the same roof with Ivka isn't helping either, she feels the eyes pointed at her, that success is expected. She may really do something crazy. The trainer is wearing the horse off. Not that I'm in much of a different position, but my trainer is not in the same house. I guess her trouble is something about Sarča, and some news that his sister passed on. She's infatuated with him, while he's elsewhere. Him being already in high school, with different people, only partially overlapping with our world, only makes it worse.
Of course, nothing happened, but she was visibly nervous. That's perhaps the time when she finally lost the last of the fingernail ends - she'd keep biting them off at all times. One day she'd scream at me for some reason, thoroughly from the marrow, and then be perfectly serene the rest of the day. Such mood swings are a real put-off. And then next thing I found in the diary is "I think I really love her". And then on the next page I cool off.