Young, gullible seventeen-year-olds

After our literature class yesterday, Sammy and I went to Aeon to catch a movie. We bought tickets for 17 Again, which I admit I wasn't so keen on watching at first as I wasn't a big fan of Zac Efron. But since Sammy kept on insisting, I thought why not?

The show was going to start at 1.45p.m.. So since we still had time, we decided to go grab some lunch at McDonald's. We ordered two sets of McValue Lunch or whatever you call it, sat at the counter which faced the wall and ate our food. While we were still eating, I suddenly realized someone standing behind us. We both turned around, and saw this girl freakishly smiling at us. She had spiky hair and looked like a tomboy, so let's just call her Spike. I thought she was Sammy's friend and waited for her to say "Hi, Samantha!" But she didn't. Sammy and I just stared at each other in confusion for few seconds before Spike asked whether we were English educated. We managed a "Yes". She passed us each a packet of cards and started telling us about spastic children who are born with disabilities and how there are still hopes of recovering them and making their lives normal through proper treatments. She continued to say that her college (which is TAR College, by the way) had a special one day campaign to help create awareness on spastic children. She wanted us to buy the packets of cards at RM10 per pack to help support the campaign, as all proceed will go to the funding for treatments.

I felt sorry for the spastic children and dished out my ten ringgit bill. I thought about sharing it with Sammy so that we each would only need to pay RM5, but she took out her money too. It wouldn't be exactly nice to say we wanted to share after Spike saw us holding enough money, would it? So, fine, we gave Spike RM20 and kept the supposedly hand-made cards. She said thanks and vanished in few seconds. I took a look at the cards which were clearly printed (not hand-made!) and a thought struck me. "Hey, did we ask her for any sort of identification?", I asked Sammy. "Um...no?" That was when I became aware of the fact that we didn't even make sure the whole thing was legitimate before we parted with our money. Spike could have been a fake. I mean, who comes all the way from Setapak to Klang to promote a campaign? And, we didn't see her going to other tables (McDonald's was crowded,okay! Surely, a person genuinely campaigning for a good course didn't just approach two persons, right?). Sammy and I felt so stupid after that. We kept trying to convince ourselves that that woman was not lying to us. Then Sammy became confused when I kept referring to Spike as a woman. "Woman?!? He is a guy lah...", she said. Great. We were so naive that we couldn't even get Spike's gender right. Now, two things were left for us as mysteries. Was Spike for real? And was Spike a girl or a guy?

When Jess came home from TAR College at night, I asked her whether there was any campaign for spastic children at her college. If there was, at least I did not have to feel like a fool. But she answered no. I told her what happened, and all she said was: You guys have been cheated lah. So much for my feeble attempt at preserving my ego. I hate myself for letting my guards down.

Anyway, 17 Again is better than what I expected. I like Zac Efron way better here than in any of his High School Musical movie with his sweetheart Vanessa. 17 Again is about Mike, a star basketball player in his school, who has given up his potential and a bright future to be with the girl he loves when she reveals that she is pregnant with their child. Twenty years down the road, Mike is not happy with his life. He is about to be divorced from Scarlet, the same girl he loves; has just lost his job; his two children think he is a loser; and he wishes that he has a chance to be young again and not repeat the mistakes he has done. By some miracle, he really turns 17 again. And this is where all the fun starts. Zac Efron plays the seventeen-year-old Mike. I really enjoy the movie because of several reasons. Firstly, it is very funny to see Zac being so fatherly to his two teenage children in the movie. They are like what? Around the same age? Because he is the only one to become younger while everything else stays the same, it's also very weird to see him always looking at the older Scarlet with dreamy eyes only a couple on a honeymoon is capable of. Mike talks like an adult in class, and is always giving advice to his peers. Then there are the weird moments with Scarlet which can be really disturbing sometimes. I laughed a lot watching the movie.

Go watch it.