Ojek /ˈəʊdʒɛk/ : It is an Indonesian term for motorbike-taxi. The system is like a taxi, but with a motorbike. Nowadays, Ojek is rarely seen as it is replaced by Gojek/Grab; the online version of Ojek. It’s like Uber, but a motorbike.
The Ojek-driver term is used for the driver.
If the term “Ojek” used capital O and was in the middle of sentence, it means the nickname Erika used for the Man (ojek-driver). She doesn’t know his real name, so for her the man is Ojek, the Ojek-driver.
Enigma: Erika (1.2)
We went around to the backyard of the school and stopped right under one of the rows of acacia trees that surrounded my school – or rather, this tree was the only tree that could lead me into the school without being detected by the teachers who didn’t hesitate to catch the students who were late and handed them into Rufus’s hands.
This Rufus was not a school guard, a local security guard, let alone a school executioner,—what did you think my school was, using executioners? — he was an ordinary teacher on duty who liked to act bloodthirsty even though he was soft-hearted, and the most terrible thing that could serve you was a lecture that resulted in the crying of a teacher who was disappointed in himself.
Ew, nope, not a chance. I’d better avoid trouble by sneaking through the back door, or the emergency exit, or whatever, as long as I didn’t have to face that crazy teacher on duty.
“Please help me climb!”
“Hey,” said Ojek sourly. “Do you realize that you are really troublesome?”
“Dare to complain to this Miss? If I don’t pay, it’ll serve you right! “
Ojek snorted. “You only take an ojek and demand to be called Miss. Can’t imagine if someone likes you getting on benz.”
“If I got on benz, you’d change your name to Sopir. Your nickname would be Sop. The cute nickname is Cop. Or you could just change your name to Copet.”
- Sopir /sɔːpir/= car driver or chauffeur.
- Short term of Sopir (=Sop /sɔːp/). Usually, people like to make a nickname from shortening the actual term.
- Usually, the cutie talks like or baby talks like changing the actual alphabet. Like, S /s/ is pronounced C /tʃ/.
- Copet /tʃɔːpɛt/ = pickpocket. Here, Erika changed the next syllable of the cute-short-term Cop which should be Cop-ir, she changed it to Cop-et, which means pickpocket.
“Ah! so noisy. No wonder you are alway late. Just go climb the trees. “
“Yes, Cop, uh, Jek.”
Ojek glared at me, but he didn’t look scary at all. Actually he was quite handsome for the standard of men around his age. He was tall, a little thin, but full of muscles and strength. His hair was cut short in a shaggy style and dyed brown. His eyes were always shining a sharp light, as if his gaze could penetrate to the bottom of one’s heart. His nose was straight and sharp, a contrast to his small mouth and thin lips that were always sullen-pouting. If I were to give him some tips, he should fix his sour look, which seemed to give off a hint that his life was full of annoying things. Surely he would be more popular than just being an unnamed ojek driver who had the nickname Ojek. Or maybe he just looked sour around me? Well, I did admit, my hobby was to annoy the people around me.
“Ngil, how can you still wear Mr. Bean shorts these days? “
“What’s wrong with Mr. Bean? “
“Obviously wrong. It’s really ugly, you know. “
Okay, I was not the only one whose hobby was pissing off people.
“Ugly or not, it’s none of your business. Also, why are you peeking around? “
“I’m not peeking. It’s right in front of the eyes.”
“Just close your eyes. It’s not ethical to look at a young lady’s pants, you know! “
“Young lady?” The ojek laughed. “Apparently you still remember your gender, don’t you, Ngil? Ouch! ”
It felt really good to be able to step on that damn Ojek’s face.
“Sorry, gotta go first, bye-bye!”
“Hey, where’s the payment?”
“When I go home! Don’t forget to pick me up, OK! “
Not paying heed to the ojek driver who seemed to be cursing at my smelly footwear, I jumped off the fence and landed perfectly in the backyard of the school — or rather, in a piece of yard behind the girls toilet. As I explained earlier, this place was the best secret way to sneak into the school without anyone knowing.
I entered the girls’ restroom through the janitor’s door, replaced my flying cow motif shirt with my grim school uniform because I had tattooed it with provocative words, took off my shorts and put on a skirt, put some makeup on my face so that the teachers were provoked to comment on it, smeared my short hair with lots of gel, then stuffed my drool-smell-like shorts and T-shirt into my school big as a sack backpack.
Then, suddenly I realized something.
Gosh, I was still wearing the cow head-shaped fur sandals that matched my t-shirt! The sandals were ugly, half moldy, but I liked wearing it because it was comfortable.
It crossed my mind that Ojek had screamed about footwear. Apparently he was trying to warn me about shoes. It turned out that I didn’t even understand his good intentions. That poor ojek driver.
Well, never mind. I did my best. If I got punished just because I wore the wrong footwear, so what?
Wait a minute. I can’t possibly wander around the school in moldy cow-head sandals. My image as a fierce girl might be tarnished. I think it’d seem a lot cooler if I was just barefoot. It was not that I haven’t been barefoot before — well, I had to admit, I had been doing a lot of weird stuff around school — so you could say this wasn’t a big deal for me.
After stuffing my smelly sandals into my even more smelly bag, I strolled out of the restroom, whistling a Justin Bieber song, Stuck in the Moment — perfect for being late to school due to fulfilling the nature’s calling — and headed for X-E class. My whistling stopped when I heard a familiar voice.
In Indonesia, most schools in Indonesia attach their grade to the alphabet. X is the roman numeral of 10, which indicates freshman year of senior high school. The grades are counted starting from elementary school. Elementary school has 6 grades, with 1 is the youngest, and 6 is the oldest. Then junior high school has three grades. The grades are a continuation from the last grade of elementary school. So it’s started from 7 or VII, which is the freshmen year of junior high school. Then up to the 9 or IX as the senior year of junior high school. This also applied to the three grades of senior high school. Started from 10 or X as freshmen year, then 12 or XII as senior year.
Lady Grey 