Simbang Gabi

Anna blinked. She had been sleeping, but now she was awake and looking blearily at something bright. She blinked a couple more times before she remembered that she was still in her dorm. The room was bright, and she could see from the top bunk that was her bed that the fluorescent light at the center of their room was on. She could have sworn she had turned the lights off before she fell asleep — she can distinctly remember that she had been reading in the dark with just her reading lamp on, and she turned it off when she started nodding off. Did she dream about that and forgot that she did not turn the room’s light off?

She reached for her phone under her pillow to check the time. It was fifteen minutes past four in the morning. Too early for her mom to pick her up, and too early also for Nikki to be at the dorm. Perhaps she did forget to turn the lights off. She groaned softly as she sat up, annoyed at herself. It was such a hassle to go down from her bunk to turn the lights off and then go back up in the darkness.
Anna reached for her eyeglass case beside her pillow and put her glasses on, then crawled to the end of her bed to go down. She got down to the floor and had just taken the first step towards the light when the bathroom door opened. She shrieked involuntarily before she recognized who just stepped out.

“Nikki! What are you doing here?” Anna asked, hand over her heart. Realizing her voice was still deep from coming from sleep, she cleared her throat several times.

Nikki, who looked too fresh faced and very awake and dressed up at that time in the morning, smiled brightly at her. “Ate Anna! I was just about to wake you up! Good morning!”

Anna shook her head slightly to wake herself up further and walked to their mini pantry to get some water before she spoke again. After having had her drink, she turned to her roommate and asked, “So why are you here so early? I thought you’d be here in the afternoon for your last exam?”

“Yeah, it is this afternoon. But today’s the first day of SImbang Gabi!” Nikki replied, still bright and cheery. So bright and cheery that Anna was having a hard time catching up with her energy. What time did she fall asleep last night, anyway?

“It is? Wait, it’s just four in the morning. Did you come from SImbang Gabi already?” Anna asked. Wasn’t Simbang Gabi supposed to start past four?
Nikki giggled. “Oh no, Ate Anna! There’s Simbang Gabi in the school today — there’s always a Simbang Gabi here for the students who still have finals. Just the first two nights, though. We all agreed to go hear Simbang Gabi here yesterday. So I thought I’d go here early instead of this afternoon.”

“You? All?” Anna repeated, slightly feeling left out. They planned it and they did not even tell her?

"Well, we did it last year, so I just assumed we would do it again,” Nikki clarified. “I think Ate Eliza and Kuya Gino and Kuya Rich are all still here, anyway. Come join me for mass?” The younger girl turned to her, using the baby sister charm that she used on everyone and anyone who is older than her. It only really works for those who know her well enough, and Anna found that she was already one of them. “It starts at four thirty.”
Anna glanced at the wall clock. Ten minutes before it starts. “But I’m still in my pajamas.”

Nikki smiled and waved her hand dismissively. “You will be surprised at the number of people going to Simbang Gabi in their sleepwear here. Just freshen up and maybe change tops or something and then we can go to school. Come on, Ate Anna! Join us! They serve breakfast right after mass, and the mass will be at the Amphitheater and it is always such a pretty place at this time of the year.” Her roommate stopped to catch her breath, and Anna, amused, laughed.

“Give me five minutes,” Anna promised, turning to go to her closet to get a change of clothes. “I don’t want to look like I literally crawled out of bed to hear mass, you know.”