5 Days of Summer

Chapter 3: Monday

Monday came. I woke up early because my dad's going to tag me along to school. Philippines' schedule of classes has three openings of classes; if the school belongs to DepEd the class starts in June, if it belongs to CHED it starts in August, and if it's a private school it starts in July.

The school where I'm studying starts in August which means when my summer vacation starts, the school where my dad is teaching will start its class.

I decided to wear blue jeans and a simple white shirt paired with black converse shoes. I took my bass and the amplifier, which was heavy, with me. I placed them in the living room first before heading towards the kitchen to eat.

The smell of pancakes wafted inside the house making my stomach grumble. The woman's children were already seated on their respective seats while she was busy flipping pancakes.

Just in time! Dad went down with his green teacher's uniform on. He sat at the head of the table while the woman sat at the other end. I don't have any seatmate and it's fine with me.

I took two pieces of pancake and dipped it in chocolate syrup.

"I saw your bass in the living room. Are you going to bring it?" Dad asked, I just nodded.

"Oh, and can you bring your guitar also?" I asked and went back to eating. He stood up and took my bass and its amplifier. I won't be disturbing classes since he's a floating teacher — it means he doesn't have any advisory class. Though he has his own classroom.

After eating we were crammed inside the car. Dad in the driver's seat, the woman in the passenger's seat, and the three of us at the back with me beside the window, then the girl, and the little chubby boy.

Unfortunately, the woman is also a teacher at Alejo Trade High School — where my dad also teaches. He dropped the kids to my former elementary school — I studied here until I was in fourth grade — before going to Alejo.

Entering the school premises brought nostalgia to me. I still remember when I was in third grade I guess? I would surprise visit my dad here along with my friend, whose parents were also teachers in this school, then we would play in the open field when there are no students occupying it.

There are times where we would just sit down near a canal where it produces clean and fresh cold water. We would just hang in there and put our hands near the pipes and let cold water relax our hands, sometimes we block the water with our hands.

I remember when we were still a complete family, my parents and I would go inside the school when school's almost starting just to clean dad's classroom. Being a floating teacher sucks too, especially during Christmas party.

The car stopped on a familiar building, and both of them got out of the car. Dad said they'll just "Time in" and will be back quick.

I stared at the building from the car's windshield. If I remembered it right, this is where their library is located, I'll go check it later.

The car door opened, this time it was only dad who went in and drove towards another building. For how many years he wasn't relocated to another isolated classroom, well that's good.

I got out of the car as soon as he opened the door. He handed me his keys and asked me to open the classroom for him while he takes out my heavy instruments.

"You can play outside. There's a socket beside the columns for your amplifier." He said as he placed my amplifier near the pillar he was talking about. He turned around with his index finger raising as if to warn me. "And one more thing, keep it low."

I went inside his classroom and looked around. I took a large amount of air as the smell of rust and oil mixed in the air. There are dirty engine parts of a car placed on top of a long table, toolboxes neatly lined up beside a big cabinet — I'm guessing the cabinet holds dad's precious tools — there were also two welding machines at the back part of the room. The blackboard had an illustration of an engine with numbers and blanks beside each part — they must've had a quiz last week.

For a neat freak, dad sure loves to get his hands dirty fixing those broken machines. I remember one time when my aunt's car — his sister — broke down when we were at Pagadian they had to call him to come over to fix the car. Imagine the distance he would drive just to fix the white montero so that he won't get butchered by his sister.

I went back outside his classroom and played with my bass. I turned the volume knob to it's lowest, the only one who can hear it are the people a meter away from me.

Dad went out for a while and asked me to guard the room. As if there's something worth stealing inside. I played the major and minor scale as my warm-up before playing an actual song.

Actually I don't have any song in mind to play so I just did some snippets of random songs. Starting with 5 Seconds of Summer's She's Kinda Hot bassline.

"We are the kings and the queens of our new broken dreams, yeah we're alright though"

Not a minute after, students started entering inside the classroom, some were eyeing me, making me feel a little bit conscious. I stopped playing, and observed them as they went inside the room; boys dominated the population for this subject.

I turned off the amplifier, unplugged the cord, and put the bass back in its bag. I think it's a bad idea to bring the bass here in school. I took my instrument, leaving the amplifier behind, and headed out of the building.

"Where are you going Novie?" Dad asked when he entered the building and saw me going outside.

"Uh... to the library." I'd rather read books than listen to your lectures that I would never understand.

"Oh okay. Here, show this to the librarian so that she'll allow you to read inside." He said and handed me his identification card. I took it and continued walking.