Kiss Shot

Untitled Part 4

Is this for real?!?

Kuya Stephen and I almost just ran over MIA MARTIN!??

The third-year student who goes to math competitions overseas with Dylan Aiba??

Who has a government scholarship for science excellence, and a legendary 90+ grade in all her academic subjects??

THAT Mia Martin!?

This is insane!!

I'm in the presence of royalty!!!

Mia Martin is in the same year level as I am, though not in the same section - she transferred early this year, without fanfare or ceremony. But as soon as she set foot in school, she started making waves. It wasn't long before she made a name for herself.

Normally, we'd know about famous schoolmates. I mean, a public school's population is never as big as you think, not even the one I attend, which is home to close to 30% of the high school-age children of the city. It's pretty hard not to know about talented classmates, when their names are on streamers, the campus newsletter, your own teacher's lips - overachievers are always in your face and difficult to ignore.

Then again, they really are rather hard to come by.

That's exactly what Mia Martin is - a rarity. A girl who's excellent in both math AND science, and who shows promise as someone who can bring prestige to our school. Because of her, Dylan Aiba isn't the only faculty favorite on campus.

You'd think she'd be easier to spot on sight, right? Think again! Nobody knows what she looks like! Unlike Dylan Aiba, who's in almost every pictorial ever made, Mia Martin isn't the kind to make herself known. She doesn't join clubs, or even hang out with her friends in easily visible places...

Is it any wonder she's gotten the reputation of an eccentric?

Come to think of it - does she even HAVE any friends??

Unable to help myself, I root through her things more thoroughly, looking for any juicy information I could find about this "secret celebrity." I discover a cell phone (pink, fliptop, with rhinestone stickers all around - very cute) and it has "Mom" and "Dad" in the phone book... but very few other names are in there. I have never seen such a sparse contact list on another teenager's cell phone. Not even I know this few people who have cell phones!

Her messages are mostly variations of "What time are you going to pick me up?" and "Okay" and "Sorry, I'm busy with schoolwork."

It takes me a while of poking around in her messags before it dawns on me:

Wow, I'm a Mia Martin stalker.

I quickly put the phone away. I'm not a stalker! It's just Kuya Stephen's fault for taking so long.

What am I supposed to do while waiting for him? All my homework is finished, I've done my advanced reading...

...

Well, there are all these books...

I pick one up out of curiosity. The lady who helped me pick up some of the books earlier has already helped herself to one title (Silvertoes - a Tagalog "pocketbook" that looks like a fun little comedy, and I wish I'd grabbed it first) and is slumped on the ground beside me, brows furrowed in concentration.

So I pick up another title. It's called Beyond Desire and it gets me curious about what exactly is beyond desire. The cover itself doesn't tell me much, although it does tell me it's by the "queen of erotic romance", whatever that means.

At least it's worth a look, right?

And on the first page, I promptly start blushing.

I close the book immediately.