Spicing up the Dormant (Dormitory Series # 1)

Prologue

"I was searching for something more in life, something that will awaken a dormant spirit." - Ava Rheign Cattrall

"Girl ano? Keri pa?" tudas ni Quiin sabay tawa sa aken nang makitang nakaluhod na ako kakasuka sa banyo.

"More help. Less dada." sabi ko nang mahimasmasan sabay irap ko sa kanya dahil alam kong hindi ako titigilan nito kakaasar. "Yung towel ko den, pakiabot maliligo na ako." dagdag ko pa. When she gave me the towel and other necessities I needed, then I purposely slam the bathroom door in front of her.

"Your welcome, ha!" banat niya.

Shit! What am I doing?  Heto ako  anong oras na maliligo palang, si Quiin naman kase hindi man lang ako ginising sa hangover kanina. Tapos na dalawang subjects ko ngayong araw wala man lang akong napasukan miski isa. One of the subjects pa naman is major and specialized subject sa course ko, which is Culinary. Alam kong from the depths of this course madali lang sa karamihan kung titingnan pero hindi nila alam na puyat at pera ang kalaban nito.

 "I'm done!" saad ko pagkalabas ng banyo sabay dapa sa kama.

 "Ayoko na sumama sa inyo, kahit kelan." I said in front of my pillow that so she can sense that I was really in the verge of breaking down. She knows me well, what my family/relatives might thinks and says of me if I am again posted on every newspaper or tabloid they read.

It first happened when when I was in High school, I was a new girl in school and two of my friends invited me to gala or some of you (if you have besties or BFFs) may refer to as date, literally, just the three of us, no malice intended, not dates with boys either. Turns out, we ended up at SM going to one boutique to another and another. They were the kind of girl that bring out the rainbow in someone's else cloud but this time I don't know what's gotten into them. What did they do? Remember I stated one boutique to another? Yes, they shoplifted every boutique, though we bought some nice things but that was different. Whenever we exited every store, one or more things was added to the paper bags.

The day after the shopping, our faces were plastered all over the newspaper, television and even in the internet. I only found about that when I got up and proceeded to the dining table for supposedly an early breakfast, but what faces me there was piercing eyes from my parents and worried and pity look was from the other people working in the house, especially my grandparents who I suppose to be be joining us for the whole entire two months as a vacation way back from China tonight, not this morning. They discussed on helping me to clear my name and the rest was history. I don't even know what happened to the girls way back. I was forced to transfer schools. There I met Quiin.

"Saan ka pupunta?" Sabi ni Quiin na makitang tumayo ako sa kama at nagmamadaling magsuot ng jacket, nakasando lang kase ako, dahil ang bruha eto lang ang inabot sa banyo namin. Apat nga pala kami sa kwarto, isang Marine Engineering, Pyschology student, at kami ni Quiin which is Nursing at ako na Culinary.

"Kakain." walang buhay kong tingin at sabi sa kanya.

"Oki! Eat well. May tinatapos lang ako para sa midterms e." sagot naman ni Quiin. "Favor pede bili mo ko-"

I didn't finished hearing what she said because the minute I open the door- 

I immediately close it. Leaving me happy with the thought, that's for not waking me up! - I said so to myself for school this morning and other stuff such as me wearing sando in our dorm roo-

"Shit!!" a boy wearing a full on men in black suit said. "Watch where you're going."

"Oh yeah? What does that going to do with your full on men in black outfit?" I chuckled a bit with the idea. Him running around city finding criminals to protect citizens and addressing it as the Underground Secret Spy Agency. Gosh why do I have such a wide imagination?

"I'm not the one dressed as a -" he looked at me and immediately focus his eyes to the ones his holding carefully. "Whatever." he sighs and ignored what I just said to him and walked towards to his dorm I suppose. I tilt my head and curiously watching him walk then raised my head in contentment.

When I got inside of the convenience store across the dormitory building by a block. I was cut off by the building owner's secretary.

"Ma'am Ava, pwedeng sumama po kayo sa aken? May ibibigay lang po ako sa inyo na kailangan na pong asikasuhin."

My dreams of eating noodles in this cloudy weather has immediately wiped away.

"Eto po yung sa tubig at ilaw, pa sign nalang po dito sa received column by - tapos name niyo po. Last month pa po yan ma'am na biling and kasma na po dyan yung this month."

"Sige salamat ate." sagot ko naman dito. Pinirmahan ko na ang dapat pirmahan at umalis na don.

Nagpalipas muna ako ng oras sa park kung saan ako madalas na tumambay. Tatlong bloke lang to mula sa dorm kaya maganda na rin siguro magpahangin.

It's been three years, nung nangyari yung insidenteng yon at hindi pa rin nila ako magawang tingnan ng diretso sa mata tuwing nauwi ako ng bahay ng walang pasabi. Yes, they have every right to do that when it comes to their businesses. Yon nalang natatanging namumutawi sa isipan ko mula pa noong unang insidente. That incident tore the great and precious family name of Sy-Cattrall

"Rheign?" nakilala ko yung boses na yon. That voice was the one who tried to ruin everything from me. The one who tried to force me into things I don't have my mindset in. "I know you heard me."

"Yes, dad, what is it?" sagot ko sa telepono kong halatang kanina pa nagiintay ang kausap sa kabilang linya. I put the phone it on speaker mode since I don't have the time to have one-on-one talk with him like this.

"I received the billing of your dorm room, it's been two months yet you still don't get it paid. Do you want me to handle it for you? Why not come try to come home for dinner? I bet  your mother will be so thrilled." Patuloy ang usap ng nasa kabilang linya. Meanwhile, I was scrunched down on the other side of the pathway busy feeding park pigeons, and left my phone sitting on the bench. "Rheign?"

"Yes I will handle it. Don't worry." I shouted from my position near the pigeons across the pathway on the bench where my phone was sitting. "I'm also quite busy with school and...er.. other stuff."

"Do you have money? It's been a year since you always say you still have, yet you don't pay the bills on time. That is a responsibility Rheign. Why don't you give me your card number so I will give you eno-"he aggressively asked that part of the sentence. Like he was about to throw off somebody's roof on fire.

"No dad. It's okay, I'm just busy right now." I know what will he say next so I gotta do what I needed to do. Saying the magic word.

"It's from them, I still had some money from them. It's a lot so..." The other line went quiet, so I think I win this time. "Gotta go. Bye!" I hang up the phone and sat on the bench rethinking, reflecting and halfheartedly regretted that I'm happy with the decisions I chose.

***

It's past 7 pm when I got back from my dorm building. I see some of the faces I'm familiar with so I feel at ease. I jump on the common room's sofa and sat with the girls and guys from my batch.

"What did I miss?" I greeted some of them. It's been five years since we got together in this common room. All the people in this building has a chance to get together. It's a tradition propose by the building owner.

In return I make batches of my own recipes for the batch and make the evening even more fun.

Author's Note: You may read some grammatical errors and hope that you will renounce me from them. Just Kidding. Happy Reading!