Metanoia: A Change of Heart

Chapter XXIV ~ Joshua

Monday was something most students feared the most. It was like the finish line of a race you just started to enjoy, the sudden plot twist of story you were just understanding, and the police in the biggest mischief. It was a cutter that cut the mini-summer vacation you had during weekend.

Nonetheless, it was a new beginning. It was something I had to look forward to. A new week ahead. A new start.

I forced myself to wake up from the longest sleep I had in my entire life, not counting the hours before I was born or when I was a baby. But in my record, it was my longest hours of sleep. From Sunday midnight after the party and my "date" with Thonia, I spent no more than six hours of sleep cut by the visitor my parents welcomed at home. I said I was not well that's why I did not go downstairs and act like I knew them. I just stayed in my room and tried to sleep.

By nine o'clock, May asked help for her homework and said she would leave for a practice. I spent the rest of the day playing Metacosmos until my head throbbed and I ate lunch alone in my room, suffering the hellish hangover. After that, I slept until morning of the next day.

I wanted to talk to Thonia but I did not know what to say or why I wanted to talk to her. After all, her phone was in the bag she left in my father's car, maybe that was a good enough explanation why I could not call her.

Since I could not contact her through phone, I tried to search her account in a social site. Unfortunately, she was offline for almost two days now. I considered going to their house as a little bit too desperate just to return her phone that could wait another day. Not to mention, her creepy but funny brothers and mother. I was expecting to see her in class but waiting for Literature, my only class with her, felt a decade.

My parents dropped us to school with the business carpool. May rushed inside to finish her project.

Just as I was about to enter the main gate, the guard blocked my way. "Goodmorning, Joshua," he said. I had been in this school long enough for him to know me. But this morning, his greeting had another sound—worry?

"Hey," I said. Partly anxious that there was a rule that Student Council members could not be drunk or went to a club birthday party.

"Where's your identification card?" He pointed to my unfinished necktie with no ID. I sighed out of relief that he was not talking about serious crime, and out of frustration because I hadn't fixed myself before leaving home. My necktie was not even done. I looked passed the gate to call my parents back, but they were already gone because of the flow of the crowded of cars and buses.

The guard wrote something in his hard bound record book and said, "You can enter, but no general attendance for today." He shrugged to the automated attendance recorder beside the guard house in which each identification card should be swiped. He greeted new students who entered as they swiped their ID's.

"Thanks," I said and went in, getting the Guard Slip. I did not let myself care so much, It was just a bad start for the day, not totally a bad day.

The locker hall was full of students. They could do everything they liked until seven—when the assembly would start and the Prefect of Discipline would likely to show up around every corners of the campus.

I saw a couple from eleventh grade so close to each other; I guess if it were not because of the CCTV Camera installed all around, they would probably make out. Unfortunate for them, I studied in a well-respected Catholic school that was clearly against Public Display of Affection especially in school grounds.

"Josh," Mary was walking towards me. In her was an expression I could hardly decipher. Her red hair was hanging over her shoulder, her make-up were worn off and her dark eyes were bloodshot.