CHAPTER 5
Mr. Amador was absent for our fifth period. There had been a family emergency, and he rushed back home. The book I was reading was hard to put down, so I'd decided that my studying last night for our next subject was enough. During the hour-long free time that was supposed to be for our Trigonometry class, I'd finished the book.
They had ended up together, and the last paragraph was so lovely. I covered my mouth with my handkerchief and looked outside, hiding away my smile.
"Hey, Athan," I heard Isabelle, pep girl, say from behind me.
As much as I disliked the timing, it was about time that she appeared. My current mood was inappropriate for the situation right now. Ariel was tensed beside me. She had been busy with her Tamagotchi. But the moment that Isabelle Pascual appeared, she was all ears.
Like what everyone did, I shifted my chair so that I would get a clear view of them. Isabelle was wearing her pep squad uniform. We heard they gave the pep squad permission to skip the last two periods and practice for the regional competition.
"Hi," Isabelle tried again.
Athan sleepily blinked his eyes. He just woke up from the continuation of his nap after we'd all found out that Mr. Amador couldn't make it today. We all had a way of letting the moment pass.
"Hello, Athan," Isabelle said in her preppy voice.
Still no response from Athan.
"How can you still smile?" Ariel moved closer and hissed in my ear.
"I am?" I asked, trying to sound clueless. But I could feel my lips stretching wide beyond will. Even with what was happening, I couldn't help but think of the ending scene of the book again. The rain. It was perfect.
"Stop that grin," Ariel warned me, her eyes pointing to what was going on in front of us.
"Do you want to hang out at Stop Shop later? You know, with my friends?" Isabelle continued asking Athan. We were all looking at the two of them, given that she was the most sought-after senior in school.
"I have something to do later," Athan muttered with a yawn.
"Well, how about tomorrow? Or Saturday?" Isabelle carried on.
"I do more things during Saturdays," Athan answered.
"I'm sure it won't take a day. Maybe we can meet for like an hour. We can go to Kyle's party," Isabelle went on. "I'll invite you."
"You should ask somebody else," Athan said, sounding so uninterested it was near offensive, well, on Isabelle's part. He probably didn't mean to sound disrespectful, but Isabelle was asking all of this right after Athan had woken up from his nap.
"How dare you? Are you saying no to my friend? To Isabelle Pascual? The most famous girl in our school? Do you know? Do you know how many would kill for this offer?" Sydney, Isabelle's best friend and sometimes mortal enemy, said to Athan. That was one painful way to rub salt on someone's wound.
"Shut up, Sydney! I can't believe this," Isabelle exclaimed, before walking out of the room.
Everyone started talking about what just happened as soon as Isabelle and her sidekick got out of the room. This was the most exciting thing you'd get for a vacant fifth period. Given the pace of how fast gossip spread around our school, everyone would hear about this before the last period.
"Way to go, man," Stephen said to Athan, whistling.
"Why are people bothering my nap time?" Athan complained.
"He's sleeping again," Stephen said to me, pointing at Athan.
I just nodded and continued scanning my World History book. Or I was only trying to be busy. Now that Athan was out, I was the object of Stephen's attention again.
"Hey Chateaubriand, what page did Ms. Liwanag tell us to read?" Stephen asked. He asked me things all the time anyway, even when I tried my best to look unavailable to his inquiries.
"167," I answered.
"Really? It's not 184?" Stephen scanned his book.
"I think so," I answered. It wasn't really a speculation. Page 167 of my book had a huge circle and Wednesday's date so that I wouldn't forget it.
"I read the wrong one," Stephen said with disappointment, right when the door opened.
Ms. Liwanag, our World History teacher, looked amused when she got in. She laid her things on the table and erased the blackboard. "Settle down, everyone. Let's not get that excited about Ms. Pascual's infamous rejection. Blake, please help me get everyone's notes and bring it to my table. I'll check those while you guys read a few pages before we discuss."
"Yes, Ms. Liwanag." Blake stood up and started going around the room.
"When will he just quit being the representative?" Jane shuddered. Nobody liked Blake Ramos. It wasn't an overstatement. His only friend was his mom.
"When someone better take the position from him. If they'd offer that to anyone else other than the top five, I would volunteer just so he could skip the picture," Brooks added.
"Maybe you can take that part, Chateaubriand. There's no way you won't be in the top five," said Stephen. "You're the freaking top one."
It was the last thing I wanted to happen, though.
"I hope it's a day we all got to see. When the sun sets in the east and rises in the west," Athan, who was finally awake, said from behind me.
"Did you get yours done, Micaela?" Blake asked me, as I was handing him my notebook.
"I bet it's much better than yours. Don't ever think of throwing that notebook away. I'm watching you," Ariel warned Blake.
"I never imagined my cousin to be this scary," Stephen said.
I nodded in agreement.
Ms. Liwanag was busy listening to the chatter in the hall rather than paying attention to her class. Teachers weren't supposed to be involved in things like Isabelle Pascual's feat of dating the entire school, but Ms. Liwanag always seemed to break the teacher's code all the time.
"Here are the notes, Ms. Liwanag." Blake handed Ms. Liwanag our notebooks, and that got her attention.
"Okay class, turn your books to page 167. Read 'till the end of the chapter. We will have some activities later," Ms. Liwanag told us, flipping through our notebooks with a red pen in hand.
∞♡∞
A few minutes later, we'd found out that by activities, Ms. Liwanag meant grouping ourselves to five. For each group, Ms. Liwanag assigned a specific topic about world civilizations.
Group activities, the ones assigned by our teachers, were the worst things that happened to me in school. The fact that I hardly talked to anyone made it a living nightmare. So all the time, I always wished that I'd have at least one of my friends with me. It made me feel less nervous about the whole thing.
Ms. Liwanag continued scanning down through her class record, randomly calling names, while Blake listed them on the board. My earnest wish didn't come true, as Brooks, Jane, and Ariel had been called in their respective groups.
"And for group seven, we have Ms. Chateaubriand, Blake Ramos..." Ms. Liwanag paused. "Oh, I guess group seven is a powerhouse."
"Me," I heard Stephen mutter to himself.
'Not him,' I replied in my thoughts. I wouldn't be able to concentrate if Stephen would be in the same group as me. It would make me more anxious than necessary.
Obligated to meet Blake for several times was a torture already. Blake disliked me for many reasons. One was for being studious and catching up with his genius and foul schemes. Two, it was also because he usually came second to me in the class ranking.
"Okay, let's continue," said Ms. Liwanag. "Chace Miranda would join group seven. Lily Ruiz. One more... last one will be Stephen Davis."
"Yes!" Stephen exclaimed, with matching thrilled hand gestures.
"Don't get too excited, Mr. Davis," Ms. Liwanag told him.
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Don't feel bad. Stephen is with you in the same group, Els," said Ariel, putting a hand over my shoulder.
"I don't feel like it's a good thing," I said to her.
"He's all right than nothing," Ariel said. Then, with a wink, she added, "And with that thing going on between you, aren't you excited?"
"It's not that. I told you, you got it all wrong," I said back, feeling flushed.
"As if!" Ariel laughed.
"Now group yourselves together, quickly vote for a group leader, and then I will hand out the topics to be presented in a short play," Ms. Liwanag said, right after she'd finished calling out group eight. One of us, Stephen or I, should have been there instead.
After we finished grouping in circles, Ms. Liwanag started going around with her tissue box. The first group got their topic out of it.
"Why don't we begin with the introductions first," Stephen started.
"Lily," the girl sitting on my right said. She enjoyed wearing her hair in braids just like Brooks.
"I'm Stephen Davis. I'm all right with anything. And since I'm sure she won't talk, here is Micaela Opel Chateaubriand," said Stephen.
"Chace," the boy sitting across from me said his name. He was wearing a huge cross necklace. "I'm not the one for plays, but I can help with whatever is needed."
Lily adjusted her chair. "So, who will be the group leader? I don't want to be one, so I will pass."
"How about Chateau—" Stephen was trying to say something stupid, so I stared at him so intensely that he really should get what I meant. "Oh, kidding... I mean, why don't someone else do it?"
"I already have our paper." Blake, who we didn't even notice had been gone, fetched our paper, even before Ms. Liwanag handed group three theirs.
"That was fast!" Stephen exclaimed. "Guess we don't have to elect anyone anymore. Blake got our paper already."
Lily Ruiz rolled her eyes at Blake.
"Do you want to take over, Micaela? Or is this too much for you to handle?" Blake asked.
"No," I readily declined.
"Medieval life," Chace read the paper that Blake got. "That's neat. My mother has some costumes back at home."
"Really?" Lily said.
"I think it's better if we make them according to our topic. What if the colors don't match? The setting and everything should go along with the theme. So first, what we need is to have a steady concept," Blake proposed.
"Micaela, do you think focusing on the medieval soldiers' lives would be a good idea, because we have, like, three guys here?" Lily was talking to me. Not only that. She was pretending not to hear what Blake was saying.
"I'm not sure if Bla—" I wanted to point out, seeing that Blake was throwing me those looks again.
"Hey, Chateaubriand! I saw the screenplay you wrote before. Ariel brought it last summer. They were good. Why don't you take over the writing part for us?" Stephen was joining in. He got to read that, too?
Blake cleared his throat. "Well, if you guys want to know, I'm also good with that. Let's forget about the costume for now. I'll first talk about the relevance of the Medieval Age to our present lives so that the rest of you could understand—"
"Look at this!" Stephen blurted as he pointed to the images in our book. "Amazing costumes. I can't wait to try them on. Maybe we can all head to your house before the play and see what we can use. Right, Chace?"
"No problem," Chace replied. "I can get permission to use them whenever."
"The ones for the soldiers, do you have one of those?" Lily asked.
"Yes, and even some king's robes," Chace replied.
"All right! If we can just get some good script, I'm sure there won't be any problems," Stephen prompted. Lily and Chace were looking at me. Blake was still offended by what had happened, so he was currently acting all mighty and uncaring.
"I think... I can do that. I mean, not by myself. But I have an idea on how to do the basics," I faltered, testing the waters and hoping not to be bluntly rejected.
"Great! That settles it," Stephen said, smiling brightly at me.
∞♡∞
"Hey, Chateaubriand!" Stephen later called me, when I was about to leave the room after our World History class. The others had already gone to the gym to watch the basketball game, but our group got held back as Blake delayed the submission of our group's paper.
I turned around.
With his ever present warm smile, Stephen said, "You should believe in yourself more. There's so much you can do if you'll just consider it."
"What are you saying?" I said, sounding confused.
"They said that high school is the most memorable of all. Then isn't it a good idea to make more memories while we're at it?" Stephen asked.
"I'm fine, really."
"How about better? Superb? Unbelievable?" He gave me a slight nod. A wild suggestion.
"Fine is okay. I'll live," I answered, unenthusiastic about his request.
"I want to show you more. You who don't know what more you can do," Stephen called out to me. He was smiling, and I stared as if I hadn't seen that smile before. Like my mind was unconsciously forgetting, so that I could see it again for the first time. And again. Tomorrow. The next day.
"Take care, Chateaubriand. See you later," Stephen said to me.
"See you," the word escaped my mouth.
For the past few days, I had this same reaction whenever he was around. It was that unfamiliar rhythm of my heart pounding loudly inside my chest. But even if I denied it, I couldn't help the fact that I was becoming used to it. As if, suddenly, it was turning itself into something I would always know.
∞♡∞
I was walking to the library, where we'd be having a short meeting for the next issue of the school newspaper. Ariel was going to meet me there, because she said that she'd just snap a few pictures of the start of the basketball game and rush down for our meeting. There was nobody else around, when something that I knew would change my life had happened.
Three things had turned my life around. Gifts as some would call it. Momentos. Or, for me, they were the tangible representation of my memories.
The start was unquestionably the most unexpected of all, because it was the one that made me feel self-conscious of something I never thought was going on, and one that would start off everything else.
This was strike one: a small, pink envelope fell from my World History book. It was the start. The opening cue. And this was only the beginning.