REYNARD
OH, BOY! I wouldn't wanna be in the USC's shoes right now—particularly Castiel since he got nuked by Alaric in the latest impeachment hearing. Totally obliterated! He kept a straight face as if he was trying not to laugh at a super funny joke. But he must be internally screaming on his seat while sweating shitballs! Habang ginigisa siya sa witness stand, malamang tinawag na niya ang mga santo para lumikha ng lindol na biglang magpo-postpone sa hearing.
What Alaric did yesterday through his surrogate Chevy was masterful! The bombshell, the timing? Chef's kiss! You got to hand it to him. He just sat on his throne as he watched Castiel get roasted by the Ombudsman. All he needed to do was hit the gavel and say some words. Michelangelo was right. 'Ric isn't the type of person to disappoint.
Wala akong kinakampihan sa dalawang panig. Wala rin akong pakialam kung sino ang manalo. Ang importante sa 'kin ay manaig ang katotohanan at maparusahan ang mga sinungaling. Whoever would win between the two parties, I would be going after them anyway. Neither side was safe from my quill of truth and exposé. Sounds a bit cheesy, I know.
"The USC is freaking done!" our fellow news writer, Clarence Alfonso, announced as he entered the editorial office. Sa sobrang tangkad niya at sa tingkad ng highlights ng undercut hairstyle niya, imposibleng 'di mapalilingon ang mga nakasasalubong sa kaniya. "Six out of ten students want Priam and Valeria gone. Only three want them to stay. They're toast!"
I locked my arms behind the back of my head as I watched him walk past me and settle down on his seat. That audio recording was truly damning. Wala pang assurance na authentic 'yon at maa-admit bilang evidence. But the court of public opinion had spoken: Priam and Valeria were on the verge of being kicked out of office. Just one strong push, they would fall down the hole of their own making. It would be hard for anyone to comeback from that knockdown blow.
To recap: Alaric won the pre-impeachment match. Castiel won the first hearing. Alaric came back and won the second. It's two to one, in favor of Alaric.
Could Castiel could find a way to get out of that mess? I wouldn't be surprised if he could. He was a sly fox with the cunning of the devil. I would be disappointed if this would be the end for him. After all his cunning and all his maneuverings, he would only be taken down by, what, an audio clip? That's too anticlimactic!
"So it's going to be USC President Alaric Esteban next month, huh?" Ambrielle let out a sigh. "What a great time to be assigned in the USC beat."
"You're welcome!" I popped up like a mole in a whack-a-mole game so she could see me across her workstation. "If I didn't mess up with that exclusive explosive exposé, you wouldn't have gotten the chance to witness and chronicle as history unfolds."
"Uhm . . . Thank you?" She flicked her gaze to me before rolling her eyes. "Is that what you want me to say?"
"That's good enough for me." I popped back in my hole.
I heard footsteps approaching my desk. Guess who? Avrille, of course! She leaned against the panel and crossed her arms. "Hey, do you think they're really finished? What do you hear from the grapevine?"
"It's too early to tell." I gave her a shrug. Mukha ba akong manghuhula na puwede niyang lapitan para malaman ang hinaharap? I wished that I had that power so I could plan my future moves.
"Too early to tell?" She raised an eyebrow. "Ikaw ang may sources ngayon sa LEXECOM. Alam mo ang pulso ng mga chairperson behind the scenes."
"If the vote were to be held today, Priam and Valeria are done," I said as I resumed typing. That much was obvious. "At least six out of nine chairpersons will vote to impeach them. And if we were to trust Clarence's words, around sixty percent of the student body will vote to oust them. The pro-impeachment folks only need fifty percent plus one vote."
"But?" Her sparkling brown eyes squinted as they kept staring at me. Ano ba 'yan! Nako-conscious tuloy ako.
I swiveled my chair to face her. "There's a possibility that the USC will turn this around. All they need is time. Convincing at least one chairperson and a huge chunk of the student body to change their vote from oust to retain won't happen overnight. They need days or even weeks."
"The LEXECOM is already a lost battle." She shook her head. "But the student body? They seem to have lost that, too. Narinig mo ang sinabi ni Clarence, 'di ba? They're not divided. They're leaning to the choice that isn't favorable to the USC."
"Don't underestimate the tendency of humans to be fickle-minded," I reminded her. "Some of them may be in favor of the ousting right now. But they can easily and quickly change their minds in a snap of the fingers. Parang switch ng ilaw na madaling isindi at patayin."
"If something big were to happen that can dispute the hard evidence—"
"—or if someone with great influence were to speak up and try to convince the student body." I jumped from my seat—startling Avrille who clutched on her chest—and grabbed my hoodie draped on my backrest. "Speaking of which, may urgent appointment pala ako ngayon. If Boss looks for me, please tell him that I've grabbed some snacks. Don't let him know na may ka-meeting ako."
"Ano ako, utusan mo?" Tinaasan na naman niya ako ng kilay. One moment, she was treating me as an ally. The next moment, she was treating me as an enemy. She was the perfect example of my point earlier: Humans are fickle-minded.
"I'll buy you some snacks when I return."
"Hindi mo ako madadaan sa snacks-snacks na 'yan—"
"How about a chocolate fudge sundae?"
"Okay, I'll tell him you're on break."
All I had to do was bribe her with a treat. She should be kinder to me lalo na't ibinigay ko sa kanya ang USC beat.
"Thanks!" I waved my right hand without looking back at her. I grabbed a copy of our recently published magazine issue on the newsstand before leaving the editorial office.
Whenever I was writing an article, I would always chain myself to my desk. Hindi ako tatayo o aalis sa kinauupuan ko hangga't hindi ko natatapos ang kailangan kong isulat. Minsan nga'y nalilipasan ako ng gutom. I didn't wanna lose my momentum or zone out once my fingers started flying across the keyboard. But sometimes—just sometimes—whenever there was a juicier and meatier scoop, I would get up and drop everything that I was working on.
Like a shark, once I've smelled blood in the water, I'll chase it right away.
The agreed meeting place with my afternoon date was the campus park. Maraming puno na nagbibigay lilim at bush na puwedeng pagtaguan. I went to the part least visited and passed by most students. This used to be called the lovers' lane dahil puro mag-jowa dati ang tumatambay rito. But since Priam Torres enforced the anti-public display of affection policy, the number of couples here had dwindled.
May dalawang bench sa isang sulok na magkatalikuran. Nakaupo sa isa ang estudyanteng naka-pink hoodie. I could obviously tell that it was a girl because she was wearing skirt instead of pants. Her hood was up so there was no way to see her face from this distance. She's being extremely cautious, as she should.
Here we go. I sat on the other bench, rested my left arm on top of the backrest, and crossed my legs. Magkatalikuran na kami ngayon. Binuksan ko ang magazine at nagkunwaring nagbabasa.
"Thanks for making time to meet me," the familiar female voice said. It had been a short while since we had a conversation this close. The last time was a disaster for me.
"I should be the one thanking you for making time," I replied as I flipped over some pages. "Alam kong busy ang schedule mo ngayon. But this feels weird, you know? Parang may illegal transaction tayong gagawin dito. Hindi sobrang lamig sa campus, pero pareho tayong naka-hoodie. Wala man tayo sa Baguio."
"Sorry for these over-the-top precautions. I wanna make sure na walang makakikita sa 'ting dalawa."
I glanced at her over my shoulder. "You don't want students to see a campus journalist and a theater actress having a clandestine meeting? Parang wala tayong history niyan, ah?" I held up the magazine in the air where her pretty face was prominently featured.
"I'm not worried about the students. I'm more worried about some students finding out about this meeting," she said. "By the way, this didn't happen, okay? I wasn't here, nor were you."
When I received a text message from Fabienne this morning to meet her after class, I promptly cleared my afternoon schedule just for her. She told me that she would bring some scalding hot tea—figuratively, I assumed. As someone who loved brewing and drinking tea, I accepted the invitation. Ang First Lady na mismo ang nagyaya. Sino ba ako para tumanggi?
It had been weeks since we last talked to each other. Ang huling interaction namin ay no'ng nag-message siya matapos ang spectacularly epic fail exclusive explosive exposé ko. Ilang beses siyang nag-sorry sa 'kin dahil bigla siyang nag-change mind at pinahiya niya ako sa daan-daan o libo-libong nanonood ng live broadcast ng The Herald.
But I didn't take that embarrassing episode against her. I was totally cool with it. Yeah, it hurt my pride a bit and tainted my reputation a little, but all was good in the hood. In the first place, she didn't intend to embarrass me in front of almost everyone. If I were to blame someone for my humiliation, that would be Castiel. He was the one who got to her and convinced her to change her mind.
"Mind telling me why the First Lady summoned a peasant like me?" I chose to be straight to the point. Time is money after all. "Are you now seeing the writing on the wall? Gusto mo na bang i-expose ang Oplan First Lady? Coz that's gonna be the final nail in the USC's coffin."
"Nope." She popped the p. "Before I serve you the tea, I wanna ask for your help first."
"Considering what you did to me during my exposé, I'm not inclined to offer you any help," I said in a serious tone. "Why will I?"
"I've already apologized for what happened before, but if you want to—"
"Just kidding!" I let out a chuckle to soothe her. Napakaseryoso naman niya! "Kung may hinanakit pa 'ko sa 'yo, I wouldn't have bothered meeting you here or replying to your message. So how can I help the First Lady? And why can't this conversation be just a text message or a call?"
"I wanna ask this favor in person. I owe you this simple courtesy."
"Okay . . . So what is it exactly? Huwag ka nang mahiya at magpaligoy-ligoy pa."
"I wanna start off by saying that I don't like Cas or what he did to me," she began. "I hate his guts. I hate his cunning."
My lips curled into a smile. "Now we have something in common."
"But I wanna support Priam and the council. Halos lahat ng mga kalokohan ni Cas, walang basbas ni Priam. He wasn't aware that Cas started that fake rumor about me. He was even against the—Sorry, I got off-topic."
"You do understand that if you support the USC, you indirectly support Castiel too," I told her. "Hindi mo siya maihihiwalay sa council unless magbitiw siya sa puwesto."
"I'm well aware. I want to see him go. But right now, Cas isn't the enemy."
"Not according to the facts." I snapped the magazine shut. "The jury's still out, pero alam nating pareho na kaya ni Castiel na mam-blackmail ng tao para makuha ang gusto niya. May recording nga, eh. He's not above what the USC is being accused of. And I find it hard to believe that Priam didn't know since he's the president."
"This is off-the-record, okay?" Fabienne said first. I love conversations that start this way. "Cas did blackmail Chevy to vote in favor of FOI in exchange for not leaking the internal investigation report. But Priam had no idea. If he had known it, he would've opposed it."
"What you said is just damning," I muttered. "You can finish off the USC with that piece of information. Alaric would probably love to have you as a witness in the trial."
"But I have no intention to, kaya sa 'ting dalawa lang 'yon, okay?" paalala niya sa 'kin. Wala siyang dapat ikabahala. "Cas believed that Chevy was a trap arranged by a certain someone so they would have reason to impeach Priam and Valeria. Kahit 'di siya binlackmail ni Cas, Chevy along with his majority bloc friend would still vote in favor of FOI."
"So there's a big baddie here." I pretended not to know anything. Alam ko kung sino ang certain someone na 'yon. "But what does that have anything to do with your request? Do you want me to write an article exposing that person?"
"For some reason, I've been prohibited from speaking out about Priam or the impeachment. Baka raw maka-affect sa ticket sales kung didikit ako sa isang controversial figure o makikisawsaw ako sa isang political issue—"
"—which you did anyway," I finished her sentence. Napanood ko ang video kung saan kasama niya ang USC president na naglalaro sa arcade. A lot of students loved it! Bumaha pa nga ng heart reactions at comments. They were starved and therefore craving for more crumbs of their love story.
"Yeah, but I wanna find a way to freely defend Priam with little to no repercussion."
"You don't want me to write an article about it—which I won't even if you beg—so what do you exactly want from me?" I wondered. "Gusto mo bang mag-livestream ulit tayo, but this time, you will speak passionately in defense of the USC president? I doubt I can have that arranged matapos akong mapahiya sa last livestream ko."
"All I'll ask from you is your connection. Meron kang contact sa campus entertainment media, 'di ba?"
"Oh," I uttered. Nakikita ko na kung saan patungo ang conversation na 'to. "Yeah, of course. We keep in touch. They give me crumbs that may sometimes lead to a huge exposé."
"I want you to pass along a piece of information from an anonymous but unimpeachable source." Mas may conviction na ang boses ni Fabienne. She was determined to take this risk. "Matagal na nila akong ginagawan ng articles at tsismis. It's time for me to take advantage of their obsession with me. Anonymously, siyempre."
"Are you sure you wanna do this?" Tuluyan ko na siyang nilingon sa likuran. Medyo clever at creative ang naisip niyang paraan, pero posibleng ma-trace 'yon sa kaniya. Baka malagay pa sa alanganin ang posisyon niya. I cared about her in a way. "A lot of stuff can go wrong."
"People love gossips, right?" she asked. That's true. "Mas mabenta pa nga ang mga tsismis kaysa sa mga totoo at makabuluhang balita. Kung idaraan ko sa entertainment media ang saloobin ko, more students would get curious and I would be able to indirectly reach them. Isa pa, 'di na kailangan ng masusing verification o scrutiny dahil tsismis lang."
"Wow!" I exclaimed, my eyes repeatedly blinking at her. "Did you come up with that idea on your own? Or did someone coach you into doing it?"
"If you're referring to Cas, no, I didn't get any advice from him." She shook her head. Parang may pandidiri sa boses niya. "I wouldn't accept it, even if he wrapped it as a gift with a nice bow. We're not in good terms because of you-know."
"Wow," I uttered again, but a bit quieter this time. "If your strategy works, you may have found a workaround."
"I learned a thing or two from being a pawn in this game. I'd be dumb kung wala akong natutunan sa mga pinagdaanan ko," she said proudly. To be fair, she's not just a pawn. She's the queen. "I know you hate lies, but what I'm about to tell you is the truth. I just can't tell it the usual way because of restrictions."
"If you're gonna lie, I won't lend you a helping hand." I wouldn't enable her no matter how much I liked her. Not in a million years. "But as someone who loves exposé, I think your method seems reasonable."
She sighed. "I wish I didn't have to do it, but here I am."
"So . . ." I took my phone out and accessed my Notes app. "What should I relay to my friends in the entertainment side?"
#
NEXT UPDATE: Fabienne finds out if her gambit pays off or makes her situation worse.