People would normally think of me as somewhat reckless, sometimes confident, and for my friends, I'm a shy airhead.
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.
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The night is cold, and from the distance, you can hear some vendors selling "balut" from the streets, but soon those annoying voices would fade away in the distance after some time.
While the vendors were hustling outside, I, your normie high school student, was lying down on the bed while scrolling on Famebook I usually don't use social media, but tonight's a special case.
Earlier I went to school early and rushed to the other section to see the list of their students. I slipped my phone out and took a quick snap of the sheet of paper taped next to the closed door.
The moment I went home, I've been scrolling for hours,, and still no results of little missy found. I tried potential nicknames and full names but still got no results for her.
I'm so pinned down in a corner I have no other choice but to contact that stupid woman...
Should I even talk to her? I mean, she's the only girl I'm close with...
What if she begins jumping to conclusions?!
Ugh... This is so not worth my time, but at the same time worth my time.
You know what? I'm just gonna risk it first time's the charm.
I pull out my phone and open the Chatbox app and forcibly search for the name "Lianne Corpuz."
Okay... now what? I should probably start with idle chat, or should I go directly to the point?
I wonder what kind of response she would prefer instead; either response might be good enough, I think.
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"Hey bro u free to talk?"
.
.
.
"hey valie, long time no talk how you doing?"
"Same old bs you know..."
"icic what is it u wanna talk abt?"
"Well did any handsome people transfer to your room?"
"wait..."
"Val... dont tell me..."
"let me guess... YOUR FINALLY COMING OUR YOUR CLOSET!!"
"No."
"Over my dead body."
"it's okay val no need to hide the gayness using homophobia"
"embrace it you're always welcome to trans-fer to the dark side :)"
"Enough with the gay puns, you're cringing me out..."
"jeez just go straight to the point already you only talk to me whenever you need smth so spill it girl"
"By handsome I meant "handsome" transfer student."
"dude."
"Okay, what's the name of that cute small handsome girl with short hair whom you were walking with when you passed by the registrar?"
"oh you meant Caz?"
"Wait Cazandra?! Not Cassandra?"
"did you peek at the student lists and began stalking every girl in our section?"
"creep..."
"You're one to talk, at least I'm not the one who has a AI boyfriend."
"fine were both weird so what"
"We've been buds since I transferred here right?"
"uh-huh where are you going with this mr. trans-feree? ;)"
"Jeez for shit sake stop the gay puns..."
"Anyways, I want you to help me with little missy over here and have a nice talk with her."
"why dont you just approach her? lil missy seems like a nice person."
"Uh, no?"
"lover boy's giving off torpe."
"I can't believe I'm even asking you this..."
"oh dont get me wrong JV ill help you gladly."
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"For real?"
"in one condition."
"Ice Cream tomorrow dismissal cookies and cream."
"well then, that settles it bye bye lover boy ill expect the payment tomorrow no adjustments"
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Why did I even bother asking...
I puffed out a sigh of relief as I gently tossed my phone to my desk, confident of not shattering the screen.
I'll just see her tomorrow, I guess. I hope I can pull off a decent conversation with her...
Decent... huh...
I stared at the ceiling for a moment and took a soft, deep breath.
Inhale... Exhale...
And moments pass by; I repeated the same cycle: Inhale... Exhale... as my eyes began weighing heavy and everything went black...
As usual, I didn't dream of anything, and I woke up.
.
.
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Today I did something I had never done in a long time: I walked to school early.
Before I transferred to St. Benedict, I used to go to school early in my past school. When I say early, I mean it with every fiber of my being.
I would come to school at 5 AM and would do nothing but practice my soccer skills on the basketball court since we didn't have a soccer court in that school.
But despite that all, we still played soccer with our goals being the walls on the sides.
Now, I came to school at 5:30 AM just to meet the new transfer student. I guess we just have to wait for her, right?
"Wait, am I seeing things?" a voice echoed from the entrance as I sat on the floor.
"Jean?! Here early?!" Ben shouted, confused, as I locked eyes with his widened eyes.
"You're the one to talk. Why are you here early too?" I replied as I stood up, walking towards him.
Ben placed his bag on his chair as he pulled out his laptop, filled to the brim with Lakebird stickers—a band.
"Well, you know me; I gotta cram this shit fast. Remember the reporting?" Ben replied with sheer focus as he opened his laptop.
"What reporting? We're literally just a week into school, and there's reporting already?"
"You'll get used to it." Ben smiled.
I sat next to him as I stared at his laptop blankly for a few minutes.
"So, tell me, Jean, why are you here so early?" he asked as he was editing the slides on their presentation.
"Uh, well—" my nerves shook a little as a sweat broke sliding at my cheek.
"Cramming?" Ben looked at me with curiosity.
"Well, you know me so well! Haha..."
"Now that I remember, we're groupmates, right? Why don't you help me with this?"
"Yeah man, sure, I guess..."
Phew, dodged a bullet right there. I can't let this dickhead know I'm here to see my crush in such an early hour; knowing them, they'll just call her name out of nowhere, and I'll be fucked for a lifetime.
"Hey JV, where do you get your slides from?"
"Just open the Canvas browser; there are some free templates there."
"Right..." Ben muttered as he opened the browser, searching for templates.
"What's even our reporting about?" I asked while laying my head on my armchair.
"Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka."
"Oh... I read that book already."
"For real? You're so nerdy."
"Yeah, you want me to help you or not?" I replied with a slightly annoyed tone.
"Yeah, calm down, Shakespeare. I'm sorry." Ben muttered slightly as he began typing.
I sighed for a moment as I took out a pad of paper from Ben's bag, writing the summary of the entire story on the paper.
I wasn't paying all that much attention to our class since there are perks to having a cross-eyed teacher; they won't know if you're sleeping even if you're sitting in the second row.
But luckily for me, I've already read the story due to me being absolutely obsessed with human psychology. Isn't it crazy how our emotions can alter a human's personality?
Or even crazier, extreme bursts of emotion could be the cause of someone's upbringing or downfall.
Either way, our conscience is the one making our lives interesting. We get to choose between logic or feeling, unlike animals who only have motor capabilities.
This is why I love this book; it deeply explores that topic. The cause of change in a person, a process of either refinement or yet destruction.
"Hey dude, I'm almost done; I just gotta write down our own ideas about the story."
"Oh, uhh... for me, I guess the story dwells deeply on how experiences or thoughts could change a person. Yeah, write that down."
"Yeah... experiences, yadayada... I'm done!" Ben smiled and puffed a huge sigh of relief as he saved the slides before closing his laptop.
I looked at the clock to see that only 30 minutes had passed as we were creating the entire presentation. I expected far faster results, but we weren't actually rushing that much considering class starts at 7:30.
"You sent the slides on the group chat?" I asked Ben.
"Yeah, Cyril's already got it." He replied back as he stood up from his seat, stretching his arms as he yawned.
"Hey, would you look at that? We still have an hour before class. Wanna grab something to eat?" Ben asked as he pulled out his wallet, checking his money.
"Your treat?" I smiled at him slightly.
"Maybe, find out for yourself," Ben replied back as he walked out of the classroom to head to the school canteen.
I followed Ben as he was going down the stairs, and as we were heading to the cafeteria, I slightly looked at the school gates.
I've been here for 30 minutes or so, and still no sight of her... Have I made the wrong decision?
"Nay! Can I get two empanadas!" Ben shouted as he repeatedly tapped the 20 peso coin on the glass container.
The old lady rushed to the counter and wrapped two plastic bags on both hands as she grabbed and wrapped two of the fan-shaped breads in the plastic.
"That'd be 10 pesos, pate." (pate is means kid; it's an Ilocano word.)
Ben placed the 20 peso coin on the glass container as he tossed me the empanada; I slightly caught it as I took a small bite of the bread.
It still tasted the same; there was more dough than the cheese and ham wrapped inside. What could I expect...
"Shit still tastes the same as always," Ben muttered as he took another bite from his empanada.
"I kmow mright." I replied, chewing on my food.
"Let's sit by the gate for a little while; I want to see if the transferees here would have somewhat of a face card."
"Seriously..."
"Oh, don't act all goody two shoes, Jean; maybe you'd see your type walk by the gate again."
"Although I'm curious, what is your type?" Ben asked, curious, as we both walked toward the bench next to the gate.
"Hm... Now that you ask that, I actually haven't thought of it that much."
"Seriously? Didn't you just tell me you had a type last week? Don't tell me you already forgot her face."
"Well, to be honest, I hadn't gotten much of a full glimpse of her face, but I like her haircut," I replied as we both sat down on the bench.
"Haircut? You like women who have good hair care then."
"You could say that, I guess."
"So tell me what was the 'haircut' that made you head over heels for that person."
"Well, I don't know what the exact name of the haircut was, but it looked something like a middle part with wavy parts on the back."
"Huh..." Ben replied with a confused expression, his hands rubbing his chin as he pulled out his phone.
After a few moments, Ben showed me a picture of a woman with the same haircut as the girl I saw at the registrar that day.
"Yeah, that's exactly the haircut I was talking about!"
"Okay, I'm concerned now, bro." Ben patted my shoulder as he locked eyes with me for a moment.
"People with that hair either have serious issues or are fucking manipulators, man, speaking from experience."
"Yeah right, man, like you get any girls… anyways what's the cut called?" I rolled my eyes as I removed Ben's hand from my shoulder.
"Well, it's just a normal wolf cut, nothing special."
"Anyways, bro, I wish you luck on your conquest. If you're lucky enough, you'd last for a few months." He smiled as he stood up, heading back to the classroom, tossing the plastic bag on the floor.
"Jeez, don't be such a klutz."
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.
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A few minutes before dismissal, I can't wait to get out of this hellhole and finally meet her. I wonder what she's like; I hope there's still any hope before Lianne influenced her to do weird shit.
I slightly lift my collar to my nose and smell my shirt; it smells like baby cologne... Do women like men who smell like newborn babies? Probably.
What matters is I make a good impression, and I won't smell like shit, unlike that one fat girl sitting on the front row; her natural scent is making the entire room feel like a damn gas chamber.
Suddenly I felt a jolt on my spine as the bell finally rang; some people immediately stood up and got their bags ready.
"Alright class, don't forget there will be a quiz tomorrow. That's it for today. Safe travels as you go home."
I walked outside the classroom, and as I sat at the lounge next to the canteen, it wasn't very cozy there since it was only made up of monoblocks and nearly worn-out armchairs and a canopy covering us to protect us from the rain.
Can't they just upgrade the lounge a little? Our tuition fee is like 5,000 pesos; at least upgrade the school, jeez...
Anyways, let me chat Lianne.
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"Yo bro, I'm on the lounge."
. . .
"u got my ice cream?"
"Can it wait?"
"fine... were on our way btw cya"
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Alright, they said they're on their way... I guess I'm just going to have to wait for a little while; let me sit down for a little here.
I pulled out my phone from my pocket and played a retro game just to pass some time; somehow once I got to the ninth floor, the game got a little harder.
No matter how hard I tried, I could only reach the seventh to the eighth floor before the zone would kill me...
Oh wait, maybe I could do it this time... I've already breezed through the eighth floor with ease.
My fingers swiped as fast as they could, dodging the traps, accurately dashing through the walls, and as soon as you know it, I was at the ninth floor...
If I pass this floor, I could finally beat the game! I just got to repeat the same
My vision suddenly dimmed as I felt two hands covering my eyes as I was finally close to beating the game.
"Guess who," a voice intoned in sync with the game over music playing on my phone.
"Lianne... I was about to beat the game..." I replied with a dead tone.
After a few moments she removed her hand from my face as I turned to Lianne with lifeless eyes after she ruined such a perfect run.
I swear to everything holy, unholy, impure, and pure, if I only had a gun in my waist right now, I'd pop her head off...
"Uh... Hi?" the girl with glasses intoned with a shy tone.
I turned my eyes directly in front of me to see an incredibly short girl wearing thin glasses; she had a nervous smile while she was discreetly rubbing her fingers individually.
She was staring at me with those innocent eyes, and it didn't take long for me to notice she was the same girl Lianne was talking about.
"Uhm... I'm Cazandra, with a 'Z.' You can call me Cazie or Caz for short." She smiled slightly.
Dude, she's super cute... I don't know what to say; it's like my mouth isn't working or something.
Hey Caz, I'm Jean; you can call me JV for short...
The entire lounge fell silent as the two of us locked eyes for a few moments...
Lianne was standing beside her as she inhaled deeply with her palm on her face, staring at me with a disappointed look on her face.
"Uh, Caz, this handsome fellow sitting in front of you right now is Jean; you can also call him Val and JV, but I would prefer calling him a dumbass," Lianne replied with an annoyed tone.
Wait, shit, I didn't even talk?! I thought I introduced myself, but my mouth didn't even move an inch, not to mention I have a feeling in my left chest like it's slowly tightening...
"Hey, uh... shit, what was I about to say?"
Lianne stared at me with all hope lost in her eyes.
I've deeply succumbed to pressure; my brain isn't even functioning normally anymore. I was just frozen in place while I was staring at her.
I reached out my hand in gesture for a handshake; Caz stared at my hand in confusion for a moment before then taking it, shaking my hand.
I chuckled for a moment as I forced myself to smile despite the pressure I was feeling.
This is so embarrassing...