II
Fool’s Gold
January 2011SAB
“O Sab, you’re late!” said an annoying voice as I entered the classroom. “Siguro dinalaw mo muna Dad mo sa bilibid bago pumasok no?”
I gave her a small glare as I made my way to my seat, but I chose not to speak. At this, she went to follow me as I walked, her eyes glinting maliciously.
“Well, I can’t blame you. Kung ako nasa posisyon mo, ganun din gagawin ko. Alam mo kasi sabi nila, the living conditions in there are worsening,” she went on. “Totoo ba?”
“No, but he did tell me he’s planning to sneak out for some fresh air,” I snapped in a deadpan voice. “Gusto mo bigay ko home address mo para siya mismo magkwento sayo?”
Jackie’s face went pale, and I knew I had hit bulls’ eye.
Akala mo ah. 
Jackie chose to turn her back on me, unable to think of a comeback, when I heard a small snigger from the back of the room. A girl whom I do not recognize at all was there, looking amused. She flashed me a triumphant smile.
WTF.
Eavesdropper na, feeling close pa.
Sino ba yun?
Meh. Whatever. 
I opened my bag and brought out the reaction paper that was due today. My teacher has assigned us to review Jane Eyre over the Christmas holidays, and I was only too glad to have something to do over the long stretch of vacation.
I wouldn’t say I missed school, though. With people like Jackie hanging around everywhere, I don’t think anyone would ever want to be back.
Pero siguro, sa kaso ko lang yun.
People then started coming in for first period, and they were in groups, chattering about their respective semestral break getaways.
A tall figure materialized on the doorway, and my face involuntarily stretched into a smile.
She smiled back, then made her way to the chair in front of me.
“Hey Sab,” said Mara, looking amazing in her beachy waves. “How was Athens?”
“It’s, well, Athens…” I told her. “Parthenon was great, Santorini was heaven... And don’t get me started on those boys. 
Although winarningan ako dati, even if they’re Greek gods in the flesh, marami sa kanila wag ka, dyosa pala.”
“Oooh, not bad, De Valencia,” she told me as she took her seat. “But feeling ko puro tingin ka lang, wala kang ginawa.”
“You do know me well,” 
I said.
“Tch,” I heard Jackie scoff nearby. “Whatever.”
“May sinasabi ka, Jackie?” Mara asked sweetly, and Jackie recoiled, as though she was hit by lightning.
“No.”
“Stop eavesdropping, then.”
“Sorry.”
“Wag sakin, kay Sab.”
“Sus wag na,” I said. Jackie merely rolled her eyes behind Mara’s back.
“Done with your paper?” I asked.
“Yeah, of course,” Mara said brightly. She was the type who never misses doing her homework. “I wouldn’t ask you, though, I know how much you love English class.”
“Tumigil ka nga.”
“I’ll bet you a thousand bucks you’re getting Best Paper for last quarter’s review of The Count of Monte Cristo.”
“I’m serious, Mara, shut up,” I said, half-amused, half-hopeful.
She always gets Best Paper, kaya malakas ang loob niyang maghamon ng pustahan because she knows that the chances of me beating her is about equal to zero.
Never mind. I’m happy with a 90. The full marks belong to Mara. It’s how it is, how it always will be.
“Good morning, class.”
Ma’am Valente, our English teacher, has just entered our classroom with her usual smile.
“GOOD MORNING!” everyone greeted cheerily, standing on their feet.
“Sit down, girls,” she replied, her eyes bright. “Ready for your last term in English class?”
“AWWW. NOOO,” 
everyone groaned as we all sat back down.
Ang plastic nyo.
“I guessed not. Just looking at the dismal state of last term’s final paper…”
There was a collective gasp.
Dismal? 
Patay. Wag naman sana akong kasama dun…
“But one of you stood out among all the others,” said our teacher, and I noticed Mara jerking upright on her seat. “When all of you have chosen Dantes as your favorite character, some have provided rather interesting insights on Fernand and Faria, and well, I’m surprised – Villefort.”
“I was torn between those three,” Mara whispered excitedly as she turned towards me for a bit. “Sino nilagay mo sa paper?”
“I forgot,” I told her, although I was sure I covered Villefort in my paper.
Wait.
Nahhh. Hinde. Asa pang ako yung sinasabi ni Ma’am.
Mara merely giggled as she went to face the board again, looking ready to receive another paper marked with a 100.
Honestly, does she really still get excited? Every term na lang kaya niyang nakukuha yun, di ba siya nagsasawa?
“Characteristics were always the safe lines to discuss, but one of you went as far as motives and personal, internal conflicts. And I was floored – I’ve never read such an amazing insight in such a long time.”
Ay waw Ma’am Valente, kelangan talaga ng speech?
“Come and get your paper, Miss De Valencia.”
Mara instinctively stood up, knowing it would be her, and I prepared to clap, except that no one was clapping. The whole class fell quiet.
My best friend turned to look at me, horrorstruck, and it took me quite a while to realize why—
“Miss De Valencia?” my teacher said tentatively. “Over here?”
OSHIIIT.
Joke ba to?
So ako nga? :|
Mara was still gaping at me, as though demanding how this could possibly have happened. I shrug in reply, not knowing the answer to that question myself. I stood up as my best friend sank on her own seat, looking extremely embarrassed.
“Didn’t expect it, did you, Miss De Valencia?” said our teacher encouragingly as I made my way through the clasroom aisle. No one was clapping, but that was the last thing on my mind right now.
How on earth did I get Best Paper?
Nagkapalit ba kami ng Papel ni Mara? :|
Hala. Nakadrugs ata ako. O jetlag pa rin X_X
“Honestly, no,” I said, feeling my ears growing red as Ma’am Valente smiled at me. “Thank you, though.”
“You deserve it, Miss De Valencia, keep it up. I won’t be expecting anything less from you from now on, okay?” she told me, patting me on the shoulder. “And Miss Ortega, since you already stood up, here’s yours. No need to feel bad, I gave it a ninety-two. A little competition is always healthy.”
Still, no one clapped. The smile on Mara’s face was forced. I tried to smile at her and tell her it was okay as she went up towards the teacher’s table, but—
“Aray!” 
“Easy,” our teacher warned.
My eyes immediately found Mara as I sunk on my seat, hardly able to believe what just happened…
Sobrang weird naman.
I then went to look somewhere else, and I found my seatmate looking at me with an expression that plainly said ‘you’re dead.’
Wow.
If I’m not mistaken, this is the same girl who beat Mara in the Math Quiz Bee.
What am I even thinking?
She’s my best friend. Di naman siguro siya magagalit sakin dahil lang don.
I mean, honestly. She always gets the best stuff in classes, quiz bees, even in extra curriculars, while she knows I’m mediocre, almost just surviving in our classes.
Who cares if I beat her in one measly term paper?
I mean, if she does flip out – sobrang babaw naman!
Mara got back to her seat, and I chose to just forget about it.
Di naman siguro niya ko sinadya banggain.
“Pass your Jane Eyre essays now, please,” Ma’am Valente now said, looking slightly put off. “All papers in front at the count of five. One—
“Mara—
I handed my paper up front so she can get it, but she harshly grabbed it out my my grasp without looking at me.
SRSLY?
:|
Ang childish.
“Oh, I forgot, where is Miss Yumul?”
Huh?
Sino yun?
“Miss Yumul, can you come up front please?”
The girl who had sniggered during my little argument with Jackie stood up, and I felt my jaw drop.
Ang ganda nya putek.
Di ko naman agad napansin nung tiningnan ko siya kanina.
Matangkad siya. Athletic yung frame. Tapos tanned, hinde maputi, hinde rin maitim. She might just be the same height as me and Mara, and—
Holy sh1t.
Ang hot ni Ate, wala akong masabi.
She turned to face us, and for the second time that day, the class fell abnormally quiet.
“Introduce yourself, please,” Ma’am Valente said, her motherly vibe back.
Introduce?
Weird, she can’t be from another section – I’ve never seen her in Strathmore before…
Baka transferee? 
Pero ang labo nun – last year na namin in High School, tas last quarter na.
Buzzer beater?
“Hi guys. I’m Danica Yumul.” 
The class murmured a very forced ‘hi’.
“Yun lang?”
“There’s nothing else to say,” Danica said shortly. Ma’am Valente, however, was persistent.
“Tell us something interesting. Something we can use to remember you.”
Danica smiled, seemingly innocent, but I knew better as her eyes burned with such mischief that I just couldn’t bring myself to buy it.
“Well, I just got kicked out of Nightingale-Bamford,” she said, and everyone gasped in unision. “I hope that’s interesting enough.”
WHOA.
Kaya siya andito kasi nakick out siya?!
Naku. Mukhang di nagustuhan ni Ma’am Valente yung stunt niya ah.
Patay ka ngayon Buzzer Beater. Pag iinitan ka nyan ni Ma’am V.
“Thank you, Danica,” she said coldly. “Go back to your seat.”
Danica simply flipped her hair and did as she was told.
Such guts. Even Jackie was watching her, agape, seemingly unable to believe that someone has just out-b1tched her.
“She’s gorgeous,” gushed Haruka, one of my lunch buddies, as we fell in line to get our food in the caf. “Even in our lousy school uniform, she looks like she just stepped out of Teen Vogue!”
“No, she’s a spoiled brat who spends too much time in tanning salons,” Jackie snapped, and this outburst clearly indicated that she was not a fan of Danica Yumul. “Ang bastos pa! Sagutin ba naman si Ma’am V ng ganun.”
“Shut up, Jackie,” Mara said lazily as she got the plate that the cafeteria lady handed her. “Isa ka pa rin namang magaling sumagot sa teachers.”
HAH.
Buti nga sayo.
BV eh. Kung di lang siya kamag anak ni Mara, I wouldn’t want to be in the same table with her while eating.
“But you gotta admit, she’s badass.”
“Bad news, more like,” Jackie interjected.
“I like her. She seems like a good catch.”
“But you heard her, she’s a kick out.”
“So? Street cred kaya yun,” Mara said, and I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes.
Street cred? Sometimes, it’s like popularity is all that Mara ever cares about.
Mara finally got her dessert, and off we went to our favorite table – one that no one dared sit in – everyone knew it was “ours”.
High School and its complexities.
“Street cred? You’re kidding, right?”
“Hinde ah,” Mara said to Jackie, and as she did, she waved at a point over my shoulder. “ Hey! Danica!”
“What is she doing?” Haruka asked me. I shrugged in reply.
“Danica!” Mara called out again, this time waving more frantically. I turned to look, and there was Miss Buzzer Beater, making her way towards us, her eyes questioning, one eyebrow slightly raised. “Sit with us!”
Haruka threw me a scared look.
There were only four stationary seats on our table… and asking Danica to sit with us would mean—
“Yes?” said Danica, a little haughtily. “What do you want?”
“Sit with us, come on.”
I exchanged one look with Haruka then put my tray down, wondering what Mara had in mind...
“There are only four chairs,” Danica pointed out. “And there’s already four of you. Ginagag0 mo ba ko?”
“Of course not,” Mara said, smiling toothily. “Hindi naman dito uupo si Sab eh.”
“Wait, what did you just say?”
“You heard me. Four stationary chairs, four of us here... Obviously, there’s no place left for you.” she said, turning her dark eyes on me instead.
“No, I’ll go find another table, it’s fine,” Haruka said with a nervous laugh, obviously attempting to take the blow for me.
“Don’t be stupid, Haruka. You’re staying.”
I looked at Mara, hardly daring to believe it.
I always knew she was a b itch, but I never dreamed she would pull something like this on me.
AND IT’S ALL BECAUSE OF A MEASLY TERM PAPER.
“Ano pa tinatayo mo dyan? Alis!”
Tears were threatening to build up on my eyes, making them hot and misty, but I held them back, not wanting to give Jackie the satisfaction of seeing me cry while being bullied by somebody else. Even everybody else in the caf were looking at us.
I’ve never been so humiliated in my entire life.
“Fine. Suit yourself.”
I turned on my heel and left the cafeteria, head held up high.
bien_021: syempre kasi labs din kita unnie
AY ANSABE? Lol. Thank you thank you! Hugs!
neleigna: oohhh namahhhn!
Yak naligo sa H?!
Tenkyu Anj!
junachoopxz: Shet Junababes you're here!
Thank youuuuu! ♥
dyslexic: Aww thanks Alex! Nakakatuwa talaga, I always see you in my stories. HUG!!!
curiousity kills: tatandaan ko yan, shobe.
I miss you!
p!nk: Korekek ka dyan Kace! (Ansabe? Ano ba tong effect sakin ng Praybeyt Benjamin amps) hahaha! Thanks mucho ♥
jielica: Thank you Jiel! Sana magustuhan mo din yung mga susunod
littlemiss brightside: hi Aljeri! Ang bengga ng comment mo super benta saken
Thank you! Hinde ko kasi masyadong naupdate dati. Prologue lang yata nalagay ko noon. LOL!
loiseace: Hi Loise! Thanks for reading!
Castelo is Wacky’s surname. Oo nga naman hinde ko pala nalinaw.
And that reminds me... kelangan ko pala ng character chart and profiles. Lol thanks for helping me remember XD
lissy_14: Aww LISSYBEAR <3 I know you’re always here and it means a lot. Miss you Fab Five maknae!
1nevele1: Hey Jhing! Haha. sana magustuhan mo rin to.
Thank you for reading!
