Volume I Chapter 10

"Hey, you okay?" I heard Andy's voice behind me and it made me snap back to what was I doing in the first place.

"Where's Steven?" Jill asked.

"Steven? He went to change in the men's restroom for a while. I guessed we took a little while since the two of you had troubled yourselves to go over here." I replied and pointed out to the direction where Steven had gone through. "Do you also need to use the loo? I can still wait for a little while you know?"

"I'm good-" "Never mind all of that! Classes are about to start in ten minutes at most, so let's hurry and go back quickly!" Jill hurried to drag all of us back to the classroom and we've arrived with just a couple of minutes to spare.

History was next on today's subject to listen to.

"Alright! Anyone who's going to be late from this moment onwards will have something to do for me for the rest of the hour. The punishment would be giving a recap about the previous lessons we've had yesterday…" Sir Owen, our history teacher, announced and drabbled on to the expectant gazes of our class.

"But sir! We didn't exactly discuss anything from the stand in teacher you had yesterday, so wouldn't today be an invalidated day for your new rule?" A female student from the back asked. "Hmm. Is that so? Then we'll just give everyone an assignment for today, so that we could recover yesterday's lost learning opportunity!" He joyfully said in which the class made a huge ruckus about, I included.

"What?!"

"B-but we just told you that we didn't discuss anything?"

"It's too fast! I feel like everything's been too fast!"

"That's why you're doing extra. Because you didn't do anything yesterday!"

"Ehh!"

"Now, now. The assignment's easy to do if you listen to today's topic about…"

"Man! Why can't teachers give us some slack. I've got like, three to four things I need to finish revising on before next week's test, but the day's just quickly swooshes by." Jill complained as we stood to walk away from the cafeteria and eat our lunch at our favorite hang-out place in the whole East branch of Lutec Academy, the school's own rumored confession hill.

Walking quietly on the well-trimmed grass of the small hidden field, the fresh air from the nearby tall tree gave us an extremely relaxing welcome that we currently needed. Jill went ahead of us, carrying both of our bags before setting them down on a root and lying down to relax. Andy walked forward with our drinks while I carefully carried the take-out lunches we ordered at the school's cafeteria.

"It can't be that bad, can't it?" Andy tried to give comfort to the slumped-out girl on the bark of the tree.

"No! It's bad. Like REALLY bad! If I haven't gotten a friend like Nessa darling for the past five years, I probably would've repeated a year countless of times!" While the two of them talk about the exaggerated hardships of the class chatterbox, I sat myself down next to them and began to arrange our respective lunches in a way that it would look like a picnic between old friends. I heard the two of them changing topics many times before finally settling on asking about the way we found such a neat place.

"So, is this where you've been eating since day one? I didn't know that it was now perfectly permitted to eat at a place that contained cultivated grass in it. Oh, I like the way you put our lunches in a way like we're having a small picnic, Vanessa." I smiled at the compliment before beginning to eat my loaf and rice.

"Right? Actually, we didn't know that the old rule of 'do-not-step-on-grass' was a rule that was still concurrent here. Although, now that I look back at the times when Nessa and I slept at this place, it's probably why the school janitor kept glaring at us for a few years. I genuinely thought that he was just being rude to us because we were relaxing, while he was working you know? Who would've known that it was because of some rule that we weren't aware of? The glaring went on for a couple of years, but I don't understand why he never reported nor told us off about it. It's probably because he felt that it was a pain in the ass..." I heard Jill went on and told about the days we spent in this place.

I didn't notice it at all, but it seems that I've been spaced out again when several snaps in front of me brought me back. Although such gesture brought me back out of my endless stupor of the day, it made my body unconsciously jerk upwards, resulting on dropping the loaf I had prepared on the spoon that I was holding.

"Ah!" We watched it fall down slowly before settling down on the grass.

"Oh. Sorry about that." I waved her off before asking her if she needed anything from me. All I got was a small no as she resumed twirling her spaghetti to eat for lunch.

Nothing? Did my loaf really fell down from nothing?

I felt a little wronged at the thought of my food dying without any cause.

"I was just checking if you were still okay. I've just noticed that you've been, somehow, totally out of it." She said and took a bite out of her fork. The slight bit of regret and annoyance for losing my food began to evaporate like smoke as I stared at her in bewilderment.

"What? Is it not okay to check up on my new friend once in a while?"

I laughed a little, feeling somehow overjoyed that someone had finally took a notice of my feelings and said, "No..." I shook my head and stared directly at her eyes, before discreetly looking down the rolled-up spaghetti she was making in the plastic topper ware on her hands.

"Actually, not at all. It just feels weird that someone has finally said those words right back at me." After saying and getting a silent affirmation from her, I quickly took her off guard by taking a bite out of the rising fork that she was about to eat on.

"Ahh! You ate my spaghetti!" She shouted, and gave my shoulder a slap before pressing her forefinger and thumb to yank a hard squeeze on my right cheek. She then stretched it downwards, making me internally yelp in pain as I struggle to smile at her fruitless efforts of getting her eaten food back. "That wash revenge for my mweat woaf. Ow! Oh!" Having such a firm grip on my poor face was the least of my worries when she added her right hand to deal casualty on my left-over cheek.

The pain was excruciating and I knew that I'll probably give in to the now pouting girl in front of me so I fought back. I copied both of her movements right after setting the lunches on our laps aside so that they'll be free from the further damages that I'll cause afterwards. Both of her cheeks were stretched far away from each other, and it made me happy to see her struggling to get a hold of mine when I kept attacking hers.

"Waaaaahhh!" She shouted and leaned forward to pinch me harder. Without much regard to appearance on what was happening, we were now both having an intense stare down at each other so that one person would give in.

"Wet goooo!"

"Yu fwerst!"

"No! U fwerst!"

"What the heck are you two doing?" A deep voice startled the two of us and made me unintentionally let go of the girl's soft cheeks in front of me. "Nwothing." I say to Jill, who had just arrived after throwing her finished lunch away, and was now looking at both of us with an overall suspicious look.

"Really? I only left for a second and was afraid of having left you for too long, so I hurried back. But oh boy, I didn't think I'd see you guys flirting when I'm gone." She then gave off an amused tone and sneered at the two of us back and forth.

"What are you saying we're not-" I spoke in a hurry to affirm my best friend's suspicions when the loss of warmth made me turn to look at the girl laying in front of my arms, her reddening face close to mine. "Ahh…" I could feel the heat rising through the tip of my ears after realizing that I've probably done and dig my grave.

"Hmm…You were saying?" I heard Jill teased us and saw Andy shook her head. "We were just playing around. Want to join us? Although if you do, I'd have to warn you that I'm a hard pincher." She made a clawing motion with her hands and approached the teasing girl behind us.

"Uhm, no thank you! Hey! I already declined!" I watched the two of them chase each other around the bright field and laughed away the crazy beating of my heart.

"Everyone's here I presume?" School was already nearing its end as we gather around the small room for a small student meeting. "Yes Mr. President." One student, that is currently standing along beside the said seated president, reported which gain a silent approval from the said man. It was deathly still and silent all around the room.

And believe it or not, there was this strange pressure that I kept feeling whenever I meet the focused gaze of the head himself.

"Then we'll start with today's progress of collection. Student representatives of each year, please hand in the report and summarize the whole thing for today." The President said and several students followed, including Andy Collins, my partner, who sat beside me.

Walking from the nearby chairs they've been seated at, rows of two tables openly divided the categories of the said students into junior and senior. A student from the third year-section Crow, handled the seniors, and one sophomore from the second year-section Eleanor supervised the collection of the reports in front of the dividing tables. One by one, all of them systematically placed a bunch of thin papers on one small allotted space and went back to their seats to openly start the discussion about procuring funds for the school's tree planting event.

But the moment that Andy handed in her-our report, the Crow student, who I have no recollection of his name, brought the paper immediately on the president for a small look.

"I see that it's been reported here that the collection's on the seniors side are all practically done? How do you exactly have the confidence to back this statement up when I haven't heard of any piece of news about the two of you openly collecting them at class?" He cleared his throat, questioning the two of us of what we exactly did to openly proclaim that we did a really great job. "If you haven't noticed, I am a fellow senior and classmate too, Ms. Collins."

I didn't understand what's the deal with his tone exactly, but I did know that I didn't like the way that he was speaking.

"Well, Mr. President. In my small understanding of the designated problem, that was particularly assigned to the student representatives of each year, the necessity of getting collections from everyone was done so that they can openly support our school's noble tradition and cause. Now, down below the document lies an alternative way, wherein two temporary representatives from the senior division had come up with a doable plan that would make the problem easier to handle. It is stated that getting the proper finance for supporting the seniors without necessarily taking away their hard-earned funds can, or rather, was, already done by acquiring a generous sponsor in exchange of advertising their own cause in the moments of the said event. Contributing to the great cause of our school as well as providing them equal benefits took a long time to draft on both parties involved, however, the result turned out better from both ends and had greatly satisfied each of them. Thus, a stamp, invoice, letter, and a small contract of approval was already made within the moments that both parties reached a similar wavelength. The document that was passed today contains a photocopy of the confirmation of the said efforts of two students as well as the written report, while the original copies followed with further necessary proof is already at the dean's hand as we speak." Andy confidently said in which I secretly gave her a silent thanks and thumbs up for the way her words broke the President's overbearing façade in the confined space called meeting room.

Gasps of admiration and nervous looks passed each of their faces, and I couldn't help but feel a bit shy of the well-rounded plan that I've obviously winged in the last moments of my temporary resignation.

"I see…" He bellowed out a low cough and cleared his throat. He then gave out a long white folder for her to reach and said, "This will be the other things that I'll be troubling you with, Ms. Collins. I'm glad that we finally have such capable hands to help us on the school's event. It would've been nice if we had the pleasure to recruit you permanently for the rest of the year."

"Thank you for the compliment Mr. President, but I do know that this wouldn't be easily done without the partner that was assigned to me." She said with a smile to excuse herself from the waiting trap made by the devious head of a snake. Andy then quickly took her seat beside me and silently busied herself by opening the new assignment we had from our demanding school president.

"That's a shame. Alright, who's next?" The meeting continued on without much disturbance and need from us so I turned to focus at the girl beside me and asked, "What's it says?"

"Just about what I expected it to say. We need to help with the overall design of the school's gymnasium for the theme, as well as assist a lot on the upcoming event. But other than that, nothing else." She said, flipping over the pages that was filled with tables of scheduled data I didn't know what the purpose for.

"Does that mean we get to be excused for the whole day?" I whispered to her right ear but didn't get an answer from her for a while. Seeing her so engrossed in the piece of paper, I internally shrugged to myself and went on to zone out of the meeting once again. Once the end of the school chime struck to play all over the school, I hurriedly strapped both of our bags behind my back and drag the girl with me outside the school hallway. We didn't speak along the way, but she did try to pry off her bag from me in which I rejected her advances from just to annoy her.

"So, where would the famous Andy Collins treat me for today?" I asked.

"That depends if you'd actually give me my bag so that I could treat you this time..." I ignored her side comments and further dragged her by the wrist towards the school gate in a small run. I was about to say something when I felt my phone vibrate and saw that it was my dearest mother calling me from a different time. "Mother, what's up?"

"Sorry for calling so suddenly honey. I'm actually at the country right now, and a quick ride home would be nice." I stopped walking, startling the girl next to me and hurriedly asked, "Why are you suddenly-"

I heard a melancholic sigh and she said, "Work's been suddenly postponed, that's why. Now, don't ask questions anymore and come fetch your mother, okay? I'd prefer if you'd get me by car but I know you haven't exactly had taken driving classes yet. I'm sorry honey. You can call Kai to come with you though…" It was the second time that I heard her sound upset, her voice turning stern and rigid to disguise the sadness in her tone. It made me recall the times when father went missing from the rest of our lives, just so we would hear him staying with at a hospital and not accepting any guests even if they were family.

It made me feel that something was incredible wrong.

Very wrong.

"Vanessa?" I looked to the startled girl beside me and silently handed her bag back. I knew I couldn't hang-out with her today for a celebration but I smiled saying, "Sorry, can you treat me next time? I have somewhere that I'm currently needed today, so I'll be seeing you tomorrow. Don't wait for me alright?" I didn't give her the chance to reply before quickly speed dialing Kai, and running out of the place to ride on the fastest bus that would pass along the route to the city hospital.

"Hello-" "Kai! Meet me on the front desk and prepare your car." Hearing the urgency of my tone, I heard his breathe hitched a little and asked, "What happened?"

"It's mom. She's at the airport right now, but she sounds like she'd break down any second now. I need your help to fetch her home."