The Penmen Club

It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon when the three friends reached Danao City.

After riding the bus, they rode with a tricycle again and Francis was kind of pissed off when the driver demanded an extra pay to deliver them directly right in front of the gate of the Flores Residence. It seems that the house was not located in the center of the city nor kilometers far from it but rather, Greenhills village was actually located on a hill - which sounds obvious of course - in the edge of the province.

Upon riding the tricycle, they rode past highway houses and large buildings. Lhance was fascinated that Danao was not so much different than Cebu itself. With all those famous foodchains and stalls; Jollibee, McDonalds, Gaisano Mall, TNC predator, it was just as exactly as similar like Cebu, only Danao had this remote place they call villages, and Cebu does not.

When the tricycle took its turn left past the Jollibee Drive Thru, the environment of the place gradually changed after a minute. From an urbanized model of community with countless busy people walking and bystanding, tall buildings hoisting up advertisement billboards and asphalted four-laned smooth road, the path they were in now shew different kind of an ambiance. It escalated to a province-like themed place, where the fallen leaves danced in the music of the wind and houses where like a 100 meters apart. There was no asphalted roads to wheel into anymore but only rough and muddy pure soil track, which made Francis realize why the driver demanded for an extra pay.

They even rode past a very curvy path where the driver was forced to unload the tricycle and even asked the young adventurers to help him push it through the end of the curve or he cannot take them further and they will have to trek 5 kilometers on foot to reach Greenhills, and another few kilometers to reach the Flores Residence.

"Who the hell would want to live on top of a mountain?" Lhance scoffed while pushing.

"Vampires? Werewolves?" Josh suggested.

"And Frankenstein." Francis chuckled.

"Hotel Transylvania shit? It could be tho." said Lhance. "Or more like the Addams."

"Awooooo!" Francis howled in agreement, and they all laughed.

"Harder and Faster boys, it's almost dark already. Come on! Push!" the driver scolded softly.

Minutes after the curvy trial they had and some peaceful provincial rides, riding past the big "Welcome to Greenhills Village" post and some large houses and huge healthy trees, the tricycle stopped at the front of a black gate with a large letter R carved in the center of the two large colliding metal doors.

The three sat inside the tricycle in disbelief. On the outside, you can already sense that the place was a mansion. The gate was large in size but the house inside was larger. The area, the walls even covered was an enough size to let Francis take a big gulp of surprise. It explains the reason why the Flores Residence was located in a remote area, and that is because their house was a villa, and you don't want a villa in a city or in a place where random people pass by everyday.

"Out you get now boys!" said the driver.

"Hope this was the right house you were looking for." he continued then started his tricycle.

They stood at the front of the gate as the tricycle left behind them. Surprise and confusion was obviously written on their faces, but this was it. They can not be wrong. This was the location Ricky had provided them and he could never take pranks on a level like this. He was a nerd, and they knew Ricky could never think of playing them like this. The only pranks he do were baiting them in an online game, but that does not justify that Ricky couldn't play tricks in real life.

"No way. We're absolutely pranked. Tell me, we were." Josh stuttered, asking. "There are still houses on the next block. No way that man lives in here. This one's too extra."

"All the houses here are extra Josh. Look at that" said Francis looking at the other houses, next block.

"If I'll make a heist someday, I'm sure I'll do it right in this house, then to the other houses as well" Lhance said.

"We'll never know if it's the right house if we won't ask. So, yeah. I'm doing it" Francis remarked and pressed the doorbell.

Out from a doorhole peeked a brown eye. The three raised their hands awkwardly in hello and altogether greeted a good evening.

"Oh Hello! Good evening too" a woman's voice greeted back.

"Lovely boys! You three must be Ricky's good friends?" she asked.

The three finally filled their curiosity and had to believe from now on, that their friend was a low-key aristocrat. They are now starting to regret every friendly bully they did to their little friend and prepared their own good shows to pay for their soft bullies.

"Uh yes Miss, we are his friends." Francis stuttered.

A portion of the gate opened. The door where the woman peeked at, and they entered the gate. Welcoming them was Ricky's mother. A middle-aged woman wearing an aerobic suit with the color pink shining all over it. She had a pink hair bond to hold her gray hair and a pink wrist prop. Her smiling white teeth glinted like the color of the shoes she's wearing and her jolly face welcomes them warmly.

"I'm Ricky's mother and I'm not a miss, darling" She said.

"I'm sorry Mrs.Flores. You sound like a young lady out there to be honest." Francis replied, and the two nodded in agreement.

"Stop calling me Mrs.Flores young man. Call me Aunt already."

They walked past the pool, and heaven knows how excited Lhance was to get himself a dive in there.

"Ricky had always been mentioning you three in all his chitchats. He really expected you to visit him. You must be Francis?" The face of the gang, and the tempered leader as Ricky mentions." She asked.

Francis nodded and smiled. "He said that you're like the voice of the brotherhood. All of them three were socially awkward and you were the only who was not, so everytime you all four are caught up in a teacher's office, you were the one who always speaks for the whole. He often calls you the offlaner, and I don't have a tiny idea why." They all chuckled, and they now reached the staircases of the front door.

Ricky always uses weird materials in referencing a person. That offlane reference was from the position Francis always choose in playing their favorite leisure-time game. During breaks and after exams, they would hurry their way to Megamax - a computer shop, just across the school and burn their seats and eyes on a game called Dota 2.

"And my instinct tells me that you're Lhance." she smiled at Josh.

"No aunt. I'm Josh." he corrected and awkwardly smiled back.

"Oh Josh! Crusader? Such weird names Ricky have given you."

Francis and Lhance giggled on Mrs.Flores' mention of the word "crusader". Ricky meant to mean it as puns of two things. First was of the war between the Christian and the Muslims back in the 1000's, and that is because Josh grew up in a christian family and his parents were Christian devotees which also means that they had anger issues against other religious sects, and although nurtured by the christian principles, Josh just couldn't restrain himself from playing computer games with his friends which his parents find rebellious. You can't just resist fun when you're young, and you need to live with the tide to learn things; for Josh, breaking family rules were not an act of rebellion, but an act of growing up. The second pun was that "crusader" was the badge Josh have been maintaining for four years now, and you don't want to be stucked at such a low badge level for four years.

"and Lhance!" Mrs.Flores exclaimed.

Lhance gasped in surprise.

"My boy have never quite named you yet, hmmm .." she paused.

"Oh yes! The mouthful jester of the gang!" she continued.

"Absoultely!"

"Yes!" Josh and Francis replied in unison, and chuckled.

"Why mouthful?" she asked.

"He never ran out of useless opinions." Francis replied.

"and still talks when sleeping." said Josh.

"and curses a lot."

"Beat it." Lhance softly scoffed, and gave Josh an elbow bump.

Mrs. Flores led them straight towards the third level of the house, and after passing three large brown doors, they stopped in front of a large door. It was not a brown door, nor white nor green or any color, for it was covered with Starwars and Lord of The Rings posters,all of it. Then it has a caution tape stretched diagonally from the top left corner to the bottom right. They all knew it was Ricky's. Mrs. Flores knocked and tells Ricky that a group of young adventurers have come to take him to a quest.

"How's he doing Aunt?" Francis asked.

"Fine but he says he's always tired."

The door slightly opened and a head peeked over it. Ricky smiled and flung the door wide open. Stood behind it was a short young man, wearing his usual kind of shirts; starwars merch shirts with his pink pajamas. He was wearing a pair of round glasses and was smiling genuinely upon the sight of his friends. The world paused for awhile.

"Compadre!"

"Amigo!"

"Comrade!" The three exclaimed in chorus and gave Ricky tight hugs and shoulder taps.

"Holy grail! You've lost weight sucker and gone pale. What the fuck possessed you? The spirit of the Fallen Kings?" Lhance chuckled asking, and after realizing that Ricky's mother was standing behind them, he slapped his mouth thrice.

The four of them spent a minute just hugging and asking out questions. Francis reminded Ricky that he missed three of the final exams, and Ricky nodded. Lhance asked if he's dying jokingly, and Josh was asking about random geek stuff.They were just all so happy that they have reunited once again. Five days of being not together may not sound so long but for the the guys, it felt like forever.

"Penmen club and words we stab,

Art we make and art we have,

May be unloved, but we'll always love -

The members of the penmen club." They chanted, jumping while having a group hug.

"Lovely!" exclaimed Mrs. Flores.

She gave them their time and went to the kitchen to prepare them some snacks. The four of them sat on the floor and amidst them was a small glass table. They backbit some of their professors, and then started talking about their crush; how Jennifrey became so lonely in the absence of Ricky and how Judy started getting depressed coming to school knowing that Ricky won't be attending the class, which were all just lies for fun. Both girls mentioned were campus stars and the four have been drooling for them for years now.

"I should have brought Judy and Jennifrey. I told them, but they didn't approve." said Francis.

"Why just bring, when our friend here can buy them." Lhance chuckled.

"Oh boy, that sounds so wrong." Ricky and Josh nodded in disagreement.

As Ricky was talking about his everyday life during his quarantine, Josh caught something on Ricky's neck that made him uncomfortable, but he dares not to care and forget about it. Yet every time he looks at the paleness of his friend's face, his blood races fast. It made him uncomfortable thinking that Ricky might have the disease, he was starting to tap his fingers on his legs again. He wished to open up the recent breaking news they have just heard in the bus and the announcement he have read in a facebook post about the viral disease, but it might offend Ricky and he doesn't want that, especially on precious times like this.

The chat continued mentioning academic projects they must comply before the semester ends, and for twenty minutes now, Josh has never uttered a single word. He was thinking about things he should not be thinking.

Mrs. Flores and the lovely housemaid Rheta arrived with plates of sandwiches and glasses of coke. The boys enjoyed munching their snacks then Mrs. Flores went inside the room again and handled Ricky his medicine, then left to continue her Zumba session. With Ricky taking the medicine, Josh finally had the thought to open up the discussions about Ricky's sickness, and he started it out with a less odd question.

"So Rick, what meds have you been taking?" he asked.

"My mama always boild me some taheboo leaves and let me drink it after meals when ever I have coughs, fever and colds. My mama prefers natural leaves than processed medicines actually, says it heals faster. You on pure capsules? or do you have some natural stuff maintained?" he continued and took a bite on his sandwich.

"Oh yes, capsules won't do you no good man in the coming years. Science says that processed medicines does heal but it also destroys something in return. Well, I don't really know how the hell that works but I think it's like Eowyn's curse of immortality. Yes, she was immortal, she can't die and spoil herself with elven woods, but ..." Lhance said.

"Hooray for that." Francis interrupted.

"... but she'd suffer seeing her loved ones die."

"Oof"

"Give and take." Lhance continued.

They drank their glasses of coke synchronously, then they shouted jinx excitedly and laughed.

"I lost my fever just two days ago, and yes I had them both; capsules and leaf remedies. But I don't know, just after the fever I had trouble with my skin. I mean, my neck was so itchy, that I started scratching it always for a day. Mom brought me some skin remedies this morning and fortunately, it worked. The itching stopped but dark little spots started to appear on my neck. I don't know if these were because of my intense scratching, but it's there, look."

Ricky grabbed his collar, revealing tiny dark spots on the left part of his neck. The spots were tiny indeed, but it was many that it almost looked like a heap of an eschar. It also somehow looks like a skin reaction of a scarlet fever but instead of red, the spots were black.

"That's no bruise Rick. I guess that's the skin reaction of the illness. Hell of a reaction they are. Though it's odd how the spots were black. Most of the skin reactions related to fevers are red spots. Curious." Francis suggested.

"Whatever it is, I hope it's not the viral disease rumored to have risen." Ricky softly spoke and hid the marks with his collar.

Those words triggered Josh's fear of what's possible again. The dreadful memory of his brother haunted him again that he started to sweat and move his eyes awkwardly to go with the conversation. The tapping of his fingers intensified and throbbing of his heart went faster. If Ricky does really had the disease then he swear by God that they have already had it with all the body contacts they just made earlier. Josh was so sure about his suspicions and he wished for God that he had it wrong.

The random chitchats ended and Francis was now standing in front of them talking about their Literary Research. He showed them a concept map of their study and the angle they will need for the project, and he started assigning them with tasks. Francis was talking more and they were listening there like innocent kids. For Lhance, it was a funeral service.

"Now get your asses going, and do the tasks. No Youtubes, no games and no chats; only after you've finished your assignment. Deal?" announced Francis.

"Do we really have to do this now? We haven't had dinner yet and we still have a whole day tomorrow to do it, and what's curious ..." Lhance jumped in the front and seriously fixed his eyes on the three.

"... is that a new episode of the Stranger Things was just released. El lost her powers, oops, spoilers." continued Lhance.

"Did she really?"

"How on earth did that happened?"

"Good heavens!"

The three went crazy anxious.

"Well, we will never know if we will never watch it." Lhance smiled. "A whole day tomorrow." he raised his brows like a clown jesting over its audience.