Chapter 8: Ariella

Kim nodded his head understanding it, and it seems my brother wants to ask more questions about the category the staff was talking about but the said staff usher us to line up in our section grade. There's a lot of huge banners that have written which grade is the line for, but before we completely leave the staff behind, he gives us our student ID then we walk ahead.

"Brother, I'll be going to that line and you're in that line." – I pointed to the section of my Grade two banner and brother's line banner. He crouched down to my level turning me around then opening my bag checking my things inside, afterward he turns me around so I'm facing him, brother observes my uniform also checking if it's neat or not.

"Let me check your bag if you have everything you need. There's a pencil case… pencils and eraser… also a sharpener… hmm… notebooks… paper pads… water bottle… and lunch box." – Kim

"I'll be fine, brother. I'll see you later!" – I run towards my line while waving back to brother with a bright smile making brother to waved back to me. It seems brother is waiting for me to reach my line before he walks away, and when I did reach the said line, I give the staff teacher my ID for attendance then the teacher explained to me a lot of things about what will happen for today. I look back in the direction of my brother but he's not there, I just shrugged assuming that he has already gone ahead.

"Ariella!" – someone called out to me which made me whipped my head in the direction of the voice making eye contact with Denise, who is calling out to me happily while shaking his hand sideways. I jogged my way up to him smiling happily, I'm so excited to see him again even though we only saw each other yesterday at the mall.

"Denise! I'm so happy to see you, what a coincidence we our classmate!"

"I know right! Are you a transferee in here too or is just me?"

"Only you, Den. Can I call you Den instead of Denise?"

"Of course, we're officially friends, so you can have a pet name for me, and I can call you Arie too."

"Mm." – I nodded in agreement looking around the school as the teacher leads us to our classroom, it feels like déjà vu being here again, back in the past and meeting every friend I've made since I was a kid again. Ever since I've returned from the future, no, that timeline, I worked hard to change everything to make my mission much easier. I know changing the past will have an impact on my surroundings, but I don't regret anything.

The time machine gives me a second chance to be with everyone I hold dear to my heart and this time I won't regret anything, no one or anything can block the path I choose this time. I won't lose anyone anymore, not if I can't help it, I'll be more honest to myself and won't try to make excuses of my selfishness, I'll stop hiding in the cocoon I created before. Being selfish is just proof that I'm human, that I have a heart, and beating inside of this small body of mine.

Before, in that timeline, I lose my best friends in the war because I'm weak they protected me and sacrifice themselves when I'm so helpless and so weak to fight. Then I lose my one and only family, afterwards, I watch my husband died right in front of those monsters tear him from limb by limb, but he smiled at me then said, "I love you and survived".

"Ar… Arie… Ariella!"

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry Den, I was lost in thought for a moment. Do you need me for something?"

"We have to pick a seat before we have to be separated because there's not enough empty seat." – Denise complained of a scowl on his face as he drags me to the farthest left back corner of the room, it has a good view of the whole room and I can see the front clearly. Denise sat beside the window while I sat beside him as our table and chair are connected to each other.

"What were you thinking so deeply earlier that you didn't even bother listening to me?"

"Aigo, I'm sorry Den, I was just thinking about the test for this school year."

"Wah, about the test, is it hard for transferees or is it the same level as students like you coming back from this school?"

"Dunno, I start coming here since I was a kindergarten and at that age, you don't have to take the school test at the start of the school year. The school test only starts for grade one, so last year is the first time taking it and this year is my second. The test was easy my rank at that time was… hmm… I think I was inside the top ten ranks… or is it the top fifteen ranks. Can't remember." – I shrugged nonchalantly, I don't really care for the test as I've studied this over again and over again in that timeline.

`Ah the hardship of my student life, going to endless tests, quizzes, and exams, ~sigh~`

"I see, by the way, there's a tryout for badminton this Saturday morning until afternoon. The coach is my uncle, if you want, I could ask my uncle if you are allowed to try out even though you're still in grade two."

"Hey, don't forget you are grade two too. Why are you asking your uncle to only allow me to try out? Why didn't you include yourself?" – I said as a huge angry mark mentally appeared on my forehead

"Hmm… didn't I told you before, I part of the team since I was in grade one, so I don't need to tryout. That's the privilege of having an uncle as a coach." – he proudly boasted as he puffs out his chest which irritated me more than I couldn't control my hand that I smack his shoulder multiple times until I noticed our teacher entering the room that I stop.

"That hurts Arie, are you a hulking woman or maybe an Amazon?" – he whined

"Who are you calling hulk woman and Amazon?! Jerk, hmph." – I crossed my arms puffing my cheeks a little as I pout ignoring him and focusing on our teacher.

"Good morning, class, I'm your homeroom teacher and my name is Martha Dela Cruz, you can call me Ma'am Martha or Ms. Martha. Our agenda for today is the written exam; there are three categories, the first test is Mathematics, the second test is Science, and the third test is English. In each test will have two hours set time including the extra time given to those who might need it. After you finish the Math test you are allowed to take a recess then after the science test is lunch break. Because we won't know what exactly all of you will be finished, the school has decided to give the students period of time; in recess, you will only have fifteen minutes to eat snacks than at lunchtime will be thirty minutes." – Ms. Martha explained to us as one of my classmates raised her hand to ask a question

"Ms. Martha, for example, I finished my Math test around 10:45 does that mean I'll come back here to do the Science test before 11:00. Then if I finished my Science test around 1:30 then I'll come back around two to finish the last one. Is that correct, Ms. Martha?" – I recognized the girl, with straight long black hair, dark brown eyes, and heart-shaped face, she is one of my best friends before, Angelene.

"Yes, you are correct… name?"

"Angelene Acosta, Ma'am."

"Yes, you are correct Angelene."

"Now for the transferee students will have different agenda for today, the new students please listen carefully and after I explained your agendas today please stand up and follow me later. New students, your exams are consisted of interviews with a teacher individually asking you few questions of basic knowledge of what you learn in your previous school. After the interview, there will be Math, Science, and English tests that have twenty-five questions each, this will take all of you at least an hour and a half to finish. That's all for today as for the rest of this week, it will be the same exams for the normal students. New students, please follow me and get your bags we will go to a different tomorrow and wait for your name to be called out. As for the students waiting here, behave quietly and wait for me to start your exams."

Denise followed Ms. Martha out of the room silently but before he left our seat, I heard him whispered "see you later" to me which I smiled softly in his direction. I opened my bag to get my pencil case and a small paper pad, bringing out a sharpened pencil and an eraser for later use. It only took Ms. Martha exactly ten minutes from coming back to our classroom, she handed us our test papers. It consists of three papers with fifty questions.

`Wow, I never thought this could be much easier than last time, who am I kidding? Of course, this is easy, I've studied this before and done it again and again before. I'm so lucky, not. If I answer all of this correctly then I'll get rank one, but I don't want to have attention for being a genius

What should I do then? Should I answer all of this correctly or should I just not answer correctly in some hard questions? Hmm… the latter then. `

It takes me at least an hour and a half to finish the whole questions as I took my time answering everything and I even have extra time to doodle on my paper pad. I already double and triple check my answers, and I'm already bored at wasting time like this, so I raised my hand waiting for my teacher to notice me which was quick. I passed my test paper to Ms. Martha with a bright smile and a whisper of thank you. I don't even know I say thank you maybe as a habit before when I was a high school student in Calgary, yeah, maybe that was it.

"You're already done? Did you double-check your answers?" – she said with a pair of wide eyes, maybe I screwed up at staying low.

"Yes, Ma'am, I did."

"Okay, you can have your snack time and you can also go out if you want to, there's a playground for children near the gym."

"Thank you, and Ms. Martha, what time am I supposed to be back?"

"Well, you finish at 10:30… so you can come back at 10:45. But because you finish everything so early, I'll give you an extra time off... hmm... another fifteen minutes, so come back when it strikes eleven o'clock, okay?"

"Yuppies, thank you, Ms. Martha."

It's so nostalgic, walking around the school grounds like it was just yesterday I was causing mayhem in the middle playing tag with my friends and shouting happily without a care of the world. I was so free in my other childhood days, I was just one of those average kids that caused troubles whenever they go, got scolded multiple times by teacher and still got high grades in academics, and one of the school badminton players. All I care about at those times were reaching my family's expectations of me after my other older cousin failed to do so.

I was naïve and innocent; I don't even know what death is and what is the meaning of survival of the fittest. The present, the past, and the future in my minds are overlapping, I'm so confused about what is past and future now that I'm back in here. If I remember my studies in time travel or quantum physics or whatever it was called, either I created a new timeline or I entered an existing timeline which I was predestined to go back in time.

Either way, I've traveled back in time that is in another timeline compared to the timeline I was in before or is that the future timeline slash disaster of humankind and the new beginning of those mythical creatures.

`I don't know anymore! My head hurts thinking it, I have much more precedence than my time traveling. The soldiers are training harder and I'm pushing them to their limits, they must break through this month. If not, then I must find my two masters, I'll just suck it up at waking them. `