“GUSTO KO LANG NAMAN PO MAGTANONG” (I’D JUST LIKE TO ASK A QUESTION)

GLOSSARY

· Parehas na tao lang? – Still the same people?

· Po – to further highlight the politeness of addressing a statement/question towards someone older; has no direct English translation

· Quadratic po siya – It is quadratic

· Ganoon lang ka-simple! – It is that simple!

· Naman ( I will repeat it naman ) – "I could still repeat it"

· Time na po – A sentence Filipino students use to signify the teacher has reached the end of their time with the section

· Oras niyo na po – Literally : "Your time has come"; used to signify that the person's death has arrived

· Di ko napansin – I didn't notice

· Nandiyan iyung powerpoint – The powerpoint is there

· Sige – Sure (used as a reply to a question)

· Ahhh, ganun/ganoon ba? – Oh, is that so?

· Kasi – because

· Diba – right?

· Naman (…worship naman po) ������� Worship then is the….

· Iha – a term of endearment for a young girl

· Pasensya na po – Pardon me, Miss/Sir

· Gusto ko lang naman po magtanong – I'd just like to ask a question

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"If we apply the concepts I taught you earlier, can anyone identify the kind of polynomial given?" Sir Elio turned on his heel from the blackboard to face us as he hopped off the platform in front to walk down the aisle of our classroom as hands shot into the air. His gaze turned to a half-chuckling De Lorenzo who stifled his laugh with a cough into his palm before sir continued walking down the aisle.

"Parehas na tao lang? Come on, guys! Any others?" He kept pacing as discouraged individuals dropped their hands and he finally zoned in on one, "Ah! Yes! Balagtas, our newcomer."

"Sir, quadratic po siya," She confidently took her seat as she turned her attention back to taking down notes.

"Correct! Ganoon lang ka-simple! It is that simple, people. This isn't even the hard part yet. Please tell me if you don't get some of the parts, I will repeat it naman," He clicked thebutton on the clicker to proceed to the next slide of his presentation, "Now-"

A hand reluctantly shot into the air before he could proceed. It was Axel, "Sir, time na po. Mrs. Asuncion is already waiting outside."

"Sir, oras niyo na po," Jima chuckled as he whispered it loud enough for Christian and me to hear.

"Ay! Sorry! Di ko napansin. Thank you, VP. Okay, class, that ends it for today. Goodbye and thank you, class!" He grabbed his stuff and headed to the front door of the classroom.

"GOOOODDBYEEE AND THANK YOUUUU, SIR ELIOOOO!" The class chorused led by Jima who added hastily, "Have a nice day, God Bless You."

Sir Elio raised an eyebrow and laughed before exiting the classroom. The class was in momentary chaos until our Religion teacher came in and the whole room went silent, even De Lorenzo shut his trap.

"Good morning Class!" Mrs. Asuncion primly cheered.

"Gooood Morniiinggg, Mrs. Asuncion. The Holy Spirit be with you," We all chorused with less enthusiasm.

"Be seated, everyone."

"Thank youuuu, Mrs. Asuncion."

" Thank you for the greetings. Let's proceed immediately to discussion, okay? Lots to tackle and so little time. President, here's my USB. Nandiyan iyung powerpoint. It's titled "Dimensions of Faith 9," She promptly left the USB in the plug but before Deanna, our class president, could reach it, Axel scrambled to the front to volunteer. I could feel her biting her lip from the annoyance that Axel picked up the job instead of letting her do it from her seat but she just rolled her eyes and shrugged it off. Kiyoko Mateo, her seatmate, sensed the tension and asked Deanna if she was okay and Deanna began rapid fire whisper ranting to Kiyoko about how Axel always acted better than her.

Kiyoko was inarguably the silent mother of the batch. She hasn't exactly been here the longest but she has been at St. Nick as early as you could stay here which was pre-school and we all have at least one story with her. She worked her ass off to be where she is now: valedictorian, newspaper editor-in-chief and our batch representative for the third year now…I guess to name a few? Ambitious as she was, she wasn't a selfish bitch. She had a group of friends who she's known since Grade School and everyone loved her.

That was a miracle to anyone in High School but she deserved the love because she was always so considerate of everyone's feelings and whenever we got into trouble, she'd stake her good reputation to defend us to the teachers (she'd let that serve as a warning because the next time, she'd actually let us answer to our mistakes)…and the boys liked her because at least one friend in each guy friend group has had a crush on her but she manages to turn the situation around and make it not awkward.

I'd bet it wasn't easy to be Miss Perfect, Miss Congeniality and Miss Mature in a sea of hormone-induced animals. I caught some of my darkest emotional readings from her whenever I saw her in the bathroom. It was my biggest regret to not do anything about it.

Last year, she got hospitalized even though none of us knew she was actually sick. The teachers told us it was "Dengue" which explained it being kind of sudden. The sickness drove her into a funk when we tried to visit her because she would only shove us away but I could stay far enough and long enough to read that her emotional state was even worse. When she came back, she pretended like she hadn't been rejecting visits, doing her job and breezing through academics, back which she did do well but you didn't need my empathetic abilities to know that she wasn't okay.

She's convinced everyone by now…everyone but the one person who knew something was wrong from day 1.

"Um, Mr. Ramos, kindly turn up the audio, please. You guys are gonna watch a video, too. Okay, everyone stand now for the prayer. Who would like to lead?" Mrs. Asuncion asked the class as she strut to step on the platform.

"Anybody?" She asked again.

Kiyoko nudged Deanna and Deanna's hand shot up in the air in understanding.

"Ah, yes. Miss President, please proceed. Thank you for volunteering," Mrs. Asuncion chirped.

Deanna smirked at the mention of president and proceeded to lead us in a practiced and monotone "Our Father" which we've perfected for the past nine years of our lives mostly. After the prayer, Mrs. Asuncion asked us to take our seats and called up Willow to introduce herself since she received news that there was a new student.

"Introduce please. I have yet to know all my students since this is only my first year handling all of you," She gestured for Willow to stand up from her seat.

"Ah, well, my classmates already know me since I introduced myself in Math but Hi, Mrs. Asuncion. I am Willow Jane Balagtas. I came from Makati…but I moved here and I'm 14 po," She declared once more.

"Pleasure to meet you, Willow. Welcome to St. Nicholas School. I'm sure you'll find that all your classmates here will accommodate you well, right class?" She beamed from ear to ear and put her hands in the air.

"Yes, Mrs. Asuncion."

"What a sullen class, this is. Where's your St. Nick spirit? Right, class?!" She yelled enthusiastically.

"YES, MRS. ASUNCION!" Jima De Lorenzo barked in the air as a few other kids whooped and cheered.

"Okay, silence now, class! Let us begin our discussion," She gestured at Axel who was standing next to the computer system that was hooked up to a large monitor screen on the top of the front wall of the class that projected the Powerpoint presentation.

"Okay so to continue our discussion from the previous session which was yesterday, I asked you to introduce yourself and what religion you worship, right?" Her heels were clicking on the marble floor as she paced the front space right between the wooden platform and the students.

"Yes, Mrs. Asuncion," We all replied.

"Willow, I forgot, what is your religion?" She asked.

"Ah, Miss, Catholic po," She stood up and declared.

"Ah, okay. So like the majority as well," She snapped her fingers and continued to spew her discussion out to us, "Let's move on. Miss Balagtas, take note. We have mass attendance, ah. Get your copy from Deanna or Axel. I gave one of them the original so that they could collect from your class fund and photocopy for each one."

"Uh, Miss, that'd be me po," Deanna raised her hand and blurted out.

"Ah, okay. It's with Miss Figueras. Noted, Miss Balagtas?" Mrs Asuncion raised her hand in a thumbs up to ask if Willow copied what she said and Willow nodded in reply as her brows knit together.

"Okay, dimensions of faith. I'm sure it's familiar to some of you so who can tell me what the three dimensions of faith are?" Mrs. Asuncion addressed the class with her inviting enthusiasm. Don't be fooled. There are follow ups after answering her questions. I could sense it in her right now.

Kiyoko's hand shot in the air and so did Axel's. Mrs. Asuncion's gaze switched between the two until her hand pointed to Kiyoko, "Sige, Kiyoko. What are the three dimensions of faith?"

Kiyoko picked herself up from her seat and recited confidently, "Miss, they are Morals, Worship and Doctrine po."

"Very good, Kiyoko. Please be seated now," Kiyoko followed suit and Mrs. Asuncion gestured for Axel to stand, "Now, Mr. Ramos, since you're an old student, I'm assuming you know this?"

A shocked Axel hesitantly stood up and tugged on his uniform as he cleared his throat and answered in a slow and clear voice, "Well, it hasn't been taught, miss."

"Ahhh, ganun ba?" Mrs. Asuncion nodded and pursed her lips, "Okay, then! Could you explain instead what you think each one means based on the word?"

He proceeded to scratch his head and look around the room in careful thought until he began to ramble, "Well, Miss. I actually don't know po kasi but I read somewhere that Doctrine means something about knowledge? Morals, of course, means the good acts and the stances you take towards the concept of good or bad and Worship naman po is the praying and the reciting, diba?"

"Okay, thank you for your insight, Axel! Very well put together!" Mrs. Asuncion praised mirthfully.

He shrugged and twisted his lips into a coy smile before taking his seat. I could read the condescending energy coming from him right now. Bastard wasn't nervous at all, as usual. It was difficult to truly like or truly hate someone when you could read their emotions and understand that they weren't truly good or bad. Jima was living proof of that. It's why we're friends but Axel Ramos is a different case all together.

The day I met him was in first grade and whoever he was then, that's who he is now. My first reading of someone usually shapes my first impression of them and when I first met Axel, I was learning my borrowing concepts from subtracting. He was sitting next to me because we had just transferred seats when he looked over at my table and I still had my list of pronouns which I was studying next to me and he thought I was cheating.

He snitched on me of course, right when he passed his paper to our English teacher. The wretched little brat pointed at me and everything. I tried to minimize reading him because I didn't need to get to know a little prick. I did try, don't cancel me for hating of course but the parasite wouldn't seem to let me or my friends go with his silly BS.

He ended up liking Sammy in the seventh grade which caused a ton of friction between him and De Lorenzo. To this day, they both held a grudge against each other about it and he was genuinely the only person De Lorenzo didn't get along with. He competed with Dea constantly and made it a point in the eighth grade to even spy on her to make sure he could catch anything she did wrong (we stopped him before he did find anything).

I knew he was trying his best not to be problematic but he couldn't help it and drama followed him wherever he went. Christian was the only one who seemed to sympathize with him among my friends. The rest of the batch mildly dislikes him or just tolerates him except for a handful of students including of course, Miss Perfect Kiyoko who did her best to stay neutral and see the good in people, a small group of guys who he hangs with to bike, to game and to study and of course, his best friend Melo David.

"Okay, very good, Ramos! Okay, now-" before Mrs. Asuncion could continue the discussion, Willow's hand shot into the air, "Ah, yes, Willow, correct?"

"Opo, miss," She nodded and stood up without reluctance, "Miss, pasensya na po, gusto ko lang naman po magtanong, why do you teach Religion in school?"

Of course, the new girl with her revolutionary opinions. Very Lemonade Mouth.

"Pardon, Willow? You're not coming across much, dear," She knit her brows and confusion and egged her to go on.

"Miss, um, I don't mean that personally but I want to know why po?"

"Well, for one, iha, we are a Catholic school-"

"Ah, okay. I know that this is a Catholic school po but why in other schools as well that are not Catholic? Also regular private schools po?"

"Sige, iha, let's talk after class for your questions, okay?" Mrs. Asuncion quipped quickly before she returned to her discussion with the readings of aggression building in her heart. This was going to be very interesting.