Chapter 11

January 2014

"You didn't hear me?" Mama asked menacingly. I was looking down at the floor as she gave me her smoldering gaze. She was very angry so I kept silent. "Answer me!"

Although it made my vision blurry, I didn't let the tears come out of eyes. I had been mastering this skill of late. I found that it was rather tiring to always cry. I was not weak.

When I didn't answer again, Mama grabbed my arm and forced me to look at her. "Don't ever think that I'll let you go with your father again!" she spat, "I clearly told you not to go because your Tito Vans was coming and you also clearly disobeyed! It was just a little favor and you couldn't do that for me?!"

"It's not like I ever asked anything from you that gave me the obligation to return your favor", I answered. Her hold tightened around my arm and I winced with the pain it brought. It would probably bruise later.

She yanked me towards my room and pushed me inside. "You are not allowed to go out ever again!" she shouted at me before slamming the door.

I was left panting with anger as I look up at the ceiling to let gravity do its trick with my tears. I didn't want to cry because of her. It would be such a waste. She was not worth my tears.

~

I glanced on my left side. James was scooping the remaining ice cream on his cup. He was frowning while doing so. With also a frown, I watched him deliver the scoop to his mouth. "What? Don't tell me you've already fallen in love with my charm with just an ice cream and a bread?" he teased.

I inhaled deeply, trying to summon enough patience to keep me from strangling this guy beside me. I never knew James would be this annoying. He has been teasing me the whole time we were having lunch. From the ice cream shop to the bakery and until here in the quadrangle. We were sitting under the shade of a tree in the furthest corner of the school.

I heard him chuckled. "That's good, Tati. You really should keep your temper."

I glared at him, the patience I just summoned wearing out. "Then you should also really try to keep your mouth to yourself", I retaliated.

He just smirked while putting his cup down. He then faced me and tilted his head to the right side. He was staring at me with his smirk and seeming to had gained some courage, I looked at him haughtily. His eyebrows went up, confessing that he had expected me to look away.

I smirked and cocked my head. Not today.

He seemed amused with my sudden confidence. Seeing it as a challenge, he slowly leaned his head towards mine.

Looking in his eyes, I saw myself.

My confidence waned as he leaned closer. When he was just inches away, he smiled and said, "I don't want to."

I frowned, at lost with his cool breath that flirted with mine, and before I could realize what he said, he whispered, "I quite like how my mouth makes you feel."

That didn't sit quite right. It took me a few seconds before I could catch on to his remark.

And when I did, my eyes and mouth rounded with shock and disbelief. I pushed him away and stood up as he guffawed with my mortified expression. "What the hell, James!"

He just continued to laugh out of humor. I tightly closed my eyes to regain my composure but his laughter was ringing loudly in my ears that I couldn't concentrate.

I opened my eyes and glared at him. "You! Are! Such! An! Asshole!" I squawked while lightly kicking his shin. He couldn't even block my kicks with his laughter.

I groaned in frustration and disbelief and embarrassment. How in the world could he say such things?!

When I turned to leave, I saw Jackie Mae Peres, our smallest classmate, approaching. I rushed to her before she could even come closer. "Tati, Sir John's looking for you."

I feigned nonchalance when she looked curiously behind me. "Oh, okay. He's in the faculty room?" I hastily asked and she nodded. "Well, I'll go ahead then."

I didn't wait for her reply and left immediately. I shut my eyes close and tried to remove what James said from my head.

I grumbled when I couldn't.

•••

Lunch break has ended while I was still in the faculty room.

When I entered our classroom, everybody was already there. I saw James in the corner of my eyes, looking at me.

I ignored him as I made my way in front and announced what Sir John said to me.

"Hey, everyone! Next Friday's when we'll perform the dance! And since we haven't practiced anything yet, I already begged our subject teachers for this afternoon to let us have their periods if they won't lecture and they agreed! So, we'll practice this whole afternoon! I expect that everybody has at least learned the first steps of their dance! We'll all practice in the gym separately! Now, get ready and let's go!"

"Tati when will we practice the cheerdance?" Celine inquired.

I pursed my lips, deep in thought. We were literally so short of time. "Maybe some other day. Let's focus first on the other dances."

She nodded and got ready to practice.

•••

I arrived at the gym while everybody else was still changing into their P.E. uniform. I exhaled a lungful of air while staring at nothing in particular. My head was busy thinking how I could divide myself into five in order to teach each of the dance to my classmates. Although, I was pretty sure at least one from each group was already familiar with the dance.

I exhaled again. I was just hoping the remaining could follow.

I shook my head and made my way towards the storage room just behind the gym where the cut bamboos were. The folk dancers needed it to dance Tinikling, a classic Filipino folk dance.

There were two pairs of bamboos and each pair were tied together. I picked up the knots and tried to haul the bamboos all together, assuming that I was Wonderwoman. I turned around and decided the haul them while walking backwards. It was much easier that way and less awkward.

I was already halfway in front of the gym when someone took the knots away from me. "Who do you think you are? Wonderwoman?" James nagged. He continued hauling the bamboos instead and I followed suit.

I scowled and took away the other knot from him. "I've also got some muscles, you know."

He frowned in disagreement and tried to get ahold of the knot again but I dodged his attempt. "Are you belittling me?"

He sighed in defeat but he taunted, "Your pride's sumptuous Tati, you should sell it."

"It's the only thing I have."

"You can have me", he suggested playfully.

"And what? Be annoyed for the remainder of my life? No, thank you", I retorted nonchalantly although my heart was upbeat.

I rushed ahead when our classmates started to arrive, leaving James behind.

~

It has been two hours since we started practicing and I was already beat.

I had decided to teach each group one by one the steps of their dance and while doing so, I had instructed for the others to first refer to the dance tutorial I had made for each of the dance. I was done with the Kpop, contemporary, and hip-hop groups, much to my relief, and I was on my way to the folk dance groups. They were already practicing by themselves which made me smile.

"Should I just rest and leave it all to you guys?" I remarked when I approached them. Adela then whined, "The boys don't even know how to dance tinikling. I can't teach them."

The rest of the boys who couldn't dance to hip-hop all landed in the folk dance groups, the main reason we have two folk dances. The Kpop and contemporary groups were both comprised of girls, so literally half of the boys from our class would dance to two folk dances, Tinikling and Cariñosa. If bamboos were needed in tinikling, handkerchiefs were the ones for cariñosa.

"Then, I'll teach the tinikling group first before the cariñosa", I announced and turned to Livvy who was sitting on a bench, "Livvy please lead the cariñosa group for now. Thank you!"

I walked towards Adela and Daniella. They were both going to dance tinikling. Since it was supposed to be danced in pairs, I had no choice but to pair two boys together because Adela, Daniella, and Ami were the only girls in the group. There were in total six pairs in which the three were all boys.

I sighed loudly, already dreading the work I had yet to finish.

•••

After an hour, the tinikling group finally got the hang of it although some still would get confused with the stepping every now and then.

"You guys did great. Just practice it continuously. Your feet will remember then," I encouraged them since tinikling was not really easy to dance.

I walked away from everyone towards the corner of the gym where I slumped on the bench there to rest for a while. We still got an hour before the school dismissal bell. That would suffice for the cariñosa group.

I gathered my hair on my right shoulder and wiped away the sweat from my face and neck with my handkerchief. I then drank from the bottle of water that was in my P.E. pant's pocket the whole time before fanning myself using my hands.

I closed my eyes to rest and reclined in the bench, still fanning myself. I felt so exhausted.

My brows furrowed when I felt the breeze from my hands got stronger. I had superpowers? I mentally shook my head before opening my eyes. The afternoon light was quite blinding but I still saw the guy in front of me, fanning directly at my face.

I shove the fan James was holding away from my face before glaring at him. He chuckled and sat beside me. "You look like a battered punching bag", he remarked.

I scoffed. "Can you be more creative with your comparison? That one was awful."

He shrugged. "Precisely the point. You look awful", he roasted.

I glared at him, "Leave me alone, will you?"

"I'm just kidding. In fact, you look the most beautiful than ever!"

I rolled my eyes and just sighed. "Did you guys practice?"

He nodded in answer as he looked at my frizzy and sweaty hair. I suddenly felt so much dirtier than earlier when he wasn't looking. "Don't you have a hair tie or something?"

"Do I look like I have one?" I retorted. He sighed and stood up. "I'll be right back. Here, fan yourself", he gave me his fan and left.

I saw him approached Carol from afar. He seemed to be asking for something and my heart fluttered when I saw what it was.

He jogged back to me with a hair tie in his hand. "Turn around", he ordered when he reached me.

"What? Why?"

"I'll tie your hair."

"I can tie it myse—", he cut me off as he turned me around himself. "My hair's sweaty, James", I informed him anxiously because my hair was really sweaty and frizzy. It would be hard to tie and he might find it disgusting.

"So?" he asked as he started to gather my hair. A gush of something electrifying came rushing throughout my body when his cold hands grazed my nape. Was he nervous about tying my hair?

"So it would be hard to tie! And it's disgusting!" I exclaimed. My anxiety was now climbing Mount Everest as he tried to comb my frizzy hair with his hand.

"So what?" he was trying his best to tame my frizzy hair but it was twice as hard as it was also dry because of the heat. "James, let me do it!"

"I can do it, Tati. Why are you even so worried?" he snickered.

"My hair is sweaty. And frizzy and dry", I answered with a gulp.

"So what?" he asked again for the second time as he finally started to actually tie my hair.

"It's disgusting!" I snapped at him, "And please stop asking the same questions!" It was making me feel insecure and anxious.

When he was done tying my hair, he gently forced me to face him. I pretended to be fixing my hair to avoid his eyes. "Are you worried I will find it, you disgusting?"

I ignored him and still refused to meet his gaze. He firmly held both my hands when he got enough of it and searched for my eyes, his face dangerously close to mine. "Hey, Tati. Look at me."

Contrary to what he wanted, I looked down and he sighed. I felt his hand left mine and travelled to my chin to slightly tilt my head upwards.

When our eyes met, I felt my beating heart being embraced by his gentle gaze. It was comforting and reassuring.

"Even if you have the sweatiest or frizziest or even the driest hair there has ever been, I will still want to run my fingers through it. I will still want to tie it. It doesn't disgust me or make me like you less. Hell, it even made my greed to be with you stronger so I can take care and nurture the parts of you that you've neglected", he uttered, "It doesn't matter to me, Tati, so please don't feel insecure around me."

I felt a lump in my throat forming as tears began to pool my eyes because of what he said. And when it a ball of tear escaped, he cupped my face and brushed it off.

"Oh, would you look at that. I never knew Tatiana Mercado has a very soft heart", he said playfully.

I scoffed while he chuckled. "Hell, you even look beautiful with tears! First, with sweat and now with tears", he sighed exaggeratedly, "How Tati?"

I chuckled and smacked his arms. "You're an asshole."

He laughed with my retort as I smiled genuinely, my heart filled to the brim.