MEMORY: The Freshman

“I wouldn’t be able to do it without your help,” Yana told me right after she was elected as one of the sophomore representatives of the Student Board.

It was a landslide victory, though I didn’t want to put the praise to my endorsement as what she was doing right now.

“The first time I read it I wanted to cry. You are amazing, Rin.”

“It was all you,” I said matter-of-factly. “All I did was to tell them about you.”

Yana and I were going back to the room from buying snacks in the cafeteria. To our class adviser’s delight, she offered to treat us at Yana’s victory party.

“Oh, I forgot to buy you something!” Yana exclaimed when we were already upstairs.

I just smiled and told her she didn’t have to give me anything (else). Well, that tight hug she gave me after the vote count (and the fact that I was the first one she hugged too) was more than enough.

After class, Yana went to the SB meeting right away and told me I should go home without her. I was contemplating whether I should wait for her instead, when I noticed a boy outside our room. He seemed to be waiting for someone.

My remaining classmates didn’t seem to notice him so I approached him instead.

“I’m looking for Ms. Yana, the student representative. I’m hoping I can catch her before she goes home,” he said.

He was a short, innocent-looking boy so I took a glimpse of his ID to check what year he was in. Calvin Lorenzo, a freshman. I wondered what a young boy like him would possibly want from Yana.

“She’s in the SB room now. She left earlier than the rest of us,” I told him. I was expecting he would just leave but he looked troubled.

“I’m hoping she could… help me.” He couldn’t look at me and I started to feel his nervousness. It was making me uncomfortable.

I seriously had no idea what kind of problem he was referring to and it was getting late. I could just dismiss him if I wanted to, but it made me feel guilty sending him off even without hearing him out. After the endorsement I had made for Yana, it wouldn’t be right if a student would lose trust in her just like this.

“What is it about? I can relay the message to her when I see her tomorrow,” I said.

The freshman looked around first to make sure nobody could hear us (as if it was necessary; the room and hall was completely deserted now).

“It’s about my sister, Nicole Lorenzo,” he said in a hushed tone. “She was the one who died in this school three years ago. And it seems she had found out something.”