III - The Museum

"God I'm nervous." Shakily whispers by a bashful tall girl, towering almost everyone's average height even though she's currently wearing flats. Elegantly in a modern Balintawak dress, plainly in all beige color with its famous puffy butterfly short sleeves and long fitted skirt, simply designed with glittering tapestry on the sleeves, connecting a similar pattern by the tip of her dress. Little to no accessories all over unlike the traditional version.

Though the dress pairing with her braided updo are outshining her anxiousness.

Along with the girl is a shorter woman, in a yellow sheath dress with a remarkable handmade floral design. "Dear, don't be ridiculous. Enjoy what you have right now, you're a princess here!" She replies in a sassy tone and boldly whips out her fan. Leaving the bashful girl in deeply utter confusion while she patiently holds that forced smile.

The bodyguards then separate their ways to let the two present themselves in front of the students.

"Please welcome our guests, Miss Naria, the only descendant of the Arcangel family. She succeeded to be a Filipino Archaeologist and a Philippine martial artist, master in weaponry. Taking the place of her grandfather, Agustin de Arcangel." The tall lady in Balintawak dress takes a bow after she is introduced, she stands there poised and arms are on her back, giving a good exposure of her curvy shape with the fitted dress.

Yet underneath that fake smile, she endures the pain of not hearing her mother anymore, who was once congratulated greatly for her excellence in weaponry as well besides her grandfather. "Of course accompanied by her aunt, a successful businesswoman and the co-owner of the Arcangel relics, Mrs. Amber Elyas."

The whole class gave them a round of applause, and so did the rest of the civilians who came closer to watch. But a duo of quirky students isn't too interested in this event. "I was honestly expecting a grand catering." The student quietly jokes with his hazel-haired classmate, effectively making her snicker "Seriously, still hungry in here?" She quietly jokes back.

"I'm just saying that I have big expectations for this 'special day', I did not dress up fancy for nothing." The two exchanged glances. He didn't lie, though not as fancy as how he exaggerated it. He styled himself in a minimalistic outfit with earthy colored tones. Swift dark hair with his glistening white round glasses on top.

The flamboyant student holds out his two fingers making a peace sign with a mischievous smile, "Estetik!" he giggles it out among the noisy audience watching the guests. It's so crowded that nobody noticed some aren't concentrating anymore on what they're supposed to be watching now.

"So did almost everyone else." The hazel-haired student feigns an ecstatic comment when she's dejected at her own clothes. She peers through the tight crowd, noticeably these people seem to be following the trend or a dress code for how similar they look based on the theme of this place.

Estetik is, of course, derived from the word Aesthetic, usually the word is jokingly thrown around as slang to someone who wants to look aesthetically pleasing while catching up on today's outfit trends.

Vintage dresses, classy makeup, flawless hairstyles. Sophisticated fashion sense with the traditional Filipino outfits in a mix. Although some go with their own different preferences on clothing, it could be casual or alternative. But they all managed to look good on it.

"Except me,'' she looks down at hers and if people never would have cared less, she thought she'd be a laughingstock for just borrowing a simple try hard dress fitting in with the trend. Couldn't go worse when she hears a group of giggling girls appear to be eavesdropping on their conversation, giving her a stinking eye when they finally notice she's already watching them.

"What a typical way to start a day."

"Denise, c'mon, you look great!" He reassures her after noticing her long frowning face "I'm gonna be honest with you, the dress really ain't it but this stuff does not matter. As long as we get out of here, your hard work will pay off. And you can buy a hundred to thousands of pretty clothes you want." She almost burst out laughing from his honest statement, cheering her up as she nearly forgot she have been made fun of by those girls. Denise jokingly hits him with a slight slap on the shoulder "Okay okay fine I'll take it, thanks, Isaac."

The group of girls giggled louder after hearing Isaac's opinion, trying to overrule Denise's optimistic mindset as they giggled in mockery. He held back and glared at her with instant regret for saying it out loud "Oh my god I'm so sorry, I didn't notice-"

"Oh no no it's okay, I gotta know what they're laughing at this time, it must be interesting." She sarcastically replies, staring directly at the girls as if she's ready to attack.

"Don't instigate, it's not worth it." he insists while rolling his eyes, "Do I have to remind that we're all in our last year of college right? This is so ridiculously immature." That way Denise immediately follows, the group silenced themselves as well. But she and the girls couldn't take their eyes off each other, deeply still holding their grudges.