Saturday, May 28
May 28 Sat.
“25 items in 10 minutes?! Aba, laser na ang katapat nito!” –Aaron
...
I’ve been attending Expert Guides entrance exams review classes 8-12noon 6 days a week since May 2, and today was the last day.
A whole month of classes just can’t be squeezed into a single entry. But ima try. Heck, it was just a buch of laughs, scribbles, and gulps of C2.
The class was mainly composed of Paulinians, AA’s, and Ateneans. The only Assumptionistas were me and my berks who took the role of teachers’ pets, and the Paulinians and Ateneans joined forces at the back as the pet peeves. We would have a lecture, then a 15min break at 10:15, then have a test before lunch. We’d scramble out the door and down the steep uneven steps, and eat lunch at katips. Well, except me. I drive by my lola’s where I’m forced to eat chowking food forever.
...
Made some friends, and a handful of enemies.
Aaron was okay, although a tad too egotistic for my taste. He was buds with Anne and the berks a year before, but got on a bad..er..thingy with them. But I don’t know shit about it, and they wont tell me. So I don’t mind hanging out with him and listening to his confused heart. He always talks about how he wants to make his upper body all buff and bigger, about boxing and wrestling and basketball and missing the girl he used to talk to in his dreams.
Adrian was Aaron’s cousin, and he was nice. Hardly talked, but nice. He always had his nose in a classic book, and got the highest grades in the math subjects. We even got tied at perfect scores in the geometry test once, and both blushing at the teacher’s comment that we were “meant to be”. And..there’s this issue about his er..gender. Don’t mind though, I figured it out the moment he half-strutted through the door wearing a Coco Chanel necklace.
Burger was the life of the party. That’s what I called her. The others called her spongebob, coz she had this spongebob coleman she always brought with her, but I think its coz she always has this cute smile on her face, and makes jokes all the time. She’s the friendliest of the bunch, and can make anyone laugh. I don’t hold anything against it, and I honestly think I envy her for having that aura and face and smile. I think everybody else does too.
Lester Tandoc was special. He sat at the edge of the first row, and became my seatmate for sometime. I called him seatmate. My berks called him LT [coz there’s another Lester in class]. Turns out to be the younger brother of a former AA student Leslie Tandoc, and that sparked my berks’ interest. We got along real well..super. He was mostly quiet, but when he was pissed, he would suddenly shout remarks that made us jump and laugh. We’d have fun teasing him about his girlfriend Joy, and maika would make him double over with her antics. Real person, this one. And we all loved him.
Miguel was the loudest of the Ateneans. And that wasn’t a good thing. He had the worst lisp I ever beheld, and I wasn’t supposed to mind. C’mon, its just a lisp. But my berks found it hilarious. They called him daffy duck, and Maika swore that when he talked, she’d hear nothing but “blah blah br-ribbit..ribbit.. quack..quack..” I knew it was wrong to make fun of him, and I admit I was bad. I mean, I hardly knew the guy. If I had another chance, I’d apologize for laughing, and make him my friend. But word got out, and he never tried to talk to us ever again.
Humbert was the one who came in earliest. No matter how early I’d arrive, he’d already be there sleeping on his desk. He always seemed tired and bored, but never ran out of jokes to share. He was a pretty nice person, but its damn hard to break through that loud barkada of his that surrounds him all the time. Oh well.. The bits of time we spend chatting, him and my berks in the morning are nice. Exchange of chocolates and candies and yawns.
The girls from St.Scho who sat behind us were kind and warm and friendly. It was rare that we got to talk to them as much as they talked to each other, but every chance was real and light and not plastikan. There’s this girl named Billy who didn’t have any friends at all in that class. She sad secluded in the other half of the room, and never talked to anyone. We all felt sorry for her, and tried to be friends, but to no avail. But hey, I bet she has friends naman eh. Wanted to be one, though.
...
Lots of laughs, jokes, sitting on the floor [only Assumptionistas do!], eating cloud9 and passing around packs of chichirya, drinking from everyone else’s bottles of C2, wearing jackets on the front, rolling up the sleeves, and saying “vrrooom..vroom!! ‘san baba nyo?” as Assumption toda, growling about the heat, and swaying with the oscilating aircon.
Exchanging jackets and screaming in fake agony [as a lasallite wears an ateneo jacket, and vice versa], wearing the same article of clothing as your other friends for the day, having a crush on the strict geom teacher and finding out he already has a family and never seeing him again after that subject [*cough* ANNE! *cough* SIR RAI! *cough*], trembling with fear at the strictness of a perfectionist substitute teacher and finding out he’s can be the most hilarious guy if the occasion calls for it [*cough* sir joe! *cough*], and having a crush on a sexy chem. teacher before finding out how strict she is and that she was a runner up for the binibining Pilipinas [*twitch* me]..
Its scribbling equation after equation on a piece of pad paper, and eventually not really caring about those fuckin fucktorials, and just sketching away, coming up with a fairy of the conic sections..
[sabaw na talaga utak ko nung ginawa ko to..]
...
And here’s the bunch..in all its weirdness.
I’ll never forget this experience. Its kinda like one of those close encounters with the freaky kind.