03x03: A New Batch Project

The Sophomores are introduced to the first batch project for this school year.

A NEW BATCH PROJECT

 

     The next morning was a special morning. Science was the first period and Sr. Jojo already made the first official seat plan for the year.

      It was pretty much in alphabetical order, boys and girls separated and alternating. Austin’s seatmate was Mey Medalla. Austin was B12 and Mey was G13. This wasn’t even because one of the columns had an extra chair and this happened to be a boys only column.

     In front of him was Karl and Marise Madlangbayan, a student from Misamis Oriental last year.

     Behind him was Renz seated beside Bettina Mendoza. These two were shipped together a lot by their surrounding people (which was pretty much Austin) because they came from the same school and destiny put them in the same class. Hey, if that isn’t coincidence, what is?

     To Austin’s left was Kristina Escobar and good ole Owen. Behind them were Dorothy Field and Jeffrey Cobarrubias.

    

After this arrangement, they started the election of class officers. Long story short, Justine Olaivar was elected Class President, Marise Madlangbayan was elected V.P., Rica Singh was elected Secretary(Jasvir Camiguing was her Assistant).

     They ran out of time before they could finish the elections so they moved on to the next period, another hour with Miss Becky.

     Austin once again tried to talk to Micherenz and they got on pretty well. His main friend at the time was Karl so Austin was just happy that they were just a bit above acquaintances.

     After recess, it was P.E. Time and the boys and girls were separated. CV and DDN were fused so CV boys went with DDN Boys and so did the girls.

     Sr. Anton was their teacher and for two hours, they discussed… the Sinulog Festival! Yes, this was official. This was the very first batch project of the year. They were not even one week in yet.

     Last year’s Intramurals Cheering practices were hell since Sr. Leo’s philosophies starkly contrasted with the batch’s general attitude.

     Seton also had a higher standard for these things. When they say “Cheering Competition”, they mean simultaneous voice cheering while doing actions and forming formations. It was fun when it was completed but as you know, the leader’s philosophies starkly contrasted with their behavior.

     After two hours of “Sinulog-age”, it was CCF time again and Ms. Mac was finished with her “first-few-meetings-requirements” so they continued the elections.

     This time, Jade Delay was elected Treasurer, partly due to Sr. Leo’s recommendation (Jeffrey Cobarrubias was his Assistant) and Austin Fernandez was Auditor. They didn’t bother with the others.

     This honor of becoming an officer still didn’t accustom Austin to CV and his greedy, one-sighted desires still drew him to Bukidnon or DDN.

     After a routinely dull and non-romantic lunch period, Austin marched back to class.

     That Math time, Sr. Gerald noticed Austin was a bit off. One reason was that he lost his ballpen, another possible reason as that he had another routinely uninteresting lunch, the final reason could be that he really wanted to be in the aforementioned other sections at this point.

     “Austin, what’s wrong?” Sr. Gerald asked.

     Of course, everyone turned to Austin. He couldn’t say reasons two or three because that would get him hate. Reason one would make people think he was some sort of incompetent d****e but it was all he had.

     “I lost my pen, sir.”

     “Oh, you lost your pen. Here, you can have mine.”

     Sr. Gerald gave him the sign pen he was holding.

     “Thank you, sir. Wait, I can ‘have’ it?”

     “Sure, I have an extra. Anyway, everyone, take your seat.”

     The rest of the day went on as usual. Sr. Leo started getting back to his usual stuff and Ms. Sharon laid down the requirements for the year. That made for a total of three headaches in four days of school.

     He wasn’t able to catch up to Janella that afternoon either. Three days out of four without catching up to her caused his depression and he decided to walk all the way to the hotel. When he got there, Janella was actually in the dining area.

     “Austin!”

     “Hey, Janella!”

     Austin went over to her table.

     “So, how was your first week of school?” Austin asked.

     “Tiring. How about you?”

     “It was okay but I really felt something missing.”

     “What? Me? Haha, just kidding.”

     “Well, in general, Bukidnon, but specifically, yup, it’s you.”

     “Haha, you’re funny. So you missed me?”

     “Of course I missed you. I wasn’t kidding.”

     This was followed by one of those uncomfortable silences.

     “So…” Austin started. “How’s DDN?”

     “Not that good really. I don’t have a lot of friends in there.”

     “How’s Ernst? Still he goofball he was last year.”

     “Pretty much, yeah.”

     They laughed at this. Then Austin noticed Ernst was behind Janella, eating with Johan and Bianca. He was releasing laughing gas into their table.

     “I told you I mastered my powers!” Ernst said.

     “Dude! Mind your own business!” Austin said.

     “Enjoy dinner, you two!” Bianca said teasingly.

     Austin put a soundproof wall in between the two tables but this was followed by another moment of silence.

     “So…” Janella started. “How’s CV?”

     “It’s kinda meh… I like Bukidnon more so far.”

     “Why, was it happier?”

     “Yeah but hey, when I started out last year, I felt this way too. Maybe it’ll get better. I hope it will.”

     “Well, that’s it for my dinner. You didn’t eat anything, you hungry?”

     “No thanks. I gotta get back to work,”

     “It’s Friday, Austin.”

     “Friday is just another day. Haha, see ya later. Or you want me to take you to your room?”

     “Sure!”

     Austin switched the band and teleported her there.

     “Hey, Austin?”

     “Yeah?”
     “That felt kinda different.”

     “Well, I kinda mastered the teleportation last summer; I could go real slow now and actually target where I’m going instead of just poofing up wherever I think of. Watch.”

     Austin put them in a Space Loop. Only Austin and Janella seemed completely concrete and everything else looked a lot blurrier.

     “This looks good.”

     “I can just move the surroundings like swimming through space. See?”

     Austin played around with the surroundings.

     “The best part is, we don’t get tired.”

     Austin took them out of the loop.

     “Well, that’s it for Superpower Showcase Fridays with Austin Fernandez. Please stay tuned next week for�"“

     “Hahaha…” She said sarcastically. “Very funny.”

     “I guess that’s one thing that I gotta work on.”

     “Nah. Remember last year? ‘Cheesy but’?”

     “‘Cheesy but no less true.’ Well this was a joke.”

     “Whatever. Haha. Good night.”

     “Good night…”

     Janella went in her suite and Austin went back to his.

     Austin picked up the requirements that weekend and spent the rest of his free time fixing up the “special project” he had. He also tried thinking of a clever name.

     This clever name business followed through until Monday.

     The morning was pretty uninteresting. Sr. Gerald once again noticed “Poker Face” as he put it during Math Class but this was due to the clever name thing bugging him.

     After recess, they had double period Science and Sr. Jojo discussed about Genetically Modified Organisms. Austin sat in the back row beside Froilan Rabaria, one of the class clowns.

     He occasionally made funny but vaguely relevant comments in the middle of the discussion which made everyone laugh. Sr. Jojo also had his share of jokes which made for the best two hours of Biology ever so far.

     That lunch, Austin ate with Ernst and afterwards, he took Ernst to look for Micherenz.

     “Why do we gotta look for him?”

     “I have to show him around. Get him in the feel of Seton.”

     “There he is.”

       Ernst pointed to Renz who was with Karl.

     “Good job, buddy. Two for the price of one. Let’s go.”

     Austin went over there with Ernst.

     “Hello, Renz, Karl, this is Ernst.”

     “Hello there,” Ernst said.

     “Hi Austin, What’s going on?” Renz said.

     “Want me to show you to Elizabeth Seton School?”

     They were walking through the catwalk where the second year groups were conveniently line up in the sides.

     “Now those people are the basketball guys.”

     “They’re really called that?”

     “No but they play basketball a lot.”

     Karl was pretty quiet throughout this whole trek.

     “That is the Patola family.”

     “Hey, Austin, isn’t that the girl you spend a lot of time with?”

     “I’m glad you noticed. Anyway, yes, that is her and all of them are awesome, really. Moving on, those are the KaWaLi people.”

     “Does that mean anything?”

     “It means Kabataang Walang Libog.”

     That meant “Youth Without Perversion” in English but it was more of a subversion. The members of this group were Bam, Rico, Laurenz, Enriko, Job, and most of the band members of DRIX.

     “Let’s pay a visit.”

     Austin went over to Bam.

     “Hey guys, what’s up?”

     “Nothing. Who’s this?” Rico said, pointing to Renz.

     “This is Micherenz Guioguio.”

     “Oh!” Bam said. “So you’re Karen’s…”

     “Cousin.”

     “Oh.”

     Bam was in DDN and he was classmates with Renz’s cousin, Karen Guioguio. This just reminded Austin that Bam was in DDN and he was not.

     “And this is Karl,” Austin continued.

     “Hello.”

     “Rico, I can’t help but notice. Where’s Ricardo?”

     “Oh, he totally changed. He went off and joined the TWP!”

     “Oh too bad,” Austin said.

     “What is that?” Renz asked.

     “TWP, Tropang Walang Pangalan. It’s a paradox since that is their name.”

     “Walang Pangalan” meant “nameless” in English.

     “They’re the biggest group in the batch. I never had many run-ins with them but you do not want to mess with those guys.”

     “I think my cousin’s in there.”

     “Well then you’re very lucky. Let’s keep moving.”

     Eventually, they were in the outside area of the canteen. They passed by the TWP, some of them were playing Volleyball.

     “Now see that person? That’s Jasmin Buensalida. She overthrew me as leader in our Music project, unofficially of course, and ratted on two of our classmates when the entire class pulled a prank on a teacher.”

     “Oh, I remember that!” Ernst said.

     “Which teacher?”

     “Mr. Ruby. I don’t think anyone liked her. She humiliated almost every single student in the batch.”

     “What was the prank?”

     “It was small and irrelevant. I don’t think I mentioned it before. We were going watch a film in the AVR, see, and the equipment wasn’t working so she went outside to get maintenance. Two of our classmates locked the doors and we recited our Intrams chant out loud. She was furious. We were just being innocent, mischievous, kids”

     “Innocent and mischievous don’t really belong in the same sentence.”

     “Anyway, now it’s your turn to talk. I noticed that you and Bettina are�"“

     “SHUT UP!”

     “Now let’s calm down now. I know you came from the same school and Bettina�"“

     “Dude, do you know that the mere mention of her name in our school is forbidden?!”

     “I doubt she’s that bad. I mean she ain’t the prettiest crayon in the box but you two seem to get along just fine.”

     Renz sighed loudly as Karl started laughing at his misfortune.

     “What about you, Karl. What’s your story?”

     “I came from Bulacan. Short story really.”

     “Okay then. Back to you Renz.”

     “COME ON!”

     “Who’s your favorite teacher so far?”

     “I don’t know really. Sr. Jojo, I guess.”

     “Yeah, he is pretty awesome. What do you think of Sr. Leo?”

     “I don’t like him that much. When he talks about Alecz, he really uses hurtful words.”

     “Man, we’re all used to that. He called us a lot of bad things when he was our friggin team manager last year in the Intramurals.”

     “Oh crap.”

     “I know right?”

     RING!!!

     “Oh, that’s the bell, we better get back.”

     The rest of the day was uninteresting as usual.

     Tuesday was pretty much the same deal except Renz ate with Austin, Ernst, Ivan, Johan, Jericho, and Bianca that lunch. Austin also got say goodbye to Janella that day.

     Also, Sr. Gerald decided that “Gerald” was too formal and opted for the more casual “Sr. Geck.” He also started enforcing a greeting rule. DOR’s was “Good <time of day> Sir Geck, we are inspired see you!” SC’s was “Good <time of day> Sir Geck, we are happy to see you.” CV was running out of ideas and time pressure forced them to take “Good <time of day> Sir Geck, we are excited to see you!”
     Seeing as CV was usually tired in their greetings, this statement was sounded very ironic the first few times.

     Wednesday was a lot more interesting. Austin brought a poster of Kick-A*s that day to inspire him further. Karl, Marise, Mey, Renz, and Bettina noticed this and they talked about this. Sr. Geck also noticed this…

     “Austin, what’s with the poster?”

     “Well, sir, in case you have forgotten, I am obsessed with movies and this one was one I have seen and loved recently. I look at this poster to give me strength and inspiration throughout the day and… I guess I’m just weird.”

     Sr. Geck just smiled at Austin, he probably agreed with the weird part before starting the class.

     Later that day, Austin and his group got started on writing the “JejeScript”. It was looking pretty empty and they didn’t get a single page done at the end of an hour, still pitching character ideas.

     That lunch, Austin wandered around with Ernst and Bianca and he saw Bruce, Laurenz, Bambam, and Rico below the Bridge. Alyssa Villanueva was also there, listening to one of Laurenz’s composed songs. Unfortunately, Jasmin overheard them and went over to them. The guys then decided to evacuate to the catwalk but the girls followed them.

     Austin was having the time of his life since this was a relatively minor Bukidnon reunion.

     It came to his mind that Bukidnon is nothing without Janella.

     “Hey, guys, did you see Janella anywhere?”

     “No,” they said but Bruce said something different.

     “I think she's in the bridge area.”

     “Oh, okay.”

      Austin stayed for a while.

     “Well?” Bruce said. “What are you waiting for?!”

     “What?”

     “Go to her!”

     Austin snapped out of this pseudo trance and went he bridge. Ernst and Bianca followed.

     They reached the bridge but Janella was not there. Devastated, Austin returned to the “reunion”.

      When they got there, Austin saw Ivan Handog decided to join the gang. So far only Ivan and Bianca weren’t Bukidnon but still, majority wins.

     The bell rang and Austin saw Janella heading towards her room together with Queennie. Austin approached them. He was met with Queennie saying, “Janella told me to tease you about Bianca so ‘hello, Bianca!’.”

     “Seriously?” Austin said to Janella.

     “Just kidding. Haha…”

     After lunch, Austin started planning with his group about the Origami thing they were submitting for Creative ZL². They got a lot more done this time. This was followed by the Kinesthetic ZL².

     They finally got around to a batch meeting for the Sinulog Festival. Ms. Nanette and Sr. Martin, the Subject Area Coordinator or SAC for Filipino, were supervising the meeting.

     They were searching for batch leaders and a lot of girls stood up. More than half of these were TWP members. Two of these were Michelle Napa and Alecz Barba.

     Michelle Napa was notorious last year for shouting at the top of her voice in the middle of Cheering rehearsals. When it was the dry run, she was still shouting and she pissed a lot of people off.

     Ms. Nanette then started to lay down committees and asked for leader volunteers. There were very few and Ms. Nanette complained, comparing them to the first years where volunteers fell down like raindrops.

     Jib, however, had a very deserving nomination for all the fields.

     “Volunteers for leaders of the documentation committee?” Ms. Nanette asked.

     “Froilan…” Jib said in a matter-of-fact tone.

     “Okay, thank you. Volunteers for the leaders of the dance committee?”

     “Froilan…” Jib said again. Austin broke into laughter but put a soundproof field around him almost by reflex.

     “Volunteers for leaders of the Props Committee?!”

     “Froilan…” Jib and Austin said in unison.

     “Oh, now you get the picture?” Jib said.

     “Volunteers for the leaders of the costumes committee?”

     “Froilan…” Jib and Austin said but Micherenz joined in.

     “Weh?!” Jib said to Renz. He shut up.

 

After this, it was club time and Austin went to the library. Maan and Lui were already there and the new member for this year, Lance Joseph Abais.

     They sat down and talked about algebra and stuff since they only had an overview of Biology but to Austin’s delight, Ms. Mac came in the Library with her club, the Lilies of the Altar. One of the members was of course, Janella.

      “Ooo… Austin’s happy!” Maan pointed out teasingly.

     “Be quiet, Ernst,” Austin retorted.

     “Nge…”

     Sadly, this happiness did not extend to the waiting area where he missed her once again and he did not see her in the dining area.

     He went to the elevator and to his delight; Janella came rushing for the elevator.

     “Hey…” Austin said.

     “Hello…”

     It was another awkward silence.

     “Hey, I promise, you’re the only one I like,” Austin said.

     “Oh, that thing about Bianca? I was just kidding, sheesh. There you go again with your overly seriousness.”

     “I can’t help it sometimes.”

     The elevator stopped.

     “Well, this is your floor,” Janella said. “I’ll be seeing you.”

     “Bye. Good Night.”

     “Good night, Austin.”

    

The next day, there was a Mass and Janella was one of the LOA members to be there on-duty.

     That CCF time, Ms. Mac held a pretty fun lesson. She was discussing the very first group work regarding the Gospels. During the discussion, the fellas at the right asked a question.

     “Yes, Clutch?”

     “Ms. Mac, we can eat in class right?”

     “Yes but don’t eat a meal!”

     “Okay. Thank you.”

     Ms. Mac continued and soon, she turned her head to Clutch their region was enjoying their meal, tube ice. They were just chewing that ice.

     “Clutch, what are you doing?”

     “Chewing ice…”

     “I didn’t mean that.”

     The other guys on that side were also enjoying the “food”. Clutch swallowed his and got another one.

     “Just stop it,” Ms. Mac said.

     “Just one more.”

     Ms. Mac just looked at Clutch. No one dared ask why because, one, it was obvious, and two, she would retort with the fatal “Why not?”

     Renz ate with them again that lunch and things were starting to look good. Austin got over his obsession with Bukidnon ever since the reunion but he still had a slight longing for DDN.

     The day ended happy as he was able to say goodbye to Janella.

 

That Friday morning, Austin was in another discussion with Sean.

     “Seriously, that was hilariously weird, like a funny aneurysm moment,” Austin said.

     “Yeah, it was funny and random but still,” Sean said.

     “Anyway, how’s the guitar business?”

     “I’m getting better.”

     “Well, I’m not getting any better. I got the switching chords thing down but the tabs and the guitar solos, no progress.”

     “You know what I’m gonna say. Keep…”

     “…practicing, I know. I just wanna play a song for a certain someone one day.”

     “You mean Janella?”

     “Aw come on. Does every single person in this batch know?”

     “Haha, when she straightened her hair, I thought it would straighten for good but now, it is back to normal. Just the way you like it I suppose?”

     “I like her hair no matter what it looks like.”

     “Aww, isn’t that sweet?”

     The day was the same ole’ routine but during Sr. Leo’s time, which was the second last period, they went to the AVR.

     On their way back, Sr. Leo hanged by DDN who had no teacher.

     “Austin, look, it’s Janella,” Sr. Leo said in the classic Sr. Leo teasing tone.

     He looked to his right see the entire class surrounded around Janella, pointing at her. It was TLE time there and since it was only a sub, they did not care and they had Sr. Leo’s approval anyway.

     Austin did not know what to do. He saw Ernst sitting innocently in the front.

     “ERNST!” Austin said, pointing at him.

     “Shh… not too loud!” Sr. Leo said.

     Austin couldn’t believe what stupidity he has brought upon himself. That was the best he could come up with?

     “Dude, now they’re gonna think you’re gay for Ernst!” Sean said.

     “What did you expect me to do?!”

     “Say ‘hello’? That’s relatively simple right? You could’ve done that!”

     “I. WAS. PRESSURED!”

     “Okay, fine, cool down, bro.”

     Austin took out a piece of paper and wrote down, “SORRY!” on both sides. It was perfect since it was Friday, the next period was English, DDN had a double period TLE which means they would be doing the same thing, and Friday was Library Day in English time.

     They passed by DDN, Austin prepared to show the sign but he was met with Janella giving him a reassuring smile. Ernst did not seem mad since he got used to it last year.

     They had to search for books in certain genres in the library. Austin sat with Renz and Karl and finished his paper quickly. When they were all done, they spent the rest of their time making fun of the Star Wars Prequels, laughing a bit louder than they should be in the Library.

     Austin went straight to the lobby that afternoon but Janella wasn’t there. He went to his room and took out his guitar. He randomly strummed the strings, trying to put together a random melody. He decided to talk to Janella.

     “Hey, how was your day?” Austin sent to Janella over the desk phone system which was a lot more high tech in this hotel.

     She replied soon enough.

     “It was fine.”

     Austin decided to throw her a compliment.

     “You looked good awhile ago.”

     “Weh? Really? You serious?”

     “Yeah, I’m serious.”

     “Ok then. Thanks…”

     Austin had an irremovable smile on his face now. He put the guitar to his side and sent another one.

     “So… what’re you doing now…?”

     “Umm… trying to…”

     “Trying to what? Let me guess? Make a Facebook account? Play the guitar? Piano?”

     “Yes to the second one, no to the others.”

     “Well, how are you doing so far?”

     “It kinda hurts.”

     “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.”

     She didn’t reply anymore and after a while. Austin fell asleep.

     Surprisingly, his dream that night was different from the usual dream. In fact, he hadn’t had one of these in a while. These were more akin to subconscious psychic predictions than dreams.

     There was a small projectile. It was cruising through the air. It was indistinguishable. It was heading for him but he didn’t know. He was looking at himself at a third person POV. He was facing the other way. The projectile hit him. It was a needle. He fell to the ground on one knee. He took out the needle and everything became black

     He woke up in what he thought was the middle of the night. It turns out; it was only five minutes since he sent Janella his last message.

     Freaked out, he decided to take a rest for real. He dimmed the lights and went to sleep.