03x07: A Descent into Madness

People start changing a bit as Austin dwelves into the past.

A DESCENT INTO MADNESS

 

     That Saturday, Austin saw Inception at a real cinema (in IMAX to boot) and was completely blown away. Needless to say, he completely raved about it that Monday.

     “So the van just falls of, right, and it affects the next level as well!”

     “Mm-hmm…” Sean said, somewhat annoyed.

     “And then the guy, his name’s Arthur, he starts kicking a*s down there, WHILE THE ENTIRE HALLWAY IS TURNING!”

     “Austin! I saw the movie. I know what you’re talking about!”
     “Then what do you think of the ending?”

     “It was awesome, okay!”

     “No, I mean what’s your interpretation?”
     At this point, Bam passed by.

     “HEY, BAM! Did you see Inception?!”

     “Yeah.”

     “Was it awesome?!”
     “Yes…” he said in a deadpan manner.

     “Why does nobody want to talk about it.”
     At this point, Dory arrived.

     “HEY DORY! How was Ince�"“

     “It was awesome!”
     “Remember the scene when�"“

     “Oh, brother…” Sean said to himself. It only got worse for him when Mo-on arrived and they were having an intense discussion regarding the third act.

 

Anyway, Austin was able to talk to Janella that morning but only for a short while since the bell had already rang.

     Sr. Geck was a bit late that morning but it was only eight minutes and they got to start the class immediately.

     Unfortunately, he did not see Inception.

     He gave them the performance task for that quarter which was to take a picture demonstrating inequality and to make a problem out of it. Austin chose DVD covers and a problem involving runtimes.

     Essentially, Mo-on was his usual self during Sr. Geck’s class, much to his annoyance.

     The obsession did not wear off that recess as he continued to rave about it in the Patola area.

     “And then, he pulls they guy off of his motorcycle and knocks him out!”

     “Yeah, yeah, Austin,” Janella said. “Did Queennie come to school today?”
     “She’s right there!”

     Janella looked to her left and there she was.

     “Janella, are you okay?” Austin asked.

     “Haha, yes I am.”

     “Anyway, ANOTHER PROJECTION GOES INTO A CAR AND…”

     When he continued raving under the signature mango tree, Jianne decided to interrupt.

     “Hey Austin, let me talk for a sec.”

     “Sure, what were you thinkin’?”

     “You know why they changed the ZL system?”

     “Why?”

     “Well, as you know, first years and second years share the same club times usually, right?”

     “Yup, what about it?”
     “Look at the freshmen now.”

     Austin looked at the horde of freshmen taking control of the catwalk.

     “How the frigging hell do you think will they fit all those in clubs, especially when they’re with our batch?”

     “Good point. ANYWAY… so the guys set up a synchronized�"“

     During their Double period science time, they watched another episode of Real World Science. Cue the meaningful theme song!

     They mocked it once again but shut up as soon as the program start.

     During the second period, they were in the lab, being taught how to use a microscope. Austin was in the same table as Jasvir, Owen, and Sean.

     “You guys know the name of the actor who played Samwise Gamgee in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings?” Sean asked.

     “I know, Sean Astin!” Austin said.

     “Exactly!” Sean said.

     “You know who plays Dwight in Sin City?” Owen asked.

     “I know! Clive Owen!” Austin said again.

     “Exactly! Top that, Jasvir!”

     Jasvir thought of a comeback to this.

     “You guys know the name of Tony Stark’s computer?”

     “I know! Uh… Uh…” Austin said, suddenly being a victim of mental block.

     “It’s Jarvis.”

     “OH!” Sean, Austin, and Owen said simultaneously while applauding Jasvir.

     “You guys know the name of Mike Myer’s spoof character of James Bond?” Austin said. Sean, Owen, and Jasvir did not reply.

 

This was followed by a practical test. Sr. Jojo told everyone to line up outside. Austin was beside Micherenz.

     “Austin, can I ask for advice?”

     “Sure. Yeah. By the way, is it hot in here or what? The storm probably caused this. Newton’s third law?”

     “Well, you know my crush right?”
     “I know two of your crushes, man. G18 and G19.”
     “Well regarding 18. I think she hates me. I mean, I look like an idiot in front of her and I keep on making a fool of myself.”

     “That is true. Just be yourself and don’t try too hard.”

     “Well, it’s easy for you to say since you got somebody who�"“

     “Whoa! Stop right there! You do not know what bumpy road last year was and you have no right to judge my situation.”

     “Alright, mind telling me about it?”

     “Well, there’s a few more guys so , why not? You must keep this a secret, alright?”

     “I promise.”
     “Okay, let me start with the guy.”

     “Wait, you were gay?!”

     “NO! Well, I don’t know, I brought a stuffed animal to school every day in fifth grade so that might mean something….. but I’m steering away from the topic here. Let me start with the boy.”

     “What boy?”

     “My best friend who betrayed me and attempted to take the girl I love whilst still making me think I am his friend despite his abrupt revelations and painfully obvious  backstabbing.”

     “Are you exaggerating?”
     “Not one word from you!”

     “Mmkay.”

     “So Joel and I met in third grade. He mocked me for most of the year but we started out as friends. That did not end well. For one, he kept asking my opinion regarding the supposed series finale of Kim Possible.”

     “Oh, that was one of Disney’s finest.”

     “That was six words!”
     “Actually it’s one, two, three.”

     “SHHH!!! Returning to the topic, the year ended with me hating his guts. Fast forward three years and this ‘earthquake’ happens. It wasn’t an earthquake, it was a release of energy. Common misconception there.

     “We wake up the next hour, we have superpowers. But I digress.

     “A few months later, first year begins. Destiny forces my head to turn one day, the first day to be precise, and land eyes on her, the most beautiful girl in the world.

     “You see there’s a difference between ‘pretty’ and ‘beautiful’. Pretty is face value. If you wanna count ‘hot’ that’s body value. ‘Beautiful’ extends the very soul, man. It is the epitome of a great girl. Her personality just clicked with me ever since when we first spoke to each other.”

     “So did she talk to you or did you talk to�"“

     Austin glared at Renz and he shut up.

     “Continuing form where I was rudely interrupted.”

     “I was just curi�"“

     “CONTINUING… from where I was rudely interrupted, The months went by and I never told her. Eventually, my seatmate found out, spread the word, and everyone knew except for her. I was in the awkward situation of having to break the news to her.

     “Fast forward to October, Freshmen-Sophomore Night. I asked her, she refused. That night, I did not dance with her. The next morning, she asks me who my crush was. I tell her and she takes it pretty well.

     “The next day, tragedy strikes as I am attacked and am sent into a wild frenzy. Eventually, they send a team to go after me.

     “After a month and a half of havoc, they get me under control. I try to put my life back together and wouldn’t you know it, she liked me.”

     “That’s MU, right?”

     “Yes. There, I answered a question of yours. Then comes January, the month of the High School Intramurals. Of course, the batch is together! You meet some people, you get to know them, they get to know you, crushes might abound, in short, it got ugly.

     “She developed a crush on someone else and I was devastated. Eventually, Joel�":”
     “Next: Curiba, Delay, Dimapilis, Fernandez!” Sr. Jojo called.

     “Whoops, I’ll be back.”
     Austin went in and passed the test with flying colors. He went back out and waited for Renz to get back.

     “Anyway, Joel tells her that he likes her but I did not know. So�"“

     “Oh..., so that’s why you hate him so much…”

     ‘Thank you… I find out accidentally and trigger a one on one talk. He admits to it and I dismiss it as a simple obstacle. At this point, her crush on the other guy, it was probably gone.

     “The weeks go on and it was pretty normal until I was called for a MTAP competition on the pseudo-Valentine’s day the school celebrates every year. We win second place, Joel gets to zero point first base.”

     “What do you mean?”

     “He gave her a rose. Anyway, I was furious and it was difficult to forgive but I tired anyway. HE tried it again when we had another contest. It was tamer but nonetheless, it’s the thought that counts.

     “The final straw comes when we got back early from a contest and I walk in to Joel sitting beside Janella in class. A few days later, he reassures me that he was forced to switch seats by Janella’s seatmate and he has no crush on her anymore. UNTIL… the first day of quarterly tests.”

     RING!!

     “Okay everyone, it’s time. Those who were not able to have their test, come here during your lunch break. Proceed to the classroom.”

     The next period was English time and Ms. Sharon discussed the lesson as usual. After the lesson, Austin and Mo-on dared each other.

     “Hey, Mo-on, ask Ms. Sharon if she saw Inception.”

     “Why don’t you do it?”

     “Okay then….” Austin said before turning to Dory. “Hey, Dory, why don’t you ask if she saw Inception.”

     “Great idea, Austin,” Mo-on said.

     “No!”

     “Fine, let’s make it a game. Let’s ask as many teachers as we can if they saw Inception. The one who gets the most points, wins.”

      “MS. SHARON?!” Mo-on shouts.

     “Yes?”

     “Have you seen Inception?”

     “What does that have to do with our lesson?”

     “Nothing miss, just curious.”

     “I haven’t seen it.”

     “Okay, thanks miss!”
     “One point for me, that’s Sr. Geck. One point for you, that’s just now. And zero points for Dorothy, because she has not asked anyone.”

     After Lunch, Sr. Leo was discussing as usual.

     “One of the materials they mined here is tingga.”

     “Tinga…” Mo-on said out loud as he wrote in his notebook.

     “What ‘tinga’? TING-GA!”

     This caused the class to laugh out loud.

     Later, during Sr. Leo’s continuation of the lecture.

     “They then dip the raw food into boiling water.”

     “Let us presume that is a Jacuzzi…” Austin whispers to Dorothy and Mo-on.

     “Haha, they dip the food in a Jacuzzi.”

     “Mo-on, what now?! Are you okay? Dip the raw food into a Jacuzzi?!”

     The class once again broke into laughter.

     “Mo-on, this is strike two! One more and I’ll dip you into a Jacuzzi!”
     “Austin, when did you learn Inception?” Mo-on asked.

     “Two days ago. Haha.”

     After the class, Dorothy managed to ask Sr. Leo if he had seen Inception. Since it comes from the director of The Dark Knight (Sr. Leo loved Batman), this was supposed to be a definite yes. He answered “no” however.

     Anyway, in the waiting area, Austin and Renz finish this seemingly forced exposition.

      “Anyway, a lot of Bukidnon students were exempted that day so they did what any sane man would do when exempted: play truth or dare. I played for a while.

     “Later, an informant informed me that he picked truth once. The question was if he still had a crush on Janella. He answered ‘yes’. I was infuriated at this second major betrayal but I took it so far.

     “I completely broke the next day when he called me an idiot when she asked him to tell me what he said to her the other night…”

     “What…”

     “She forced me to forgive him. It was on that day I realized who my true friend was. You know Ernst, right? He stuck with me throughout the whole thing, despite being a medalist.

      “Fast forward to present. I told her I loved her that day, albeit through desk phone and she returned it the next day, also through desk phone.”

     “Well. That’s a lot of info.”

    “Anyway, I was just myself. And you do not need to become a raving lunatic and be saved by your friends! You just need to be yourself. Sure, it’s trite but it’s still true.”

     “But what if I am really this unattractive?”
     “Renz, if you’re not going to believe in yourself, nobody ever will either. Your choice.”
      Austin stood up.

     “I gotta go. Thanks for listening.”
     “Thanks for sharing.”
     “Bye, Renz. Good luck with your dilemma.”

     Austin teleported back his room.

 

The next day, the Inception addiction began to die out.

     Ernst also started abusing the “I don’t care,” line from the video Austin told him about. He even wrote down the entire script.

      Ms. Anne found this script and read it. Luckily, Ernst was not in trouble.

     That Lunch, Jianne did not take Austin’s behavior yesterday regarding his opinion and suddenly verbally attacked him in the library. Austin didn’t take it lightly either, forcing him to storm out of the library in blind rage  and was pissed off the remainder of the lunch period.

     “Hey, Austin, you okay?” Ivan Chan said to him.

     “Yeah, despite the fact that Jianne is an a*****e.”

     “Why? What did he do?”

     “He verbally pissed me off in the library.”
      “Eh. Don’t mind him. It’s as if you don’t know Jianne.”

     “One day, he’s gonna pass through a metallic door and get stuck in there… or something. Anyway, how’s life. Did you tell her yet?”
     “No.”

     “Why not? It’s the first step to success.”

     “I’m waiting for the right moment.”

     At this moment, Austin saw Janella walk through the hallways of the second floor and enter the Instructional Media Unit (IMU for short), presumably heading towards the Library.

     “Let’s go to the Library, now.”

     “Why? There are books there.”
     “NOW!”
     Austin and Ivan went the second floor and on his way to the Library, a sassy freshman pushed Austin and Ivan to the opposite sides of the hallway sassily saying, “Excuse me!”

     Austin went back with Ivan whispering, “You’re excused, b*tch.”

     They entered the library where Austin saw Jianne again. He saw him as well and looked him in the eye with a mocking face. This struck a nerve and Austin immediately did a 180 and rushed away.

     “Where are you going?”

     “Away from here!”

     Austin rushed to the mango tree, mumbling "angrish" on the way down.

     They had a test in Math the next period. Austin finished it as soon as possible and looked over it a few times.

     Sr. Geck noticed Austin basically burning up the paper in his fury speed.

     “Austin, is something wrong?”

     “Well, sir, you know Jianne Enriquez, right?”
     “Yes, he's in my advisory class.”
     “Well, he verbally ticked me off earlier. He pushed me off the edge a little.”

     “Give me a sample. What did he say?”
     “Well, I can’t remember anything in particular. Probably, I was blinded by rage.”

     “But, just tell me a bit of what he said.”
     “Sir, I’m sorry but I don’t remember.”

     “Okay then, Ms. Sharon and I will just talk him. We need get his side of the story as well.”

     “Okay, sir, thanks.”

     “Now look over your test again, only this time, slowly.”

    

The next day, Ernst was still abusing the “I don’t; care,” line.

     The second subject of the day was Math and it was time for the presentation of the performance task.

     “Okay. Today you present your [performance tasks. Today is your chance for a break. Today, you can take a rest from numbers.”

     “Yay!” Mo-on said.

     “Are to trying to be funny?!” Sr. Geck said in a frustrated tone. The entire class dropped into silence.

     “Are you trying to crack a joke, Mon? Because it’s not funny.”

     Mo-on kept fanning himself at this point due to the heat.

     “AND STOP FANNING!”

     Of course, Mo-on put down the fan.

     “You think you’re funny? You’re disrespectful! I feel disrespected! I think it’s time for you to learn respect. It’s not just Mon but all of you.”

      There was a long period of silence after this.

     “Okay, let us begin. First group up front.”

     Sr. Geck was back to normal soon enough but now they knew what his anger looked like and it was terrifying.

     That Music time, Ms. Naj taught them an Indonesian song entitles “Si Patokaan”. Some weren’t listening and some were a bit too zealous. This ticked Ms. Naj off a little but still, she persevered to teach the song.

     They did learn the song by the end and Ms. Naj told them that she would be having “ambush practical tests” next week where she would come from nowhere and ask a student to sing the song. This was one of the more interesting yet frightening concepts for practical tests.

     During Science, they were talking about the different kinds of carbohydrates.

     “Under the monosaccharide classification, we have the Glucose, which is the most basic kind of sugar; fructose, or fruit sugar for short, and galactose, which is found in mothers.

     “When mother give birth, they will lactate immediately. Of course, they have to breastfeed the baby.”

     “Sir,” one of them asked. Austin did not notice since he was slipping into a dream.

      “Yes, question?”

     “Does the size of the mother’s breast affect the amount of breast milk it produces?”
     “Well no. Some women have larger breast but don’t even lactate. It doesn’t matter if you’re a size 6 or a, let’s say, size 36…”

     Suddenly, the entire class broke into laughter. Austin caught this joke and joined in the fun.

     “HAHAHA! THE N****E IS LARGER THAN THE BABY’S MOUTH!” he heard from the crowd.

     This was so far, the most explicit joke of the year.

     “Class!” Sr. Jojo said, trying to keep his composure

     Soon, everyone quiet down.

     The rest of the lesson went smoothly, not counting the times when Froilan references the Size 36 joke and everyone laughs out loud again.

     In the line going back to the classroom, Austin asks Jasvir a question.

     “Hey, Jasvir, regarding milk, how did they discover how to milk a cow?”

     “I don’t know, they, wait….” Jasvir said as he started laughing. “Nice one!”

     They had a health seminar in place of the career ZL period. This was bad because their JejeScript was still non-existent.

     In the Auditorium, the classes were sort of separated and Dorothy was behind Austin’s row. Coincidentally, Christian Dior Sardua was positioned beside her.

     This triggered the Camiguin students from last year to tease their former classmate.

     “AIEE!!! DIOROTHY!”
     “What? Come on! That was all the way from last year.”

     CV caught on to this and started teasing her as well. This led to a lot of fun.

     Just like most of the seminars they have experience so far, this one was dull and preachy.

     Later that Lunch, Bukidnon went to the trellis again for another reunion, albeit smaller. Austin told Ernst about Size 36. He also laughed out loud.

     Austin saw Joel avoiding the reunion. He decided to try to forget to accompany his forgiveness.

     “Hey, Joel. Why don’t you join the reunion?” Austin said after approaching him.

     “Umm, I hate Bukidnon.”

     This was a fair statement for him since most of the boys made fun of him.

     When the bell rang, Jianne saw Austin but immediately fled.

     The next ZL period, Ms. Mac asked for some time from Ms. Anne. She distributed a bulletin regarding the CCP performance later on in January. It was to celebrate Seton’s 35^th year.

     Unfortunately, CV was inattentive and everyone had their own world. This pissed Ms. Mac off.

     “You don’t want to listen? Fine…”

     Ms. Mac put the bulletins down on the table and marched out of the room.

     Ms. Anne went back in.

     “I think you better apologize to your… she’s your adviser, right?”
     Everyone nodded.

     “Well, you better apologize to her. Just say ‘sorry’. Anyway, you can go to your groups now.”

     They managed to fold a few trees and Sang Woo managed to fold a panda head but that was all for the day.

     The next period was the first batch practice. Their batch had a run in with bad luck when it rained on their practice day last week.

     They started off in the Cardinal William Square (CWS of short) which was the big field in the middle of the Mindanao Building.

     They were arranged by P.E. Pairings. The CV and DDN Students were together, the DOR and Sarangani students were together, and the SC and SK students were together.

     Sr. Leo was once again their leader.

     He asked the dance committee in each pair of sections to take charge as he went in the office with the level representatives for [planning.

     Jib was the life of the “party” as he provided some laughs while still being cooperative. Froilan, on the other hand, was just a laugh provider, much to the “cooperative’s” dismay.

     Since Sr. Leo was their leader again, they once again followed his dreadful philosophy: “Fault of one, fault of all”

     Eventually, bad luck stroked them again as it started to rain. It was a lot calmer than last week so maybe Accel didn’t cause it. Nonetheless, they had to evacuate to the Bridge.

     They weren’t able to do the Pairings in the limited space of the Bridge so the TWP girls who demonstrated two weeks ago started teaching their version of the Sinulog Festival.

     One of the moves involved crossing their arms in the air. Jib immediately abridged the move.

     “Di ko kayang tanggapin!” he sang as he crossed his arms and brought them down, all while paying homage to a classic Filipino song.

     Of course, everyone who saw Jib laughed out loud. They quickly returned their composure though when the TWP girls noticed this.

     Once this was all over, Austin went to the Library for Exceptionality. After a bit of waiting, Lance and Lui went in the Library and called Austin down to the front of the Faculty Center A.

     “Why not the Library, sir?”
     “I like the atmosphere here better. And I believe there are distractions in the library.”

     “Distraction? It’s a library! There aren’t supposed to be distractions.”

     “Exactly, that’s why I opted for here. Let’s move on. Find the vertex of the following parabolas.”

    

During this hour of missed opportunities, Austin still managed to answer most of the problems, despite the lack of inspiration not distraction.

     He went to the classroom to do his job as cleaner when Ernst dropped in.

     “Hey, dude, let’s go!”

     “I’m cleaning, you go ahead.”

     “I don’t care, I’ll wait.”

     Ernst stayed there like a good boy as Austin finished half of the chairs.

     “Guys, if you aren’t cleaners, please leave so we can fix the room, please.”
     Still, they did not leave.

     “Come on, move faster dude!” Ernst said.

     “I am cleaning! GO ahead.”

     “I don’t care…”

     Austin glared at him.

      “Fine, I’ll be patient.”

     Austin continued to fix the chairs as one of the remaining students left and disarranged a few chairs in the process. There were still many non-cleaners in there.

     “PLEASE! If you are not a cleaner, leave!”

     Austin switched the band to Time-Manipulation and put the messed up tables in their fixed position.

     “Dude, come on.”

     “I am cleaning, Ernst.”

     “I don’t c�"“

     “DON’T SAY YOU DON’T CARE!”

     This startled someone from behind who was a non-cleaner, knocking down a few chairs and tables in the process.

     “AHHHH! SCREW IT! Justine, I’ve done all I can, I’ve done my part! You handle the rest, I am going home!”
     “But…”

     Austin switched the band and teleported the transport cars area, hoping the slow drive through the island will calm him down.

     He met Dorothy in the line.

     “Hey there. Pretty rough day huh?” he said.

     “yeah.”

     Soon, Mo-on came in, walking from the back of the line saying something inaudible to every sophomore.

     When he got to Austin and Dorothy, he said the same thing.

     “Hey, bring fans tomorrow, okay?”

     “Why?”
    “Do not ask, just do, okay? THANK YOU!”
     Mo-on continued marching down the line. Austin and Dorothy shared confused looks. She just shrugged as Austin continued waiting.

     Like he wanted, the ride calmed him down and when he got to his room, he crashed in his bed immediately.

     After a few hours, someone knocked on the door.

     Austin answered it and it was Ernst.

     “Dude, what happened?”
    “Are you ****ing kidding me? You happened. And if you don't think you did anything wrong, well guess what? ‘I DON'T CARE!’ I share a little funny video and you quote it 50 times a day! Don't even try using that on me ever again, I don’t wanna hear the damn phrase ever again.

     “If someone doesn't care, they should just walk off the damn planet and just die. After 2 weeks of perfection, you and that sh*tfaced Jianne ruin my day! Two days of complete bullshit and you don't care?

     “You know, what? Screw this, if I go to school tomorrow out of sheer pity that you won't get a single passing laugh that's not caused by anyone who doesn't give a s**t about all but two things, don’t expect I'll make your soul laugh!”

     Austin slammed the door but stopped partway there.

     There was a moment of silence.

     “Sorry, I didn’t know. Will a simple ‘sorry’ make up for it? I’ll say it anyway, ‘I’m sorry’. Is there anything else I can do?”

     Austin held the door for a while. After calming down a bit, he opened it.

     “I'm sorry. I just wanted to get that out of me. You don't have to do anything. It's ok. When everyone else is gone, you'd be all there is. It's been a year and you're like my brother already. I'm just so pissed at life right now. 70% of our Sinulog leaders are b*****s. Did you notice they were wearing the same T-Shirt "TWP"? That's just dramatic. These past two days have caused a BSOD in my mind and it's killing me.”

     They were quiet for a while.

     “Oh yeah, I wanna plug a cap in that a*****e Jianne's a*s so deep that it will shoot out of his mouth and circumnavigate back into his a*s, blocking his anus from any feces from being defecated, resulting in a spontaneous combustion!”

    “That’s harsh…”

     “I know, I’m sorry.”

     “Anyway, It’s all okay now. Is it?”

     “Yeah.”

     “Oh, and by the way, Nica added me on Facebook just to pick on me. Can I say it one last time? ‘I don’t care!’.”

     “Meh, just don’t let me hear it.”

     “Sure. I’m gonna go now.”

     “Bye, bro.”

     Austin went back in and crashed in his bed again.

    

The nest morning, DRIX was playing Afterlife on the guitars. This made Rica happy when she passed by since she was Avenged Sevenfold’s number one fan, no question about it.

     During Math, Sr. Geck took them to the AVR for the first time since he wanted to show them a math tutor program.

     The program pretty much had a mind of its own. When you reach the end of a slide, it will randomly say, “Just tell me if you want to keep going,” or something similar.

     He stopped on a slide and discussed a bit further.

     “Let me just reiterate, every point in the Cartesian plane is distinct. That mea�"“

     “Just tell me if you want to move on,” The computer said.

     “Not yet!”

     Everyone laughed, except Mo-on who was still a bit bitter after Sr. Geck took his fan, which nicely explained his request yesterday.

     “That means the x-coordinate and the y-coordinate are not interchangeable. Clear? Is that cl�"“

     “Don’t take too long, tell me if you wanna move on.”

     “Okay, fine, I’m done,” Sr. Geck told the computer as he clicked to the next slide.

     Later that day, CCF class was dead silence. One reason was because of their quiz and another reason was because Ms. Mac was still mad.

     Lunch was pretty uninteresting. The only notable event was Jianne finally apologizing to Austin. He also apologized for his behavior last Monday.

     During Science time, they were at the AVR 3. Austin got another point in the game by asking Sr. Jojo if he had seen Inception. He did not but inquired about it. He then said he was planning to see it that weekend and Austin, Mo-on, and Dorothy considered their “campaign” for the week, a success. One is better than none, right?

     On their way out, Austin continued to talk to Sr. Jojo, telling him that Inception was already number 3 in IMDb’s top 250. He then concluded that he was going to see it.

     “By the way, Austin, what do you wanna be?”

     “Well, I wan na be a director.”

     “Oh, that’s good. Hey, maybe in the future, you have already forgotten us.”

     “No way, sir, I’ll invite you and the other teachers to the world premiere!”

     “Haha, thanks.”
     Austin walked out and saw Sr. Geck in the AVR across them. He went in tell him the good news.

     “Sir, Jianne apologized.”

     “Oh? So you’re good now?”

     “Yes sir.”

     “Good, now try not to get into too much trouble from now on.”

     Austin arrived in Sr. Chris’s Art class, thirty seconds late but no harm, no foul.

     During Sr. Chris’s discussion, Mo-on suddenly went into a fit of rage, randomly swatting about his notebook, eliciting odd stares form the whole class and Sr. Chris’s trademark stare.

     When Mo-on stopped and Sr. Chris looked at him with a “what’s your explanation?” face, he replied calmly.

     “There’s a bee…”

     There were a few chuckles after this as they resumed the class.

    

The next day, Austin went to DDN to find Janella talking with her friends. He soon joined in the party.

     “Good Morning!” he said.

     “Hey Austin,” she said.

     “HI!” her friends said. He did not know any of them so he waved to be polite.

     This inadvertently led to them talking about Austin and Janella’s relationship, much to their dismay.

     “So, what about the future?” one of them said dramatically.

     “What do you mean?” Janella asked.

     “I’ll be Godmother!” one of them shouted out of nowhere.

     “What? There aren’t even any kids yet!” Janella retorted.

     “Yet?” They said.

     “What do you mean?”
     Austin knew where this was going.

     “Well, the word yet in the sentence indicates that there will be kids in the future which, by extension means that you two w�"“

     “Girls! What are your favorite movies OF ALL TIME?!” Austin said, cutting off the awkward discussion. He heard Janella speak to him via their mutant link, “Nice save.”

     “I like Final Destination 4!”

     Austin facepalmed at this.

    Later that day, during P.E. Class, they finished the steps. After finishing the steps, the boys and girls were combined and they formed the formation. Maan, Ymara, Alecz, Justine, and a few students from DDN(they were the dancing committee) started discussing on who should be the lead dancers. Obviously, they were in but they lacked four.

     “Um…” Anne Nicole said, “Basti and Austin from CV and Lanz and Ernst from DDN, please step up.”

     Austin did as told and went up the stage.

     “You’re the lead dancers!” Maan said.

     “What?” Austin exclaimed.

     “Come on! It’ll be fun!” Ernst said.

     “Oh, and Lanz, when we get to the clapping step, don’t�"“

     “I know. I know.”

     Lanz was another member of the team last year and his power was creating shockwave from his hands.

     They were positioned up front and the entire group did one full run through the steps. Sr. Dhani sat-in the class to observe. He was their P.E. Teacher last year.

     In the final step. They had to take three steps forward, yell, take three more steps forward, yell, take four step three slow steps back ward, one quick step backward, and let go of a final yell.

     They did this pretty well but at the very end, Jack Bungag from DDN let out an extremely high pitched scream which caused everyone to lose their composure and fall to the ground laughing, except for the leaders and the teachers of course.

     “Who was that?!”

     “JACK!” DDN pointed out.

     “Sir, it was Sr. Dhani!” Jack said. Everyone laughed again.

     “Okay, everyone, one more take,” Tennet said.

     During CCF, Ms. Mac simply told everyone to go to the bridge.

     “Okay, today, I we won’t have the usual CCF class. We’ll just have this small activity.”

     Bettina and Giannina were not there since they had to go to the clinic due to fatigue.

     “Okay, group yourselves by friends. The first people you go to during lunch in this section.”

     Austin went to Ibarra, Paul, Karl, and Renz. Everyone went with who they usually went with.

     Ms. Mac then asked them to pick one person. Austin picked Ibarra, Ibarra picked Paul, Paul picked Ibarra, Karl picked Renz, but when it came to Renz.

     “Rezn you have to choose,” Ms. Mac said.

     He was pointing at Karl and Austin.

     “Don’t worry, pal. GO ahead.”

     “Renz, you can still change groups.”

     “Yuou sure, it’s okay?” Renz asked.

     “Yeah, go for it,” Austin said.

     Renz stood up and went to Clutch and Justine. Karl also stood up and went ot Jericho.

     “Okay, now you have oyur initial groups. We have ten groups as of now. Let’s say those people are absent, who do you go to?”

     Austin stod up and went ot Sean. He was with Owen and Renz joined in.

     “If you really can’t find anyone, it’s okay to go with your previous group.”

     Ibarra and Paul joined Austin’s group.

     “Okay, so from ten groups, we became seven. Now, once again, let’s say these people are not here, where do you go.”

     This was the hardest one. Sean and Owen went to the group with a lot of boys and none of the other groups appealed to him so he went over to their group.

     “Okay, CV, from ten groups, you became seven, and now you have three. That’s still not good enough.”

     “Wait, Ms. Mac, are you still mad?” a student asked. Austin wasn’t able to see.

     “Actually, no. Not anymore. Back to what I was saying, our goal for this year is to make these three groups into just one group.

     “From now on, you are no longer part of Bukidnon or MOR, or Basilan, or any of those. From now on, all of you are part fo Compostela Valley.”

     The section finally had a goal, unity. It was not going to be easy but it was there.

     That lunch, Austin and the gang were in the library again and Austin was dreamily staring at Janella again.

     “Dude, you are creepy,” Bianca said.

     “You cannot judge me,” Austin said dreamily.

    “If I was her and I caught you doing that, I’d�"“

     “I’m lucky to be in love with my best friend…” he started singing.

     “I give up, Ernst…”

     “Why’d you call Ernst?” Austin said, sitting up straight. “You could’ve called Johan, or Ivan, or Jericho, or Nica from the other table but you specifically called him. I wonder why…”

     “Shut up.”

     “Shutting up, sir.”

     RING!

     “I’m gonna pick up the princess, you guys go ahead.”

     “Good luck, bro,” Ernst said.

     “Hey, bro, tell Maan I said hi when you pass by her on the way back, eh?”

     Ernst went on as Austin approached Janella.

     “Excuse me, madam, but it is time…” he said in a dramatic tone but still with trembling in his voice.

     “And so it is. Are you my escort?”

     “It would appear so.”

     “Oh fine,” she said, dropping the act. “Haha, let’s go.”

     Nica and Queennie from the same table stood up as well.

     “Ahihihi, that was too cute,” Nica said.

     “Don’t you think that was my intention?”

     “What?’ Janella said.

     “Nothing. Let’s go.”

     “Stay far behind as so to not interrupt the power of love!”

     Janella and Austin didn’t mind this and just went on.

     He opened the door for her and let go but it was closing in on Nica. He quickly grabbed it and opened it again. As he let go, it almost hit someone else so Austin once again  dived to save them and this time, opened the door all the way.

     “What’s with the gentleman attitude today.”

     “I don’t know. Does it stand out?”
     “Yes.”
     “Well, it wouldn’t be about the ‘why’ but about the ‘what’ in this scenario. What this is, is a gentleman attitude.”

     “What?”

     “Never mind.”

     Austin dropped her off at her room and went on to his.

     Math and AP were dull but English was a riot. Well, it was pretty quiet actually but Austin was positioned at the back where he was  sitting beside Froilan and Dorothy.

     Froilan started improvising poems about Dior’s undying love for Dorothy, much to her dismay, and much to everyone else’s amusement.

     “Froilan, just stop it!” Dorothy said.

     “I’ll stop with Dior. Who else? Ahh! Roey! Dioroey!”

     He continued until the end of the period where everyone near Froilan that wasn’t Dory ran out of breath due to laughter.

     In the bus area, Austin got bored and led Ernst to three big rocks near the gate.

     “You wanna meet my best friend, bro?”

     “Sure.”

     “This…” Austin said, pointing to the biggest rock. “…is Mister ****ing Rock. He is my best friend.”

     “You’re bored, aren’t you?”

     “And his brothers! Mister Sh*tty Rock and Mister Homosexual F*g Rock!”

     “Wanna eat something?”

     “I AM SPENDING QUALITY TIME WITH MY BEST FRIENDS!”

     “Okay then, I just wanted to point out that Nica’s on his way.

     “Hey Austin! Janella’s bus is late and she’s all alone in the waiting area, hoping that a knight in shining armor would save her. Care to oblige.”

     “Ernst, thank you for not pulling me away in pity. Nica, thank you for the information. This knight is on his way!”

     Austin ran to the waiting area.

     It was the best Friday so far because of this “saving act”. Her bus did eventually arrive and Austin bid farewell. He went back to Ernst, who was in his bus.

     “I. Am. Happy.”

     “I’m sorry but the princess is in another castle,” he said.

     “DUDE!”

     “Just kidding, see ya around!”
     “Sure, bye. Did you say bye to MFR?”

     “Mister Effing Rock?”
     “No, that’s MER, he’s somewhere in the Acacia Lane, I meant MFR over there near the gate.”
     “Oh. Yup, I said goodbye.”
     “Okay, bye bro.”

     Austin went back to his suite and didn’t even mind that the whole three supposedly sentient rocks thing was completely random and uncalled for. Who cares? It led to the best thirty minutes of his life so far.