03x08: True Colors

One particular teacher shakes the foundations of the batch in this chapter.

TRUE COLORS

 

     Monday morning, Austin was the second to arrive after Ibarra. Sean soon arrived via teleportation.

     “Dude, you gotta help me find a working restroom,” Sean said.

      “Why didn’t you go before teleporting here?”

     “Well I woke up around 7:30 today because I spent the whole night watching, umm…, TV. So I slowed time down a bit but I kinda screwed up and brought me to 4:00 in the morning today. I felt exhausted like I just ran a hundred laps and I couldn’t go through time again maybe due to exhaustion and�"“

     “Whoa, back up, you sent yourself back through time?!”

     “Yeah.”

     “Which means in an hour, Sean Asprec will be waking up in your room and be teleporting back to�"“

     “It’s fixed see? It’s a stable loop. I didn’t interact with myself and he wouldn’t wake up since he still has to wake up in an hour.

     “Anyway, time got a bit wonky for me and when I got out of the shower, it was 5:30 so I decided to go straight to school.

     “I tried teleporting but when I arrived here, it was already five minutes ago. Apparently, time caught up with my bladder and I really gotta go.”

     “Look, I wouldn’t try teleporting you but I would try to fix the damage you’ve done to the fabric of time and space.

     “Look Sean, for some reason when you got hit by the radioactive waves on that fateful day, you were thinking about space and time and I get that but just do not use them too much.”

     “This is the first time I really screwed up big time and that feeling of exhaustion is the most severe feeling I have ever felt in all my years of living.”

     “At least you aren’t one of those pricky Karma Houdinis.”

     “Look man, the biggest problem I have now is that my bladder is going to explode!”

     “Don’t worry, I’ll phaze you through one of the closed doors and your bladder needn’t explode. Happy?”

     “Sure, thanks a lot, dude.”

     Austin took Sean to the closed restroom and switched the band to the Ghost Power spoke. He held the door, transforming it into an intangible surface allowing Sean to pass.

     Sean walked out the same way and they went back to the classroom.

     “Hey, do you think you could use that power to sneak into other places?”

     “Hmm… now that I think about it, I don’t use this spoke that much.”

     “Too obsessed with Psychics and Pyrokinetics and Cryogenetics, et cetera, are we?”

     “Hey, she isn’t a Psychic.”

     “Oh, sorry.”

     “But yeah, she’s awesome. She probably picked the best combination.”

     “Get out of the clouds, lover boy, it’s almost seven, don’t you wanna check out the other room?”

     “Right.”
     Austin went over to the DDN room and saw Bam silent in his seat, playing around with playing cards.

     “Hey Bam, how’s the band?”

     “Okay, I got good news and bad news for you, Mr. Manager. Which one do you want first?”

     “Umm… bad news.”

     “Bruce quit.”

     “What?” Austin said so flatly even if the surprise was the biggest shock this year.

     “Bruce Brannon Ocampo quit the band.”

     “What?!” Austin said with more intensity.

     “Austin! Our Lead guitarist? He quit.”

     “WHAT?!”

     “Wanna hear the good news?”

     “What?” Austin said in a sad tone.

     “I’m an imba in card tricks, here pick a card.”

     Bam fanned his deck of cards in front of him.

     “Dude, that isn’t good news for the band!”

     “Yes it is. We have a contingency plan. Pick a card!”

     “How are we gonna play without a lead guitarist? We gonna do rhythm based songs from now on?  We are not gonna perform Lucky by Jason Mraz seven-hundred times!”

     “Oh yeah, if I am not mistaken, Michael Santos, he quit last week.”

     “You’re only telling me now?”

     “Slipped my mind?”

     “This is bad.”

     “Of course but you gotta loosen up. Let’s start by picking a card.”

     Austin picked a card; it was the four of diamonds.

    “Put it back.”

     Austin put it back and resumed his pacing.

     “Now I will shuffle the deck and�"“

     I saw a false cut, a stupid shuffle, and a double undercut in there.

     “Okay, can you please turn off your psychic powers?”

     “They’re off; I am partial to card magic. I just don’t think it’ll impress Janella that much.”

     “Have you tried?”

     “Look, Janella and I are fine. What is not fine is our band having one less drummer and no lead guitarist!”

     “Look, we got a plan. Enriko, he’s good, he can be lead and we can get Laurenz to be temporary rhythm. During the FS Night, we’re going to audition and if we get in, we will perform ‘Almost Easy’ by Avenged Sevenfold. Now what’s the chorus to that song?”

     “Umm… Uh…”

     “Come back to me it’s…”

     “Almost Easy!”

     “We’ll change ‘me’ to ‘us’ and we’ll dedicate it to him. He’ll be back in the band before we can do the fandango!”

     “But the question is, what if he does not?”

     “We’ll just have to find a rep�"“

     “Don’t say it. I’ll deal with it. He made me manager, I’m pretty sure he wants me to think of a solution and think of one I will.”

     The bell rang and Janella was relatively late. He didn’t see her that morning.

     Math class was the first period and was not a good way to start the day.

     Since last year, they were too slow; they were still cleaning up the end of the freshman lessons. This time, they were in linear equations in two variables.

     “Okay, can someone read the problem out loud?”

     Someone stood up and read it.

     “One banana costs thirty pesos. What are the possible prices given the following table?”

     There was a table below this noting the number of bananas and the price. 1 banana=P30, 2 bananas= P60, 3 bananas = P90. 4 bananas onwards were not filled.

     Sr. Geck asked for an equation to represent the situation and the class came up with y=30x; s being the quantity and y being the price.

     They filled up the table and what followed was the ultimate sucker punch for the year.

     “Okay, turn off the projector,” Sr. Geck said.

     The projector was turned off.

     “You’ve all seen the situation. Now let me ask you a question. What is the essence of finding x and y?”

     Silence, that was all, at least for five minutes.

     All the answers that followed were not accepted and the remainder of the period was spent on this single question which remained unanswered.

     That recess, probably everyone who had Sr. Geck that morning was telling them about the headache they had experienced. Austin just went on the usual routine.

     During the end of the recess, Austin and Janella were hanging out in front of the DDN classroom when Ernst came running from the ramp, grabbing his bag from the pile outside and running straight into the classroom.

     In his rush, he knocked down the trash can, blowing the cover off. Everyone laughed at this, even Ernst.

     Bianca approached Ernst.

     “Dude, you should do this again some time.”

     That day, Sr. Jojo revealed that he had seen Inception and loved it. This was a major point for Austin and Dorothy and Mo-on would not be able to keep up.

     Later that Lunch, Austin vented out his boredom in the Library.

     He grabbed a book entitled “The Cool Joke Book”.

     “Ernst, get this joke, ‘What do you call a dog in a sauna?’ “

     “Derp?”
     “A hotdog! Holy damnation, this book isn’t funny at all! ‘What did the spider give to the duck?’ Come on Ernst, think real hard.”

     “A beak?”

      “NO! Get this punchline, ‘Webbed feet!’ For Pete’s sakes, you can make funnier jokes than this!”

     “Well, I have laughing gas.”

     “This ‘Cool Joke Book’ is not cool at all! That makes it just a ‘Joke Book’ but by definition of the dictionary. Pocholo, may I borrow that?”

      Austin said, reaching out the adjacent table where Pocholo was reading the dictionary cover to cover.

     “This states that a joke is a brief oral narrative with a climactic humorous twist. These punchlines are not humorous therefore; this is not a ‘Joke Book’. This is just ‘The Book’”

     “Austin, let me guess,” Bianca said as Austin returned the book to Pocholo. “You are bored and too scared to talk to Janella, aren’t you?”

     “Bianca, it’s only been two months and you can read me like a book. I ought to check the Mutant Bond to see if you and Ernst have a bond.”

     “What?!”
     “Nothing. I’m going to pick up the princess, it’s 1:50. See ya later!”

     Austin stood up and went to the Patola family’s usual spot but Janella was not there.

     Devastated, Austin went to the classroom alone.

     Later in TLE, Austin finally mastered the Sewing Machine, helping others out as well. Austin was in a euphoric state over a simple sewing machine that Ms. Joan took special notice of his enthusiasm.

     Austin got to talk to Janella later that dismissal, still sad that he only got talk to her minimally today. He was able to say good bye and that was all he needed.

     On his way back to the hotel, he noticed a crater in the ground near the east side of the hotel. He filled it up.

    

The next day was slightly better despite the fact that the crater reappeared. He fixed it up again and went to school.

     During Sr. Jojo’s period, Arianne had begun to fall asleep. Sr. Jojo noticed it was not only Arianne and decided to spice things up a little.

     “Arianne, are you sleepy?”

     She woke up and lazily shook her head.

     Sr. Jojo then began to sing to the tune of “Are You Sleeping?”

    

“Are you sleepy?

Are you sleepy?

Please wake up!

Please wake up!

I am gonna tie you!

I am gonna tie you!

On the tree!

On the tree!”

     Everyone started laughing again. Sr. Jojo continued in the same tune.

     “Suicide! Suicide! Suicide! Suicide!”

     This was when everyone started laughing out louder.

     “Seriously, my brother sings that a lot. He also sings the Barney theme a bit different. ‘I hate you, you hate me. Let’s get together and kill Barney.’ He has a lot of other songs.”

     Everyone was laughing pretty hard at this point. Ymara was red-faced, which was just a sign that Sr. Jojo was showcasing his comedic side well.

     “My brother should release an album HAHA!”

     Sr. Jojo’s laugh nailed it, just when they thought they couldn’t laugh any harder, Sr. Jojo just released his trademark laugh sending them into a laughing fit.

     Compared to Science time, the rest of the day was uninteresting.

     During Lunch, there were practices starting at 1:30.

     Jib was doing his usual thing but the batch was getting out of hand. Nobody was listening to the leaders anymore but Janella took the initiative to put everyone in control.

     “SOPHOMORES! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!” she yelled at the top of her voice. It was very rare that she’d explode like this but when she did, it was terrifying.

     Everyone around Austin started teasing him about this.

     “Hey, I think it would be best if you pay attention to the front!” Austin calmly said in a more serious tone than usual, sending all of his teasers’ eyes the front.

     Sr. Geck finally answered yesterday’s million dollar question and threw a new one at them.”Why was it necessary to find x and y” Same routine as yesterday, no answer, sadly this show was not cancelled.

     When dismissal finally came, Janella seemed a lot better and Austin got to say goodbye. On his way back, he saw the crater again and in frustration, just left it there.

    

The next day, the room was a mess and Ibarra and Austin, being the first ones there, cleaned it up a bit.

     Austin decided to fool around and write on the board.

    

Those who cleaned:

Carlos Ibarra Libosada

Ryan Austin Fernandez

Adrian Owen Cantillas

Casper the Friendly Ghost

 

     “Casper?” Ibarra asked.

     “Do you have proof that he did not help us?”

     “No.”

     “Then he stays on the list.”

     “What about Owen?”

     Austin went in front of Ibarra and whispered in his ear.

     “Owen. Is. Everywhere.”

     Austin went back to his seat and fixed up his table.

     During the morning period before official classes start (which has been deemed “homeroom”), Mo-on was having a fun time talking to everyone, much to Sr. Jojo’s dismay.

     He fixed this by moving him far away, leaving their group with Aldrich instead. Tasha was also moved and they had Justine now.

     Marise, Jericho, and Dorothy were still in the same places so Mo-on was the biggest change. The four of them were really depressed.

     During that recess, Mo-on reassured his old “rowmates” that he’ll always be around anyway.

     Later that day, they did not have any other ZL2 period except for Kinesthetic which meant practice, practice, PRACTICE!

     Tennet Rojas and Jan De Guzman were the biggest pains in the neck for this period of hell that it took the entire batch protesting and Owen Belly Dancing in protest in order for them to be given a water break.

     Austin rushed to the waiting area after exceptionality but Janella wasn’t there, having left early.

    

The next morning, Sean was talking about how he didn’t like Mo-on that much and how he’d like to put him in the 1800’s just to have a quieter life. Austin tried defending him but Sean’s opinion was final.

     In the scheme of things, this was just the beginning of a normal day but little did they know that it was not.

     Their first period was Math time and Sr. Geck had enough of their incompetence.

     He was teaching how to graph a linear equation using the intercept method.

     “Finally, just use a ruler to draw a straight line through both intercepts, clear? Is that clear?”

     “Yes, Sir Geck.”

     “So you can do it on your own?”

     ‘Yes, Sir Geck!”

     “Good, here, graph this.”

     Sr. Geck gave an example on the board but very few were writing.

     “Well? What are you waiting for?”

     Silence followed.

     “I thought you got the lesson?”

     They were now trembling as Sir Geck’s usual demeanor was slowly being thrown out of the window and being replaced with one hell of a force to be reckoned with.

     “All of you have your head in the clouds, thinking you got the lesson? Why don’t you prove it?!”

     His voice got louder.

     “I waste my time discussing here in front and you give me this performance? You are all so full of yourselves!”

     He slowly paced to the back of the room.

     “Can anyone explain how graph a linear equation in one variable using the intercept method once more?”
     The Exceptionality members raised their hands but Sir Geck was on a roll here and did not call them.

     “Anyone?”

     Still, he did not even pretend notice them.

     “That’s it! All of you are shallow-minded! Pucha!”

     Nobody dared to gasp at this but yes, he did say that and the deed was done.

     “What’s farther from Quezon City? Pampanga or Las Pinas? I’ll be going to Philippine Science next year instead!”

     “So be it,” Austin thought. If mediocrity was not an option, it would be a very boring world.

     Eventually the bell rang and Austin was cheered up a little by English class when they started watching Rashomon.

     That Recess, Austin bought his usual Pizza Bar at the canteen and walked towards the usual mango tree. On his way, he overheard Sr. Geck’s name and his name.

     He did a double take and it was the Patola family.

     “Hey, guys, same thing happened to DOR?”

     “Pretty much…” Alyssa said.

     “Eavesdropping much?” Justin asked.

     “Well, you were talking too loud that I couldn’t help but hear! Anyway, I heard my name. What did he say?”
     “Well, he told us that there were many students who were excellent at Math in CV. They mentioned your name and Sr. Geck commented, ‘When it comes to computations, he’s good but in explanations, he’s worthless.’.”

     Austin’s blood began to boil.

     “What else did he say?” Austin said in a much more grim tone.

     “He outright called Yana worthless,” Justin said.

     “I hate him for that…,” Lui said.

     “She’s crying right now,” Alyssa said.

     Austin couldn’t believe his ears.

     “Oh, did I mention he called some of us selfish? Me included?” Abi said. Abi of all people was called selfish? What does that make the rest of the jerks in school? Evil incarnate?

     “I can’t believe a teacher would say that,” Janella said.

     “I mean if this,” Nica said, pointing Austin. “is worthless, what about the rest of us?!”

     “Right!” Alyssa agreed along with most of the people there.

     “Hey, Janella, do you have extra graphing paper for Sr. Edmond’s class?” Nica asked.

     “Oh crap. I totally forgot.”

     “Hey, I’ll get you some. Be back in a flash of an eye.”

     Austin began to run.

     “Why don’t you just teleport?!” Nica asked.

     “It’s personal. Let me have some exercise!” Austin said in a somewhat lighter tone than earlier.

     Austin vowed to himself, no power usage when I came his relationships. This was Janella’s paper first so the rule applied.

     He got back with the paper and Janella happily accepted it…, two out of the ten sheets he bought.

     It was fine though, at least he had some extras and the girl of his dreams would not be failing math class for the day.

     Everyone was talking about one thing the whole day. If only the school’s rules had not extended to the Internet, Sr. Geck would’ve been a trending topic in Twitter at the rate the batch was going.

     It was the first time it had happened in Austin’s entire life. Any other topic immediately got scrapped and replaced with the main topic of the day.

     July 29, 2010 was, more or less, Sr. Geck’s Day.

     Miss Becky tried to console the class and it was the most interactive Miss Becky had gotten throughout the entire year so far.

     She told them of a story about Sr. Geck. There was a parent earlier that morning that wanted to see him (the tailors for their Sinulog costume) and he brushed it off claiming he was too busy.

     During Sr. Leo’s period, they were all pissed off and Sr. Leo noticed it. Of course, Sr. Leo knew what was happening because he had his methods.

     “Alright, what can I do for you guys? You want me to make him cry?”

     Everyone’s face lit up.

     “You guys want me to humiliate him in front of the entire campus?”

     “YES!” Everyone yelled.

     “Okay fine, one condition: participate in my class today. That’ll happen. Let us begin.”

     During his lecture, it got a little hot and Sr. Leo borrowed a fan from a student. He fanned himself and started to act weird.

     They were discussing characteristics of population. When they got to Gender.

     “When we talk about Gender, it only has two, male and female. No gays and no lesbians! But that’s good because,” Sr. Leo grabbed a headband from one of the student’s tables and wore it. “I wouldn’t have any competition!”

     The class was now in a riot.

     “Sr. Leo, don’t you think it’s too early to introduce them to Ms. Leah?” Maan asked.

     “I don’t care, moving on.”

     “Looks like someone has a new superpower,” Sean said.

     “Excuse me Sean?!” Sr. Leo said as he took off the headband and dropped the fan, returning normal.

     “I said you’re looking good, sir!”

     “Oh, okay.”

     Everyone cheered up a little after this, anticipating the fulfillment of Sr. Leo’s promise.

     During Science time, every time Sr. Jojo would ask a question, Froilan randomly replied “Sperm Cell!” Sr. Jojo decided to retaliate and called Froilan “Mister Sperm” for the remainder of the period. He shut up but everyone else was laughing hard.

     At the end of the day, the cheering up had worn off and everyone was pissed off again.

     Austin was especially pissed when he arrived in the waiting area only to miss Janella.

     He went to the Base and went down to the basement. He got into The Anonymous and turned on the simulation. He was in an abandoned amusement park and he was just shooting down the roller coasters using fireballs.

     He then hit the turbo and was just driving around the park at high speeds when suddenly he stopped when he saw Patrick in the way.

     Patrick jumped out of the way just in time.

     “Holy s**t, Patrick, I could have murdered you!”

     “First, that was fricking awesome; second, I love what you’ve done with the place.”

     “What are you doing here?”

     “I just noticed I haven’t been here before.”

     “And that makes it okay for you to jump in?”

     “Yes…, yes it does….”

     “No it does not.”

     “What happened anyway?”

     “When you meet a teacher in high school that feels like road kill, feel free to drive this car. As for now, you ride shotgun.”

     They stepped back in the car and Austin fired it up again.

     “Anyway, my Math teacher called me worthless so I take it out on these fictional rollercoasters. I just love how they collapse and the cars just fly off the unfinished track. It feels awesome.”

     “True that! Anyway, how are you and Janella?”

     “Fine. Great actually. What happened to Sam by the way?”

     “She’s gone. Then Sundae came in. Now she’s gone. So now, I’m ridin’ solo.”

     Austin couldn’t afford to stare at Patrick in disbelief since he was driving so he turned the simulation off and stopped the car.

     “Pat, I’m tired and I think I blew off enough steam. Good night.”

     “Night!”

     Austin teleported to his room and did what any sane man who hasn’t blown off enough steam yet would do, post on Facebook.

     A status message wasn’t enough though. He actually wrote a note detailing everything that happened from a pseudo-third person point of view. He made very few side comments and just posted what he saw and heard.

     He also started out by saying that he would take any action caused by his posting of the note and that he only did what he had to do.

     Soon, Rudi-Anne Salas, class president of DOR, and Addi Cena, a student from DDN, started discussing on the note.

     Jasvir and Arjona (from DDN) joined in. Jasvir was defending Sr. Geck but at the same time, not. Arjona was ruthless but still composed in his comments. Addi and Rudi were very constructive and Austin was just reiterating his thoughts from the note.

     Renz soon joined showing a rather deeper side to him but no one bothered to read his long post.

     Aiyana also commented on the note, saying her piece.

     Ivan Chan just didn’t want anything to do about it.

     Eventually, it was an active discussion and this day would probably go down in history as Sr. Geck Day.

     Arjona posted on his wall: “I don’t care if I am not your student. You insult one of us, you insult all of us. And did I mention that you look like a hominid?”

     Dory also posted on her wall Sr. Geck’s words to Justine, “Tell CV to get ready for tomorrow.”

 

The next morning, they mentioned that Robert Ibay was planning to form a liberation front. Robert was an old Setonian who now studied in San Beda. He had a somewhat tight connection to the Setonians still.

     The day was not looking too good. In fact, that recess, Bam said that Bruce said he was never going back.

     P.E. was spent on practice as usual but it was a lot more fun than usual. Their music was awesome and their choreography felt like they were in Hip Hop Abs. It felt like an exercise routine and everyone was having fun for once.

     When they came back, Sr. Leo was in charge of SC but they were apparently in free time. Before Austin entered, Lui had done his research and knew that their next period was with Ms. Mac. He printed a copy of Austin’s note and gave it him as leverage.

     Austin approached Ms. Mac about it and she said they would discuss after class.

     Ms. Mac called him after class and he showed her the letter. Lui passed by them talking and slightly smiled as he went on his merry way.

     “Austin, first of all, who has seen this?”

     “Well, it’s on Facebook, Ms. Mac. I can’t tell but it’s public.”

     “Did you think it was a good idea to post this?”

     “I… I d-d-didn’t know. I was overwhelmed by emotion. It’s been seven years and I’ve never been called worthless in Math. It was a pretty big thing for me.”

     “First of all,”

     “Wait, if I may, am I in trouble.”

      “Well, Austin, I can’t tell right now. Do you mind if I keep this?’ she said referring to the hard copy. “I’ll have to read into it further.”

     “Sure, you can keep it.”

     “Okay, have you actually tried to talk to him?”

     “Well… umm… we have not had the opportunity as of yesterday but.”

     “There you go.”

     A few boys started to gather round and listen to the conversation.

     “But it’s his delivery, Ms. Mac. He said, ‘Get ready for tomorrow’ like he’s threatening us and, in my opinion if ever it matters, that is very unbecoming of a teacher.”

     “Austin, I feel like you’re making assumptions based on your feelings towards this.”

     “He made a student cry, Ms. Mac, and she happens to be a friend of ours. It’s hard not to take this personally.”

     “Look, talk to him later, see what happens. Think before you speak and try to settle this later on. We’ll see. As for the note.”

     “Should I take it down?”

     “Do what you feel is right.”

     Austin thought about this for a while.

     “Okay, Miss, thank you for your time.”

     Austin stood up and saw the batch practicing already.

     “Umm… Miss Mac, one more thing.”

     “Yes?”
     “They’re practicing already, do you mind if I eat here.”

     “Sure, no problem. I’ll stay here just in case.’

     “Thank you, Miss Mac. I really appreciate it.”

     “No problem.”

     “Miss,” Joven started. “Do you mind if I eat here as well?”

     “No problem. GO ahead.”

     Austin and Joven ate their lunch as the other boys stayed. They continued to talk about it, mentioning that SC had the best time due to the fact that there were observers during their Math period invited by Dr. Suarez herself. It was a crazy idea but good for them. Sir Geck even said, “Thank you SC, you saved my a*s.”

     Riez started picking on Joven playfully causing Joven to accidentally drop his food and due to his reflex action of a rescue attempt; he accidentally broke as segment of the top of the glass showcase.

     “Joven…” Ms. Mac said.

     “Miss, I’m sorry…”

     Joven was picking up the glass shards.

     “Joven…”

     “I’ll fix it, Miss. I’ll…”

    “Joven, it’s okay! It wasn’t your fault.”

     “Oh.”

     “Does anyone have masking tape?”

     Ms. Mac took a spare envelope from her stuff and put it over the broken area.

     Austin handed her his masking tape and they fixed the area up temporarily.

     “Miss…”

     “Don’t worry about it, Joven.”

     Joven was silent after this. He was showing a side Austin did not expect. He always seemed to be the badass type.

     “Thank you, Miss Mac.”

     “I think you’re done with lunch. Better get to practice.”

     Austin went to the bridge and Lui was looking at him from across the bridge. Austin gave him a reassuring thumbs up and he smiled. This obviously meant a lot to him.

     When they arrived at the bridge, practices were done and they were just talking about Sr. Geck.

     “I mean what the heck? He gave me a PTC for homework when I passed everything!” Dory said.

     “I talked to Ms. Mac about it. She said we should just talk to him later.”

     “Oh, that’s good, then what, be humiliated again?” Renz said.

     “No, Renz, we fix the problem.”

     “It just sucks so much!” Alyssa said.

     Austin was standing near the rails and Janella was just silent there, unable to comment. She had enough of this.

     “This sucks. All of you are depressed. Now I’m depressed,” she said in an adorable way as she dug her head into her knees.

     Austin was cheered up by this little act and sat beside her.

     “Hey, I’d smile for you.”

     Janella lifted her head and looked at Austin, smiling at her. She smiled as well.

     Nica rightfully responded with a screech tease. Queennie, Dory, and Renz just laugh.

     “Wait, I have a question,” Nica said. “What is Renz doing here?”

     “I don’t know. Where’s Joe?” Renz said, standing up and marching off.

 

When the bell rang, Austin went down and encountered Justine on the way.

      “Hey, El Presidente, what is your plan of action?”

     “Hi, Austin,” He said in a half-pissed, half-pumped tone. “I spent all night preparing a speech and I am going to settle this today.”

     “Don’t worry Justine, we’ll be right behind you, ready to back you up.”

     “Thanks. This is for CV.”

     “For CV. I wish we could toast right now!”

     They saw the students mobilizing to the room already. Austin and Justine rushed to the room where Sr. Geck was waiting for them with a smirk on his face.

     “Good Afternoon, CV.”

     They all saw “We are at AVR 1” on the board. Were they being isolated for their annihilation?

     “Good Afternoon, Sir Geck, We are exci�"”

     “Stop. Take your seat.”

     Looks like Sr. Geck read Austin’s note.

     “Promath!”

     They all took the test and Austin got a perfect score. He was not going to let this thing stunt his performance.

     Apparently, most of them were affected, getting sub-par scores.

     “What method did we use in this exercise?”

     Austin raised his hand.

     “Yes, Austin?”

     “Cube of a binomial.”

     “Good, everyone, line up outside.”

     In the line, Sean spoke.

     “Austin, you recited, wow.”

     “I’m making this seem like a normal day so when we get to the punchline, it’s an epic climactic twist. I do doubt it’ll be humorous.”

     “What?”

     “Never mind. Poker face, Sean, get ready.”

     When they got there, they all sat down. Austin sat beside Renz and Justine.

     “Okay, today we will tackle Slope of a line. Are you ready?”

     Austin continued with his “routine” strategy and nodded along with everyone.

     “Someone’s not ready. Are you ready, CV?”

     He did the same thing.

     “Someone’s still not ready. Are you ready, CV?” he said with a smile growing on his face.

     He finally found the one Sr. Geck was referring to. The answer was right beside him. Justine was shaking his head.

     “Nope, someone’s still not ready.”

     Everyone finally saw who this was.

     “Yes, Justine, you would like to say something,” Sr. Geck said with a smile that was either the smile of demon or a smile of a genius who had planned this from the very beginning. Chances are, from where this was going, it was the latter.

     Justine stood up and took a deep breath.

     “First of all, I would like to say that I have high respect for you. Now that that’s out of the way, I would like to get to the point.

     “I told my parents about what happened yesterday and they said that I should speak my mind. They also said that your methods were inappropriate.

     “I do not like your treatment of my classmates. I feel that it is rather offensive and your choice of words is very inappropriate.

     “I’m getting the feeling that maybe you are insecure in this new environment and all but I do not think that taking it out on us is the best outlet.

     “If you wanted to go to PhiSci, being in Seton is not our fault.

     “This year began with mutual respect and I wish it would also end with mutual respect. And some people are interpreting that you might be pushing us to the point of tears. With all due respect, sir, I will not cry let alone in front of you”

     Justine took his seat.

     “Anyone else?”

     No one dared, perhaps still in awe of what they had witnessed.

     “Anyone?”

     Someone raised his hand.

     “I think this year started well. I just hope it will end well.”

     “Thank you. Anyone else?”

     Some other people started talking. Throughout this entire period, Sr. Geck was smiling the same way as earlier.

     “Is that all?”

     Austin finally raised his hand.

     “Yes, Austin?”

     Austin stood up.

     “First of all, I would like point out that I am not apathetic. I care for my classmates and batchmates. I was deeply offended when you called Aiyana worthless and Basti a b*****d.”

     “Wait, I called you a b*****d?” Sr. Geck asked Basti. He nodded and the rest of the class pointed out when it happened.

     “Oh, carry on.”

     “And in my seven years in this school, amongst the fifty teachers I have been through…”

     “Fifty?”

     “Yes sir, I counted.”

     This elicited laughter among the class.

     “Carry on.”

     “Among the fifty teachers I have encountered, you are the first to make me feel that way.”

     “And what was that feeling?”

     “Offended… Bad… “

     “Anything else?”

     “And I also felt deeply offended that you spoke your mind regarding my performance to DOR first and I actually had to ‘accidentally overhear’ my name in order to know what you thought of me.”

     Sr. Geck nodded at this as Austin took his seat.

     “Is that all?”

     Everyone nodded.

     “Okay, first of all, let me point out that what I did was a very big risk. I risked being the most hated teacher in the year. I risked being the most hated teacher in the school just to teach this lesson.

     “Yesterday, a teacher walked up to me after my class in DOR. She said, ‘Geck, I think you might have hurt someone back there. Maybe you said something?’

     “I replied with a simple, ‘Oh, that’s good.’

     “It’s good because you absorbed what I said. Now I admit that I have a problem regarding choice of words so I will apologize for the term, but I will not apologize for the action.

     “To be frank, yesterday, that was still the tip of the iceberg! You haven’t seen me mad yet. Yesterday, I was still good.

     “I wanted you to do one thing, prove me wrong. Another thing is I wanted you to learn how to speak for yourselves and what happened earlier where almost all of you spoke for yourselves, that was very good!

     “Back my first point; I want you to prove me wrong. I want you guys to prove that choosing Seton was the right thing for me to do.

     “When I said Austin was worthless, it is because he is not contributing anymore. You’re good, fine, but I want you to contribute. I want you to help them reach your level. Seriously, who is reciting a lot? Jeff, Joven, these aren’t honor students, but they are contributing. Even if their answer is incorrect, they are making an effort and that is very good.

     “But Sir,” Clutch said, raising his hand.

     “Yes?”

     “Who are you to judge us?”

     “Apparently, I am your teacher.”

     Clutch calmed down.

     “I did not join this industry to teach only Mathematics. I also want you to be better people out there. Out there, they won’t just give you a test for a job; you will have to speak for yourselves.”

     “But sir,”

     “Yes Austin?”

     “What about the fact that I had to hear your comments from other people?”

     “Well, that was just because there wasn’t enough time.”

     Austin was not satisfied with this justification. Sean was, after all, a chronokinetic.

     “Look, I did this all for you. Do you think I like to be hated? It sucks to be hated by forty-two and above students but it was a risk I had to take. Clear? Is that clear?”

     “Yes Sir. Geck.”

     Obviously, everyone felt a lot better.

     “Oh yeah, who was that one guy who posted on Facebook that I looked like a hominid?”
     “ARJONA!” they all said simultaneously. Looks like everything was back to normal.

     “What section is he from?”

     “DDN.”

     “Well he’s audacious! Doesn’t he notice how cute I am?”

     Everyone chuckled at this.

    “What does he look like?”

     “The gay one!” Joven shouted from the other side. Everyone laughed again.

     “Well that justifies it. Anyway, if you have any other concerns, just talk to me. I’m afraid we have gone overtime. Everyone line up.”

     They all stood up, finally relieved. Dry approached Sr. Geck regarding her PTC. Austin was right behind her.

     When she was done, Austin approached Sr. Geck.

     “Yes, Austin?”

     “Sir, I would just like to stress that I don’t like it when people speak behind my back and I would really appreciate it if you told me your thoughts about me directly.”

     “Okay, let me start by saying that I don’t want you missing any of the training sessions in Math.”

     “Of course not, sir.”

     “Good.”

     The rest of the day was a breeze compared to the past two days. Austin went back to teasing Owen. Mo-on reacted likewise.

     “Austin, you’re back!”

     Austin couldn’t help but smile and feel happy. After two days, he was finally able to breathe easy again.

     He talked to Janella later on in the Bus area since her bus was late again. She was glad to see that everyone was okay now.

     He said goodbye and stood up but as he walked away, he saw her brother staring down into him. He was stricken with fear but he knew that everything would be fine because deep inside, Austin knew he would never hurt her.