03x10: Life in Compostela Valley

Despite the depressing events of the previous chapter, Austin realizes how happy he is in his very own section, Compostela Valley.

LIFE IN COMPOSTELA VALLEY

 

     Austin arrived back at the school and looked for John. He sensed him in the Base so he teleported over there.

     Sure enough, John was sitting on a chair, drinking some Coke on the long chair while watching TV.

     “John, what are you going here?”

     “My room is boring so I went over here to do some research but that was boring so I tried creating something and I couldn’t think of anything so I was bored to death at that point and resorted to television. Seriously, there’s nothing to do.”

     “Well I got something for you,” Austin said as he handed the blueprints to John.

     “This looks like the Dome of Power. Why me? Can’t you build one yourself?”

     “I know I can but you’re bored out of your mind and you haven’t done anything that complicated yet so maybe it’ll be good for you. I need it ready by Monday afternoon.”

     “How long did it take you to make one of these?”

     “About ten minutes, no big deal.”

     “Oh, okay.”

     “I’m gonna go now. Good luck on that.”

 

The weekend was pretty boring. Austin’s movie marathon sucked without Janella. He only watched one movie on Saturday which was one of his favorites, Reservoir Dogs and he went to a real theatre on Sunday to watch Salt. He hated it and had to wash it off with his third viewing of Inception.

 

Monday finally came and John was almost done. He was only having trouble with the S-21 component.

     The atmosphere was still quite depressing but not as depressing as last week.

     Math time was back to normal. Sr. Geck brought the Math Quarterly Tests (or QT’s) and passed them around.

     They double checked the papers and passed them afterwards.

     Sr. Geck then resumed his lectures from last week.

     “And that’s it. That’s the last part of the lesson. Clear? Is that clear?”

     “Yes Sr. Geck.”

     “Sure? Who has a question?”

     “Owen…” Austin murmured.

     “Ano ba?” Owen said in frustration which mean something like, “What do you want?”

     “Ano nga ba?!” Austin replied which would sound like, “What do you want?!”

     A few people laughed at this and Austin gave Owen a fist bump. Luckily, he accepted.

     The next period was Filipino. As usual, a bunch of them goofed around but when the lesson was over, Austin, Dory, and Mo-on decided to continue the game.

      “Miss, napanood niyo na ung Inception?” (Miss, have you seen Inception?”

     “Hindi pa, Awstin,” Ms. Becky replied. (Not yet, Austin.)

     “AWSTIN!” Jib teased.

     “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

     “Miss, Salt?” Mo-on asked.

     “Hindi pa rin.”

     “Miss, Casablanca?” Jib asked, possibly in insult.

     “Hindi pa rin, Jib,” she said in the usual tone.

     The class was laughing at this point.

     “Miss, Step Up 3D?” Owen asked while dancing.

     “Hindi pa rin.”

     “Miss, Tekken?” Austin asked. The whole class burst at the image.

     RING!

     Ms. Becky said goodbye to the class and went on her way.

     “Seriously, Dory, can you imagine her in the cinema for Tekken?”

     Dory laughed again at this.

     It was a pretty movie oriented day since Mo-on was ranting around, spreading the word of the suckiness of The Last Airbender.

     During Lunch, there was practice again. Sr. Leo, being “sexist” again, repeatedly told the boys to perform the final dance. When they were done, he let them go and the girls were left.

     Austin, however, decided to wait.

     “Austin, come on!” Renz said.

     “I’m waiting for someone.”

     “She’ll be fine,” Ernst said.

     “Look, guys, waiting for her is the greatest metaphor I can create at this moment in time, in my life. And D****t, I will wait.”

     “What are you guys talking about?” Janella said, having been dismissed by Sr. Leo.

     “Metaphors. Let’s go.”

     Austin took Janella to her classroom and said goodbye.

     That afternoon, Janella seemed mad at something or someone.

     “Hey, what’s wrong?”

     “Nothing.”
     “Come on, tell me.”

     “Just don’t ask, okay? Just go home, please.”

     “Okay then, take care okay?”

     Janella nodded as Austin flew to the base.

     “Hey John, how’s it going.”

     “D****t, I can’t get the bottom component right.”

     “Did you try building an Extractor for the rock?”

     “No, I did not.”

     “There you go.”

     “Give me another hour. I am that fast.”

     John went into the elevator and went down to the training room, presumably to get some steel.

     Austin got some Orange Soda out of the fridge and sat down for some TV. He tuned in to South Park and just waited.

     After a while, he felt kind of sleepy. Then, the phone rang. He answered.

     “Hello?” Austin said.

     “Austin…. Sorry for a while ago…” a familiar voice said. “Ernst just pissed me off.”

     “What did he do?”

     “You don’t need to know.”

     “Ok, then… Are you okay now?”

     “Yeah.”

     “Good.”

     “Yeah, that’s all I wanted to say. Bye.”

      “Bye.”

     She put down the phone. Austin felt a lot better after this although he was half-asleep. Then it hit him.

     He called back.

     “Hello?” Janella said.

     “Hey, come over to the Base. We’re gonna run the test. Bring Berna with you.”

     “Okay. On our way.”

     When they put the phone down, a portal appeared inside the base and the two of them came out.

     “That was fast. Where’d you get the Telegun?”

     “It’s Berna’s actually,” Janella said.

     “John gave it to me by Kyle’s special request.”

     “Why?”
     “I’m the farthest from the island so.”

     “Oh, okay.”

     The door behind the burst open and Kyle was there.

     “You called?”

     “Yes, you requested a Telegun for Berna?”

     “Yeah. Why?”

     “You gotta tell me these things, Kyle. They take me by surprise!”

     “Okay, sorry.”

     “And by the way, nice one, Kyle.”

     “What?”

     “With Berna! And the frickin gun! Are you paying attention?!” Austin said jokingly.

     “OH! Look who’s talking, Janella.”

     Janella and Berna gave each other a high five.

     “What was that?” Austin and Kyle asked Berna and Janella simultaneously.

     “Oh, nothing,” Janella said.

     “It isn’t illegal to give high fives, is it?” Berna asked.

     “Nope,” Austin said.

     “Carry on,” Kyle said.

     After a while, John came out of the elevator.

     “Alright, I need a sample of the rock.”

     “I got one in advance,” Austin said, going into the male ward and switching the band to Super Strength. He took out a giant rock. It came from the school in the city.

     “The radiation died down a little since no mutants are around but I recharged it when I took it out of the ground.”

     “Oh, good,” John said. “Give me a fragment.”

     Austin cracked off a small fragment and gave it to John. He placed it into this machine and entered S-21 into it. It began to rumble as green light passed through the cord leading to the empty shell of the bottom component.

     “Did it work?”

     John opened up the extractor and the fragment was turned into dust.

     “Yup. Let’s test this out.”

     John took everyone to the elevator and led them to the training room. He changed it into his Junkyard.

     “Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, the Dome f Power v2.0”

     He focused his hand on a pile of scrap metal and pulled it all in another direction, unveiling the Dome in the middle.

     “You buried it in trash?” Austin asked.

     “Yes,” John said while putting the S-21 component at the bottom. “Put the rock in there.”

     Austin put the rock into the opening and it closed. John pushed the Dome on top.

     “Where is that rat?” John said, looking around. “I’ll be back.”

     John went off to find a rat and after a while, he came back with one.

     “It’s a junkyard. There was bound to be one. Anyway, this rat isn’t exactly real so we can only do the tests inside this place so let’s get started. Austin, zap that engine for me.”

     Austin switched to Fulgurkinesis and shot a bolt at the engine. The Dome powered up. John put the rat inside and set the spoke size to maximum. He gave him Aerokinesis like Accel and hit the timer.

     It green light shone inside and out and the rat tried to escape but soon dropped unconscious inside the Dome.

     It turned off after a few minutes.

     “Okay, let’s see what we got.”

     John took out the rat and took out an UnVoStoC. He pushed the button and took out a small piece of A.R.M.

     “When the rat wakes up, it will go crazy and start whirlwinding the place up, I throw this at him, it should be alright.”

     They waited for it to wake up and, like John predicted, when it woke up, it shot an aeroblast around it and scurried off, firing whirlwinds at the mountains of scrap metal.

     John went for it and threw the A.R.M. near it. IT stopped using its powers.

     “Now’ I’ll try to use the dart stuff. I got the formula right after what happened last Monday.”

     John took out a syringe and injected the rat with it.

     After a while, it was still scurrying about.

     “That was a weaker dosage by the way so the rat would regain its powers after two minutes.”

     When the rat regained consciousness, it shot a whirlwind at John’s face and he got pissed off.

     “Are you telling me if we put a mouse in the dome and give it electric powers, we can have a real life Pikachu?”
     “Good idea,” Austin said.

     “It survived the A.R.M.’s and the injection. Last test, Austin, I need you.”

     “No, I already killed a man; I don’t want the death of a rat on my conscience.”

     “Just think, it survived two tests, there’s a big chance it will survive the third.”

     “We need this, Austin,” Berna said.

     “Okay, I’ll do it.”

     Austin switched the band to Power Sap and charged one. He fired it at the rat and it was unconscious.

     “Okay, good, it’s still breathing. Congratulations gentlemen, there will be no bloodshed today.”
     “What about that Aerochu we just created, what do we do with it?” Kyle asked.

     John switched the training room back to normal then back to the Junkyard.

     “Voila, it’s gone.”

     “Does that mean we can’t get the Dome out?”

     “No, we can do that. What we can’t do is take the rat out. Help me push the Dome into the elevator.”

     “Wait, guys, I just thought of something,” Austin said.

     “What?” John asked.

     “Why would the Mastermind leave the blueprint among all things in the base at Woodridge?”

     “I don’t know.”

     “I have a pretty good idea,” Austin said as he changed the band to Cosmic power and fired an explosive bolt at the Dome, destroying it.”

     “The Mastermind is a good psychic but he ain’t no technopath. He wanted us to build that.”

     “What if he didn’t?!” John said.

     “Well, we have a Dome upstairs. It’s all fine. Let’s just go.”

     “All that hard work for nothing.”

     “No John, it wasn’t useless. We found out that we won’t kill them using the Power Sap. It’s okay.”

    

 The next day, Austin sat down as usual, waiting for seven o’ clock when Marise came in.

     “Hey guys, it’s Mo-on’s birthday today!” she said.

     “Really?” Austin asked.

     “Yup.”
     “Then we better celebrate,” Austin said while standing up and grabbing some chalk. He wrote a gigantic “HAPPY BIRTHDAY MO-ON” on the board.

     “This is the Mo-on Wall. Feel free to write your greetings, RIGHT SEAN?!”

     “Huh?”

     “Never mind,” Austin said as Marise took the chalk from him.

     “Mo-ontropism, amp!” Sean said.

     “Huh?” Austin said as he turned around. Marise was the one who wrote Mo-ontropism.

     “We came up with spoof names for Mo-on yesterday in TLE due to boredom. Agriculture is way more boring than fashion designing,” Marise said.

     “Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. Rasho…”

     “RASHOMO-ON, AMPU�"“

     “Hey, I got one,” Austin said. Marise gave him the chalk and he wrote on the board.

     This one managed to make Ibarra laugh out loud. Sean was struggling to see it.

     “Twilight Saga: New Mo-on, HAHAHA!” Sean said.

     “Nice one,” Marise said as she high-fived Austin.

    “I got one,” Sean said.

     Sean wrote on the board.

     “iMo-on?” Austin asked.

     “You know, like iCa… never mind.”

     A few minutes later, the new arrivals had filled up the rest of the board. Owen was still thinking of something to write at the back.

     “What can I write?” Owen asked himself.

     “I know!” Austin said.

     Owen looked him in the eye and they knew they had thought of the same thing. They ran to the board and grabbed the single piece of chalk. They broke it in half and wrote simultaneously.

     “Jejemo-on, this is getting out of hand!” Sean said.

     “Sean, mine is J3j3m0-0n,” Austin said.

     “Guys, he’s here!” Marise shouted.

     Everyone dived under their seats and when Mo-on entered the room; they all jumped out and sang “Happy Birthday” to him.

     “Happy Birthday, dude,” Austin said.

     “Thanks,”

     “Mo-on! Happy Birthday!” Marise said.

     “Yeah!” he said as they high-fived each other.

     Every step Mo-on took, someone greeted him.

     They continued to fill up the board until Sr. Jojo arrived where he greeted Mo-on personally.

     Sr. Jojo went to the back and they began the assembly.

     During the assembly, Doc Del went to the CV room and talked to Mo-on. They couldn’t make out the conversation but in the end, Doc Del told Mo-on to run downstairs.

     When the assembly was over, Sr. Jojo asked Mo-on about it.

     “She was asking where you were.”

     “I was at the back!”

     “I didn’t see. Sorry sir!”

     “It’s okay. Happy Birthday, Rodrigo.”

     The day was pretty much Mo-on day since the celebration continued to recess and Lunch.

 

     During TLE Time, Ms. Joan used a "Musical Chairs-like" game to determine the groupings. Austin was grouped with Ibarra, Marise, Karl, Kristina, Aldrich, and AD.

     The routine during TLE time was simple, truth or dare for thirty minutes. Random stuff the remaining thirty.

     During Computer Time, Ms. Laurice requested that Austin help him check some papers since he got the highest score in the said quiz. He agreed to it.

     Far into Lunch, Mo-on was playing “Ketchup” with Rica.

     “Argh! My hands hurt!” Mo-on shouted. The rest of the Patola family just laughed.

     “Hey, hey, hey, guys. What’s going on?”

     “Mo-on and Rica are playing Ketchup and yeah, that’s it,” Janella said.

     “I better stand up,” Nica said, who was sitting beside Janella.

     “Nica, sit down!” Janella said.

     “Fine.”

     Austin, Ernst, and Bianca just watched as the two slapped each other’s hands. It was hilarious.

     Later that day, Ms. Becky wasn’t there. Instead they got a substitute teacher who was absolute terror.

     Any noise in the class she heard would result in the explosion of Mount Pinatubo all over again. Luckily, Austin can create soundproof fields and was talking to Marise and Dory about this terror that has been brought upon them. Ms. Cha, which was the name of the sub, probably assumed they were lip reading and it was okay.

     They were probably talking because Ms. Becky’s assignment for them was to read chapters 6 to 16 of the Filipino Literary Classic Florante at Laura. Just like last year’s Ibong Adarna, it was pretty repetitive. The first ten chapters are basically the protagonist whining whilst tied to a tree. It got a bit better after that.

     “Ipasa ang libro (pass your book),” Ms. Cha said.

     Everyone was thinking the same thing, “Oh s**t, we didn’t do anything!”

     “Bingi ba kayo? Ipasa na! (Are you deaf? Pass now!)”

     They had no choice and passed the books. Never have they been so happy to be in Sr. Leo’s hands since he was the next subject.

     During dismissal, Austin saw Janella all alone and sat near her and took out the papers. He began checking, speak of the devil, it was SK’s papers.

     “What are those?”

     “Quiz papers. Ms Laurice got six students to help with the checking. I agreed so there we go.”

     “That’s nice of you.”

     “I have nothing better to do anyway so this is good for me.”

     Austin finished checking the papers and put them in his bag.

     “Are you going?”

     “Pretty much, yeah.”

     “Okay then. Bye.”

     “Want me to take you to the loft?”

     “Sure.”

     She stood up and grabbed her things. Austin took her through the space loop and dropped her off at Woodridge.

     “Bye Austin.”

     “Bye. Take Care!”

     Austin teleported back to his room.

 

The next day, Austin wrote a “BELATED HAPPY B-DAY MO-ON” on the board and the same thing happened from yesterday, except the Doc Del part.

     He also waited in front of DDN for Ms. Laurice. He gave her the papers and she thanked him and called him her trademark label of “sweetheart”. She was the most motherly out of all the teachers in the nickname regard and to DDN, she was technically their mommy.

     During English time, Austin was with Froilan at the back. Froilan got bored and picked Joven’s wallet. He then placed it under his seat and set his foot on it.

     “Joven, where’s your wallet?” Froilan asked.

     Joven searched his pocket and got furious. He looked under his chair and darted for his wallet but Froilan pulled it back immediately. This caused him to fall off his chair.

     “Joven, what is wrong?” Ms. Sharon said while the class broke into laughter.

     “STARS!” Owen belted.

     Joven calmly put his wallet back in his pocket and sat back down.

     “Nothing miss, sorry.”

     Ms. Sharon continued with her lecture.

 

After Recess, the mood got a bit darker again since it was the first Music class since last Tuesday.

     Sr. Philip was their temporary Music teacher.

     “Yes! Sr. Philip!” Jib said.

     “Jib, shut up,” Sr. Philip said jokingly. He was really one of the funniest teachers.

     “Okay, today you will be writing music. Get out your notebook. You will write using the 4/4 time signature.”

     “What does tha�"“

     “That means there are four beats in a measure. You remember the notes right?”

     He explained the activity and they went on with it. When they were done, they went to him for checking. Most of them got it right but Sean might have been deliberately screwing it up.

     “Sean, four beats in a measure. This is four and a half.”

     “Okay sir.”

     He went back to fix it. When he came back…

     “Sean, This measure is fixed, this one has six beats!”

     Sean sat back down and did some changes. When he went back.

     “SEAN! FOUR BEATS IN A ***DAMN MEASURE!”

     The entire class broke into laughter.

     During Science, they were just reviewing the test. When they got to the part about Disaccharides, Sr. Jojo was reviewing them.

     “Stop writing! Listen first. Remember we have the Lactose, found in milk. Sucrose, table sugar. Maltose, which is found in beer,”

     Maan was still writing at this point.

     “And Paltose, foot sugar” (Tagalog for shoes was “Sapatos”)

     Everyone said, “huh?” at this but Maan kept writing.

     “Look at Maan, copying Paltose.”

     The class broke into laughter.

 

During Lunch, Austin was talking about some superhero teams, thinking they should be forming one just in case.

     “I mean look at the Fantastic Four. They’re all balanced. In fact, I can be Reed Richards here, Bianca’s Sue, Johan’s The Thing…”

     “I’ll be Human Torch!” Ivan said.

     “Yes and Ernst is the Sweet Transvestite.”

     “What?!” Ernst said.

     “SHHH! Library!” Bianca said.

     “Bianca’s in love with a transvestite!” Austin said.

     “No I am not!”

     “Hurry up, it’s time for practice.”

     They had a straight practice from this time until four o’ clock. They were separated by P.E. Grouping.

     DDN and CV were handled by Ms. Mac.

     “Okay guys; just give me one full run of your performance.”

     Aaron hit the music and they started. Austin, Ernst, Basti, and Lanz were not in the group.

     “Hey, Ernst, let’s count for them, Okay?”

     “Sure,”

     “One, two!”

     “Three, four!”

     They continued until the near end.

     “One, Two!” Ernst said.

     “Three, four!”

     “Five, Six!”

     “SEVENTY-FIVE!”

     “How’d you get to seventy-five?” Ms. Mac asked. They laughed about this as DDN and CV finished off the dance.

    Ms. Mac polished the moves and told them one more run then CV gets a water break. DDN, of course, protested.

     They eventually came to reason and Ms. Mac asked for one run. Austin decided to meet up with some CV-lians (a nickname for the students of CV).

     He ran towards the room and saw Ibarra gulping gown gallons of water at the water fountain. He ran to him and said, “MMMMM-MMMM TASTY!!”

     Ibarra did a spit take and laughed at this.

     “Nice one,” Ibarra said.

     “Hey, try it on someone sometime.”

    “Sure.”

     There was nobody else of interest so he rushed back to the bridge. DDN was just goofing around, with Jack being one of the loudest.

     Ms. Mac was trying to control them.

     “Jack, can you quiet them down?”

     “Yes Miss.”

     Jack clapped twice and spun on his feet and pointed both fingers at the back. DDN became quiet for a while then immediately burst into laughter. Ms. Mac couldn’t help but laugh at this either.

     Soon, all of CV came back and Ms. Mac told DDN to have their break.

     CV gave Ms. Mac two runs and she told them to sit down. DDN was just lying around in the front part of the bridge. Sr. Edmond and Ms. Laurice were sitting at this part.

     They saw Sr. Geck walking towards them. At this point, Mary was seated at the stars of the bridge.

     When Sr. Geck was in Mary’s earshot, she did something risky.

     “Sir Geck you look awfully good today!” Mary said.

     “Pangit ka lang eh,” Sr. Geck said. Pangit meant “ugly” so let’s leave it at that.

     Everyone broke into laughter.

     Sr. Geck spoke to Sr. Edmond about something and on his way out, Mary tried again.

     “Sir, you really really look good today!”

     “You’re not my student. Your grades won’t get higher by saying that.”

          Everyone broke into laughter again as Sr. Geck made his way back DOR/SAR.

     During the final hour of practice, they all transferred to the CWS.

     Sr. Geck was the one leading this practice, telling everyone about the flow. They practiced the final part of the dance while the freshmen, juniors, and seniors looked down at them.

     After the time was up, Sr. Geck made his final speech.

    “Okay guys, that was good but not great. We need to polish that. I don’t want you to win; I just want you to compete! Clear? Is that clear?”

     “yes, Sir Geck.”

     “It’s okay if you don’t become champions… as long as you’re first place.”

     Everyone laughed at this.

     “Sophomores fight!” Sr. Geck yelled.

     “UNO, DOS, FIGHT!” the batch replied. This was the yell of the sophomores.

     That night, Austin posted a trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World on his wall and Patrick, Sean, and Marise liked it. Frankly, Austin couldn’t wait. He looked up the Philippine release date and lo and behold, it was November 4 as opposed to August 13.

    

The next day, he talked to Sean about this.

     “November?! That sucks! Scott Pilgrim looks awesome!”

    “I know right. But nope, the MTRCB has to make way for the mainstream cinema of the Philippines which totally sucks! All they spit out is romantic comedies. If I wanted some good Filipino movies, I’d look to the independent films but they don’t even release that because they’re too greedy and they think it won’t make money!”

     “And Scott Pilgrim is a lot cooler than the usual romantic comedy. Seven Evil Exes? Come on!”

     “I know right?”

     “Hey guys, what’s going on?” Marise asked as she came in.

     “Scott Pilgrim won’t be released until November.”

     “What?!”
     “MTRCB sucks balls!” Austin said in anger. “I’m gonna blow off some steam by going to DDN and screwing around with Ernst.”

     “Dude, that has Unfortunate Implications!”

     “That’s beside the point. You can’t stop me!”

     Austin went to DDN and they had a new seat plan. Janella was now all the way in the front.

     “I don’t like this,” she said.

     “Why?”

     “I don’t like the front.”

     “It’s okay. You’ll get used to it.”

     “Well, what was happening in CV awhile ago?”

     “We were discussing how generic mainstream Philippine Cinema was and how Independent Philippine Cinema was far superior.”

     “Oh, okay. “

     “I know it’s boring but haha, that’s me.”

     “It’s alright. Hey Bianca told me about a team you were building?”

     “Yes, why?”

     “I want in.”

     “Sure! But I haven’t built it yet.”

     “That’s fine. I’m here if you need me.”

     “Thanks, Janella. Now if you excuse me, I shall resume our sizzling one-sided debate regarding independent versus mainstream. Adios, Con de dios.”

     “What does that mean?”

     “I don’t know. Bye!”

     During English class, the girls had to go for a check-up in the clinic. The guys were alone and they had to make their English Portfolios.

     They all had sliding folders and they all began using the sliders as trumpets.

     Austin particularly got obsessed with this new instrument and trumpeted down the halls, much to Janella’s dismay.

     During the Lunch Practice that day, the rebellion had reached its peak and Addi blew up and started shouting.

     The shouting mellowed when they began to pay attention and he made a speech.

     “The teachers are trying their hardest and this is what you give in return? We have two weeks!

     “You want to be beaten by the freshmen? That would be humiliating!”

     This last sentence drove the point home and they finally got the batch’s cooperation.

    

The next day was pretty uninteresting except for the fact that it was Friday the 13^th. Aside from that, the trumpeting caused Austin to become a bit… musical.

     During CCF Time, Ms. Mac gave them a task: To create a class production about the Apostles of Christ.

     Austin signed on as Writer and Executive Producer and Justine signed on as the Director. They assigned the committees that day and all was well so far.

     During Lunch, he began passionately singing songs at random, causing Ibarra to go into a laughing fit.

     They had a new formation during P.E. time; it was a square of students with one side removed. The students would flow in from the outside and into the center, forming the formation.

     During Science time, they were supposed to be planting downstairs.

     Everyone was noisy in line which caused Sr. Jojo to get mad and shout in anger for the first time. They were terrified but he mellowed out a little afterwards and let them plant downstairs.

     After this, they announced that there will be observers on Monday and they had to clean so the last periods were cut short to make way for the cleaning. Austin was providing the entertainment during the cleaning via trumpet.

     Sr. Jojo and Ms. Mac noticed this and asked him to play a song. This amused them and Austin felt like he was really part of the family.

     When everything was clean, they also got a new seating arrangement. Austin was still in the same spot but Dory was moved and Ymara was now his seatmate which meant one thing to him, torture central.

     Back in Grade Six, before the accident, Austin and Yara were seatmates and it was torture central then. He hopes to restore the tradition. Sadly, he has mellowed out through the years and the torture central now would be much tamer than the torture central then.

     They all sat down and Sr. Jojo and Ms. Mac were talking to each other, probably planning the close of the day.

     Austin began playing some songs on the “trumpet” as Yara sang along.

     “Austin, let me guess. While we’re seatmates, I’ll be singing and you’ll be playing.”

     “I do not know. I’m tired of blowing this thing.”

     Sr. Jojo and Ms. Mac finally went back in and gave some final reminders.

     “Just behave and participate on Monday. And Mo-on, don’t be too noisy, okay?” Ms. Mac said.

     “Yes, if you are going to speak, I only want to see one tooth.”

     The class broke into laughter at this. This was the moment when all of the students of CV along with Ms. Mac and Sr. Jojo, felt like a family.

     Austin went the third floor cinemas that night to watch none other than the original Friday the 13^th to mark the occasion.

 

On Monday morning, nothing interesting happened until Owen arrived when he kept saying “STARS”.

     “Can someone please explain to me what that means?” Austin said.

     “Oh, ‘STARS’?” Sean asked.

     “Yes.”

     “Well, two weeks ago, Owen and I stayed in school for badminton. It became too dark to see but I could sense the ball thanks to my superpowers. Owen, on the other hand, could not.

     “After a while, he gave up and looked to the sky. He shouted the only thing he could see.”

     “STAAAARSSS!” Owen shouted.

     “Exactly,” Sean said.

     “I get it now.”

     When Sr. Geck arrived, Austin had extremely itchy eyes. Sr. Geck advised him to go to the clinic. He followed orders and went down.

     He got some eye drops and went back up. They were polishing linear equations and Sr. Geck had a PowerPoint Presentation ready for the observers.

     “Okay, which line in the following is going from Quadrant II to Quadrant IV?”

     Silence followed.

     “Anyone? Let’s make this easier, get the slope then use your imagination.”

     “Use your IMAAAGINATON…” CV said, mimicking the scene from SpongeBob.

     “SIR!”

     “Yes, Jeffrey?”

     “2x+y=7”

     “Very good,” He said as the presentation encircled the right answer. “How about this one? This time from Quadrant I to Quadrant III?”

     Silence followed again.

     “Once again, use your imagination.”

     “USE YOUR IMAAAGINATIOOON…”

     "What is that?’

     “Sir, it’s from SpongeBob,” Austin said.

     “Stop watching SpongeBob, okay?”

     The class was laughing again.

     “Okay, answer?”

     “SIR!”

     “Yes, Joven?”

     “x-3y=12”

     “Very good,” Sr. Geck said but when he pressed the button, the presentation encircled the wrong answer.

     “Oops, I made a mistake there.”

     “It’s okay, sir. You can do this,” Justine said.

     “Wait, in case there will be observers, I’ll just say, ‘Oh, your answer and the answer on the presentation are different. Can you defend your answer?’ That’s good. I like that.”

     The class applauded.

     “That would be a nice save, sir,” Justine said.

     “Haha, thank you. Anyway, next question.”

 

Mo-on fulfilled his promise by staying quiet throughout the day.

     When Science time hit, Sr. Jojo was being observed by a teacher and a nun.

     It was the weirdest Science time ever since Sr. Jojo didn’t crack any jokes.

     When the observers left after the first period, Sr. Jojo was relieved.

     “Okay, CV, back to normal!”

     “YAAAY!!” the class cheered.

     “I can’t believe it. I was scared by that nun. When I tried making one joke, she… glared at me.”

     The class laughed at this.

     “Anyway, let’s resume.”

     Sr. Jojo kept on interjecting the lecture with his fear of the nun.

     During English time, Ms. Sharon had enough with the noise CV was causing in the AVR and claimed it would be the last time CV would be in an AVR.

     That Lunch, Austin was informed that they were going to watch the contests of the higher levels in science, just to give them an idea.

     Austin went to the clinic again due to his eye and got back just in time for, of all subjects, AP.

     TLE was the usual routine and it was really fun.

     “So who’s the ugliest girl?” AD asked Karl, he picked truth.

     “Hmm… Bettina?”

     “Next.”

     Marise’s eyeglass case pointed at AD.

     “Okay, AD, who’s the ugliest boy?” Karl asked.

     “Hmm…”

     “Aldrich, you’re actually paying attention?” Kristina said.

     “Huh? I don’t understand what’s happening anymore.”

     “Renz, I think?” Ad replied.

     “I agree,” Kristina said.

     “Since all three of us have a similar answer, that question is now out,” Marise said.

     “Next,” Kristina said as she spun the case. It pointed at Aldrich.

     “Aldrich!” Kristina called.

     “What?”

     “Truth or Dare?”

     “Dare,”

     “I dare you to hug Jade.”

     “It’s class time.”

     “Do it, pendejo!” Karl said.

     Aldrich hesitated but he eventually lunged for a hug.

     “What the f�"“

     “SHH!” Austin said.

     “Next,” Kristina said.

     “Five minutes left. We didn’t have our thirty minutes of randomness,” Austin said.

     “Truth or dare was too fun today,” Marise said.

     “I agree,” Kristina said.

     It pointed at Austin.

     “Well, Austin. You know what to do,” Marise said.

     “Truth.”

     “Hmm. Any ideas?” Kristina said.

     “I know. Do you still love Janella?” Marise asked.

     “Good question!” AD said. “I was in Bukidnon so this should be…”

     “Yes, I still do. I always have, and always will.”

     “Aww…” The entire table said in unison.

     “Table 2, please be quiet!” Ms. Joan said.

     When they were finally dismissed, Austin walked to the waiting area with Ernst and Johan. Out of nowhere, Patrick went to them and put his arm over Ernst.

     “Hey guys, this is my best friend! Yo all those men at overseas, dis here’s mah best amigo!”

     Austin and Johan were laughing at Ernst’s misfortune.

     “Hey, Pat, what’s up?”

     “Nothing, Just Ernst. See you later.”

     Patrick went on his way and they continued to the waiting area.

     Austin caught up to Janella’s bus and said goodbye.

     He then went back to Ernst.

     “Dude, I’m going. Goodbye and screw you and your a*****e!”

     “What is that supposed to mean?”

     “Well, it means that you and your a*****e are to be considered separate. In other words, you have a sentient a*****e.”

     “Oh.”

     “Bye, see you whenever.”

 

The next day was pretty uninteresting. Aside from Karl being dared to hug Basti and succeeding during TLE time, nothing interesting happened.

     In the bus area, Austin broke the news to Bam about tomorrow.

     “I have an idea, how about I leave you guys some money and you can still feel my presence?”

     “Sure, good idea.”

     “Alright, here,” Austin said as he took out P100 and gave it to Bam.

     “Split it up between Janella, Ernst, and the band okay? Have fun tomorrow.”

     “Thanks!”

     When Austin got home, he turned on his laptop and saw an update from the Patola Page.

     “We have a new member! Rodrigo Curiba.”

     Looks like Mo-on got in.

     Austin prepared for the trip and got some rest.

 

He came early the next day but was still beat by Johan.

     “Johan, come with me, I’ll leave a note in DDN.”

     “Sure.”

     Austin went over to the classroom and took out a piece of paper. He began to write down.

    
Janella,

 

     I won’t be here today but I still want you guys to feel my presence.

     I left Bam with some money. Go get yourselves something good. Don’t even try to return it. It’s yours.

     Have fun and I’ll miss you.

 

Sincerely,

 

Austin

 

He left the note in her compartment and went with Johan to the motorpool.

     In the bus, Johan, Austin, and Lance watched Kick-A*s while Maan and Lui goofed off in the middle row.

     It was a fairly long trip but when they got there, the sophomores went in a boring seminar while the higher levels went the elimination.

     Ms. Rose noticed how bored the Sophies were so she told them to go out one by one to get some food.

     They followed suit and just ate some food. Austin and Lance finished Kick-A*s and went back in.

     While waiting, Austin hosted a game of Hangman. The subject was movies: from titles, to characters, to objects, to locations.

     Johan was leading followed by Lance then Lui, then Maan.

     After a while, they went back in the auditorium where the contest would soon begin.

     While waiting for the contest start, Austin began watching District 9. He wore headphones but subtitles were on. Ms. Rose, Lance, and Johan were watching with him and they really liked it so far.

     The Setonians didn’t do too well in the contest but the questions were too difficult.

     ON the way home, Lance, Johan, and Austin continued District 9 and were loving it until their arrival abruptly stopped the movie at the climax.

     There was only an hour left for practice. They were already in the “three sided square” formation. DOR/SAR would do their dance then DDN/CV would come in as the previous group went out. SC/SK would then enter as the previous group went out. Finally, the entire batch would do the final routine.

     Unfortunately, the leaders were merciless for this one hour. They were so merciless that the batch began to protest.

     “COME ON GUYS, JUST FIFTEEN MORE MINUTES. COUNT WITH US! ONE, TWO THREE!”

     “one…, two…, three…” they lazily counted again and again until someone took a stand.

     “One, Two, Three! Water break! WATER BREAK!”

     “Water break” sounded a lot like “One, Two, Three” in a crowd but soon, everyone caught on and chanted it.

     “WATER BREAK! WATER BREAK! WATER BREAK!”

     It was a glorious moment. One of the few times Austin joined the rebellion. Sr. Leo, however, decided to go full Hitler. Luckily, his methods were a lot more plausible.

     “Okay, go for your water break.”

     So far so good…

     Everyone rushed for the water fountain. Afterwards they resumed the practice and were feeling very good about themselves.

     They continued the “One, Two, Three!” routine when Tennet spoke in the mic with her severely annoying and unnervingly dictatorial tone.

     “Hey, Sophies, Sr. Leo said you all go home 5:30”

     “WHAT?!”Everyone said.

     “Okay, Sophies, let me break it down for you. You asked for a water break? I gave you a water break. I ask for thirty minutes. It’s only fair that you give me thirty minutes.”

     “There was no bulletin,” some students murmured.

     “This wasn’t in the diary!”

     “My parents don’t know.”

     “What about our buses?”

     “Okay, let’s be fair. Those who want to go home now, go ahead. Be my guest but let me remind you that we lost two Wednesdays due to suspension and Quarterly tests and a few rehearsals here at the CWS due to rain. The contest is in two weeks and the Freshmen have nearly complete attendance in terms of practice.

     “So far your performance looks like crap. If you want to go home, be my guest but I am going to stay in the school for thirty minutes just to make your presentation better! If you want to leave, like I said, go ahead. No one’s stopping you!”

     Was he a master of reverse psychology because not a single person left.

     “Okay then, resume the practice.”

     When the thirty minutes of carnage finally ended, they finally went home. Austin caught up with Janella and Ernst.

     “Hey guys, how was the day.”

     “Dude, here,” Ernst said, handing him fifty pesos.

     “And here,” Janella said, handing the same amount.

     “Bam changed his mind and just gave us the money. But I don’t want your money, Austin. You’re all we needed,” Ernst said.

     “Guys, keep it. It’s okay.”

     Janella grabbed his wrist and put the bill there, Ernst put his as well and Janella closed his hand.

     “It’s okay, Austin. I like the thought but no thanks,” Janella said.

     “We got to talk to you today and that’s the most awesome thing!” Ernst said.

     Austin opened his hand and looked at the money. He smiled and put it in his pocket.

     “You guys are the best!” Austin said.

     “See ya,” Ernst said as he took off.

     “I gotta go as well, bye Austin,” Janella said.

     “Goodbye, take care you guys!”

     Austin felt happy. These were the best friends he could ever have.

     He went to his room and laid on his bed, exhausted from ninety minutes in hell and cannot bear to imagine how the other students who stayed the entire day felt.