03x18: A Week of Extremes

As the other sections go off to their recollections, Austin has a week filled with high moments and low moments. P.S. For those who would get the in-joke: BALLOON GAME!

A WEEK OF EXTREMES

 

     That night, Austin received a letter about a contest on Thursday that had to be signed by his mom and submitted tomorrow.

     Also, he heard a knock on his door. He answered it.

     “Dude, I need to tell you something,” Ernst said.

     “Well, it seems urgent. Does it involve Maan?”

     “How’d you know?”

     Austin was shocked by this.

     “Lucky guess. Take a seat.”

     Ernst sat down and began fumbling with his thumbs.

     “Alright, what happened?”

     “It’s been bugging me since Friday since it happened last Friday. It depressed me so bad…”

     “What is it?”

     “It’s probably why I was so frustrated last Saturday.”

     “So it wasn’t the pancakes?”

     “It was the worst moment of my life.”

     “Just get right to it!”

     “I was waiting for the bell to ring last lunch and I’m not sure if you saw it but our eyes met and she glared at me.”
     Austin thought about this for a while.

     “And that caused you to go into a deep depression?”

     “Yes.”
     “Dude, you are totally overreacting.”

     “I know which is why I just realized something and that’s the reason I knocked on your door tonight!”

     “What is this epiphany?”

     “I had no right to be depressed or angry or whatever I felt.”

     “Continue.”

     “It was my fault. She was the one holding up our friendship. She’d say hi across the hall and I’d guilty.”

      “Dude, you gotta step up your game. You have to break out your guns.”

     “Laughing gas?”

     “I meant your mouth. Talk to her man, make the move. Stop being what I was. Look at me now, happier than I’ve ever been.”

     Austin took out his laptop and showed Ernst his most recent photo upload. It was a picture saying “I <3 JD”.

      “Nice…”

      “I just couldn’t hold it in. I was lying down on my bed here and I just felt this feeling I can’t describe. They say that love… that’s a feeling that cannot be described. I think right now, right here, I know that I am in love.”

     “Umm… ok…”

     “I love her Ernst and I don’t care, if it ends or goes on for a bazillion years, I will never love anyone the same way.”
     “Well, I’m glad we had this talk.”

     “Break out your guns, man!”

     “G’Night!”

     “Night!”

     Austin went to Google Images and printed a colored picture of the hushing lady from Shutter Island and decided to play a prank on people tomorrow.

    

The next morning, he stuffed the picture in Ymara’s compartment and went on his merry way. Her seatmates noticed it and started laughing their asses off.

     When Ymara finally arrived and put her stuff in her compartment, she jumped back in shock as everyone who was already there laughed really hard.

     They had another boring seminar that day for a new activity that year. It was called the AstroCamp, to be held on November 12.

     Sr. Alan asked for the letter but Austin forgot.

     Another thing worth noting is that during lunch, the TEAGS and the Patola tables were fused for the first time.

     Aside from that, nothing particularly interesting happened. Ernst talking to Maan would have been interesting but it didn’t happen.

    

During the next day, the usual routine was being followed. A slight deviation was when they had to fold 1000 cranes for Art class (divided between them). Jericho couldn’t get the hang of it and Sr. Philip yelled at him… twice.

     During the Creative ZL period, they continued practicing for their musical performance. Renz was still having difficulty with the keyboard which was not helped by the random boys playing around with it, Froilan in the first place position.

     During Lunch, aside from singing the Duck Song, they also accused Bianca of being an Illuminati for no reason at all. That was just how they rolled. (The ritual of which they accused Bianca performed in order to become an Illuminati was simply too offensive to be said here)

     They continued practicing during the Kinesthetic period (with permission). Still they didn’t give them a break.

     Austin had it when Renz almost got the hang of it but lost it when Froilan hit the DJ button.

     “FROILAN ANDREI RABARIA, what the hell is your problem?!” Austin said. “Do you have any idea how much time we have left? Four weeks! And that’s not counting the holiday on the twenty-ninth.

     “It might seem that this is easy or not or that Renz is just as easy a target as a piece of crap on the road but will you PLEASE SHOW SOME CONSIDERATION?!”

     Froilan simply rolled his eyes and Austin dropped down to a nearby table and busted it in half. He repaired it immediately and went back to helping Sang Woo teach Renz.

     After a while, Ms. Nanette’s assistant appeared outside the room and called for Austin. He immediately panicked.

     “Am I in trouble or anything?” he asked as they went downstairs.

     “Don’t worry about it.”

     They reached the office and he sat down in the chair.

     “Mr. Fernandez…”

     Austin almost lurched forward since the Mastermind was the only person to call him that.

     “Is anything wrong?”

     “No, I apologize, Ms. Nanette but, with respect, could you please not call me ‘Mr. Fernandez’?”

     “I understand. Okay, Austin, I am aware that you received a letter last Monday.”

     “Yes, I did.”

     “And you had to give it to Sr. Alan yesterday. You are aware that said competition is tomorrow and such forms should be submitted two days ahead of time, are you not?”

     “I am and I’m sorry. “

     “I want see that paper right here on my desk first thing in the morning tomorrow or I will not allow you to compete. Are we clear on that?”

     “Yes, Ms. Nanette.”

     “You may go.”

     Austin was relieved that it wasn’t about his shouting episode.

     Austin was also sad that he was going to miss the Science Technology Olympiad tomorrow. Sarangani was going miss it too since it was their recollection.

    

The next morning, Austin arrived early and put the singed papers on Ms. Nanette’s desk.

     He went SC and asked them about their recollection.

     “It sucked!” Clara said.

     “Sister Irma was a total drag!” MJ added.

     “She kept on telling us that she won’t take our gadgets and she kept on mentioning that if we had anything to say, just tell her”

     “Then on the way home, she commended those who actually gave her their phones and CONFISCATED everyone else’s,”

     “Did you get them back?”

     “No,” Clara said.

     “I had it with me, I hid them somewhere only I can access. And it wasn’t like Sister Irma would frisk me there, she is, after all a nun.”

     “Let’s forget you said that.”

     “Then she pulled over the bus for a stopover but she said, ‘no purchases!’ Isn’t that the point of a ‘stop over’? TO purchase something in a stop?!” Clara said.

     “We made the most of it and shopped but we got caught and Miss 2006 will be calling our parents.”

     That’s why she looked familiar, she was here in 2006.

     “She’ll be wasting our parents’ time, I swear. I never thought I’d be hiding something in there until I get shoved in a POW camp.”

     “But the best part was when we got here,” Clara said.

     “Oh yeah, Aubrey’s grandma charged in and verbally abused Sister Irma!”

     “Isn’t that too strong a word?” Austin asked.

     “True story, bro. She gave Aubrey her phone back. Our phones are being withheld ‘til Saturday and our parents have to get it,” Clara said.

     “That must suck, hard…”

    

Austin also checked on his friends at SK on how their Reco last Tuesday went, they said that it felt like a Recollection of their dignity by someone else. It was terrifying how all these statements seemed like hyperboles but weren’t… or were they?

     It was already 7:30 and Sr. Alan was still nowhere to be seen. Austin went the nearest Math teacher, Sr. Geck, and he went with him. He led him to Sr. Edmond in the faculty area who called Sr. Alan and told him to go to the motor pool. Austin waited until he arrived and they were off.

     It was a mixture of juniors, and seniors. He felt left out since he was the only sophomore. Among them were Kuya Paolo Azucena and Ate Christel Jimenez (Maan’s sister), to name a few. They were his teammates for Seton Team A. Seton was sending two teams (It was a worthy gamble since they were paid per team).

     He wasn’t able to answer most of Sr. Alan’s question because A: The questions were too hard, B: Sr. Alan expected an answer in too short of a time, and C: He didn’t know any of the answers yet.

     When they got there for the sign up, Kuya Paolo grabbed a handful of Frutos from the candy bowl. Austin did the same because everyone just had to love their Frutos.

     When the contest started (St. Bede Math Science Olympiad), Austin wasn’t expecting to answer much but surprisingly, almost none of Sr. Alan’s review questions popped up and he was able to answer a lot of the questions. He got to answer a Physics question even (that was his favorite).

     When the scores were tallied, they had a very unexpected final score of 69, no kidding. They were Third place, San Beda (St. Bede) themselves were fourth; Seton’s Team B was fifth.

     Austin owed this to his awesome teammates and his number one inspiration, Janella.

     They went through the drive thru at McDonald’s and Austin ordered Chicken Nuggets and a large fries for the guys (coughjanellacough) to chow on when they got back. He proceeded to consume his nuggets.

     “Damn, these nuggets are addicting!” he said.

     “What? Those negras are addicting?” Kuya Paolo said.

     “Nuggets!”
     “Oh, I thought you said negras in which case, what the f"“

     “Excuse me sir, I can’t let you pass,” the guard at one of the gates said.

     “We came in here earlier.”

     Austin couldn’t hear the conversation but what worried him was that they weren’t going to go anywhere and the firs were going to get cold and when he arrived, their lunch period would be over.

     He saw the guard call back-up and one of them was showing his rifle.

     “GO ahead, b***h, show off your rifle, let’s see where that takes you…” Kuya Paolo whispered.

     Austin decided that they had wasted enough time on this retard. Sr. Alan was already showing the guy the papers for the vehicle (which weren’t even forged), but the guard simply refused to read them. Austin switched to psychic and influenced the guard to let them through.

     Needless to say, it worked and they got home a few minutes later.

     Unfortunately, Austin predicted right and had to eat the fries all by himself.

     Austin marched up to the gym, wearing his bronze medal.

     “Oh, Austin, you’re back! And you have a bronze medal! Congratulations!” Sr. Geck said.

     “Austin, nice work!” John said.

     “Thank you, guys!”

     “Congrats, Austin!” Sr. Edmond said.

     “Thanks.”

     Austin found his way up to the DDN area and they all congratulated him. Unfortunately, Janella wasn’t there.

      He saw her hiding at the bottom row and he went all the way down.

     “Hey, look, it’s Austin!” Nica said.

     “Hey, look, a bronze medal!” Lui said.

     “CONGRATS!” they said.

     “Thanks guys.”

     “Austin, congratulations,” Sr. Leo said. “As a gift, I will force Janella to sit beside you and if she refuses, I will threaten to fail her in AP. Now go ahead.”

     “But sir!” Janella said.

     “GO AHEAD!” the rest of them chanted.

     Janella reluctantly climbed the bleachers and sat beside Austin.

     “Now, let us watch,” Sr. Leo told the Patolas.

     “So… how was your day?” Austin asked.

     “It was fine… Congrats on the medal by the way.”

     “I did it for you.”

     “BORING!” Nica said.

     “Geck!” Sr. Leo said, gesturing him towards Austin and Janella. Sr. Geck turned his head. Austin simply looked at him with a look that said, “This is the girl I was talking about.”

     “I want you two to talk for ten minutes or I’ll tell Sr. Edmond to fail you in Math,” he said.

     “What do we talk about?” Janella asked.

     “You need me to give you a topic?! Use your heads!”

     It was the most awkward silence they’ve had with all those spectators but none of the two teachers kept their threats.

     Austin went up to the DDN room during the break and saw MS. Anne giving DDN some friendly reminders.

     He felt that it was just right for him to warn them about the dangers of "Irmavile".

     Austin caught a conversation with Ms. Anne after her reminders.

     “What is it, Austin?”

     “Ms. Anne, as a friendly reminder to my fellow batchmates and friends as well as you, the Sister you will be going with tomorrow is Sister Irma and her rules are very different from the previous sisters that have accompanied the classes in the past years.

     “For short, Sister Irma will take your reminders and rules, crumple them into a little ball and throw them out of the window like she did to Sr. Jojo and the other sections’ advisers. She will then put down new quote unquote guidelines of her own that are extremely cryptic and mildly irrational.”

     “So what do you suggest we do?”

     “I suggest that you guys be very careful tomorrow and try to play along with her games. You might just live through this.”

     “Okay, thank you for the heads up.”

     Ms. Anne went back in and relayed the information to DDN and Austin felt that he had done his job.

     Austin went back to his family and they were playing truth or dare. Austin didn’t join in and just slacked off in the classroom.

     “Dude, what’s wrong?” Clutch asked, sitting beside him.

     “Nothing. Hey, are you staying tomorrow?”

     “Yup.”

     “Mind if I tag along?”

     “Sure, why not?”

     “Man, she’s awesome…”

     “Same here… She waited for me last Monday. That was purely awesome!”

     “She did?”

     “Yeah. Haha. Well, see ya.”

     A few minutes later, Ernst and Bianca rushed to the CV room.

     “Austin! Emergency involving Janella!” Ernst said.

     “What?” Austin said, immediately standing up.

     “It’s Joel,” Bianca said.

     All the tables and chairs in the room were launched to the ceiling and dropped back down. Austin fixed them before rushing to the outside of the DDN room.

     “Alright, what the hell happened?” Austin asked.

     “He was flirting or something with Janella and it ended with her table tipped over on the floor.”

     Austin proceeded inside the room and saw Janella silent in her seat.

     “What did he do to you?” Austin said firmly.

     “Nothing.”
     “Janella, what did he say to you?”

     “Austin, it’s nothing, I’m fine.”

     Austin marched to the SK room and Janella followed him. Austin threw Joel’s stuff out of his compartment and scattered them on the floor. He turned his tables and chairs upside-down and left.

     “Austin, what the hell did you do?” Janella said.

     “He tripped up your table, I tripped up his. Newton’s third law. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

     “Come on, fix it. It’s okay. I’m okay.”

     “You might get in trouble, you know?” Ernst said.

     Austin reluctantly reversed what he did and Janella went back to her seat. When the coast was clear, he flipped his chair upside down and left.

     “Dude, if that is your idea of revenge, I’d hate to see what your idea of homicide is,” Bianca said.

     “We live in a society bound by rules. If there were none, I would’ve turned him inside out, capisce?”

     “You’d really do that, now?”

     “Well maybe not for what he did but if he ever hurt her, I swear I’ll…”

     “What?”

     “He’s gonna regret it, big time.”

     They went back the Gym. Austin was feeling sad.

     “Dude, cheer up,” Bianca said.

     “It’s not that easy to cheer up you know?”

     “Well, why are you sad?”

     “Because I wasn’t… umm…”

     “You don’t remember?”

     “It involved Joel.”

     “Days like these don’t come in packages, they come in single wrappers. Live a little.”

     Ernst, Ivan, and Anton sat near them here. Austin looked down and saw the Patola family playing around with a balloon.

     Austin still couldn’t shake off the depression and just watched the balloon. It went a little out of hand and some a*****e hit it towards the top. Mo-on saw this as an opportunity.

     “Keep it up there!” Mo-on said.

     And so they did, they were hitting the balloon back and forth among the bleachers.

     Austin was mildly amused by this but was still in his deep depression.

     “What about us?” the guys at the right side said.

     They hit the balloon to the right side and the game was on. What really brought Austin’s spirits up is when the balloon got hit and smacked Anton right in the face.

     “HEADSHOT!” Ernst said.

     The entire second year batch was now finding the most of enjoyment from a balloon as the other years silently watched. There were no teachers there so they made the most of it. This was just one balloon but there were so many smiles caused by it.

     Austin saw something horrifying, Ms. Annette’s secretary was watching from one of the doors. He went down and Austin feared that he might tell Miss Na" Roey just got hit in the face! Awesome!

     “Happy now, dude?” Bianca asked.

     “Yeah. Look at the other levels. The First years are like, ‘I wish we had a balloon!’ The Juniors are like, “Eww… that is so immature!’ and the Seniors are like, ‘We’re almost graduating and we never played with a balloon like that!’ You think we should share?”

     “SECOND BALLON ENTERING! I REPEAT! SECOND BALLON ENTERING!” Mo-on shouted as he threw another balloon into the crowd. Austin and Bianca looked at each other and simultaneously said,”Nah!”

     The fun continued until the teachers finally came in and they hid the balloons.

     They were awarding the winners of the quiz bees earlier in the day as Austin watched the Janella all the way on the bottom row. Clara was putting clips in her hair that made her look absolutely stunning.

     She probably sensed it as she looked at Austin to which he sent her a mental message, “You look beautiful.”

     For probably the first time, she didn’t deny it and replied with a solid, “Thanks.” She smiled at Austin and that was the part that made his entire day.

     The Second years were now playing with those longer balloons that can be contorted into different shapes. Austin and Ernst were putting ridiculous actions into random songs.

     “Psst, Ernst, check me out,” Lanz said. Ernst looked at him and he gestured his crotch. Lanz had stuffed a balloon in his shorts. He took it out and threw it to Ernst’s face.

     Ernst almost threw up and to alleviate the situation, he released his laughing gas.

     They began to pass around the balloon, not knowing where it has been as Austin went back into contemplation.

     After thinking about random stuff, he looked back down at Janella and saw that she took off the clips. It didn’t matter to him, she still looked beautiful.

    

The next day was a significant drop from the previous one for one sole reason, DDN was not there. To add insult to injury, Owen wasn’t there either.

     Austin went early the next day in hopes of seeing her before she left. He failed and just sat in total silence in the classroom.

     He spent the recess with Mo-on, which was a fun break from his depression since Mo-on definitely knew how to make someone laugh their guts out.

     P.E. was kind of cool since they had it to themselves until Austin remembered that they were supposed to be with DDN.

     This was the first meeting involving softball.

     During the practical test, Austin was paired up with Micherenz who sucked at throwing. He wasn’t able to catch a single one. Renz caught a lot though and as a result, he got a higher grade than Austin.

     During Lunch, Austin ate at the Patola table. He was very depressed until he smelled what smelled like heaven.

     “What is that smell?”

     Austin followed it and centered at Lui’s plate: pancakes.

     “Where’d you get those pancakes?!”

     “They’re selling it at the canteen.”

     Austin returned after a few minutes with a plate of pancakes and his depression slightly lowered.

     “Lui, do you know about Ernst memorizing Maan’s number. I wonder how he even got that number.”

     “That’s easy, I gave it to him.”

     “What?!”

     “It was a prank. I told him it was my number and to test it, he said hi. Then I told him that it was Maan’s number and he freaked. Then he calmed down and memorized it. Hilarious.”

     “Hahaha! That’s classic. I think that deserves a high five!”

     Austin gave Lui a high five as he ate his final slice of the pancake. Then he went back into his depression.

     “I am curious… do they put something in pancakes that makes them a perfect comfort food?” Austin asked.

     “If you’re so sad, why don’t you come with us to the physics lab?” Alyssa said. “You could use some company.”

     They went the physics lab and Alyssa wrote on her worksheet. Austin looked around the lab and saw Marella lowering a long piece of cartolina into a glass box with mice in it.

     “Hey, Marella, what are you doing?” Alyssa asked, popping out of nowhere.

     “Look, the mice cling to the cartolina.”

     “Haha, that’s adorable.”

     “Aww… they’re out of water.”

     Marella pointed her finger at their water tank and replenished it.

     “Austin, let’s go,” Alyssa said.

     Austin sighed as he followed.

     “I wonder if she’s this sad when I’m gone…” Austin mumbled.

     Alyssa looked at him sympathetically and gave him a pat on the back.

     “Don’t worry. She is.”

     “Really, now?”

     “Yeah, she is.”

     Austin didn’t know whether to feel happy that she still feels the same or sad because she felt sad.

     Near the end of lunch, Austin stood outside the DDN room and just looked at it.

     “Dude, get over it,” Mo-on said. “It’ll be over soon.”

     Austin went to the classroom and Sr. Geck began as usual. Austin still recited thoroughly. Maybe he was reciting too often since Sr. Geck was starting to get annoyed a little but maybe it was just acting.

     After a while, Sr. Geck went off into a completely unrelated topic, life at DOR.

     “You guys know Hiro? He’s grounded from playing DotA. He can’t play DotA except for Friday and Saturday.”
     “How will you find out, sir?” someone asked.

     “I have my ways. Also, those certificate board things? I had them removed because they kept on spinning them.”

     Board spinning was starting to become an epidemic throughout the batch. Austin cannot do it personally but a lot of the batch can.

     Sr. Geck also revealed that he used to work with Ms. Mac in their previous school.

     AP time was one of the most fun parts of the day. Not because of the lesson but because of the people around him.

     Marise, Aika, Jasvir, Basti, and Pat were all talking about something but Austin was in his “reimagining movie scenes to get over boredom” phase. For some reason he locked into Diary of a Wimpy Kid and started singing “Total Eclipse of the Heart” quietly.

     Marise caught on and sang along with him.

     “I need you more than ever,” they sang. Aika caught on and joined in.

     “And if you only hold me tight,” the three of them sang.

     “Okay, girls, take it away,” Austin said, smiling.

     “We’ll be holding on forever. And we'll only be making it right… 'cause we'll never be wrong together. We can take it to the end of the line. Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time”

     “All the time…” Jasvir sang.

     “I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark. We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks. I really need you tonight. Forever's gonna start tonight. Forever's gonna start tonight…

     “Once upon a time I was falling in love… But now I'm only falling apart…

     “There's nothing I can do… A total eclipse of the heart…”

     “Austin, Basti, and Jasvir silently applauded as Marise and Aika laughed together. It was the high point of the day. Sr. Leo didn’t mint hem but knowing him, he noticed that. It wasn’t even that quiet.

     During English time, they were discussing tragedies.

     “The hero of the tragedy would always have a tragic flaw…” she started.

     Speaking of Ms. Sharon, she rented V for Vendetta last Tuesday.

     After a while, Mo-on raised his hand (after a wide array of arguments with Renz).

     “Yes, Mo-on?”

     “Miss, fountain…” he said with a strained voice.

     “Ahh… I think we have found your tragic flaw…’ Ms. Sharon said. The entire class laughed. “Go ahead.”

     Before Mo-on left the room, he turned around and said to a laughing Micherenz, “Shut up, Guioguio!”

     The class only laughed harder as Ms. Sharon reprimanded him.

     After this, Ms. Mac told them to stay for a while.  She gave some reminders about the expo trip then it hit him. Their expo trip was on Monday which meant another day without Janelle. And since it was after the weekends, that was three consecutive days.

     Austin stayed with Clutch after the announcements. He stayed with Ms. Mac, Justine, Yara, and Basti.

     “So who is it, then?” Ms. Mac asked Justine.

     “Pia Noeleen Fampo Cuenca…” Ymara nonchalantly said.

     “Alam na!” Basti said.

     “Is Ymara correct?”

     “Yes, Miss,” Justine said.

     “And are you courting her?”

     Cue screech tease.

     Justin remained silent. He stretched the silence on for too long.

     “Fine, Justine, if that’s the way it is, fine by me…”

     “Hala, Justine! Ms. Mac’s mad at you! Ms. Mac’s mad at you!” Ymara said in a sing song way.

     “Miss, I’m sorry. Not yet. Not yet.”

     “It’s too late for that now,” Ms. Mac said semi-Jokingly.

     “Sorry, miss! Please!”

     “And don’t think all of you are also excused,” Ms. Mac said to the rest of the boys there.

     “Miss, you know mine!” Clutch said.

     “From DDN. Jenice right?”

     “Yes.”

     “And you, Kuya Basti?” Ms. Mac asked.

     “Miss…”

     “Okay, fine…”

     Ymara and clutch laughed at this as they were off the hook and had the right to laugh. Justine had an apologetic look on his face.

     They walked down to the faculty center B and went in.

     “Miss, I told you already!” Basti said.

     “Fine, you’re clear.”

     “Miss… I think you know mine,” Austin said.

     “Ahh… I think she’s in my LoA, right?”

     “Yes, she is.”

     ‘Then I know her.”

     Austin sighed of relief.

     “My, oh my, Miss Mac,’ Sr. Leo said, “if you only saw these guys earlier. They weren’t listening at all. They didn’t even notice that I wasn’t even discussing anymore.”

    “Really?”

     “Yes.”

     “Guys… you better improve your behavior. This isn’t the first complaint I’ve received this week.”

     “We will, miss,’ Justine said.

     “I’m not talking you,” Ms. Mac said jokingly.

     “Miss, I’m sorry!”

     “It’s a shame that we’re never complete. Last Monday you were with Sr. Jojo but not me. Then on Monday you’ll be with me but no Sr. Jojo. I wish we could have just one trip together.”

     “What about the field trip?” Clutch asked.

     “I don’t even know if there will be one. Anyway, take care. See you on Monday.”

     “Bye Miss Mac!” They said.

     “Bye.”

     “Bye, Miss Mac!” Justine said.

     Ms. Mac closed the door on him.

    

So they waited and waited for DDN to arrive. When CV arrived, it was 7 PM. It was already 7 and there wasn’t even a sign of them. Bianca texted Austin saying that they had a proper stopover at Starbucks. Looks like Austin’s advice Ms. Anne paid off.

     They finally arrived and Austin rushed to the bus. He saw Ernst, Bianca, Lanz, Bam, but no Janella.

     “Where is she?” he asked.

     Ernst, Bam, and Bianca shrugged.

     “There!” Lanz said, pointing at Janella who was running for the gate.

     Austin, staying true to his anti-power clause, rushed towards her.

     He caught up with her, waiting for her parents to pick her up.

     “Hey,” Austin said, gasping for breath.

     ‘Hi…” she said as she ran off to her parents’ car.

     “Hey, Austin. Sister Irma told us the best story. It involved your names!” Anne Nicole said.

     “What?”

     Ernst and Bianca went out of the gate.

     “Dudes! What story are they talking about?!”

     Ernst and Bianca looked at each other and looked back at Austin.

     “Dude, it’s a long story…” Ernst said.

     Austin had waited for hours only to be avoided by the girl he was waiting for and he had just found out that the nun who had mistaken “guidelines” for “rules” had used their names in a story against their will.

     Along with that being a long story, this was less than a desirable finish for this relatively fun week.

     Austin was back to his depression after what seemed like weeks of happiness…