02x10: The Recollection

Sr. Leo goes with CV on their Recollection.

THE RECOLLECTION

 

     It was September 14, Monday. They were in Social Studies class. Sr. Leo however, spent the period talking about the Recollection on the following day.

     “…So I-Bukidnon will be the only section to be having their recollection tomorrow. Wear your regular uniform. Unfortunately, I’m the one who will be going with you.”

     Unfortunately, Well, before the “Linggo ng Wika”, Sr. Leo had gotten mad at Bukidnon. He only returned out of sheer pity. Bukidnon is still a bunch of noisy students so Sr. Leo focused on unfortunately. One mannerism of Sr. Leo would be raising his eyebrows and emphasizing on a certain word. In the previous statement’s case, that word was unfortunately.

     “Sr. Edmond has a lot more classes than I do so I have to come with you. I want all of you in front of the chapel at 6:00 sharp.”

     After classes, Austin went over to Kyle’s suite.

     “So are you and Berna, ya know…”

     “NO!”

     “Will you stop denying it?”

     “I won’t because I’m not.”

     “Anyway, I might come home late tomorrow, it’s our Recollection.”

     “That’s fine. Darn, it’s starting to get chilly.”

     “Well, it’s September. Let me heat the room up a bit.”

     Austin turned the black band to fire and made a small, floating flame in front of them.

     “I never really got to figure out how you use that thing.”

     “Oh, the Black Band? I’ll tell you about it on Wednesday.”

     “Ok, thanks.”

     Austin headed back to his suite.

    

Austin arrived in school at 5:45. A lot of people were already there, Joel, Ernst, Janella, John, Jem, Rico, and Ricardo were there and only a few people were not there yet.

     They had to surrender their cellphones. Austin put in his as well as everybody else. He and Janella began texting each other a few weeks prior.

     The bus ride was uneventful. The seating arrangement was by class number so he was beside Kat, Janella was in front of him, and Joel was beside him due to the limited size of the bus. They couldn’t teleport to the Recollection Center because it would be disrespectful. They were also forbidden to use their powers there.

     Some people were talking about the story Sr. Philip told them last Friday titled “’Wag Kang Aalon”. It was Tagalog. It just involved a sinful guy in heaven given a choice to choose three doors. He chose one with people on a boat singing “’Wag Kang Aalon...” which meant that they wouldn’t want the sea around them to wash over their boat. Apparently, the door was the worst possible choice and the sea around them; it was a sea of animal excretions AKA poop. Yeah, Bukidnon loved Sr. Philip’s stories.

     They finally arrived at the Recollection House and met their Facilitator, Brother Mark. He gave really good lectures. Most of it was about parents and family bonds. He told us his sad story. His father had always called him an idiot and incompetent. This stuck to his psyche and he grew up thinking that he was an idiot and incompetent. But one day when he met his boss, he was snapped out of this thinking and finally became one of the most well-known teachers in a certain school. Now, he’s a Recollection Facilitator.

     Our first break was basically eating time. Austin sat with John, Rico, Joel, Jem, Aldwin, and some other guys. They had spaghetti for food. Rico, being one of the largest boys in the class, ate spaghetti like there was no tomorrow. He got a second helping and Sr. Leo stood up and approached him as the rest of the class was staring at him.

     “Rico! Take it easy, Leave some for the girls.” He said.

     “Ok, sir, I’ll try.”

     After this, Rico snuck back in line for a third plate of spaghetti. He started eating this one. Austin ate his spaghetti like there was no tomorrow but it was good spaghetti. The spaghetti sauce oozing on top of the pasta with hotdogs and cheese sprinkled all over mixed into perfection reminded him of his mom’s spaghetti which was delicious. He only ate one plate however.

     “Hey guys, want to see me eat this plate of spaghetti in one bite.”

     John had an evil smile on his face as he said, “Sure!”

    Rico twirled the spaghetti, every single strand of pasta, onto his fork and stuffed it in his mouth. Suddenly, John started to hum the tune to “’Wag Kang Aalon.”

    “Wag Kang Aalon, Wag Kang Aalon,” John started to sing. Aldwin started humming the tune.

     Soon Jem started to sing too. “Wag Kang Aalon, Wag Kang Aalon,”

     After a while, the whole table was singing and Rico was resisting laughter to his fullest extent. His face was red and his cheeks were puffed. They could hear his squeals but they sang with no mercy. Rico swallowed some spaghetti and spit some out on his plate. There was green acid on it and it disintegrated the pasta. They stopped singing as Sr. Leo stood beside Rico.

     “Next time you spit out acid, I’ll make you suck it right back in. As for the rest of you, don’t make a concert right in the middle of the food hall. Keep your voices DOWN!”

     “Want to join us Sir?” John said.

     “Sure, ok. I can keep an eye on YOU!” Sr. Leo said, raising his brows and emphasizing on “you” while looking at Rico.

     Brother Mark continued his lectures after that. He was a really fun guy. He could keep everyone entertained. Then they performed an activity. They had to tape a piece of paper to their backs and they had to write things on other people’s papers, good things only. Sr. Leo joined in on the fun.

     Austin went on writing on people’s backs. He wrote “Cool” on John’s, “Smart” on Ernst’s (yeah right), “good friend” on Joel’s (he had to admit), and “nice” on Janella’s (He was naïve; he didn’t want to go obsessed over her paper, yet).  He went over to Sr. Leo’s paper and wrote “Good Teacher” on there. Well he was a good teacher but outside classes is where he wasn’t so fun.

     When it was time to look at the papers, Austin’s had one common denominator in almost all the comments, “Smart”. He didn’t like to brag since last time he bragged was in 5^th Grade and he got a 10/20 on a quiz in Math about addition. He just wished there were more diverse comments on there.

     Brother Mark was weeding out those who wrote negative comments like “Wide Forehead” or “Farmville Plantation sized Forehead” on Aubrey’s paper. After he found them, he invited Sr. Leo to join in. Sr. Leo was using his laptop outside the lecture hall but was partly sobbing.

     “Sr. Leo, would you like to join us.”

     “Sure, It’s just that, I-I-I’m”

     Everyone turned their heads to him.

     “I’m feeling sort of touched that, although I always scold them, they still wrote all these nice comments about me.”

     “Tears of Joy, Sir?” Hiroyoshi said jokingly.

     “Go ahead everyone, Show your teacher some love!” Brother Mark said.

     “No need for that, really!” Sr. Leo said but too late. He was surrounded by a group hug.

     Lunch was less interesting than their break. They had Fried Chicken and Rico was warned so they generally kept quiet.

     “So Austin, you have a crush?” John asked.

     “Oh no, it’s John asking. Why’d it have to be John?” Austin said to himself.

     “Um, yeah,” Austin said nervously.

     “Who?” Rico asked. Everyone was done eating at this time and only him, John, and Rico could hear this.

     “Umm…” Austin uttered, his heart pumping.

     “Come on, we won’t tell,” John said.

     “Fine…” Austin said before taking a deep breath. “It’s Rico’s old seatmate.”

     “Janella!?” John said loudly.

     “SHHHH!” Austin and Sr. Leo said with a 2 second gap.

     “No really?” Rico said.

     “Why her?” John said.

     Austin needed a way out. Thankfully, Brother Mark went over to their table and sat beside Austin.

    “Brother Mark, hi!” John said.

     “You might want to keep your voices down.”

     The other guys sat back down on the table. Brother Mark continued to show how interesting a conversation could be.

     Austin and Janella had a small chat about the events last recess but it was a very short chat since they were on different tables and Sr. Leo was all confused from that group hug.

     Only now, Austin noticed that he didn’t know Sr. Leo’s superpower. He couldn’t sense it before because of the anti-rad but he couldn’t use his powers here.

     Brother Mark continued to talk about family. He showed them a “message from their parents”. Some people started to tear up but it was mostly a dad talking and sadly, Austin’s dad was never seen again since 2003. Well at least he never saw him again.

     Brother Mark then played “You Raise Me Up” and told us to shake the hands of our enemies, friends, anyone, maybe give them a hug. This went on for a while but then Brother Mark invited Sr. Leo in and once again he was surrounded by a group hug. Ironically, in front of the group hug was none other than Rico.

     “Sir, don’t cry tears of joy; you’re making me emotional too.” Rico said.

     Then it was time for reflection. They were just silent, meditating on the whole day. It was 2:00 by this time. Austin closed his eyes and did as they were told. The darkness in his eyes became a flash of green.

     He was knocking on a door. An old man opened it and invited him inside. They talked for a while but for some reason, Austin stood up and pointed his hand at the man. Black gas came out of his hand. Then he was now in the base, putting down a beverage on the table, he was feeling relieved somehow, then a man from behind attacked him. He was reaching for the band.

      “AUSTIN! HEY, SNAP OUT OF IT!” Rico yelled.

     “Rico, shush!” Sr. Leo quickly said.

     “Yes Sir!” he replied!

    

The ride home, they were allowed to sit wherever they wanted. Janella already had someone beside her and he didn’t want to look like a stalker so he didn’t sit behind them. He soon ran out of options and sat at the very back, it wasn’t even a seat. They had to go in a cross-sitting position. He was stuck with two people, Joel and Frances, another smartie in the class.

     They talked about random things that made no particular sense on the way home. Finally, they reached the school and went through the portal. They were back on the island. Austin then tried to detect Sr. Leo’s power but to no avail. The anti-rad matter seemed to follow Sr. Leo. Austin teleported to the base. It was 5:00.

     He went to the mutant bond and Sr. Leo’s sphere was red and had only one link, James Landers.