02x37: Life Goes On

Austin continues on his daily life, trying to impress Janella more. Kyle and Berna rebuild the basement.

LIFE GOES ON

 

     The weekend that followed was less than uneventful. Austin made a fan page of Ernst on Facebook for s***s and giggles. He urged everyone to become a fan and by the end of the weekend, he had 14 fans.

     Austin got bored and decided to make something new. He went to the eastern side of the hotel and made ten separate terminals that served as an elevator to all 20 floors. He created an extra balcony for all floors and made a new opening at the center, which would merely be the end of a hallway otherwise.

     He then created a transport car system outside the main gates of Seton which automatically goes to the terminals. All you had to do was insert your ID into the slot and it would detect which floor you were on. Austin’s ID was an executive ID. It could go to any floor instantly, no more elevator use for him although he could teleport.

     Furthermore, he installed a touch screen that controlled how fast the travel time was. The cars could also play music via built in speakers, controlled by this touch screen. It also enabled color customization. Yes, he was bored indeed.

     He created fifty cars. It seemed like a waste but boredom leads to all sorts of these kinds of inventions in the scheme of things. They were online that day. Austin tested them out by riding one to the fourth floor.

     When Monday hit, everything was back to normal, except for the fact that Austin hated Joel but kept it from Janella. He had come to grips with reality. He liked her but he just couldn’t bring himself to forgive Joel, at least for now.

     Janella was now wearing a pink bracelet with her name on it, stylized. It was in the pink package Austin gave her last Friday.

     The students started using the transport cars. Even the teachers started using them. Seems like it wasn’t a waste. There was just something charming about seeing the sights slowly and leisurely.

     The next day, their AP class was jointed with MOC because their AP class with Ms. Emily coincided with Bukidnon’s. This eventually meant that they had to do MOC’s project as well.

     This project required them to interview five different people involving the upcoming presidential elections in the Philippines. Two things came into Austin’s mind: He couldn’t believe that after everything that happened last Friday, life just continued like this and how impractical this project was considering they were on an island. But he was fourteen and knew no better.

     Austin grouped with Ernst and, oddly enough, Joel. There was just something inside him that wanted to be friends again. He just knew there was good in him. Apparently, Joel had no bad feelings towards Austin at this point.

 

Austin brought the camera and tripod the next day.  Ash Wednesday was on that day, however, so they had a mass.

     They went to interview Sr. Dan that lunch. Ernst was elected as the host of their “talk show”. He started speaking English for an interview for AP, which was the real name of the Social Studies class they were taking, only in Tagalog.

     Austin and Joel were whispering “Tagalog! Tagalog!” behind the camera but Ernst couldn’t catch on. Sr. Dan did, however, and told Ernst to “Speak tagalog” with the accent on “-log” rather than “-ga-“.

     Their other interview was supposed to be with Doc. Del but they ran out of time that day.

     That afternoon, since they had a 4:00 dismissal anyway, Sr. Edmond called everyone to the ZDS room, which was the big room beside Bukidnon.

     “Okay, so today I’d just like to talk about some things. First of all, a lot of your teacher have been complaining already regarding your behavior…”

     He talked about the behavior issue for a while. It was getting to be a bit rambunctious inside the classroom.

     When 5:00 hit, he asked for a few people to stay. PJ, Guen, Laurenz, Stefan, Aubrey, Mary, Aris, Bruce, Clara, and last but not least, Austin and Janella. By now, the reason should be clear. It was only made clearer by Sr. Edmond’s next words.

     “Okay, I think you know why you people have been called here. These are the people who are in a relationship, are planning to be in a relationship, or want to be in a relationship.”

     This was parallel to “the talk” but it was a new experience for Austin since he never received the infamous “talk” before.

     “First, Guen and PJ. I know you’re happy but recently, your grades have been going down.

     “Mary, Aris, it’s pretty much the same with you.

     “Bruce and Clara, your grades are pretty much holding up.”

     He talked to Laurenz and Stefan about their relationships outside the class and stuff like that and he talked to Aubrey, whose relationship cost her a full head of hair and she had been wearing a wig for the past two months.

     Finally, he got to Austin, who wondered why he was last as if the world was following him and this was meant to be climactic or something like that.

     “As for Austin and Janella, it’s pretty good. Their third quarter grades were relatively higher than their second quarter grades. Their probably making an inspiration of each other and you guys should be more like that.”

     Since all of this was from his point of view, he felt like he was either a Mary Sue or a complete nerd. Either way, he looked over to Janella and smiled at her. She faintly smiled back.

     Later in the waiting area, Austin naturally went to Janella and accompanied her as she set her bag down. She said the first word.

     “Hey Austin…”

     “Yeah?” Austin said.

      “Thank you for everything.”

     “Oh… no problem. I should be thanking you.”

     At this moment, Guen walked in.

     “Austin, Janella, is it okay to ask?”

      “Sure,” they said in unison, both of them getting the childlike desire to spurt out, “Jinx, you owe me a soda.”

     “How do you do it? I mean, you know, balance it like that?”

     Janella gave him a look that said, “Could you take this one?”Austin felt happy to oblige.

     “Like Sir Edmond said, she’s my inspiration. Inspiration drives success.”

     “Oh… thanks,” Guen said as she walked away.

     “Can you get any cheesier?”Janella said playfully.

     “Just because something is cheesy, doesn’t mean it’s any less true. Especially when it’s… nah, too cheesy but I’m pretty sure you knew what I was about to say.”

     They just laughed and Austin had to break some news.

     “Speaking of, I’m not going to be here tomorrow. We got another contest.”

     “Oh…” Janella said plainly.

     “Well, I’m gonna go now. See ya tomorrow, hopefully.”

     “Austin…”

     “Yeah?”

     “Bring home another medal.”

     “Hey… What can you say? I’m inspired.”

     They just shared a subtle look at each other as Austin switched the band to Space Manipulation.

     “Hey, why don’t you just go with me?”

      “To the tenth floor?”

     “Why, did you want to eat dinner?”

     “No thanks, I’m not hungry, haha.”

     “So, want me to take you to the hotel?”

     “Sure, thanks.”

     She picked up her backpack and Austin teleported them to the tenth floor.

     Austin took her to her room.

     “So I guess this is goodbye.”

     “I guess so,” Janella replied.

     “See ya.”

     Austin turned around and went towards the elevators. Just like always, Janella called to him.

     “I know this is real old and cheesy and it’s the second time I’ve said it, but I don’t care. Knock ‘em dead tomorrow!”

     “I will!”

     “Good night.”

     “Good night…”Austin said as Janella closed her door. Austin followed it up with “beautiful” but it was merely a whisper.   

     They left too early the next day which prevented him from saying good bye. Due to the best inspiration anyone can hope for, they won second place again for this one. Austin arrived early enough to still catch Janella in the waiting area. She was with Justin Lubag. He showed Janella the silver medal dedicated to her. She smiled at this.

     Austin then proceeded to dig into his bag to take out his DVD of The Matrix to taunt Justin. She had been called Keanu Reeves due to her shuttle c**k dodging incident in sixth grade that was a lot like the bullet time scene. Austin only brought it up now.

     “Can I see that?”Janella asked.

     “Sure!”Austin said as he handed her the DVD.

     RING!!

     Austin answered his phone. It was Kyle.

     “Hey Austin!”

     “What’s up?”

     “You gotta get down to the basement of the hotel. Bring Janella with you!”

     “Why?”

     “Just go!”

     Kyle hung up and Austin put his phone back in his pocket.

     “Who was that?”Janella asked.

     “Oh, just Kyle. He needs us to go to the basement. Let’s go.”

     “Nah. I’ll follow.”

     “You sure?”

     “Yeah.”

     “Can I have my DVD?”

     “No,” she said playfully.

     “Okay then, you can have it, watch it if you want, and you can return it tomorrow,” Austin said jokingly.

     Janella didn’t take this well though.

     “Fine, be that way,” she said as she gave back the DVD.

     Austin was depressed all over again as he put the DVD in his bag. Patrick had rushed out from the campus.

     “Hey Austin, sup?”

     “Nothing…, wanna come with me to the basement?”

     “Sure.”

     As they walked towards the transport carts, Austin heard Janella call him.

      “AUSTIN!”

     Austin looked back and saw Janella smiling at him.

     “See you later!” she said happily. Austin was relieved and waved back.

     “See you too!” Austin answered. Then it hit him, what a cheesy response!

 

They reached the transport cars and Austin and Patrick went in. Austin set the destination to basement by using the conveniently located touch screen.

     “First time, Patrick?”

     “Yeah, this is cool.”

     “What color would you like?”

     “I like black. Black looks good.”

     “I agree.”

     Austin set the color to black and the speed to fast. He set the car on its course and they were on their way.

     When they arrived at the basement, Kyle was shocked to see this. He was with Berna.

     “Hey, what’s this?” Kyle asked.

     “It’s my new invention. Didn’t you see them outside the main campus?”

     “Not really.”

     “Here, give me your ID.”

     Kyle gave Austin his ID and he inserted it into the slot. He put his hand on the touch screen and it scanned it. He entered the mainframe and updated Kyle’s ID into an executive ID. He pushed “Update Database” and all the cars would now accept Kyle’s ID as executive.

     “You can now go anywhere, anytime, in these things.”

     “Thanks.”

     “Patrick, give me yours.”

     “Ehem…” Berna said. “Austin, don’t you recognize anything?”

     “Wha?” Austin mumbled as he was updating Patrick’s ID.

     “Look around, bro,” Kyle said.

     “One more sec.” Austin said as he updated the database and took out Pat’s ID. He got his head out of the car and looked around. Kyle and Berna had fixed up the basement.

     “Nice work guys. First the Halloween party and now this, you guys should be architects.”

     Kyle and Berna had turned the old rickety aquarium-esque basement into a futuristic, shiny-walled, basement.

     “The only thing left is the portals.”

     “Sure.” Austin started doing his thing with the portals as Janella came in.

     “Hey guys, wow…” she said, then getting caught off-guard by the architecture, leaving her speechless.

     “Hey, Janella!” Austin said.

     “I love what you guys did with the place. Can it still go aquarium?”

     “Oh, of course,” Berna started.  “That’s one thing I liked only this time, instead of psychic glass or some other crap, we actually asked help from Joseph to bend the light beams in and out to transform the opaque surfaces into transparent ones. I don’t know, he probably had to break some scientific laws but he did it.”

     Berna snapped her fingers and they were completely surrounded by the ocean.

     “Further proof that he broke the laws of science?” Kyle said. “We can see outside, they can’t see inside. We set psychic signals to prevent any fish or sharks or great blue whales from colliding with the north wall. The south wall is part of the island so no worries.”

     “You guys were really bored, weren’t you?” Patrick said.

     “There is a difference between boredom and inspiration, Patrick,” Kyle replied.

     Austin had finished with the portals and turned to face Kyle.

     “That is why you were bored when you made this and I was inspired when I was making the transport cars.”

     “Very funny, Austin,” Berna said.

     “Haha, just kidding!” Austin said.

      “I’m pretty sure you were all bored,” Patrick said as Kyle and Berna glared at him.

     “Or…” Janella said. “We’re all inspired.”

     Kyle and Berna stopped glaring at Patrick and just laughed it off.

     “Oh, I was inspired alright…” Austin thought to himself. Kyle and Berna smiled as they probably heard his thoughts. Janella also faintly smiled. Austin looked at her and she was smiling at him. Did she hear his thoughts? Maybe...

     “Okay guys, nice work on the basement. I’ll be going now.”

     “Why?” Kyle said.

     “I don’t know myself. See ya!”

     Austin rushed off to the base, to check the Mutant Bond.