02x38: The Mutant Bond

Joel and Austin begin to make amends as everyhting takes a turn for the better.

THE MUTANT BOND

 

     Austin rushed to the base and went to the back of the room where the Mutant Bond was. He looked for his sphere and saw the usual links with Kyle and Patrick but that one link that was slowly growing out before, it was finally connected to none other than Janella’s sphere.

     He did it; she was part of the club.

     “Hey Austin, what’s up?” Janella suddenly asked, causing Austin to jump.

     “Whoa! You startled me.”

     “You were about to say ‘you scared me’ weren’t you but you just changed it at the last second?”

     “I can see this is going to be a good thing.”

     “Why? What did you run out for?”

     “Don’t think I gave you psychic powers or something like that because I didn’t.”

     “I really don’t know what’s happening and I just came here to know what you were fussing about.”

     “See for yourself,” Austin said as he directed her to the Bond. Janella saw her sphere linked with Austin’s.

     “What does it mean?”

     “It means we’ve got a sort of symbiosis in terms of superpowers. For starters, we can talk to each other even if I’m not in psychic mode.”

     “Oh…”

     An awkward silence followed. Austin felt very uncomfortable so he broke the silence.

     “How about we celebrate?”

     “Just because of this?”

     “Hey, this is a big deal for me. Come on, I got orange soda in here.”

     “So you finally got over your orange soda phobia.”

     “Obviously, come on!”

     Austin levitated a glass towards her and they drank orange soda to the occasion.

     Later that night, Justin chatted with Austin over Facebook. She was acting as an unofficial spy. She mentioned that Joel was playing around with Janella while they were supposed to be interviewing Doc Del. Austin replied by saying he doesn’t feel threatened by antics like that.

 

The following day, Austin and Kyle were going to update the basement a bit more. But Joel made plans for their project after school as well. The priority for Austin was pretty obvious; he was even going to drag Ernst with him to the renovations if he had the chance.

     This didn’t come over to Joel very well as he was very angry but he kept it in.

    

The weekend was dull so Austin invited Kyle, Patrick, and Ivan to the cinema and they watched Pineapple Express and Superbad back-to-back. Talk about screwing the MPAA ratings.

     That Sunday, he also saw the trailer for a movie called Kick-A*s which he was completely pumped for. He missed the thrill of waiting for a movie so no time travel for him.

 

The next week was pretty uninteresting except for the SC Elections starting. Austin also found excuses from doing the project with Joel. In that week they were only able to do one interview and it was with Miss Kit, the guidance counselor.

     Sir Philip had assigned them to sing a song as a group without any instruments. This wasn’t necessarily a capella since they could be the instruments like a guy doing and sounding off an air guitar or simple clapping. They assigned Austin as leader but Jasmin was taking the lead in Song selection. Austin was still happy though since he was group mates with Janella. This was the first good thing the new seating arrangement did for him. They decided to do Hate That I Love You by Rihanna. This was not Austin’s choice but Jasmin’s disgusting charisma.

 

After another fairly uninteresting weekend, Joel finally snapped that Monday after Pre-Lunch period.

     He lunch bell rang and Sr. Edmond had dismissed them. Sr. Edmond wasn’t mad anymore by the way. It really wore off last Wednesday.

      “Hey Austin, we have to interview three more people.”

     “Oh, Joel, I’m so sorry but I can’t make it today. I have to update the transpor�"“

     “Oh, and of course we have to do everything and all you have to do is edit. I can edit the video you know,” Joel said before angrily marching to lunch.

     “Ernst and I can do this without you!”

     “What happened?” Janella asked.

     “Joel’s just calling me useless. He thinks editing is a piece of cake. Jeez.”

     “Don’t worry. It’ll wear off. Why don’t you help shoot?”

     “I gotta update the databases. The teachers asked me to give them executive ID’s so I am but don’t tell anyone…” he started to whisper, “that I’m only giving them executive access to the hotel. No base privileges.”

     “Well you better fix your problem with Joel quick.”

     “Sure, I’ll try. I can sleep late tonight for hat executive ID crap.”

     “Okay, I’ll be going now,” Janella said.

     “Bye.”

     Janella went with Queennie and Danie and Austin went with Ernst, who was sitting in the classroom waiting.

     “Hey, you waited for me?”

     “I’m not that hungry. And besides, we got some work to do if we’re gonna do it without Joel.”

     “I was bluffing.”

     “Well, we could still do that, you know.”

     “You just want to wear your costume so you can impress Maan.”

     Ernst blushed as he released laughing gas.

     “Dude, you are losing your grip. Let’s go,” Austin said half-laughing due to the nitrous oxide.

 

Austin and Ernst were discussing some random stuff that lunch.

     “You know laughing gas really does not induce laughter like I always do. I mean it still has the same euphoric effect that it’s supposed to but there’s this added stuff that makes it a literal laughing gas.”

     “Ernst, just eat your lunch.”

      “It’s like the radiation actually enables some extra stuff to be released.”

     “Just eat your lunch.”

     Janella was on her way to their table.

     “So how are you and Joel?” Janella asked.

     “I’m gonna get the egg,” Ernst said as he stood up and went to buy an egg.

     “I can poof up the tripod and camera anytime. We can do an interview during lunchtime; I just gotta find him and convince Ernst to prioritize this project rather than looking like a certain someone’s future groom.”

     “I think he’s with Lance and Joseph.”

     “Oh, thanks. Should I go now?”

     “Maybe we should wait for Ernst to come back with his…”

     “He’s not really buying an egg, is he?”

     Ernst was on his way back with none other than an egg, sunny side up.

     “I’m not gonna say anything to you guys and I’m just gonna eat this.”

     “Ernst, eat fast, we’re interviewing Doc Del.”

     “Good luck,” Janella said as she went back to her table.

     When Ernst finished, they went to Joel who was under the mango tree with Joseph, Michael, and Lance. He was sporting a new hairstyle; the front part was up, no hair gel required.

     “Hey Joel, look I’m sorry about awhile ago. Let’s get on with the project.”

     Joel was silent for a while.

     “See this guy?” Joseph asked Austin. “He’s my idol.”

     “Why?”

     “Because of his hair.”

     This kind of broke Austin’s heart because back in the Intramurals Risk game, He was Joseph’s idol for his valiant choices on the battlefield and he promised that in the game of Risk in years to come, he would always be on his side. Looks like that isn't going to happen anymore.

     Finally, Joel spoke.

     “Hey sure. I forgive you. Now who are we interviewing?”

     “Doc Del.”

     “Oh s**t… Let me put myself together… Okay, let’s go.”

     “Be careful with words like that!” Ernst said to Joel.

     “Like what?”

     “S**t”

     “De Vera, language!” someone said but it happened to be Michael doing a terrible impersonation.

     “Hahaha… very funny,” Ernst said.

     “Let’s go!” Austin said.

     They went to Ms. Rina, the secretary at Doc Del’s office, and they waited for a while before getting in there. Ernst arrived just in time in his costume and he provided a confident performance.

     They were walking around and it was almost 1:40. Sr. John just happened to be sitting on the outside of his faculty center so they decided to interview him. Austin did look up to him in terms of ideals and being a CCF teacher wasn’t the only reason.

     “It must be the fifth interview I’ve done.”

     “Please sir!” Joel begged.

     “Okay, sure!”

     “Great. Thank you very much, sir!” Austin said. “I’ll set up the camera.”

     On the first take, a bunch of students passed by the camera, leaving Ernst in an open-mouthed expression.

     On the second take, just a few seconds after Ernst’s greeting, the 1:40 bell rang.

     Finally, they got the third take right and they had four interviews so far. Just one to go.

     “So who should be the last?” Austin asked.

     “I suggest the security guard at the waiting area,” Joel said.

     “Good choice! Let’s do this!” Ernst said.

     “Fine, we got ten minutes.”

     They got the interview and all Austin had to do was edit. He finished the editing that night after updating the entire faculty’s ID’s to executive status.

     They submitted the project the next day and one worry was down. They were soon met with two more worries. One was Bukidnon had to make an adaptation of Ibong Adarna using a script that they had to write back in January. Second was they had to show how electricity is made through a skit in Science.

     They had an early lunch that day because Ms. Ruby’s final requirement was a retailing activity. Austin was groupmates with Rico, Janella, Kat, Ricardo, Aubrey, Clara, and Nash. Austin helped with the formulas in making milkshakes (because all nerds need formulas in milkshakes) and Janella helped in the set up. The rest of the time, Austin and Janella just talked to each other.

     Clara brought in a giant container full of iced tea. The group “taste tested” it and it soon ran out. Janella was tasked by Clara to get some more water and ice from the canteen while Austin manned the stand. When Janella came back, he called Austin immediately.

     “Austin, I’m so sorry…”

     “What? Why?”

     Austin saw her hand, the bracelet was gone.

     “Oh, no. I’ll find it, don’t worry.”

     Austin’s face definitely showed his sadness over this. He ran to the canteen. Janella then called him.

     “What?”

     “Hahaha… I can’t believe you fell for that.”

     She was waving the bracelet in front of her. Austin was pissed for a split second before finally coming to grips with the prank and laughing with her.

     Ms. Delia gave them the freedom to choose their members but they could only have seventeen members in each group. The boys all unanimously kicked Joel out. Arjona obviously chose the other group and Bruce stayed with Clara so Joel was stuck with the girl’s group. He then began to cry again.

     Austin started wondering, he’s in Janella’s group, why is he crying?! Then something inside him stirred, he decided to do something he would’ve never done in his current state. He faced his group mates.

     “Okay, I’m going to make this clear and simple, one of you has to go to the other group so Joel can come in.”

     Obviously, nobody volunteered.

    “Come on, just one, please. Just one favor for your writer and director?”

     Still no one. Austin began to get pissed and raised his voice a bit.

     “Let’s make this even plainer. One of you move to their group now or I myself am going to go to his group. They don’t have enough members so that won’t be much of a problem.”

     This stirred them up a bit but still, no one volunteered.

     “I MEAN IT!”

     “Austin…” Ms. Delia said.

      “Yes, Miss, and I’m very sorry for raising my voice, it was�"“

      “He can join you.”

     “Really?”

     “Yes. Go ahead. This is your last performance for the year. Make it the best.”

     “THANK YOU, MISS DELIA!”

     Joel stopped the tears and quickly joined the group. Austin was now wondering why he did that.

    

The rest of the week was spent on finalizing the plans on these two. Austin finally finished the script for the Science thing and he was appointed CO-Director in the Filipino play with Clara directing. Annoyingly, Frances Valdez was “directing” although she wasn’t a director. This over-zealous annoyed Austin and Clara got her to behave.

      Ernst became the main character, Don Juan and Rico became both evil monsters in the story: The Giant and the Seven-Headed Serpent.

     Jasmin, another person in Bukidnon who was getting more annoying, was casted as the Ibong Adarna. Great voice won’t save a terrible attitude.

     During their rehearsals after classes that Tuesday, Ernst and Guen were called downstairs. They went back and were informed that even though they did not have consistent merit cards for the first three quarters, their average was enough to let them run for medalist and they were taking the test tomorrow.

     Austin, though happy for Ernst, thought this was completely unfair and maybe they just missed him. If they did, that means he wasn’t going to be classmates with Janella any longer. That wasn’t the case, he really wasn’t included. It was the first time in six years and that’s all thanks to Sir Leo.

     For the next three days, Ernst was not there and he was stuck with Joel during lunch. This was less than favorable.

     In Music class, Jasmin really took the lead, changing Austin’s proposed “star formation” into three boring lines of people.

     “Okay guys, just straighten your line,” Jasmin said.

     “Okay, not-boss,” Austin said immaturely.

     “Austin, behave yourself,” Janella whispered.

     “She ain’t leader. You hear me?!” Austin said louder. “You ain’t leader.”

     Jasmin did not mind this.

     “And what is up with this formation? Three lines? What is this a hotdog? I mean the front and back most lines are shorter so that means I’m a part of the hotdog, middle line, thanks a lot!”

     Jasmin was looking at the lyrics, probably thinking of some ideas but she was looking pretty frustrated at Austin’s comments.

     “Since we are going to wear costumes on the performance day…” Austin said as Janella started to facepalm. “I suggest you let the ‘buns’ wear ‘bun-colored’ shirts and us hotdogs over here red colored shirts! Isn’t this exciting?”

     Most of the members were laughing at Jasmin except for Janella, who remained silent.

     “Okay guys, I got the first line,” Jasmin said.

     “Wow, first line. Let me hear it, please, please, please!”

     “It comes after the instrumental. We go ‘Hey… Yeah…’ “

     “That first line with two words took you ten minutes to make actions for? I could give you a round of applause.”

     Jasmin, trying not to mind this, said, “When it’s ‘hey’ you lean to the left and when it’s ‘yeah’ you put your hand forward�"“

     “Left or right?” Austin said mockingly.

     “Right. Thank you for clarifying. As I was saying, you put your right hand forward with you index finger pointed at the audience.”

     “Wrong finger.”

     The group broke into laughter and Austin could’ve sworn Janella broke composure for a split second to let out a little chuckle.

     “So you suggest we flip off the audience?” Jasmin said.

     “I wasn’t thinking of the middle finger you sick b*****d, I was thinking of giving them a thumbs up instead of a lame old point. Are we courting the audience? Are we trying to make them think we’re pretty?”

     “Please, a thumbs up is more retarded.”

     “ahemretardedahem” Austin coughed.

     “WE GO WITH THE POINT!” Jasmin said in frustration.

     “Fine, let’s go with that 'cause we’re all pretty here. But then, that would be 88.8888 and so on percent true. Let me remind you that we have nine members.”

     Some of them were laughing at this as Jasmin initiated the practices. Sr. Philip called them for a rehearsal and Austin managed to improve his singing from the disastrous performance he gave Kyle a few months ago. This was also because he was inspired again, hearing Janella’s beautiful voice. She also filled the spot of second voice. When Sir Philip was giving comments, Jasmin mentioned to Sir Philip if second voice was necessary. This was obviously Jasmin getting her revenge on Austin, hitting him where it hurts. Janella didn’t mind though and she even laughed at herself like a real sport.

     Janella seemed really mad about Austin’s rude behavior but when he talked to her that afternoon, it was just the usual talk with the girl of his dreams. Perfect and all that.

 

The weekend that followed was dull but the week that followed was not. Austin asked about DotA that Monday and Hiro gave him a USB with Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. Austin played it all night despite being a total n00b.

     The rehearsals for the Ibong Adarna thing were almost complete disasters.

          That Thursday lunch, Austin held a final practice for the science presentation. It was not yet finished but Austin just put his trust into his groupmates, since Ernst and John were the lead actors, he had very little worries.

     Friday finally hit and they were about to eliminate two tasks with the Music thing and Science thing.

     Apparently, Ernst decided to not come to school since he had “medalist privileges”. Either that or Austin was just becoming a complete a*****e in terms of “director privileges”.

     Austin forced Joel to take Ernst’s place and it was a disaster since he had to read the lines from the script.

     The show was saved when John stepped in but fell apart when it was time for the “commercial” which was a pardoy of the Discovery Channel “I Love the Whoel World” routine.

     They ran out of time due to wasting too much time and the other groups had no more time to perform.

     Ernst eventually went to school but only for the music thing, caliming he “forgot” about the science thing despite attending all the rehearsals. He apologized but Austin’s immature a*****e complex took hold of him for the rest of the day.

     While waiting in the FBA lobby for the Music thing, Ernst suddenly pointed up at the stairs and yelled at the top of his voice “AND IN TIMES HE CRIED!” Bukidnon broke into laughter which was intensified when Rico asked “What the hell is his problem?” It was a completely random and useless event really.

     They all did well and Austin’s group got the second highest score behind Ernst’s group.

     When they got back to the classroom, Austin’s bag was missing. The whereabouts of which were soon revealed after Janella screamed. Some pinchydick prankster dumped his bag in her chair.

     Filipino followed and they were back in the FBA Lobby rehearsing for the play which was going to be presented on Monday.

     Austin was feeling a bit sick this time but he felt better while solving the crime. Janella accompanied him and they ended up with suspects: Arjona, Jaja, Jasmin, Deniece, and Yanie.

     It was written on a piece of paper. Janella took Austin’s pen and drew a bracket around the names and wrote “People I don’t get along with”

     Austin and Janella never really found out who it was.

     So far, everything was back to normal. Austin accompanied Joel to the waiting area and had another friend to friend chat.

     “So Joel, how’s life?”

     “Pretty good really.”

     Austin took a deep breath.

     “Do you still have a crush on…”

     “No, no, I got over it already. It was just a small crush. I’m sorry for all the trouble this caused.”

     Austin finally felt relieved.

     “No, it’s okay. You’re still my best friend around here. You did an okay job by the way!”

     “Thanks! See ya.”

     Austin waved goodbye and went to Janella. She already went home so I guess he had no reason to stay. He teleported to his suite and gave a deep sigh of relief. His life was now completely awesome again.

     He also finally forgave Ernst but still posted his outbreak on Facebook just for fun...