03x25: Parabola

After the greatest night of his life, happiness just seams surreal to Austin. In here, the realness of said happiness begins to fluctuate as the only way left to go from the top, is back down.

PARABOLA

 

     That night, he had a rather hilarious dream of him and Janella leaving Ernst on a roller coaster by himself.

     The next day was officially Semestral Break. Janella told Austin to apologize to his mom for her “shyness” or whatnot.

     One thing that bothered Austin was that this was going to be the first time his Birthday was going to be in school. Every time before it was on the last day of Semestral Break.

     He started having delusions for unknown reasons. It could have been attributed to the intense “lovey” feeling he has been feeling since late September but it became much more extreme since last night.

     He invited Mo-on over that day. He started him off in the right track a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away. They watched the Original Star Wars. He also screened Raiders of the Lost Ark.

     After all that, it was 9 PM. Austin decided to text her.

     “Hey there!”

     “Hi…”
     “Anyway, did you have fun last night?”

     “It was okay. You?”

     “Best night of my life.”

     “No really?”

     “Yeah! Wanna know why?”

     “I know why.”

     “Why?”

    “What?”

     Austin decided that this was going in the wrong direction.

     “Um... never mind.”

     “Hey! It’s almost your birthday!”

     “Yeah, almost 14. I hope Bam knows, give me some of those spiffy black Bicycle cards. I swear those are imported.”

     “What’s on 14?”

     He was probably not himself at this point since he somehow forgot what he meant by “14”.

     “Nothing. Perhaps the number after 13? Kidding…”

     The ridiculous part was that he didn’t know he was screwing up his birthday.

     “No really. What’s on 14?”

     “You know, I’m really happy right now.”

     “Why?”

     “Well. I just figured that last night, I was the luckiest guy in the world. I mean, I was dancing with the most beautiful girl in the entire world. And now, I’m talking to her too.”

     He wasn’t even entirely himself at this point. It was as if he was possessed with a lovey-dovey version of himself.

     “Hahaha…”

     “What are you laughing for? :-) Forgive me for being cheesy.”

     “It’s nothing.”

     “But now I’m curious. What do you think of me? Last night? Right now?”

     “…”

     “It’s okay if you don’t want to answer. I understand… It’s been a long time since I last said this but… Janella, I love you. You are the most wonderful person I have ever met.”

     After a while, she replied with an answer.

     “You’re a nice person…”

     “Ain’t I boring?”

     “No, I’m just kinda shy…”

     “You know, I just realized how boring I was. I just wanna know what you really think of me. Do I make you happy? I just think you deserve better. I want you to be happy but all I think about is movies. I’m not funny and I’m cheesy as hell. We’re friends anyway so, honestly, what do you think of me?”

     “You’re nice.”

     “Don’t be shy. Even if it hurts, I need to know. Do you want to tell me anything else?”

     It took a while before she replied.

     “Nope…”

     “I guess this is a pretty big turn-off, huh? Remember when I said I hug Mickey Mouse when I’m not okay? This is one of those times. I think I’m breaking down. I hope I reach 14.”

     There he remembered what the hell 14 was. It was his frickin' age. At that point, he was incapable of thinking clearly.

     “…Yeah…”

     “Sorry if I’m scaring you. Don’t worry. I’ll be alright with you on my mind. I dreamt of you last night.”

     “Really, now?”

     “Don’t you wanna know my dream? I’ll tell you anyway. You, me, and Ernst were in a carnival. We got off the roller coaster and Ernst was left on it. We just laughed. Ernst wasn’t happy though. Patola and TEAGS should really go to an amusement park together. Christmas break? That would be fun…. :-)”

     “Oh… Ok.”

     “Am I weird or what? Haha, I don’t know if you know this but you’re my closest friend. I’m just shy like you I guess.”

     “It’s pretty obvious.”

     She was feeling uneasy and weirded out since this was so out-of-character for Austin.

     Austin, on the other hand, was completely out of control. It was just him, all him, and he didn’t know what the hell he was doing. He had never consumed alcohol before in his life so he was definitely not drunk but he was somewhat acting like he was.

     “Am I your closest friend? Haha, ang feeler ko.”

     “Austin, are you okay? What did you eat?”

     “Are you mad at me? I feel so stupid right now. You want me back to normal? I’ll try for you. “

     “I really wish it was November 3 already…”

     The signal was probably screwed up since another one of her messages came in.

     “Yup.”

     Of course, in this state, Austin didn’t acknowledge the request of normalcy that seriously.

     “You like me better like this?”

     If only he was himself, he would have metaphorically murdered himself already.

     “I don’t remember but I think I was like this in grade 6. I miss my friends…”

     “Austin, are you sure you’re okay?”

     “Am I disturbing you? I’m sorry.”

     “No you’re not…”

     “I think I’ve talked too much. Whatcha’ doin’?”

     “Talking to a friend.”

     “Oh. I’ll keep quiet now. I hope I dream of my friends tonight. Those dreams are my favorite. Good night. I love you. But just like before, if you need to talk, I’m here for you. :-)”

     “Thanks.”

     Austin tried to get to sleep. He was actually running a fever at this point and tried to wash it off by watching Rocky. The movie was over and he still couldn’t sleep and still felt terrible. Austin had this tendency to babble about random and stupid things when he had a fever or a headache but never in a million years did he think he’d babble to Janella.”

     “Hello. I can’t sleep. How’s Justin the stuff toy?”

     Justin was a giant teddy bear Austin gave Janella for Christmas last year. Justin probably came from Janella + Austin.

     “He’s fine.”

     “That’s good to know. Remember the first time we talked? I was pretty much like this only a bit more clinical due to the power mumbo jumbo. Memories, haha. Speaking of memories, I remember our first AP class. Haha :-)”

     It was an unwritten event but in their first AP class, Sr. Leo asked the class to define “Kasaysayan” which was History in Tagalog. Rico wrote “memories” on the board. Instant in-joke.

     “Austin, what’s with 14?”

     “Oh, no. You know how your life flashes before your eyes before you die? I hope this isn’t that. I want to see you on my 14^th birthday. Maybe I’m just a weirdo. I don’t think you’ll like me anymore if I’m a weirdo. :-(“

     “Seriously Austin, What’s wrong with you? Are you dying or something?!”

     Austin sort of fell asleep at this point. About two hours later, he woke up and staggered to the hallway. He saw a package in front of his door. He opened it and it was the James Bond Boxset. All 22 movies were there. He grabbed his phone and texted her. Please not how stupid this was considering that it was 11:57 PM.

     “Hey! Sorry to wake you up in the middle of the night. I just got the James Bond box set and I’m so happy. Made me think one day, I want to make you this happy. I don’t know about you but I like it better like this. I feel like I can tell you anything. If I go back to my boring self tomorrow and if you want me back, just remind me of what I said. I don’t want to go back. Anyway, good night. :-)”

     As predicted, she didn’t reply.

 

The next morning, the first thing he did was text her. It was 6:43.

     “Good morning, gorgeous. :-) Sadly, I didn’t dream last night. Or maybe I just don’t remember. How was your night? Did you dream of me? I think I dreamt of you. Have you eaten?”

     He was obviously still delirious.

     She was still asleep so she didn’t reply. He went down for some breakfast, pancakes. While eating pancakes, he felt his fever go away and enjoyed the rest of his pancakes.

     He went back to his suite and realized immediately what he has done.

     He grabbed his cellphone and confirmed that it wasn’t a dream, his delusional, retarded self took over for a while and he feared that he was borderline schizophrenic. The thing he feared more was Janella’s reaction.

     “Hey! I am so sorry for last night? Geez, I read everything, I never thought I was capable of being that weird. I didn’t really eat dinner. You mad at me?”

     “Good morning. I haven’t eaten yet. I just woke up. I’ll go for breakfast.”

     “You know, I think I’m sweeter when delirious. Want me to tap into the other guy?”

     A bit later, she replied.

     “I don’t think I can match that. Hahaha.”

     “I guess that was a pretty bug turn off last night, wasn’t it?’

     “Of course not!”

     “Don’t be shy. You can tell me anything.”

     “:-). So, what did you eat last night?  Even if you didn’t eat dinner, I guess you didn’t act like that for no reason.”
     He didn’t even think of mentioning the fever.

     “I think I just watched too many movies.”

     “Did it give you a headache?”

     “I guess.”

     “You’re really obsessed, aren’t you? Anyway, are you okay now?”

     “Yeah. Hey, have you been to another country? Personally, I have never ridden an airplane.”

     On the bright side, he has teleported across the world.

     “Nope. No really? You’re serious?”

     “Yeah. I’m not scared of heights but I’m scared of airplanes. I’m not sure really”

     “Oh well. That’s that…”

     “Well, when I become a successful director, I’ll take you to the United States.”

     “Hahaha…”

     “This just occurred to me. What’s your favorite movie?”

     “…”

     “First that comes to mind when you think, ‘best movie ever’.”

     “None…”

     “Favorite song?”

     “…”

     “Never mind. I think my over use of the ellipsis has rubbed off on you… :-)”

     “No, haha.”

     Austin teleported over to a Philippine cinema that day to finally see The Social Network. He liked it but liked Inception more.

     Later that night, Austin was reading his texts, using self-deception to pretend he was reading it as a third party and laughing at his stupidity. Then he saw a question he asked that he wasn’t quite satisfied of the answer. He texted Janella.

     “Hey. I remembered a question I asked last night. Before I sleep, I wanna ask, ‘Am I your closest friend?’ :-)”

     After a while, she replied.

     “…Yup.”

     He immediately had a smile on his face again.

     “You’re my closest friend too. :-) Okay then, good night. Sweet dreams.”

 

The remaining days were pretty uninteresting except for his small talk with Janella. Despite him being rather thin, he was a heavy eater of fast food.

    

The next day was pretty quiet apart from a single conversation with Janella over text. It said:

“How many percent am I in your life?

10% - I just know you

20% - friend

30% - kbarkada

40% - bestfriend

50% - like a sibling

60% - crush

70% - I like you

80% - I love you

90% - You’re special to me

100% - love na love

110% - Can’t live without you”

     “90-110% How about you?”

     “90”

     A bit later, Nica texted the same thing. He replied “30-40%” It was followed by, “If Janella sent you that, what would you reply?”

     “She did. I said 90-110.”

     “OMG! Hihihi, so sweet :-)”

    

He rewatched the Godfather that Monday. The first time, he was bored by it but after over a year, he absolutely loved it.

     The next day, he rewatched Curse of the Black Pearl but the feature rewatch of the day was Fellowship of the Ring.

     He wasn’t a fan of Lord of the Rings when he first saw them, getting bored with the movies, but when he rewatched them now, after one year, he absolutely fell in love with it.

     …and that obsession carried over to the next day.

 

Without rushing too much, a few more things happened on Tuesday. Janella greeted him an advanced Happy Birthday early in the morning. Before he went to sleep however, he was waiting for midnight.

     Last year, amongst all of the chaos that happened when the band was destroyed, Janella still stayed up until 12 midnight to greet him a happy birthday. Now, he was waiting for the same thing.

     It already hit 12 and still nothing. He thought of waiting for a bit more but still, nothing.

 

It was early morning and Ibarra just got back from the Semestral break. He had to experience his “Welcome Back” from a LotR fanatic drawling on and on about how awesome Aragorn was.

     He wrote the Quote of the Day on the board. He was running out of deep and pseudo-intellectual quotes so he wrote: “You can’t fight in here. This is the War Room!” from Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Sadly, barely anyone even knew that movie.

     He received a few texts greeting him a Happy Birthday from his friends outside and inside like Kyle for instance.

     He went over to the DDN room to meet Janella. She didn’t arrive until much later but when she did…

     “Good morning, beautiful.”

     “Hi.”

     RING!

     “D****t. That bell never rings when I want it to. See you later!”

     “Yeah.”

     “I better go.”

     “Austin…”

    “Yeah?”

     She smiled as she said, “Happy Birthday.”

     “Thanks, beautiful.”

     He went back to the classroom and it was the short pseudo-homeroom time before 7:40. A lot of people greeted him a happy birthday, (Ibarra, Sean, Mo-on, Marise, Ymara, and Maan among the first).

     Austin was talking to Clutch. He told him what happened during the FS Night. The catch was that he didn’t go to the FS Night but to watch Paranormal Activity with a few friends. It got a bit ugly in the Chapter 39 of Book 2 sense.

     During Math Time, Sr. Geck explained the performance task of the boys for the third quarter.

     “This quarter, we will be joining sports with Math. Now, the Math Department presents to you… Mathketball.”

     Sr. Geck tried to hold back laughter.

     “Mathketball… Math… Try saying that ten times fast.”

     “Hahaha! Mathketball! That sounds like we have a lisp!” Sean said.

     “Exactly,” Sr. Geck said.

     Anyway, the rules were kind of cool. Each player would have one of the four basic operations on their backs. When they shoot, the operation on the player’s back would be applied to their current score using the number of points from their shot.

     Let’s say a guy with a multiplication sign shoots from beyond the arc. If their team had five points beforehand, it would be multiplied by three.

     This means that the players with subtraction and division signs could shoot in the other hoop.

     Austin was appointed as the scorer for the game. Some of the others were statisticians who would tally the assists, steals, rebounds, et cetera.

     Before and during recess, the rental service was going really well. Lots of people reserved a spot. Marise rented V for Vendetta and Maan rented Mr. Bean’s Holiday.

     V for Vendetta was a movie that Austin had been raving about for a while since he rewatched it a few months ago. That’s why Sean and Jib rented it (and now Marise). He was happy that they could enjoy a movie like that.

     During the first period of ZL, the CCP Participants were called out. Ms. Rose told them to regroup and start a new project. Austin went with Rica, Mo-on, Ibarra, and Rachel. They were going to make a magazine. The cover story? Avenged Sevenfold…

     While walking around the hallways, he was greeted a happy birthday from Ms. Mac and Sr. Jojo.

     Art and Science were pretty standard. Sr. Mike got a bit better with his technique but it was still a long way to go.

     During Lunch, Austin was raving about Lord of the Rings but on the side, he talked about his James Bond Collection.

     “Seriously, that’s just awesome.”

     “My dad watches James Bond,” Ernst said.

     “So you’ve seen glimpses?”

     He knew for a fact that James Bond’s nemesis was a man named Ernst Stavro Blofield.

     “I guess.”

     “Who’s his arch nemesis then?”

     “Hmm… Doctor… Doctor Octopus!”

     Austin, Bianca, Johan, and Ivan began laughing out loud.

     “Wait, no!”

     “Ernst, either A: You’re thinking of Spiderman right now, B: You we’re thinking of Dr. No simultaneously, or C: You were thinking of women and Octopussy came to mind and your mind screwed it with Dr. No. Either way, this is going on Facebook.”

     “Come on!”

     “To the Library!”

     They spent the remainder of Lunch asking each other hypothetical multiple choice questions like, “If Ernst was all alone in a hypothetical room. What would you do? A: Join him, B: Kill him, C: Join him then Kill him, or D: Call the Ghostbusters?” Jianne answered, “E. Join him to kill him, burn his corpse. Wait for him to be reincarnated and then call the Ghostbusters. Knock out one of them. Cross the streams and destroy the reality in which Ernst exists in.”

     Eventually, Sr. Geck greeted him during this time as well.

     After Lunch, they continued to practice their songs for the Christmas Party during the Creative ZL Period.

     Later during Exceptionality time, he persuaded Sr. Alan to take them to the Library. Sadly, the LoA wasn’t there. Austin crossed his fingers, waiting for them to show up. After a few minutes, she did show up along with the rest of the LoA. This served as a sufficient inspiration for the remainder of the hour.

     Before going home, Austin dropped by Ms. Sharon’s office to pick up The Hurt Locker.

     “Hello, Austin. It’s your birthday?”

     “Yes, Miss.”

     “Well, then Happy Birthday.”

     Austin switched out the cases for the Hurt Locker and Casablanca, the next on Ms. Sharon’s list.

     Regarding The Hurt Locker, she agreed that it didn’t deserve Best Picture.

     Later in the Bus area, Austin asked Janella if she wanted Ice Cream. Like always, despite it being his birthday, she refused.

     Austin went anyway and bought three cones, one for him, Janella, and Ernst.

     He got back and the two were already in their buses. Ernst actually jumped back out and ate his cone. Janella stayed inside and apologized through text.

     “Hey. Happy Birthday again. I’m really sorry…”

     Austin, not wanting to be sad on his 14^th birthday, replied.

     “It’s okay. I love you. Take care on the way home.”

     Austin went back in the school and looked for some other ways to make his birthday better. Then he saw Mo-on.

     They went to Finds and bought some food and some drinks and had a small party in the waiting area, just them, since everyone else went home already.

     It was fun but it had to end. They went home around 6 PM.    

   

The next day, the quote was from American Beauty: “It's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world.”

     The Mathketball game was on that day. CV was facing off against Sarangani.

     The scorer on their team was Aaron Nolasco. He and Austin immediately had a friendly rivalry.

     Austin unofficially named their team the “Compostela Valley STARS” while Aaron ripped them off with “The Sarangani SARS”.

     Austin wasn’t really big on basketball and can only enjoy it live. This was a particularly intense game but for all intents and purposes, it would be better to skip to the end.

     CV lost to SAR. Their score was 512. CV’s score was 15/8.

     Austin, seizing the moment, cheered for CV.

     “WOOO! 15 OVER 8 POINTS! WOOO!”

     This time, he didn’t even need the Gilbert Principle to cause this reaction.

    

During Recess, Janella and Bianca told Austin that Nica poured her experimental perfume on Ernst. (The girls’ performance task was perfume making. It had something to do with Mixture Word Problems involving Systems of Linear Equations in Two Variables)

     During Filipino class, Jib and Migz were talking behind Austin as he was desperately trying to pay attention. She wasn’t even talking about Florante at Laura. He didn’t even know what he was talking about anymore.

     “What is the best food in the world?” Jib asked.

     “What?” Migz answered.

     “Bacon.”

     They laughed at this. Austin didn’t get it.

     “What is the best movie in the world?”

     “What?”
     “Beck to the Future.”

     Austin finally got the joke.

     “What’s the best TV show in the world?”

     “What?”

     “Beckster”

    “That wasn’t funny…”

     “Sorry, I meant Beckster’s Laboratory.”

     “This joke got old fast.”

     Later during Science time,

Sang Woo’s seatmates brought a certain “issue” into notice.

     Sr. Jojo had a tendency to slam the projector screen hard into the blackboard when everyone’s attention was going elsewhere to bring it back. Only today did he notice that this caused Sang Woo to have “Heart Attacks”.

     During Music Time, everyone began mocking a verbal tic of Sr. Chris’s/ He had a tendency to say “ah…” in between words. During this hour, every time he said “ah…” a bunch of the boys would repeat it, creating an echo effect. Most of the class were unable hold their laughter.

    

The next day, Austin picked the quote from Saw: “"To overcome something, you have to understand what a perfect engine it is.”

     Kristina was one of the people who was very interested in these quotes, usually clarifying what some of the more cryptic ones meant. Ymara was another one who enjoyed the quotes.

     That day, he brought a trick box that was supposedly unlockable. Everyone who tried to open it, failed.

     During Science, Sr. Jojo handed them a template of a skeletal system. They had to put it together and “be creative’ in decorating it.

     While working on it, a lot of people didn’t have split pins. Austin decided to piss them off a little.

     He had a lot of extra split pins so he put twenty pieces in the box and gave it to Sean, who was lacking.

     “Sean, need pins?”

     “Not really, why?”

     “Pass this box around. Tell people that if they can open it WITHOUT BREAKING IT, they can have all the pins.”

     “Let me try.”

     “Oh yeah, power clause is in effect.”

     “I know. I know.”

     Sean tried. Sean failed.

     “Pass it, Sean!”

     “Fine.”

     Sean passed it to the left where Clutch, Karla, Owen, Jib, Marise, and Aldwin tried and failed. Owen handed it back Sean.

     “Looks like I keep my pins.”

      Sean fiddled around with it a bit more until he finally opened it.

     “I did it!”

     “I didn’t see. Do it again.”

     Sean closed it and opened it again.

     “A deal’s a deal, Austin.”

     “Fine, you keep the pins.”

     Sr. Jojo also promised to find slides of different kinds of muscles over the weekend since the lad only had a few slides.

     Ms. Becky was absent that day so Sr. JM subbed. Austin was just happy it was him and not the other one which terrified most of them.

     During Sr. JM’s lecture, Joven kept on mentioning Jeffrey’s name like Austin mentioned Owen’s in the past. Sr. JM immediately asked Joven if he and Jeffrey were dating. Cue Screech Tease.

     During Recess, he brought the box to DDN. Janella was frustrated at it. Austin, of course, taught her how to open it. Now they had a little secret.

     During P.E., Sr. Anton was lecturing them about Swimming. Afterwards, they had a seatwork. While waiting for the others to finish, Austin challenged Sr. Anton with the Box. He failed.

     They had a group work to list some rules for the swimming pool. One of the first to come mind was “No Chins Allowed”.

     Fast forward to CCF time, they were on the Bridge. Ms. Mac prepared a few lines that they had to say with the appropriate emotion.

     Ms. Mac encouraged volunteers here and there were few, much to her disappointment.

     A few of these were comical like saying “I have to poo” to a jeepney driver in a happy tone. A few of these were emotional.

     “May I have the next volunteer?”

     Austin raised his hand and went in front to draw his quote. He unrolled the one he drew. “I love you (sad)”

     “Let me see,” Ms. Mac said. “Oh, so you have to say, ‘I love you’ in a sad way.”

     “I can do this…” Austin whispered to himself. He faced the crowd and tried. He failed.

     His typically happy expression that he has been wearing since the beginning of the day began to falter for the first time in hours.

     “Austin, are you okay?” Ms. Mac asked.

     “I’m sorry. I can’t do it. I just haven’t been in that position yet.”

     “I understand. Thank you, Austin…”

     He went back to his seat.

     “Next volunteer please?”

     Renz stood up after much persuasion and drew his quote. He unrolled it and immediately had an expression on his face that said, “This is going be humiliating…”

 

Later that day, Austin challenged Sr. Geck with the box. He tried. He tried again. Much to everyone’s surprise, he got it open. That makes two people.

     As for the Mathketball results, it was revealed that SK and DDN won their games. Sr. Edmond was definitely part-sports coach.

     For the next period, he challenged Sr. Leo. Long story short, he cheated using his long fingernails.

     During English time, they had a practical test. Everyone, no exceptions, had to recite the first part of the Congo without a copy. It was by threes. The gentlemen went first. Among the boys, Mo-on was the first to get it done. Sean and Owen almost did but messed up near the end. Austin also got it right.

     A lot of the later boys got it right as well as the girls.

     After class, Austin and Ms. Sharon discussed Casablanca. Ms. Sharon thought that Gone With the Wind was better but Austin disagreed. This was one of the times they had differing opinions.

    

In the waiting area, Austin was confirming those who were going to his party tomorrow. Among them were Mo-on, Patrick, Bianca, Ivan, Kyle, and a few of his older friends, Noel and Mark.

     Janella was still pending.

     “So..., you going tomorrow?” Austin asked.

     “Oh, about that. I’m so sorry. We’re going somewhere. I mean me and my family.”

     “Oh. It’s okay.”

     Austin was twirling the box in his hands.

     “Can I borrow that?”

     “Sure.”

     Austin gave her the box and she demonstrated her skills in opening it.

     “Nice work, beautiful.”

     “I’m not tha"“

     “Yes you are…”

     She was quiet for a while.

     “Do you mind if I let my brother try it?”

     “No problem. Sure.”

     She handed it to her brother who was two seats away from her. He tried. He failed.

     While he was trying, Mo-on and Bianca went out from the waiting area. It began raining.

     “Austin, can you tell him to stop bothering me?!” Bianca asked.

     “You have twenty-four hours of freedom left!” Mo-on said.

     “That’s not settled. We’ll settle it in the drinking game.”

     It’s a funny story. When Mo-on and Austin were watching Raiders of the Lost Ark and Marion was beating some guys in a drinking game, they decided to have one on his birthday. The question was…

     “You mean with alcohol?!” Janella asked.

     “Of course not. Softdrinks are the way to go.”

     “Oh, good.”

     Mo-on and Bianca went back in. This was when her brother handed the box back her and her back to him.

     “Anyway, it's getting late. I better get going. I promise I’ll record Mo-on and Bianca’s battle,” he said.

     “Haha… Okay. See you.”

     “Bye.”

     Austin went back inside and took one last look at her. He nervously looked at her brother when he did something that reassured him. For the first time, he smiled at him. It was like a seal of approval for him. This ensured that he went home with a smile on his face.

     He went home thinking that her family was awesome, that this day was awesome, and that his whole fricking life was awesome. It was one of those days where he was just thankful to be alive.

 

The party didn’t start until 11:30. Austin and Patrick were watching the original Superman film. Mo-on walked in near the end.

     After that, he put in the Terminator while waiting for everyone else to arrive. Kyle arrived followed by Noel and Mark. Ivan and Bianca followed.

     They watched the Terminator and everyone except Austin and Mark reacted violently when Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor were doing it. This was obviously made funnier for them due to Kyle being with them.

     After that, they went for Lunch where they just told some stories. Those who couldn’t relate raised their hands and yelled, “OP!” which meant out of place.

     After that, it was time for the first round of the drinking game between Noel and Mark, brother versus brother. They started with Coke but ended with Sprite. The winner was Noel.

     Ivan and Patrick were next. They started with Sprite and ended with Royal, Austin’s orange soda. Ivan won.

     The third round was Austin versus Kyle. They started with Royal, much to Austin’s amusement, and ended with RC Cola. It was a tough drink and Austin had to yield (note that the Power Clause was on at all times).

     They saved the final round for later as they all went in the theatre to watch Kick-A*s. It was all good times.

     Finally, it was time. Austin took out his camera and recorded the most epic battle of our time.

     During the video, they frequently teased Austin with Janella. He shrugged this off for the meantime.

     They started with Carbonated Lemonade and ended with Sarsi. After a fierce and long battle of epic proportions, Bianca yielded and Mo-on won.

     Since this was the highlight of the party, there were stakes. Mo-on now had one hundred and sixty-eight hours of insanely unfair bragging rights.

      They ended the day with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom which was extremely fun.

 

Monday’s quote was from V for Vendetta: “Beneath this mask there is an idea and ideas are bulletproof. “

     The rental service was running slow for the day with only Ms. Sharon renting Gran Torino.

     The day was pretty uninteresting save for Science, where they had a partner activity, much to Austin’s dismay, and TLE time.

     Austin and Jade were making fun of Sean’s continuing discomfort due to him getting hit by oil.

     “Every time he gets hit, he says, ‘YAAAH!’. If we had a peso for every time he said, ‘YAAH!’ we would be millionaires.”

     “Damn it!” Sean said, getting hit by oil.

     Jade looked at Austin as if he were saying, “epic fail…”

     “…one peso!”

     The iLike walls weren’t finished yet. They were technically not allowed to write on other section’s walls but while waiting for Ernst in the DDN room, he was tempted.

     “If it makes you that uneasy, just do it.”

     “Fine!” Austin said, getting out a pen. He wrote, “I like everything about you.”

     “See? Now everything is better.”

     “I know… let’s go.”

    

Tuesday’s quote was from Rocky. He didn’t plan it and he was running out of quotes so he just wrote a paraphrasing of a line from the movie. “I just wanna go the distance.”

     He was extremely pissed off that morning because Froilan didn’t help him in the partner activity.

     He spent the first thirty minutes of his morning complaining rather loudly to Ibarra, Chili, and AD on how much of a lazy a*s jerk Froilan was. He decided to splash some water on his face after getting worked up this much.

     On his way there, he saw that Janella was already in DDN. He, of course, went in and sat beside her.

     “Hey.”

     “You’re kinda early, beautiful.”

     “I just felt like it.”

     “Can I sit here?”

     “Sure.”

     He sat beside her as they had the usual small talk. This definitely made Austin forget about Froilan. Basically, this was fifty minutes of happiness.

     He said bye and went back to CV to start the day.

     The day was rather boring except for the part where TEAGS had an arm wrestling tournament in the library and got away with it but that story was too long.

     Bianca was happy when Austin announced that Mo-on only had ninety-nine hours left. Mo-on overheard this and began to torture Bianca with his bragging rights.

     During Math, Sr. Geck was sporting the Nosferatu/Indian accent again.

     On the way home, Austin and Ernst received news from Lui. All students were banned from Finds. This slightly pissed Austin off because when he says he’s going home, he means he’s going to get something from Finds then go home. Now he was actually going to have to go home.

    

The next day was the awarding of the merit card for the second quarter. Before everything else, Dr. Suarez spoke in front to announce the construction of a portal to a student center in front of the school.  It led to a building they purchased in front of the school in the city. It was called the Sanglayon Building.

     Austin got a White Card that day and was relieved that he was holding the place consistently.

     Ms. Sharon liked Gran Torino and exchanged it for District 9. They were also a long way into figures of speech.

     During Math time, Sr. Geck explained an activity during Math Day. It was Human Damath, a giant version of Damath which was a math-icized version of Dama which was the Filipino version of Checkers.

     Basically all the checkers had a number on them and the board had operations on them. If you jump over a checker, you will perform the operation your checker landed on in relation to the checker you jumped over. The result will be added to your score.

     They began making the Giant Damath Board. Austin memorized the location of the operations already.

     During this, the girls were doing their perfume task.

     During Science, Sr. Jojo interrupted his lecture to apologize for the slides still not being there.

     “I’m sorry that I haven’t gotten the slides of the muscles yet. I’ve been to Fort Santiago and back looking for them to no avail. Oh yeah, I have a question. How do you get to Fort Santiago?”

     This was rather non sequitur. The class shrugged.

     “You pass through Third Santiago!”

     On its own, this was a pretty corny joke but Sr. Jojo delivered it perfectly. Long story short, the class spent a good five minutes laughing, Sr. Jojo included.

     “Here’s another. Why do we choke?”

     The class shrugged while still laughing at the other joke.

     “Because of the dust… The ‘choke-dust’.”

     Once again, perfect delivery can make any joke ten times funnier. CV said bye-bye to another five minutes due to insane laughter.

     On the topic of their magazine, Rica just printed out Mo-on’s corner, a special section of the magazine which is essentially a diary entry by Mo-on himself.

     Later that day, during the next ZL period, the CCP participants weren’t back yet and it was raining. Sang Woo brought his electric guitar and amplifier and there was nothing to do. It was time to play emo songs while staring at the rain.

     Well, it wasn’t emo but Austin played Californication on the guitar.

     They took turns with the guitar until it was the Kinesthetic period. The rain prevented them from doing anything so they continued what they were doing.

     They others decided to play Truth or Dare with Ms. Mac.

     When it pointed to Kristina, Ms. Mac asked which of the boys in CV does she consider attractive. After that, it pointed to Jib, Ms. Mac asked, "which of the girls in CV do you find attractive?" After that was Rachel, similar question from Ms. Mac.

     Irony struck and Ms. Mac was in the hot seat. The question directed at her was, “Which of the male teachers in the faculty area do you find attractive?”

     Please note that the answers to the aforementioned question shall remain forever confidential.

    Later that day, the Ushers for Math Day had a meeting. For some reason, Johan kept being put in the committees where there was no one but seniors and juniors.

     Austin, Maan, and Lui were assigned to assist Sr. Edmond.  Ms. Jo (Jade’s mother and head of the Ushers) didn’t give Janella a committee. She gave her a free choice. She picked the “Assist Sr. Edmond” committee without even thinking twice.

     He bid her farewell as he went home, straight home. He was already beginning to miss Finds.

 

Next day’s quote was from Memento: “We all need mirrors to remind ourselves of who we are.” He could’ve chosen, “We all lie to ourselves to be happy.” But felt that it would’ve given away too much.

     His brain had a certain way of deception even before they got their powers and this deception was on the top if its game since the FS Night. If Austin likes someone, his brain makes sure that he does not like anyone else, even if he does.

     Austin got bored that morning and decided to draw a giant Damath board on the blackboard and he and Ibarra tried playing it. It was one of the most random and yet the most fun parts of the year.

     A few other people tried it out as well and it sort of became like the golf course in Lost.

     Sr. Geck had to multitask since DOR didn’t have a teacher so he let CV and DOR have a simultaneous morning assembly.

     They tried piecing the giant Damath board together in the Acacia Lane. When they tried playing it, the board ended up being too small.

     “I’m afraid the board is too small,” Austin said. He was the one who put together the board since he memorized it. His initial fears were proven right.

     “I will not let this become a fail,” Sr. Geck said determinedly.

     Austin finally told Sr. Jojo about Froilan and they had a little talk about his non-productiveness.

     During Recess, Sr. Edmond told Austin, Janella, Maan, and Lui to see him later at lunch.

     Fast forward to Lunch where Maan was missing and Austin, Janella, and Lui were just standing idly, waiting for her to show up. Austin jokingly suggested that Ernst knew her whereabouts and interrogated him, Jack Bauer style in the middle of the canteen.

     Eventually, Maan showed up in the canteen and they went to Faculty Center A, Ernst included.

     He waited outside as Sr. Edmond gave them their tasks for tomorrow. Austin and Janella would be in charge of the registration table for the outside schools participating in the Math contest. They were also going to be in charge of scoring the final round.

     During the briefing, Sr. Edmond noticed Ernst outside.

     “Maan, is that your bodyguard?” Sr. Edmond said jokingly.

     Austin, Janella, and Lui laughed at this. Ernst noticed and shook his head. Sr. Edmond gave them his infamous teasing smile.

     After this, Austin, Janella, and Ernst went to the Library where Nica was there. They were having small talk when Janella suddenly brought out her big guns.

     “So Ernst. I’ve been wondering, why do you like Maan?”

     “What?”

     “You heard me.”

     “Umm…”

     “Just give me two reasons.”

     “Umm… Uh…”

     “Look, you’re lucky I’m only asking for two. For other people, I ask for ten.”

     “Look. This isn’t the"“

     RING!!

     “Don’t we all hate the abrupt ringing of the bell?” Austin asked as Ernst sighed in relief.

     Janella and Nica went ahead as Austin tried following up.

     “Come on. Why won’t you tell her?”

     “I don’t want to.”

     “Do you have reasons? 'Cause I’m sure you do. Everyone has reasons.”

     “Fine.”

    Ernst told him the two reasons.

     “Aww… that’s adorable.”

     “Just shut it, okay?”

     “Sure…”

     When he got back in the CV room, his seatmate, Pat, was crying uncontrollably. This only meant one thing.

     People were trying to comfort her. Sr. Jojo joined in the comfort brigade. He eventually started his class with a song dedicated to Pat.

     “The following song is dedicated to Pat. ‘AGUY AGUY AGUY!’.” Ad infinitum.

     This cheered Pat up for the rest of the class. First thing they did was submit their skeletons. Austin turned his into the T-800.

     There were a few interesting outputs in there like Renz dressed his skeleton up as a groom and Marise as a Bride. Instant Screech Tease. Ymara made hers look like Katy Perry, Froilan’s was incredibly funny to look at since it was badly colored in and the skeleton was missing both of its humerus bones.

     After this, they went to the AVR where Sr. Jojo continued his lecture on the muscular system. He then noticed Jasvir and Kristina chatting during his lecture and immediately turned them into the next, albeit non-serious, power couple of Compostela Valley.

     The projector also began to glitch and fail, making the projection flash different colors like a disco. Sr. Jojo took this seriously and actually danced in front before fixing the projector with his technopathy and continuing the lecture.

     The rest of the day was relatively uninteresting. Finally, it was the next “big day” of the year, November 12.

 

One thing that bothered him was that Janella might not come to the AstroCamp. Throughout the day, she still wasn’t sure.

     Janella arrived early that day, wearing the Usher shirt. All of the Ushers were (obviously) wearing the Usher shirt. It said “Cogito Ergo Sum” at the back.

     They went downstairs to check on the boardroom. They saw Yara there, all alone, sitting on the bench.

     A few minutes later, the boardroom was open and all the Ushers took their stuff inside. Sr. Edmond took Janella and Austin with him to the Registration table. Janella was in charge of the papers while Austin was in charge of handing out stubs and schedules.

     During the idle times, Austin and Janella would talk to each other. Unfortunately, she still needed convincing to do away with her shyness towards him.

     Then, lightning struck when Fatima Vista, the Junior who was with them during the De La Salle Canlubang Interschool Sci-Math Challenge, came in.

     “So this is the girl you were talking about?” she asked.

     “Yes. What’s it to you?”

     She leaned close to her.

     “You deserve better…”

     She walked away and Janella looked at him quizzically.

     “Don’t mind her. She’s borderline delusional, probably. Either that or it’s an act.”

     After the Registration was finished, Sr. Edmond split Austin and Janella up for errands. Austin had to help set up the props for the final round like the buzzer, projectors, and laptops. (Lui and Maan were in charge of the countdown timer and buzzer, much to their amusement).

     They had a short lunch break which didn’t really factor into the day’s events that much.

     Ymara was busy hosting NUMBO (a mathematical version of BINGO) when Austin passed by the CWS. Joseph and some other Sophies were fixing the Human Damath Board. Sr. Geck and Sr. Edmond fixed it so that each cell was now twice the size of the last “fail” board.

     Austin helped set it up as he went back to the Gym to set up the tables and chairs for the last round.

     Incidentally, Janella was there. Sr. Edmond was explaining the scoring system. She was handling the hard copy while Austin was handling the soft copy on the Excel Spreadsheet.

     They were asked to pick up an extension cord from the faculty area. On the way there, Janella said that she’ll get a pencil from the boardroom. She went ahead and Sr. Jojo passed by Austin.

     “Good afternoon, Sr. Jojo.”

     “Hi, Austin.”

     He looked back at Janella and gave Austin his own brand of the teasing smile.

     “Yes, sir. It’s her.”

     Cue Screech Tease.

     “Anyway, good luck with the final round,” Sr. Jojo said.

     “Thanks.”

     This sort of eased him up since now, both of his advisers knew.

      They fixed up the gym for the final round and after a few minutes, it began.

     Austin and Janella simply worked together scoring while Maan and Lui worked together… buzzing.

     That was their last task for the day. Austin went downstairs to watch the human Damath game. They moved the board up front and Austin noticed a glaring mistake in the pattern.

     “Sr. Geck, we have a problem. Those two cells are incorrectly placed,” he said.

     Sr. Geck looked at his pattern and noticed the mistake too.

     “Well, there’s nothing we can do now. This is the last game. Thanks for pointing it out though.”

     “No problem, sir.”

     Austin headed to the Patola area where he looked for Janella.

     “Hey, did you guys see Janella?”

     “No,” Nica answered. “Hey Austin, I need to tell you something.”

     “What?”

     “You are aware that Janella won’t die if you leave her alone for a few minutes, right?”

     “Yes, why?”

     “Well, don’t suffocate her. She told me you’ve been following her around all day.”

     Another deception his brain was pulling was something like this. He only knew that he was essentially following her all day post-registration hours at this moment right here.

     “I can do that…”

     “Good.”

     Austin went to the Boardroom where a few Juniors and Seniors were playing an unofficial version of Dama where they can kill themselves. Austin and Johan tried playing an experimental game where it was like chess only the pieces were at the corners.

     To end it all, Austin dropped by Ms. Sharon’s office where she was only finishing up District 9. She returned the DVD and Austin gave her his favorite movie, Fight Club. This time, it was her request and not Austin’s recommendation.

     Austin said goodbye to Ernst and went to Janella.

     “So, are you going later?”

     “I think so.”

     “Well, come what may, I’ll see you there.”

     Austin teleported back to the hotel and finally got around to seeing Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

     After that, he made a Crossword Puzzle of all the CV students. He printed out a few copies and pushed a button beside his light switch. After a few seconds, the Anonymous was now levitating in front of his balcony. A platform extended from the Anonymous as Austin pushed two buttons on his balcony. It opened up and he stepped into the Anonymous. He flew it to the school and disguised it as a red Honda City. He parked it in the parking lot and went inside.

    

Austin went with TEAGS, who were hanging out under the bridge. He gave Ibarra a copy of the Crossword Puzzle and he tried answering it. He wandered around a bit and saw the telescopes set up in the middle of the CWS.

     “Psst!”

     Austin looked for the person calling him when, to his delight, he saw that it was Janella. He went towards her.

     “Am I dreaming or are you really here?”

     “Wake up.”

     “Haha.”

     Austin went back to the TEAGS area, waiting for the AstroCamp to officially begin.

     It finally started. Sophomores in front, Juniors at the back. Boys at the left, girls at the right.

     TEAGS had an agreement, no sleeping throughout the night.

     Meanwhile, Ernst and Jianne had a very “violent” agreement.

     “Let me get this thing clear, Ernst. It’s going to be dark and it’s going to be hard to see but mark my words, if you put your foot on my face, I’ll call you a b***h forever!”

     Austin longed to go to the other side. It was extremely boring since all they did was play some documentaries while waiting for the clouds to clear up.

     Austin snuck past the center line and said hello. Janella was with the Patola family and Bianca.

     He went back to the TEAGS area where Ernst broke the news.

     “Hey, dude, did you hear?”

     “What?”

     “Janella, she called Joel.”

     “So? I call other people, doesn’t mean I’m in love with them.”

     “Like the pancake lady in the lobby?”

     “Exactly. Okay, what did she say?”

     “I’m not sure.”

     Austin texted her and she said that, yes, she did call him. She asked why and Austin replied, “Nothing, just curious.”

     Jianne kept on taunting Ernst.

     “What’s the matter? You want to turn into a comet so you can smash into my dick. No thank you!”

     After a while, as if the heavens wanted to save Ernst, the third years got a bit too inconsiderate of the division line. Ms. Rose told them to go up front and reestablished the division line between girls and boys.

     The Sophies set up camp at the back now. Lanz was nearby and he took off his shirt and fell asleep on the portable bed he brought. A few of his classmates took advantage of this by taking pictures of him. The flash from their cameras revealed that he even left his fly open. Everyone around the vicinity laughed their asses off.

     Eventually, he did wake up and went into a fit of rage.

     “Umayos nga kayo! Pagpalitin ko ung mga itlog niyo eh!”

     (Loose translation: Will you stop it or so help me, I’ll switch your eggs around) Eggs, balls, small difference in their world.

     A bit later into the night, Jack Bungag was walking around the boys section eating chicken from his KFC bucket, complaining on how they forgot to bring him his gravy and other things to complain about. Everyone who could hear him laughed their asses off.

     A bit later into the night, Jack and Yusi began to wrestle each other. Thank goodness their power wasn’t super strength or the entire school would’ve crumbled to the ground. Yusi walked away unscathed as Ernst said, “Yusi! Take it easy!”

     He replied in a thick British accent, “What the **** did you say?!”

     Eventually, the clouds cleared up and they were able to go stargazing. This was short lived as another gigantic cloud went over. The guy they brought in from outside the school didn’t know that they had superpowers so they couldn’t just blow the clouds away or something like that.

     Eventually, they got bored and turned on the lights. They played some Lady Gaga as everyone danced. It was like the FS Night part deux.

     They also played a slideshow of some pictures that were taken during the night. This was probably the moment when they realized that this whole thing was an epic fail.

     Austin and Ernst tried to entertain themselves by pretending to be drunk and singing random songs like a stereotypical sailor.

     This didn’t hold very long so they took advantage of the low light and snuck to the Patola area.

     He got a bit too noisy and they told him to go away, causing him to go into a disproportionate depression.

     He went back to Ernst who was staring at the stars. He lay down on his sleeping bag and they sang drunk again to get rid of the underlying sadness. Eventually, Austin fell asleep in the middle of a song.

     When he woke up, they were screening Deep Impact. The clouds have been passing over them for two and a half hours now. They only had four hours left.

     Ernst asked if he could borrow Austin’s iPod. He agreed and he played his favorite piece of Classical Music which Ernst also liked, the end of the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky.

     While it was in the middle, Ernst was falling asleep. He decided to wake him up by suddenly playing Beast and the Harlot. Saying, “it worked” would be an understatement.

     Eventually, he got his earphones from Ernst and listened to music for the remainder of the time. The guy decided that they were wasting time so he began a lecture about meteorites.

     After the lecture, they let people touch an actual meteorite from outer space. Austin fell in line for this.

     When he finally touched it, he felt a spark in his brain. He remembered all the way back to December 11, 2008. He first touched the rock and got knocked out.

     He snapped out of it and went back to his place. He started having headaches again. He realized that that meteorite was a deactivated rock from the same planet and all it needed was activation.

     “You’re serious?”

     “Yes, Ernst, why wouldn’t I be? I can sense these things. I received two initial doses, everyone else only received one. Somehow it caused me to have a slightly higher knowledge regarding the properties of the rock. In the first four or so months, I’ve been having hallucinations.”

     “So what should we do?”

     “Nothing. It’s deactivated so we have no problem.”

     “Great. Let’s get back to sleep.”

     When the clouds finally subsided, they went stargazing again until the sun came up. It was 6 AM.

     Austin packed up his things and went over to the Patola area where Janella was sleeping. He thought to himself, “She sure looks like an angel while asleep.”

     He sat at the back, waiting for her to wake up. When she finally did…

     “Good morning, beautiful. Sleep well?”

     “Yeah, I guess.”

     They cleaned up the CWS and finally went home. Austin went to the Anonymous and went inside. There was a black Honda City parked beside his car.

     Austin waited for a while, in case Janella needed a ride but the weirdest thing happened. It turned out that the black Honda City beside his was actually her dad’s car. He put down his windows and waved goodbye. He nervously looked at her father and, for a split second, he could have sworn he saw him.

     Austin closed his window and drove back to the hotel.