03x26: Newton's Third Law

The epicness of Austin's life begins to go up but just like the aforementioned law states, every action has an equal and opposite reaction...

NEWTON’S THIRD LAW

 

     The weekend was spent on planning for the assault. They really weren’t making much progress on it.

     He also watched The Godfather Part II again that Sunday. He enjoyed the first one better.

 

Monday came and he couldn’t think of any more good quotes so he left it blank for a while.

     As usual, he checked DDN for Janella but she wasn’t there. The minutes passed and still, she was nowhere to be seen.

     That morning was notable for being one of the few assemblies they had in the CWS in a long time. They awarded the winners of the games last Math Day.

     This took a bit longer than usual. It was almost 7:40 when Austin realized one thing, Janella was absent.

     He moped all the way to the classroom, depressed. He finally thought of a quote that perfectly deconstructed his irrational depression.

     “Nice quote, Austin!” Kristina said sarcastically.

     “Is that even a quote?!” Sean asked.

     It was from The Dark Knight: “Why so serious?”

     Sr. Geck started with the lesson about Quadratic Equations.

    

Later during Science time, they were reviewing on the first part of the Digestive System, the mouth.

     “So in the mouth, we have three main glands,” Sr. Jojo said. “The sublingual gland, the submandibular gland, and the parotid gland.”

     He asked Clutch to move to the next slide as he asked them a surprise question.

     “Okay, let’s review. What are the glands in the mouth again?”

     Froilan raised his hand.

     “Yes, Froilan?”

     “Mammary gland!”

     There was a short beat before the entire class and Sr. Jojo broke into laughter.

     “HAHA! May n****e sa bibig!” Sr. Jojo probably unintentionally blurted out as the image was imprinted on everyone’s minds. (Loose translation: There’s a n****e inside the mouth)

     They laughed for a good ten minutes before getting back to the lesson. Then Sr. Jojo strayed to the topic of the current power couple, Jasvir and Kristina.

     “That’s why you shouldn’t rush into things like Jasvir and Kristina have already do" OH MAY GAD! MAGKATABI SILA!”

     It was a very convenient coincidence (or was it?) that the pseudo-power couple decided to sit beside each other. For their Biology class however, they had to bid farewell to five more minutes.

     During English time, they had a long test about Figures of Speech. Austin finished early and looked over his answers a few times before getting tired of it and taking a short nap.

     He was in the middle of the CWS. To his right was Janella, in tears. To his left was Joel, with a furious expression on his face

     “I don’t want to be made a fool of anymore, Janella,” he said. “If you being mad at me is what it takes for me to have peace of mind when it comes to him, fine. SO be it but I am not going to forgive him for this.”

     He walked away and went up the stairs. Before he knew it, Janella had followed him up there. Austin wiped the tears from her face…

     This time, it wasn’t an effect of his psychic powers. It was just a normal dream.

     They passed their papers and Austin went out for Lunch.

 

Austin told Ernst and Bianca about the “premonition” he had.

     “He said sorry, I think that qualifies as you statement of security,” Ernst said.

     “Look, the Joel right now is no longer the Joel I knew. His ego is larger and so is my hatred for him. It sort of mellowed out since March or I just got used to it but mark my words, there is a very large possibility that he might be lying.”

     “Dude, if you want to make her yours, court her,” Bianca said.

     “Look, after all this time, it’s almost the one year anniversary of when I learned that she had a crush on me as well. I think it's subconscious or something, my subconscious has proven to have actual control over my conscious self, but I think the only reason I haven’t made a move on her yet is because I’m intimidated by her brother.”

     “That’s part of everything. Are you a man or not?”

     Then he felt his cellphone vibrate inside his pocket.

     “I’ll be right back.”

     He went to the boys’ restroom and locked himself in a cubicle. He took out his cellphone and looked at the most recent message.

     “What if I wasn’t born? You would have never met me.”

     He replied:

     “Life would be a lot less bright. :-( Are you ok? I miss you.”

     “Yeah, don’t worry. I’m not dying. :-)”

     “Good. I’m glad you’re okay. Talk to you later.”

    

AP class was boring as usual. Sr. Leo’s affinity for asking the students to report has not worn off yet. He did enjoy the quote being Batman’s number one fan.

     TLE was a bit more interesting due to Austin talking with Ms. Joan about movies after they were finished with a chocolate molding activity.

     While they were talking, Sean and Jade told Austin that they would be serving the food. Austin excused himself and went with them downstairs.

     They decided to give it to Ms. Laurice and a very interesting happened. Austin told Ms. Laurice that he liked one of her students. She took this well and it soon evolved into her asking Sean who his crush was, the answer to which shall remain confidential.

     Austin stopped by DDN before going home. Ernst and Bianca went with him to the bus area. Patrick was also there.

     “Hey, Pat!”

     “Yo.”

     “Wanna come with us? We’re going to check out Sanglayon.”

     “Sure.”

     He called the Anonymous on his new wireless beeper he designed. It flew to his location and they stepped in.

     He drove to the portal in front of the school and went through it.

     They found themselves in a basement with stairs leading to the upper floors. Hey went up and there were students everywhere.

     “Look on the bright side. At least there’s ice cream,” Ernst said.

    

The next day was a free day due to Eid’l-Adha.

     Wednesday’s quote was “Here’s looking at you, kid,” from Casablanca.

     Austin finally got to talk to Janella again that morning, much to his delight.

     During Math time, Sr. Geck once again sported what was now known as the “Sr. Geck Accent”. Yes.

     During Art, they had to make some clay structures and build a story around it. Justine made a toy room and Austin molded a pig. He was entrusted with creating the story.

     A few more memorable moments happened in Science time. The funniest one in particular was when Sr. Jojo asked what substance was excreted by the Liver. Froilan answered, “Liver Spread”. Five minutes of their lives once again passed by.

     During Lunch time, Ernst followed up on yesterday’s topic.

     “So, you okay now? I mean, regarding the…”

     “Yeah, I am. Look Ernst…”

     Austin grabbed him by the shoulders and looked across the library at Janella.

     “I trust her with my life. I know, deep inside, that that will never happen.”

     “Well, that’s good. Please let go of my shoulders.”

     “Sorry…”

     Later during Kinesthetic time, Austin and Ms. Mac had a discussion regarding the prohibition of Finds. It somehow led to her seeing the crossword puzzle he made and laughing out loud at the clue for Joven, “MY TURNING POINT WAS WHEN I MET BETTINA!”

     When he got home later on, he decided to get pseudo-drunk with Orange Soda while thinking of an idea for their Art sculpture.

 

Austin really ran out of quotes the next day so he put, “The force will be with you… always,” from Star Wars.

     Austin’s Orange Soda Method worked. His final story was named Squealy the Pig and the Room of Toys.

     He showed it to everyone and they enjoyed it. He just wrote his first Children’s story.

     He went over to DDN around 7 and sure enough, Janella was there.

     “Good morning, beautiful.”

     “Austin. Will you please"“

     “Janella…”

     He looked her in the eyes.

     “To me, you’re the most beautiful girl in the world.”

     He could have sworn she smiled.

     “DUDE! You’re kinda late,” Bianca said. She was with Ernst.

     “The greatest puzzle in life. Why are you and Ernst always together in the morning?”

     Bianca and Ernst dive bombed away from each other. Janella and Austin laughed at this before he bid farewell, going back to the CV room.

     Sr. Geck set up another Simultaneous assembly. This time, Justine, Marella, Chili, Sese, and Justin Pucyutan were assigned as assembly leaders and they face the pillar in between CV and DOR. It was a fun experience.

     Math class was pretty interesting since they continued on Quadratic Equations.

     During English time, they had an activity where they had to make a free verse poem using words from a magazine. Austin’s was pretty standard but he passed it anyway. He also showed Ms. Sharon the poem, which she probably enjoyed.

     During Recess, Austin waited for his usual Pizza Bar when suddenly, Cyril stood beside him in the exact position on the day of “The Egg Incident”. They didn’t speak to each other and Austin walked away, happily eating his Pizza Bar.

     Austin gave Jericho, Pat, and Kristina a copy of the crossword. It helped them cope with the boredom of the next two periods.

      Another interesting thing was that Sean took a copy of the crossword and made forty-four copies. He handed them out and they kept the test for now.

      During Science, they received a memo. The Christmas Party would be “The Family Hub” where parents will join in the festivities. Austin felt like he was punched in the face when he saw a certain line in the memo. “We hope you will take part in this innovative event.”

     “Innovative? This is one of the worst ideas they’ve come up with…, with all due respect of course.”

     This was one of the few times where Austin and Pat came to an agreement. Maybe it didn’t count because most of the students agreed that this was a bad idea.

     This meant a few things. The usual Christmas Party where the class would bond together, that was gone. The Christmas Dance where Austin could get another chance, it was gone. The plans for the ZL where Jib gets to sing two songs, those were gone.

     During Music time, they only had a practical test so they took the crossword puzzle with them to the AVR where Sr. Chris didn’t mind it that much. That was the last cool part of the day.

    

The next day, despite being the 100^th day of school, was not that eventful.

     For instance, that day’s quote was from The Dark Knight again: “Either you die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

     They had their first swim time in P.E. and they reversed the “When you see it, you’ll s**t brix” thing into “When you s**t Ernst, you’ll see brix.”

      Ms. Sharon also gave him a copy of some of Miyazaki’s films but aside from that, it was a pretty bland end of the week.

    

That Sunday, Austin got to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I in the theatres. He just couldn’t believe it was almost over.

 

Monday was the first of many days without quotes.

     During Filipino, Ms. Becky once again had them make a skit. Austin volunteered to go first.

     “Yung mga kagrupo ni Awstin, punta na doon!” (Awstin’s groupmates, go there)

     Austin finally got tired with this mispronunciation of his name so he went with the old adage, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

     “MGA KAGRUPO NI AWSTIN, PUNTA NA DITO!” Austin said himself. (Awstin’s groupmates, come here!)

     Austin also got something he ordered from Rica, an A7X pin. He wore it on his ID with pride as he went to the DDN room.

     The Lord of the Rings obsession continued when Ernst said that they were going to have a long test in AP later.

     “We have that too… later. Well, if Gandalf was here, you know what he would tell you?” Austin asked Ernst.

     “What?”

     “IF YOU DID NOT REVIEW FOR THE LONG TEST IN AP, YOU… SHALL NOT… PASS!”

     “Haha, that’s a good one.”

     Outside, Ernst was pretty much calm. On the inside, he was laughing… out loud…

     During Science, they told Sr. Jojo about Ms. Becky’s pronunciation of Austin’s name. He attempted to justify this.

     “Guys, just let it be. You know… between you and me… Ms. Becky has an Australian bloodline.”

     Hold your laughter like they did.

     “As they say,” Sr. Jojo said with a pseudo-Australian accent. “I will not die today!” (It pretty much sounded like “I will not daey todaey)

     Sr. Jojo also questioned who Roger was in those transmissions.

     Another thing worth noting was that it was Ms. Sharon’s Birthday. They greeted her that day and the class went back to normal.

     Lunch was pretty bland but now it was time for the AP Long Test.

     One question was leaked but Sr. Leo couldn’t have cared less. They couldn’t care more since the answer to the question was allegedly not discussed.

     “Who is the father of Marco Polo? That wasn’t discussed!”

     The angels descended from heaven and sent a teacher to talk to Sr. Leo for a while, giving them time to skim their book before the papers were handed out.

     “Hurry up! Find it!!!!” some of them urged.

     Finally, they found it just before Sr. Leo finished talking.

     They pretty much all had the same answer. It was correct.

     Aside from Sr. Leo asking them if they wanted a Christmas Dance or Intramurals (which was supposedly going to be cancelled for this school year), that was the last memorable event.

     While he was doing his homework in his room, he received a text message from Janella.

     “Sorry. Don’t ask why just sorry.”

     “It’s ok but I wish I knew what this was about.”

     It took a while before she replied.

     “Sorry because I talk to Joel in hiding. I don’t want you to be sad. Sorry if sometimes I don’t mind you. Sorry for everything.”

     Strangely, this didn’t bother him.

     “It’s ok to talk to him. You’re the girl I trust the most… Except of course for my mom :-)”

     “:-)”

     “Hey. Thanks for telling me. Don’t worry about those kinds of things. I trust you with my heart.”

      “Thanks. Good night.”

    

The next day, Austin remembered all the way back to when Sean was almost caught using his iPhone. He searched the rulebook for a loophole but found nothing. Then he saw it in the Student Planner, the loophole to trump all other loopholes… at least in this scenario.

     “High School students are not allowed to use gadgets within class hours. That is the paraphrased statement in the planner,” Austin said to Ibarra.

     “Yes?”

     “Class hours are specifically defined as 7:20 AM to 5:00 PM. This means that we can use the aforementioned gadgets before and after said times. Therefore, unless the clock strikes 7:20, they can’t confiscate our gadgets unless another loophole paints us as Grade school students, which we are not!”

     “That is excellent!”

     “I know right? Now if you excuse me, I’m going to dish out my iPod. Have your diary ready in case a teacher wants to confiscate your stuff this morning. Give them my argument, you cannot lose… unless you cuss them out which is a very dumb thing to do. We have… one hour. Let’s make the most of it!”

     One hour went by and they shared the loophole to the other CV people.

     Later, during TLE time, Austin began singing Close to You by the Carpenters only replacing the lyrics with students of CV.

     “Why does Jack suddenly appear, every time, Bade is near…”

     “Austin! Stop it!” Bade said.

     “Why does Renz suddenly appear… every time… Bettina is near.”

     “AUSTIN!”

     Right there, it started to rain.

 

Ms. Laurice gave her time to Sr. Geck. He practiced Yara for an upcoming contest while the rest of them goofed off.

     Austin started a poll: Albus Dumbledore or Gandalf the White? This was soon compromised when they added a third member to the poll: Edward Cullen. Obviously, he lost.

     The library also had the National Book Week where there were trivia questions in the library and you could win a prize.

     Austin wasn’t really a book nut but when he was minding his own business, he overheard Lui and his friends drawing a question.

     “Name three members of the Fellowship of the Ring,” Lui read.

     “Hey Lui, need help?” Austin asked.

     “Sure.”

     “May I?” Austin asked the librarian. She nodded. “Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, and Gandalf the Grey.”

     She nodded and Lui drew a prize. He got a lollipop.

     “Thanks Austin!”

     “Meriadoc Brandybuck, Peregrin Took, Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Gimli, son of Gloin, Legolas, and Boromir.”

     “Umm… thanks Austin.”

     Austin drew a question from the pile. “Name the Pevensie children.”

     “Edmund, Lucy, umm… Susan… and umm… what’s his name? Umm… Oh! Peter!”

     The librarian nodded again and he drew a small soft candy from the prize box.

     He sat down with Janella, Lui, Nica, Bianca, and Ernst.

     “Hey, Janella. I got you some candy,” Austin said.

     He handed her the candy. She said thanks.

     “You know, you can share that,” Lui said.

     “What?”

    “Try to split it without using your hands.”

     “Lui, that’s disgusting,” Janella said.

     Austin didn’t react. Bianca gave him a look that said, “You’d enjoy that, wouldn’t you?” He didn’t look back.

     Ernst begged Rica for an A7X pin. She asked him for money and he willingly paid for it. She told him to wait a few weeks.

    

The next day, Froilan took charge with the quote of the day. “Time is Gold.”

     This was pretty much universally mocked but it was better than nothing.

     Before Art time, the CCP participants were called out.

     During Art time, they had to create another presentation. It was a puppet show to be performed live. Austin was once again tasked with the script.

     He began brainstorming. The only thing on his mind was Lord of the Rings so he thought of something similar to that without being a rip-off.

     During Lunch, the topic was the “Transitive Property of Equality” which states that if a=b and b=c, then a=c. They took this to literal levels by saying, “If someone touches Ernst and Ernst touches his a*s, then someone just touched Ernst’s a*s.” This was made more extreme by, “If Bianca likes pancakes and pancakes like Justin Bieber. Then Bianca likes Justin Bieber.”

     They really played around with this but more examples would be pointless

     Another topic was about how Sr. Leo threw out their recitation box (where they would put their name in every time they answered a question) out of the balcony, wasting all their hard earned recitation for petty reasons.

     On the way to the library, Janella, Nica, and Bianca had to go to Sr. Leo’s office. They waited for them and they went straight to the library afterwards.

     Throughout the remainder of the time, something seemed terribly wrong about Janella.

     They were talking about how Sr. Leo basically “verbally abused” most, if not all the students of DDN, one by one.

     They claimed that he made some offensive remarks including homophobic remarks. Now although this was probably 85% exaggeration and 15% perjury, it was still pretty much a fact that CCP participants were basically the luckiest people on earth.

     When they went back to the rooms, Austin dropped Janella off as usual but she seemed uneasy and rushed away from him towards the comfort room.

     “Bianca, what’s wrong with Janella?”

     “Nothing, she just went to the restroom.”

     “She has been uneasy since you got out of Sr. Leo’s office.”

     Bianca remained silent for a while before Nica came in.

     “Isn’t it obvious?”

     Austin finally connected the dots and figured that Sr. Leo was behind all of this.

     He approached Ms. Rose, who was their current moderator.

     “Miss, do you mind if I stay for a while? I just have to ask a few questions.”

     “No problem.”

     Austin waited for Janella to get back. He then sat down at the back with Janella.

     “Janella, tell me what happened.”

     “Nothing…” she said while mildly sobbing.

    “Don’t even try to tell me it’s nothing. It’s definitely not nothing. What happened?”

     She remained quiet.

     “Look. I’m willing to stay here until you tell me.”

     “Fine. It was Sir Leo!”

     Austin stood up in a fuming rage. He marched over to the CV room. Ms. Anne was one of the dance instructors for CCP so they were being fused with DOR with Ms. Laurice.

     They were going to have film viewing in the Computer Lab. This was supposed to be a good thing for Austin but aside from his anger at Sir Leo, the movie was one he didn’t particularly like: Paranormal Activity.

     “Sweetheart, can you pick up the speakers from Sir Leo?” Ms. Laurice said to Austin.

     Austin almost blew up at the sound of his name.

     “Miss, I’m sorry but I have a problem with Sr. Leo right now. I’d be willing to do anything else as long as it doesn’t involve him.”

     “I understand. It’s okay.”

     They waited for the speakers as they loaded the DVD into the computer where it was projected on the screen.

     “Austin, do you know what movie this is?” Marise asked.

     “I believe it is Paranormal Activity. I recognize that boring DVD screen anywhere.”

     “Oh crap.”

     The movie continued to run on as Austin and Marise essentially agreed on the movie sucking. It helped him to redirect his anger elsewhere but not by much.

     “This isn’t suspenseful! This is just boring! We don’t need to watch this!” Austin said.

     “I know right?!”

     Then, it hit Austin. Ms. Laurice was DDN’s adviser. She would like to know if a teacher was quote unquote “harassing” her students.

     “Excuse me for a while,” he said.

     “Sure,” Marise answered.

     He went to Ms. Laurice at the back.

     “Hi, Miss.”

     “Hello, Austin. Hey, there aren’t any sensual scenes in this film, are there?”

     “Well, none really. It just sucks.”

     “Hahaha.”

     “Anyway. You might be wondering why I was so mad at Sir Leo earlier.”

     “Okay…”

     “Well, I’m pretty sure you know that I have a crush on one of your students and we’re really good friends.”

     “Yes.”

     “Well, earlier this lunch time, my friends in DDN told me stories. Now we can’t confirm the exact details but this are some of the things they told me.”

     Austin told Ms. Laurice the testimonies he receives and Ms. Laurice said that she will look into it, maybe talk to Sir Leo.

     “Thank you, miss. I really appreciate it.”

     “Thank you, Austin. You’re the first person I heard this from.”

     “You're welcome, miss.”

     Austin went back beside Marise who was still watching the movie.

     “What was that about?”

     “Sr. Leo just pissed off Janella and a few of my other friends in DDN and I told Ms. Laurice all about it. Now she’s gonna talk to him and hopefully, they put him in rehab and when he comes back, we will actually be capable of learning AP.”

     “Really? What did he do to them?”

     “Well, I’m not sure what he did to Janella but she was crying so that’s probably something harsh. Also, he threw their recitation box out the balcony all because he couldn’t bear a little chaos in the class of twenty-one.”

     “Oh… that sucks.”

     “You know what else sucks? This movie…”

     “Hahaha.”

     “Austin,” Mo-on said. “is this going to get any scarier soon?”

     Only now did they notice that they were essentially fast forwarding through the movie. It was already the ending.

     “I guess so. But this movie sucks anyway so it’s not like that would change anything.”

     They watched the ending and when the jump moment finally hit, Austin, Marise, Rica (who was beside Mo-on) and most of the students there didn’t even react. On the other hand, Mo-on (and Justin Lubag) had very violent reactions to the jump scene.

     Later that day, Janella finally revealed what happened.

     “I was just doing our creative output, you know, for ZL. Then he comes in a takes it from me. He tells me that it will be going to Sr. Dan. I ask him if he’s serious and he just nods.”

     “That sucks. He ought to get a life, really. You okay now?”

     “Yeah.”

     “Want me to take you to Woodridge?”

     “No thanks. I was just about to leave. You better go too.”

     “Okay then. See you.”

    

The next day, Austin still wasn’t finished with his script for Art class.

     He replaced the quote of the day with a poll of the day. Today’s was “Sirius Black vs. Aragorn, son of Arathorn vs. Owen.”

     Owen was winning by Recess. After recess, there was a Mass.

     Near the end of the Mass, after the Communion, Sr. Chris was just playing instrumental music on the piano when suddenly…

     “DJ!”

     Someone actually had the guts to press the DJ button during the Holy Eucharist.

 

AP time was awkward since he was furious at Sr. Leo. He was silent the entire time.

     During Lunch, Janella was kinda sick.

     “Austin, come here!” Nica said.

     “Why?”

     “Your girlfriend’s sick and won’t eat.”

     “What?!” Janella said.

     “Well, you’re sick and not eating, right?!”

     “Janella, you have to eat,” Austin said.

     “I don’t feel like it.”

     “It’ll only make you feel worse.”

     She remained quiet. Austin placed his lunchbox down.

     “I won’t eat until you take a bite.”

    Janella felt uncomfortable for a while before finally yielding and eating lunch. Austin just sat there.

     “Well, aren’t you going to eat?” she asked

     “Yes, I will.”

     Austin went back the TEAGS table and ate his lunch.

     During the remainder of the time, Austin and Janella shared some small talk.

     “Still obsessed? Until now?” she asked.

     “I’ve been a Mickey Mouse fan since the beginning of time. “

     “Hahaha.”

    “Hey… If I’m Mickey, you’re Minnie.”

     She stopped laughing and it suddenly became awkward.

 

At the end of the day, Austin walked her to the bus area. On the way there, they passed by Maan. Janella teased her by saying, “Hi Ernst,” to which she looked at her with a “Whaaaat?” face and continued walking.

     They said their goodbyes as they went their separate ways.

 

The next day’s polls were more trivial: Burger, Fries, Chicken, or Owen?

     During Filipino time, Jib kept on howling due to boredom. For the most part, Ms. Becky didn’t mind this until it got really annoying.

     “At ang"“

     “AWOOO!!”

     “-ibig sabihin ng-“

     “AWOOOOO!!!!!!”

     “Jib, ano ba problema mo, para kang hayop diyan!” (Jib, what is your problem, you’re like and animal there!)

     “Wala, miss…” (Nothing, miss.)

     During P.E., they had a practical test on the backstroke. During Jack’s test, he got a bit too overzealous with the kicking and his legs ended up outside the pool, knocking him off balance.

     Obviously, the other DDN boys laughed at his misfortune. He reacted by flipping them off while Sr. Anton was there. Obviously, he was reprimanded.

     Also, Austin did some research last night on how to graph parabolas. He kept graphing random quadratic equations throughout the day while using his “Pseudo-Pet Style” to make sure the teacher knew that he was still paying attention.

     During Math time, Sr. Geck saw the Poll of the Day. He put a question mark beside Owen and put two arrows downward, writing, “steamed or marinated,” and putting a tick on steamed.

     The class laughed at this, Owen included.

     “You know what? I change my mind, I’ll go with marinated. I just imagine Owen being steamed with all the sweat dripping down.”

     The class went into a laughing fit for a few minutes before they got back the lesson.

     At the end of the day, Austin walked Janella to the bus area where they said their usual farewells.

    

Austin watched Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind that Saturday. He liked Howl’s Moving Castle more.

     The main movie of the day however was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King which was the first movie that Austin had to break convention to rate, giving it a 97% awesome where all movies prior only had 96% as the highest possible score.

     The next day, he got a copy of Scott Pilgrim. Obviously, he watched it and told Marise about it immediately after. Obviously, she rented it for Tuesday.

     Tuesday because Monday as a non-working holiday due to Bonifacio Day.

     Maan took this opportunity to shoot a video for CCF class about the Beatitudes. Austin was the only guy in the group. The other members were AD, Pat, Bettina, Karla, and Maan. AD wasn’t able to come and Pat simply didn’t tell anyone she wasn’t going.

     They did a stop motion film to the Black Eyed Peas “Where is the Love”

 

On Tuesday, November 30, 2010, the board was completely clean. He ran out of ideas for polls and quotes. Rica, however, had a wonderful idea: Lyrics of the Day.

     Austin also finished the script for Art class. It was called The Quest for the Sphere of Light. It was what he considered his masterpiece at the time but sadly, he only wrote the first act.

     He let Ibarra and Sean read it. They absolutely loved it. Ibarra and Austin also made an ensemble darkhorse of a minor character named Dorx.

     During Computer, Austin gave Ms. Laurice the DVD of Scott Pilgrim for screening for the ZL tomorrow. She didn’t like kissing scenes so they had to screen it. Austin just hoped that she would give it a pass.

     Austin also began grouping people into the four temperaments of Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic just for fun.

     During Filipino time, Ms. Becky was being observed by Sr. Martin and this was one of the few times where she was actually teaching using a method that worked. Still, it was only a small improvement.

     Sr. Leo had nothing better to do for them so he took all of them to Sanglayon. On the way back, they crossed baths with DDN.

     When Austin went to Ms. Laurice’s office to check on Scott Pilgrim…

     “I’m sorry sweetheart.”

     “We can just fast forward that scene. It’s okay to fast forward it.”

      “Just bring a movie without kissing scenes okay, preferably a comedy.”

     Austin sad goodbye as he rushed to find Marise. Luckily, she was in the classroom.

     “Marise!”

     “Yo! How’d it go?”

     “It was duly disapproved.”

     “Why?”

     “Scott and Ramona making out was too much. But hey, bring it anyway just in case.”

     “Sure!”

     “Okay, enjoy the movie, I gotta go.”

     Austin went to the waiting area, looking through his inventory for a comedy without kissing.

     “What’s bothering you?” Janella asked.

      “Your adviser is asking me to look for a good comedy without kissing scenes. The only ones I can think of are animated films and… that’s it.”

     “What about Kung Fu Panda?” Ernst asked.

     “That’s pretty much an animated film,” Austin said sarcastically.

     “Well… good luck.”

    

The next day was the first day of December. Christmas was nearing and the spirit was closing in.

     Austin was made an instant fan of Alfred Hitchcock when he saw Psycho last night.

     When he went to visit Janella in the DDN room, the uncomfortable feeling she had seemed to have resurfaced.

     During Math time, Sr. Geck was discussing the quadratic formula.

     “In short. It is ‘x equals negative b plus minus the square root of b² minus 4ac… all over 2a”

     He wrote it down on the board.

     “Would you like to derive?”

     “NO!” the class said.

     “Yes…” Austin said.

     “Yes?” Sr. Geck asked.

     “NO!!”

     “Yes!” Austin said.

     “Austin, we get it. Just die already!” Sean said in his joking tone.

     “Who said that?”

     Everyone became quiet.

     “Who cursed Austin?”

     “Sean…” Jib mumbled.

     “Who was it?”

     Sean nervously raised his hand.

     “I’ll talk to you later.”

     Austin faced Sean.

     “Dude, I’m so sorry. It’s all my"“

     “It’s alright.”

     After the class, Austin approached Sr. Geck.

     “Sir…”

     “Yes, Austin.”

    “Look, the thing Sean did. That’s commonplace for the two of us. We always kid around and I’m always the butt-end. I’m used to it. You don’t need to talk to"“

     “That can’t be, Austin.”

     “Sir, you wanted to talk to me,” Sean said.

     Sr. Geck told Sean that what he did was wrong and he might end up in terrible situations if he does it again. There was a little threat of sending him to Sr. Dan near the beginning.

     “What about that Sr. Dan thing?”

     “I was just kidding. Take it easy,” Sr. Geck said smiling. Sean smiled as well.

     ‘Thank you, sir.”

     “No problem,” Sr. Geck said as he walked towards the ramp. “Tuason, come here. We need to talk.”

     “Well, that wasn’t that bad,” Austin said to Sean.

     “Dude, I’m sorry that I said that.”

     “It’s okay. That’s life.”

    

In Art class, they began planning for the play. Justine kept complaining that the script was too long.

     “Justine, look, this script is greater than the sum of its parts. We take out one of those parts, it falls apart. Imagine the shower scene from Psycho replaced with a simple ‘I stabbed you in your sleep’ scene. Or the Battle of Pelennor Fields replaced with Aragorn and The Witch King sparring in the courtyard of Minas Tirith.”

     “I don’t understand these analogies.”

     “Or the revelation in Empire Strikes Back replaced with a post card from Darth Vader. Or the Johnny B. Goode Scene from Back the Future replaced with Marty just… I don’t know, playing a lamer song. You get my point?”

     “Okay, okay, I won’t shorten the script.”

     At this point, Sean was playing with his guitar.

     “Sean, give me that,” Sr. Mike said.

     “Sir, I’ll keep it.”

     “Give it.”

     Sr. Mike wasn’t intimidating Sean with his tone. He was actually smiling. This was because Sean and Sr. Mike were actually friends because of Badminton.

     Sr. Mike did take his guitar as they continued the planning.

    

During Lunch, Janella seemed very distant. Austin talked about this in the library.

     “I feel like she’s slipping away again. It’s as if I’m losing her.”

     “Austin…” Bianca said.

     “What?”

     “She told me something…”

     “What is it? What?!”

     “She said that she’s more comfortable with Monster…. Than with you.”

    “Monster” was her nickname for Joel.

     “Then by d****t, I’ll make her comfortable with me.”

     “Austin.”

     “I don’t understand why she isn’t comfortable with me. I’m comfortable with her. I just can’t understand!”

     Later, during the Creative ZL, Ms. Laurice took the dance instructor role as Ms. Anne took charge of the film viewing. She still didn’t allow Scott Pilgrim. In the end, they watched Kung Fu Panda.

     “That’s it. I’m having a terrible day,” Austin said, moping towards Marise and Kristina.

     “Why?” Marise asked.

     “The love of my life is slipping away. Her advisers disapprove of one of the best movies of the year. I can’t be mad because she’s the adviser of the girl of my dreams. And here we are now, fourteen year olds having a kick out of Kung Fu Panda.”

     “I know, right?”

     “Isn’t that sweet?” Kristina asked.

     “What?”

     “You can’t get mad because she’s the adviser of the girl of your dreams. That part.”

     “I guess. I always think of her that way. But now she’s slipping away.”

     “Well,” Marise said. “I said, ‘Hi Austin’ to her one day in the waiting area and she was pretty unresponsive. Then I asked if you two are still MU and she said yeah.”

     “Well, I we aren’t going anywhere if you guys don’t know the full story so I think it’s better if I tell you.”

     He told them the entire story about him, Janella, and Joel all the way from the beginning.

     “I can’t believe there can be someone like that,” Kristina said, referring to Joel.

     “Now I know why you hate him so much,” Marise said.

     “I just can’t believe that there’s even a slight chance of this happening.”

     “You want my advice. Confront her. Speak your mind. It’s better for her to just tell the truth than having to hide it from you. If that’s not what is going on, good for you. If it is, then at least it happens now rather than later,” Kristina said.

     “If ever you need someone to talk to, we’re here for you,” Marise said.

     “Thanks guys.”

     The story took up most of the time really so this was the end of the discussion.

     Before going to the Library for Exceptionality, Austin splashed some water on his face in the boys’ restroom near Saragani. Inside was Dave Ancheta, former enemy of his and one of Joel’s best friends.

     “Austin,” he said, “kayo ba ni Janella?”

     He was asking if Janella was his girlfriend.

     “Hindi pa. Bakit?” (Not yet. Why?)

     “Pinapatanong ni Joel eh.” (Joel asked me to ask.)

     Austin tried to remain calm, using Janella’s cryokinesis technique to cool him down. He went to the Library for Exceptionality.

     After the club, Austin went to the Waiting Area to confront Janella.

     “Janella.”

     “Hi.”

     “Look, are you still uncomfortable around me?”

     She kept quiet for a while. He looked her in the eye.

     “Look, Janella, you’re my best friend. You don’t need to be uncomfortable or shy or anything like that towards me. I’m here for you, now and always. You understand?”

     She nodded. Austin went for his bag when Janella called him again.

     “Austin.”

     “Yeah?”

     “Thanks.”

     “No problem… hey, you want some ice cream?”

     “No thanks.”

     Austin dropped his bag again and went closer.

     “Speaking of which, something happened earlier. I was in the restroom when Dave Ancheta, you know, Joel’s friend, asked me if we were… you know.”

     “Yeah? What did you say?”

      “I said we weren’t and I asked why he was asking. He said Joel put him up for it.”

     She didn’t even appear shocked.

     “I just thought you ought to know that. Anyway, you sure you don’t want ice cream?”

     “Yeah, I’m sure.”

     “Okay, take care. Oh yeah, did you hear?”

     “What?”

     “Owen and Ernst. They’re a couple now.”

     “Really?”

     “Yeah. Be sure to greet them a happy monthsary on New Year.”

     “Bye.”

     “See ya.”

     Austin called the Anonymous to the parking lot. On the way there, Joel caught up with him.

     “Hey Austin.”

     “Joel. What’s up?”

     “I have a question. Just for example. What if Janella liked someone else? What would you do?”

     Why was he asking him this?

     “I would let it be. I want her to be happy. Why?”

     “Nothing. Just curious. Anyway, see you.”

     “Bye.”

     He went in the car and drove up to his room.

 

That night, he was watching The Bourne Ultimatum.  He wasn’t enjoying it that much so he decided to text Janella.

     “Hey beautiful. :-) Thanks for earlier. You really are the most amazing girl I have ever met :-)”

     Her reply was more than surprising.

     “Austin, please. Don’t use those adjectives. I have a question. Is it ok?”

     His heart was beating fast. He paused the movie.

     “What is it?”

     “Is it ok? Don’t get mad. What if I like someone?”

     He knew it. Somewhere at the back of his mind, he knew it.

     “I knew it. I asked him. It’s ok. I understand.

     “Who him?”

     “I think you know. My best friend last year.”

     “Huh? What did you say?”

     “It’s Joel, isn’t it?”

     “What did you say?”

     “I didn’t say anything.”

     “Sorry.”

     “So… you don’t have a crush on me anymore?”

     “I hope we’re still friends. The same first year. I’m really sorry.”

     It took a while for him to reply. The classic “still friends” line was one he hoped he would never encounter.

     “Hey, it’s okay. I’m not mad. I just wanted the truth.”

     “Sorry.”

     “It’s okay. I understand. You’re still my best friend. :-)”

     He sent that last message with all the honesty in his heart.

     “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have kept your hopes up.”

     “No need to apologize. I’m the one who has to apologize for being boring :-(  I hope you two are happy :-) “

     “We’re just friends.”

     “Yeah. I’ve heard that before.” Austin said to himself, somewhat unconsciously.

 

After a while, he texted Joel.

     “Joel, it is done. Take good care of her for me. If you break her heart, I will break you.”

    

He texted Janella again.

     “But Janella, I’m gonna be honest. You’re still the best girl I have ever met. :-) “

   

Joel replied to him. He didn’t really care about Joel so he played the movie, partially diverting his focus.

     “Hey man. I hope what you learned earlier doesn’t affect our friendship. I’m sorry you had to hear it that way. I’m sorry man. Friends?”

     “Yeah. I trust you’ll take good care of her. If you hurt her in any way, I’ll make sure you regret it.

     “Ok. I’m sorry too if I lied earlier.”

     “It’s ok. Just promise you’ll take good care of her.”

     “Yeah. I promise.”

     “Ok. Good luck. :-)”

 

This was it. His entire world was crumbling down. He felt as if his life just lost a purpose. All that ambiguous feeling he believed was love just got thrown out of the window.

     He thought it wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t Joel. Out of all the people in the world, why was it Joel?

     He was desperate. He didn’t know what to do. He needed to tell someone. Anyone he could trust. Sean? No, he doesn’t know the extent of the situation. He could not see Renz giving him useful advice. Then, he went back earlier today. He texted the first person that came to mind.

     “Marise, it’s over…”

     She didn’t reply for a while. He didn’t have Kristina’s number and, for some reason, he didn’t turn to Ernst, Bianca, Mo-on, or Kyle.  At this dark point in his life, she was one of the few people he could trust.

 

About an hour later, his eyes watering, he received a text.

      “Hey Austin, this is Marise. I didn’t have load. What happened?”

     He was in the lowest point of depression since November 3, 1996. He wasn’t really feeling well either.

     “I’ll tell you tomorrow. Sorry, I’m not really in the mood. Hmph… life…”

     “Aw... Sure. Sure.”

 

A bit later, she sent a group message saying that a face can mask a thousand emotions or something like that. At the end, she said, “sorry to the people I’ve hurt.”

    

Later that night, his love for her has not faded. He decided o text her good night.

    “Hey. :-) Cheer up. Good night. Sweet dreams.”

     It was kinda ironic really since he was the one who needed cheering up.

     “Hi. Goodnight. I’m really sorry.”

     “It’s gonna be hard to let go

     And hard to move on

     Because I still love you

     But I understand

     I’ll cherish our memories

     Now and forever

     It was great while it lasted

     But all good things come to an end.

     “Thank you for everything. I couldn’t have survived this far in high school without you. But can I say it one last time?

     “Good night, beautiful. ;-)”

     That night, for the first time in his entire life, he cried himself to sleep. His heart was bleeding out on his bed as he desperately tried to get some rest for tomorrow, the first day of the rest of his life…