School Diaries

Chapter 3 Revelations

Chapter 3

Revelations

It’s been two months since the first day.

Many things have happened. There are just a few special events though. Like when my crush and I played badminton together. That moment was so sweet---well for me it is. It’s so much fun playing with him. There was also the time when he became my dance partner at a Dance Contest. We won First place. That is not my only great achievement. I also won Second place in the Story writing contest. I am really proud of that.

Today’s lessons were just the same as always. Biology is now being taught by a student teacher, Mr. Marky Melque. Mrs. Carrasco acquired a student teacher and she’s letting him teach so that he could be trained. He’s very friendly and trying to be funny. He always have a visual aid to accompany him while he is teaching and we always copy it for it will serve as a reviewer for test. He once said that we don’t need to copy some of the visual aids but we just want to. He is not a bad teacher but when he is teaching nobody seems to listen.

English has never been a dull subject. There has been no change in Mrs. Cadiz’ attitude and teachings. Geometry is proving to a hard a subject. History is the enjoyable one.

Mrs. Cervantes is really a great, amazing teacher. I can’t find words to describe it at all. She explains every detail on every topic and sometimes she’s even doing research about it.

We were instructed yesterday to bring Oslo paper, Coloring materials and pencil. I suppose we are going to do an activity. Mrs. Cervantes came just right in time.

“Class, bring out your materials,” she instructed.

We followed her. “Hey Sheila, Do you have a sharpener?”

“Oh yeah, I have. Let me get it for you.”

She got it out from her bag and handed it over to me. “Thanks,” I muttered.

I started to sharpen the pencil. I have to go out just to throw the garbage away. When I got back Mrs. Cervantes was explaining what we will do. I quickly ran to my chair, sit straight up and listen to what she is saying.

“You will use these materials to make a slogan about the environment. You will have to be creative and make the slogan full of ideas.”

Well that’s great. ‘You will have to be creative.’ My writing calligraphy is not that great. Still I have to try.

I came up with a slogan that is good, I think. I tried to write it as fancy as I could but I only came up with this…

Loss of Water, Loss Lives

Gain of Water, Acquire Lives

I stared at it for a minute. Is it good enough? I crumpled my paper. No, it’s not good enough. I have to make it fancy.

“Shanel that’s really great. It’s beautiful,” Sheila snickered.

I peaked over at her work, astonished. Her work was much better than mine. The calligraphy is great. I imagined her calligraphy being applied to my work. It should look like this…

Loss of Water, Loss Lives

Gain of Water, Acquire Lives

I envy her. No, I envy her writing. It’s much beautiful than mine, I’ll admit. If only I could find a way to have her write for me, to have this excellent calligraphy onto my paper, onto my work. That would be perfect.

“Could you please write this for me?” Sheila asked Shanel.

“Sure.” She took her oslo paper and wrote it for her.

She is willing to do it. That makes things easier. I could just ask her like Sheila did and she will say yes. Problem solved!

“Shanel can you do me a favor?” I didn’t directly ask to be polite.

“What it is?”

“Can you write this for me?” I handed the paper.

“Allie this is an individual activity. You have to do it yourself. I am sorry,” she said. Not sounding sorry at all.

I cannot think of a word to say. I was shocked. All I managed to say was “Ok.” Why is it that when Sheila asked her she said yes and when I asked her she said no? All I can hope for is  that she will say no to the others that will ask her like me. Maybe she just did it for Sheila. Just for her. I hope.

I waited till someone asks her again. Everyone in our row is noticing her work. They admired it and praised it. My waiting ended when Tanya asked a similar question.

“Shanel write this for me, this word?”

“Which one? “

“This one,” she said pointing one finger at the word that will be written.

“Ok.” She took her paper and wrote it.

My hope crumpled. But maybe if I asked her to write only one word she would say yes. I can try.

I gave her my paper. “Please write this for me just this one word.” I said pointing at the word.

“You do it yourself.” She returned my paper with an annoyed expression.

“Okay, just letter L. I have troubles writing that letter”-- which is true.

“Okay, okay.” She reached for my paper and I handed it to her. She wrote the letter L not carefully or seriously as if this is just a joke.

“There!” She handed my paper to me. Now she is angry.

That broke my heart. It’s like my heart has been mangled by two different emotions anger and pain. It played inside me. I know that this is an individual activity but why does she say yes to them and only no to me? Yes she wrote the letter L but unwillingly.  This pain increased as she said yes to Janisa.

Why are you doing this to me? I wanted to ask her but I can’t seem to find my voice.

“15 minutes left,” Mrs. Cervantes announced.

In those fifteen minutes I ignored the pain and continued my work. In the end I ended up with this…

Loss of Water, Loss Lives

Gain of Water, Acquire Lives

I kept the one L she wrote. This has got to do. I passed it in the front and returned to the thought.

I couldn’t concentrate on Research. I’ve been thinking about it over and over again, asking the same questions. I have to get up on T.L.E. because we’re taking this class at the T.L.E. building.

We are currently building a project about electronics. We were grouped into five and were supposed to make this project every 50 minutes of this subject. Every day on this I could feel the ill manners of my group mates towards me—except for Sheila, sometimes. It’s like they don’t want me to work. They just want me to sit there. It would favor me but I couldn’t allow it. If I don’t participate on this what grade would I get?

Today I sat beside Elaine and tried to focus. I need to concentrate.

“Elaine can you move?  I am going to sit.” I turned my head to see who was speaking. It was Cassandra.

Elaine moved leaving a space in the middle. But Cassandra didn’t sit there. Instead she shoved Elaine to the middle and sat on the other side.

It looks like she doesn’t want to sit beside me. Why? Is she angry with me? This is the second time my heart broke.

No, I need to concentrate. Just stop thinking about it for a while. But the pain won’t stop burning.

I can’t concentrate again on Filipino and Algebra.