sucked in

Chapter 14

"Excuse us! Excuse us!" sigaw ni Lia habang pinagtututulak ang mga estudyanteng nakaharang. Wala talagang takot 'tong babaeng 'to. Napailing-iling na lamang ako at mahinang tumawa.

Nang makarating na kami sa tapat ng bulletin board, hinanap ko kaagad ang pangalan ko.

Yep, the results of our midterm exams were posted today. We're now looking at the ranking. I started scanning the list from lowest to highest. 

"Estrella... Estrella..." bulong ko habang naghahanap. 

I stopped when I saw my name --- I landed on the 13th place. I was aiming for top 10, but not bad! Out of 116 students in our year, I came in 13th place. Not bad at all! Impit na napatili ako. I'm satisfied.

"I'm on 67th place! Oh, my God! 67th place! I'm so happy! I used to be on 68th place!" nagtatatalon na wika ni Lia habang tinatapik-tapik ako sa balikat. She looks so happy, kaya mas lumawak ang ngiti ko.

"Yeah, congrats, girl!" aniko at nakitalon-talon din.

Pagkatapos ng aming mini celebration, tumingin ako ulit sa ranking to see who made it to the top 10.

My eyes widened. Oh, my God. Aaron is in the top 5! I didn't know he was this smart.

"Girl, what's so shocking? W--" Nanlaki din ang mga mata ni Lia nang makita niya ang tinititigan ko. "What the f*ck? Aaron is on top 5? He used to be on the 80th place! How the hell did that happen?" Tila hindi siya makapaniwala.

Here are the top 5:

1. Lacuesta, Caleb R.
2. Miguel, Lawrence C.
3. Javier, Jia Kyla C.
4. Lorenzo, Faith M.
5. Cortejo, Aaron Kent Y.

As expected, Caleb placed number 1. I always knew he was smart. 

Lawrence --- of course, he takes 2nd place. He's the 2nd lead, you know.

Jia Kyla... I don't know her, but good job, girl!

Faith... well, yeah, she's pretty smart. 

And oh, I didn't know Aaron had a second name. Kent... Aaron Kent... Sounds cute! May bigla akong naisip na kalokohan. I grinned. I hope he won't get mad at me. Lumingon-lingon ako, searching for him.