Wayback Home

Chapter 7

Funky Friday

Wala akong gana pumasok. Finals season nanamin for second quarter. Ramdam na rin yung lamig ng panahon, amoy na amoy na ang holidays!

Next week, Family Day nanamin dito sa school. Which is something I'm not really fond of in my school. But don't get me wrong. I appreciate the intention but I don't feel it's sensitive enough for them to have days like this. Not everyone has family, nor can they have healthy relationships with members they consider as one. Not everyone has it.

Naiintindihan ko na bilang Catholic School, may mga araw na ginugunita ang eskwelahan ayon sa pananaw ng institusyon. But for me, generally speaking, considering the crowd and student demographics in school, I don't think its ideal to have one. Siguro ayos pa yung tawaging Holiday Party or End of Year Celebration instead of Family Day that requires each students to attend in with their 'complete family'.

Anyways, I still have exams in my science class! Physics yung focus namin for this quarter so I'm really pushing myself to review. Kasi kung hindi? Bagsak. Hindi ako magaling sa math, more of like, I don't have the heart to familiarise myself with numbers and formulas. I never really took much effort to understand it because I find it boring. I don't know, I'm not saying that science and math are useless. It's not like that. I find it boring because I feel like I do not resonate with it enough to have that bond. You know the feeling that you feel whenever you are learning things and suddenly, each word in the lesson starts sparking your interest? I don't feel that much in STEM. Or maybe I'm just stupid, anyways, could care less about it.

I'm not grade-conscious. I wasn't raised to be one. However, since I started high school, I've been trying to be sensible with my studies. Hindi biro yung tuition na ibinabayad ng magulang ko sa school na'to para magbulakbol lang ako. Sure, I have that phase in elementary. But I was so young back then! Only when I came in this school that I pushed myself to really study. Kasi alam ko, nakikita ko, naiintidihan ko na hindi biro yung hirap ng mga magulang ko mapag-aral lang ako rito. Isa pa, ako yung nagpumilit sa school na'to e.

Hayy.

"Uy! ano ba, malapit na mag time, oh!" Lynea nudged me.

"Hmm?"

"Tulala ka naman! Ba't ba lagi kang lutang?"

"Ha? Ah. Wala lang. Bakit?"

"Nag-review ka na ba? Kala ko ba mag-rereview tayo rito sa corridor?"

"Ah. Oo, nag-review na ako sa bahay. I'm just scanning the module. You ba?"

"Yabang mo! Alam mo, bilib ak sa'yo. Ang sipag mo?"

"Sus. Kailangan e. Hahaha. Tapos ka na ba?

"Dito na ako sa may ano, pano ba 'tong computation na'to?"

I looked at the paper. Err, I wasn't good at this? But I tried explaining to Lynea all the I understand about the concept.

"Oh, okay. So, kapag ganito, to yung titignan ko?"

"Yes." I looked up when I heard footsteps coming in from the corridor. Break na nila.

"Tangina ka! Kaya pala gusto mo rito mag-review!"

I winked at her. Syempre, I don't want to spend my whole high school life guilt-tripping myself for forcing my parents to be at this school! Masaya rin magkaroon ng happy crush at times. I giggled at that thought.

"Para kang tanga." Liese told me with her usual narrowed eyes. Feeling ko tatandang dalaga 'to.

"Past 30 na, let's go na sa room." Lynea told us, eyes still pierced in her reviewer. Sometimes, naawa ako sa kanya. She's pressured by her mother to excel in class. Sometimes, we'll see her having panic attacks for a quiz. Or sometimes, we'll see her so pale. Puyat at stress kakaaral. She's smart naman, it's just that she's pressured and that is so obvious. Pero at one point, bilib din ako sa kanya. Never s'yang nagtanim ng sama ng loob sa nanay nya. She understands that all these are for her future. Nakakaawa lang talaga minsan lalo na kapag my panic attack sya saka namumutla, parang tutumba anytime e.

We stood up, Lynea walking with her eyes still on the paper.

"Huy! Give yourself a break. I'm sure you'll ace the quiz!" I told her but she just rolls her eyes at me. Grabe si ate girl, hataw na hataw!

"Huy, Lyneaa! Baka ma-information fatigue ka nyan, lalo mong makalimutan inaaral natin. Give it a chill! You're doing your best."

She inhaled before putting her papers down. "Sana masagutan ko lahat. Ayokong bumagsak. Shit"

We patted her back as we entered the room. The quiz began.

20 minutes passed and I'm still just halfway through the first page. I checked the back part of the paper and saw that there are multiple choices for concepts! Aha. There is hope!

I'm already on the back page of the paper when I heard our teachers ring the bell. 10 minutes left and fuck! The last question has a jumbled formula. So meaning, I need to devise a new one from the standard formula that we tackled. Tangina naman.

I kept looking on the paper and just have my way through it. I just did it the way I understand the problem. Tangina talaga e ano bang mapapala ko in 5 years kapag nasagot ko e problem na 'yon. Bwisit.

The bell rang twice and I passed my paper forward. I knew I did well on the first parts. But sa part ng problem-solving, hindi ko alam. Lalo na yung last question. Alanganin ako. I hope I got it this time! I tried devising the formula by looking at the elements present. Standardized formula is that we multipl before we divide. So ang ginawa ko ay divide the multiply after. I probably sound stupid but fuck! Ang confusing nung problem construct. Sana ganon nga lang yung demand nung problem. Huhu.

"Good bye class! We will be checking your quiz next year. After holiday break."

I can still hear Lynea and Maggie chattering at the back about the quiz. Maggie's our classmate, one of the highest here in our section. They're talking about the quiz and when I was about to get my bag, I saw some of top students from our classes gathering with them, too. Oh, fuck.

I'm tired so I just called Lynea and wave my way out.

I do not want to discuss that quiz anymore. It is what it is, I guess.