untouchable

17

Today is the Elections.

You and your family woke up at dawn so you all could line up early. Elections could be a hassle sometimes especially if one lives in a huge barangay. Luckily you're still on your VL so the day is free. You and your friends (sans Shein since she's a Caviteña) would be meeting up at the Leni-Kiko Volunteer HQ in Katipunan later tonight for the mini program held there.

Your brother is trembling for this will be his first time voting. He kept asking you what to do, what not to do, double, triple, quadruple-checked his list of candidates to vote for (he already know the names and numbers by heart now), and memorized his voting precinct number. Ray just wants his first time to be memorable and not screw up like that spoiled man-child named S*ndr*. You reassured him it's like taking a test. You also told him the step-by-step procedure before, during, and after the voting. You will be there with him all throughout so he doesn't have to worry too much.

You and your brother's precincts will be at a local public elementary school, while your parents will be at the local public high school. And since it's still early, you were one of the first ones there. A police tent is situated not too far from the school and there are also a few more tents all over the school perimeter. That's bizarre.

Then more and more people handing out sample ballots and flyers loitered around. You frowned because isn't this illegal? You know damn well that this kind of thing has been happening since the dawn of time but there's just so many of them it's actually alarming. You're observing them and so far, there aren't any cash involved. But even then, it's still alarming. You and your brother have turned down all the persistent sample ballot offers.

"Hindi ba bawal 'yang mga gan'yan, Ate?" Ray asks you.

"Bawal. Pero tingnan mo, walang ginagawa 'yung mga pulis para pigilan sila kahit na harap-harapan na oh." You replied, annoyed.

ACAB through and through.

Due to the amount of flyers being passed around, the school perimeter is littered with papers and other handed out merchandises, and it's not even 8 in the morning yet. Eventually, the guard lets you and your brother inside the school gate and you two instantly went to the bulletin board to check your cluster and room. You're at the same cluster so you will be sharing the same room. That's a huge relief for Ray.

You're waiting on a line once more so you two are busy checking your socials for updates and morning news. You snapped a selfie and sent it to your friends' GC to tell them how patriotic you are because you're practicing your right. They responded with "ok ure so awesome for doing the bare minimum, siz!" and other hilarious backhanded compliments.

Other voters after you inquires for clarification whether they're on the right queue, you gladly answered their questions and pointed the correct direction to confused ones. It would be a huge waste of energy to be on the wrong line the whole time.

The teachers overseeing the elections signalled that the voting will start in a few and shortly, the line moved. You can feel your brother's nerves reverberating off of him in waves so you patted his shoulder twice to reassure him. You chuckled under your breath because his bimpo is almost soaked through from his incessant perspiration.

Your phone vibrated once. Twice. Thrice. So on and on and on. You pulled it from your pocket to check whatever caused the influx of notifications. Apparently it's the Robredo sisters greeting the group chats 'good morning'. You briefly reacted to each one until you focus on the last, the 'Team Bunso' GC.

Jill greeted everyone with a chirpy voice message instead of chat, as she's very lazy to type. Before playing the message, you turned your volume down to the minimum and aligned the speaker to your ear.