Trickster of the Butterfly

Chapter 2- It's Just Second Sem

5 months ago, November...

"Is anyone of you familiar with the Butterfly effect?" asked the professor standing on the left side of the podium. A kind yet strict Psychological Statistics professor, Mrs. Nadora gave off a kind of scary commanding aura. Her students get some kind of paralysis whenever she asked a question. She is, however, one of the most remarkable professors in Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. Her incredible skill in keeping a class well disciplined all the while making it really fun and fairly challenging is what gives her such a reputation in the University.

She was wearing a blue sleeveless dress that fits decently with her "stout yet not super stout" figure. The dress had dark blue flaps at the shoulder blades and ruffles at the waistline.

The classroom was roughly big enough for 2 cars to fit in. It had 5 rows and 8 columns of metal-framed armchairs for 40 students. A single aisle cut through the middle of the room. At the front of the classroom was the teacher's table elevated on a wooden podium. The left wall had windows all open, letting in some air for the hot classroom which had four particularly weak ceiling fans.

"Well, anyone?" said Mrs. Nadora. "I recall I gave you that as an assignment."

She scanned the classroom for any willing hands but nobody seemed to have an answer or were too nervous to do so. She then fixed her eyes on a student in the aisle seat on the third row, with his hand reluctantly raised.

"Ah, Mr. Randelo," she gestured for him to stand.

The young man stood up shakily and spoke with the all the confidence he could muster up. "Umm, the Butterfly effect, Ma'am, is the phenomenon that occurs in everything that involves a sequence of events wherein..." he stuttered.

"Yes, go on," the professor encouraged.

"...Umm, it's a sequence wherein even the smallest events can affect very big systems later on." He forced a smile hoping the professor was pleased with his answer.

"Very good Michael. Laki talaga tulong ng Wikipedia no?" Mrs. Nadora said with a humorous tone. "I hope you paraphrased that before you wrote that in your notebook. I'll be checking that later."

Michael had wanted to clarify that he didn't get that from Wikipedia but that's just simply how he understood it from watching an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but he just sat down instead. How the heck the Butterfly effect was related to Psychological Statistics, he had no idea though.

"The Butterfly effect has a big application to this course subject. Small changes or even a mistake in the data collection can greatly affect what data a Frequency Distribution Table will display. That, in turn, will make charts look different, and so on and so forth..." the professor explained with impeccable confidence.

Michael never thought just the SECOND day of class in second semester would be this heavy. But it's not like they had a choice, so he and the rest of the class kept their attention on Mrs. Nadora as she fired away about the wonders of Statistics and the application for BS Psychology students.

Michael just noticed halfway through the class period that, sitting two rows in front of him, was a girl he hasn't seen before. Michael wasn't very observant on the first day of the second semester, he thought, so maybe that's why he hadn't noticed the new kid so attentively listening to the professor blabber on about future jobs we could have if we took Psychology seriously. He made a mental note to introduce himself to her after class.

After three gruelling hours, the students were dismissed and they flooded out the humid classroom out to the freedom of everybody's favorite period: Recess.

Out in the sunbathed hallway of Gusaling Villegas, everybody was already chatting with their usual pals and deciding where they would eat lunch. Michael met with his three closest friends, Sarah, Joy, and Hera.

"Guys! San tayo kakain ngayon? Tara chicken chops!" Michael announced enthusiastically as he marched towards them.

"Sige tara!" Sarah replied.

"Yun din kinain natin kahapon ha. Diet kaya ako," Joy said monotonously. "Eh. Sige na nga."

Michael then noticed a fourth lady tagging along with them.

"Ay Mike, ito nga pala bagong kaibigan natin," Hera pointed to the new girl.

The girl beamed a smile at Michael. Michael smiled back.
"Oh," he held out his hand. "Michael Randelo, pleased to meet you!"

The girl took his hand and they did a handshake.

"Alora Kaye. Pleased to meet you too!" the girl answered happily.