Carnage of Vicinity (At a Not-So-Ordinary Senior High)

CHAPTER 02: Booby Trap in Disguise

VICINITY

The world must be small enough to make some paths cross, even though those faiths were meant to not meet again. What's funny is that some people are twisted enough to fight off destiny and write their own stories. And, Cameron, the dickhead, was one of those people. Before we move on to that, let me tell you what happened after the commotion.

Lumipas lang 'yon na parang walang nangyari. Pumasok kami kinabukasan at hindi namin nakasalubong si Ember (and I was quite glad about it), though the dickhead and I had the eyes of some students as we walk in the school grounds. Hindi ko lang alam kung dahil ba 'yon sa kumosyon kahapon o sadyang apple of the eye kami. The issue seemed to not reach our classmates as we didn't receive any suspicious look from them.

And there was Cameron, starting the day with a story. "I could have gone to SMET, really. My parents think that it was the best choice for me. But, I chose to be here," he said, replying to a question from one of our classmates. We were a table apart from them. "... Frankly, I'm not that artistic at all." He looked at me. "There are just several reasons to be here, I suppose."

We were having an "introduce yourself" session, without a teacher around this time. It was already our second period in the morning pero wala pang sumusulpot na teacher. And because our classmates were feeling bored, they decided to pry on our details (or just Cameron's? I couldn't say). They were primarily curious why Cameron didn't take the academic strand of SMET (or Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology), or the so-called strand of the geniuses. Well, that was the one-million-dollar question for someone like him, an academic achiever who suddenly redirected his path toward Arts.

"Vi and I have an unfinished business. I guess, that contributed to my decision to come here," he added then he winked at me. "Hindi rin kasi kaya ni Vi na wala ako. How could I leave a friend behind, right?"

I almost rolled my eyes. Friends, huh? That will always be one of the most disgusting things he said for the time being we were "together". But believe me, that wasn't the worst.

"Good morning, class." A teacher suddenly appeared.

Napatayo kaming lahat mula sa mga upuan namin. We greeted him back, only to see him stare at us with blunt coldness- a teacher in white-framed spectacles and Rolex. He maneuvered his hand and told us to seat after a moment of scanning us. Maybe he was trying to juice off details of us by merely looking at our faces.

"... As you may know, Mrs. Francisco is not your class adviser." He's referring to the teacher yesterday. He faced the board and wrote a name. "She was just sent to you as I was absent." He turned around and gave us a small smile. "I am your class adviser, Jonathan A. Magtalas, but you can call me Sir Tan."

He looked at me- or rather at us, at Cameron and I. I wasn't sure if I was just imagining it, but as soon as he broke from the gaze, my lungs felt free.

"He must know the two of us," the dickhead whispered beside me. Sinemplehan niya ang pagbulong habang nakatingin sa iba si sir Tan at naglilitanya ng kung ano. "... No wonder, though." I looked at him. "... He's Ember's father."

Talk about a small world.

Sir Tan proceeded to discuss some things. He started with a brief discussion of his background; how old was he, where he lived, and why he decided to be a teacher. He then proceeded to the school rules and regulations, followed by the distribution of its written copy. He discussed another couple of things, mostly concerning the track that we were in.

Pagkatapos ng lahat, it was already time for recess. He dismissed us and we simultaneously walked out of the room.

Cameron was teasing me in the doorway. He was pointing out that my polo wasn't neat that day. Hindi ko siya pinapansin mula una, pero nu'ng patitigilin ko na sana siya, I was forced to stop on my track...