Leonora

Prologue - Leonora

Sunday, a day after our field trip of our school. Instead of resting, us, the students of the 12th grade came to our school to practice our festival dance for our upcoming event in 2 weeks.

Each section were given a festival that they will represent; from the dance, to the dishes. And it costed us a lot of our funds.

The day that is supposed to be relaxing became busy and tiresome.

—

12pm of the same day, I was walking to school when one of my classmates who I met on my way invited me to eat lunch with her friend group before heading to school.

"Hey, you're going to school, too?" She asked.

"Yeah, why?" I answered, followed by a question.

"I'm sure you haven't eaten yet. Why don't you join us for lunch?" She said.

"Sure, where?" I asked.

"At McDonald's." She answered.

"With who?" I asked another.

"With my friend group, of course." She answered.

At first, I was hesitant because; first, I will be the only boy present, and second, her group and I are not that close. We do interact with each other often like friends in our classroom, but we are not that close, plus I used to like one of the members of their group, so it will be awkward.

But, even if I am hesitant, I still agreed to join them since I have not eaten anything.

"Let's go. They're waiting for almost an hour now." She laughed as she led the way in a hurry.

And followed her with the same pace.

—

When we entered, her friends waved their hands from afar to let us know where they are and when we arrived, I was welcomed by them.

"Sorry, I'm late. I forgot where I placed my wallet and it took a while for me to find it. By the way, I met [redacted] on my way and decided to invite him." #1 said with a warm and cheerful tone.

#2, with a furrowed brow and a slight downturn of her lips accompanied by a somber tone,"Sure, let's hurry and get our orders done. We're already late for like, 30 minutes, because of you."

"Sorry." #1 replied, her cheerful expression faded, replaced by a guilty look.

"What time were we supposed to be there?" I asked confusedly.

"We're supposed to be there by 11:30 or earlier since our coach requested that our practice has to be earlier than before because he said he'd be busy before sunset." #4 answered.

"Seriously? When did they announced that?" I asked with a tone poised blend of calm expectancy and pleasant shock.

"Like, 5 minutes before 11:30." #2 said with a displeased tone.

—

After a while, the food arrived at our table and we started to eat. Suddenly, two people, a boy and a girl, came to our table and greeted us. They are some of #3's friends.

I know who the boy is, but the girl…

My world stopped temporarily as I look at her.

[ A: I'll label the boy as #5 and the girl as #6 for now. ]

"That looks tasty, I'll have one." #5 said as he took a fry from my tray and ate it.

"What are you two doing here?" #3 asked.

"It's our break time, so we came by to get food. But we didn't expect you to be here. We thought you're going somewhere today." #6 answered.

"Yeah, I am. I just came here because #1 told me to meet here for lunch before they go to school to practice." #3 said as she took a fry from her own tray and ate it.

"Oh, right. You're going to a birthday party. Have you told our president about it?" I asked.

"I did." #3 answered.

"Make sure to bring home some foods, specially Lumpiang Shanghai or else I'll pray for you to get hit by a car." #5 jokingly said as he took another fry from my tray.

"You motherfu—" #3 replied.

The rest of us laughed.

—

Soon, we have finished our meals and #5 and #6 were the first ones to leave with their food.

"Let's get going before our president infuriates." #1 said as she led the way to school.

"I bet she already is." #2 replied as she followed her from behind.

#4 followed them as well.

"Update me if anything steps were changed on our choreography." #3 said before walking to the opposite direction.

"Wait." I said.

#3 halted.

"What was the name of  your friend who came earlier?" I asked.

"Why?" She asked.

"Just asking." I answered with a straightforward manner.

"Sigh. Her name's Leonora." She said.

"Leonora, huh…" I whispered to myself.

"I better get going. My family's waiting for me, I might be scolded if I'm late. Chat me if anything changes on our project!" She said in a hurry and ran off.

"Alright." I replied.

And so, we part ways and I went on my way to school in a hurry as well.

( TBC )