Littlewood (Saint Teresa Academy)

Chapter 4: Of Strawberry Cheesecake and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

The following week passed by uneventfully. Their class schedules had returned to normal as most of their midterm exams finished up. Now the only thing to do was wait for the release of their midterm grades.

Meg relished the return to the status quo. Gayunpaman ay hindi niya mapigilang maging curious sa posibleng mangyari kina Crawford at Perez. She had seen Perez around the campus a few times that week, ngunit normal naman ang ikinikilos nito. Meg also had a rare sighting of the archery team during one of their afterschool trainings at batay sa pagmamasid niya ay tila walang kakaiba sa ikinikilos ni Crawford at ni Vidal.

If there was one thing that shifted a little bit, ito ay ang pakikitungo sa kaniya nina Vidal, Arandia at Santillan. It wasn't something drastic and Meg didn't even notice until she mentioned it to Gabby in passing and she pointed it out to Meg. Whereas before, they seemed entirely unaware of her existence, now, they try to notice her.

Arandia would say a greeting if she happened to pass by Meg on hallways. On Monday, she even approached Meg and Gabby during lunch at the Garden Cafeteria.

"Hey," Arandia called out with a smile. She entered the cafeteria with a group of other students. Her lithe figure and the way she walked while leading them made her look like a princess with her cohorts trailing behind. When Arandia spotted Meg and Gabby, she motioned for her companions to go ahead. She moved to where Meg was seated with Gabby.

"I feel like I never see you eating at the City," she observed. She wore her hair in a high ponytail and Meg noticed that her helix earrings had been removed.

Meg was honestly bewildered to see Arandia at the Garden Cafeteria and she could tell Gabby was, too, but they both managed to respond.

"Yup," Gabby said, popping the 'p' sound.

"Mas manageable kasi yung crowd dito," Meg said.

Arandia looked around. "That's true. I guess they were right to suggest doing our lunch meeting here. Maybe I should eat here more frequently," she mused.

"Tiffany, here!" A girl from the group Arandia came in with was waving a hand from a table not far from Meg and Gabby. Others in the group were also watching Arandia as they each place their bags down on the seats.

"I'll be there," Arandia called to them and then turned back to Meg and Gabby. "Sorry for interrupting your lunch. Enjoy," she said before heading to where her group was.

On Wednesday, Santillan's and Meg's classes had a combined Physical Education activity where they played traditional street games. Before class started, Santillan was with a circle of people, making them laugh with whatever he was saying. To Meg's surprise, he not only greeted her, but would occasionally keep up conversation with her as they played a version of patintero.

"Sorry for grilling you last Friday," bulong ni Santillan after they found themselves standing together habang bumubuo ng magiging magkalabang team si Señor Esteban, their P.E. teacher.

"It's okay, I understand that you were just looking out for your friend," paniniguro ni Meg. Isang ngiti ang ibinalik ni Santillan sa kaniya. Gone was his intensity last Friday night. Nagbalik na ito sa easy-going at approachable nitong attitude.

"Here," he offered a fist. Nagtatakang tinitigan ito ni Meg. "Fist bump," he urged.

"Oh." Meg bumped a fist to his. Nakangisi itong napatango-tango. When Meg later told Gabby about this, she scrunched up her nose and ate a cupcake as response.

"You have a tendency to run to your right side when deflecting," Santillan remarked after a round of the game where they were on different teams. Tila isa siyang coach na nagko-comment sa performance ng isang atleta. While the comment came out of nowhere, Meg still found herself thanking him and took note of this during her next game. She lasted quite long without being tagged during that round.