SHE'S NOT A SAINT (MIKHAIAH) by: Pinkvettes

Chapter 8: stealing other people's toys

Chapter 8: stealing other people's toys

Notes:
MIKHAIAH TAYO OKAY!!!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Aiah

The day before a big game was always the busiest. I was in the middle of the campus oval with my squad, wrapped up in practicing our routines for tomorrow until we were spotless or until we all dropped dead on the grass. Whichever came first.

Punong puno ang oval. The track and field athletes were doing their drills around us, habang sa kabila naman sa court, the players looked ten times more tired than us. They took this basketball shit seriously. Apparently, their game tomorrow was against one of our university’s longest rivals, so they really had to start off this season strong. Their cheer squad on the other hand, made it to regionals last year, I recalled. This definitely tripled my competitiveness for our performance tomorrow. We shouldn’t show those girls anything that isn’t even close to perfect.

Right on par with my thoughts, I noticed some of the girls huddled together on one side of the field with their attention fixed on one of their phones. Out of curiosity, I approached them quietly from behind to see what they were watching. Nadismaya ako when I saw na pinapanood nila ang isa sa performances ng rival squad namin.

“That’s how you guys will use your breaks?” They all jumped to the sound of my voice. The girl holding the phone scrambled para itago ito. “Kung ganyan, wala nang break break. Tayo! From the top!”

Then, out of nowhere, a soft touch on my arm. A voice of reason. “Aiah, pasama pabalik sa locker room. I left something.”

I knew Mikha was just trying to stay true to her words from last time para hindi na maulit ang nangyaring away. I decided to humor her anyway. Makikita niya na I’m making an effort too.

“Will be back in a few. Keep your phones.” banta ko sa kanila.

“Make sure na ready na kayo pag nakabalik na kami, ha?” Mikha added. Her voice gentle in contrast to mine. Good cop, bad cop, I suppose.

We made our way to the locker room, arms linked. I felt myself start to relax and my initial frustration slowly melted away already. Her ploy to distract me was working, and it was definitely opposite to what happened before. Once we were inside, I watched as Mikha approached her locker and pretended to look for something, scattering through her things.

“Wag ka na magkunwari, I’m calm now.” I said as I sat on one of the benches.

She turned around to face me with a smirk on her face. She showed me the piece of hair tie swirling around her finger. “I wasn’t pretending naman. I needed a hair tie.”

“Nagpasama pa?”

“Bakit, ayaw mo ko kasama?” She sat down next to me, pulling her hair into a ponytail.

“We need to get back.”

“We deserve a few more minutes, Ays. We’re doing good already.”

“Why are we aiming for good?”

“Babe, tomorrow isn’t a competition.”

“I know. Pero yung mga babaeng yun, Maloi’s squad, ang yayabang. Kala mo naman kung sino, nadala lang ng popularity ng school.”

“You shouldn’t worry too much, Aiah. Nakikita ko sa practice kanina, and the past few days. We’ve gotten so much better. I feel like napadama mo talaga sa kanila how important this performance is. Nakita nila how motivated you are.”

I scoffed at her words. Why would I possibly be worried about those second-class girls? Motivated? Yes. Worried? Hell no. They didn’t have me. That’s the biggest loss of all.