Pen and Paper

3

3

                      “Hold. So you mean you are going to Ateneo de Manila after graduation?” Tony asked me after I’ve told him the recent happenings that afternoon. I nodded excitedly. “Actually, that is if I get the scholarship.”

                      Tony slapped me gently at the back. “Ofcourse you’ll get it. You are a brilliant writer.” I shrugged his arm off and shook my head. “Yes. But I am not the only brilliant writer, you know. My competitions will be so much greater than me.”

                    “I’ll help you with it.” He said, bumping his arms on my shoulder. “If it makes you feel more confident.” I laughed. “And how are you going to do that?”

                   He shrugged. “We can go do things stupid and fun. Let’s go somewhere. Besides, we are almost finishing our fourth year. We can go spend the last of our high school days recklessly.”

                 I rolled my eyes. “And what good will those do to my scholarship?”

                 “It will help you write something superb. You know, it will help you be inspired.”

                  I thought about it and I had to admit, it was an idea. Maybe we should just have the time of our lives, besides if I was writing, I want it written from the bottom of my heart. I started thinking of the things we could do together, and the destinations of where we could go, when finally, we reached my home.

                 Fresh wave of black smoke greeted us. Tony put a hanky over his nose, but I didn’t bother. I was used to it. The noise erupted. Children were crying, men and woman’s arguments floated in the air, the cars bristling noisily through the road, drunk men making a huge racket…Tony wrinkled his nose at the scene, but I just walked through naturally. Like I said, I was used to it.

                 The stony ground is where I was born. The car’s horns is the first music to reach my ears, the gray smokes is the first air that filled my lungs.

                 Yes, my home is the streets.

                 But even before we could enter, I stopped Tony from his tracks and bid goodbye. If I knew something, it is that Tony ’s parents wouldn’t like the idea of having their son walk in a dangerous curve path in the road. And the streets would be the very place of nightmare for them. And of course, I wouldn’t want to give them heart attack.

                “See you tomorrow, Ianne.” He said, waving merrily at me before walking away. I smiled, knowing that tomorrow and onwards will be big days for us. Tony is truly such a nice friend. As I got in at our little house made of plastic and wood, I was jumping and shrieking.

                “Mom, Mom!!!!! I got in! I got in! All I need is to pass the test for scholarship then I’m really on for it!”

                Mom dropped the laundry she was holding and started to jump up and down too. Dad fell off his chair when he heard and he started dancing the swing. Minnie, Josh, Lonnie and Little Yam jumped on my back and started squealing. Before we go to bed, despite the fact that the dinner we had is only soup and a spoonful of rice, we were all crying joyously.

               That night, as my family lay on the matt, they were now all fast asleep, I was doing my assignments and revising under the dim light of my candle. I had all my books piled up on the floor where I sat, and my notebooks were sitting on my lap. I rubbed my eyes, trying to decipher the word problem given to us by our Physics teacher. I looked for my Physics notebook and when I couldn’t find it anywhere on the floor, I picked up my bag. There were still two notebooks inside my bag, meaning, two assignments I haven’t still made. I yawned. I got my Physics notebook out of my bag and started solving the problem. When I finished, I leaned my head on the wall and started to doze off. It was probably hours later when I jolted awake and remembered that there was still one notebook left inside my bag. I glanced at my old watch, it was 11:50.