Your Lucky One

Chapter Six: Mask

Trese Anaya's Point of view

It was a Monday morning, and the world felt heavier than usual. After the dinner party, I had hoped to wake up feeling more refreshed, maybe a little less anxious about life in general. But the opposite happened. I dragged myself out of bed, my mind a mess of thoughts about Uno, Miss Everette, and everything in between.

"Another week of pretending," I muttered, pushing the blankets off.

The sunlight streaming in through the window wasn't exactly helping either. I could already hear the faint hum of activity downstairs, probably Quatro being his usual energetic self, and maybe Ate Deuce was already off to work.

I look at my Class Schedule for today, minors lang lahat except for 1 pm to 3 pm, It's Strategic Management, Miss Everette's subject.

Perfect, I thought, rubbing my face as I sat on the edge of my bed. I needed coffee, but more than that, I needed a plan. I'd been ditching Miss Everette's class since the confrontation, but I couldn't keep doing that forever. I need to push myself to be better.

"Ate Trese!" Quatro's voice came blasting through the door. Of course.

"Ano?!" I yelled back, standing up and heading toward the bathroom.

"Mom's looking for you. May lakad daw kayo today," he said, probably right outside my door by now.

"Anong lakad? I have Class today, It's Monday kaya" I asked through the bathroom door, splashing water on my face.

"Hindi ko alam! Basta sinabi niya kailangan mo raw pumunta, and when did you care about your class?"

I groaned. Great. It was probably some meeting or event with the family friends again. After all, our lives seemed to revolve around impressing people in the business world. Not that I had much of a choice. Show up, smile, and pretend like everything's fine, I reminded myself. Story of my life. At anong sabi niya? When did I care about my class? I don't also know.

After quickly getting ready to attend my class, I headed downstairs where, sure enough, Mom was waiting. She looked perfectly put together, as always dressed in her business attire, looking like she was about to close a major deal. Well, She's my mother, Aveline Alegra-Monforte.

"There you are, Trese," she said, giving me an expectant smile. "We have a lunch meeting with the Aramintas at 12. Make sure you're ready. It's important."

I nodded absentmindedly, my thoughts already drifting elsewhere. "I'll try to be there, Ma. I have a class."

"Well, I did ask your sister to excuse you for your class this afternoon if you have." She said.

"But... Ma." I want to disagree with what she said

"Trese, I'm proud of you kasi finally right now, you're doing your best in your studies, I heard that you're doing good at school from Lenore. But this time, we need to meet the Aramintas. It's important."