dahlia

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Brandon: Dahlia believes on many principles like she has been through life for so long. She sometimes sounds like an old woman inside the body of a 15-year old.

After the commotion, she return to her reading. I watch the speech choir members practice. Okay, it is only my excuse to keep an eye on these two.

"Don't have anything to do? You're wasting your time watching me."

I do some mindless scribling on my notebook when Dahlia say that. I'm not even looking what I'm writing. I think she's referring to me. Andres laughs. Oh, shit, she is referring to him.

"Give me something to do."

"Hm, then," Dahlia puts down her notebook on her arm desk and she removes Andres head on her shoulders, and put her head on his instead.

She gets the notebook again and continues reading.

"What is this for?" Andres holds a page of Dahlia's notebook, stopping her to proceed on reading, "You keep on reading the same pages."

"My write ups," She whisper lowly. It's not her usual tone. It sounds like she's not confident and it rarely happens. She always speaks in this nearly arrogant tone whenever she's talking about something she's good at, "I'm practicing different topics so I can prepare beforehand. I want to come up with good words and remarkable lines that would put the judges in awe. They don't come to me on the spot."

"How will you know the topics though? How sure are you that these topics would come up?"

"Wild guess. Ms. Cantre asks me to write a few drafts based on the topics last year. I also outline and draft some of my guesses. If I get lucky and the topics are what I already written then it's good. Although, I am reading it over and over again because I am not confident. I read it and still, I think I could do better. It's still lacking but I am stagnant. I know it is lacking but I don't know what to add to make it perfect..."

She closes her notebook. She rests her head completely on Andres' shoulder and closes her eyes. They are both silent after.

The speech choir members repeat their piece for 5 rounds. Karen corrects some mistakes and instructs to add their humming now. Their last few practices focused mostly on making sure that they already memorized it but now they are added their twists on it.

It's been minutes and they are still quiet. I stop myself from looking at them. Andres should reasssure her.

"I'm nervous," Dahlia sighs. It sounds like all her confidence dry up.

Andres moves his hands on Dahlia shoulders and lightly tap her head. He plants soft kisses on her forehead.

Since I am directly looking at my classmates, I see their eyes gliters and some giggle as they watch Andres and Dahlia. Leigh taps them to stop from teasing the two.

Maybe, Dahlia lets Andres do this because she likes him. That thought is not seating well in my head. I wish I am him.

"I never desperately want to win before. I want to win first place this time."

"I'm confident you'll do well."

Dahlia wins first place. She will represent the whole Marikina City to the Regional Journalism.

The student council suggest to the faculty to allow UPCAT takers to have a preparation week. Dahlia suggests it. She wants to increase the passing rate for the UPCAT. In our school's history, UPCAT passers usually came from the special sections and the top 10 of Section 1. If we're talking about the passers through the entrance exam, they are mostly from ESEP. There are also audition for cheerdance and also fine arts. If you pass, you can be admitted to UP even you didn't pass the entrance test.