Salt & Pepper [A JaDine FanFic]

Chapter Nine: Crush

Wednesday, 410PM, Stage Area inside Theater

"Good afternoon everyone and welcome to our first General Assembly. I am Miguel Fernando, your current Theater President. Today is a special day since this is our first GA for the schoolyear. This afternoon we will showcase our org and our line up of activities and productions for this year. Later, we willl also introduce our officers and key members so that you, the trainees, can get familiar with our faces. We pride ourselves in being the official theater organization of the university. On behalf of the whole org, thank you for coming this afternoon!"

Kuya Miguel gave his opening speech to the whole assembly. This was a yearly event for all organizations in the university. We hold GAs so that the new recruits a.k.a. trainees get to familiarize themselves with the company and the members of the org. Since we love performing, our org does it a bit differently if compared to non-performing orgs. We hold crazy GAs as a matter of fact. We sing, dance, act and make fools of ourselves infront of the trainees to show them that even though our work is taxing and tiring, we do not take ourselves very seriously. There's always time for fun! In this org, we work hard and we play even harder.

I sat beside Kuya Pao and Lala somewhere in front since we were having our own little impromptu prod meeting while Kuya Miguel was sharing his college theater experience to the small crowd of about thirty.

"So ready na ba yung audition pieces?" Paolo asked.

I nodded. "Napa-photocopy na Sam, yung assistant stage manager natin. SM inventory list nalang ang hinihintay ko from Marrah. I texted her and she'll hand it over tomorrow."

"Good! How about the venue?"

"Okay na, sa conference room tayo for the week. Nakareserve na rin yun." Lala replied. "Ayos narin ang permit kasi kaka-approve lang ng Student Affairs office and the hard copy is with me. Ipapapost ko nalang kay Sam starting Monday."

"Perfect! Iba talaga kayo kung magtrabaho. Parang di niyo na ako kailangan." Paolo teased.

"Sanay lang kami Pao. Parang automatic na rin kasi for us." I commented. "By the way, kailan ang prod meeting natin with the heads of Florante? Kailangan iset yun today. Para naman updated tayong lahat. It's a musical production, so mas major pa ito sa salitang major!"

Paolo nodded at me. "Sige. Sabihan ko si Miguel later na bigyan ako ng time to announce that to everyone." Paolo replied. "Mamaya na natin ituloy ito. Nakatingin na si president sa atin. Parang nagtataka kung bakit ako nagsasalita habang siya ay naglelecture."

"Ang ingay mo daw kasi." Lala laughed.

Wednesday, 745PM, Student Parking Lot

"When will you stop this silent treatment?" Marco asked me for the nth time. "You do know that you're riding in my car, right?"

I looked at him as I sat in the passenger seat.

"Dude, she didn't even hear us." He assured me but I shook my head nonstop. "Plus she seemed really unaware of what was happening."

I shoved my cap further down my face and shut my eyes.

"Ang OA mo James!" Marco said as he turned on the engine. "It's not as if you have feelings for her you know. Sabi mo nga kanina, it's a harmless crush."

"I am not listening to you Marco." I muttered.

"And the silent treatment ends!" Suddenly his phone started ringing and he picked it up right away. "Hi Marrah! What's up?"

I tried to zone out from Marco's chatter.

"Kain? Sure! San ba kayo?"

I tried humming a song in my head to change my mood. What if she heard them? What if she's just pretending to be cool about it? What if she gets awkward with me?