I’m a sophomore student studying in one of the most prestigious school here in the Philippines. I’m 14 years young and a kind of “seeker”, in other terms, a kind of person who doesn’t welcome new people as friends that easily. I choose my friends well.
One day, when I’m in the hallway and is on my way to my first subject, someone bumped me.
“I’m sorry, it’s my fault!” the girl said. She’s an inch smaller than me and is bowing her head. She raises her head and I can see her face but she immediately run away. I didn’t even have the chance to say a word because things happened quickly. When I’m in the classroom, I hurriedly went into my group of friends to have some “chika” (chit-chat). After a while, I noticed a familiar face standing in the door. She was hesitant at first and then finally got the courage to get inside the room. I’m cracking my head thinking where I met the girl because she was so familiar. And then, I remembered! She was the girl who bumped me a while ago!
My friends noticed me staring at her. Nadja, one of them nudged me in my side.
“Hey Lacey! Why are you staring at here? You noticed it too?” Mia asked. I’m dumbfounded. What noticed? Should I be noticing something?
“Hmm, well, I’m just wondering why she seemed familiar. And then I realized that she was the same girl that bumped me in the hallway a while ago. Why? And what do you mean notice something?” I replied.
“What?! She bumped you?!” Rona interfere. Her voice so loud that my classmates including our teacher turned their attention at us.
“Minimize your voice Ms. Perez, you’re not in the market.” said Mrs. Ramos, our teacher while holding her glasses in her hands.
“Yes ma’am, sorry.” Rona replied and gave Mrs. Ramos a courtesy. After doing that, she asked me again like there’s no reprimanding happened.
“Don’t you know the story about that new girl?” she asked while raising her hands and quoting the word “story”.
“No, why? What about her?” I asked, still dumbfounded.
Rona didn’t have the chance to reply as Mrs. Ramos called the new girl to stand in front and introduce herself. The girl was so shy you can see her innocence radiating in her cute heart-shaped face.
The girl stood up and walked in front. When she was already in front of class, silence filled the air. After a while, the silence was replaced by murmurs, low hush, jokes and even laughs. I saw my friends laughing too. I don’t understand at first what the commotion is all about but as I saw her hands, I realized the reason why. I looked at her hands intently and was shocked that some kind of disease was not only infecting her hands, but almost her whole body as well. From her feet, to her legs, to her hands, I don’t know about the skin hidden inside the uniform but I’m guessing it’s infected to. To her neck, and much to my surprise, even her face too! I just don’t have the chance to notice that because I guess she hid that through some powder or foundation. But if you look closely and intently, you would notice it.
I wonder what her skin disease is. Being too ashamed of herself, tears begun to run down her cheeks and then she run outside the room. I felt sad for her, being sick itself is not easy, but being sick while everyone around you laugh at you because of that sickness, it’s really, really hard. I wonder why she transferred to our school and why she had that some kind of disease.
Few days later, I noticed Divine, (the girl’s name as I learned it from my friends) was still absent. After that incident on Monday where she was treated as a laughing stock by the whole class because of her condition, she hasn’t gone back to school yet. I wondered what happened to her. Is she still mad at us? Of course she will be mad. If I’m on her position and I already feel sorry for myself yet the whole class still laugh at me, I would surely be mad as well. I wondered if her family already sent her to a hospital to treat her. I may feel awful for her, no! Not for her, but for her sickness, inside of me, I am still hoping that she will be okay.
