It Started With A Bet

Chapter 7 Mystery Girl

One more minute.

One more minute.

One more freaking minute. I repeat this like a mantra. The smile glued on my face, though I could not see, made me looked like an idiot. Good thing Mrs. Pacapac, my Phonetics professor, did not give a damn as she was still discussing at the very last minute. Expect her to never waste a single minute in her class.

Ugh, it's  her already!

Some of my blockmates kept looking at my direction, wondering what the heck was wrong with me. I did not mind. I could not help this facial expression which my eyes brightened and the area of my mouth curved slightly upward - according to my seatmate.

My phone vibrated on my lap. It was there the whole time, just so I could reply right away in case Jace sent me a message. I smiled again as I read the text from him.

Who cares?

One more minute and I would be seeing him again. His class ended an hour ago, he was now at Giant Steps, waiting for me. 

Of my three subjects this afternoon, I had not given much attention to my professors. On Theology, Professor Archibald grouped the class into three for group discussion which will be reported next meeting. Our group tackled about Martin Luther and Christianism. Consider it my lucky day,  my groupmates were all Dean's Listers.

Or not.

The entire hour, all they did was to debate about this and that. In the end, we had not concluded anything. Mr. Sevilla, my Algebra professor, discussed xyz integers or something. Truth was, I was not all ears, all that was stuck on my mind was xyz xyz and xyz.

I had to self-study tonight to catch up. Seriously, this whole Jace thing caused my grades to flunk. This euphoria I felt for Jace was a bliss yet it was also unsettling. This was all new to me. But as they had said, you never found the answers if you were afraid to take chances.

And I chose to take chances with him.

I glanced at my watch and started the countdown as Professor Pacapac said her goodbyes.

10..9..8..

"Remember, all you need is...

7..6..5..4..

"That is all for today..."

3..2..1!

"Goodbye class."

As the bell rang, I grabbed my bag and headed out the door, pushing students out of my way.

"Excuse me!" Push. "Thanks."

"Hey, France." A girl in my class smiled at me. She was pretty even in just a simple tee and jeans. Her long chocolate brown hair was coiled in big curls just at the end, courtesy of an electric curler. She must had spent some time with her hair.

"Hi..." Out of respect, I greeted back. I could not even remember her name. I had only talked to her once, and it was not even a friendly talk. So, what did she want from me?

"Jane, remember?" She pointed at herself. "From Professor Mendoza's PE class?"

"Oh yes, I remember. I'm not really good at names, sorry." I said, then I started to walk through the hallway. "Uhm, catch you later, I'm in a hurry."

"Wait!" I ignored her. "I didn't know you and Jace knew each other." And that caught my attention. I stopped, facing her. "He and I went to same school when we were in elementary. I saw you together at lunch."

"And your point is?" I did not mean to be rude, but my voice was.

"Uhm, nothing. Please extend my regards to Jace. My name is Jane Pascual. He'll remember it."