Tall, Dark and Dead

Professor Voodoo

CHAPTER TWO

N a t a l i a

🎶 Wheatus, Teenage Dirtbag

"Okay, class dismissed. 'Wag kakalimutan ang mga 'bilin ko," Miss Cordova says, rubbing her forehead. Konting panahon na lang before we take our internship. Here I am, surviving. I have a little problem though - I'm failing, at dito pa talaga sa klase ng paborito kong guro. How ironic.

"Natalia, let's go."

"Mauna ka na sa labas."

"'Ge. Bilisan. May lakad pa tayis."

"Yes, Claveria? Ano'ng maipaglilingkod ko sa'yo?" My friend, Harper, is calling for me. She's telling me something I cannot understand. "Seems like you're in a hurry. May problema ba? And please tell your friend that she sucks on Charades."

"No, professor, I really want to talk to you."

"I'm listening."

"Um, uh, I know that I'm failing-"

"Because your boyfriend wants more time with you, right? Ayaw niyang nagkakahiwalay kayo, eh." So, everybody knows about my demanding boyfriend. Tanner wasn't the basketball captain or the nerdy, smart guy, but he's pretty much annoyingly famous for being so handsome. "That I heard."

"Um, paano niyo po nalaman?"

"It's all over the campus, darling. You may not be the smartest and the most famous girl here, but Tanner picked you as his girl and that's something."

"Sorry. I promise, I'll make it up to you, professor. Babawi ako."

"You better, because for a young girl like yourself, having a boyfriend is not everything," Sabi nito sa akin. Sana gano'n lang kadali 'yon. "Napakaganda mong bata, matalino, umayos ka ha?"

"Professor, I'm really sorry. Pasensya na po talaga," I told her, ashamed of myself. This woman gave me lots of chances and I kept on letting her down. "How can I make it up to you?" She paused for a moment, thinking. She was smiling when she walked by the window. My teacher was still smiling with her eyes closed. "Professor, are you okay?"

"Hmm, you can do something about your failing grade."

"Tell me what to do, professor. We just got our preliminary exams and I don't think I did very well. Please, I'll do anything."

"Talaga, Talia?" I was a little bit shocked when she let out a huge grin. "Kahit na ano?" I felt like I'm being coerced to swallow a marble or a grapefruit. "Okay, if you say so." She went out of the classroom. I carried some of her textbooks and laptop because the woman is obviously sick today. "I'm not only a doctor, miss Claveria, but I also love to teach History." We got out of the building, now making our way to the parking lot. "And that is why I want you to work on something."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Talia, I want you to have a case study about a woman named Leona Dayanara Malonzo," says professor Cordova, smiling freely at me. I don't know but I think she's acting weird. "Gusto kong alamin mo ang istorya niya."

"What about her? Is she some kind of a superhero?"

She laughed loudly by saying, "I don't know. Maybe." Honestly, I don't have any idea why she's laughing. She's giggling like I threw in a really good joke on somebody else. "Natawa naman ako dun, hija." And now I know she lost me. "You made me laugh, that's great. She'll like, hmm, anyway..."