At two o’ clock in the morning, only the sound of the crickets can be heard as darkness filled the village. Only one room seems to be lit, from the front view of a house, a two storey building, with four bedrooms, not so big though but on a place like Manila, a space wanted by most. This home belongs to the Loyzaga’s, a simple, middle class family. Mr. Daniel Loyzaga, the father, works at an appliance centre as an assistant manager, while his wife, Mary works as a florist in a flower shop nearby. They live with their three children, two girls and one boy, the eldest. With three children, and the daily expenses, they could not afford to rent a big house like theirs. Fortunately, Daniel inherited the house from his parents.
The bedroom is still dark with only the desk lamp on, illuminating only the study table, reflecting light on the spectacles of a girl who fell a sleep with the loads of homework and reports. Graphing papers, ruler, pencil, pens, sketch pad, notebooks, calculator, and books scattered on the floor.
Her name is Gab, nickname for Gabrielle Marie. She loves her nickname, ‘cause she finds her name too girly while in fact she’s not. She prefers to wear loose shirts. She hates those with little straps, revealing the back, the chest, the body in general but she’s not a lesbian of course, she’s just too conservative. She hates scarcity when it comes to thread and fabric.
Gab is the youngest among the three children of Mr. and Mrs. Loyzaga. Her brother’s name is Gino Lui, a civil engineer, working at a construction company. Gino is a good guy. He always thinks of his family first, too protective when it comes to his sisters, an ideal brother. With three years gap, next to Gino is Alexandra Denise, a name too long, and she never wants to be called Alex, a complete opposite of Gab. Alexandra is three years older than Gab. She is a fashion designing student at an exclusive university. Another source of the big expenses of the family, but her parents cannot do anything about it. She always gets what she wants, being favoured by their mom. Gab is a fourth year high school student at a public school but at least with a special curriculum. Among Alex and Gab, Gab is always the one who sacrifices, and she never complains.
An alarm clock snooze at four thirty in the morning, Gab tries hard to open her sleepy eyes. She is still not done with her homework in Calculus. She grabs her pencil and graphing paper to finish the first part of the assignment which she left last. Gab is a good student, no failing marks, never been in the guidance office for any violation, yet, it seems that her efforts are certainly not appreciated by her mother.
At five o’ clock, she has finished her homework and started to clean her room, throwing the scratch papers, and preparing her bag for school. She has been up too early, so she took her pencil and her sketch pad. She loves to draw trees, sea, mountains, skies, and clouds. It is always the serene view of the environment, always peaceful and calm. But she can also draw abstracts, portraits, buildings and landscapes.
At five thirty, her mom comes knocking, then opened the door of Gab’s bedroom.
“Go down; take a bath first while I’m preparing the breakfast.”
“Yes mom, I’ll follow.”
That is how their usual conversation goes, always cold and short. After her mom closed the door, she gets up from her crossed leg seat on the floor. She walked on the corridor passing by her brother’s bedroom, with the doors open, meaning her brother is already downstairs and then her sister’s bedroom, overhearing their mom.
“Wake up now my princess, it is a big day today, you need to tell your dad, about the contest.”
“Mom, you think dad would permit me to join the pageant? You know dad mommy, he’s too conservative. He never wants to see me wearing the two piece suit.”
