Gravitation

Chapter 1

Gravitation

Chapter 1

JAY

Waking up early in the Morning isn’t my style, seriously. But since it is the first day of school, I wake up too soon. I can even hear my brother snoring. (You, really, won’t want to hear it.) I quickly pack my things up. My mother says that I must choose between Science and Electronics; I want both, but I can only pick one, and so I choose the hardest: Science.

So, may I introduce myself first?

I am Jay Caballero, 12 years old. We have a house at almost everywhere so I can’t point out where I live exactly.

Today, is my first day of school in a public school (I forgot the name.) in the Philippines. Particularly, I'm in Silay City, Negros Occidental.

Are you wondering what country am I from?

Well, I grew up in London, thus, I can't picture out any of the tiniest details of it. We moved to the Philippines, when I was 2, and so I've been here for 10 years, but I’ve always been speaking English the way my parents do.

I arrive at school at 6:30 AM, but the crowd is too thick I can't even drop a needle. (That’s the english of "di-mahulugang karayom", I think.)

I stare at the crowd blankly, until I hear someone talking to me.

"Tutunganga ka lang ba dyan?" the stranger inquires with a hint of confidence, "Ayun ang room ng first years, doon ka pupunta."

He looks like a girl. He wears a pink shirt, a skinny jeans and a yellow bag. I totally have mistaken him as a gay, but with that scary voice, he's like a lesbian who changes her mind, and decided to be a girl again.

"How did you know that I am a first year?" I ask, "Do I look like a kid or something?"

"Halata naman eh," he says, "hindi mo alam kung saan pupunta."

He is right; I don't know where to go.

"Sabay nalang tayo," he decides after hearing my concealed conscience, "pareho lang naman tayong first year, tara."

He walks so fast that I can hardly follow. Then, heads into a 2-storey building. The building is nice; it has a shiny floor, yellow-painted walls and glass doors.

He walks into a corridor, passes a several doors and goes inside a room with tiled floor and air conditioners. Inside the room is cold. Students fall in line in front of a round table that looks like the teacher’s table.

"Pumila na tayo," he encourages drawing me towards the table, "mamimigay na ng ID's."

"Whoaw, that was fast" I utter while catching my breath.

"Alin ang mabilis ang pamimigay ng ID o yung paglakad ko?" he asks.

"Both," I reply bluntly.

"Tara na," he says, "maikli na ang pila."

We fall in line, and after several minutes we have our ID's. Unfortunately, my face in the ID picture is so ugly; indeed, I quickly put it in my pocket. After getting my ID, I find a nice chair to serve as my temporary place. I am currently siting at the back of row two, third column. I am about to sleep when the teacher shouted.

"Everybody got their ID's ?!" the teacher asks. Luckily, no one raises his hand, so that means everyone has an ID.

"Class, because it’s your first day, each one of you will introduce himself/herself, and when everybody is done, I will introduce myself. Let's start at the back. The boy with a pink shirt, kindly introduce yourself. Then the one at your right will be next."