BANDED (Live The Dream)

Chapter 1 - School Again... But Then...

6 AM, Monday, June 6, 1994, southern Metro Manila (we won’t tell where exactly hehehe)

Tit tit tit…

The alarm ticked and ticked, but Kristian Rosales at first ignored it, because he’s still finding it hard to wake up early even after practicing for the past week. For now… it is school again, the start of another boring school year. No, he’s not a delinquent student, his grades are okay and he’s (luckily) not bullied. It’s just that for the past two years of high school it had been a boring litany. He is kind of an optimist however, and right now, even as he’s irritated by the alarm ticking and someone (surely his much younger sister) now knocking at his door, he muttered to himself, “this would be a better year!”

Still, there was the alarm and the knocking.

He got off the blanket, punched the alarm, then shouted, “OO OO!! I’m awake!! Scram!!”

The door opened, and instead of Althea, his sister, he saw the frowning face of his mother, Carmen…

“Oh…”, Kris said, scratching his head as he always did in these situations, “s-sorry, Ma. I thought it was Thea”. Carmen, still frowning, just told him to come down.

He scratched his head, noticing how thick and unruly it had become once again. He had cut it really short at the beginning of summer, but now the mess is back. I give up! ,he thought, this had become my trademark anyway…

He stood up, took a towel and went to the shower next to his room. For an almost 15-year old (that October), he is a bit below average in everything. He’s a bit below average height and he’s very lanky… the type that you won’t ever notice in a crowd, and of course, so does in school… and he still has traces of the acne that ravaged his face but had luckily started to fade away. Well, at least the jocks leave me alone at school.

He went back to his room and got dressed, and after he’s done, he saw himself again in those gray pants, dark blue blazer (very unfit for a tropical country like this) and the light blue tie. This is Blue Hills Academy’s way of proclaiming that it’s special and can compete internationally. However, as a kind of rebellion, he’s wearing Chucks instead of leather. The school didn’t say anything about shoes!

He fixed his bag, putting in his new books. Being the first ever in their family to go to that particular school, he needed to buy everything… to be used by Thea when she grows up, because now, as a first grader, she had transferred to his school. Hmm… Chemistry, Geometry, Trigonometry, English & American Lit, Noli Me Tangere… these are the major subjects this year… I heard from a senior that Geometry’s the difficult one, with all those proving… More importantly, he also put his new Discman in there and also, a black pick in his pocket, because you’ll never know when I’ll be asked to jam.

He slung his blue backpack (with a brand name starting in “J”), and before leaving the room he glanced at his Gibson Les Paul electric and Yamaha acoustic, thinking, this year I hope we would shine better…

“So… here comes the new high school junior!!” Kris immediately heard his father’s booming but jesting voice this early in the morning as he went down the stairs. And then, he also heard his sister’s spoon tinkering with glass. Kris saw the absurdity and yet enjoyed it all. His family had always been like this, always making fun from everything and every situation. And why not? His parents had made a career out of it… well, fun.

Right before Kris was born in 1979, Antonio (Tony) and Carmen, his parents, had set up a bar and restaurant in Manila, near his father’s alma mater. It boomed through the years and by the mid 80s it already had several profiting branches throughout Luzon. Life for them was easy, and in the bar’s main branch, Tony would also indulge in his old passion, music. He led a band during the 70s, but the band had broken up before Kris was born. However, Tony could still be coaxed to the stage, and everybody would say that he hasn’t lost it. Tony didn’t share a lot regarding his old band, unlike most other things, but when he did, he always does with a lot of happiness and passion. And it’s a passion that he had passed on to his son. One thing Kris noticed though is that his father completely avoided talking about the band’s break-up and that his mother always felt uneasy with these stories. I wonder why…