The Lucky One

Chapter I

I woke up shock when I saw Mrs. Ramona Banal in front of me, her face as red as a strawberry. I realized I wasn’t in our sold out concert but in my Math class, and right now facing a big trouble because I got caught sleeping on the strictest teacher’s classroom in our whole school. Lagot na!

          “Troian! Why are you sleeping in my class?!” she shouted angrily at me.

          “I-I’m so sorry, Ma’am. I didn’t mean to do it,” I said innocently. The whole class laughed at me.

          “Shut up!” Mrs. Banal yelled again.

My classmates went as silent as a rock. Mrs. Banal glared back at me, the kind of glare that wants to swallow me whole. Fortunately, the bell rang before Mrs. Banal can say anything to me. I’m saved by the bell! Mental victory dance commence.

“I will warn you for what you did to my class today, Troian. But when I catch you sleeping again, detention will follow. Understand?” she warned bitterly.

“Yes, Ma’am,” I nodded before leaving the room. Ah, finally fresh air. I must confess it’s hard to breathe inside Mrs. Banal’s classroom, not because of the closed windows but because of her intoxicating expensive cologne of some unknown brand that she lavishly sprays all over her body.

“Troian, wait up.” My classmate Eliza Samonte said. Read: Si Eliza ay anak ng isang business tycoon dito sa Philippines. She is also the heiress of their family business. Despite her family background Eliza is kind to me and we’re actually friends.

“Hello Eliza. What’s up?”

“Wow. Isn’t I should be the one asking you that?” she said. “And why in the world you fell asleep in Mrs. Banal’s class? You know she’ll going to explode like a volcano when she catches somebody sleeping in her class, right?”

“Yes. But I just fell asleep because we played NBA 2K13 until past two in the morning… dakara.” [That’s why] I replied sheepishly.

“I see. Anyway, can we meet up at the Dining Hall? I just need to borrow a book from the library.”

“Okay,”

After Eliza left, I headed to my younger sister’s classroom at Montez Hall. Carter Academy, a prestigious private school here at Iloilo and also abroad. It has 500 students population. The school was 10.9 hectares of latest state of the art facilities, and which three of the facilities are my favorite: the comfortable Performing Arts Theatre, Carter Academy Library Centre and the five story Students Music Hub building (it’s like a music chamber with its very own recording studio in one building). And the school had twenty-two private school busses. Dito ako nag-aaral kasama ang dalawa kong mga kapatid.

By the way, my name is Troian Sylfen Gabrielli Chavez-Braille (haba ng name ko, noh?) and I am a girl despite my boyish name. I’m 16 years old, and a Filipino-American with a touch of Japanese.

My family—well, ako at ang mga kapatid ko lang ang umuwi dito sa aming maternal grandparents sa Iloilo dahil may trabaho sila Mommy at Daddy abroad. My father Dr. Steven Gregor Braille is an American-Japanese (his mother is pure Japanese while his father is American) Neurologist is working at a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts in the northeastern United States of America. My mother Chef Caitlin Gabriella Chavez-Braille (she’s pure Filipino) is working as a Head Pastry Chef at a five star hotel in Boston, too.

Our eldest brother Arthur Stephen Gregori Chavez-Braille studies Political Science in a prestigious, private college in Manila. Andrew Stefan Gregory Chavez-Braille, the second to the eldest, is a senior high school student. I am the third child, and a junior high school student. Our youngest sibling is Tyreese Sylvia Gabrielle Chavez-Braille, an eight-grade student.