Weirdos III: The Untouchable Lady

Chapter 4: Monsters and Menace

RB's POV

It's still early in the morning when I woke up on the second to the final day of the training camp. I geared myself up for my daily early morning jog around the school. I was about to leave our room when Jared also woke up from his sleep.

"Are you gonna go for a jog? I'll go with you. Sobrang aga mo talagang nagigising," Jared said drowsily from his bed.

"Get changed. I'll wait for you outside," I said before heading out of the room.

We're finally almost at the end of our training camp. The past month has been really stressful, tiring, and filled with injuries. It's a good thing that our injuries have been healed right after we came back here yesterday. The nurses in the infirmary here are really strict. They insisted on allowing our injuries to heal naturally for a few days first before healing them totally. Well, what's important is that we're both good to go and ready for action once more.

Jared went out of the room after a few minutes. Agad naman kaming lumabas ng building kung saan tumutuloy ang mga participants ng training camp. It's still a bit dark outside and a thick layer of fog is covering the entire school grounds.

"You seem to be a lot livelier and more refreshed ever since you came back from Ike's house," Jared said as we jogged in a street under the cover of trees.

"Well, Ike and I had a really good time together celebrating our first month last Sunday," I said smugly. "It's been a really fun weekend for both of us."

Jared gave me a meaningful look. "I see... Hindi na ako mag-u-usisa pa kung gaano ka nag-enjoy nung weekend. I'm just glad that you two are getting stronger especially after the terrible things that happened to you in the past few months."

I just smiled widely as a reply. Jared raised an eyebrow and just stared at me suspiciously.

"Pwede mo namang sabihin sa 'kin ang mga kinikimkim mo. Kilala kita at alam ko rin naman kung gaano kalalim ang samahan ninyo ni Ike. Come on, handa ako sa kung ano man ang maririnig ko," sabi niya.

I let out a low squeal before grabbing Jared by his shoulders and shaking him violently. Muntik pang malaglag 'yung salamin niya dahil sa pagkakayugyog ko sa kanya.

"Jeez, calm down," Jared said while fixing his eyeglasses.

"We already did it! I mean, we seriously did it! I even pinch myself sometimes to make sure that I'm not dreaming. I've waited for, like, almost over a year para lang masundan 'yung nangyari sa 'ming dalawa. I can't wait to tell Crimson about this! It was so freakin' good," I said before staring dreamily into the empty space.

"Sabi na nga ba. Iba kasi 'yung aura mo pagdating mo rito kahapon. Well, I'm happy for both of you. Mukhang mahal ka naman ni Ike at obvious naman na patay na patay ka sa kanya. Just stay strong at alam ko naman na magtatagal kayong dalawa," Jared said.

We headed straight to the school's cafeteria after an hour of jogging around the school. Libre rin ang mga pagkain sa cafeteria nila rito. Three times a day at may kasama pang meryenda ang libreng pagkain. They also use only the freshest ingredients in their food due to the presence of a lot of farms here up north.

Jared and I are already in the middle of our breakfast when the other participants in the training camp have started arriving in the cafeteria. Lahat ng nasa Top 5 magical schools sa buong bansa ay may kani-kanyang representatives dito. At kaming mga nag-aaral sa mga eskwelahan na 'yun ang madalas na tampulan ng atensyon ng ibang mga participants dito.

"RB! Jared!" tawag bigla sa 'kin ng isang naging kaibigan namin dito sa training camp. It was Phoebe together with her classmate, Zephyr. Mga taga-Philippine Weirdo University sila. At sa dinami-dami ng mga participants dito eh sila lang ang nakipagkaibigan sa 'min, or rather, naglakas-loob na lumapit sa 'min.