Just Another Girl To You

Eighteen

It was the first day of the new school year, and instead of being called "sophomores" we were now referred to as "Grade 8" since they finally passed the K+12 curriculum here in the Philippines.

Aside from the grade renaming, the sections were now called Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire, and Topaz, instead of sections A-E.

I was now in 8-Topaz, Jaz was in Emerald, and all the other folks from 1-E were in Ruby.

While I liked to think the world hated me for putting me in Topaz before, I now realize that it was somehow a blessing in disguise.

I had a falling-out with Yuson, she turned on me, and well, it started a feud, and it would've been too awkward if I was in Ruby with her.

Another problem was that in Topaz, there were only about 4 transferees, and the whole 1-B class was intact.

Annika, my aforementioned bestfriend, was there. It should've been a good thing, so why did it worry me?

You see, we've had a rocky year last year, and we've fallen apart, we were still friends, but we were different people now.

I hoped she was still the girl I "raised", while in truth, I barely knew who I was.

From strong, outgoing and abrasive, I was now insecure, somewhat shy, nice, and pretty much the general opposite of who I was the year before.

I entered the school, looked for my classroom, and went inside.

There was only about ten people there, all of which I knew, but wasn't really close with, except for one.

I started toward Lance Uy, whom we called Lansooy, my fabulous best friend. And yes, he was kind gay.

He was talking animatedly with this unfamiliar girl, whom I later learned was Ina Ruiz.

She was pretty, curly brown-black hair, big dark eyes, fair, spotless skin, and that adorable height she had.

She was a transferee as well, originally from 1-D.

Thank the gods I wasn't gonna be the only loner!

Lansooy made all the necessary introductions, and we all huddled into one spot, people joining us from time to time.

Where was Annika? She was never late. Guess she'd be skipping class today, then.

Our adviser, Mrs. Apuntar (my former computer teacher), entered the room, and we settled down.

She oriented us, conducted the usual Dale Carnegie session, and immediately assigned an official seat plan for the quarter.

"Elaine, sit beside Ryan." She commanded.

"Who's Ryan?" I asked, my accent thick.

Ugh, whenever I was anxious or excited, my Californian accent got thick. And it was embarrassing, to think those were the first words I uttered in front of everyone.

A few people originally from 1-B laughed, including Ron Maaba, the renown class jokester.

The teacher directed me to the seat beside a tall, burly figure with an odd fringe of stark black hair. He had large eyes, and his face was obviously undergoing puberty.

"Hi, I'm Elaine by the way." I greeted him with a handshake as I got to my seat.

"Hello, I'm halog." He shyly replied.

"Halog? Didn't she just say you were Ryan?" I was confounded.

He showed me his ID instead of replying, oh, I get it now, his name was Jean Ryan Halog.