Darren Espanto? My ex-friend. (Darren Espanto and Juan Karlos Labajo)

Chapter 1: Where it all began..

Lygienel's POV

"Good morning, ma'am," I greeted my teacher as she passed by me. She just nodded and smiled at me. Why can't you greet me back? "Good morning, sir," I greeted my teacher as he passed by me, again. In Saint Maria University, you have to be very polite, specially to teachers. Saint Maria University has the least population of bullies here in our place. And although we're in the Isabela, Philippines, we're all required to speak in English.

"Oh hello, Gienel," Mr. Santiago calls me Gienel because he believes that Lygienel is too long. "Hi sir," I said. "How's vacation?" he asked. It's the first day of school for us in 8th grade. "It's great, though. How about yours?" I asked him back.

"Mine's great, too. I got to spend time with Ms. Dizon," he answered. I squealed. Mr. Santiago's girlfriend is Ms. Dizon. Then, the bell rang. It's time to go to our rooms.

"Well, farewell to you," Mr. Santiago said. I smiled at him. "I'll see you later, sir," I told him, he smiled back and went to the faculty room. Mr. Santiago treats me like his friend outside the classrooms, but inside, it's always have been teacher-student.

"Gie!" someone shouted from my back. I faced to the back, revealing Michelle, my best friend. I squealed again. "Chelle! How's vacation?" I asked her. She grabbed my hand as we walk through the corridors. "It was fine. I have some news," she said. My eyebrows knitted.

"What is it?" I asked. She blushed and answered, "Darren, Juan Karlos, Nash, Hayes and Ron are our new classmates for this year," she exclaimed. Darren Espanto, Juan Karlos Labajo, Nash Mendoza, Hayes Peralta and Ron Cruz are heartthrobs from Saint Maria University -- San Mariano Campus.

"Really? Why did they transfer here in San Manuel?" I asked Michelle. "Wasn't it obvious? Of course! This is the main campus, duh," she said. I nodded. She has a point, though.

When we reached the 3rd floor, where our classroom is located, we heard noise. Probably the 5 jerks. As we entered the room slowly and quietly, everyone looked at the both of us as if we were criminals. I looked back at the 5 jerks, making eye contact with them. Nash winked at me. I noticed that Darren elbowed him as Nash's side. What a flirt.

"Uh.. hi," I said, making the situation more awkward. I mentally facepalmed myself for saying that. Hayes waved at me and smiled, he faced his friends and laughed. What a jerk.

I noticed that Sofia ran to me, hugging me. "Fia!" I exclaimed. Gosh, I missed this girly. "How's vacation?" she asked. "It's good, I enjoyed it actually," I said. She smiled, "Really? That's great," she said.

"Come, let's sit. I reserved some seats for the both of you," Sofia said. I thanked her a we both sat down. Sofia left us and went to some of her friends. I saw that Juan Karlos isn't one of the 5 jerks. It puzzled me. I faced the wall for about 10 seconds and finally decided to face Michelle.

"Why do you think Juan Karlos isn't one of Darren's group?" I asked as I faced her. My jaw dropped when I realized Juan Karlos was the one sitting beside me and not Michelle. Oh my god.

"U-uh h-hi there, J-Juan Ka-" I stuttered as he cut me off. He chuckled. "They're all jerks, that's why," he answered. I half-heartedly smiled at him. I get it now. "Hi, I'm Juan Karlos," he introduced himself to me. I clearly know you, Juan Karlos. "Really? Then that's great!" he exclaimed. My eyes grew bigger then I realized that I've said that outloud.

I covered my face with both of my hands as I blushed because of embarrassment. He giggled. Cute though. "Oh c'mon, don't be embarrassed. Wait.. you're the girl at the door earlier, right?" he asked. I blushed harder and covered my face harder.

He laughed. "Yeah, you are the one," I shrugged my head and blushed more. Juan Karlos held both of my hands and tried removing it away from my face. "No," I groaned.

"Oh c'mon, don't be embarrassed. It's just me," he convinced me. I shrugged my head no. He grabbed my hands away from my face. He won. "Look, I just wanna know your name," he said as he smiled at me. I grinned and made a poker face. "Really? Hahaha no," I said. He looked a bit disappointed.

"What?" I asked. "I just want to know your name, why is it so hard for you to tell me?" he asked back. I thought for a moment. Yeah, why is it so hard for me to tell him my name? Because I'm playing hard-to-get.

"It's because we're not that close yet," I answered. He smiled and put his arm around my shoulder and grabbed me closer to him. "There, aren't we close yet?" he said as he grinned at me. I pushed him aside a bit. "Nope," I answered again.

"Please? Pretty please?" he begged while pouting and doing the puppy eyes. He's so cute. I sighed. "Fine, my name is Lygienel Reign Lim," I said, extending my hand for him to shake. He grinned and took it. "Nice meeting you, let's eat lunch together later, okay?" he said. My eyes narrowed.

"Wait, Juan Kar-" he cut me off. "Call me JK, I'll call you Gienel, and it's final. Bye! I'll sit down now," he said. I sighed as Michelle and Sofia ran to me. "Omg, Lygie. We all saw that, we envy you," Sofia said. I smiled uneasily and replied, "Hey, don't be, we're just friends." They both nodded.

"I know," they replied in unison. As our teacher went inside our classroom, everyone sat down.

"Okay class, good morning," Mrs. Mariano greeted us. We all stood up and greeted her as she gestured us to sit down on our sits.

"So since it's the first day of class. It's your free time," she started. All of us were going to react when she continued. "BUT, each of you will introduce yourselves infront, okay? Mr. Lustre, you may start," as Mrs. Mariano called him, Andre stood up and introduced himself infront of us.

24 students down, Mrs. Mariano called me. "Ms. Lim, you're up," she said. I smiled and stood up.

"So Ms. Lim, tell us about yourself," Mrs. Mariano told me. "Uhm, good morning. My name's Lygienel Reign C. Lim. My C stands for Cruz. I'm 13 years old. Born on 15th of June, year 2001. Uhm, I like the colors green, red, blue, black and white. I also like dancing and singing," I introduced myself. I glanced at Juan Karlos, seeing that he was already looking at me.

"Thank you, Ms. Lim. Up next is Mr. Mendoza," our teacher said. Nash introduced himself, saying that he's single making the girls fangirl. Except from me. I'm not that kind of girl.

Hayes and Ron were both done, leaving Juan Karlos and Darren up next. I wonder who's the last one.

Juan Karlos stood up as Mrs. Mariano called him. He smiled and winked at me. I blushed. Oh dear, stop it. "Hi, I'm Juan Karlos Labajo, I'm from Cebu. 13 years old. Born on February 5th, 2001. I really love dancing and singing, like Ms. Lim," when he mentioned my surname, I blushed. Then, he winked at me. I blushed even harder that own classmates chanted "Ayiie," at us.

"Mr. Labajo, will you please demonstrate your singing skills to us?" our teacher requested. He smiled and nodded. "So I'm going to sing Grow Old With You sang by Adam Sandler," he said and cleared his throat,

"I wanna make you smile, whenever you're sad," he started. As he continued, I just realized that I'm staring at him. I went back to my senses when all girls chanted and screamed. Such fangirls. I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

"And lastly, Mr. Espanto," when he stood up, everyone screamed, supporting him. Except for me, of course. "Hey Gienel, why aren't you supporting Darren?" Michelle suddenly asked me. I shrugged. "Isn't he cute and handsome?" Sofia dreamily stared at him. I rolled my eyes. Argh.

"Hi. My name is Darren Lyndon Espanto. I'm 13 years old. Born on the 24th of May, 2001. Like them, I love dancing and sing-" they cut him off by yelling, "Sample! Sample! Sample!"

"Okay. I'm going to sing Build A Girl by The Fooo. Hey girl with the pretty pink polka dot bikini. I don't want your number really. All I want is your DNA oh yeah," he said. When, he ended the song, I was amazed. He even danced along while he is singing.

This Darren kid seems realy talented. I wanna be close to him, as friends, though. But it's impossible because he seemed so untouchable.