Provincia de Nueva Sevilla - A Short Story Collection

ℵ-2

"Today is the day that I confess to Adua."

A black-haired boy said to himself in front of a mirror. He put on pink polo shirt over a white undershirt, and black pants before affixing a green necktie around his collar and placing a red vest over his shoulder to be put on later. Barnaby Humbert R. Araullo was a 16-year-old 10th grader in Academia de Santa Cecilia, a private high school in the Municipality of Santa Cecilia in the Province of Nueva Sevilla in Central Luzon.

It was already 5:00 in the morning. Barnaby had woken up thirty minutes ago and cooked his own food just to be ready for today. Normally, his Tuesdays started with him waking up at five and having his mother cook food for him. Today, however, he cooked food for himself while waiting for the school service to pick him up.

The girl he liked, Aleina Philomela N. Adua, was consistently an honor student. She was at the top of their class' rankings, while Barnaby was either at tenth place or not in the top 10 at all. Aside from Aleina being up on the rankings, Barnaby also liked her because of how she looked and behaved. The brown-haired girl was shorter than Barnaby by about three inches, and her brown skin had no acne or pimples. She didn't move or talk much at school except for reciting and going out of the classroom. During breaks, she sat at a bench under a tree while looking at a book.

Barnaby meant looking at a book as in just looking at the book. One day in which Barnaby followed Aleina around, he noticed that she didn't flip the pages of the book at all. It was weird. It was mysterious. Like the fact that he's never seen Aleina wearing anything except ACS' uniforms, the mystery surrounding the girl was one of the reasons he found himself attracted to her.

Later at noon, he mustered up his courage and approached Aleina at her usual bench. "Is this seat taken?" Barnaby asked. Aleina moved her head to look at Barnaby in the eyes. "No, it is free." She said in a voice that Barnaby thought was too naturally beautiful to be normal. "Thanks." Barnaby sat down to Aleina's right. He unwrapped his hotdog sandwich and bit on it while looking at what Aleina was reading.

Powell's radio voice was tense in Donovan's ear: "Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics -- the three rules that are built most deeply into a robot's positronic brain." In the darkness, his gloved fingers ticked off each point.

Barnaby didn't expect the girl that he liked to be reading old science-fiction novels, but he tried to adapt. "Asimov, is it?" He asked Aleina, hoping to start a conversation. Aleina nodded once after a few seconds and opened her mouth. "I, Robot is a novel of short stories or essays by American writer ." She told Barnaby after another delay, without any pauses. Barnaby took another bite off of his sandwich and nodded before asking. "Have you finished with the new math homework?"

Aleina nodded again after a delay. "Yes, I completed it a day ago."

Barnaby almost choked on his hotdog. "A day ago?!" The black-haired boy could not comprehend how the brunette had finished a 20-level Pascal Triangle due next Monday in the span of one day. Their other classmates were all being stressed out by the fact that their ruthless math teacher had given them such a time-consuming assignment on top of three essays for their Filipino subject, including the student ranked below Aleina, Giselle Tañedo, who was absolutely livid after their teacher had exited the room.

"How long did it take you to do it?" Barnaby was surprised enough to ask.

"The calculations were made in the span of 1.7529 seconds, while the inscription on an illustration board was completed in roughly 10 minutes and 22.9714 seconds."

"You time how long you do your projects?"

"Affirmative."

At that point, Barnaby knew for certain: Aleina was far from normal. "Do you prefer to be called Aleina or Philomela?" Barnaby asked, since he never really heard anyone call her anything besides Adua, her surname. Aleina blinked and looked at Barnaby. "I prefer to be called Aleina. It might be easier for you to say than Philomela." Barnaby nodded. "Is that what your-"