Strawberries and Cigarettes ✔

V. ubi fata ludum operatur

Rhiannon

The clock finally strikes at 12, indication that my first subject for today is finally done.

"Rhian, just wanna remind you 'bout the meeting later at 3pm." My blockmate, Alice, who's sitting beside me said.

"Yeah, sure." I nodded my head and stood up.

Pagkalabas ko ng room ay saktong pag-ring ng cellphone ko para sa isang tawag.

Miya

"Rhian-kins, where are you?" Pagkasagot ko ng tawag ay ang maarteng boses ng kaibigan kong si Miya ang bumungad.

"EA building pa. Why?"

Mabilis ang naging lakad ko habang binabaybay ang daan papuntang cafeteria para mag lunch, ngunit nang marinig ang sinabi ni Miya ay mabilis akong pumihit papuntang org room.

"Come here muna sa org room. We made some changes for the EA week. We need your suggestions."

After I said my confirmation she immediately dropped the call.

I just hope that this would be quick. Gutom na talaga ako.

Nang makarating sa org room ay kumpleto na halos lahat ng officers, kaya mabilis naming sinimulan ang meeting.

"I'm sorry for the urgent meeting, but we all know that this needs to be finalized today. We made a few revisions for the event so we just wanna inform everyone about this, and of course, it's still open for consideration if you have any suggestions." Tanya, the organization's secretary, said.

"Kakastart lang ba?" I whispered to Miya who's sitting beside me.

"Yeah. We waited for you, Vice." She teased and I immediately frowned. She only chuckled as a response.

"So, there's nothing new naman with the flow of the programme for the first day of EA week. At morning, there will be an opening prayer, and then we'll proceed to parlor games-" Tanya was cut off by the abrupt comment of Luigi, one of the Treasurer.

"Are you really serious with your parlor games? Come on, do you really think that they would participate with games such as stop dance or paper dance?" Sarcasm was very evident with Luigi's voice, "And besides, there's a lot of things to consider in budget than buying some newspapers to be played with." He added.

"We don't need to buy newspapers, though. Puwede naman nating hingiin." Alexis, the other treasurer said.

"Oh, okay? So where? Does your parents even read some newspapers nowadays?" I actually get Luigi's point.

"It's just for starters, Luigi, calm down. It was just a mood maker for this year's EA Week. No need to be so fussy about it." Miya butted in, "And besides, parlor games are not only composed of paper or stop dance. 'Yan lang ba ang nalaro mo noon sa christmas party niyo?" I mentally face palmed when I heard Miya's sarcastic argument.

"Mood maker, what?" An irritated Luigi asked, "Kung ako naman ang normal na estudyante na ifo-force niyong sumali sa mga ganiyang ka-corny-han, baka buong EA week na akong wala sa mood." I smirked with his remark and I didn't even noticed that I made a small sound because of it.

Miya looked at me with irritated expression so I immediately went back to my straight face.

"What do you suggest, then?" I asked directly to Luigi.

He blinked twice before shifting from his seat like he was in an uncomfortable position.

"W-we could actually conduct a poster making contest for Architecture and Civil Engineering students. Or any contest relating our course. Not some childish parlor games." He stuttered with his first sentence but immediately went back to his point later on.