ALEXIS and the Bet

Chapter Ten: Operation in Action

The plan was clear. Robyn and Alicia wrote a little note. Madie would delay Benjamin from going to the school paper office. And since Madie was friends with one of the staff writers, she was informed that they only had regular meetings during Thursdays and Fridays, and that only Benjamin would always drop by the office every afternoon.

So there we were, four girls on a mission. Alicia and Robyn would act as our guards –they would stand near the office and inform us if Benjamin would arrive. Joey and I would slip inside the office, find a suitable hiding place and take pictures of Benjamin and observe him, for investigation purposes of course. We needed to find out what his interests and likes were so we could make him fall in love with me. Fall in love with me –why did that sounded awkward?

Joey and I went inside the office while Robyn and Alicia stood outside, standing guard. I carefully placed the cupcake on his desk with the note at the bottom of the cupcake. I also placed the box with the glasses inside beside the cupcake. I immediately recognized which desk was his since Benjamin Lucero was written all over it –figuratively speaking of course. His desk reflected his personality: Cool and collected, neat and organized, clean and pristine. And besides, Madie’s friend had pointed out which desk was his. Then we searched for a good hiding place. There was a desk at the far end of the room that looked promising to be a suitable hiding post. Joey and I walked towards the desk and hid behind it. As we crouched down low behind our chosen hiding spot, we had perfect vision of Benjamin’s table but we were thoroughly concealed behind this desk. 

I shifted my gaze at Joey and she looked as if she was thrilled with what we were doing, as if pretending to be a sort of detective and spy was what she had always dreamed of becoming one day. Frankly, I was nervous with what we were doing. I mean, what would happen if we got caught?

Somehow, the reasonable part of my brain was telling me again that what we were doing was wrong. Heck, breaking into someone else’s office was a crime punishable by the school’s rule –if we were caught suspension was not the worst thing that could happen. No. Aside from our reputation here in school would go from bad to worse –frankly our reputation wasn’t really that good in the first place –mom and dad would probably kill me and say things like “hindi ka ba namin pinalaki ng tama?” You know how most parents would react sometimes. And although they mean well, they tend to be more ‘over-acting’ than us kids. But disappointing one’s mom and dad was the possible biggest, painful thing a daughter could ever give to them –atleast that was how I see it.

I was forced out of my musings when we heard the door opened and Benjamin swiftly came in. We spied him walking towards his desk and his brows met in a scowl, looking somewhat confused as to how a cupcake ended up on his desk. I saw him picking it up and examining it. He then noticed the piece of folded paper on his desk. He picked it up while placing the cupcake back on his desk. He read the note and to my utter surprise the corner of his lips tilted into one of those cute smiles that he seldom wore. I saw his eyes reading the rest of the note while his smile widened even more. And oh, how handsome he looked with that smile! He folded the note and placed it in his pocket. He then picked the cupcake and ate it, and the look on his face showed that he liked it.

What had made Benjamin smiled like that? I never got the chance to read the note since it was just handed to me by Robyn a moment ago before we got in the office.

I only later noticed that Joey was secretly taking pictures of Benjamin. When Benjamin finished the cupcake, he strode towards the door and went out. We stood from our hiding place and that’s when we heard a loud clicking sound from the door. A moment later, we heard someone knocking.

“Joey, Alex, okay lang ba kayo?” It was Alicia’s voice coming from the other side of the door. “Ni-lock ni Benjamin ang door.”

Joey and I ran towards the door and turned the knob but the door would not open. We were locked inside! Karma worked really fast. I looked around to see if there was something we could use to open the door. Then my gaze fell on the window. The French window looked big enough to fit someone of the same size as Joey and I to pass through it.

“Wala tayong choice kundi dumaan doon,” I told Joey while pointing to the window.

“Alicia,” Joey said. “Abangan niyo kami sa likod ng building. Sa may bintana kami dadaan.”

“Okay.” I heard Alicia said followed by fading sounds of footsteps.

Joey and I approached the French window and opened it. It was a good thing that the office was on the ground floor. I climbed onto the window and jumped to the ground outside. Joey followed afterwards. I saw Alicia and Robyn with the addition of Madie running towards us.

"Naka padlock yung school paper office," Alicia explained. "Hindi naman kasi agad sinabi ni Mads na sira pala ang door knob kaya padlock ang ginagamit nila."

"Sorry na po!" Madie said. "Nakalimutan ko kasi, eh."

“Ano? Mission accomplished ba?” Robyn asked me.

I gave her a nod. “May pictures pa ngang nakuha si Joey, eh. Pero teka, ano ba sinulat mo doon sa note?”

Robyn grinned as if she was proud of whatever she had written on the note. “Isang maikling poem. Tama ka nga Alicia, effective nga yung poem. Mahilig daw kasi sa poetry si editor-in-chief.”

Oh. But what made him smile like that? What kind of poem was it? I was about to ask Robyn when Joey began showing the girls the pictures she took from her phone. I also took a peek of the photos and literally my breath was taken away when I saw the picture of Benjamin smiling while reading the note.

“Joey…” I started, “pwede pa e-mail ng picture na ‘yan?”

Joey eyed me suspiciously. “Sige pero ‘wag ka ma-iinlove sa kanya ha. Ang plan natin ay siya ang ma-iinlove sa ’yo.”

I nodded fervently. Yes, our plan was to make him fall for me. And I needed to guard my heart well because with the kind of smile that Benjamin had, I knew I might forget our plan and everything would backfire. I could never fall for a guy like him who treated girls like me as if we were nothing but dirt. No. I would never fall for him.

***

A/N: Dedicated ito para sa'yo @MissTotalPretender dahil natutuwa ako sa 'yo at sa message mo, at dahil love na kita! hehehe :)

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