Cattleya was the only one in the classroom for their literature class. She wasn't able to sleep because of what she had witnessed yesterday.
"Damn, couldn't sleep at all last night?"
She heard Liv who sat beside her.
"Well...nothing much. I'm still finding the right spot on my bed. Is it that obvious that I didn't sleep?"
"Well, no. But I know one when I saw one. Oh, I almost forgot to get your number. Here put it in."
She hands her phone to Cattleya. When she was done she heard a sound on her cellphone. She smiled, it was a text from an unknown number saying "Hello, Panda eyes."
"Very funny, there I saved your number," she showed her contact name Liv.
"Hey, what do you want me to call you? Cattleya has too many syllables." she kidded.
"Haha, that's only three. You can call anything you choose. I don't mind really."
"Do you have a second name?"
"Yes. It's Fleur."
"Oooh, French for flower. What's with your parents naming you after flowers? But I do like it. It's decided. I'll call you Fleur." she entered the name into her contacts.
Then many students slowly turned up, and the seats were almost occupied. Cattleya remembered that she wasn't able to tell Liv that Antonio's one of their classmates.
"Liv? I have something that I forgot to tell you," she asked in a whispering voice.
"What?"
Before Cattleya could tell her someone sat beside her.
"This is nice. We're classmates the three of us."
Liv went look past Cattleya's shoulders. She saw her eyes grew big with surprise. Cattleya went frozen and mouthed sorry to Liv, who just nod and turned her faced in the opposite direction. Cattleya slowly turned and saw Antonio wearing his eyeglasses again.
"Morning Queen." he greeted with a beaming smile, a smile that could take every girl the ability to breath. Then she realized what she had called her and blinked.
"Queen?"
"Cattleya? Queen of the Orchids? Not so far right?" he grinned.
"Oh, what's with you and names." She smiled but it soon faltered because she remembered what happened yesterday. Antonio caught the change of her expression and was about to say something when they heard someone say "The professor's here." Everyone sat on their seats like statues.
Cattleya can see in her peripheral vision that Antonio was looking at the stunningly beautiful professor who had just walked in the room. She felt a subtle pain in her chest.
Am I gonna survive this class without being bothered by the memory of Antonio and Prof. Cielo kissing? she thought.
"Good morning everyone. This is Litt 21 Section A, European Literature. I'm Prof. Calypso Cielo. Now before we begin the class, I'll call your names and please answer if you are present."
The room was filled with a chorus of here and present when the roll call started.
"Esquivel, Florian Antonio M."
Cattleya's ears perked up when she heard Antonio's full name.
"Here."
Cattleya couldn't help but notice that the eye contacts of Prof. Cielo were much longer with Antonio than the rest and it bothers her.
"Lopez, Olivia Marie S."
"Here," Liv answered.
Cattleya looked at Liv. Does she know about them? Is that why she's hostile to Antonio?
She was drawn out of her own thoughts when she felt nudges on both of her arms. One from Liv and one from Antonio.
"She called you," Liv whispered.
Cattleya panicked and stood up. "I'm so sorry ma'am. I wasn't paying attention. Rodriguez, Cattleya Fleur ma'am. Present. I'm so sorry."
Liv let out a small giggle, Antonio a grin and shook his head while the others laughed.
"Quiet now. Miss Rodriguez, one of my expectations in my class is everyone must pay close attention. I'll let it slide for now since it's the first meeting. Let this be a reminder to everyone that when I do roll calls and you weren't able to answer I'll be marking you absent. Understood?"
