Not Into Her

IX - The Insensitive

Three months later, I walked inside the classroom with my eyes on my friends. It's the middle of the second half of the year and I have to focus myself to other things rather than Aprielle. She's been unfaithful to me nowadays and always rub herself on me. But I didn't look at her and became insensitive to her.

Just what I said earlier, I walked inside the room and noticed my friends are already on their chairs. Aprielle, on the other hand, noticed me walking to my chair at the farthest corner of the room.

"Alex, hi!" she greeted, starting the nerve out from my head. "Hey, Alex!"

I didn't turn my head around to her or look at her in one eye. I just walked to my chair, took my bag off from my back and sat, looking at my friends and smile. Von and the guys are still busy with their unfinished homework on their sheets. I was laughing and chuckling, knowing that I already knew the correct answers in each numbers.

"Faster, guys!" I said to the boys to give them enthusiasm. "It's already----" I looked at my wristwatch and noticed it's seven-twenty-five in the morning. "7:25."

I stood up and stretched my body. I feel a little bit achy and tired in an early morning that I didn't felt everyday. Then I walked to the wall, where the beautiful view of an urban farm is located, and leaned my body to the view and felt the morning air.

Aprielle watched me on what I was doing while listening to her friends. She wondered why I was acting this way and why am I not greeting her back. Then she went back in looking at her friends and smiled.

Then the bell rang for the first subject and the teacher walked inside the room. That was the time I turned around and wait for my classmates to stand up for the greeting. After greeting the teacher, I walked back to my chair and sat along with my classmates. I didn't look around nor have a chance to look at my friends.

Then I noticed Aprielle walking to the blackboard to answer their word problem. The word problem is all about Mathematics and I don't know what reaction should I throw on her when she turn around and face me. So I just looked and stared at the blackboard at my front and never looked a single eye on her when she turned around.

Then Mrs. Echavia looked at me and smiled.

"Mr. De Castro," she called out. "will you go to the front and check Ms. Solis' answer?"

"My pleasure." I said and stood up.

I walked to the blackboard and walked back three steps behind while looking at the blackboard where Aprielle's answer is located. The class became amazed when I carefully inspected her answer and, after a few minutes of looking back and forth, there's something wrong in her answer.

So I took a piece of white chalk from Mrs. Echavia's chalk box and also her chalkboard eraser. Then I walked to the chalkboard, erased the wrong part of Aprielle's answer and wrote the correct solution on that part. After showing my own solution, I put the chalk and the eraser back to the chalk box and looked at the teacher.

"That's it!" I said.

Then I walked back to my chair and sat back. Mrs. Echavia looked at my correction and noticed I corrected Aprielle's answer. The correction is right and the stroke of my algebraic expressions are according to her teachings. She looked at me and smiled.

"It's correct, class." she concluded. "Mr. De Castro is right as he always did."

"Wow!!" the class reacted, with amazement on their faces. "Like he always did."

"Alex, can I see you in the office at noon?" Mrs. Echavia asked.

"Sure, ma'am." I replied.

After the last hour, I walked to the Faculty Room. The room is located at the middle of the new building, at the back of Mother Mary's statue and the wooden cross, and on the side is the Clinic. The room is spacious, not all teachers are there for the noon, and some of the teachers have their own closed-door rooms inside. Tables with cabinets are stacked about a feet away from each other and they're empty.

So I walked inside alone, walked to Mrs. Echavia's office and knocked three times before walking inside. After three knocks, I twisted the knob and walked inside. Mrs. Echavia is sitting on her chair, sticking some of her lipstick on her lips.

"Hello, ma'am!" I greeted to the woman, walking to the desk and smiled.

Mrs. Echavia looked at me and greeted me back. "Mr. De Castro, I've been waiting for you." she said, stopping her hands from lipsticking. "Have a seat."

I sat on the white plastic chair at the front of her desk.

"What is this all about, ma'am?" I asked the woman. "What's with the sudden call?"

"I'm here to ask you something." she replied. "Next week is the Student's Week. All selected students are secretly appointed with their respected teachers for their excellent performance in their respected subjects. And, in the following days, I've searched some candidates for my Algebra lessons. But I chose you for the job, Mr. De Castro.

"As you can see, you topped them out by the excellent performance on my class. So I want you to do the job as my Student Assistant of my subject, Algebra. I'll give you the pointers if you agree to my offer."

I looked at the woman's eyes and noticed they're very sincere to her request. I can also see her self-confidence on me as her S.A. for the next week's Student's Week. So I looked at Mrs. Echavia and smiled.

"Well, the offer is very good and very sincere." I started. "Sure, ma'am. I really love Mathematics and Algebra. That's the very first things I love at school. Although, I have higher grades in other subjects but I really love Algebra. I repeat, yes."

"Don't answer right now." she insisted. "Just think for the night."

"No worries, ma'am." I said back. "I've decided and it's final. I'm sure my father and sister will very proud of me if I said this to them and I'm sure they'll love to let me do it."

"Okay, then. See me in Friday, at three. Bring your textbook. I'll show you what to teach them."