Not Into Her

XII - The Fourth Year High

Summer came after the final exam ended. The summer days are coming and the boys didn't call me or invited me to a boys' private time or going to beach. I was just in the house, watching TV, looking at the news lately and some trivia too. I also like watching cartoons in TV like The Flintstones and Tom and Jerry Shows, just to pass by the time and after my daily chores.

Karl didn't tell us about his leave for Ontario, Canada. Canada's a cold country and a cold place to get by with his new neighbors. They settled in Pickering, Ontario in Canada and he's been doing fine since then. When the school started in mid-August, Karl immediately enrolled as a student. I heard he's busy in his studies right now and now got a PhD in Pharmaceutical Food and Tech.

Just like what I said before, I became the mother of the house and due school days aren't there for six more weeks I have to do all these. The mess around the house is caused by the remaining people around the house, that's me, Father and my sister. We all messed the house and I have to clean the house before the two arrive from work.

Six weeks later, another school days arrived and this is the not the fun days that I always imagined. I didn't expected that I reach fourth year of the school and this is the last year of my school days. And I heard that this year will be the very difficult due to the fact that every class is now shuffle. Shuffle as a sense of mixing the smart ones with the wise and not-that-smart students, as a result of separating the smart students to four sections of the fourth year level.

I looked at my class schedule and noticed I was enrolled in fourth year, Our Lady of Holy Rosary. It said to be the third section of the levels and some of the students enrolled to that room or section is not that smart and not wise at all. I didn't want to enter on that room but that's the room the registrar of the school gave to me so I have to go and see my room before I go absent for the whole year.

So I walked inside the gates of the same private school I studied last year and walked to the room where I enter this year. The room is located at the first floor, the fourth door from the right staircase, and it was on the second building. All rooms of the current levels and sections are now located on the second building, not like the old times where the building made of wood is the first building that has been used as classrooms.

When I reach the building, I walked the corridor until I reach the classroom with the name Our Lady of Holy Rosary written on the same green wood pile on the top of the door. I looked through the window and all I can see are new people in my eyes. I looked around and noticed my friends aren't there and they're not here to welcome me anymore.

I walked to the door and smiled at the new people. I felt nervous for a bit and a little bit tired due to preparing my bag and other school things. A bit nervous in a sense that I was meeting the smart people from other classes and all I have to do is to be sitting on my chair and never open up myself, just to stay out of trouble for the rest of the year.

I walked inside the room, looked around for an empty chair and walked to the chair when I noticed one. I put my bag on the chair, sat on the chair and looked around. I noticed the room is still spacious and new students walked inside. They walked to the chair they suspected and sat.

One of them is Francine Manuela Estrelia, the soon-to-be Batch President of the batch this year. She was a bit chubby at the time and with hair is a bit long. Her hair clip is a bit red in a butterfly-like form and her bust is a bit huge. She's standing of about five-two, without heels on her black school shoes. Her face is white, skin is also white and her head is a bit circular. She walked to the middle of the class, right side of my chair, and looked at me.

"Hi!!" she greeted at me, smilingly, holding her right hand to me. "I'm Francine Estrelia. Sure you're too cocky to be here. And you are?"

I gave my right hand to give her a handshake. "I'm Alex de Castro." I said. "I'm from St. Therese last year."

"So you're the guy that everybody talked about." she said, still have the same smile. "The same guy that taught the students some algebraic expressions. Not too shabby, though."

"You're still remember that?" I asked. "Wow! That's old school."

"It was just like last year, man." she said and we laughed.

"Yeah, I know."

Then I noticed Francine's face looks like a bit familiar to me. Oh, yeah! She's one of the smart students enrolled in first section of the thirds level. She's sitting on the middle chair at the middle of the room. She's looking the whole class at that time and she didn't even look a single eye on my when I'm teaching.

After a few minutes, the other students also went inside and sat back on their chairs. I was very nervous when I look at my classmates and noticed some of them are middle-class, some are bullies and some are the smarts. Well, most of us were smarts. I didn't say that I belong to the smarts, but honestly speaking, I feel like I'm one of them.

Then the bell rang and my new classmates moved like a straight women and men on their seats. They looked at the adviser, who was wearing a green teacher polo, a pair of black pants and a pair of black shiny leather shoes. His haircut is a little bit old and rusty from the barbershop and have a face of a bit dark and scary, but not that too scary.

"Good morning, class." the adviser said, sounded like a colloquial person, a native from Davao or somewhere near Davao. "I'm Mr. Catalbas. The class adviser of OLHR. Your adviser for the whole year. And also your Physics teacher."

"Good morning, sir." all students around the room greeted to the adviser.

"And now, for the introductions." he said, looking at his class record from his armpits.

Then Mr. Catalbas called the first boy from his class record and a boy immediately raised his hands and walked to the stage. He turned around to face us and immediately smiled. He introduced himself and told the class some of himself and he returned to his chair at the left corner of the room.

Everyone followed and introduced themselves. They looked at our classmates one by one and smiled as they introduced themselves. I was so surprised when I found out that most of the students here inside of this room are all from the smart sections before. I was also surprised that I was the only one that is the smart one and been enrolled to sections under the smart sections.

And when Mr. Catalbas mentioned myself, I raised my right hand first and stood up. I walked towards the stage, climbed on the wooden stage, turned around to face the smart ones and smiled. I took a quick look around the room and noticed Aprielle wasn't here and so do my friends back from third year.

So I looked back at my new classmates and smiled.

"Hi! I'm Alex de Castro." I said to my fellow classmates. "As you can see, I'm the second guy who introduces himself with eyeglasses on beside Mr. Alvarez and I'm proud with it. By the way, I'm fifteen and no love life. And if you're wondering what I love about, it's all about Mathematics and Sciences. That's all for now, and if you want to know me more, I'll be on the center of the room, waiting for some company."

After introducing myself, I walked back to my chair and Francine immediately looked at me like I was a new person. She then looked at the front with mouth now closed and looked at the others introducing themselves around the classroom.

After introducing ourselves, the class adviser looked at us and smiled.

"I advised all to have your own Physics textbooks next Monday and we'll start discussing about the word Physics and its branches." the adviser said.

He gave us what color of the book, the author of the book and the exact name of the book we should buy from the school's bookstore. He even explained us what to do and expect on him and he's very proud with it.

The bell rang at eight-thirty and the adviser smiled at his students. Then he greeted us goodbye and walked to other classrooms to introduce himself as the Physics teacher. He even told the students each classroom the required textbook he required to us and even asked the students their introductions to the students around the classroom.