Someday, I'll Find My Way Home

Karl reserves a seat.

I woke up feeling refreshed, and I was earlier than my alarm, which was a good sign that I was adjusting well.  After fifteen minutes of preparing for class (most of the time was spent falling in line for the communal CR), I wore my high school Foundation T-Shirt--a blue tee with a small logo of my school at the back and the word SENIORS in bold, white print in front. I decided to go with my maong pants today, since most of my classes today were held in lecture halls and I don't want to expose much of my legs to strangers (yet). And sandals could work well.

I went to my SOSC 1 class after a fifteen-minute walk from my dormitory to the lecture hall. When I entered, I was taken aback that it was going down. Each step going down had rows of arm chairs. The neon green color of the walls was faded, with spiderwebs on the ceiling.  The projector screen was hanged in the ceiling at the end of the auditorium. At the corners of the room were wooden cabinets.

The whole hall was divided into three parts: the left, middle, and right sections. I sat on the fourth row in the left side, leaving one space next to the aisle. I would leave that spot to Axel, since he didn't specify which seat he would like to sit on. Ha-ha-ha.

What's next is to observe my classmates who was, like me, ten minutes early for class.

They were all normal. That was all I could comment on. I was waiting for those who would show up in their sleeping attire! Or maybe it was too early for that since it's just the first week of classes. But, truth to be told, most of the earlybirds looked intelligent based on the look on their eyes. They look polished to be attentive, or they just had a good night's sleep.

When the clock hit 7'am sharp, our professor came. I knew because she proclaimed on the doorstep, "I am not late!"

I could already feel her charisma flowing down the auditorium. She wore a black lacy dress and blue flats. She had deep, obsidian eyes with glittery eyeshadow and pink lipstick. Her curly hair passed by the ruffles on her sleeves. She passed by the aisle next to me, and I could feel my lips forming in a smile as our eyes met and she gave me a wink.

A lot of people came while she was setting up her laptop to the projector screen. Someone sat on my left. Good thing that I left my bag on the chair on my right, or what would Axel say?

"This is a great morning, but I dressed up like I was going in a funeral!" our professor exclaimed. "I just wore black because it looks slimming, isn't it?"

Still no sign of Axel.

"I'm Professor Shiela Julianda, and you may call me Ma'am Shiela. Not Miss! I don't want anyone slapping my face with the reality that I'm not married yet."

The class erupted with laughter.

"Any prerogs?" Students in the back row raised their hands. It looked like she was overwhelmed by the number who raised their hands. "Hmmm, can you check the Recit section capacities instead? As much as I'd like to cater all of you, your recit professors should also give their consent."

Then slowly, students who applied for prerog walked outside for at most five minutes. I tried my best not to look at their sunken faces who looked like they just woke up. I shifted my focus to Ma'am Julianda instead.

She began discussing about the course itself, Foundations of Behavioral Sciences. As I listened, my attention span broke when the door opened.

"Yes?" Ma'am Julianda asked the newcomer.

I would bet my whole lunch that this was Axel.

I looked back because of curiosity.

I shouldn't have said that bet.

Axel was scratching the back of his head as he scanned for an empty seat that was not the back row. Or was he searching for me? I dove my head so as to not let him see me. God, Almighty, let this be the time that I'm not fated to be seatmates with this dork again.

"Prerog?"

"No, ma'am," he answered quite loudly and proudly.

"Freshie?"

I was watching with the corner of my eye. He nodded. He took a bow and said, "I'm really sorry I'm late, ma'am. I'm not a morning person yet."

"That's okay, honey," she assured him. "Just in case, if there's someone uncomfortable, I call almost everyone honey." She looked at him again. "What's your name?"

"Axel. Axel Medrano."

"Well, now that I know your name, I'll call you often in recitations!" she said cheerfully. The class shared a single groan. "Sit here!"

She pointed at the empty chair next to me.

I gulped.

I quickly removed my bag and looked at Axel, who was walking down the steps. I made a mental note of the number of awkward smiles that I've given: 1 for today.

"You remembered!" Axel greeted me with a smile. "Hey, Karl."

He wore another polo today--this time, it was a white polo with stripes of black across the shoulder and the collar. He wore a smoke-colored, upper-knee length shorts and his white sneakers. He put his Hawk bag below the seat.

"H-Hey," I replied. I looked back at Ma'am Shiela.

"What's with the collective groan?" she said. "Oh please, by the end of this month, I would memorize you all by your nickname! So please fill this out with your full name and nickname."

She passed three folders, one for each partition. "This will be your permanent seat. Also, please take note of the seat numbers on the folder. You'll be needing that for our quizzes."

"She sure is energetic," Axel whispered, leaning his head near my ear.

"Shh. She's speaking!" I warned and gave him a glare. He just gave a light giggle.

We began taking down notes on the requirements needed for the next meeting. Then, she proceeded to tell stories about success stories about this course, which lightened my mood and improved my confidence on getting a flat 1 on this course.

After about an hour, she dismissed the class. As I was putting my notebook in my bag, Axel began to speak.

"Have you eaten?" he asked.

I shrugged. I slung my bag to my back.

"Wanna have some breakfast with me?"

I just want some peace. I'd like to return to my dorm room instead. I would eat at the carinderia near my dormitory instead, which had the cheapest meals in the whole university.

"Nope. I'm good." I started to walk with other people outside.

"C'mon, I'll treat you."

I stopped and looked at him. He said the magic words.