Friendships are made not only from sugar and spice, made up of not everything nice, but the loyalty, tenacity, passion and resilience that bonds everyone together, forming something that the skies can only understand.
The ELITE Class, Now Boarding 🛩
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Makati, Metro Manila. 10 years ago.
It was a bright pristine afternoon in February. Tuesdays were typical as the wind softly gushes through the banana trees near the Architecture department of the school and the serene sound of emptiness fills the lobby of the building.
"Ten years from now, where would we be?" Cici, the girl with the short brown hair in a mustard bandana started to talk.
She snapped her fingers to break the silence between her two friends who were drifting into space.
"Are we really going to be Architects, eventually?" Cici continually asked.
"If it is God's will, then we will be," Marina sighed with a hopeful face. "We'll get through it."
The three of them were sitting on a long wooden bench facing the open ceiling in an area of the building where banana trees can be distantly seen. After class, they would purposely waste their time at that particular spot to do nothing but watch the banana trees dance in sync with the wind.
"For eleven years of waiting, I never thought that Architecture would purposely fill me with hardships," Cici stated. Among the three, she was the first who decided to take the said program, and at the age of 7, she already knew what she wanted to be in the future.
"As for me, I've decided last minute and I've got nothing else as a second or third choice other than this," Marina explained with frustration in her eyes. "I wasn't expecting that this would all turn out to be a joke."
Marina & Cici turned to their other friend who is sitting there looking like she's pouring her soul into the wind.
"Hoy Jinger!" Marina slapped her friend's arm.
"What?!" Jinger blurted back. Her thick, arched eyebrows and gloomy eyes were powerful enough to make Marina take a step back.
"We're talking about our situation here, can't you share your thoughts about this?" Cici approached.
"Who do you want their ass kicked?" Jinger raised an eyebrow. "Whom should we assassinate first?"
Jinger was quick to make a joke about it, because in any circumstance she will always be optimistic no matter how ugly the situation may become. It may be paradoxical for her problematic appearance, but her optimism depends on the fact that she cares less and ignores more.
"About the Math subjects in Architecture, we can barely even pass the basic ones! How can we even put a solution to this if the ones in authority are manipulating things," Marina groaned in despair, knowing that their hard work alone won't suffice.
"I think I would fit into the medical field," Cici placed her palms on her face and closed her eyes in frustration.
"How 'bout you, dumbass?" Marina turned to Jinger.
It took seconds for Jinger to comprehend, but she answered anyway.
"If you ask me what do I wanna do?" Jinger suddenly stood up and retorted in a loud volume. "I want to kick that douchebag professor of ours, particularly the one with no hair! How highly he'd see himself after giving me a grade below the cut off! If I'm going to get dragged down, I'm taking him with me!" Jinger would always let her rage overpower her, and that would sometimes lead to a chaotic event.
The look on Marina & Cici's faces suddenly became sour as they have not prepared for the setback that was going to happen.
Oh oh...
"Jin, shut it," Cici commented while saying it with a straight face.
Jinger found it weird since Cici would never limit her to blurt out.
"Jin, please," Marina also did what Cici had to do. This time, Marina looked at Jinger straight in the eye and gave her a very unlikely fake grin.
"Ano ba?! What's the matter with you both?! Come on! We all know that the three of us despise that bald head freak show so much!" Jinger ranted with force, despite the warnings of her two friends. "Okay! Let him be the anointed engineer! Sya na ang prodigy sa Math! Kalbo pa rin naman!"
Cici and Marina looked at each other with horrified faces, making Jinger alter her mood and pick up some hints.
"Oh come on you two! What's the matter?" Jinger smirked while rolling her eyes. "Don't act like I'm the only one disgusted by that freak show. You know how-"
Jinger couldn't finish her sentence because her terrified friends were pointing to the direction behind her.
Her eyes widened while realizing that someone whom she called a bald freak show might be standing behind her.
One...
she slowly turned around to have a view of the thing that is filling her friends with fear.
Two...
Jinger gulped hard while her friends stood up to motion a silent escape.
Three.
Shit. The bald man's approaching.
"RUN!!!"
—
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Present day
Toronto, Ontario
Forecast for Thursday, 29th of March. Three degrees Celsius. Partly cloudy. Becoming clear overnight. Low minus 1.
"Last Canadian weather forecast for the year," Cici declared in a soft tone as she rose from the bed.
It was a 5am wake up call and she couldn't come up to decision if it is still usual or not.
Finally, she sighed.
Her eyes landed on the right side of the room where a bouquet of bright red roses with dendobrium orchids were placed on top of her duffelbags, and behind those exhibited Toronto's striking panoramic view from her hotel room.
Cici reached for a pile of files from the bedside table and took the deepest breath she could ever take.
YYZ to MNL Philippine Airlines March 29 Toronto 8:55 AM - Manila 11:55AM 15h 00m.
A flight itinerary on one hand, and a photo of her two best friends on another.
