The Lost Story

Chapter 3: The School

It’s four in the morning yet Vince is still asleep. His mother, Maricel, went upstairs to wake him up. However, Vince slept late yesterday, so his mother had to shake his body hard. 

“Hey, wake up son, “Maricel said while shaking her son.

Vincent got up after a multiple shake of his mother. He immediately gets up and stretches his body a little then gets his uniform in the cabinet. After he eats, brushes his teeth and takes a bath, he says goodbye and mano to his mother and leaves.

He went to the jeepney stop and waited for a jeep that would pass his school.  For five months  studying in Meralco Foundation Institute, he learned his lessons. First of all, never get up late or else you won’t have any jeepney to ride with. He is living in Taytay and his school is in Pasig. It's hard for him to take a jeep or bus. Tricycle won’t do because it has boundaries within the places it travels.

When he saw  an upcoming  Jeepney, he instantly raised his arm for the driver to notice him. The driver immediately stopped the jeep beside him and let him enter. But as he expected, the jeep was already full so he didn’t have a choice but to stand in the entrance of the jeep and grip the metal place to the roof to balance his body. When the driver sees that he’s done hanging himself into the jeep entrance, the driver continues to drive.

Vince right hand is still gripping in the metal while his left hand search to his pants, when he feel the paper money in his pocket, he extend his left arm and said, “My fee,”

All the passengers in the jeep look at him in unison, he feels somehow embarrassed from how the passenger looks. But he still extend his arm and said, "can you give this to the driver,”

One of the passengers gets his p*****t and passes it to the other passenger until his p*****t reaches the driver. His arms get numb after the twenty minutes of travel, so everytime that they encounter traffic he  stops gripping from the metal and shakes his hands.

After an hour of travelling from Taytay to Pasig, he reached his destination, his school. “Stop please,,” he said to the driver.

The jeepney stops a little beyond the school, when he gets down from the jeep, he still needs to walk back a little to his school. At the gate, the guard greeted him with a smile, he  smiled back and put his fingers to the biometrics then entered the school. The biometrics act as his record if he's in or out of the school, every student tapped their fingers in there twice a day.  It also alerts the parents if they have already reached or left the school. Since it’s Monday the student is required to attend the Flag ceremony outside the main building, but Vince is not a fan of standing too long. He decided to go straight to the third floor of their building and hide himself in the men’s comfort room. The third floor is also known for having less people on it, because that floor is for the Technical teachers, and the rooms there are all laboratories which are not used commonly by senior highschool students.

As he entered the men’s comfort room, he was astounded to see some familiar faces. They look at him with surprise on their faces and Phones in their hands. He has been hiding for two months now in this c.r to escape the flag ceremony yet, this was the first time that there is someone here, beside him. And it’s not just someone but these guys are from computer Programming, which means that their c.r. must be in the IT building.

The school has two buildings, the building they were at is the main building where mechatronics ,  automation and mechanical student's laboratory and faculty are placed.This is also where the canteen and office of registrar, finance and principal are located. The second building is also called the IT building where a computer programmer student and room is placed, it has much smaller space than the main building.

“Morales?” the guy with curly hair and unironed uniform asked when he saw Vince walk in. 

Vince nodded as he got in the C.r. Some of the boys follow his action with surprise. The C.r is quite big. When you enter the room there's a broad space where you men can change,there’s also four rooms for showers and two rooms with toilet bowls. In that  broad space is where the boys are sitting on the ground. Vincent sat at the very corner of the space and put his bag on his front. He gets his phone and earphones from the bag and lays his head in the tiled wall. He plugged the earphones into his phone then put it in his ears. Without a word he fell asleep. On the other hand,  the programming boys are still in shock with the presence of Vince, except for the guy with curly hair name, Calex.

“Hey, Calex, ” the guy with slanted eyes calls his friend.

Calex replied, tilting its head,while it was still playing on his phone.“Uhm?”

“A while ago, you called his name right?” the guy ask

“Ay taena, stupid teammate. Don’t dare to play with me again!” he cursed after losing from a game, Calex paused for a while and turned around to his friend, “ Are you pertaining to Morales?”

The guy looks at Calex and nods.

“Drei?Are you interested in him?” Calex ask

“Tss. No, I just thought that I knew him.”  

“Of course you know him, he’s the guy in the opening ceremony who gives you a seat, “ Calex said to the guy.

The guy's name is Andrei, he’s kinda popular at the school. Not as popular as the guys in w*****d but as popular as someone can tell that this guy is Andrei Manlapaz.  The teachers said that this guy is born with a golden brain. He’s good at almost everything. But his friend, Calex,  knows that it’s exaggerated by teachers. This gives Andrei a hard time, giving himself a pressure to maintain top of the standard, Digging himself to study and maintaining the beauty in his face. He almost had no friends due to his arrogant attitude, but thanks to Calex's unstoppable mouth later on he gained a  group of friends and learned to enjoy life without affecting his grades and reputation.

In the opening ceremony of his new school, MFI. He ran on the first day from the school gate  to the assembly hall because he was three minutes late for the ceremony.  Fortunately, the teacher let him in even he’s late. He looked for Calex and others, Luckily, he found them in an instant on the top floor of the hall. He walked towards them.

The hall is wide, maybe hundreds of people can be accommodated. The style of the seats are like a staircase that creates a layer  of half-moon. The stage in the bottom is also wide enough that a band can also perform if only there's an event, the lights are also bright. On the top floor of the hall there’s a  monoblocks on the side that excess students use when the halls are full from bottom to top seats. 

When Andrei finally reached his friends, he soon realized that he had no seat, even the one monoblock that he saw earlier was now gone. He tried to explore his eyes to find something to sit on, when the guy to his side stood up and left. At first he was shocked but he still said ‘Thank you’ even though the guy was not there anymore.

“Oh!” Andrei exclaimed with a surprise, “I remember” he said and smiled.

He peaked at the guy who had earphones plugged in his ears. That's why you look familiar. He thought. 

The bell rings so loud that their ears are crying in pain. They forgot that the school bell is placed outside the c.r. How lucky Vince was with earphones stuck on his ear. The programming boys stood up and left the c.r, ready to get in their class. But Calex stopped and went back to Vince inside the C.r. 

He tapped it’s shoulder for multiple times and said, “Morales, the bell rang already, ”

Vince opened his eyes and unplugged his earphones. He thanked Calex and they left the room at the same time. Calex bid his goodbye even though he knows that they will be seeing each other as long as they are in this school. Vince went straight to the second floor to attend his class. 

That was his four hours of boring moments in his whole life. To  think that oral communication and reading and writing were next to each other, he felt exhausted, yet he still managed to pass the quizzes. When the third bell rang, their reading and writing teacher dismissed them for lunch break.

As expected when he entered the canteen, Kat’s voice was heard calling his name. “Here, Vince,” she shouted.

Kat  who's sitting beside the glass window pointed at the chair beside her. Vince notices the two girls in front of Kat at once. One of them has long black silky hair with bangs and snow skin while the other one has her hair tied in a ponytail with a brown complexion.

 He greeted one of them, “Hi Hannah, I'll sit here again.” and smiled.

The girl with long hair smiled back in him and said, "okay, suit yourself,"

The other girl seemed annoyed, with fierce eyes, she called his attention, “Hey, Vincent I’m here you..”

Vince just laugh and wave his hand, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry”

Vince sits beside Kat and gets his packed food.  The three of them start to eat while Kat looks like she was waiting for someone

 “Aren’t the Cprog-A coming to eat?” Kat asked. 

Vince got his eyebrow twitching when he heard the section Cprog-A. 

"Maybe they've been punished by Mr.  Marcus again," Carol said while munching her fried chicken.

"or maybe they won't eat lunch" Hannah added and snatched one of Carol's chicken.

"Hey! " Carol exclaimed.

While the two girls  are arguing,  Kat on the side is still looking around hoping to see someone in c-prog A, her brows are closed to each other and her eyes look worried. Overall she does not look calm. Watching his friend worrying about something, Vince wanted to comfort her. But before he could speak,  a group of guys passed by.

A/N:

Taena or tang1na  is a Filipino curse words 

C-prog A and .The C-prog program has two sections, one is the Cprog A where Andrei and Calex belong while the Cprog B is where Kat, Carol and Hannah belong