Before After

CHAPTER III

Chapter III

Let’s Play a Game

“SO what do you want?” Wendy asked for the nth time. She even scooted and occupied the chair next to him so she could see his expression. It was break time, and everyone was out in the cafeteria. Only the two of them remained in their classroom. Kaiser was not in the mood to go in the crowded cafeteria, and Wendy remained just to keep bugging him, asking him of what he wanted as a ‘p*****t’ to the good Samaritan act he did a while ago. But for the nth time too, he ignored her. He adjusted his huge headphones, acting like he was listening to some really loud music though in reality, there was really no sound playing.

            “Hey,” Wendy tried to get his attention again. This time, she even dared to poke him a little in the arm. He didn’t move a little and just continued staring at nothing outside the window.

            “So, you’re really ignoring me,” Wendy said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Look, I’m really sorry. I didn’t intend to offend you.”

            From the side of his eyes, Kaiser was observing Wendy. She had her shoulders slumped now. And she had that sincere apologetic look on her face. Kaiser wasn’t really mad at her. It was just that he found it amusing to look at every emotion playing on her soft-featured face.

            Wendy was really beautiful. She had that black sparkling orbs that seem to mirror her feelings. She had perfectly chiseled nose and thin pinkish lips. Her face was molded in a small shape that matched her features, and her straight hair hung loosely on her shoulders. She looked angelic and innocent. The expressions she was wearing were manifestations that she was nice and naïve. And there was just something about her that picked Kaiser’s curiosity.

            Kaiser Aldeguer was not that kind of guy who would look twice at a girl. He was somehow that of the snobbish type. He was goal-focused and tended to ignore things that he didn’t need in achieving his goals. So it was very unusual for him to find amusement just by secretly staring at a clumsy naïve girl he just met. This new girl named Wendy was making him feel things he had not felt before. Feelings that were refreshing.

            “You!” In just a snap, he felt his earphones out of his ears. When he looked up, he saw Wendy shooting daggers at him with those sharp eyes, her lips pressed in a thin line. She was really furious, but she still looked angelic. Still amused with the glare the girl was giving her, Kaiser found himself watching her closely, now his left arm on his desk, supporting his chin. This relaxed look of him sent more annoyance on Wendy’s nerves.

            “You!” she said in gritted teeth. “You’re just too much! I know I should be grateful to you that you saved me without apprehensions, and I am indeed grateful for that. But not because you saved me means that you could treat me like I do not exist. Well, I am sorry if I have said something that pissed you off a while back, but I think it’s just too much for you to treat me this cold and rude because of that. That’s just too shallow of you, I think. And I am not sorry if I’m yelling at you right now, nor am I sorry for telling you these words because I really think you need them, mister!”

            Wendy had said those words a little too fast and a little too emphatic. If Kaiser hadn’t told himself not to show off any emotions, he was probably laughing out loud right now. That serious and intense look on Wendy’s face was just too hilarious. The girl was really giving too much for his amusement.

            Pushing his headphones back to him, Wendy strode back, marching away with that pissed look on her face.

            “Uhh, that was wow.”

            Kaiser automatically turned himself to where that familiar voice came from. And just as what he thought, he saw Cloud walking his way toward him. He emerged from the back door of their classroom, his hands clapping and his lips sealed with that mischievous smirk of his. Coming right next to him were three more guys.

            “The girl has guts to yell at the Kaiser Aldeguer,” said Caleb with a grin that matched Cloud’s. The two even did a fist bomb, and laughed a little too loud for Kaiser’s hearing. The other two just shook their heads with uncontained grins.

            “Oh shut up,” he said in an irritated tone despite knowing the fact that nothing could stop his two talkative friends from being talkative. “Where’s the food?”

            Raven threw him the remaining chicken stuffed burger that was not yet devoured by his friends. He took a big bite on his food as his friends settled themselves on the seats surrounding him.

            “What now?” Kaiser asked, feeling the eyes of his friends on him.

            “What should we do to her?” Raven asked.

            With crossed eyebrows, he asked, “Who?”

            “Her. The new girl,” Raven replied nonchalantly.

            Cloud nodded in agreement. “That girl just yelled at you. Everyone would freak out if they find out what she just did.” And then, there was his playful grin once more. Kaiser did not need a second to know that there was something crazy flowing on Cloud’s silly mind.

            “Well, she’s new, and she didn’t know,” Grey offered a reason, finally butting in into their conversation.

            Kaiser could only shake his head in disbelief that they were really talking about something preposterous. He had not known until now that the caste system mattered to his friends.

            Crawfordsville High was like any other institutions where power matters the most. They had this hierarchy system that worked just the same with as how it was working with other schools and universities. Those who were at the top of the circle were treated with much importance. And Kaiser Aldeguer, Cloud Thompson, Caleb Strauss, Raven Santiago, and Grey Jacoby were no ordinary students at Crawfordsville High. They were considered as the elites, the highest among the classes. Not only because of the influences of their powerful families, but also because of their stand in that school: the ground they had managed to get themselves into. They were respected, feared, and admired.

            For one, Kaiser had been the student council’s president for two consecutive years. And now that he was on his senior year, he had this plan to run for reelection. Plus, he had consistently been the top student of Crawfordsville High ever since he started studying there. Such qualifications made the others regard him as the emperor, just as what his name implied. And being regarded as the school’s emperor meant that no one could just treat him the way the new girl had treated him a while back.

            And when there was someone who’d be courageous enough to oppose him, he needed not to do anything because everyone else was acting up for him. It was like everyone was subjected under their control—under his mercy—that they needed no words to utter for everyone to follow. And that was preposterous for him, actually. He never told them he wanted that. He never told them he was the emperor.

            But for his friends, it was fun though. It was humor to them to see people suffering just because of merely opposing them. And because they were deprived of that fun for years, Kaiser knew they were really looking forward to this. Well, he couldn’t blame them. It had been years that someone had been courageous enough to raise an argument with them. But because it was chaos that greeted the courageous one right after that, no one had ever dared to mess up with them again. Until now.

            “Just let her be,” he said with a sly smirk on his face. His friends looked at him with wonder. They were not used to seeing Kaiser’s smiling face, not even his smirking face. He had always been the emotionless one—the one who always wore the poker face. “She entertains me.”

            “Entertains?” Caleb repeated Kaiser’s own wording, blinking his eyes in disbelief. The others’ mouths dropped open. They thought entertainment was not in Kaiser’s vocabulary of words. He was so goal-oriented. Up-tight. And everything was just so typical for him that he rarely found entertainment on those.

            “Woah! Big word!” Cloud said, bursting into an infectious laughter. His friends laughed along with him. They even made high fives, and Kaiser could only shake his head.

            “But seriously, don’t do anything to her,” he now said in a firm tone. Everyone eyed him seriously as well. “Go find your preys and play your own games. And I’ll play mine.”

            Now, Kaiser’s friends exchanged meaningful glances. They never knew Kaiser as the type who plays random games.

            “I feel excited in your game, though,” Grey said suddenly, catching his friends’ attention. They all looked at him with wonder, trying to decode what was running on his mind. Grey Jacoby was another strange member of the circle of elites. While Kaiser was emotionless, frigid, and snobbish, Grey possessed this mysterious aura. No one could really tell what he was thinking. He could be very kind, but no one could really predict him.

            Caleb raised his eyebrows, his curiosity rising up. It was strange to hear things like these coming from his strange friends. Game, huh, he said to himself, grinning. And he wondered what kind of game they would be playing from now on.

DAYS passed by quickly. Everything ran smoothly and typically.

            Wendy had been adjusted to her new surroundings now. She had known everything she had to know about Crawfordsville High—including the elites and the caste system—because almost all of her classmates were feeding her with those basics, and also because they were fishing some personal information about her. And she was not surprised to know such a thing exists at that school. She had heard enough stories like this, and her eyes were very wide open to such typicality. She knew very well how money and power mattered to almost everyone now.

            That was why she knew that in a school like Crawfordsville High, where everyone was so used to bragging the new and the most expensive things they got, all eyes were set on her, eager to know what she had under her skin. Because with what she’d got was the only way they could define her essence, her meaning, her role. Sadly, she couldn’t do anything about that. That was their norm now. All she could do was to stay quiet and unnoticed in her new surroundings—a grasshopper hiding in the leaves.

            “Proxima Centauri,” Miss Fate Birner’s voice woke Wendy from her reverie. It was a voice that bring tranquility to those who would heard it. It sounded magical, surreal even. And when everything made perfect sense, Wendy’s eyes darted straight in front where Miss Birner had long been standing now. She was too carried away by her string of thoughts that she hadn’t noticed their teacher was already inside.

            Miss Fate’s eyes caught Wendy’s. And Wendy couldn’t help but to notice the deepness of those orbs. It was as if those eyes were the gates to something profound, something yet unseen. She didn’t know, but the teacher’s eyes got that hold on her. And for a moment, she seemed lost looking at those eyes.

            “Is the nearest star in the earth aside from the sun,” Miss Birner continued as she glanced at the slide she was presenting to the class. Wendy also looked at the projected image in front of them, Proxima Centauri.

        “Proxima Centauri is about 4.3 light years away from the earth. Actually, measuring the distance to a star is very difficult. But nevertheless, astronomers have some methods of measuring stellar distances,” she further explained.

        All the students were listening intently to Miss Birner. They were as if mesmerized by that serene tone of her voice and captivated by those orbs that seemed to look beneath their souls. She was an ideal teacher. She had that magic in her that could spark the interest even of those who weren’t really interested at all. She could make everyone listen to her, and made them understand as well.

        Miss Birner’s lips twitched into a small smile before she turned to the projector and continued her discussion. They were tackling Earth Science now, specifically Galaxy. It was unusual to start the discussion with galaxies, but as Miss Birner herself explained on their first meetings, she really wasn’t that type of teacher who follows what the book suggests. She was not fond of following sequences.

       “Who among you knows the difference between a parsec and the light year?” Miss Birner inquired, expecting someone to raise a hand. When her expectations failed, she eyed her students one by one. Then, her eyes found Wendy’s.

        “Miss Kirst?” Miss Fate’s lips twitched in an unknown smile again. She gave Wendy an expectant look, obliging her. And before Wendy realized it, she was already standing up, preparing herself to answer the question.

        “They are both unit of astronomical distance,” she said in response to the question. She felt her heart pounded nervously as everyone’s eyes lingered on her.

        “However,” she continued after some seconds, now feeling accustomed with everyone’s gaze “Light year is the distance that light travels in one year, which is about 9.5 x 1012 km. A parsec, on the other hand, is the distance at which the angle made from a one astronomical unit baseline is 1 arc second. Thus, it just means that light year measures distance in terms of time, and the parsec measures distance in terms of angles.”

        Her classmates looked at her with awe. She didn’t know why. Actually, she found the question basic. Wendy had always been fond of science, especially of galaxy—stars, asteroids, planets, and celestial bodies. That was why she certainly knew something about it.

        Miss Birner’s smile looked satisfied. She swiftly moved closer to her students, drawing their attention back. “Very good, Miss Kirst. I see that you’re well informed about today’s topic,” she said with a wink before she turned herself to the projector and moved to the next slide.

        The discussion continued. But Miss Birner’s voice seemed distant now to Kaiser’s ears. It no longer seemed to call his attention because all his curiosity was once again captured by Wendy. She was now seated back on the seat just right in front of him. And before he realized it, he was already staring intently at Wendy, watching her as she was all ears on Miss Fate’s lecture.

        Kaiser had been secretly watching Wendy from the very first day until now. There was a force that was drawing his attention toward her. She was typical. She was plain. She had always been quiet since the first day. But he was still curious as ever about her. And he was more attentive to her better than ever. And from his secretive observance of her, he had noticed that she was somehow distant. Sure, she always had that warm and friendly smile etched on her lips when some of their classmates try to talk to her. But there was really something about her he couldn’t penetrate. And that was drawing him closer to her.

        “Seems like she’s one smart girl,” he heard Cloud whispered beside him. When he glanced at his friend, Cloud was smirking at him. “She’s attentively participating in the class. And she’s good at answering questions.”

        “So what is your point?”

        He saw another playful grin escaped Cloud’s lips. He didn’t know how, but his friend Cloud, was capable of smiling in different ways. His lips, when twitched, could create different shades. Shades of mischief.

        Cloud shrugged his shoulders and looked in front as if he was really listening to their teacher.

        “She can be your threat, your perfect nemesis,” Cloud said, his voice tainted with amusement.

        A threat? His inner voice asked. But his inner self just shrugged the thought away. It wasn’t important if she was a nemesis, academically speaking.

        “Mr. Aldeguer.” His attention switched back on their teacher when she called him. Her dark enchanting orbs bore on him, and for a moment, he felt lost looking at it. She was telling him something. His eyes looked at how her lips moved while she was blabbing about something. But nothing was making sense. His ears tried to listen, but her words seemed like a breath of air that just passed through his ears.

        Miss Birner waved her hand in the air, and that seemed to snatch him from a reverie he didn’t know he was into. The teacher was still looking at him, waiting for something he didn’t know what. When Kaiser looked at his surroundings, he saw everyone staring at him, too, curiosity flashing on their eyes.

        He was perplexed for a second. It was the first time he felt conscious under everyone’s stare. It was the first time he felt lost and confused on what to do.

        “Mr. Aldeguer, are you listening? I just asked you a question,” Miss Birner said.

        Kaiser was taken aback. He was stunned. His throat felt dry, too. Never in his life had he experienced something like this. He was always ready to answer questions, and he always got the answers right.

        “Okay, can anyone else tell me the answer? Kaiser looks like he needs some help,” the teacher asked, turning her head from side to side to find a volunteer. And just then, Wendy raised her hand. Miss Fate called her, and with much confidence now, Wendy stood up and answered the question brightly.

        “Very good, Wendy! You’re exactly correct!” Miss Fate beamed, pleased with the answer she had got.

        Kaiser stared at Wendy’s back, almost bearing a whole because of how intent his gaze was. Then a smirk formed his lips. And that was when he felt ground zero was shaken.

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