Games of the Heart

One Step, Two Step

The girls in class A were giggling, Eliza noticed, when she and Anthony entered the room. She paused to take a look around her new classroom. Having gone to the same school since kindergarten, she had known and grown up with most of the people who studied here. So it wasn’t a surprise that she knew all of her classmates’ names and it definitely didn’t surprise her when some of them seemed pleased to see her.

“Oh, nice. We have Rosa!”

“Morning, Eliza! How’s your summer?”

“She should sit next to us. Then it’ll be a sure pass this semester.”

“But she’s not even on the honor roll,” one boy commented.

“I meant her,” his snooty friend replied. “She can copy from us because she’s not very smart, is she?”

This little—

Eliza forced a small smile on her face as she greeted her classmates back, dodging invitations to be desk neighbors with most of the boys. She knew she wasn’t very smart. She was either daydreaming in class or struggling not to doze off. But she always passed her subjects considering Alex taught her the things she didn’t know. And this year, however, she promised to herself to be super attentive in class and get better grades.

Eliza nodded to herself.

She’ll surely shock the socks off them for sure and they won’t ever call her dumb anymore.

The giggling took her attention again as she followed behind Anthony, who had gone directly to the back of the room. She cast a curious glance at the group of girls in the front. She thought she knew the reason behind their apparent excited demeanors. It was obviously about the car outside the school gates. She was curious too but she was more curious why they were acting like fan girls about to meet an idol. Was the owner of the car really a celebrity? She’ll ask them later.

Sliding into an empty seat next to Anthony, Eliza put her backpack on top of the desk. When Anthony noticed her, he scowled.

“You are not sitting there."

“Why not?”

Anthony glowered at her. “I’m not going to be a replacement for Alex.”

She frowned. “You’re not a replacement for Alex.”

“Just go sit elsewhere.”

He was being silly again, she thought. And obstinate.

Leaning towards him, she grinned and said teasingly, “Why? Are you afraid people will see us and tease you about cooties?”

A muscle on Anthony’s jaw twitched. “I’ll put spiders in your bag if you sit there,” he told her in a low voice.

She wasn’t afraid however.

“Alex and I had a collection of spiders when we were in grade school,” she quipped.

This time, it was his eyelid that twitched. “A cockroach, then.”

“Now you're just being mean, Tony.”

Like he finally had enough of her, Anthony shot out of his chair, grabbed her backpack, stomped through the aisles and set it on an empty desk in the front row near the window. Then he went back to his chair and sat down with a grunt. He hated it when she called him Tony. She knew that which was why she wasn't surprised he did this.

“Yep. You’re mean,” Eliza mumbled.

“Mean is my middle name, Rosa.”

Sighing loudly enough to irritate him and make his eyelid twitch again, she rose up from the chair and made her way upfront to get her bag. She wasn’t sitting in the front row. She never sat in the front row considering she liked to nap in class. And even though she was trying to change herself, there was no way she was going to put herself under the teacher’s radar anytime soon.

She hadn’t noticed the silence when she reached her destination but all of a sudden, she realized that the room had abruptly turned too quiet.

Then loud giggles erupted.

“Oh, my God. He’s so handsome.”

“I hope he sits next to me.”

Everyone’s eyes were directed to the door. Eliza twisted her head. Then her knees went weak and she couldn’t seem to catch her breath.

Because standing by the door was the most handsome boy she had ever seen.

She sank on the chair, her eyes transfixed on him.

Seriously he could have been an actor or a model. He was that good-looking. He was tall and lean yet muscular. His short dark hair was wavy, giving him the most patriarchal look. And his slanted black eyes were intense and piercing as they glanced around the classroom.

What was someone like him doing in a semi-public school like theirs? Eliza thought, her brows furrowing together. What was someone like him doing in a small town like theirs?

A vibration in the pocket of her skirt distracted her and she reluctantly removed her gaze from him. Taking out her cell phone, she read the text she received.

‘Drool much?’

She turned to give Anthony a glare. Anthony smirked and gave her a rude gesture with his hand. Shaking her head, she turned off her cell phone and put it in the deepest depths of her backpack. She thought she heard him laugh. But before she could think much about it, the handsome boy sat onto the empty desk by the window next to her and when he did, all her thoughts flew out of the said window.

Before she could feel self-conscious however, there was a scurry of footsteps. Almost all the girls in her class it seemed were now surrounding him. Eliza leaned away from the crowd, subtly dragging the chair and desk a few inches from them. Lord knew they needed the space.

One of the girls flipped her hair and asked the new guy a question. “Hello. What’s your name?”

“I’m Marco Dy,” Eliza heard him reply in a quiet, baritone voice. Wow. Even his voice was quite attractive.

Giggles, then, “Nice to meet you. I’m Sarah Ramos.”

“I’m Jennifer Sayson.”

“I’m Sheila Mae Perez.”

The girls went on introducing themselves and Eliza listened closely. She knew she was eavesdropping but she couldn’t help it. She was really curious.

“Was that your car outside earlier?” Sarah asked.

“Yes. I’m still not familiar with public transportation so I came with my car.”

“I hear you live in the Althea subdivision?”

“I do. My family and I moved there during the summer.”

Drives an expensive car and live in the subdivision with the town's wealthy, Eliza distractedly thought. He must be really loaded, then.

“We live in the same neighborhood,” Sheila inserted with a clap of her hands. “Maybe we can come to school together?”

“Wait, don't you have a boyfriend?” Jennifer whispered to her when another girl asked Marco a question.

“We broke up,” she whispered back.

“When?”

Sheila giggled. “I’ll send him a text him later.”

Eliza clicked her tongue and rested her elbow on the desk, propping her chin on her hand.

Poor guy.

Marco was still trying to keep up with their questions about him. Only, he didn’t look harassed by the rapid inquisition. He answered each of them slowly and calmly, giving each person his attention. But then the questioning turned to flirting and even Eliza had to cringe.

“Hey, Marco. Do you want to have lunch together with me?” Jennifer asked, her voice expectant.

Another girl pushed her way through the crowd before Marco could answer, “I can show you around school if you like, Marco.”

“Hey, I asked him first,” a third girl frowned.

“No, we should let him decide.”

“Eh? But I asked first.”

“Oh, my God, will you all just f*****g shut up?”

Eliza's chin slipped from her palm and she nearly smacked her face on top of the desk.

The girls turned around.

“Have you all looked at yourselves in the mirror?” Anthony sneered at them from the back of the room. “Like he'd give you hags his time of the day.”

Oh, dear God, Eliza thought in horror.

“Shut up, Maxino,” Sarah snapped.

“You shut up, ugly.”

Sheila glared at him. “My God, you are such a bastard.”

“If you're questioning my illegitimacy, then may I remind you that you're not very legitimate yourself, Perez.”

Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear.

Eliza half-rose in her chair and gave Anthony a pleading look. “Just let them be, Anthony,” she whisper-shouted at him.

Sheila still heard her anyway. “Yes,” she spat at him. “Listen to your little friend and just shut up, Maxino.”

Anthony looked unfazed at all of the angry looks. “First of all, loopy is not my friend. And second of all pull your damn skirt down, Perez. Your chicken legs are not your best asset.”

The boys in the room, who had looked a little crestfallen at the attention Marco was getting, were now trying their best not to laugh. Eliza covered her face with a hand. She couldn’t believe Anthony just said that.

“You are such an asshole!” The girls began to yell insults at him. “I hope you die in a ditch somewhere!”

“L-let’s all calm down,” Eliza said, trying to pacify them. “The teacher's coming soon. We’ll all get into trouble.”

But they weren't listening to her, so determined to rain abuses onto Anthony. And to think they always made her class president consecutively for four years!

Eliza swallowed and wrung her hands together. If Alex was here, he'd quickly calm everyone down before it could have escalated like this. She sank down on her chair, considering whether to go find a teacher or call Alex. Or maybe she should run towards Anthony instead and slap a hand over his mouth so he wouldn’t say anything anymore. Before she could decide which option she’d take however, a deep voice rang throughout the room.

“Enough.”

With that one word, silence descended into the classroom. Everyone’s heads turned to Marco.

“She’s right,” he said, jerking his head at Eliza. “We’ll get into trouble if you keep on shouting. Why don't you all go back to your seats? We can talk later.”

The girls immediately acquiesced and returned to their seats but not before giving Anthony one last glare. Anthony rolled his eyes and put his earphones back in. Eliza let out a relieved sigh. She never was good at talking to her own gender because she mostly hung out with Alex and his friends. She especially was not good at pacifying angry females out for blood.

“Are you alright?”

Her eyes swung to the side. Marco’s head was turned towards her. Though the question was unexpected, the attention even more so because it was making her feel nervous, she was grateful for his concern.

“I’m fine.” She gave him a small smile. “Are you?”

His expression turned into polite curiosity. “Why wouldn't I be?”

“It’s tough being the new kid right?” she asked, leaning back on her chair.

“Not really,” he replied, shaking his head. “It’s not like it's my first time.”

“Oh, because your family moves around a lot?”

His lips twitched. “You were listening.”

Good God, he couldn’t smile. At least not until she’d gotten used to him. If he smiled all the girls in the room might swoon, including her. And she’d never hear the end of it from Anthony.

“H-hard not to,” she stammered, nervously pulling on her tie. “They were pretty loud.”

“Your name.”

“Excuse me?”

“What’s your name?”

Flustered by his intense stare, she blurted out, “Eliza. Rosa. I’m Eliza Rosa. And you’re Marco Dy.”

“That I am,” he muttered, his lips twitching again.

At that moment, the teacher entered the room, calling their attention. Eliza turned her head to the front with a low sigh relief. Her heart was beating furiously and she patted her chest, trying to calm it down.

Then something dawned on her and Eliza stared at the board in horror.

She just remembered she was sitting in the front row.

**********

It was lunch time. Alex had managed to rope Anthony into having lunch with him and Eliza. The three of them were now enjoying the sun and the cool wind under the shade of a mango tree in the school field, exchanging stories about their morning, their bento boxes on their laps.

“It was terrible,” Eliza was telling him. “The girls were so mad at Anthony for criticizing them about being all over the new kid.”

Anthony was sitting on the other side of Alex. With a smirk, he said, “Oh, like you didn't drool when you first saw him.”

“She drooled?” Alex asked him.

“I didn't,” she replied exasperatedly. “I was just... stunned by how good-looking he was.”

“More good-looking than me?”

She gave Alex an apologetic look.

“Damn,” he murmured with a grin. “There goes my spot in every St. Anne's girl's heart.”

“Arrogant bastard,” Anthony muttered, sipping his juice.

“Anyway, I got elected as class president again,” Eliza told her best friend glumly. Their homeroom teacher wanted to get the elections over and done with so before morning classes ended, she asked everyone to vote for their class officers.

Anthony started to snicker. “You should have seen her face. She turned white as a f*****g sheet.”

“I’m not even a good class president!”

“That’s what makes it funnier, I guess.”

“Don’t worry, Liz,” Alex said, giving her a one-armed hug over her shoulder. “Anthony’s going to help you.”

“No, I won’t.”

“At least help her with the—“

“Shut it, tallass.”

Eliza peered around Alex to glower at Anthony. “I’m still mad at you because you made me sit in the front row. The least you could do is help me.”

“You could have moved but no,” he drawled out. “You were too busy ogling Marco Dy.”

“Marco Dy's the juiciest piece of gossip in St. Anne’s Academy since Cynthia Santiago got pregnant two years ago,” Alex interjected before the two could start quarrelling again. “I don’t blame everyone for talking about him.”

Like it was a basketball, Anthony shot his juice box on the trash bin a few meters away. It went perfectly in and both Alex and Eliza clapped. He rolled his eyes.

“I don't see why that was even an issue,” he told them. “We’re in a godforsaken town. There’s only so much you can do here. And can we stop talking about Dy? You know I don't like gossip.”

Alex nodded then continued to talk about Marco Dy anyway. “He was born in Chicago, grew up in New York, moved back to the Philippines to finish junior high in Manila before he moved here.”

Anthony and Eliza gawked at him.

“I heard it from the girls in my class,” he said defensively over their bewilderment.

“Ridiculous,” Anthony scoffed. “Are you telling me he's going to finish senior high here?”

“I thought you don't like gossip, Tony,” Eliza teased him.

“You really want that roach inside your bag, don't you, Rosa?”

She laughed at the scowl on his face. He retaliated by reaching around Alex to pull the band off the end of her braid.

“Hey! Give that back!”

“Who’s laughing now, loopy?”

But despite his words, Anthony threw the band to her lap. Eliza clicked her tongue at him. Working out the French braid she’d done that morning so she could do it all over again, she noticed the subject of their conversation walking out of the cafeteria with a group of girls, most of them from her class.

“That him?” Alex asked, stealing a chicken strip from her box.

She nodded, her eyes following Marco until he was out of sight. Then she looked at Anthony. “Anyway, what do you think about the new student?”

Anthony glanced at her then at Alex. “The same way I think about you guys.”

Alex grinned. He knew the shorter guy well and had already guessed what his answer was going to be. Still, he still asked, “And what do you think about us?”

“I give no fucks.”