Despite telling Rayven that I will go straight to our house, I found myself exploring the hidden secrets of the academy or more likely the after school activities offered to the students of La Orden Academy.
And to my surprise, there were a lot of clubs in this academy - from football, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, taekwondo, karate, fencing (courtesy of my stepbrother), theater group, school newspaper, gardening (to my surprise), and many more.
I was roaming around the campus when I noticed that the sun was already setting. Following some students who were already heading out of the academy, I tried to sneak some glances around just to check if I see a familiar messy black hair. But all I saw were unfamiliar students who were too busy talking with their companions.
Exiting the front gate of the academy, I turned to my left and followed the path we'd taken early morning. Just like what I told to Rayven, I prided myself with my sharp memory. I'd already memorized the direction of going back to our house.
I spent a good ten-minute walk when I recognized that I was just three blocks away from my destination. With my stomach growling from hunger, I hastened my steps when I spotted three high school male students standing around the lamp post.
The three of them were wearing a different school uniform that I didn't recognize. When I got closer to them, I smelled a hint of cigarette smoke, coming from the cigarette sticks stuck in the middle of their lips.
Unfortunately, they caught me staring at them which I reverted my gaze away from them and looked straight ahead.
"Hey, miss!" One of the guys whistled in my direction.
I pretended that I didn't hear him and continued my pace. This was not the first time I experienced something like this. Even in the big city, people like them were very common wherein they had this sense of entitlement that all the girls they catcalled are interested in them.
They kept calling me which I repeatedly ignored when I felt someone grabbing my left arm. I was forced to look at their skinny figures. I looked around and found I was alone in the street, and the next house near to me was one block away from me.
They started surrounding me and flashed their predatory smile. "Hey miss, I was calling you. Are you deaf or something?" said the man who grabbed my arm. He had shaved hair while his left hand was playing his earring.
"We just want to know your name, sweet thing?"
I rolled my eyes explicitly showing my disgust at him. Thinking quickly, I slowly crept my right hand inside my skirt's pocket. Thank God that they were too busy looking at my chest when I grabbed my pocket-size pepper spray bottle. I was about to pull it out when someone called my name behind the figure of the shaved head guy.
All of us turned to the direction of the voice and found a person wearing the same female uniform of La Orden Academy. She was a little bit shorter than me, but she stood proud like she towered the guys who were cornering me. Pulling something out from the skirt's pocket, she flashed it to us.
It was her phone contacting the community police station. The trio who were so arrogant earlier were now cowering.
The one who was grabbing my arm quickly released it and started running away from me. His followers followed him and chased their leader (I assumed).
Shaking my head, I returned the pepper spray in my pocket and smiled at my savior. "I appreciate the female camaraderie, but I can take down those guys."
Moving closer to me, I somehow recognized her face. She was in the same class as me. But I didn't get the chance to get her name, since our class adviser only told my name to the class, but not the name of my classmates.
She had a red hairband keeping her neck-length hair while I could point out that she meticulously trim her thin eyebrows.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure you can take care of yourself," she chuckled at me. I'm pretty sure she thought that I was bluffing that I could take care of those guys. "I just want to call your name in the middle of the street while flashing my cellphone to the four of you."
There was a tentative pause, but I broke it when I snorted at her joke and laughed which she followed also. After calming ourselves, she offered her hand to me.
"Monica Altares. La Orden Academy's resident photojournalist." I shook her hand then looked at the direction of the guys who ran away from us.
"So, are you also on your way to your house?" I asked curiously.
Monica shook her head, making her short hair swayed. "I was planning to go to my friend's house. I have some sort of commitment to her. Then I saw those pigs ganging up on you."
"Again, thank you for that. But for the record, I'm not a damsel in distress type, okay?" Both of us laughed at that.
"So are you taking the same street I'm taking? Or..."
She nodded at me, and we walked the street together.
*****
The next day, Rayven and I walked our way to the academy. Unfortunately, James' car had some electrical wiring failures that he had to borrow his son's car. Lucky for me also that Rayven didn't have a morning drill session with the fencing team, so we didn't leave early like yesterday.
While walking with him, he asked me how was my first day with the academy. I vaguely told him that it was okay. I had to play catch up with the lessons since the academy had different syllabus from my previous school. I also intentionally didn't tell him about Dylan. My animosity against Mister Handsome was mine alone.
Arriving at the classroom's building, we went separate ways since his classroom was located on a different hallway. Entering inside my classroom, I found most of my classmates were already in their seats.
I spotted Monica where she shot me with a wink, then she buried her head again on her tablet. While going to my assigned seat, I caught the eyes of Dylan. He was just looking at me which I returned it with a roll of my eyes. His seat was located behind my chair to add my irritation with him. I took my seat and grabbed my book and pen while ignoring the presence of Dylan behind me.
To tell you the truth, I was still waiting for his apology since he dragged me in the middle of their drama with his ex-girlfriend. I pretended to browse my book when screeching feedback from the speaker box above the whiteboard made me winced.
Looking around, I was not the only one who was startled by the screeching sound.
"Hello, Ravens! This is Deena Kim, your Junior Queen." A well-modulated voice blared from the speaker. "Out of the graciousness of my heart, I'm reminding everyone that the much-awaited Halloween Dance will be next week. And our theme is anything 90s. So I'm expecting everyone to wear something 90s related. So yes, I'm talking to you Tay and Rayven. Don't deviate from the theme please just like last year. Anyway, make sure to bring your A-game for the Halloween dresses you will be wearing. But please don't outshine me." She laughed at herself. "Of course, I'm just kidding. No one can outshine me. So that's all, Ravens! Toodles!"
The moment that Deena ended her announcement, the room erupted from their excitement about the Halloween Dance. Everyone was talking about what they are going to wear.
Then our History teacher arrived in our classroom and every conversation was hushed. Mr. Samuel Valdez was around 30s years old. He had this stern look on his face while covering it with his eyeglasses.
"I hope everyone had opened their book last night. We will have a pop quiz today."
Everyone groaned at the sudden announcement of Mr. Valdez. Good thing, I opened and light read the books last night since I don't have anything to do. Actually, I do - arranging my room. But I don't have the energy to do it.
"So since we will be tackling different government systems, when was democracy first practiced?"
The majority of my classmates lowered their heads, avoiding the darting eyes of Mr. Valdez. I also saw Monica pretending to look elsewhere. But Mr. Valdez looked at her direction. "Yes, Ms. Altares?"
Monica stood from her seat and scratched her head. "Persia?" she answered tentatively.
"Wrong!" He looked around again, looking for another pitiful soul. Then his eyes met mine.
"Let's try the new girl. Ms. Del Luna, would you like to try?"
I raised from my seat and looked straight at him. "Ancient Greece."
He looked impressed at my answer, so I took that as a cue to take my seat.
But he held his hand in the air, stopping me. "Ms. Del Luna, I'm not yet done. I want to test you more. Since we're talking about democracy, there's a variant of democracy where it sometimes called democracy without elections. Do you know the answer?"
All eyes were on me pressuring me to answer correctly. I gulped and thankfully read that part when I browsed "lightly" last night. I smiled at Mr. Valdez and answered him.
"Sortition wherein decision-makers are chosen by a random process."
I saw a tiny moment when Mr. Valdez almost gaped at my answer but he quickly composed himself and nodded at me.
"You may take the seat, Ms. del Luna. Oh, by the way, we have an open spot for the school's quiz bee team. Our team is more than welcome to add you. That is if you're interested?"
To tell you that truth, I didn't expect this form of recruitment as early this morning, but I was grateful to Mr. Valdez for considering me.
"I will consider it, Mr. Valdez."
"Good. You may talk to the team's captain once you're already certain."
"May I know who's the team captain?"
"Oh, it's the person behind you. Mr. Dylan Sytanco, the rank one student of the entire eleventh grade."
Of course, he is. Who else should it be? Grrr.
I almost let out a groan but resisted it and plastered my smile to Mr. Valdez.