I already reached the school paper's office and from here, the shining glass of this office was fighting my eyes not to blink. I entered it and when I sat on one of the swivel chairs in this meeting area and put above my arms on the long table, I noticed how the members and the other school paper adviser entered this area too and looks like they entered here, successively.
I saw Jom from here after he entered through the glass door and I witnessed how he turned his gaze around until he met mine while looking at me. He immediately moved his feet and started to walk toward my direction and he sat on the chair beside me.
The silence before I arrived here and several members were only here was already gone as the population right now was increasing as seconds passed by. Looks that I was on time huh?
When Jom positioned himself comfortably beside me, he immediately talked as expected. We have always been partners since we entered the school papers board. I thought he will be the one that will be EIC for this year but he said he is not that capable of holding it since he is already a vice president in the organization Science Class. And having that position is a big responsibility because you need to join all the contests and do some experiments.
Well, that fits him because he said that he will take Chemical Engineering in the near future. I asked him once on when he will plan to have a girlfriend but he just chuckled like I burst a joke to him.
"Did you already finish the articles assigned to you, Lei?" He asked and that made me sad because some of them aren't finished yet and I need more sources for the data set that will be needed for my articles.
"None yet," I shortly answered.
"Me too," he said too even though I did not ask him but a relief on my side rose up because he was not done yet.
I slowly rose up the side of my lips and looked at him evilly and his looks were the same to me as we silently laughed because the school paper adviser was busy chatting loudly.
"Oh! Wait," he suddenly said like he remembered something. "Ms. EIC,can you check my other title or headlines as your Associate- Editor-in-Chief?" He asked and that made me laugh because his words are very formal.
"Sure, when?" I asked and he immediately got his Ipad from his bag and started scanning it as he already found the document, maybe?"
"Here," he said and he pointed out the headline on the upper part of the document through his Ipad. "The Science and tech SP adviser said that this will be featured on the front page, so is it good?" He asked and I looked at the set of words on his document.
I don't have a lot of knowledge about Science and Tech since I am more on Editorial and Column articles or the news articles that contain facts and opinion. But the words are kinda interesting and make readers more curious about the content. And this will get a lot of attention on the Science and Technology page.
"Hmm… someone looks inspired huh? The headline looks cool and interesting. Keep it up." I commented and jokingly tapped his shoulder like I was comforting him and made his feelings better and we laughed again about that.
His shoulders are broad like MJosh and he is tall too, but MJosh and Xian are taller than him. The students of USTA considered him one of the heart throbs in this school because of the way he looks, his visuals, his intelligence and the way he acts. Yeah, he is dashing too honestly.
Some of the students here thought that we have something too in a romantic way, but we just laughed knowing that we shared a 'platonic friendship' since we knew each other. And… I like someone? Though? Yeah never mind.
"Approved?" He asked again and I show him my thumbs up before we heard Ms. Cristobal's voice in front so we fixed our positions already and faced her.
"On the second week of December is the schedule of the competition before our Christmas break." She started and that is not known for us already. That is the traditional schedule for the Division level and we will compete with other participants from other cities like San Santiago.
"And as usual the schedule for your practice in preparing for the event Foundation Week and Intramurals will synchronize again and we need to prepare for your workshops too. So we need to be flexible," she said seriously.
"So, when will be the schedule for workshops?" The gay adviser ask while sitting in front of us.
"There's a semestral break right?" Ms. Cristobal asked and we all nodded. "That will be the time for us to start the workshop and we will only spend 3 days full day and that will be from Monday to Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m." She said and the advisers agreed on that schedule but that hit me.
Next days will be our presentation for our report on science and next week was the sembreak or vacation week for all of the students of USTA and that will be the last week of October. So it means, if we will have a 3 days workshop, I only have the two Saturdays and Sundays to be lazy and I have Thursday and Friday too.
Well, not bad. Because I am seeing already that my classmates will make a plan again for a beach outing and us will be crazy again. And boredom will just attack me if I stay in our house for one week.
"Well Leiva, you have a very handsome neighbor. How's that?" My inner self asked and that faded away when Sir Lim, the gay adviser of school paper spoke.
"We are already used to that schedule, right, Writers?" He asked and we all responded, "yes." And he smiled, "on the last week of November will be the Foundation week and after that, we have only one week to prepare, so are you okay with that?" He said using his deep voice far from the character that we know from him and we agreed on him again causing for the circular and color blue set of his eyes, dance in joy and she glance to Ms. Cristobal who was smiling too towards Sir Lim.
Hmm something is off?
"And we need to plan too for the SP booth," Ms. Cristobal said formally and she glanced in our direction. "The Associate-Editor-in-chief will help the Editor-in-chief too for the outlines for the plan. And Leiva," she said and I glanced at her attentively. "Check all the articles after the workshop okay so our graphic editors and layout artist can start graphing already. So pass your outputs now, writers," he said and we responded, "yes Ma'am."
Sir Lim who was standing next to him already started talking to him. "Editors, contributors, cartoonists, make sure that you will pass your assigned articles and outputs already before the Foundation week okay? I bet you know our main goal already and that is?" He asked energetically.
"To win!"
"Bring the beacon home!"
Suddenly a voice of Lia and Mandou were heard as they shouted in unison and we laughed ok how they acted. Lia is a news writer and Mandou is a graphic editor.
"Yeah, that's right we need to win in every categories especially now that our EIC and AEIC will 'already' retire," he said as he jokingly emphasize the word retire which is true because as we leave Junior High School life, this is my last year with Jom already in School paper board because we will be focused on our Senior High School life already.
Because there is a rule here in USTA that students from Humanities and Social Sciences will only have the rights to join in an SP organization if you are already a Senior High School student unless you are a Science and Tech writer then STEM or Science and Technology Engineering and Mathematics student then you'll be considered. But even though Jom will take STEM, he still decided not to stay as a school paper's board member.
The Accounting and Business Management organization offered me to be the Chairman of the Senior High School already when they knew that I'll be taking ABM as my Academic strand because I'll be talking Business Ad in the future.
No one forced me to do that even my parents but I noticed that it seems that no one will manage and hold the Company of my parents since the focus of their business is Beach Resorts, and hotels too. And that is connected to the course that my brothers took since Buz will be on the structure side and Lick on the other hand which is the airline that will surely pull tourists to check in on our hotels and that will happen by connecting CGC to his growing Airline company.
So I was just the only one that would not have a share if I took another course or took Mass Communication that would lead me to be a journalist or reporter or so on. And besides I am more comfortable on Business Ad, maybe it runs on blood?
"So, it is your last year already, is this will be the road to National Competitions already? Same with our broadcasting team and Collaboration desktop publishing?" The other School Paper adviser said and we laughed on that and me, I suddenly felt nervous as I was pressured on their expectations.
"God, please help me please?" I prayed silently for a while.
"RIP sweets," I said sadly to Jom and he laughed because we belonged too on Radio broadcasting and the HUMSS students hold the TV broadcasting and that's fine.
"Let's get back out now? Let's just be writers." He joked and I agreed too while we are fooling around. "Sure," I said and we slightly chuckled again.
The meeting was done in a fast minutes and did not take an hour and when I was already outside together with Jom, I was surprised when I saw Xian outside together with Laurenz like they were waiting for someone.
"JanPaul bud!" Joshua shouted and I remember that JanPaul is the Senior Editorial cartoonist.
I looked at Xian intently but looks like he did not noticed me since I was meters away from him and it's a shame for him to approached so holding my backpack, I walked with Jom living their position but I was surprised when a huge hand forcefully hold me that made me stop on walking as the owner walked near me and whispered, "I saw you flirting with the a**hole next to you," he said and I looked at the direction he is looking and I saw Jom talking to Mandou in front.
I stared at him and I saw jealousy on his color brown eyes? Is that the jealousy look they are saying? Then wow...