Gravitation

Chapter 1

The boy who helped me a while ago, stands up and walks to the front.

"English po maam?" he asks the teacher.

"Of course," the teacher replies smugly.

"My name is Pg Pound Gonzales, actually it’s Pg because my father is Gabrielle and my mother is Pandorama. I'm 13 years old. I'm from Talisay, Cebu. I love to play basketball. Um, that's all." he spreads his hands, as if he has no more weapons.

"Thank you Mr. Gonzales," the teacher says. "Next!"

I realize that no one is sitting next to him, so that means, I'm next. I stand up and slowly walk to the front; I try to hide my stage fright, so that I’ll look confident.

"Um, I am Jay Caballero," I utter nervously as I try to start my introduction, "12 years old, I love to play DotA. Thank you!" That is accompanied by a tittering voice coming from the base of my trachea.

"Did you know that playing DotA can affect your grades too much, Mr. Caballero?" the teacher says, "I hope you will end it, it’s a bad habit, now next!"

The Introductions take only forty-five minutes. After that, Mrs. De Ocampo (our teacher/adviser) says that we're all free to talk to each other. I talk to all of the students except the girl in pink shirt, tattered jeans and pink headband. She is friendly, but I don't understand why I can't go closer to her.

Suddenly, Pg stabs me with a pen.

"Alam mo ba ang sunod mong gagawin?" he asks slyly.

"Yeah," I answer, "get close to that girl," still consumed by the cool atmosphere as I point her.

"Ah!" he exclaimed with a wide smile, "Yun pala ha."

He pockets his pen and goes near the innocent charming girl. When we're in talking distance the lass stared at me blankly.

"Do I have dirt on my nose, or something?" I asked, then suddenly the girl near her (I recognized as Cherry Levesque)—which is also my classmate, shouted.

"Anong kailangan niyo?" she asks with a soft voice.

"Um--" I was out of words, I don’t know what to say.

"Kakausap," Pj says without removing his eyes from the mysterious girl. Gazing at her.

"Sa kanya?" Cherry asks bewildered, pointing to the girl.

"Hindi, sa sahig!" Pj says, and I think he’s trying to exercise his sarcasm. "Pwede ka nang umalis, shoo!" he makes a hand gesture like shooing an animal. Then Cherry stares angrily at him and walks away from the hearing distance.

"Thanks!" I assure him.

"Hello, um what’s your name?" I ask the girl.

"I, ah, I am Pauleen Maribelle Valentine, what about you?"

"I'm Jay Caballero," I reply, "nice to meet you Pauleen."

"Nice to meet you too, Jay," she smiles then she hands me a paper.

"What is this for?" I ask her. She just smiles at me and runs away.

"Na-nose bleed ako sa usapan niyo," Pg says while covering his nose with a handkerchief. "may alam ka pa bang gagawin?" He wonders and checks his wristwatch. "may 15 minutes pa tayo sa first period."

"I know! Let’s get some phone numbers!" I suggest, "It will be fun."

"Bakit hindi ko naisip yun?" He seems amazed by my idea, "tara humingi na tayo ng mga phone numbers."

He talks to the nearest student and asks for his number. I do the same thing, I talk to each student then get their number.

After 15 minutes, my phone book is nearly full. Pg has his phone turned off because it just ran out of battery.

Second period comes, the teacher is absent. That means, another hour of boredom. The only thing I do is to take a nap, Pg is wandering around, asking everyone if who has a charger that can he borrow, unfortunately no one has.

At the third period, we are all given our activities, the activity is to identify the solvent and the solute. How will I identify it, if I don't even know what is it, I thought. After the activity Mr. Gomez is assigned to discuss the lesson.

"The solute is a component of a solution that has a lesser amount than the solvent.It is the one that is being dissolved. It is sometimes in a solid and liquid state. While the solvent is the component of a solution that has a greater amount than the solute, and the one responsible for dissovling it" Mr. Gomez discussed. Then other facts followed like" there are two kinds of solution, the concentrated and dilute" and " A solution has only one phase, while A mixture has two or more".

"Any question? Clarifications?" Mr. Gomez asks.

"Sir!" Jason Raymart Valdez raises his hand and stands up. "Can the solvent dissolve feelings like fear, anger and love?" he asks puzzled. It sounds like a stupid question, but our teacher answers it anyway.

"Definitely not," Mr. Gomez contradicts, "our feelings are not solute obviously, you cannot see it, nor touch it, you can only feel it."

The discussion lasts about 35 minutes. The bell rings and the teacher leaves the room.

At noon break everybody in the room talks about the idea of feelings being dissolved. Every once in a while a student will ask me if it’s possible, my opinion is ‘no’.

Suddenly Pg sits beside me.

"Hoy," he whispers, "may isang babae pa tayong hindi nakukunan ng phone number."

"Who is it?" I ask.

"Ang babaeng nagbigay sayo ng papel."

"Ow, I forgot to ask her number."

"Tara 30 minutes pa," He says while we search for the girl. We find her in the canteen.

"Hi, Pauleen" I greet her with a sanguine voice.

"Hello," she says," what brings you here?"

"Um, can I get your number?" I ask, slightly embarrassed of my latter act.

"Sure, 09*23**7**8" She recites her number one by one as she recalls it. I memorize it quickly, so she doesn’t have to repeat. Then, the bell rings.

"Let's go" I motioned to go then together we go back to our room.

After a day at the school, I have done nothing in my home except playing DotA. I never study, I am so lazy to do so. I only eat, sleep, school, and play…DotA, I don't even have a girlfriend.

My phone rings loudly like a horn. So, I pick it up and answer the call.

"Hello, who's this?"

"Hello?" A girl’s voice says from the other line." Ilang beses na akong tumatawag tapos hindi mo pa rin nakilala?”

"Nope, who are you?"

"Argh" she answers with extreme irritation. "Si Leah to"

"I don't know you, bye" I end the call, but after several seconds it rings again. I keep declining the call until she stops calling me.

"Who is that?" my mother asks.

"Just somebody, I don't know."

"Go to bed now, its 10:00 Pm" my mom says.

"Ok," I turn off the computer, and go to bed and sleep.

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