the silent speaks (or writes.)

6.08.2005

three days gone; ten months to go.

vrrrrr. a pillow just vibrated. strange? no. it was just the alarm clock, two words which here means "a multifunctional device configured to wake a person up ON TIME." the time on the cellphone shows 07:00. no need to worry, i always set my clock ninety minutes advanced.

incidentally, i was just right on time - to be late for class on the first day; a pledge which i myself had held on since vacation started. by now this should be no different thing to you, if you know the fact that my name is presently synonymous with "terrific latecomer."

and so i was prepared to go by 7:45... i mean 6:15. but i held myself for four solid minutes, killing time with a rubik's cube, eventually reconstructing it to its original form. (by the way, four minutes is my personal best in using the magic cube.)

'twas still dark when i left the house. not that dark, but obviously the skies were blackened. and when it rains... it pours. and it poured... while i was walking to school thru the edsa route, a feat which i complete in about ten minutes. and i don't use umbrellas or parasols, or whatever. you MUST know that you won't get sick when you walk in the rain. some won't agree, but i love the rain.

upon arriving at the school gate, wet and shivering, i noticed that there was the absence of (un)synchronized voices of singing students. assuming that that part of the monday routine is over, i walked straight to the familiar line-in place of my dear classmates, passing by a few students standing by the sidelines of the covered court. later will i know that the people there were
'early' latecomers... get my point?

then we headed to our beloved homeroom, once used by avogadro-3. inside, there were no chairs, to the wonder of many. so we were sent down again to the conference hall, and brought some monobloc chairs back up to the room - chairs that we'll be using... for the moment. i positioned myself up front in the starboard... i mean to say "the right wall, beside the windows and facing the teacher's table."

from there on, not much really happened. only one - yes, one teacher had the fresh legs to go up four floors and meet her students for an hour and twenty minutes... that was mathematics for you.

the lockers were assigned too, by lottery - and i was able to draw locker number eight, in a 9 x 5 set of lockers. my bag was nabbed from me a lot of times, for just a single reason - my cellphone. to be more accurate, my inbox. enough said.

we also did some sort of introduction, due to the fact that we were sort of - disbanded. what did i say? "hello. ako po si gab. gabriel de leon po." that short. judging by the statement, it's quite obvious that there was still that aura of discomfort hovering inside the four walls of avogadro-IV, do you agree?

dismissal was quite early, around three pm. our class schedule states that it should last until four. how ...nice.

... and there was light. (Genesis 1:3)

and that's day one for starters.
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a pillow vibrates again. the clock shows 7:15 this time. however i felt that i lacked five minutes of sleep, so i lied down again. i wake up again, and it was forty-five minutes later. honestly, i didn't plan to be late the next time around... but i had no choice.

believe it or not, it requires skill to be late twice in a row. you know, we all want to be at school - the excitement's all there. do you think it's very easy to contain all that thrill and be able to sleep for long, solid hours? hey guys, it's me who's saying this. it's hard.

what's amazing is that my parents don't know that i'm late for class. they're simply a couple of sleepy humbugs (hey, hey, hey... look who's talking!) waiting to be woken up. oh - that's not really amazing.

i reached the school gates at precisely 7:20 (according to the clock by the guardhouse.) i went to the comfort room and mystified myself with what i saw in front of the mirror - a dark, skinny boy, all wet. i look down, and i confront my shoes, covered with mess and muck. uneffectively wiping it out with a damp piece of pad paper, i went up the stairs to the classroom, heart pounding, body wildly shaking. crossing my fingers, i haplessly started wishing that there was no teacher yet, which at first thought i believed was preposterous.

slow step by slow step i approached the room; and what met me was a barrage of cheers and jeers. that was very usual when i came in late, so i took it all with humungous pride. when it happens a lot of times, you can't help but expect from them what they expect from you. frankly, one of my greatest stunts in high school life.

and what's even better is that there was no teacher. and there were no elected officers yet - providing the luck break for me, with no one recording those absences and lates.

unfortunately, all that was about to end that very day.

"yesterday" almost all of the sections had elected their set of officers. so the people inside the room decided that later in the day, we will have our own.

i didn't want to be part of any of it, and wanted the decision to lie on the other people in the class. my vote doesn't matter in any way. or that's what i thought. i was not alone, nevertheless; another friend of mine was also out there playing cards. i was talking to a "favorite" friend of mine, and when we talk, we talk a lot, regardless of the time.

while we were wistfully pouring our hearts out, a couple of friends passed by where we are. and they were saying that i was nominated for class escort. upon hearing, i thought for a fleeting second that i was in oblivion. in the next, i was bursting out with laughter.

being labeled as class escort could be the worst thing that could happen to me - it just.. doesn't fit in. so it's a good thing the nomination didn't garner enough votes. alas, the absurdity of people these days...

...which reminds me. we don't have a class adviser yet. and we've met only four out of ten teachers.

dismissal was early again. but sm never changed it rules, or so as it seems. i waited til five to be able to enter the main buliding.

then headed down to national bookstore, right at the basement.. i needed only a few things, like a couple of notebooks or something. however, what matters is where you are. dunno what got into me, but i fell into this long queue that never seemed to move. upon further scrutiny, i heard that there was a problem with some credit card processing. knowing that there's nothing i could do, i stood and waited. and yawned. and waited. and.... yawned. after what seemed an eternity, i was out of the beeline.

to home, now i head. day two's now in the record books.
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7:15, says the cellphone. i was somewhat nauseous and feeling drowsy... so i went off to bed. once again.

ten minutes passed... "gabriel. late na gising mo ha. bilisan mo." came the sturdy voice of my father, immediately shaking me up.

and true enough, i came in late by 15 minutes. yes sir, it's three in a row... and my first recorded late of the year. and another thing, the teacher was there.

wasn't i saying just earlier how hard it is to garner two lates in a row?

maybe i should introduce the class schedule: (i hope you won't mind if i hurry..)

7 - 8 English; 8 - 9 Chemistry; 9 - 9:40 Filipino; 9:40 - 11 Math; 11 - 11:40 AP; 11:40 - 12:20 Elective; 12:20 - 1 LUNCH; 1 - 2 Physics; 2 - 2:40 BREAK; 2:40 - 3:20 PEHM; 3:20 - 4 Research.

so far we've met seven out of a 'possible' ten teachers.

and not one of them... is our adviser. yet to be seen in action is the eye-bugged mr. atanacio, the wily research teacher.

and we already have assignments. and a scheduled quiz. and lots of things to bring. and i got my first bruise of the school year just before math time. i was locked and held by a friend so tight; i tried to wriggled free but i got kneed in the right thigh. and i came down limping.

hopefully, there's still more to come after day 3.

the silent spoke up on 21:58

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