Bola-Bola

Chapter One-1

Chapter OneCOUPLE SANDWICH

-Summer and Gio

-Dani and John

-Thea (the sad piece of ham)

You know what’s worse than waiting in line while third-wheeling? Waiting in line while fifth-wheeling for a ride you swear might be the reason for your early demise. It’s like shame, embarrassment, fear, a bit of envy, and annoyance, all rolled into a death-inducing spring roll being shoved down your throat and then some. To add to that, you’re sweating all over, even in places you didn’t even know you can sweat, thoroughly roasting under the sun.

My feet hurt, my pits are sweating, and I can already feel my shoulder aching from carrying my bag all day long.

I hate this, I tell myself for the umpteenth time, as I try to mother my friends like a pocket chaperone.

Summer and Dani are with their dates, and I’m that one friend who’s walking between them, like a sad piece of ham in a couple sandwich. I’ve been following them for the past two hours from one cute non-life-threatening ride to another. But it seems the universe has had it, and decided to test my mettle with the Space Shuttle. Because why not?

And they told me today was a girls’ day out. Bull. Crap. It’s a group date and I’m fifth-wheeling. Perfect. Just perfect.

While taking small quick breaths to steady my nerves, I feel a tap on my shoulder.

“T, are you okay?” Dani asks, her voice clear and soft.

I whip my head and meet her big brown eyes with barely contained ferocity, reining the monster within. I’m in a couple sandwich! With Summer and Gio in front of me, and you and John behind me, I’m as alone and out of place as I could possibly be, waiting for the freakish ride of Death. Are you for real?

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t sound fine,” Dani says, biting her lower lip, her voice sounding softer and her eyes growing bigger, like two orbs too big for her head that make her look doll-like on an ordinary day. But right now they make her look like a dead fish. Or maybe I’m just angry.

I peek at Summer to check if she’s noticed us, ever the HBIC ready to butt in, only to see her whispering something in Gio’s ear. She’s doing that thing with her angel-hair where she’s twirling a few locks with her finger. I roll my eyes. Really.

“Thea?” Dani asks.

I sigh. She’s the baby of the group, and I can’t really stay mad at her while she’s gazing at me with those big dead fish eyes. Motioning for Dani to come closer and ignoring John altogether, under my breath I say, “You made a fifth wheel out of me. I’m afraid of heights. Of course, I’m not okay.” I weigh 220 freaking pounds. What if I exceed the ride’s maximum weight capacity? What if they reject me at first glance in front of all these people? What if I die mid-air because Death’s favorite ride can’t handle all this fat? What then? Something that Summer and Dani will never understand.

“I’m sorry, T. You weren’t meant to be alone. You’re supposed to fifth wheel with Issa,” she says, stroking my arm, eyes big and earnest.

“But she chickened out,” Summer chips in with a sneer. She crosses her arms below her breasts, pulling a bit of her pink tank top down, exposing more cleavage, and I wonder just how long it would take until the girls pop out completely. Gio steals a glance, while John looks away, sheepish.

“Maybe she just had something important to do,” I say, in Issa’s defense.

But really, more likely, Issa had an idea that Gio and John would just magically show up like mushrooms, in their matching polos, shorts, and Vans, turning this girls’ day out into an unwelcome group date. I should have known something was up. Summer and Dani were too excited for this get-together. Ever since they grew boobs, they sprang group dates on us as if they were running out of boys.

The line starts moving. Gio grabs Summer’s elbow and gently pulls her forward with a lopsided grin. The sneer on Summer’s face quickly morphs into a radiant smile. Gone was her resting b***h face. With his arm around her waist, she moves a little closer, snuggling to his side. I trudge after them, tugging the friendship bracelet we all gave one another when we were twelve, high on Harry Potter and chocolate sundaes.

One weekend, after giving each other a friendship bracelet, we holed up in Dani’s kitchen. Summer added whipped cream on her sundae. Dani added a generous helping of sprinkles on hers. Issa drizzled chocolate syrup all over her sundae and ours, while I had another scoop of vanilla ice cream. We made a mess of things. Toppings were all over the counter: chocolate shavings, marshmallows, and sprinkles. There was even a trail of strawberry syrup on the floor, and no one even had strawberry syrup! Tita Judith, Dani’s mom, entered the kitchen and gave Dani a look which prompted all of us to clean up after ourselves. Afterwards, we found ourselves laughing as we wiped the counter clean.

It used to be just us: sleepovers and Harry Potter marathons that lasted for days, our sugar rush seeing us through sleepless nights, only to crash at five in the morning. We would wait in line during the premier of the newest movie with our Hogwarts scarves (in different House colors, of course) and buckets of popcorn. Sometimes, Summer would even bring her wand along, and her mom would take lots of pictures of us outside the cinema, even when some of us would still be sniffling and holding back tears because one of our favorite characters had just died.

I thought this time would be different—a girls’ day out right before the CETs. God knows I need to relieve some stress. But no, my friends just had to drag me to the freaking Space Shuttle to “loosen up.”

It’ll be fun, they said.

Just staring up at the roller coaster ride, a hundred feet off the ground with all its loops and turns, is making me gag. Just one wrong move, just one loose screw, and I’ll be plummeting to the ground, nose first, my brain splattering on the ground like Newton’s watermelon, gravity and all.

“We’re next!” Gio hollers. Dani squeals behind me and John chuckles.

Summer looks at me from her shoulder with a smirk and one eyebrow raised.

“Just a ride, right, T?”

There are days when I just want to strangle Summer with her hair, and today’s one of them. Lord, grant me patience.

The people before us fill up the first few coaches, but there are only five of them, leaving the third coach with one empty seat. One of the personnel’s looking at Summer expectantly, tapping his foot impatiently as he gestures for her to take her seat. Summer shakes her head, basically yanks my arm and pushes me to take her place. It’s like Brutus and Caesar all over again. It takes me a second to recover from the betrayal. I clench and unclench my jaw as I step into the coach with slightly shaking knees. Somebody buckles me in. Okay, so I fit. Great. Breathe, Thea. Just then, I hear my seatmate already screaming his lungs out.

He has three ear piercings and frosted tips. He smells like eggs. Really, universe? Couldn’t you have given me a cute chinito for a seatmate? I squirm in my seat, but I can’t really move far away from him given the limited space and my too-thick thighs. I dry my clammy hands by wiping them on my jeans.

This is not how I imagined my death: locked and touching with a boy with frosted tips in mid-air.

Here lies Ma. Theresa Santiago Balderama, loving daughter and sister

Went Up and Never Got Down (Alive)

May 18, 1994 – July 16, 2011

Cause of death: teenage boys and the girls who love them.

Damn it. What a stupid way to die!

With a vise-like grip, I cling to the safety buckle. The ride jolts to life and slowly backs up. It lifts and pulls us up in amazing sluggishness, lifting us from the ground. A foot, two feet, three feet, then I stop counting as my mind zeroes in on the cranking of screws and bolts that are making the coaches move on the tracks. Licking my upper lip, I can almost taste my fear. Salty. The metallic monster continues to back up, inclining, up, up, up! I steel myself, sucking in one huge breath, thinking I would be lighter then, and safer.

The people are shrinking in size like ants scattered on the ground. The leaves of the trees look greener somehow, and all the other rides bigger, and the tracks, all too real. Then, all I can see are the tracks with their loops, and I make an effort to steady my breathing, if I can still breathe. If the safety buckle fails . . .

I plant my feet on the floor, rooting them in place. I’m trembling in my seat when the ride suddenly stops at the topmost peak. I look down, absentmindedly, and it is the dumbest decision I’ve ever made in my life. I see hundreds of heads and gray asphalt waiting for my fall.

Cold beads of sweat start to form on my brows.

“Pakshet! This is it! WAAAH!”

From the corner of my eye, I see my seatmate hollering. We’re going to die and he’s cheering Death on! My eyes narrow at his acne-ridden cheek when the ride speeds into its stomach-churning descent. It’s one big drop, like falling from a high-rise tower, and I feel the air being sucked out of me. I see flashes of blurred images, and the rusting tracks coming at me at the speed of light. The ride twirls, and I feel the hair of the girl in front of me swishing on my face. For a split second, I am upside down and I think my soul just left my body.

Numb. I feel so numb.

It slows down and I catch my breath, gritting my teeth. It backs up again, pulling us up with the same teasing slowness. I’m losing air.

Everybody’s screaming, and I’m screaming with them as I spit out the hair of the person before me.

“AAAHHHHHHHHH!”

“Mommy!”

And the never-ending twirls and loops make my head spin. By the time the ride jerks to a stop, I’m trembling in my seat, pushing my lunch down. Two swallows. Eck!

One of the personnel helps me out of our coach and I almost slip on my first step out of the roller coaster. And out of pure instinct, I hold on to the personnel’s shoulders. Not awkward at all.

Summer and Dani are being assisted out of their coaches by Gio and John. They’re all laughing with huge grins on their faces.

Did we ride the same thing?

“That was fun!” Summer says as she fixes her long tresses with her fingers. Even after a roller coaster ride, her hair still looks perfect. It’s ridiculous! I quickly touch my head: first to see if it’s still intact, second to fix my wavy hair. It’s a mess.

Summer leads us out of the Space Shuttle, while holding hands with Gio. Then, she turns to me, “It wasn’t that bad, right, Thea?”

I’d thought Mama and Kuya were going to mourn me, but, hey, I’m still breathing. Sure, not bad.

“Yeah, not bad,” I say, casually. I walk between the two pairs as normally as I can. I’m frazzled and dizzy, but I have to play it cool even if I’m covered in cold sweat.

As the boys get us some snacks, I quickly march to Summer. She’s so busy ogling her date, she doesn’t even notice me breathing behind her. I tug a few strands of her hair.

“Ow! What was that for?”

Oh, you had it coming!

“Does Tita know Gio and John would be here? With us?”

Summer gives me a look, unimpressed and totally questioning if I had lost all sense.

“What do you think?”

“Summer! You’ll get us all in trouble!”

“EK’s big. It’s a kingdom, for crying out loud. I doubt we’ll even run into Mom and Tita Annie.” Summer explains as if I were stupid. Dani, ever the Summer-faithful, just nods her head in agreement. With her bob and her trendy short shorts Dani may be sixteen, but she still looks like a kid. It’s her baby face.

“If we get in trouble—”

“If. Chill, Thea.”

A standstill.

“Summer.”

“Hmmm,” Summer tilts her head as she continues to stare at Gio’s well-toned back. She thinks she’s in love and Gio’s the one—which I doubt very much since he’s far from being the only one she’s dated this year. But then, that’s Summer for you. When Summer’s in love, it’s yearlong.