BACK AND FORTH

CHAPTER 1: The Senior Struggle

The school library of Leighton International High School is packed with students today. It’s midterm week, and the senior high school students are the frequent guests of the establishment. Most of them are studying in groups, especially with their friends.

For example, there’s one group near the large window, who seem to be debating in low voices, almost like they’re whispering to each other. They’re exchanging thoughts about their previous lesson in Applied Social Sciences.

Debating is one thing that you cannot take from the life of these HUMSS students. It’s like their bread and butter.

At another table is a group of future tycoons and accountants. They are students from the ABM strand. They seem to be engrossed in a columnar book on one side, with a calculator on the other side.

One of them has been scratching his head in frustration.

“s**t. I knew it. I’m gonna fail this test, dude. I’m gonna fail. I don’t get it. I just don’t,” he whined to his friend, totally giving up as he begrudgingly dropped his pen onto the table.

“Yeah. I guess, me too,” replied his friend who seems to have seen his life flash before him. “My mom’s gonna kill me,” he sighed.

At the west wing of the library, near the fire exit and the librarian's desk, a table is littered with papers all filled with calculations and pen scratches. This table uses a calculator, too, but an upgraded ones. They call them scientific calculators or SciCal in short.

Only a genius would dare to show up in class without their own SciCal.

Most of the tables at the west wing are occupied by the STEM students—the future engineers, scientists, doctors, technologists, and mathematicians of the world.

STEM strand is just a fancy word for Geek strand.

Everyone seems to be busy. Reviewing, solving, studying, and even debating in whispers. But Rachel, a STEM student, seems to be enjoying the clouds in the sky through the glass window next to her.

Her mind seems to be floating somewhere right now. And just when her stomach started to grumble, a cloud began to shape like a fried chicken—specifically, a chicken thigh.

“Cam, I’m hungry,” she grumbled to her friend sitting next to her.

“Already? It’s still quarter to eleven, you know?” Cam replied. “Ugh, what is wrong with me? Why can’t I get this right? There must be something wrong with my process. Or with the derivations?” Cam grunted in frustration while her eyes hovered like a hawk over her bond paper filled with mathematical equations.

“Cam, forget about it. Maybe you’re just hungry. We can ask the boys—”

“Oh, right! How could I be so stupid?” Cam suddenly had a eureka moment. “The signs. This should be negative here,” she triumphantly muttered, more to herself than to Rachel.

She kept muttering things while she solved the physics problem in front of her. Then, she sighed in satisfaction.

Rachel watched her friend in disbelief.

“Seriously, Cam. I’m hungry. Can we eat first? I don’t think any of this would get inside my brain without filling my stomach first. The cloud’s starting to look like fried chicken.”

Cam softly chuckled. “Alright. Alright,” she surrendered. “Let’s go. I’m done with this problem anyway. By the way, were you saying something to me a while ago? Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t say anything.”

“Really? But I think I heard you talking,”

“All the more reason for you to eat already. You’re hearing things now.”

Both of them packed their things up inside their backpacks, stacking the books they took from the bookshelves.

“Let’s head back to the classroom right after getting lunch. We got to maximize our time,” Cam suggested.

“Yeah, sure,”

As they were walking inside the library, heading to the stairs, Cam immediately noticed that Rachel’s been down lately. Her head seemed to be in the clouds floating somewhere. It’s quite unlike Rachel to daze and ditch studying when they’re three hours away from taking an exam for their major subject.

“Is something bothering you these days?” asked Cam.

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. Earlier, I noticed you weren’t really studying. You seem deep in thought. So, I assumed something must be bothering you,”

“Oh, it’s nothing serious. Don’t mind me,” Rachel tightly smiled. It did not reach her eyes.

They were currently walking down the stairs, and Cam decided to halt for a second to look at her friend.

“You know you can tell me anything, right? I’m here to listen, and to help you as much as I can. Please, if you’re only hesitating because you don’t want to bother me—”

“It’s nothing like that, Cam. I promise. It’s just that…you know, the fact that I have to live with strangers from now on while my dad’s gone to Cebu. I mean, why can’t I just stay in the house? I can manage on my own. I’m not a kid anymore,”

“Well, maybe, your dad just wanted to make sure you’re safe and in good hands while he’s gone,”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t mind if he’s gonna hire a babysitter, too,” Rachel sarcastically remarked, huffing at every step she took. “And it’s even annoying to think that I have to look for a new music academy nearby that house I’ll be living in for a year. Ugh! It’s so annoying,” grunted Rachel as they reached the last step.

They had reached the lobby of the library. Few students are hanging around the couches, and bean bags while typing on their laptops, and scribbling on a piece of paper.

“How far is it, anyway?”

“Let’s say, the new address is a bit closer to our school, compared to our house,”

“Well, that’s good, right?”

“But still, it doesn’t change the fact that I’ll be forced to live with strangers and transfer to another music school. I just couldn’t take my mind off it. Why? Why do I have to live with that family I don’t even know!”

“Well, they have been your dad’s friends since high school. I guess they have a strong bond. Trust that instead. I think they’re gonna take care of you very well,”

Rachel pushed the glass door before her, now exiting the school library. The usually dry and hot air of the Philippines greeted the both of them, making them scrunch their faces.

“And, by the way, if you want, I can help you look for a good music school. I’m free this weekend,” Cam offered.

“Thanks,” Rachel said. “I appreciate that,” she smiled at Cam.

“I guess you already told your dad, huh?” Cam proudly smiled at Rachel.

Rachel’s smile vanished. “I haven’t.”

“What? Rachel,” Cam sighed. “We’ve talked about this. You can’t keep this from your dad forever. Sooner or later, you gotta tell him the truth.”

“It doesn’t matter. He won’t appreciate it anyway. He won’t ever support me.”

“You don’t know that. He hasn’t seen you play like I did. Maybe invite him one day to your mini-recital, you know. Just to give him the chance—”

“That’s the point, Cam. I won’t be able to tell him, especially now that he’s gonna be in Cebu for, like, a year,”

“For that long, huh?” Cam wondered.

“I’m telling you, Cam. I swear, something bad is going on. Everything seems to be happening so fast. It’s all so sudden. You know, like, with Dad staying in Cebu for a year, and me being forced to live with my dad’s friend,”

“How come you don’t know them?”

“They just moved back here last, last year. They used to live in Boston.”

“Boston? You mean in America?”

“Yeah—”

BEEP!

A dark gray pickup truck pulled over a few meters away from them. The window on the driver’s seat slowly rolled down, revealing a dark-haired boy wearing a hoodie jacket over his school uniform. Silver-white headphones were hanging around his neck.

“We’re going to McDonald's. Want to come?” yelled the boy named Blake who is a good friend of Rachel and Cam.

“We? Is she in there?” Rachel yelled back while slowly walking close to the truck. Cam followed behind.

“Hey there, bitches,” greeted a fair-skinned girl with long brown hair from the shotgun.

“Of course. What am I expecting? You guys are inseparable,” Rachel grunted, rolling her eyes.

“Thank you so much. We’ll take that as a compliment, Rach,” Millie curtly replied.

“We had just finished the exam for our specialized subject, and we wanted to celebrate. So, are you guys coming or not?” Blake impatiently asks the two.

“Huh? Really? Do you guys want to celebrate already? You don’t even know yet if you passed,” Rachel blurted.

“Ugh, for the love of God, will you stop being yourself for a moment, Rachel?” Millie said.

“Alright. Alright. That’s enough, you two,” Cam intervened. “We’re coming, but we have to go back around noon. Is that okay? We still have a test around 1 pm,”

“Fine with me,” Blake nodded.

“Yeah, me too,” Millie agreed as well.