Diamond in the Rough

Chapter 7

“Yo!” Ella jolted a bit when she heard someone shouting out of nowhere. When she turned her head to the direction of the voice, she saw Patrick waving his hand as he limped a bit towards her.

She frowned at what she was seeing. When the injured guy was finally in front of her, she asked him. “Are you sure you should be walking outside by now? You look terrible.”

Patrick shrugged in response. “Nah. It was nothing new. I’ve been through worse.” He then plopped down with some difficulty on the cement ground beside her.

She snorted at his uncaring demeanor. “That’s what you get by getting into trouble so often. Anyway, why did you want to meet me?” She raised her eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you want to have a tutoring session again?”

“Ugh, no.” The injured guy scoffed, and then fell into a serious mode. “I want to thank you… for what you did last time.” He said in a quiet voice as he stared down on the ground of the basketball court.

Ella creased her forehead. “What about it? It was nothing unusual anyway.”

Patrick abruptly turned to her. “Nothing unusual? Dude, you almost took a hit for me!” He almost screamed out.

She raised her eyebrow. “And so? Everyone would have done that if they were in my place, you know? That wasn’t a big deal at all.” She answered in the same tone.

Patrick palmed his face, and then sighed out loud. “Ugh… You know what? Just go with me so that I can treat you to ice cream as my thanks.”

“Nah.” Ella replied. “I’ve a lot to do this afternoon. I’m still looking for The Dude and the dogs, you know?”

The injured guy was taken aback by her answer. “What? Are you always like this? It’s no wonder why you seem to have no friends at school.”

She shrugged. “Well, everything human was alien to me. Animals, at least, I could understand them better.”

Patrick gaped at her answer. After a few moments, he shut his mouth up and then nodded. “Alright. If you prefer being here, I won’t insist. I’d just feed the animals too.” He then grabbed the dog food bag from her hand.

Ella stared at him in shock. “Dude, are you serious?” She asked, aghast.

He rolled his eyes. “What does it look like?” He started to stand up, and gestured for her to do the same. “Come on, let’s find the squad that saved us both.”

She snorted in amusement. “Squad? That’s quite a fitting name for them, I admit.”

Patrick smirked in return. “Don’t I know it?”

They were walking for quite a while now, searching for the place where The Dude and his minions were probably hanging out. Their walk was slow, as Patrick had obviously not quite healed yet.

“So when do you plan to come back to class?” Ella asked.

Patrick scratched his head while thinking. “Wednesday probably.”

Ella tilted her head up to him, looking incredulous. “Are you sure you’re okay by that time? From the looks of it, you’d probably need a whole month to heal completely.”

The basketball player snorted. “A month? That’s an exaggeration. I heal fast, you know?”

She rolled her eyes at him and muttered under her breath: “So arrogant.” She then remembered something important. “Patrick, how about Jake? What happened to the police report against him?”

Patrick stopped walking. “Yeah, that.” A grimace appeared on his face as he answered. “Dad told me not to worry about that. He said he was going to fix the situation on his own.”

“Damn.” Ella had to shake her head. “That sounds like a headache… especially now that Jake was said to be related to Mayor Gonzales.”

A similarly troubled expression appeared on Patrick’s face. “Yeah, I know…” He replied in a low voice.

She observed Patrick’s demeanor and felt a bit sorry for him. He must have been blaming himself for causing trouble to his family. 

Patrick was jolted from his reverie when he felt a hard slap on his back. “Hey!” He turned to Ella who had her arms crossed in front of her body and smirking at him. “What the hell was that for? It might add to my injuries, you know?”

“Well… I just want to erase that awful expression you have in your face. It makes you look even uglier.” The girl remarked.

“Wow. You talk as if you’re good-looking yourself,” Patrick deadpanned.

Ella shrugged and said, “Whatever. What you need to do is to stay away from fights from now on so that your most awaited date with Jasmine would finally push through.” 

That stopped Patrick in his tracks. He almost forgot about that date. He grinned widely at the short girl in front of him. “You’re right. I still have a date to look forward to. Next time, nothing will stop me anymore.”

Ella scoffed loudly. “Exactly. That’s why you need to wipe off that ugly expression on your face because it might get stuck as you recover.”

Patrick sneered at her before walking ahead, leaving her in her spot. “You have such a ridiculous imagination,” he muttered loudly.

Ella followed suit, quietly chuckling at the annoyed guy. She did enjoy pissing him off.

It was dark when the two of them finished their rounds. They successfully located The Dude and the dogs at the end of Humility Street, with Rico, Kowalski, and Private rummaging around the trash left outside a gated house while The Dude and Skipper looked on. When the squad saw them approaching, the tails of the dogs immediately wagged excitedly, all the while the tom cat just looked on with a bored look on its face.

Ella approached confidently, while Patrick seemed a bit apprehensive. She couldn’t blame him, for he knew what these animals were capable of. As she was crouched down putting cat food on the ground for The Dude, she beckoned the injured guy silently to come sit next to her. He did so very slowly. When he was finally next to her, she told him to calm himself so that the animals wouldn’t sense his nervousness. 

Ella taught Patrick how to properly approach the animals by letting them sniff them and even lick their hands.

“Don’t worry about them. They actually have anti-rabies shots. They’re even neutered, you know?” She assured him.

Her classmate’s eyes widened. “Really? That’s cool. I didn’t know you also did those things. I thought you only fed these guys.” He then held up his palm containing dog food and let Private eat from it.

Ella chuckled a bit. “Yeah. Although I must tell you it took us a long time to do that to this big tom cat right here. That’s why you’ll see a lot of kittens around the village with the same gray tabby pattern as him.”

The basketball player side-eyed the said cat, and wrinkled his nose. “I can see why. That cat looked like it has done some time in prison and became the boss there. Look at those torn ears and big jowls.” He turned to her. “What’s its name, by the way?”

She stared at the cat, before shaking her head in amusement. “It has no name, actually.” She met Patrick’s eyes with a small smile on her face. “I just call it The Dude on my head.”

“Heh.” Patrick smirked. “While I must admit that simply calling this cat ‘The Dude’ sounds badass, it might be better if it had a real name.”

“Hmmm…” Ella wrinkled her nose at the suggestion. In the end, she shook her head. She told him, “I’ve read somewhere that cats don’t need names, because they know who they are, while we people need names because we don’t know who we are…” She shrugged and added, “or something to that effect.”

Patrick stared blankly at her. “Errr… well, that’s kind of deep.” He then chuckled. “You’re pretty weird.”

Ella got irritated at Patrick’s teasing, so she sneered at him. “Whatever!” She then stood stood up and left him on the sidewalk.

Patrick was running after her and calling her name, which she ignored as she walked down the street briskly. She took a glance behind to see that he was starting to catch up to her so she took a slight run, until she felt herself slamming into someone’s chest. As a result of the impact, she almost toppled to the ground, until she was caught by the person she collided into by the waist. When she looked up, embarrassed, her eyes widened in shock. It was their new Math teacher, Sir Kenneth De Jesus.

Ella immediately untangled herself from the man, all the while saying, “Sorry, Sir.” She could feel her cheeks reddening. By that time, Patrick had reached her side.

“It’s okay,” the teacher said, his eyes having a hint of amusement. “You’re Ella, if I remember it right?”

“Yes, Sir.” She answered. Patrick turned to her, looking confused at the situation.

“Do you know this guy, Ella?” Her classmate asked. 

Ella elbowed Patrick, embarrassed at his rudeness. “He’s our new Math teacher.” She whispered to him.

“Oh.” Patrick then nodded blankly. She decided to save the situation and turned to the teacher in question.

“Errr… Sir, this is Patrick. He’s also from the same class. He was just absent today because he was still recovering from his injuries due to an incident last Saturday.” She explained. 

Sir Kenneth observed Patrick from head to toe, before shrugging his shoulders. “Well, he seemed fine enough to run on the streets, but in any case, get well soon Patrick.” He then extended a hand that the basketball player hesitantly shook.

“Thanks, Sir.” Patrick paused and looked down on Ella. “And sorry for what Ella did. She’s clumsy sometimes.”

Ella was tempted to kick Patrick on his shin, but she didn’t because the teacher was still there. “Errr, yeah, I apologize again, Sir. I didn’t notice you right away.”

The teacher smiled lazily. “No problem. Take care on your way home.”

Ella saw that as an opportunity to get out of the way quickly so she said her polite goodbye before walking ahead fast, all the while pulling Patrick’s hand with her. However, she was stopped when she heard Sir Kenneth calling her name again. She turned around slowly, and saw the teacher who was standing with his hands on his pockets.

“I’ll need to talk to you tomorrow after class. Please don’t go home right away.” The Math teacher said before turning around to walk away from her.

Ella was suddenly rooted on the ground. Her heart beat fast as she wondered… What could he possibly want from her? Was she going to be punished because of what happened earlier?

Her reverie was cut short when Patrick suddenly spoke up, his voice suddenly quiet and serious. “What’s his deal? He seems strange,” he remarked.

Ella couldn’t help but silently agree.