Chasing Excellence

The flower vases all around the 3,200 square feet house were being replaced by white daisies. In the living room, countless wilted roses were piled on top of a newspaper that was spread out on the floor. Aunt May was singing a song inside her head while arranging the flowers in the vase to not look too haphazard, she heard rushed footsteps running down the stairs. The song hasn’t gotten to the chorus yet, but the pounding stopped halfway and it went back up. A few seconds later, the pounding came back again and made its way to the end of the stairs, up to the door. “Aunt May, I’m going!” A melodious voice rang out in the living room. Aunt May turned her head to where the voice came from. She saw a girl who was about 18 years of age with large brown eyes, her olive skin glowing under the morning sun as two shallow dimples could be seen beside the captivating smile as it bid her goodbye. No matter how many times she’s seen this young lady smile, she can’t help but be inwardly proud of how pretty she’s grown to be. She can’t help smiling back and waving goodbye. “The umbrellas’ on the shoe rack,” she reminded the figure that was about to go back upstairs as it made a U-turn. After taking what she needed, the front door was successfully closed. Black hair danced with the motion as the figure ran to the prepared car. Aunt May continued fixing the flowers in the vase, no longer glancing at the window. When she entered the classroom, the rowdy room grew a little quieter as countless pairs of eyes looked at her. However, this didn’t bother her at all as her eyes continued to roam around the roam. After not being able to spot the person she wanted to see, she went to her seat, which was beside the window, in a slightly dejected manner and slumped on her desk. How come he's not here again? What is a student like him being so busy with that he couldn't attend classes for consecutive days? Screw this. Why? WHY? While still immersed in her sadness, she heard a laugh before the voice said, “Sylvia, you don’t need to show how disappointed you are for not seeing your childhood sweetheart or you’re going to make all the boys here sad.” “Dianne, good morning to you, too,” Sylvia said as she removed the consoling hand that was on her shoulder. It belonged to a mature-looking girl with a motherly smile on her lips. This gentle-looking person here is the Student Council Vice President, she is the mother of all senior high students! So gentle. So good. Sylvia let out a sigh and grumbled, “I haven’t seen him for a week. How come the teachers haven’t told him to come to class yet?” “It’s just been four days, and two of those days are the weekends.” Seeing Sylvia’s expression that showed she didn’t understand what was said, she continued, “Besides, being the President of the student council and a varsity player on the basketball team isn’t easy. But if you really want to see him, you can attend the student council meeting tomorrow. As the twelfth-grade representative, if you want to attend the meeting, you can.” Hearing the latter part of what Dianne said, Sylvia’s back went ramrod straight and gave Dianne a salute, her lazy disposition gone as she replied, “Aye, aye!” Dianne only gave a slight smile to this. She started brushing Sylvia’s shoulder-length hair, which was flying in all directions due to her energetic movements. While enjoying the privilege of having her hair fixed by the vice president, the school bell rang indicating the start of class. The students went to their seats and the class quieted down when the first-period teacher appeared. He put the stack of papers on the table, making a loud bang in the ears of the anticipating students. “The final exams for the first term finally ended. How do you, guys, feel?” Some students answered okay, some grumbled, and most cheered that the exam week finally ended. Seeing the lively response of the students, he continued, “Now, now. I will be giving back your exam papers. As I call your name, please take your papers.” “Christian, not here. Dianne. Sylvia…” When Sylvia got her paper, she read the top page of the test paper ‘General Mathematics’ and beside it is ‘88/100’. The back page of each page was full of solutions, some of the solutions were even overlapping, but on the front were neatly summarized solutions placed in their designated space. In the crowd of checkmarks, the circled ones were very conspicuous. “This class produced the highest score yet again. Good job.” The math teacher announced and clapped his hands after he finished distributing the papers. The class clapped along as the murmurs started again. “Who do you think could it be?” “Isn’t that obvious? Of course, it’s our top 1.” “Who knows. Maybe it’s Dianne this time. She’s always been behind the president, she might have surpassed him this time.” “We just need to wait for the class ranking and we’ll see.” “Does that really matter? As long our class holds the top in the grade ranking, I don’t care who comes first.” Hearing the murmurs of her classmates putting someone in high regard, Sylvia continued her day in a good mood. Just like the first-period teacher, the succeeding teachers gave out all the students’ test papers and corrected any if there were any corrections. All in all, this wasn’t a very stressful day for the students aside from the ones that acted as if the doomsday has come after seeing their scores. After Sylvia received all her exam papers and saw that she did relatively well, she put the papers in her bag and didn’t put any more attention to it. She listened to her friends talk about relaxing and going to buy stuff to ease their nerves as they walked down a hallway. “Why don’t we go buy things we need for the school field trip?” Cassidy proposed her idea as she put another chip in her mouth. Seeing the big bag of chips in Cassidy’s hand, Amanda unceremoniously dipped her hand in without asking for permission and said, “After that, we can go to this cafe that has just opened near the center.” “Sounds good,” Amanda replied as she also dipped her hand in the bag after Amanda took out her hand. Seeing the bag that was almost empty that was just opened seconds later, Sylvia looked at the three hungry mobs in helplessness. Does that single bag of chips really satisfy them? How about buying them some more? We could have one each. Sylvia thought as she tapped her finger on the strap of her bag. “The field trip is coming soon and it’s in B city. I heard it gets pretty cold there at this time of the year. We should pack up a jacket or two,” Amanda said as she licked her fingers full of seasoning powder. “Full-length pants as well. Take your clothes that have the most cloth, it will protect you from the chill.” Sylvia added and took out her wallet as they were nearing the school canteen. She bought three different kinds of snacks. After receiving her change, she turned around and said in a loud voice, “Catch!” Before tossing out the snacks to the three expecting friends. Catching one, Cassidy said in a teasing manner, “Thank you, great one. You really know how to turn beautiful ladies fat.” “If you don’t want it, give it to me. I don’t mind getting fat.” Denise put out her hand, waiting for the snack to be given to her, but Amanda pushed her hand away and put out her hand instead. Cassidy ignored their action and opened the snack before she started eating. Seeing her action of ‘who-are-you?’ Denise just smiled and turned to Sylvia, “We still have training, don’t eat too much.” Causing Sylvia to stop putting the snack in her mouth halfway. Cassidy, Amanda, and Denise were the first people who approached her when she transferred in at the beginning of the school year. They are a very extroverted group of people as they are a part of many cliques in the school. It’s also why she’s integrated very easily despite being a transferee in twelfth grade. She wasn’t treated as an outcast or a loner and was able to fill her contact very quickly. She did not experience the typical problem of a student who transferred school at an awkward time when students already made their group of friends at the beginning of senior high school. And even if Cassidy and the others did not come to her first, she was confident she would be able to make friends attributed to her very out-going and friendly persona, although not as fast. “We'll be going now. See you tomorrow.” “Kay, kay.” “Bye-bye. Work hard.” The two replied as they waved their hands to Sylvia and Denise, who was holding Sylvia’s hand, as they jogged to the gym pool. Denise is also the captain of the swimming club, the same club she is in. When Denise heard that she was also part of the swimming club in her previous school, she persuaded her to enter theirs. When she first attended, she saw that they didn’t seem to have many top players, but is aware that there were one or two students who were able to enter the provincial competitions, Dianne was one of them. The other more competent students graduated last year, so having Dianne as the only student that would have the likelihood to enter the provincials again, the swimming club is really in dire need of swimmers. Denise didn’t retrieve her hand when they arrived at the gym, she just pulled Sylvia all the way to the locker room. Seeing the other members already changing their clothes to a blue swimsuit, she let go and announced, “After we’re done changing, let’s do our stretching to the sides first. Don’t go into the pool yet.” All the other members gave an affirmative reply. Pointing to an energetic 11th grader she said, “Junior will lead today’s stretching session until the end of the week. Don’t be late.” “Yes!” Sylvia gave the enthusiastic junior a thumbs up to which the junior replied with the same thumbs up. She cheered for the 11th grader in her head. Good luck, junior. If ever one of us had cramps inside the pool, it would be on your head. No pressure. If the junior heard this, who knows whether she would still be energetic due to enthusiasm or due to anxiousness. When Sylvia was doing a lap in the pool after giving pointers to the beginners, Denise was clocking her time. Emerging from the water, she heard Denise say, “28.93. Good. Sylvia, the competition is around the corner, we should focus on getting to tip-top shape, you shouldn’t be distracted. Got it?” “I will do my best,” she replied with determination, but Denise wouldn’t have it. “What do you mean you will do your best? You will do your best not to get distracted? Stop with that, just do it.” “But I still have stuff to do as a student council.” “What do you mean stuff to do. You’re just a grade 12 representative, not the school president,” Denise replied with an irritated tone while Sylvia just pouted in response to this. Denise is a pretty dedicated club member, else the seniors before her wouldn’t have given her the captain position with ease of heart. She was pretty excited when Sylia had great talents for swimming, and perhaps going into the nationals wouldn’t be a pipe dream anymore. Many people said that she’s pretty talented for being the only one in her grade to enter the provincials, but she, herself, knew best that it was just a fluke. If such as mishap didn’t happen then, who knew if those people would still sing her praises now. Thinking of the past, her mood went a little bitter. Seeing someone sneakily climbing out of the pool, her feet ran up to that certain someone and heartlessly kicked her back into the pool. An ‘ayah’ was heard and a water splash came after it. “You have more laps to do, what do you think you’re doing?” Sylvia replied after wiping her face, “How about this. I will do all 2 days' worth of training now?” “That’s not how it works.” Seeing the captain not convinced with her unconvincing persuasion, she said, as if not caring anymore for her opinion, “That’s how it will work to me!” And she submerged herself in the water as she intended to do more laps. Denise couldn’t help sighing again. She knew that Sylia transferred school for that person, but seeing her not putting the competition as the priority as of now, she felt a slight irritation for someone. What great waste of talent.