Tale of Arcillana

Chapter 14

Cam’s Point of View

"You know what, she's not even that pretty to act like one." Alliah said while rolling her eyes.

"Seconded. I did not know how did she get her pass card to be one of the Goldens. She is a dimwit and she does not deserve to be part of the Goldens." Viper agreed and commented.

We are talking about the girl named Margaux Dela Fuenta, the girl who just came in our table and who called Nicolai, babe.

It happened that these girls that I am with does not like that girl.

I am glad that I could easily get along and I think I can be friends with them. They embraced me with a warm welcomed back on the party even though I had this not so good encounter with Nicolai.

Mitch opened up the topic and the two other girls also joined the conversation. Viper surprised me that she joined the convo. My first impression of her was she is someone hard to engage in a certain conversation because of her aura. It came out that she is not hard to talk with but I would say, she really have this sharp tongue. She speaks whatever in her mind without filtering her words.

"Girls, Kade is here. You are talking about his girl." Hytham butted in. He is done with his food and is holding a book already. What a nerd.

"Shut up twin. They are not even in a relationship." Mitch replied. Hytham just shrugged his shoulder off and returned his attention to the book he is reading.

I raised my left eyebrow when I heard Mitch saying that they are not in a relationship yet. I glanced at Nicolai who is busy eating his food. Then why did he let the girl kiss his cheeks in that case?

Asshole indeed. Nature of boys.

"Stop that kind of stare." He suddenly said.

I replied "whatever" and returned my attention to the girls.

"Agreed on Mitch. And I am sure that he does not have any feelings to that bitch." Viper added to Mitch's response.

"Watch your words Vipes. Try to filter it." Nicolai said having his side comment in our conversation.

"You know me well Kade. I do not fvcking filter my words especially towards that bitch." She replied.

I don't know but I can feel that there's something happened between these girls and that Margaux.

The conversation goes on while we are having our lunch. From that girl Margaux, we shifted our topic to the life we had outside the island. This time, the boys are already attentive to the topic we have.

I asked them if they had the chance to see what we have outside the island, outside the barrier. Only Nicolai had the chance and he said, he was a kid that time and he does not remember everything happened that time.

I talked about the life we have in Manila. Everything. I told them both the positive and negative side of residing there. One of the positive side is having a freedom. Unlike the island, Manila and other places in the country are not concealed. You can go wherever you want and you can do whatever you want as long as you are abiding the law. I described the life we have back there. It actually have a similarities on the way we live here, the privileges, popularities and the likes but the difference is, I know nothing about the island. The island is a stranger to me so am I to the island. I also took the oppurtunity to ask them that if they could tell me something about Arcillana next time.

I also told them the negative side of living there for instance poverty. There's a lot of people who suffers from poverty and from hunger. They don't have enough money to supply the needs of their family because they don't have job and no source of income. There's a lot of squatted areas. I only saw not even one fourth of the island but I can say that people in here do not suffer from extreme poverty like what people suffered outside the perimeter. I included pollutions, all kinds of pollutions that destroys not just the environment but as well as the lives of people living there. Unlike here in the island, you will never see any single plastic wrapper scattered anywhere. The care they showed to the nature is genuine and not just for having a job or they are obliged by the law to protect the nature. And lastly, I talked about corruption. That is the one thing that will never be eliminated whether we change the administration in the next election or not.

The life of people outside the barrier and the life of people here in Arcillana are far different from each other. In here, you have every privileges the governing body of Arcillana could offer. Meanwhile, outside the barrier, there are also privileges but limited and most are subject for corruption. It goes to the pocket of people in authority who are greedy for money and who thinks of themselves only.

I also told them of foreign people who goes out and in of the country. How does it feels to visit another country for a vacation which I know for sure they would not experience since they are not allowed to go out of the island. Well according to them, unless you have a mission or permitted by the council. I shrugged the thoughts I have about the mission I heard. Upon hearing that one word, I already formulated much ideas in my head but I know this is not the right time for me to ask about it.

I also shared the feeling of attending a concert of different local and international artists, local and international boy group and girl group especially idols from Korea. They could not relate but they just listen attentively.

The conversation about it did not last that long because we heard the buzzer rang all over the cafeteria or maybe the whole building so we fixed ourselves to go back in our first subject in the afternoon. One hour is not enough for me to share everything to them. Maybe we can have it next time with a longer time.

For the next class, we have a new instructor and she requested me to introduce myself so I walked and went to the center and introduced myself with a chin up, looking proud that I am Camelle Arabella Montidalgo.

“Can you share more about yourself Miss Montidalgo? Like your hobbies, favorites and the likes.” The instructor named Liezel Llana asked me. I think she’s just in her mid twenties because she looks very young. She looked like just a fresh graduate. She is nice and very accomodating. I love her eyes in its green color. It is quite different from majority. I also love her smile. Seeing her smile will make you smile as well.

“Sure Miss.” I said. I breathe in and breathe out before I started to open my mouth. “We are four and I am the second born Montidalgo. Our eldest, Vonn Andrew is an artist that works in showbiz industry outside the island. Next to me are the twins namely Prince Dark and Princess Light. I have no particular favorites but one thing that you would know about me is, I am fond of expensive brands for clothing, bags, footwears and etcera. I am a good person, a good friend but I can be your worst enemy when you choose to cross with my path. That would be all, thank you.” I added. I looked at my instructor and smiled at her. She is also smiling and she nods at me.

“Thank you Miss Montidalgo. You may now be seated. I hope that everyone would adjust for the new student of University of Arcillana High School Department.” The instructor said. She also begin the discussion of the lesson.

The subject is all about personal development of a student. In here, we would able to develop ourselves into someone that we could be proud of. Personal development could give us more confidence to ourselves that I think most of us lacks. There are people who excelled in a certain field like painting, drawing, acting, singing, dancing, and sports but choose not to show it to other people because they do not have the courage to do so. They are not confident enough to show the world what they are capable of doing.

“Okay class, open your laptop and answer the question flashed on the board in an essay form. Strictly not less than six hundred words and not more than one thousand words. Send it to my server after the allotted time.” She said instructing us what to do.

I opened the laptop and enter my password. Nicolai helped me on this earlier.

I looked at the board and read what is the question we need to answer.

“Why is personal development important?”

I closed my eyes and think of the reason why must a person should develop themselves. Aside from boosting one’s confidence, in deeper manner, personal development is important to a person because it is also one of the ways to assess your skills and know what you are capable of doing. It is a life long process however, it has a big impact on how do we become a better person along with reaching our goals in life. Developing ourselves is a stepping stone of becoming a successful person.

After fifteen minutes I reviewed first what was I written for editing and revision. I have read it twice to make sure that everything is good. I tapped Nicolai to ask for helped how can I pass it to the server of our instructor. Good thing he is also done with it so I have not disturb him.

“Thank you.” I said after he helped me.

One last subject is next after this Personal Development. The time goes one hour and a half per subject and according to Nicolai, we only need three hours of completion per subject in a week so it became a skeletal schedule.

The next instructor didn’t require or requested me to introduce myself since I have here a name written under the school logo. She will simply looked at it if she have to call my name and still could not remember me.

“I will also add you to our chat group Cam.” Mitch mentioned. We are now walking down to the ground floor because classes are already ended. While we are walking, they asked for my number and SoLife account. They followed me and I also do the same. The number of their followers didn’t half the number of my followers in i********: and f*******: probably because people of Arcillana only uses this application that is why there are only few users found.

“Bye. See you tomorrow.” I said while waving my right hand mid air.

I was about enter the car who are waiting for me when I heard my surname called by someone.

I turned around to see who called me and it is no other than the council president.

“Let’s start the tutorial tomorrow after classes.” He said. I nodded as a response of agreeing to his suggestion.

“Where are we going to do that?” I asked.

“Your place or my place?” He answered me of another question. But that is good, he provided options.

“My place.” I replied. He said “okay” and turned his back on me before walking away so I already entered the car.

I heaved a deep sigh when I got inside. I closed my eyes while we are travelling fetching the twins. Maybe because of fatigue, I did not know that I already fell asleep in the car.