The Batch Alumni I Never Attended
324 Words
For the past four years, Aliyah Santos had mastered one simple skill.
Ignoring alumni invitations.
Every December, the Batch 2016 group chat would suddenly come alive. Someone would type:
“Batch alumni this year! Who’s coming?”
Then photos would appear. People laughing. People posing with their old classmates. People acting like they had never stopped talking after elementary.
Aliyah would simply mute the chat. Problem solved.
Because honestly? She never understood batch alumni gatherings.
Why would anyone want to return to a place filled with childhood memories and people they hadn’t spoken to in years?
But this year… she made the mistake of opening the chat.
The first message she saw came from someone she didn’t expect.
Luke Alvarado: “Everyone better come this time. It won’t feel complete without the whole batch.”
Aliyah frowned slightly. Luke Alvarado. Her classmate since Grade 1.
The boy who loved to annoy her. The boy who made her elementary years… exhausting.
She hadn’t seen him since elementary graduation. Not once. And to be honest… she never really thought about him again.
Her best friend, Mara, noticed the way Aliyah was staring at her phone.
“You’re thinking about going, aren’t you?” Mara asked knowingly.
Aliyah shook her head. “No.”
“You totally are.”
“I’m not,” Aliyah replied quickly.
Mara leaned closer, eyebrow raised. “Then why are you still reading the chat?”
Aliyah sighed, staring at the screen again. “Because… I’ve never attended even once.”
Mara’s eyes lit up. “So?”
“So maybe I should just go. Just this one time,” Aliyah admitted softly.
Mara gasped dramatically. “Wait. Aliyah Santos is finally attending a batch alumni?”
“Don’t make it sound like a historical event,” Aliyah muttered.
“It is,” Mara said with a grin.
Aliyah rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll go. But only this year.”
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- Writer
