Heiress (Hanazono Series #2)

Heiress 25: Last Day of Exams

Jace's POV

Yesterday's exams were hard. I needed to focus on the lessons because this assignment unintentionally made me study for our family's business. I reported to the Commissioner General about the events that happened to the heiresses.

"Damn!" Lavalee, Irene and Jess cussed in chorus and sat on the couch

"Language." Chelsea reprimanded them and I heard them chuckle

"Mianhe, Mama Chelsea." Irene and Jess teased her

I didn't really expect them to be this close because not being judgmental but I thought of them as a group of girls who talk more about love life, riches, and such. I didn't really expect them to be free spirited in front of each other because I thought they'd be faking each other. But they proved me wrong once again.

"Pwede magtanong?" Elijah asked them

We've been with the heiresses for three months so I had to get used with the first name basis. The girls didn't like us to call them miss, or their last names, and it's awkward to call each other in our title and position in front of the girls who are actually calling us on our first names.

"Nagtatanong ka na, bro." Irene said which made them chuckle

"Anong ibig sabihin ng Uma? Kasi diba yung apa in english ice cream cone?" he asked a little confused

"No, Eomma means Mom. Appa means Dad. It's korean." Lavalee said and I suddenly remembered something with those two words

"I miss Eomma and Appa."

"You can go to them."

"If I do that, it'll wreck my sisters and brothers more."

"Losing our parents are too much damage to be handled by my siblings, especially by my sister, Freia. If I choose to be selfish and go to Eomma and Appa, who would keep them stable?"

She was referring to them. I looked at Lavalee who's smiling and laughing with her friends and my comrades as they translate the words that misleads the guys.

I didn't notice that I blurted out what I was thinking while looking at Lavalee and that took the attention of the people with us.

"Ano?" Irene asked but I looked at Lavalee

"You're referring to your parents." I said and she smiled before nodding

"Ne, I was referring to them." she said

"Ne? Eh lalaki naman si Jace ah? Hindi siya nene." Caspian asked and they laughed

"It's korean for yes." Jess explained

"Let's go, let's review." Chelsea said and we stood up

We went to the room that looks like a meeting room again.

"So, we're studying Japanese." Chelsea said and opened the PC and the screen.

"And the best teacher should be the one born speaking it." Jess said teasingly

"Not me. I grew up in New Yastrid." Irene said and Lavalee stood up so I looked at her

"What? I'm the only one who's born in Japatrein." She said and different signs began appearing on the screen

"Parang anime." Elijah said while looking at the figures.

"Anime originated in Japan. So let's start with the basics." She said and stood up on her chair.

"Hey! Be careful." I said and held her waist when she almost fell.

She continued to reach for the ceiling and a little later she reached something that looks like a rope and pulled it down. It revealed a whiteboard.

"Thank you." She told me before clearing her throat and began writing different signs on the board.

"This are Katakana characters. The Japanese characters consists of two types of characters, the syllabic kana which are hiragana and katakana and the adopted Chinese characters which is called kanji." She said and began saying different terms like handakuten and dakuten.

"So for the basic greetings, Kon'nichiwa is Japanese for Hello." She said and drew a table with three columns. Romanized, characters, and English.

She wrote Ohayo then three characters and the translation. She did those swiftly which made me wonder how did she learn our alphabet then?

"Ohayōgozaimasu, is for the formal Good Morning and Ohayo for the informal, Konbanwa is Good Evening and Oyasumi is Good Night." She said

"For simple conversations. Irene." She said and Irene stood up beside her

"Kon'nichiwa, genkidesuka?" she said and Irene raised her brow at her

"Anata wa shinken ni watashi ni sore o motomete imasu ka?" Irene asked

"Just play along." Lavalee said and Irene nodded

"Okay, again, guys please take note of how we pronounce the words." Lavalee said and cleared her throat.

"Kon'nichiwa, genkidesuka?" Lavalee asked again

"Daijōbudesu. Anata wa dō?" Irene replied

"Watashi mo genkidesu." Lavalee replied and faced us after Irene took her seat again

"That is just a simple conversation. Nagkukumustahan lang kayo, like when you meet somebody you haven't seen for a while, diba you'd say, Oi, Kumusta ka na? And somethings like that." Lavalee elaborated.

It's amusing how she doesn't slang her Filipino words when in fact she's been speaking three languages simultaneously.

"I think the exam would be written so you do have to memorize the katakana characters." She said and erased the whiteboard, she began writing all the characters by row.

"I don't know how to make mnemonic notations on these characters though." She said and sat down while we're reviewing the characters.

Suddenly, the screen turned black and the lights went off. A young girl's face flashed on the screen, her eye color took our attention. It's gold.

"Ohayō, ane furamerin." She said and smiled but her forehead knotted when she saw us,

"E~tsu? Naze kaigijitsu ni mo dansei ga iru nodesu ka?" she said and looked at Lavalee

"Ohayo, Freia." The girls greeted

"Anata wa odoroki, chīsana kōgō ni watashitachi o tsurete ikimashita, watashitachi wa anata no denwa o kitai shite imasendeshita." Lavalee chuckled while saying that

"Ā? Gomen'nasai." The little girl said and a girl with a pair of gray eyes appeared

"Ohayo, Hime Icey." Lavalee greeted her

"Dōyō ni." The girl replied and bowed a little

"We should continue reviewing, Icey, Freia, we still have an exam this afternoon." Lavalee said

"Demo...... onēsan." The one with the gold eyes said

"Tariru. Kanojo wa isogashī." The gray eyed girl said and the screen turned off

"Freia missed you too much eh?" Irene told Lavalee.

"Let's just get back to reviewing." She said and started reviewing us again. She then reviewed us with Music and Arts and Statistics.

*RIIIIIING *RIIING

"Oh look at the time. We should get ready." Jess said and Lavalee turned off the alarm

We went out of the room and went to our designated rooms. I took a bath and changed into an orange shirt and black pants, I chose to wear my black and orange rubber shoes and combed my hair before taking my bag and car keys.

Pagkalabas ko halos kumpleto na kami, sina Chelsea at Lavalee nalang ang natira.

"Young ladies, sirs, pinag-utos po ni Young Lady Lavalee na ibigay sa inyo." Sabi nung parang mayordoma at binigyan kami ng bottled water at pain killer patches.

Para siguro sa Self Defense Exam namin mamaya.

"Thank you, manang." Jess said and the maids went back to the kitchen and their duties. Chelsea went downstairs and she was looking at me like she saw something weird.

"Sorry we're late." Lavalee said as she rush down the stairs.

She looked at me from head to toe so I did the same to her.

"Nag-usap kayo, Jace?" Ethan asked while looking at me and Lavalee

"No." we answered

We went to the garage and rode our respective cars, I drove to the Academy and good thing it's not raining anymore. She walked ahead so I held her wrist.

"You won't wait for them?" I asked her and she shook her head

"Nope. Magkikita rin naman tayo sa room, right?" she said and we walked ahead.

Most of the students are looking at us, I think Lavalee wants to be a model because she's walking like she's in a runway with her head held high.

"Sila ba?"

"Terno sila ng suot."

"Bagay sila."

"Siya yung astig diba?"

"Shet! Yan yung laging kaunahang matapos."

"Pabida."

"Weak."

"Sus Ganda lang ang meron yan."

We continued to walk until we stopped by our classroom. We're actually almost late, that's why there are many students because our exam starts at 11:35 and it's already 11:30. I sat on the designated chair and then I saw Elijah, Caspian, Ethan and the girls came in.

When we started the exam, I focused on answering the exam and Lavalee's right, it asked us to write both roman and character. Good thing I memorized some of the katakana characters.

After 20 minutes, I raised my head and I saw Lavalee standing up. I still have 20 questions to answer so I returned my gaze on the paper and continued answering. After a while, I finished answering and stood up, I saw that the girls are no longer here so I went to the teacher.

"Anata no kotae wa tashikadesu ka?" he asked so my forehead knotted but I remembered what Lavalee told us earlier.

"Hai." I replied.

Lavalee told us that same question earlier and she said we must answer it with hai, because the proctor is asking if we're sure of our answers.

"Anata ga iku kamo shiremasen." He said so I went out of the classroom and I saw my comrades looking so I saluted and I saw them saluting back before I left the room.

I saw the girls on the hallway.

"Madaya talaga eh. Lavalee should've taken another exam." Sabi ni Irene na tinawanan lang ni Lavalee

"I agree." Sabi ni Jess kaya tinawanan sila lalo ni Lavalee

"Anong gusto niyong i-exam ko? Alien language?" tanong Ni Lavalee at ngumisi nang makita ako

"You all know na marunong si Lavalee ng atleast 7 alphabets." Sabi ni Chelsea kaya napatingin ako kay Lav

"I don't remember that I know at least 7 alphabets." Kontra naman ni Lavalee

"Japanese, Phonetics, Greek, Russian, Thai, Korean, Chinese, what else huh?" panghahamon ni Irene

"Whatever." Sabi ni Lavalee.

Maya-maya lumabas narin yung iba kaya pumunta na kami sa room. After all the written exams we went to the Gym II for our self defense exam.

Chelsea's POV

We're already here in GYM II for our Self Defense examination. Lavalee's just blankly staring at the round mats on the center, there are three mats, meaning we are going to be sparring with 

our classmate which made everyone thrilled.

"So this would be your arrangement." Our professor in Self Defense said and started announcing the names.

 We heaved in relief when we found out that we won't be facing Lavalee. And the guys but we're more thankful that we're not facing Lavalee. Though, we're pitying the guy that Lavalee is facing. Yep she's going to face a guy which made the guys react.

"Is there any problem, Mr. Scott, Mr. Gonzales, Mr. Luar and Mr. Sandoval?" The professor asked mentioning their real names which made them silent.

"Bakit po may mga lalaki at babeng magkapartner?" Caspian asked boldly

"Ah, that's because in a fight no one will consider if you're a girl or guy, am I right?" he said and looked around.

The professor went to the center and called the first three pairs. Boys. They were talking at first then they began throwing punches to each other, the other guy seemed too confident and cocky while the other one seems irritated. The difference with these matches is that there's a timer, 20 minutes for each and if both are still standing when the time runs out, it's a draw and they'll have the same grade while if one of them is down the one who remains standing is the winner and if they're both down, they fail. That's how harsh this exam is.

I saw Irene shake her head when she saw the irritated guy threw punches to the cocky guy which the latter evades easily. He already forgot the rules in a fight.

RULE #1: Never let your emotions takeover.

That's a very important rule because once you make decision with your unstable emotions, everything will be a fail and you would end up dead. Emotions are dangerous, they can be your ally and your enemy at the same time.

I looked at the other pair. One of them seems agile while the other one is good with using his force. They seemed really contradicting because the swift guy's attacks are too soft while the strong guy is too slow. They both only have 10 minutes left.The cocky guy earlier has the upper hand because the irritated guy made hasty decisions and is already down on the mat with a cut on his brow a swollen eyes, bruised on the cheek and jaw and bleeding nose. There's 50 of us so I'm guessing that we would have over time to finish all 25 matches. 20 minutes for every three pair would mean 9 matches an hour, and 18 for the two hours. An overtime for 7 more matches would equivalent to 40 minutes to an hour. I'm guessing that based on the equivalent time needed to finish all the matches we would be able to go home by 7PM, 19:00 to military time.

When the timer rang the three pairs went off the mats and the professor called another three pairs and two of those are Ethan and Elijah. They're both facing an opponent with a bulky figure.

"Do you think they'll win?" Irene asked us she's seated a step lower than where Lavalee and I are sitting on and beside her is Jess.

"Why did you ask?" I asked her

"Those guys." Lavalee whispered amidst the shout and cheers.

"What?" I asked her

"They're Mafia members." She said and our eyes widened not because of what she said but because of what's happening. The guys are being beaten.

"They're drugged." Lavalee said while looking at the guys.

"How do we fix this then?" Irene asked without looking at Lavalee

"Inject the same to the two." Lavalee said and pointed her pen to Elijah and Ethan's direction. When she pressed the tip we saw something came out.

"Don't tell me – Yes." Lavalee cut us off and a little later Ethan and Elijah were able to fight back.

"But that was dangerous." Jess said

"Not with the accuracy, perfect timing and prediction of the opponent's next move." she said and smiled mischievously

Oh well. After the timer run out, all of them we're draw. When the guys went to sit, Irene and I immediately came to tend their wounds.

"Ba't di ka lumaban?" Irene asked and hit Elijah's arm

"Ire, you're hurting him more." I told her

"He's numb, Chels." She said because Elijah really is numb currently because of the d**g.

"Pasensya na. Ang lakas kasi masyado nung kalaban eh." Elijah excused and I raised my brow at Irene because she know that Elijah is telling the truth. The d**g gives incredible strength, stamina, agility, flexibility and makes the user numb.

"Sa susunod mag training ka." Irene said and I smiled when she began treating Elijah's wound. I returned my gaze to Ethan who's staring at me.

"Wag ka na kaya lumaban." He told me

"What? I can't do that. I have to fight." I told him and took out a cotton ball from my purse and a small bottle of alcohol and began disinfecting his wound. 

Lavalee texted me last night to prepare this so technically, Lavalee and I are well equipped to do first aid.

"Baka masaktan ka." He said

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." I said

"Dapat yung kalaban ni Tal ang sabihan mo niyan." Irene said and tapped Ethan's shoulder's before helping Elijah go back to the seat near us.

"Kita? Kahit si Irene may tiwala sakin. Trust me on this, Ethan." I told him

"Baka masaktan ka." He said and I smiled.

"Edi masaktan. Gagamutin mo rin naman ako, right?" I told him and smiled

"Ewan ka sa'yo." He said and smiled before ruffling my hair. I fixed my eyeglasses before going back to our seats.

"That's so sweet." Lavalee commented while looking at me and Irene

"Don't start it, Lav." Irene brushed off so Lavalee raised her brow at me

"It's nothing." I said but Jess and Lavalee are still looking at me intently

"What?" I asked and they shook their head

"Just protect your heart, Chelsea." Lavalee said and returned her gaze on the matches in front.

"I will, Lav." I said and she placed her arms over my shoulder so I leaned on her

Lavalee's always like this to us, sweet and caring. If you don't know that Lavalee belonged to the dark side of the world, she'd be the kindest and most loving person you'll meet. She's just too sweet but she's deeply scarred. They can't see that because of her façade but I've seen things deeper. Lavalee's scarred, she don't want to bother anyone even if she's hurting, that's how selfless she is.

"What are you thinking about?" Lavalee asked me and removed her arms

"Your scars." I said and she sighed

"Let's go, we should go get changed." Lavalee said and brought her duffel bag. We went to the Locker room and placed our bags inside our lockers and then changed into more comfortable clothes. We smirked at each other when we saw our get up.

"Hindi naman tayo nag-usap ah?" Irene joked which made us chuckle.

We're all wearing a black sando, cotton jeans and sandals. Lavalee's sando has a small fire embroidery on the upper right side of her chest.

"Let me tie your hair." Jess said and Lavalee sat on the bench. I saw how Jess stilled when she lifted Lavalee's hair.

"It's fine." Lavalee said and looked back

"Are these... A-are these f-from t-the Punishment?" Jess asked, Irene seemed stoned to the spot.

"Yeah. 30 lashes." She said like it's nothing

"30?!" Jess and Irene exclaimed.

"It's fine." Lavalee said and stood up. She tied her hair up herself and I gave her hair tie.

"I'm fine. I promise, I'm going to tell you when I can't take it anymore." She said and smiled at us reassuringly

Suddenly we heard the door opened and a group of girls entered too.

"We'll see kung hanggang saan ang itatagal ni Kan." One of the women said

"Baka naman hanggang talino lang yung Valerie na yun." Another one said and we looked at each other

"You know bad mouthing others is bad." I said taking their attention

"Andito pala sila eh." The one in the middle said

"We're not engaging in fights." Lavalee said, it seemed like she told the girls but she's actually warning Jess and Irene

"Why not?" Jess asked with her balled fist

"Just no." Lavalee said seriously and the two halted

"Let's go." Lavalee said and we walked pass the group of women but they held Lavalee's shoulder

"Oh bakit ganito? Ang dami mo namang peklat. Weakling." The woman taunted

"Oh sorry. I forgot that I still have the scars from the 30 whiplashes." She said and turned her back harshly leaving the girls dumbfounded

We went back to our seat and looked ahead.

"You were serious with those 30 counts?" Irene asked Lavalee and the latter nodded

"Yes, 30 whiplashes, 3 hours of endless battles, 30 minutes of contact with allies, 3 possible times to contact people. 3 hours of endless paper works, 300 quizzes in 3 hours." She said and we glanced at each other like we can't believe what we're hearing.

How inhumane could those councils be?

"But why?" I asked her and she smiled at me

"I talked back, I talked back to Frost, I defied one of the councilors because of an order against my will, I got involved with them and I helped him solve a case." She enumerated before smiling widely again and looking forward again.

"Go, Uzmundo. Han, Verzosa. Jang, Sierra." The professor called us so we stood up I gave my glasses to Lavalee and she hanged it on her neckline before we walk down.

"Win." We told each other in sync we looked at Lavalee and she mouthed the same.

"Let's get this over with." Irene said and stepped on her mat.I stepped on mine and faced my opponent. A girl, her built is firm so I knew she's working out very hard.

"Weakling. Umalis ka na dito." She said but I raised my brow at her. When the professor told us to begin, she threw a punch at me which I dodged easily, I continued dodging her attacks. She landed a few hits on my waist because I got too engrossed with looking for an opening and a little later I saw an opening so I positioned my hand to punch her but when it was about to hit her I kicked her waist and then gave her a round house kick. She tried to kick me but I held her foot and twisted it roughly.

She continued to fight while I continue to manipulate her, I kicked her knees hard which made her lose her balance then I immediately stepped on her stomach with my full weight on my feet. I removed it and turned my back on her giving her a false hint of breaking the second rule. When she stood up I held her arm and twisted it then checked her using my arms.

"I am Talia Go, little girl. I am the Death Chess Champion." I whispered and let her go then kicked her in her stomach and when she was kneeling out of all the injuries, I kicked her in the face and pressed her critical points causing her to lose consciousness.

The timer rang the moment her body made contact with the ground.

"Win?" I asked the two

"Duh." Jess raised her brow at me while Irene smiled

"Win." Irene said and we went back to our seats and Lavalee sat beside us.

"Congratulations." She told us and gave me a cold pouch which I placed on the parts that got hit earlier while Lavalee tended Irene's hand. Jess is the only one who doesn't have any injury because I think she used the first rule. She manipulated her opponent's emotions.

Lavalee smiled wickedly at us when we saw Jace got called. I learned that Caspian fought earlier while we're in the locker room.