Allison
As I calmly faced the dark cloud-covered morning sky, raindrops continued to fall from it. A smile immediately forms on my face as I hear the sound of the rain pitter-pattering on the rooftops, feeling the cold breeze against my skin. Soon, that tranquil moment vanished as soon as my sister opened the door behind me to reveal her irritated self. "I can't find my umbrella!" I turned to face her, lifting the umbrella I was holding. "Let's just share mine. We'll be late if we look for it now. You know how things don't appear when you look for them." It's weird how some objects don't appear no matter how much you look for them but somehow they do whenever you're not looking. "What do you mean late? It's still five-twenty in the morning, class doesn't even start until six." Of course, I know that. I just don't like being late—I'm what you call an early bird. "Seriously, you wake up around three-thirty in the morning but sleep at what, around midnight? How can you go to school every day with only a few hours of sleep?" My sister Avianna raises her brows while crossing her arms. Well, it became a habit, I guess. I mean, old habits die hard, right? I just offered her to share an umbrella with me and then suddenly, I got a nag from my younger sister so early in the morning. Don't worry, I'm not going to get mad at her because I know why she's being moody like this. She's not a morning person.
"I'll go look for your umbrella when we get home later. You know how good I am at finding things." I smiled at her. She stared at me and pouted, "Okay. Gosh, you're not even gonna argue? You're too nice, man." She puffed and suddenly started walking ahead. "Hey! Wait for me." I opened the umbrella and walked beside my sister as we walked to school. When we arrived at the classroom, my sister went inside while I stayed outside to leave my umbrella in the hallway along with the other umbrellas owned by my classmates. I went inside soon after, greeting my classmates who were already there. After placing my bag on my seat, I began to look around the room. 'He's not here yet, is he?' I quietly searched the room to look for a certain someone until Avianna stopped and stood beside me—surprising me with her sudden appearance. "What are you doing?" She asked, facing me with a suspicious look on here face as she placed a hand on her hip. "N-Nothing… Just checking who's already here because you know, I'm the classroom secretary?" I gave a nervous laugh. "Okay… Anyways, Juvia and Ken are not here but their bags are on their seats." She points at the two seats just beside ours. "They're probably at the cafeteria buying food to eat here," I replied. "What?! They should've waited for me!" She slammed a hand on the desk and suddenly turned, about to run towards the door when I grabbed her wrist and stopped her. "Hey, tell me you're not buying that, are you?" I raised a brow and she stayed silent. "I know you, Avi. You don't have an appetite for breakfast so there's only one thing you'll buy at the cafeteria." I let go of her and she faces me. "Come on, you know it's my favorite. Just one." She raises a finger. There's one thing I know about my sister, she's stubborn. So no matter what I do, she'll never listen. "Fine. It's not like you'll listen to me anyway." I sighed. "Don't say that. You know I only have a soft spot for you so it's only fair." She smiled and then left the classroom.
I sighed and when I was about to take my seat, a tall wavy dark-haired walked through the classroom door, waving his hand as soon as he spotted me. "Allison! Good morning!" 'There he is!' Earlier, I'm sure even Avianna noticed, that it seemed like I was looking for someone. Well, I'm not exactly just looking for them, I was actually hoping to avoid them. And that person I wanted to avoid was our school's most famous student, a student known for his athletic skills, and good looks—Nathaniel Vergara. Why am I avoiding him, you ask? Well, it all started two weeks ago, just before the start of the new school year.
"Two weeks ago."
"May 27, Monday."
I raised my right hand at the level of my face and knocked four times on the door in front of me. It didn't take much for someone to open and peek behind the door. "Allison! Hello, are you here for Cisum?" A woman with dark brown hair tied in a bun opened the door wider as soon as she saw me. "Good afternoon, Tita! Yes, I'm here for Cisum. She knows I'm coming over." I nodded with a smile.
(Author's Note: Tita means Aunt in Tagalog.)
"Come on in, she's in her room right now." I walked inside and took off my shoes before I followed Cisum's mom further inside their house. "Have you eaten already?" she asked, heading to the kitchen sink—judging from the amount of dishes on it, she was probably about to wash them. "Thank you for asking, but I already ate," I nodded. "Oh, I saw a truck parked outside the building," I mentioned. Cisum's mom immediately replied, "Ah, there's a new tenant moving upstairs. Seems like they're still not finished moving their stuff."
"Ohh, a new neighbor," I mumbled. After that, I approached my best friend's room and knocked four times. "Alli! You should've told me you were already here. I could've greeted you by the door." I was immediately greeted by my best friend, whose hair was a bit messy, and who was still wearing her pajamas. "Not wearing that, of course. Why are you still in your pajamas?" I chuckled and ended up whispering the latter. "I woke up late today," she whispered. I walked inside and immediately sat on her messy bed. "Sorry about the mess, I just somehow woke up later than usual today," she apologized as she tried to tidy up her room while I just sat and waited for her to finish. "You're enjoying the last few days of summer vacation too much, I see," I chuckled. "We'll be back to school in a few days so it's better to make the most of it," she replied. Well, she's not wrong, though.
"I've already opened my laptop before you arrived, so all I need to do is go to the school page. You ready?" She sat down in her chair and scrolled through her laptop that was on her study table. I got off her bed and stood beside her. "Not really," I said in a monotone before sighing. "Same here," she chuckled. Then, she dragged the mouse and clicked on a post from our school's social media page. After clicking on a photo, we both stared at a list of classes and their students. My eyes skimmed through a lot of names until I stopped, then skimmed again, and stopped again. I stood straight and faced Cisum with a wide smile. "We're classmates! Finally! After four years!" She jumped from her seat, and both our hands clasped together as we jumped up and down. After a while, we stopped the jumping and squealing to catch our breath from the excitement.
"I also saw Avianna's name," I stated, sitting on her bed once again. "It wouldn't be surprising since you two have been classmates forever. I don't know if it's because you two are sisters or because you two are both smart." She sat on her chair again and faced her laptop to look back at the list. "What I'm surprised about is that everyone doesn't even question why we're both smart. I definitely thought there'd be rumors about why we both have high grades, like you know, cheating?" I crossed my arms and raised a brow. "Nah, there's no way that'll happen. It's pretty obvious why," she commented, shaking her head. She's right, if you're a classmate of ours—or even a student from our school—the thought of it would never cross your mind because you'll see how different we both are despite being sisters. "You're right, it's obvious. Avi is a competitive person so she always has high scores and amazing grades. I may not be as active as her but I like studying so I also get high grades." I stood up and leaned to look at her laptop again. "Avi's super competitive, isn't she?" she chuckled as she faced me. I sighed, "I sometimes forget who's the older one."
"Huh, I don't know a lot of people on this list." I noticed how most of the names in our new class were people I haven't been classmates with yet. This could only mean one thing, meeting a lot of new people—meaning, a challenge for an introvert like me. "I know most of the people here, they've been classmates of mine before," Cisum said as she pointed at the names familiar to her. Then suddenly, I saw a certain name on the list that piqued my curiosity, Cisum seemed to notice my sudden silence and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nathaniel Vergara. Isn't he that famous guy who transferred to our school?" I asked, my eyes still glued to that name. "Yeah, ever since he transferred last year, everyone at school kept talking about him. And, he's an athlete so that's also a reason," Cisum nodded, also looking at the name I was staring at. "He was in your class, right? What was he like?" I asked, finally leaving the screen to face my best friend. "Hm, he's a nice person. He gets along with everyone so a lot of people surround him all of the time," she replied, crossing her arms as she leaned back—reminiscing. That means it will never be a quiet day with him as a classmate.
Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrating and I immediately grabbed it to check what it was about. I let out a deep sigh, which caught Cisum's attention. "You need to go?" She faced me and asked with a worried look on her face. She knew me too well; with just a single deep sigh like that, she already knew what was going on. "Sorry, I… need to go," I faced the ground and nodded. I immediately left Cisum's house and continued to run down the stairs to leave the apartment building. I suddenly became so restless that I could only run and try not to think of anything else. Even before I started running, my heart was already beating fast.
After running past a few houses, I stopped to catch my breath. As I bent to touch my knees, thoughts suddenly flowed through my head—my eyes shut tight. Only when I opened them did I notice the tears falling down. I immediately wiped them off and then held my head. 'Calm down, just breathe…' I tried telling myself. Suddenly, a bark was heard behind me and of course, I turned around in response. A medium-sized dog with a lustrous coat of gold was standing behind me—more like staring at me—as it wagged its tail. I stared at it and blinked a few times before I realized and tilted my head to the side. 'Dog?…. A golden retriever?!?' I gasped. I kneeled and slowly raised my hand. The dog moved closer and sniffed my hand before it licked my cheeks. "You're friendly, huh? Well, it makes sense." I couldn't help but let out a chuckle. I patted its head and glanced at the collar to see the name tag with the name 'Leo'. "Your name is Leo, huh? It fits you." Leo barked and kept sniffing me again.
I felt water dropping on my face, except it wasn't my tears this time. I faced the dark and cloudy sky as the rain started to pour. I immediately grabbed the leash attached to Leo's collar and tried to take him to Cisum's apartment building. I can only bring him to the entrance since I was planning on looking for his owner and we are only here to cover from the sudden rain. I kneeled to look at Leo's collar again, specifically his tag. I flipped it and saw an address at the back. 'Yes, an address!' I faced Leo and ruffled his hair, "Don't worry, I'll help you find your owner. I promise." Leo barked and wagged his tail. "You seem excited to go back to your house, huh?" A pained smile escaped my mouth as I clenched my free hand—the one that was not ruffling Leo's fur, of course. "How nice, I wish I'm like you. I'm not at all excited to go to mine." I gritted my teeth. Before tears could fall from my eyes again, Leo stepped closer to lick my cheeks, which made me feel a bit better—only a bit.
After a while, the sky was still cloudy but the rain gradually stopped. "It's not raining anymore. We can finally go look for your owner." I started walking to see if Leo would follow me, thank goodness he did. We left the building and began to head to the address on his name tag. Luckily, even though I'm not from this neighborhood, I still know my way around since most of my classmates live here—of course, that includes my best friend Cisum. After a few distance from the apartment building, I heard footsteps from behind, followed by a loud shout that took me by surprise. "LEO!" I flinched from the sudden noise while Leo got excited and ran towards that person. I turned around and gasped as I couldn't believe who was before me. A tall figure with a lean build, tanned skin, and short, slightly wavy dark hair approaches Leo. I could tell from afar that he was sweating and his hair was messy, meaning he was running just now. "Leo, thank goodness I found you. You got me worried." He kneeled and hugged Leo, I couldn't tell if he was about to tear up since he buried his face on Leo's golden fur—but judging from the tone of his voice, he was probably close.
'Should I just leave? It seems they're having a moment.' My body somehow hesitated whether to move or not, I didn't want to be rude. I decided to take a step but stopped when the face of Leo's owner suddenly lifted and faced me. When I saw him, my eyes widened—it was a familiar face.
"You're Nathaniel Vergara… right?" I unconsciously muttered, and when I realized what I had done, I immediately covered my mouth. "Yes, that's me. Nathan Vergara. And you're… Allison Valerio, right?" He stood straight and pointed at me when he mentioned my name. "Y-Yes, that's me." Looks like I'm not the only one who knows the other person. It makes sense for me to know him since he's a famous athlete at school, but… how does he know me? "Y-You know who I am? How?" I couldn't help but ask. "Ah, everyone knows who you are, well, maybe not everyone but a lot of the people in our grade. You're an honor student in class, everyone knows you're smart." He answered while scratching his head. Really? Everyone? Shouldn't that be Avi? I'm the quiet one, though.
"Are you the one who found Leo?" He suddenly changed the subject. "Oh, yeah. I found him around here, I was about to take him to that address on his name tag until it suddenly rained earlier." I nodded, looking at Leo—whose full attention was on his tall owner. "Thank you, for finding him and planning to bring him home. I really mean it, Leo is family so I don't know what I'd do if he really got lost." He stepped closer to me along with Leo, who was now staring at me. "I want to repay your kindness. If there's anything you want, just tell me and I'll do it." He rested a hand on his chest, his eyes beaming with a wide smile on his face. "E-Eh? W-Wait, you don't have to! I really just wanted to help him get back to his owner." I immediately shook my head rapidly as I waved my hands in front of me. "No, it's fine. I really insist." He nodded his head, still standing in front of me with Leo beside him. Leo suddenly barked, which caught our attention. "See? Even Leo thinks so." Nathan smiled, patting Leo's head. 'He understood him?! He can talk to animals?!' "N-No, really it's fine–" I stopped when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. 'That's right, I was supposed to go back!' I faced Nathan in front of me, "I'm sorry, I need to go." I lifted my phone and then started to run away.
When I got back at our house, I was able to use the rain as an excuse for being late. Fortunately, the scenario I thought would happen when I got back didn't happen at all, but still, that didn't stop this continuous unwanted feeling that I had been having since earlier. 'I wish it was already the first day of school.' My troubled mind ended up yearning for something mundane, which went on for days until it was finally that day. The first day of school, and my first day as a senior high school student. "Come on, let's hurry, or else we'll run out of good seats!" My sister Avianna kept pulling my right arm to 'help' me walk faster to our assigned classroom.
"Alright, alright, I'll walk faster." Our room was said to be located at the new building of our school, a building with only Grade 11 and 12 rooms just for us senior high school students. This is my first time in this building so it's not my fault if I ever get lost one day. "Over there!" Cisum, who was walking behind us, pointed at a classroom that was only a few more steps away from us. 'Room 102-D' That's our room. We stopped by the door to look at the list of students, to make sure this was the right room and that our names were on the list. As soon as we confirmed and were about to go inside, a familiar figure with wavy hair suddenly walked towards the classroom door from the inside. My body stopped, which caught both Avianna's and Cisum's attention. "Ate?" Avianna raises a brow, then faces in front—I could notice her wary look towards Nathan.
(Author's Note: Ate means sister in Tagalog.)
"Allison!" Nathan's eyes beamed as soon as he noticed me. 'I-I forgot! We're in the same class!!' I wanted to hit my face with my palm so badly, but couldn't since Avianna was clinging to my arm. "I was waiting for you! I found out we're in the same class." Nathan points at the list without averting his eyes. "Ahem." Avianna suddenly stepped forward, still holding my arm. "Ah, this is my sister, Avianna. And my best friend, Cisum." I introduced the two. "That's right, sorry about that. I must've surprised you all." He smiled sheepishly and scratched his nape. "Nice to meet you, Avianna." He faced Avianna and waved a hand. "Nice to see you again, Cisum. We're classmates again this year." He then turned to face Cisum soon after. "Oh yeah! About last week.." He faced me again and I already knew what he was about to tell me. I wanted to cover his mouth—even though it was impolite—until another tall student appeared and stopped Nathan.
"Nathan, what are you doing? You're blocking the entrance." Someone tall—only a few centimeters shorter than Nathan—with a lean build and ivory skin. His black hair was styled in a modern cut with a comma-shaped wave framing his forehead with sharp and well-defined facial features. He faces the three of us after patting Nathan's shoulder. "Ah, sorry." He stepped aside, smiling sheepishly at the raven-haired beside him. "By the way, I want to introduce you to the person who helped find Leo the other day." Nathan faces me as he nudges his friend with his elbow. "Gab, meet Allison. This is her sister Avianna, and her best friend Cisum." While Nathan introduced us one by one, somehow, his friend only kept staring at me. But why? "This is my friend who just transferred to our school and will be our classmate from now on, Gabriel Verano." The guy named Gabriel was still quiet but after a while, he slightly bowed to us. It's one tall and handsome guy after another.
"I look forward to being classmates with you all." Nathan gave us a wide smile, for Avianna and Cisum, it might mean nothing but to me, it means I have to deal with this overly popular student. It seems my last two years here in senior high school will be nothing but a quiet one.
End of Chapter.