Chapter 5

Adam...

I was left speechless as I saw Sanya and the others walking into the campus.

It's not surprising that they're here, what's puzzling is that they're accompanied by my classmate Lena, who seems to be one with them.

I don't know if my thoughts were wandering in confusion, so I was startled when Sanya snapped her fingers in front of me.

"Daydreaming?" she asked while in front of me. "Why are you blocking our way?"

She's mocking me again, so I looked at Lena. "Lena, why are you with them?"

"And why not?" I looked at Sanya, who raised an eyebrow at me. "Shouldn't you be the one to tell her who she should be with?"

She linked arms with Lena. "She is one of us now, what are you being so clueless about? Move aside!"

She pushed me aside, and her two friends followed suit, and I saw Lena glance at me before lowering her head.

After Lena and I finished presenting our plan, we sat on a single chair with a gap between us. Others were still presenting, but I didn't pay much attention to that.

"Why are you with them?" I asked her, and she looked at me.

"What's wrong with that?" she smiled. There is something wrong with that! Because if she gets close to them, it's not unlikely that she might become like them one day. "They're really cool!"

"Cool? What's cool about bullies?"

"They do it for a reason, just think of us as modern-day Gabriela's."

"Us? So you're really determined to join them?" She nodded, and I shook my head in disbelief.

"You don't know what you're getting into, Lena."

"It's Tora," I turned to her; they've only been together for a few hours and her name has already changed, and I know this is just the beginning. "And one more thing Az—"

"Az?"

"Az, short for Adam Zhymian. It sounds cool, and well, as you can see, even from my appearance, I'm probably smarter than you think. And don't even get me started about talking against your wife—oh, shit!" She looked around. She lowered her head and whispered. "Sorry, but yeah, you talk about her like you think she's a person born with horns."

She's really been brainwashed by them, so I let out a deep sigh.

Suddenly, a nerdy-looking guy entered the classroom and bowed to our professor, "Sorry, Sir, I'm a late enrollee." He showed something to the professor, and he just nodded. They talked a bit more, but I didn't listen.

"What's going on?!" I turned to Lena's who's shouting at the guy who just came. "Didn't you see that we were talking?"

"Miss Tora, what is it?" Sir asked.

"I didn't know!" the guy said. "Didn't you see I just came here? How the hell was I supposed to know that you guys were talking? This chair is vacant anyway."

"But you didn't even excuse yourself!" Lena was practically trembling. I knew it, she's becoming just like Sanya too.

"Well, I'm sorry, but you don't have to shout at me."

"The two of you! Mister Zedleer and Miss Tora, are you just going to shout at each other? You're not even showing me respect as your professor here," they both looked to the front as if they were startled.

Sir scolded them, but I didn't listen anymore; all I knew was that they were getting on each other's nerves throughout the whole period.

After class, Lena hurriedly left. I knew she was going to join Sanya.

"Hey!" I was surprised when the person beside me caught up with me. He extended his right hand towards me. "Andy Zedleer, but you can call me Lee," he introduced himself.

I smiled at him and shook his hand. "Adam Zhymian."

"Nice, we both have initials A and Z," I thought about that too earlier. We both headed to buy lunch and hung out in an empty area of the cafeteria. "You know, I don't have friends. I didn't enroll last semester because I didn't want to be with my old classmates. I didn't have anyone to talk to much. That's also why I enrolled late. I thought of myself as a loner geek. If my dad didn't threaten me, I probably wouldn't have even come to school. But it's good to know there's someone like me."

"Someone like what?" I looked at him. Was he implying that I'm a loner geek too?

"I know what you're thinking, but I realized that we're not just similar in initials. Like me, you're a loner. Earlier, it seemed like you had your own world and no one to talk to, and at first glance, you look like a weirdo in your outfit," he looked at what I was wearing. "I mean, I'm a nerd, you have this ghetto hip-hop style, with a baseball cap and loose clothes. We try to look cool, but we don't fit in."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning we're both out of place. Why do we have to force ourselves to fit in when we can still be ourselves? Let them think we're weird, right? Just don't give a fuck about it."

I laughed at what he said; we really seemed to get along. Plus, Sanya was wrong when she said I didn't have friends. I have one now, a nerd, but so what? Lena got into their group even though she's a nerd. Now, I have someone to talk to.

"What's your course?" he asked me.

"Multimedia Arts."

"I'm in IT," It's evident, I know that course is challenging, but seeing how intelligent Lee seems, I believe it's a piece of cake for him.

He looked up at the girls passing by in front of us. "Dude, wasn't one of those girls our classmate earlier?"

I followed his gaze, Sanya and her group again. "Yeah."

"Look, it's like each one of them represents a different personality. Our classmate is kind of a nerd, then there's the sporty one with the tan, and the other one looks like a musician, and then there's—"

"Snobbishness," I added as he was about to describe Sanya. "You should stay away from them."

His gaze returned to me. "Why? Weren't you just talking to the girl I had a confrontation with?"

"She's new to their group, don't you know them?" I shook my head. "They're the worst in terms of attitude, especially towards guys. I've been embarrassed by them several times."

"I saw the nerd at the library before while I was reading, so I probably didn't recognize the others because they weren't around. You know libraries are quiet places," I just nodded.

"Move," I looked up as Sanya spoke again. What's her problem now? I looked around and saw that there was no more space because others had also sat down, but we were here first, even before others started coming in for lunch.

"What did you say?" I asked her.

"Sanya said move! Are you deaf?" her friend Kyra retorted. "Move already."

I gave her a sharp look. This is not right, she's making us leave so that they can sit here. Why don't I report her? It's not that simple because if I do, our parents might be called and they might find out about our pretense, and that's the last thing I want. So, I let it slide, and she keeps taking advantage.

Many students here can't report this, even though we're in college. First, because one of the school's sponsors is the Merced family, and Kyralle Merced is a member of that family. Second, Sanya is an Evangelista, and it hasn't become public knowledge that they're facing financial difficulties because of our marriage. It's even been in the news that the Merceds helped them, which kind of extended to us. Maybe that's why Sanya still holds herself high. Third, Alexandria Cadriejo is a big shot, too. No matter how much trouble she gets into, she can always get away with it because she's a Cadriejo. And now, there's Selena Tora. Their family is famous in the world of Science; I know this because it's been reported that their family helped establish science museums in the country. Coming from a family of intellectuals, Lena probably hasn't experienced bullying like others have due to her family background. I don't know much about it, and I don't really care, especially now that she's part of Sanya's group.

"Why are we leaving when we were here first?" Lee suddenly spoke up as he noticed what was happening.

Uh oh, he's in trouble! I want to pull Lee back because he doesn't know what kind of mess he's getting into.

Sanya's group laughed. "Tora, since you're new to the group, deal with this one," Sanya said, looking directly at Lee.

Lena seemed to hesitate. "Don't do it, Lena. Don't listen to them," I wanted to tell her, but it was too late as I saw her take something out of her bag and spray it on Lee's face.

"What did you do?!" I yelled at her, and she seemed surprised. "What is that?"

I approached Lee, who was now shouting and covering his eyes. "Don't worry, it's not oleoresin capsicum spray, it's just perfume, not pepper spray."

My eyes squinted, and Lee looked at them, his cheeks red with anger. "Leave," Sanya said, and we obliged. I wanted to glare at them and at Lena, but Sanya's gaze met mine, and she raised an eyebrow.

"Are you okay, man?" I asked Lee. He nodded.

"You're right; we should stay away from them. Especially from the nerd who acts like a nice girl whenever her group isn't around," we headed to the washroom to rinse his eyes.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, my eyes aren't severely damaged, although they do sting a bit," after washing up, we walked together to our next class since we had the same subject for the day.

"Sorry about that, man. It's your first day in class, and you've already experienced that. I think you got dragged into this because I was with you."

"Don't think about it; I know that I got involved in the commotion earlier because of that new girl in their group, as you told me, had a short fuse. It all happened because I sat between you two; little did I know that you were talking to each other, right? Women, they blow things out of proportion; they're too complicated, thanks to their capriciousness."

"True."

"Why did they bully you though?" he asked.

"It's a secret," I glanced around before leaning in and whispering to him, "That girl I confronted earlier? She's my wife, the one I called snobbish."

"Your wi—" I signaled him to be quiet, so he shut his mouth. I explained everything to him, including our arrangement, why I couldn't report them, and he understood right away.

"You see, my life wasn't like this before. They didn't even pay attention to me, yes, I used to hear about the things they did to other students, but I never thought I'd become one of their targets."

"You do have a big problem. But man, we're friends now, I got your back. Your situation is tough; I wouldn't want to be in your shoes, but rest assured, no snitching will happen here. Maybe we should just stay away to avoid trouble."

"Mister Zedleer and Zhymian!" We were startled by Ma'am Mijarez. "Is there a bromance going on here? You've been whispering to each other like you're about to kiss. What's up? Do you want to leave now?" the whole class laughed at our embarrassment. "Last warning. You, Mister Zedleer, you just joined my class, and you still need to catch up with the lessons, and you're fooling around over there. Listen up, or else you might want to drop my subject."

"Sorry, Ma'am," we both said in unison.