SSHS 85 “Well, speak of the devil, hre he is.” murmured one of the doctors who was beside her. She knew that such a statement was rude, especially in a situation like this, but it is not the very concern right now. As Azrael stood to the open door of the room that they were in, a loud silence was heard by everyone in the room, even Yvett was not able to move that quickly even— aside from the dextrose, her shock contributed to her being frozen still for a while— and after she recovered, she hurriedly got off of the bed and slowly walked towards her husband. Azrael welcomed her with an open arms, ready to hug her and Yvett melted to her husband’s embrace upon contact, not caring if her husband had caused her to be in that state due to too much crying and him not being by her side as a support. The important thing is, “You’re here. You’re finally here.” Yvett said as another stream of tears flowed from her eyes. But unlike a while ago when her tears were of negative emotions, her te
SSHS 86 As the two senior spies hurried Albert and Hestia inside the headquarters, the two of them could not help but to notice how everyone was a lot busier than ever. It was so busy that no one even bothered to greet them a good evening or to acknowledge their presence— something that is common and even customary to all employees and spies of the ISO. It would seem weird for someone who is new to the ISO, but to Albert and Hestia, it is something that they have only seen the second time around, and as far as they both can remember, the last time they saw such thing happen, it meant that there are some changes with the assignment, that a certain mission was perceived as something as being placed in an easy level, yet as the mission was being handled, it was realised to be in a level that a senior spy must handle. “Come on, move along.” Agent 10 ushered the two young spies to walk faster, “We can’t afford to be any later, this is urgent.” as the hands of Agent 10 then pushed Albert
SSHS 87 Sunday at La Florence Academy was quite buzzing that morning. Students are pouring back into their dorms as they go back home to have a little visit to their family or to just destress by having a mini travel with their friends. The entrance gate if the school has a long line of vehicles either waiting to get in as the students own it, or that their family chauffeur was dropping off their client from a long trip. Each of them having their own group or circle once they entered the vicinity of the school, all of them engaging into a conversation, sharing their time away from the school grounds. “Oh, my, gosh, girl! Is it true you got a backstage pass at the Coachella?” asked one of the girls who was included in the fashion circle of the school. She was so excited and giddy that she was practically jumping up and down as she asked the question. The girl in question then replied, “Yes! And I even got to try some of their dresses!” As she said that, she pulled her phone from
SSHS 88 “Hestia!” Excami knocked one more time as she shouted. She received no response from the other side of the door, and seemed to be completely empty as there is no sound that can be heard. Nothing at all. She knocked again, this time, at a more rapid pace while she continued to call the name of the Student Council Vice President. “Hestia! Are you there!? Please answer me!” It was so loud and annoying to some of the students who were already there that they came out of their rooms. “Hey? Is something the matter?” one of the female students asked, as they are the one who has the closest room to Hestia. When Excami turned to face whoever asked her, her face showed how out of breath she was: she was panting, her face was a bright red from the lack of oxygen, her eyes shows the panic that she was feeling to the point that a tear drop was visible at the edge, her mouth open as she tries to gasp for air and visibly tired as she has been calling for Hestia for quite a long time now. I
SSHS 89 “Woah! So cool!” Excami said in awe, her voice still in whisper mode as to not wake up the sleeping Student Council Vice President. Excami tried her best to not squeal as to how cool that someone owns such self- defensive tools. Although it does emphasise that the female race is really not safe no matter how much they try to make the movement successful into changing the mindset of the people that both men and women are of equal stand and that the women are to be treated with respect and not to be treated in a way that is demeaning and devaluing and in a way that makes them feel not safe that they have to own self- defence tools in a disguise of normal everyday things. ‘Well, that thought is basically right and adhering to the reality and yet it is so dark on so many levels.’ she thought to herself as she held the hand of her older brother even tighter, as a way to prevent herself from emitting loud sounds that will wake Hestia up. “We should get out of here and let her sle
SSHS 90 It is already the 3rd week of the month of October, and people are already getting excited for the Halloween Event that will take place at the end of the month. In fact, all of the students who were energetic enough to volunteer helped the participating clubs in hanging the banners and placing some scary statues, skeletons, fake spider webs, and all of the things that are themed with Halloween. They even had a mini Pumpkin Carving contest and all of the carved pumpkins will be used as a part of all the displays all over the school grounds, and the winner’s pumpkin will be placed in the centre of the school— where the plaza is located and it is placed in a pedestal where it has a lighting that gives it the scary vibes. The Science Club even pitched in some effort to place some smoke generators. “Wait, even better, we have some leftover dry ice in our inventory, we use those for the fog.” suggested one of the members, and all the others agreed. Though, at first they have thou
SSHS 91 Two more days before the Halloween event, three days before October 31st. For the last two weekends of October, the majority of the dorm students wanted to stay for the weekend, using the reasoning of wanting to spend more time with friends and that they would want to try some things such as a Ouija Board or the famous Bloody Mary ritual. Nonetheless, they just want to feel the spookiness of the season, and to also play some pranks to the unsuspecting passersby or some of their classmates. And of course, not everyone is safe from the pranks, not even the well- respected Student Council. And it was Hestia who was targeted the most, since she was the one who stays in the dorms, and the first one to get to class or to the Student Council Office. The first one was not even a prank at all, it was just a casual sleepover of the girls in her dorm floor. And no amount of refusal would stop these girls from making her join, because they even had the dorm lady as their accomplice. “
SSHS 92 Monday came and only two days before the long awaited Halloween event. At this point, pranks all over the school were not news anymore, rather, it was an awaited moment. Of course, boundaries and limitations were placed— such as not doing so to the faculty staff and the Dean himself, and that the pranks would only involve scare and not the kind that would harm the others nor create a massive mess— as a courtesy to the cleaning team led by Mr. Ben. So far, the pranks were mostly happening to the bathroom and lockers. Having some cut outs of the famous scary icons in life size and pasted to every corner they could find and would guarantee a scare. A timed jump scare or a motion triggered one was set up and ready to scare anyone who unfortunately passes that contraption. All throughout the school grounds, hundreds of screams and shrieks can be heard, sometimes in unison, other times it was in intervals. Nonetheless, the entire pranks are harmless and entertaining to do— and t
SSHS 247After the Thanksgiving dinner that night and that mission, the two rookie undercover spies went on with their days. They went on being the ‘normal’ third years that they are and continued being the third years that they are. No more missions were given to them after the mission about the Montague couple and they do not know if the headquarters of the ISO where sympathising with their shock or if there is really no more mission for them to do. But either way, they are glad that they were able to finish the mission in such a short time and also experience being students as they are.They went on and experienced things as if they were normal people and not some spies who were trained at the very young age. Not some undercover people who are in there for the sake of completing their mis
SSHS 246After the game it was already time for dinner, Damian and Excami won because none of them were able to find out what kind of thing they had and they were all tagged out of the game. It was fun for the most part but what everyone waited for was the thanksgiving dinner and it was satisfying. They enjoyed every bite and they waited for the dessert because it was the star of the dinner the dessert.Then after eating, they lounged a little longer by the dinner table and talked about all the other things, like the fun times that they had in school, the love story between the Montague couple how they met how they fell in love and then almost talked about how they conceived the children but thankfully damien and Excami stopped them before it happened. The Montague siblings almost asked about the families of Hestia and Albertand what kind of stori
SSHS 245Sometime later, it is already the Month Of October and things have been going smoothly both for the Montague siblings and for the two rookie undercover spies and for the Montague couple. for the course of the month of october, Hestia and Albert had been invited for dinners and lunches by either Damian or Excami and would always result for a dinner together with their parents and with that the bond between all of them had grow and become stronger and they were more close with each other than ever before.But there is something that the two rookie undercover spies can not pinpoint at all. because most of the past missions they have been assigned to, they are always making the opportunity to get close to the target; they are always making the opportunity to do something, to create a movement, a pattern, a path for their mission t
Sshs 244The next day, Hestia and Albert walked side by side to their classroom. Apparently, the whole school knew of the incident yesterday: Mrs. . Montague pulled them out for the whole day and never came back until the wee hours of the night. Some people tried to block them and ask a ton of questions about what happened yesterday; questions like: what happened? Where did you go? What did she say? Was she generous? Was she kind? Was she loving and sweet and like a saint when she visited back at the beach house? What did you talk about with her? Such a ton of questions were asked to them and yet they remained silent about it. No comment, no answers, just complete silence as they went through
SHS 243 They ate in silence, up until dessert. No one spoke a word and it stayed that way until they were brought into the library. No one spoke as each of them were encouraged to pick a book in the vast collection of books inside the library. As they sat into the chairs available at the library, only then did the conversation start at the pretence of wanting to know what book they found. “How about you, Hestia? Albert? What book did you pick?” Hestia and Albert then lifted up the books that they picked. Mrs. Montague cooed at the books in their hands and proceeded to analyse them. “Wow! You live up to your personality. Unlike someone else.” Mrs. Montague threw in the shade as she briefly looked at her children who were silently reading with their father on the other side of the library. It was not quite far, but it seemed that the Montague siblings were so immersed in what they were reading that they did not notice the shade that was thrown at them by their
SSHS 242 As the three of them sat in silence without any of them taking a bite of their food, they tried to process the information that was at their table. The Montague siblings have been showing two different personalities and all between being inside the school and at school. If at school, they were glorified as students who are the top role models; a fun and energetic one and a gentle ruler, both were on ground and knew how to touch some grass. At home, they are the arrogant siblings who think they are better than anyone and will not even go down to their current level. It was as if they know the a person with the same name and yet still different by how they act.&nb
SSHS 241 A new school year started right before their eyes. Without any mission to worry about, time passed by the two rookie undercover spies and with barely any notice, they were in their third years. There were a lot of things that happened but they were used to it and it passed by them like a flash of the camera and after that, it was already in the middle of the month of September. The voting for the new Student Council began and the whole school was bussing with noises and the representative of the running Student Council President was shouting and getting people to vote for their candidates. “Please vote for…” one student shouted. “No, please vote for…” another student shouted. It was the start of the shouting battle between the two parties running for the Student Council President position. It created so much commotion that Damian had to step up and break the commotion apart. “Enough with this! This is so immature of you! Can’t you go and make your da
SSHS 240 As the surroundings dimmed into darkness, the light sensors in the gymnasium began to light up. Freya’s eyes adjusted from the dark and into the light that the sensor lights brought up. She shielded her eyes with her hands from the sudden light and that was Albert’s cue to remove himself from the sight of the Senior Cheerleader and go behind her. This is not to catch her off guard--- oh she was already caught off guard by the time she mentioned the Pandora’s Box--- but it was his way to not let Freya do anything anymore that will put herself into more danger. It is better if she just surrenders to them in a plain and simple manner.&
SSHS 239 “By the way, how were the Montague siblings? I have not heard from them after that incident with Arthur.” Albert asked. The two rookie undercover spies were roaming around the campus, taking a leisure walk as they passed by some of the students who were headed for their extra curricular activities. The two of them do indeed have some activities too but it was all done. Hestia is done with her paper works and scheduling for the Student Council and Albert was also done with his portfolio for the Photography Club with the theme of ‘After Christmas’. There was a moment of silence to the part of Hestia before she answered the inquiry of her spy partner. “They have been normal, acting as they always have as far as I am concerned. Although Excami now has her guard up always and was weary of everything and everyone, she is as cheerful as ever. Well, it is Damian who changed. He became more strict and protective of his sister, and he also became colder.” Hest