CHAPTER 3

Author’s POV

“Ma’am is there!” shouted a classmate of Maxine the next day while running into the room. The students were immediately seated. The previously noisy room became silent.

“Excuse me.” Maxine whispered to the girl next to her. “Do you know who's gonna handle our Law-1?”

“Miss Calupe.”

“Is she nice?” Maxine asked again.

“My God, you don’t know Miss Calupe?! She’s one of the terror Instructors in this University.” The girl answered annoyingly.

Maxine frowned ahead and talked almost whispering. “Retarded..!”

“What did you just say?”

“I mean, you’re beautiful.”

“Indeed.”

Maxine grinned. “Just kidding.”

“B*tch---.”

“Good Morning, Ma’am!”

The girl next to Maxine stopped when Miss Calupe arrived, although she squeaked a finger sign to her.

“Good Morning!” Miss Calupe’s wishful greeting.

A moment of deafening silence passed before the Instructor spoke again.

“Okay. Before anything else, I want to give you guys a very warm welcome,” She said calmly looking at the students. “And as of that, get one whole sheet of paper---now!”

Everyone panicked as the Instructor’s voice boomed as she said the last thing before writing something on the white board.

“Start answering.”

After a while.

“Ah..!” Maxine’s moaning voice was restrained. She was thrown a battered piece of paper that looked like it was still inside. She opened it to see, a white-out. She looked annoyed at the girl next to her but she just shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

“What is that?!”

Maxine quickly hid the battered paper behind her. And she was as if she had been bitten by a snake when she looked at Miss Calupe.

“What’s your full name?” The Instructor asked calmly. She stood up and walked towards her.

“Maxine Filmore,” Maxine responded in a low voice. She was sweating profusely despite their air-conditioned room.

“What is that behind your back?”

Maxine swallowed one after the other due to nervousness. She seemed to be beating her chest even though she didn’t do anything.

“It’s nothing, Ma’am.”

“Let me see.”

Maxine didn’t move and just kept staring at the Instructor.

“Are you cheating?”

“No, Ma’am.”

“Then let me see it, or else you wouldn’t like it, Miss Filmore.”

Maxine nervously handed the paper to the Instructor and silently prayed that there would be nothing written on it.

“Finish or not finish, pass your papers,” said Miss Calupe afterwards, walking back to the desk.

It seemed that Maxine was pulled out of a thorn when she heard it. That means the paper is blank.

---

Maxine’s POV

CURRENTLY I am in the school’s mini park and resting. I was almost there earlier. Why are they so mean to me? I’ll be martyred, I’ll be even more bullied, same as when I fight. I don’t know where I will end up.

“I hate you Wilford!” I screamed at myself and then put my head on the stone table. Suddenly, I heard something collapsed. I raised my face in shock.

“D*mn!” A guy who came from nowhere, holding his hips while forcing himself to stand up. He looked at my direction and walked.

“Hi!” He forced his smile to greet me and sat down in front of me. “Mind if I join you?”

“It’s okay,” I replied casually. I stared at him, feeling him. He’s not that handsome but he’s cute. “Where have you been? I I didn’t notice you.”

The guy smiled, both of his cheeks came out. Yikes, cute!

“At the top of the tree.” He looked in the direction of the mango tree in front of us.

“At the top of the tree?”

“Yeah, I was reading my favorite book,” He said, holding up the Harry Potter book. “Do the students here bully you?”

I looked at the guy questioningly. He feels close when we’re not.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I heard you screaming you hate Wilford,” He explained, perhaps reading my thoughts.

“Because I am not as rich as the students here. That’s why it’s like discrimination for them to be poor,” I said. Suddenly I thought. I couldn’t help but look at the guy in front of me. He’s inside the Campus, which means he’s also a student here.

“Oh come on, don’t count me in. I’m not one of them,” He said with a laugh. I guess I was very obvious and he read my mind. “Honestly, I don’t like the students here either, they’re all stupid hypocrites.”

I did not comment. Do I know if this guy is cheating on me?

A few moments later, the bell rang, signaling for the next class.

“I’m afraid I can’t stay here for long. I still have class.” The guy stood up but did not move. “By the way, I’m Hevo. And you are?”

“Maxine...”

“See you around, Maxine.”

The guy turned his back on me and started to walk away, but he only took a few steps when he suddenly stopped and turned back.

“Um, friends?” He asked smiling while holding out his hand.

“F-friends,” I responded hesitantly and accepted it.

“Alright,” He said with a wider smile, I could also feel his slight squeeze on my hand.

I can’t believe while following a gaze to “My new friend” who was walking away, for the last three years that I spent in Wilford someone also made friends with me. It turns out that not all of the students here are arrogant, there are still some who are sober.

---

Lucas’s POV

I was on the veranda, closing my eyes while breathing in the fresh air. Smelling the scent of nature. In my three years here in Sta. Monica, it seems that my body has gotten used to the weather and climate.

I breathed deeply. I can’t stop the memory of my youth from entering my mind.

“Do it, Fernan!” Grandfather yelled at Uncle. He was sitting on the silver seat in front with the four elders. While at the bottom of the hall there were people lined up on both sides, wearing black ankle-length clothes. Their faces are covered so that only part of their mouths are visible, they smell like messengers of death.

Uncle Fernan was standing in the middle, fear and dread on his face. And behind hin was a woman about the same age as Mommy with both hands tied, trembling and crying hopelessly. I had no idea what was going on inside.

“I can’t, ‘Dad! Just let her go. She has nothing to do with this!” Uncle shouted. “It was all my fault! I was the one who betrayed Ella..”

I gripped the door tightly. So that woman is his mistress?

“You are a godd*mn jerk, Fernan!” Grandpa’s voice boomed, eyes glaring with anger. It’s scary. “Are you gonna kill her, or I, myself will do it for you..?”

“I won’t allow anybody to hurt her. Not even you, Daddy!”

“She’s a d*mn human, Fernan!” Grandfather roared. That’s scary to hear. His eyes became bloodshot, his snout grew longer and his face, and even his entire body, grew fur. Grandfather’s size and height are doubled, causing the coverings he was wearing to be damaged. He also has long claws on the hand that can kill anyone who gets hit by it.

“I love her,” replied Uncle emphatically, at the same time he also changed his form. Became a monster like Grandpa.

In just an instant, the two wrestled. I can’t even see them at such a high speed..

...until Uncle fell down bloody.

I gasped with horror, trembling for what I have seen. I didn’t realize the tears falling from my eyes. Behind my innocence I witnessed how Grandfather took the life of his own Son. Until I felt hands covering my eyes.

“Mom?” My voice was raspy as I looked at Mommy. I’m still shaking with fear to this day.

“What are you doing here?” She asked. “You shouldn’t be seen by your Grandfather.”

“But what was that Mom..? How could he kill his own Son?”

“Enough, baby. Someday you’ll understand why your Grandpa has to do it.” Mommy hugged me tightly and rubbed my back as if that would ease my fear.

I took a deep breath as I came back to reality. I opened my eyes. I feel hot and my muscles are shaking.

..I’m thirsty.

I jumped down from the third floor of the veranda, and effortlessly scaled the high walls that served as protection for our home.

Until I found myself in the dense forest of St. Monica, standing above the tree; watching and waiting for a victim.

I was just a child when I knew something was wrong in my family..

..we are not ordinary.