Chapter Eight: The Annoying Squad

It was 8:35 when V woke up again to prepare for school. He's already late but he seemed relaxed while getting out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. But the serenity was immediately cut short when Ligaya's presence showed up before his eyes.

"What the fuck?!"

He was so shocked. Never in his entire existence did he encounter something like this. Still wearing her usual facial expression, Ligaya was standing while leaning on his bedroom's doorframe, arms crossing like a boss.

"We're late," she said matter of factly.

"So?!" V couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't make himself comfortable with a lady's presence while he was half-naked, and so he tried to cover his naked torso with the towel that he had used earlier to dry his hair off. On the other hand, Ligaya did not answer and just stared blankly at him, not intimidated at all.

"Okay, look, I..I don't have to explain myself to you and it's actually not my problem if you're late because we are not tied to each other. You can do whatever you want, I don't fucking care, and I can do whatever I like, and you're out of it. And don't get me wrong, I am trying to be polite here so please, get the hell out of my room!"

He may be annoyed and sounded like he's about to kill any moment but it did not really bother her at all. Just like earlier, she just stared at him like everything's normal. For a few seconds she remained that way and then finally went away after saying, "I was just at the dooframe of your room. How could you tell me to get out? Idiot."

V finished what he needed to do in preparation for school. Having a naturally attractive physique and

face, he was not that meticulous with his looks anymore. Black jeans topped with plain white shirt, black watch,

and Vans sneakers, put them all on and he was ready to go. He went immediately into his car, fastened his seat belt and glanced at the front view mirror for a second. What? He thought to himself. Probably, he had had experienced so many strange things these past few weeks that he seemed to imagine things a lot. It looked like another person's reflection was seen in the mirror. He wanted to ignore it but decided to look at it again and to his surprise, Ligaya was there sitting serenely at the backseat inside his car. They looked at each others eyes in the mirror and V decided to just ignore her and began to operate the car for school.

When they reached school, V stopped for a while to say a few words to her.

"I am going out first, then you go after five minutes. Remember, we shouldn't be seen together at any circumstance there is. We may be living in the same house, but we're not friends and will never be. Is that clear with you?"

"Yes, it is."

"And hey, how did you even get in my car?" He still couldn't believe that someone got into his car easily

without his permission.

"I'm an engineering student." Well, that was all Ligaya had to say and immediately looked away.

"And probably a carnapper." He did not want to ruin his day completely so he just went outside his car.

Ligaya followed after a few minutes. They managed to conceal the fact that they came at school together, slowly but surely, a reason why they were both late when they entered their first class of the day.

Lucky for them, the teacher was so considerate to just ignore their tardiness.

"Hey, dude, how was it? Did the ghost lady do something bad to you?" Marco whispered as V sat on his chair.

"Of course not. What are you talking about?"

V seemed not in the mood to talk about the topic so Marco decided to just give him some space. After a

heart-stopping lesson, they finally stood up to go outside the classroom, but they were stopped by Ligaya's voice.

"Hey." She said with a very unenergetic tone.

V nodded to his friends and they all went on to where they were heading.

"I thought I already made myself clear this morning? You are not talking to me in school." V said. He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah, but I just realized you haven't eaten anything yet."Ligaya stated impassively.

"I'm not hungry, and if I am, I have my money to buy myself food."

"Okay." She said matter-of-factly. As if nothing had happened.

"Okay, then stay there." He walked away from the room without even glancing back.

Inside the cafeteria, Mia was having some snacks with her friend, Nichole, at the far corner of the room. They were talking about what happened to Mia the night before.

"He's a nightmare!" Mia bellowed, trying to release all her frustrations about V out.

"Well, he's one hell of an attractive nightmare. I'd like to have one myself."Nichole teased her.

"Funny." Mia just said sarcastically.

"Is he that sexy when he's naked?" Nichole asked gleefully.

"Ew! That conceited womanizer has never appeared to be sexy to me. He's a mess."Mia said defensively.

"Are you sure you don't need a check up? 'Cause you tend to not know what you're talking about. Of course he is sexy! Also, in case you haven't realized, he's actually into you, just couldn't admit it yet because you are too rude to him."

"Rude? I wouldn't be rude to him if he's not rude to me, too. And mind you, he's worse than I am. Also,

for the record, that git will never be into me, he's such a big womanizer, in fact, I saw a girl in his house yesterday and it seemed like there's something going on between the two of them."

"What? Really? Did you see them do some inappropriate stuff?"

"No! No, of course not. It's not what you think it's like . When I got there, she's already in the house, downstairs, with Marco. And Marco tried to explain that she's his girlfriend but I doubt because we all

know he's seeing Denzel. I did not see them together, V and her, but you know, girl's instinct. But don't

get me wrong, I am not jealous at all, just...just saying."

Mia was really trying hard to hide her feelings but her friend actually knew her better than anybody else.

"You're still not good at lying. But don't worry, friend, I am loyal to you and I am not going to tell

anyone, ever, about your crush on V," Nichole grinned maliciously at her friend and Mia just rolled her eyes.

"Whatever."

"See? As what they say, you can use placebo to fake treatments and care, but feelings? Never!" Nichole

laughed her heart out."So, tell me about this girl, Mia. I bet she's that kind of a beautiful, sexy, and

charismatic lady with boobs bigger than life so the boys invited her there..."

Mia chuckled.

"What are you talking about? She's not the kind of girl you're expecting her to be. She's...I guess a one in a

million type of girl. Peculiar but still has that flare of decency in her skin, you get what I mean, right?"

"No, I don't. Tell me more."

Mia just rolled her eyes at her friend's sarcasm. And just when she thought everything was just ordinary that day, she caught sight of Ligaya.

"Hey, she's here," she nodded at Ligaya's direction and finally, Nichole saw her.

"Where does she think she's going to, a costume party?"

"Oh stop it, Nic."

Nichole furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at Ligaya's direction and the next thing that Mia knew,

Nichole was already approaching the new lady.

"Hey, Nic, wait! Oh come on..."

But Mia was now too late to stop her friend.

"Hi!"

Nichole greeted Ligaya gleefully but as usual, Ligaya just stared at her blankly.

"I'm Nichole Medija, former vice governor of the College of Nursing, and this is Mia-"

"The former governor," Ligaya uttered nonchalantly, completing Nichole's sentence. The two ladies just smiled

in awkwardness while Ligaya continued to stare at them.

"Well, yeah, she was. So what's your name?"

"What do you want?"Ligaya asked. She didn't have any idea what Nichole was up to, but she knew she could not trust people that easily.

Nichole and Mia glanced at each other.

"Well, we are just trying to be friendly. You know...we saw you entered the caf alone and you seemed...sorrowful, so we thought we could offer you some company. You're new here, right?"

They were silent for a moment as Ligaya tried to measure whether or not to entertain the two ladies opposite her.

"Ligaya, and I am not from that collge so-"

"No no no no, we are not campaigning or something, as I said, we are just trying to make friends with you...you know..if you want to, right, Mia?"

Mia looked confused but she smiled nonetheless.

"But I'm not sorrowful."

"Oh yeah..uhm, sorry about that. I thought your costume means some sad stuff," Nichole pointed her whole outfit including her head scarf.

"What do you mean?"Ligaya asked.

"She just meant that it's cute...your headdress and...all," Mia interrupted Nichole and smiled wildly to Nichole and Ligaya.

After talking Ligaya into joining them, they were now sitting on the same table while eating their snacks.

"I guess you two have met already, right Mia?"

"Oh, yeah. I..er..guess so."

"Yeah we did. You went to V' s home yesterday. I wondered why, but I think I already know the answer.

You're a competent healer."As emotionless as she was, Ligaya still looked sincere when she said those words to Mia.

"Not really. I am still a student who is still practicing what I need to do in the future," said Mia while blushing.

"You're on your way though. Why doubt it?"Ligaya continued.

"Well, hopefully. Thanks."

Ligaya just stared at her with a blank expression and the air seemed to get awkward over there.

"Uhm, I guess you're a new engineering student, and all, so mind if I ask, where did you study before?"Mia took the opportunity to ask Ligaya.

"Yeah, we were wondering," Nichole added.

Ligaya just looked at the two of them with an unreadable expression on her face. She did not have any idea what to say but she had to. Lucky for her, as soon as she tried to utter a word, a group of engineering guys called Mia and were now approaching them.

"What?!" Mia asked; annoyed.

"V's looking for you. Come with us."

It was Benjie who responded.

"Can't you see I am having a break? And for goodness' sake, he's not a king to command anyone to do what he wants."Mia complained.

"And so?" Dan gave a sarcastic laugh.

"She doesn't want to go."

All of them were quieted when Ligaya interfered. They all glanced at her direction with such high intensity but she just stared at them without a single trace of fear or intimidation.

"Stay out of here, fabricator," Benjie warned her but she was not affected at all. She broke the stare and continued to eat her salad like there was nothing wrong in the situation. And when Benjie tried to speak

again, she continued to address them.

"Tell him his not doing the right thing. If he likes her, he shouldn't allow his constituents to treat her badly like this."

"You wanna die?" Benjie warned her once again but still, she did not budge.

"I want to see you try," Ligaya said those words without any fear. The boys just laughed sarcastically.

"We don't usually kick estrogen asses but I think we will, if you push us."Benjie stated.

Ligaya stared back at them.

"Really?"

A tone of challenge was heard from her voice. The guys grinned.

"We're not yet done."

After a long scowled and a loud bang that they made on the table, all of them scurried away, leaving the three girls speechless, although, no fear was seen on Ligaya's face.