Chapter Two: The Strange New Student

Inside the Dean's Office, Mrs. Sonia Ariolla, the dean of students, was pacing back and forth in front of all the players who were in her office as of the moment. Not only the commotion that they had done made her 

very irritated, she was also annoyed by all the mixed smell of the boys' odors that seemed to be suffocating her entire being.

"What a disgrace! I did not let all of you students to participate or even have that intramural meet just to give this headache to me!" she shouted at everyone.

"We are very sorry, ma'am. We'll assure you that it won't happen again and that the two of us, Coach Marlon and I, are going to talk to these boys regarding this matter," explained Coach Jared as he gave his signature death glare to his team. 

"Well, of course, I am expecting the both of you to do so."

~~~~~~~~~

A lot of sermons came out of Mrs. Ariola's mouth, but nobody even bothered to explain himself. After some time, they were all dismissed from the office, however, V and Miko were still trying to 'low-keyly' confront each other as they stepped out of the office's doorway.

"We're not yet done, Jalandoni," warned Miko.

"Tss, who says it's done?" mocked V.

"Playing the hero huh?"

"Hero? You actually still believe in heroes, Alcantara? Is that why you hired the Salamanders to attack us while we were heading to the school, because you need them to be your heroes to win the match?" questioned V, who was now advancing to Miko. 

"I don't know what you are talking about," defended Miko, although guilt was reflected on his face. 

"And I don't care about what you're going to say."

"Jalandoni! Let's go!" bellowed coach Jared, who was now suspecting him of starting a trouble again. "Let's go!"

"We're not done yet," he just simply addressed those words to Miko and eventually followed his coach. 

~~~~~~~~~

It had been a long day for V. He had been attacked by the city's gang, had lost the chance of becoming the MVP and champion, and even had gotten suspended for three days. These were probably the 

reasons why after taking his bath, he directly went on to his bed and immediately fell into a slumber, in which, after some hours, he got met by a mysterious dream of ropes and roses, causing him to be awaken at exactly 4 in the morning. 

~~~~~~~~~

Few days after the so-called intramurals' riot, everything seemed to go back to order, only, the championship was decided to be given to the supposed third placer of the competition, the College of Arts and Sciences. It was quite an annoying news to the engineering team, but they got nothing to do with it anymore. Some sort of a better luck next time was the only thing that their coach said to them as he let them go after practice last week. Days later, classes had resumed.

~~~~~~

In one of the classrooms in the engineering department, V was having a hard time absorbing all his professor was telling them. He had always been in a sleep-deprived state ever since the end of the finals, which was something that did not usually occur to him. But it was not only him who seemed to 

have the particular feeling of sleepiness, it could also be perceived from his classmates' faces. They were all trying so hard to suppress their sleepiness because this subject that they were currently in was the one that was handled by the school's most terror professor, Ms. Dimaya.

Some time later, when all of them were already bored, they started to pass a piece of paper from one person to the other. There was a note written on it, and at the moment was V's turn to accept the note which said: LA PRIMERA LATER!

LA PRIMERA, by the way, was the one place in the city where students and all who seemed to feel young, wild, and free would usually go. It was also the one place where V usually would spend his Friday nights. And since it was Friday, he immediately became elated. He smiled a bit and was about to pass the paper to the person next to him. However, he was interrupted by a sudden movement of their classroom's door. All of them stopped and stared at the very pale young lady who was standing at the doorway and seemed to be the cause of its sudden motion. V looked at her with such nuetral eyes although he knew 

to himself that the lady looked familiar. She was wearing a hippie-like attire as well as dozens of accessories and amulets. Hanged on her neck was a three layered long-beaded necklace, encircled on her wrists were some peculiarly designed beaded bracelets, as well as on her ankles. She was also wearing a cheetah-printed head scarf which was placed like a turban on her head. Wherever angle it was, she looked peculiar, but the most peculiar about her fashion was her eyes. It would be an understatement to say that her eyes were just dark, for it was more like a pair of lifeless souls. She was not wearing any footwear as well and she's clutching a small white sack, which added to her weird vibe. Murmurs and whispers were immediately spread across the room. 

"I thought donations are not allowed here?" 

V's friend Marco whispered to his friends nearby and every one of them laughed, including V.

The professor who was assigned also got astonished by the lady's appearance.

"Silence, everyone!" she's now beginning to approach the lady. "And what...can I do for you, miss?" the professor asked. 

The young lady looked at her with a poker face and started speaking in a very impassive way.

"I've decided I want to be in this section. . .ma'am," she nonchalantly said while giving the accommodation slip to the professor who seemed taken aback by her attitude. 

"Oh?" The professor reacted and giggled sarcastically. "What actually makes you think, young lady, that I am accepting late enrollees?"

Everyone laughed and thought the professor had just put her authority, but the lady just stared at her and said nothing, as if the professor's anguish and sarcasm did not intimidate her. She just made this weird eye contact until the professor felt awkward in her presence and started talking again.

"I'm not accepting you."

"I'm sorry, but I think you'll have to reconsider your decision. I want to be here. . .ma'am," the girl said, still not breaking the weird stare with her emotionless eyes. 

"Who are you? And can't you just add the word 'ma'am' directly to your sentence?" the professor was really irritated and at the same time taken aback.

"I'm Ligaya, your new student." The lady answered as if she was bored.

In the middle of the classroom, Marco started to whisper something to V.

"Remind me to thank that girl later for giving some shit to Dimaya." 

V just smiled and started scrolling on his phone, he seemed to be anticipating for a new message. 

"Don't waste your time, ma'am. It won't actually hurt if you add another person to your room," the lady reasoned out once again, and surprisingly, she was now smiling the what seemed like the most emotionless and fakest smile the world had ever known. 

"Well, I've made up my mind few days ago. But since you're provoking me, I might as well give you a chance. Let's see. . .oh! Of course, why won't you try to solve that unfinished equation on the board so that after you do it, I'm gonna have to decide whether or not I will accept you?" declared the teacher as she crossed her arms over her chest like a boss. 

Just like earlier, the girl just stared at her, but eventually proceeded to the board and examined the equation. V grinned to himself, it would be impossible, for a student to solve that highly complicated equation on the spot without any reviewing made, unless of course, the student was brilliant or special. He started relaxing his back on his seat and continued on his phone. On the other hand, the lady seemed determined to prove the doubt of Ms. Dimaya wrong. She closed her eyes for a moment and moved her lips a bit for God knew what she's saying. After a couple of seconds, she started scribbling some numbers and solutions on the board, and surprisingly, with only less than a minute, finished everything CORRECTLY. Everyone's mouth seemed to form into an O, including the professor's. It was probably only V who was oblivious of the happenings. 

"Let me check first," said the professor, but it's already reflected on her face that Ligaya did it correctly.

"Well then, I am still not completely happy with your sudden appearance and near to disrespectful attitude but. . .as if I have a choice. I'll accept you in my class. You may now sit wherever you want now so I could continue my lessons," added the professor who wasted no time and wrote a new equation on the board. However, Ligaya just remained on her spot. 

"What's the matter, Ligaya?" Asked the professor. Ligaya stared blankly at her and began to utter the issue.

"I want to sit at the back, beside that guy," she nonchalantly said while pointing her finger to V, who was not actually following the happenings and was just informed that the new girl wanted to sit beside him when Marco nudged him. 

"Well, that seat's already taken. You can sit beside-"

"I want to be seated in that area...please. I'm the kind of person who does want to see everything as much as possible...please," Ligaya uttered, still as blankly as ever. 

"Don't you have ears? I have already taken this seat. If you want to be seated at the back, go grab that chair in front of you and sit behind us," shouted Marco matter-of-factly.

"Mr. Montenegro!" the professor bellowed.

"It's fine. I'll sit behind them then. Thank you." As if nothing had just happened, she dragged the chair that was situated in front of her and proceeded behind V. Everyone looked at her with such quizical eyes and tried so hard not to laugh, especially that the lady's outfit was really odd. But she did not mind them at all, although, those things were totally obvious to her. 

As she arrived at the spot, she nonchalantly sat and stared on the board without even facing Marco, who's now looking confusedly at her. But when she noticed that Marco was still giving her that confused look, she withdrew something from her sack bag, a candy, and handed it to him without even facing him. 

"Candy? What do you think of me, a kid?" 

Marco asked in annoyance while furrowing his eyebrows at Ligaya's gestures. He was a bit insulted by the candy. 

"That's enough." 

He just stopped facing Ligaya when V said those words.

"She's weird," whispered Marco as he returned to his proper position and faced the board.