CHAPTER THREE

Despite Angela's efforts to invite Via into her group of friends, the lack of common interest in other aspects between the two of them sets them apart. Angela, defined by her classmates to be friendly and diligent in school works, was perceived to show interest, aside from drawing, towards watching anime series, sports-like activities, and collecting insects such as may beetles, spiders, grasshoppers, butterflies, and so on in a jar with the exception to flies, mosquitos, and cockroaches. She would accompany a larger group of friends where she showed confidence in their company.

It disgusted Via as she, on the other hand, displayed fascination towards reserved and feminine traits. She prefers to confine herself to watching her favorite cartoon shows on a television channel and movies on DVD, reading comics and children's books such as Ang Mga Alamat and Pabula, and the latest beauty and fashion magazines. She was used to having small groups of friends - mostly one to two numbers in the company. However, it was not a result of a strict upbringing because her parents allowed her as much freedom to step outside the house long as she arrives home past six in the late noon. It is her quiet nature that chose confinement of herself to her doings.

She would tend to be the one in the class who would be swept aside with no companion during recess due to her coldness and lack of interest in socialization, although not a single classmate would bully her. The school she went to is a private education that teaches and values good conduct and the teachings of the Catholic Church among the students and has witnessed disciplined students and not a single case of a bullying incident in their school. Although one time, one of her teachers reported her to her parents to be unfriendly. Despite this, not one student ridiculed her because they paid heed to their hobbies and interests.

Her reserved attitude was the result of her own choice; she deemed no worthy of her company because she believed to be highly intelligent that only those who can be on par with her intelligence can be her friend. She found none. In fear that she might lose her image as a righteous person in front of everyone, she never expressed her thoughts, not to a single soul. She judged people in her mind, avoided those who she looked down on, and used her false righteous image to draw impressions from other people towards her.

Yet Via has impressed no one. Her lack of social skills made it difficult for her to be popular in public. Though she has a good image because she submitted her school requirements on time, had been diligent in her school days, obediently followed when commanded by her educators, and complied with the rules. No one had ever talked to her to know her character. Hence, she longed for a talent that will be the source of admiration in her. When she discovered her talent in drawing, no words can describe her happiness. But the compliments she received from her classmate were not enough. After all, she and Angela are admired equally in the class. The thought of having someone considered equal to her in the eyes of her peers strikes insecurity within her.

She decided that she will be better than Angela. In her belief, she was already better than her. But such a thing had to be believed by the public eye. She told no one of her thoughts in fear of judgment; every day, she isolated herself in her bedroom to proceed to her daily practices in silence. Her Monggol No. 2 pencils have made it difficult for her to improve the shading part, but she had improved the shapes and curve lines in two months. The lack of another kind of paper available to her prompted her to use her school notebooks and intermediate pad papers. Her lack of friends and the busy work schedule of her parents have made it easier for her to do her work with little to no disturbance.

She began to draw the actual cartoon characters that she watched - Dora,

Doraemon, and Spongebob. She was able to have them executed to perfection with every detail similar to the cartoon aired on television: the imperfect square of Spongebob, the quirkiness in Dora's facial expressions, and the joyful body of Doraemon came

to life. Her drawings were in shades of gray. The lack of color did not hinder the characters from being well-drawn and made lively by just a simple touch of her pencil that was considered poor quality in creating an art piece. She had not yet known that there were different kinds of pencils created better for creating an art piece at this time, which was why she made the best of it.

Yet, when she observed her drawings again, their perfection deeply moved her emotions. She was amazed by her capability to exactly copy the images she had on mind to the thin sheet of paper. She thought to herself what a magnificent creature she was for creating such a good piece at such a young age that the level of her joyfulness increased. She became more eager as she finally colored them with crayons branded Crayola, a set of crayons intended for children. Although they produced clear shades of colors, they were inexpensive; such quality was the same compared to other more expensive brands of crayons. Still, she was able to put colors on them correctly. The colors in their drawings had added to their liveliness of her excellence. She was proud of the consistent hard work that she devoted another of her time to create more. Until when she lifted the next page, she had run out of papers to use. And her sketches had filled all the school notebooks and intermediate pad papers. 

Via no longer felt in fear when she had used all of the pages of papers available to her. She straightly went to inform her mother with the expectation that her mother will buy her a new set. Before she did so, it crossed her mind that she would reveal her talent to her mother in the belief that she would be rained with words of praise again.

Her mother was a businesswoman. She owned four branches of stores for baking supplies and ingredients in different regions and a three-story apartment building with six rental rooms. Her mother had spent most of her time managing her business and spent only the evening at their home. And when she would arrive home, she would have to rest after a long day of exhaustion. It made her had barely time to spend a casual conversation with her daughter. Despite her unavailability in their house, this daily circumstance became normal to Via. It was late evening that Via stood up and walked to her mother. 

"Ma." She approached her mother with the nine school notebooks in her hands. Her mother glanced at her immediately by her one word. 

When she caught her mother's attention, Via spoke not a word and just handed all of her notebooks to her mother with a smile on her face. She opened them for her mother to see easily. Her mother laid sight on the pages of her notebooks filled with the cartoon characters of Spongebob, Dora, Tom and Jerry, Phineas and Ferb, and animes like Angelic Layer and Doraemon. Every page seemed to have turned into a comic book. There was no more space for a school activity in those notebooks. 

Her mother's curiosity flipped the pages one by one; she was astonished, disgusted, and confused by what her eyes had witnessed. Via, on the other hand, was calm and eager for a word of compliment once again. She observed her mother's facial expression while her thoughts rushed to the excitement on the words she longed from her mother's mouth. She bent her back a little bit to observe the reaction of her mother's face. She had seen her mother's raised eyebrow; her eyes were large and focused on the drawings and her forehead knotted. Her mother observed the sketches with a face of frustration.

After skimming her daughter's notebook, she sat straight and faced up her daughter that had been smiling the whole time.

"Is your school year done?" She questioned her daughter with a tone of anger but in a calm way.

"Not yet," Via answered proudly, unable to distinguish the unwanted tone her mother made. That was a stupid

question, she thought.

"Your drawings," Her mother skimmed every page of the notebooks in front of her again, "suck. The gap between Dora's eyes was too far from each other. She began to look a mongoloid."

Via was surprised and confused on why she heard no compliment for her talent. It was her first time to receive an insult to her work. She displaced the face of resentment towards her mother's response that it left her unresponsive as if turned into a statue made of marble stone. A little anger started to sprout within her; thoughts of biased statements towards her mother's words run through her head.

The mother handed back the notebooks to her daughter properly as she continued, "You could have told that you like to draw, maybe, daddy will buy an actual sketchbook and not waste your school notebooks for senseless stuff. What notebooks will you use tomorrow?"

Via grabbed the notebooks with a facial melancholy as her response to her mother. She walked back to her bedroom without producing any noise in her steps. She finally expressed her disappointment in her mother's words, unable to comprehend the reason for her mother's lack of admiration towards her talent. She threw her notebooks to her bed and started to turn on the television in her bedroom and found that the TV channel did not air her favorite cartoon show during that evening. So she aggressively grabbed her sticker collection of Dora. Her carelessness to scan each item on the shelf caused the other books and other materials such as pencil, pencil case, and other sticker collection notebooks to fall on the hard ground, causing noise in each of its falls. She sat on her bed, filled with tears on her face, and began to compare the pictures of Dora and her drawings in her school notebook. She placed beside each other on her bed for a more careful comparison. Despite now that the tears blurred her vision, she observed them and saw no mistake in her works.

She sobbed because she was amazed by her excellence in art. She seemed to have forgotten the insults as she looked at her intelligence in art. Her lack of comprehension towards her mother's statement made her fall into great sadness that she had fallen to a night of deep sleep.