Chapter Text
“Yes!” You cheered, jumping victoriously as the boys around you groaned. “This isn’t fair! You’re cheating!” One of your male friends stomped to you angrily as he took his marbles. You all played a game of shoot the marbles into the hole.
You stuck a tongue out at him as he fumed. “You’re salty because you’re bad at this game! I have a great aim! 20/20 vision! Magpagaling ka kasi, Gerald! Kung ako masbobo sa iskwelahan, mas lalo ka na!”
“Tarantado pala to…” Your friends whispered. Gerald gripped his fists as dropped his marbles, getting his left slipper. You dropped the act and your blood ran cold, immediately screaming as you ran away. “Bumalik ka rito kang gago ka!” He screamed, chasing you after with a flip flop. All of your other male friends laughed hysterically.
As you ran to the streets, you overheard the middle-aged women gossip about you.
“Kababaeng tao, nakikipag guluhan sa mga lalake…” One of them whispered, while they nodded in agreement. “Baka nga tomboy eh.”
You ignored them, continued on running. You were laughing, enjoying the thrill when all of a sudden, a hard smack landed on your scalp and you fell down to the hard cement with a grunt. “Score!” Gerald laughed, as you groaned, slowly sitting up. Your friend group approached as they gathered around you, asking if you were okay.
Of course, you are! Just a few scratches here and there.
Elementary pa lang, napapansin na nila: Mga gawi kong parang hindi pambabae, eh, kasi,
Imbes na Chinese garter, laruan ko ay teks at jolens. Tapos ka-jamming ko lagi noon mga sigang lalaki sa amin.
Elementary came by like a flash, and now you’re a certified Elementary graduate, now enrolling in a High School Science school. You never really fit in with the popular girls, nor you fit in any other sane groups except for the mentally unstable ones; the gay, weird group.
Society still hasn’t accepted them, but you did. Everybody in your little group accepted one another, treating each other like family.
Of course, everyone was closeted. You were just in a group full of girls who were confused on which gender who to love.
“I really don’t know, I think I’m procrastinating on school a lot, and this school specializes on grades and such… I really need to keep it up,” Your best friend, Clarissa, complained as she slammed down her notebooks on the cafeteria table. You glanced up from the chord of your guitar to her figure. “I don’t see the problem, it’s just Geometry,” you grabbed her math notebook and skimmed through the pages.
“Yeah, but like, College is around the corner and I still haven’t gotten how these exponents work in that goddamn parenthesis!” She angrily pointed out the one problem written on her notebook.
You heard a scoff from your left. “That’s because you’ve been ogling girls in our classroom,” your other friend, Alyssa, huffed as she placed her palm on her chin. Clarissa blushed out of embarrassment as she hit her, a laugh leaving her lips.
You put your guitar down, placing it back on its case. “Tara na, bell’s about to ring.” They quickly packed their own things, Clarissa groaned as she fixed her bag and notebooks. “Just noticed that both Layla and Julieta are late,” Alyssa pointed out. “Damn, like I’m surprised,” you shrugged.
After a few hours, Class had finished and you went home. As you went home, you noticed the van next door to your house. Was someone moving in?
You walked along the sidewalk and tried to peek. You saw a lanky, tall figure — probably 6 foot. God, you were astonished. This man’s skin was pale as hell! American? Oh, fuck! You have an American neighbor!
It wasnt everyday you get to see tall people. The Philippines are mostly filled with short people, so seeing a Foreigner definitely amused you.
You were fluent in English, that’s one thing to boast!
“Hello!” You greeted, waving as you gripped the handle of your guitar case. The man looked at you. Silver eyes, dark circle and eyebags? Yikes!
He seemed to return the gesture and smile back. You noticed the golden ring on his finger. Oh, he has a family! No wonder why he has a van.
“Where are you from?” You asked, leaning against the light pole. The man stopped from his tracks to turn around and look at you. “Um, Utah. It’s a state in—“
“—In America, I know. I’m, what you call, a Geography expert.” The brunette hummed in amusement. “You’re quite fluent in English.”
“Your accent’s different, though. How come you sound British, but live in America?”
“There’s a thing called moving from one place to another, and I’m doing that right now with my family.”
“Father,” A boy called out from inside the house. “Evan wants help unpacking his things!”
“I’m coming,” The male responded before quickly tearing his gaze from you and walked back to his house.
What an interesting family.
Nung ako’y mag-high school ay napabarkada sa mga Bi.
Curious na babae, na ang hanap din ay babae.
Sa halip na makeup kit, bitbit ko ay gitara.
Tapos pormahan ko lagi ay long sleeves na t-shirt at faded na lonta.
You woke up the next day, cheery. You were excited to brag to your friends.
Your mom just entered your bedroom and stopped at your door frame. “Oh, ang aga aga mo naman nagising. Anong nangyari? Ah, nag puyat ka, no?” She sneered, you gave her a puzzled expression.
“Ano? Ah— Hindi ganon! Excited lang ako kasi, uh, meron tayong bagong kapitbahay, tapos taga ibang bansa pa! Yung tatay ng bahay, alam mo ba, ang tangkad tangkad!”
“Eh, bumbero naman! Gwapo ba?”
“Hindi ka-gaanong gwapo… Matanda na, meron nang anak,” Your mother groaned, causing you to laugh. Your father had appeared on the scene and raised an eyebrow.
“Anong nangyayari dito?”
“‘La Lang! Paalis naman ako!” You exit your room after you buttoned up your uniform. “Ano? Hindi ka kakain? Alas Singko palang!” Your mother fret as you rushed out of your room. “Mamí, relax, I’ll eat by the bakery near school!”
“Ayan ka nanaman eh!” Your father left to retreat to his bedroom before he could hear another of his wife’s ranting.
You canceled out the noise — the rants and the reminders she kept on giving you as you went down the stairs. You grabbed your lunch and stuffed them up in your bag.
You silenced your mom’s angry reminders as you kissed her on the cheek. She was left speechless, staring at you. “Babalik ako ng mga alas sais, love you! Bye!” You quickly said before rushing out of your front door and walked to the gate of your house.
Locking the gate, you began to wait outside of your house. You had a bus ride at morning, but you were free to commute after school. Amihan began to hit your skin as you shuddered. For 5 am, it was surely cold and dark. It always has been.
Waiting patiently, you looked to the newly neighbor you had met yesterday and found a boy — around your age — waiting in front of his gate as well.
“Huy!” You yelled out loud, approaching him. He flinched, instantly looking towards your direction. “Ugh, another one of those Filipino women.” He complained.
You obviously found an offense to it as you punched his arm playfully. “Ow, what was that for?”
“What do you mean by one of those Filipino women?” You asked, crossing your arms. “Oh, you’re fluent. For once, this goddamn country has given me someone to talk to,” He rolled his eyes, flicking your forehead.
“Aray ko punyeta ka tangina mo!” You held your forehead, cursing out in pain. “For a Filipino Girl, you do know how to curse,” He mumbled, smirking. “I like that.”
He held out his hand, making you eye him cautiously. Was he pulling a trick on you?
“Michael. Michael Afton.”
You began to hum, slowly taking his hand in yours, shaking it. “…[Y/N]. [Y/N] [L/N],” you looked up to see his face, before feeling your heart skip a beat, eyes widening.
Oh boy, if his father was dead ass looking like a living zombie, then his son was an upgrade! He was hot as hell, blue eyes that could illuminate the dark streets. His perfume smells so good, and you couldn’t help but melt into the scent.
You found yourself blushing, before pulling your hand away. You fixed your posture and rocked back and forth. “Nice name you got there. Anyways, what’re you up to at this hour?”
“Waiting for the bus, apparently.” Michael nodded, understandingly. “Ah, me too. My father signed me up for this exclusive school, and he’s too tamad to bring me to school — neither am I looking forward to walk 30 minutes at 5 am everyday.”
You began to snicker. “Too tamad?” Michael rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms. “I’m still not fully used to the Filipino language, I wasn’t listening back in ninth grade.”
“Kaya pala,” You bit your lip. Suddenly, your bus began to appear itself from your point of view, stopping in front of the Afton household. “Well, that’s my ride, see you later after class!” You giddily said before running up to the door of the bus and opened it. You got inside, moving to your designated seat.
You were starting to wonder why on Earth was the bus not moving yet, that was until you felt the familiar scent of perfume sit right next to you. You looked up at Michael who blinked at you. “Surprise, I go to the same school.”
You sent him a confused face before examining his outfit — oh fuck. “God I’m so fucking dumb,” you groaned quietly, trying not to disturb the other students who were too tired on the bus and decided to sleep. You leaned your head on the head seat as you heard him let out a silent laugh.
“Yeah, you are. Bloody idiot,” you sent him a glare as he snickered, looking down on you.
“Pakyu,” you said in your Filipino accent, pulling up your middle finger. “Fuck you too,” He replied, sticking out his tongue.
You couldn’t admit he was handsome, but you were too tired to deal with his bullshit. “I met your dad yesterday, parang mukhang hindi natutulog,” You decided to strike up a casual conversation.
“That’s because he rarely sleeps. He used to work all the time in America, he’s doing the puyat thing in his work kwarto,” You can’t help but laugh at his choice of wording — and not to mention, it was fucking hilarious as shit to witness a British person not rolling the ‘R’s.
“What? What’s so funny?” He whispered, eyebrows furrowing. “I’m pretty sure I said the Filipino words right.”
“Oh, you are definitely not gonna survive Grade 10,” you stuffed your face into your bag, trying to contain your laugh. “And— And you said I was the dumb one, tapos ikaw pala yung tanga!”
Michael scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Whatever.”
The bus driver clicked his tongue and turned to you and Michael. “Huy!” You and Michael both flinched at the loud voice, turning to the driver. “Manahimik nga kayo! May natutulog!”
“Sorry na po, manong,” you apologized, snickering before turning to Michael. “He said to keep quiet. If it weren’t for you and your loud Britain voice—“
“I know what he said, [Y/N]. I’m not bobo,” Michael crossed his arms and legs, whilst you bursted out laughing.
“Sabi na ngang manahimik!”
“Sorry na po!”
And in just an hour, picking up the rest of the kids, you all reached school on time.