CHAPTER ONE
7:45 AM AT, (USANT) University of Saint Anthony
The students gathered and greeted their teacher as a sign of respect.
"Good morning, Miss."
This is their first subject in the morning.
"You're perfect for this subject miss cause your so pretty attractive. It inspires me to study," the young man praised.
The teacher looked at him and smiled.
"Thank you, Mr. Dunner. Good morning, everyone. I'm Alyssa Mae Nacario, your Filipino teacher," she introduced herself.
"I heard that all the top students have enrolled in this section. Is it okay with you if I challenge your intelligence?" she asked.
The students looked surprised.
"It's an easy task, so you can breathe easy. It's a group activity," she assured them.
The students were silent after hearing the teacher's instructions. It's embarrassing to find a group, especially on the first day of school.
"Don't worry about finding a group because your partner will be the person sitting next to you," she added.
One student stood up.
"Ma'am, what does this mean? On the first day of school, we already have an activity. How can we do this if we don't have any idea?" he asked, and the other students nodded in agreement.
"Is there a problem, mister? Maybe you think that because I'm pretty, I'm not strict," the teacher asked.
"You need to finish this before 8:30 AM. Good luck," she added.
"O-okay, sorry," the young man apologized.
The teacher smiled.
"Can we start then? Okay, make a spoken word poetry about love. Show me your work, and go to the front to present it," she instructed.
LIAM'S POV
"Is that all we have to do? It's so easy. I wish it were this easy to escape all my problems. As always, I'll pretend not to know what to do because I'm good at pretending that everything is fine."
ANGEL'S POV
"What could be this guy's problem? He looks like he's thinking deeply."
Instead of overthinking, I mustered up the courage to convince him to work with me, or else we'll both be in trouble.
"Hey you!" I called out.
LIAM'S POV
Wait, has she been looking at me all this time?
"Yes, are you my groupmate? You surprised me, I thought you were absent. Don't worry, I can do this alone," I said, trying to sound confident.
ANGEL'S POV
So that's why he looks so deep in thought, he's just full of himself. As they say, you'll never know unless you try.
"Excuse me, but there are only two seats beside each other, right? And what do you mean by absent? I've been here since earlier, maybe your arrogance is blinding you!" I retorted.
"Okay, okay. You said you can do this alone, so go ahead and do it before we run out of time," I added.
LIAM'S POV
Wow, this girl's got some guts. Let's see if she can handle this.
"I've tried so many times to think of a new way to say it, and it's still I love you," I said, trying to test her.
ANGEL'S POV
I just shrugged my shoulders and took a deep breath.
"Hmph!" I muttered.
LIAM'S POV
She's so tough, like a rock. I've used meaningless pick-up lines on other girls and they'd be swooning by now, but this girl is not affected at all.
ANGEL'S POV
He probably thought that just because he's handsome, he could easily charm me. And that line, someone already told me that before, haha. Let's see.
"What's the connection? This is a Filipino subject. Hey, Mister Arrogant, I don't know if you're just stupid or really stupid. Can you please cooperate with me now? I might get scolded because of you."
I feel embarrassed because he's staring at me. "You're cute when you're angry, yieeee," he joked.
"I'm serious here."
"I'm serious too. I'm serious about you, yieeeee," he teased.
ANGEL'S POV
What's going on in this guy's head? We're running out of time for our blank paper, doesn't he care about his grades?
"Hey, can you take this seriously?"
I held the pen I was holding up to his side.
"Will you cooperate or will I have to poke you?"
LIAM'S POV
Aside from having a stone heart, this girl is also a fighter. Wait, is she really a girl?
"This one's not a joke. Can you please remove that pen from my side, it might leave ink on my uniform."
"Are you going to cooperate or not?"
"Okay, okay, I'll help."
I breathed a sigh of relief because we finally finished. All we needed to do was to represent the spoken word we wrote.
"Finally, we're done. Thank you for your cooperation, Mister. Are you ready to go to the middle?"
I was surprised when she suddenly tapped me to go to the center. Our classmates looked at us and couldn't help but scream.
Ship!!!
Ma'am, we don't need to elect Lakan and Lakambini anymore. Let these two be, yieeeee. Our gay classmate said.
The teacher stood up. "Quiet down, guys. They're about to start."
I set aside my nervousness and began exchanging words with her.
ANGEL: I know that all of this is not real, it's just a dream. Where this world is not real and even the love you show me in this dream, because in reality we're not really together. You don't really want me.
LIAM: It's sad but I have to accept that you're just a dream for me and that's where it ends because no matter what I do, you and I can never be together.
We stared at each other after saying those words.
For now, you're not together!
Yeah, maybe tomorrow we'll hear news that you are already together, yieeeee!
You can make that dream come true in reality.
Our classmates teased us.
"Okay Montemayor, Delosantos, you may take your seats now," our teacher said with a smile.
LIAM'S POV
I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, so I discreetly took it out and looked at the text message.
Text message:
"I won't be able to go home with you later."
"What is this girl thinking? If she won't go with me, then it's better. I already asked her not to call or text me during class hours."
ALFRED DUNNER
"Hey, I read that. You're texting the leader of our university's cheering squad and you didn't even tell me."
"So what? What do you want to happen?"
ALFRED DUNNER
"Text her back, dude. Don't waste the opportunity."
"Shut up, dude. You're so noisy."
LIAM'S POV
I raised my hand.
"Uhmn, ma'am?"
"Yes, Mister Delosantos?"
"May I go out? I just need to go to the clinic, I'm not feeling well."
"Okay, Mister Delosantos, you may go. Can you walk by yourself?"
"I can, ma'am. Thank you."
