Lalaban Para Sa Tatlong Letra

CHAPTER 3

Clathea's Point Of View

Eyes bulging out of my head
"Do you want us dead!?"
Please, no yelling.
"Would you mind if I open the window?"

With a touch of lint from my thorns?
Fiddle while rome burns
Oh, Aragota, is this your turn?

Threaded full of rose
Cackled and toyed the pose
"Would you mind if I count your dose?"
Aragota, you're faster than my horse!

Steam coming out of my ears
Eyes flowing with tears
I'm out of gear
Oh wait, is that my fear?

Rock back and forth
"Where is your worth?"
Don't take me to the court!
Aragota, how far is your route?

If I open again the windo—
"Break the rail, I'm now gasping for air!"
Aragota, stop twirling my hair!
"Come to my lair and dance with me full of despair"

Second semester of first year, I forgot my prepared nametag for our recollection so I came back from our classroom, I found a piece of paper from the ground, particularly under Ara's chair. I thought it was a piece of trash but when I glance the paper, there was a named that caught my attention so I checked what's written on it.

It's a poem.

"Aragota" is the title of the poem and was created by Ara. When we talked about our highschool friends, she told us that she has this one friend named "Aragota" and according to her, Aragota was eccentric, she visits Ara unexpectedly or sometimes when she got home Aragota was already there. And we were like that's not eccentric, I mean may mga klaseng kaibigan talaga na ganiyan like childhood friend or ldr friends.

If you can really notice the poem. It's like a conversation of two persons.

I'm a writer and also create a lot of poems but that poem sounds disturbing. Is Aragota was really her friend?

Beside, we never see Aragota's face or marks. We never discuss about Aragota again with so much details because every time we do, Ara was so quick to divert the topic.

Hindi ko din ma-open up ang tungkol sa tulang nakita ko kay Ara because every time I'm attempting to do so, something is stopping me. Para bang mali na binasa ko 'yon at nagkaroon ng sariling interpretasyon.

I like the friendship we have now. It's just.. Ara is still in a state of crepuscular for me. She's not an open book, she's hard to understand sometimes.

Unlike us, she's not vocal with her problems. Nalalaman na lang namin 'yon sa mga sabi-sabi ng mga tao sa kapaligiran namin. And when we're asking this, she only confirms it with yes or no or can be indirect form of saying yes or no and done. End of the topic. There's no room even for a single how or why.

Maybe because we need more time and she needs to realized that she can tell something heavy and we will listen.

She came from an infuential family. They are known for their great expertise on their chosen field. Her mother is a doctor and her father is a successful business man. Aside from her parents, her uncles are also successful engineers and politicians. Her cousins are also achiever. Shane and I were so convince that Ara was pressured because of their family reputation.

From our observations, she hated failures and mistakes. She's always on time and passes her assignments early as possible. She's afraid getting low scores so she wreck her time studying and studying. A grade na hindi nac-cut-off is one of her biggest nightmare.