Unspoken

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

 Ten Years Ago

         “There they are,” I told Becca. I waved at Marisyl and Chrissy. They waved back and we walked unhurriedly to where they were seated.

         We have not rounded the corner of the canteen when we saw our friends start to shout at each other, so we took up our pace to find the screaming match getting more heated.

         Marisyl was pointing a finger at Chrissy, ” You are nothing but a second rate, trying hard, copycat,” and she pretended to slap her.

        Chrissy in turn lifted her face, then bore down her eyes as if trying to burn Marysil with a look and said her classic piece, “My brother is not a pig!”

        It went on like this for awhile. We practiced our acting skills using and abusing lines that made many Filipino actors famous.

         Our high school cafeteria was on the second floor where the theater was also situated. We were the so called “Thespian Club”.  I was the scriptwriter , the extra and comedian, Becca was the leading lady as well as the director, Marisyl was the leading man ( when there were no male cast in the group) and Chrissy our stage manager. Well, since we were short of hands we doubled as crew and actors. The “Thespian Club” usually hang out there in the caféteria.

           We were chilling out in the cafeteria and just killing time. What we do was we rated guys on looks, on a scale from one to ten, ten being the highest.

 A guy about 5’7’’ in height was carrying a tray with his lunch of burger, salad and water sat at the next table. “Eight”, said Maria Sylvia, aka Marisyl. She wasn’t looking at the guy but straight at Becca who was six months older and wiser than all of us. Her voice would scare off a cobra about to pounce.

            “Definitely,” replied Rebecca.

             We trained ourselves to rate guys using our peripheral vision, and we became so good at it, it became a sport.

              The guy looked at Chrissy and nodded with a smile. I asked her who that guy was. She knew almost everybody.

             “That’s Bryan”. Chrissy didn’t follow it up with anything else which meant she wasn’t really interested.

              “Don’t look now but we have a nine coming. Oh, my God. He’s gorgeous.” Chrissy looked down on her notes to cover her blushing cheeks”.

                I turned to look . “Yuck, that’s my brother Wendell”.  Wendell was his usual affable self, laughing and bantering with a friend.Then everything went slow motion. I saw Ian walking languidly beside my brother. He was sporting a mussed up hairdo, scowling and smirking (if that were possible) at the same time. The two were carrying heavy bags loaded with wrestling stuff.

             “Wait, and who’s that hunk with him,’ Becca said before turning sideways pretending to be looking somewhere else.

             “That’s Ian Diaz, his friend,” I said nonchalantly, although I sensed the nudging and winking among the girls. Wendell and Ian approached us and I introduced them to my friends.

             “These are my classmates and playmates as in we’re all in the same play together,” I said.

             “Is that the one posted on the bulletin board? Midsummer Night’s Dream?” Ian asked.