Five
“Its almost time, class. Remember your project for the 4th grading in Arts.” Mr. Rosales announced as he stood.“Family tree.” They all answered in chorus. Others sounded too bored to listen.Mr. Rosales nodded, “Make it creative. I don’t want to see a work of elementary or primary.” He paused as he glanced to each and everyone’s gaze, “I want an art from a 4th year high school, got it?”“Yes, sir.” Everyone answered almost at the same time.“See you tomorrow.” Mr. Rosales said his goodbyes before he exited the room.The moment he was gone, the bell rang for their dismissal. Everyone was almost to jump the moment they heard it. Each of them were hurriedly tidying their things and sprinted to the door. Others were chatting while heading to the door.Hannah was putting her notebook in her bag when Vanessa and Clarisse appeared at her back. She was too mindless to notice their presence.“Hannah, wanna join us on a walk going home?” Clarisse offered with a smile.Hannah gave them a quick look over her shoulder, “Maybe next time ladies.” She turned to them as she put the straps of her backpack on her shoulder.With a teasing smile, Vanessa moved closer to her and whispered, “Perhaps your going out on a date.”Hannah hissed as she pushed her with a grumpy face, “You consider tutoring as a date?”Vanessa softly chuckled, “He will probably teach you more than Mathematics.”Hannah grimace with a half smile, “He’s too handsome to date me.”“And you're too gorgeous to like him.” Clarisse immediately butt in.As Hannah threw them a glare, Clarisse and Vanessa giggled while peeking on King who standing behind Hannah and turned his head halfway to them. Possibly, listening to them chatting.“Whatever. I'll see you tomorrow with good news from you.” Vanessa teased with a playful smile and wink at Hannah. She held up her head to have a good look at King who was standing behind Hannah, “See you tomorrow, Carnillo.”King turned to them and gave Vanessa a small smile, “Keep safe, Guillermo.”“I'm out. Take care.” Clarisse spoke with a warm smile as she waved her hand at Hannah.Vanessa glanced at Hannah again as she waved her hand at her before she left with Clarisse behind her. Hannah was only staring at them with a smile on her face that she didn't notice.“Let’s go?” King approached her in a low voice.Hannah lightly flinched as she turned to King and nodded. Together they left the room, passing by their classmates that were standing at the door. They walked through the crowded hallway in silence as they made their way to the gate.“I'm craving for Takoyaki.” Hannah grinned as she looked at King to wait for his approval.King excitedly smiled, “Lets go.”They take the road on left of their campus and go straight ahead. They turn left when they find a crossroad and they found a stall at the end of the road. Students are gathered in front of it. Eating, ordering and others are paying. Some are sitting on their heels at the side road while eating.The two are so excited when they walked through the students that gathered in front of it. King's eyes was wondering at the sale's ladies who were busy serving and accepting payments from the customers.Later, a sale's lady noticed him and walked to him with a smile, “Can I take your order, sir?”“Two serves of Takoyaki and two orange juice please.” King ordered.“Right away, sir.” The sale's lady immediately answered and sprinted to get his order.“I got it.” Hannah presented, before King could thought of paying it, as she reached for her pocket and pulled out her wallet.Less than a minute, the sale's lady came back with his order. King takes the two medium size paper cups, then Hannah pulls out a money from her wallet and gives it to the sale's lady as she takes the orange juices from the other hand of the sale's lady, before she put her wallet back to her pocket.After having their orders, they went back to the road that they took before as King handed her cup of Takoyaki and Hannah also handed his orange juice. While they are passing, they found a vacant bench at the side walk and decided to sit there. They put their orange juice beside them and started biting the Takoyaki they have using the chopsticks enclosed it.“I really love eating Takoyaki and this one is the best of it.” Hannah complimented while chewing.After swallowing, King turned at her with a small smile, “Their Takoyaki is my favorite.”She didn't respond. She is so enjoying the Takoyaki to the point that she didn't notice that her mouth was so full of it and having difficulties to chew. She put down the paper cup beside the orange juice and take the juice instead. She opens the bottle and immediately drink from it.King was calmly eating when she unexpectedly spit tiny pieces of the food from her mouth, including the orange juice that she just drank. She was coughing as put back the orange juice and covered her mouth with her hands. He turned and narrowed his eyes at her. He quickly pulled out a red handkerchief from his right pocket and handed it to her. Without any further, she takes the handkerchief and softly pressed it on her mouth, including the sides of it and her jaw.She looks down at her uniform with a grumpy face, “Now my uniform is ruined and stained.” She complained while wiping the part of her uniform were the juice spilled.He smirked, “Its not that bad.”She breath out, “You think?” She sounded so disappointed.“Definitely.” He paused as a mischievous smile flashed on his face, “You look 50% fine and 50% mine.”She quickly lifted her head and looked at him with brows meet, “What?”His mouth opened as he blinked. He could feel his palms getting cold. It’s appears that he regretted what he said earlier and wanted to take it back. He felt that he embarrassed himself in front of a girl. But words can never take back once it came out from the mouth.Their eyes meet. It makes Hannah stuck as a smile slowly forming on her face. King nervously chuckled as he looked back to his food and continued to eat.She was starting at him while King was trying to avoid her looked, “Don’t you think your… little fast, King?” She paused, hesitant if she would say what's on her mind. She caught him looking at her from the corner of his eyes.After swallowing, he turned at her with a serious face and peered at her eyes, “You know what's fast, Hannah?” His voice was deep and soft.With a playful smile, she joked, “Speed bar soap?”He chuckled, though his heart was pounding, “Will you marry me?” He was unable to surpass his nervous smile.She burst out in laughter. She laughed away the unexplainable nervous that she felt, making her feel uneasy.“What if I had a baby?” Her lips were twitching from surpassing a laugh.With a playful smile, he replied, “You already have one.”She laughed shortly as she covered her mouth with her hand, “Who might that be?”He glanced at his juice as he chuckled and peered straight to her eyes, “His name is Daniel King Carnillo.”She breathe out a laugh as she pressed her palm on her mouth, “You're a teenager, King. Not a baby.”With a wide grin while poking his chopsticks on the Takoyaki, he mumbled, “I might be a teenager but I'm your baby.”She looked down as she giggled while squeezing the handkerchief, “Do you know what red symbolizes?”His brows meet, staring at the Takoyaki that he was poking, “Possibly, love?”She was surpassing a giggled smile when she looked at him, “Yes?”He turned and met her gaze with an inspirational smile, “What about the next topic after Polynomials? Any idea?”She breathed out with eyebrows crossed, “Why the heck are you asking me? You have an idea in your mind?”For a second, he stared at her, holding back a chuckle, “Well, I'm absolutely positive that it will be the square root of you to the power of me is equal to 143, to the base of infinity.”She pressed her lips together to prevent the butterflies in her stomach to make her giggled, though her cheeks are flushing red, “Wow. I will gladly study hard to pass that topic.”His face suddenly became serious and emotionless, “You don't need to pass. Because you already fail in me.” His voice was low and deep.For a minute, it feels like they were the only people in the world as they stared at each other's smile. They were both grinning as they felt the mysterious vibration between them that made them comfortable to each other. It was something new to them so they let themselves overwhelmed as it take over the best of them.Six“Good morning, grandpa.” King greeted as he was passing by at the living room where his Grandpa Alexander was sitting, reading a newspaper with a cup of coffee on the table in front of him.“Good morning, son.” Alexander replied and suddenly his brows raised as he turned to look at King. He saw his grandson walking to the kitchen with a charming smile. He just shrug and pay his attention back to the newspaper.“Good morning, mom.” King greeted as he went to table in the center of the kitchen and sat.Jenalyn was busy frying a fish as she turned her head halfway. Enough to see him sitting while energetically smiling at her.“Hey, what’s with that sparkling smile?” She teased as she flipped the fish and decreased the fire of the stove.He raised his brows as he shrug, “What? Don’t I smile like this before?”“Yea... But not as sparkling as it seems.” She turned off the stove and removed the fish from the frying pan. She put it in a rectangular stainless, together with the fried fish
Seven-Hannah Mae De Vera's POV –I was looking down as I put my hands together. I'm kind of unsettled with this idea dropping by at King's house. He invited me for a dinner and I said yes to it without thinking. And now, here I am. Dealing with my cold chills in my palms as my heart beats fast.“Hey, cool it.” I heard him say as he glanced at me, “My mom is good and friendly. She will like you.”I lifted my eyes to see a glimpse of his face with a small smile and I looked back down, “I hope so.”I didn't notice that we were standing on the porch until he took a deep breath. I lifted my head as I looked at him. He seems tense but he tried to act calm. He looked at me when he noticed that I was staring at him. He forced a tense chuckled that made me feel even awkward.“I’m sorry. It’s my first time to introduce a girl to my mother.” His smile was so innocent and sincere.I softly chuckled as I looked down and played with my fingers, “It’s also my first time to be introduced by a guy.”
Eight-Hannah's POV –“Sweetie, it’s almost 7 am. Why aren't you dressed yet?” I heard my mother's soft voice.I turned my head halfway to see her worried face, walking towards me. I grab my milk from the small table in front of me and take a sip.I was sitting on the couch of our living room. Completely lost in my thoughts. I don't know why I had this heavy feeling after King invited me to his house. His grandfather's reaction keeps on crossing in my mind. It feels weird to me that he knew my mother and Veronica? He called me Veronica back there. Does he mean my Grandma Veronica?After sipping my milk, I put it back on the table. I looked down as I pressed my palms together. I felt my mother sat next to me and I could also feel her eyes staring at me. But I didn't bother to look at her. I was drowned in my thoughts.“Penny of thoughts, sweetie?” Her voice was so calming and soft but behind that I could sense her concern.I swallowed as I took the courage to open up to her, “Mom, do
Nine-Daniel King's POV –I was leaning my back against my locker as I was waiting for someone to pass by. I already made an excuse to Hannah so she went to our classroom ahead of me. I am so bothered about the report cards that I saw in Hannah's Science textbook, including the old photo. Well, about that photo, I stole it from her and I had it in my pocket. I let my instincts get the best of me so I ended up in this. I just have this anxious feeling that I need to know this. Though it makes me uncomfortable, something from the back of my mind tells me to do this.Finally, I saw him approaching with his company. They were hardly laughing for something that their voices echoed in the entire hallway. When he saw me looking at him, he surpassed his laughter but still wearing his mocking smile.“Hey genius, did you just saw a hunk actor?” Sanchez mocked as he smirked and his company chuckled.I faked a smile, “I need my report card, Sanchez. I need to return it to Mrs. Onevic as possible
Ten-Daniel King's POV -I saw my grandpa warming up in front of the main door, the moment I step out of my bedroom. He used to have a jogging routine every weekends, early in the morning. I wanted to talk about something important to him so coming up with an idea of tagging along with him would be the best way.“Going on a jogging, grandpa?” I asked as I was approaching him.He breath out, “As usual, son.” He paused as he raised his brows, “You know, getting older means getting more exercise.”I gave him my warm smile, “Can I tag along? I also feel like going on a jogging.”He narrowed his eyes at me like he was examining my smiling face, “Okay.” He shrugs, “I hope you can keep up.”I wear my usual smile and grandpa opens the door. We both step outside as the cold breeze of March hits our skin. I wear a hoodie to cover my head and ears while grandpa wears a singlet and a face towel around his neck.We started to walk for a few miles but I didn't sweat too much. Just a few droplets f
Eleven-Hannah Mae's POV –I was sitting on the couch when I heard the door crack. I hope it’s mom and grandma. They went on a jogging early this morning and I forgot to ask mom about our photo album. You know, family tree. Project in Arts.I lifted up my head to have a good look at the door. And good thing that I saw mom entered and followed by grandma behind her and closed the door.“What took you so long?” I approach them.Mom turned her head at me and she was taking deep breathes as she was approaching towards me.“Do you really need to yell?” She respond under her breath and sat on the couch across me. She reaches for the towel on her shoulder and wipes her sweat away.I was about to open my mouth and released a protest when I got interrupted by grandma.“We happened to see your classmate, dear.” Grandma inform as she sat next to me.I narrowed my eyes at her and grandma tu
Twelve - Daniel King's POV – I’m at the locker hallway taking slow steps towards the room. Lost in thoughts. After what I heard from grandpa, I started to overthink things. Random possibilities keep on flashing in my mind. It gets me more uneasy. Later on, I suddenly flinch when I feel something warm on my cheek. I quickly turned to find out what was that and I saw Hannah smiling at me. She was holding a two regular sized of coffee cups. I blink as I get my thoughts together. My heart slowly beating fast as I looked down. Should I say hi to her? Should I even smile back? She extends her arm and hands me the coffee on her left “Coffee?” Her voice was so cheerful and sweet to my ears. It will be rude if I reject it so I slightly move my eyes to get a small view of the coffee and take it from her hand. “Thanks.” I murmured without looking at her. “Do you have an answer to our science assignment?” She asked. Her voice was normal but it has this effect in me that makes me calm. W
Thirteen - Hannah Mae’s POV – I could feel glances from everyone in the room while we are doing our group activity. Everyone might seem to be busy with the activity but I could vaguely hear gossips about me and King. Like hello? It’s none of their business. Why are they butting their noses? “De Vera, are you done with the task 5?” One of my group mates asked me. They probably notice that I am completely far away from this world. “Uh… Yeah…” I answered out of senses. I immediately opened my book and look for a piece of ¼ sheet of paper where I wrote my answer. I hand it over to our team leader, Clarisse, and she takes it from me. I catch King looking at me from the corner of my eye. I immediately turn to him and meet his gaze but by the moment I lay eyes at him, he is already looking away. Everything feels awkward after he woke up from a few minutes of maybe shock after I kissed him. We all sat in a circular form and he sat across me. He was poking his pen in his paper while look