Some students were still scribbling on their paper while Marcelo Reyes went around the room, collecting the papers.   “I’ll give you five more minutes, turn in your paper by then. We’ll be electing our class officers, so start thinking about whether you’re interested in a position.”   He then wrote the word PRESIDENT on the board.   Since he didn’t have to do anything else other than wait for them all to turn in their papers, Marcelo Reyes sat down on his chair at the front.   He skimmed through their papers and stopped when his gaze landed on a familiar name but unfamiliar handwriting.   Dawn C. Salcedo  

Within the city, her parents owned a couple of properties, one of them is in the downtown area. It was only a couple of blocks away from Trinity Institute. She could even walk all the way there but to save time and conserve energy, she would ride an auto rickshaw.   The house located in their property was now where her sister’s family lived. During school days, she would stay there to have lunch so she didn’t have to travel all the way to their house in the suburbs as it would make her late for school. Her mother also thought it was better for her to have home made meals as it would be healthier. She would also be able to rest there before going to class in the afternoon.   “How was your first day back at school?” Tara is Dawn’s second older sister

A week has gone by since classes had officially begun. Students were now required to wear their school uniform; white polo and navy blue pants for the boys and white short sleeved blouse with navy blue bow and long pleated skirt for the girls.   Dawn had already set a routine for herself on school days.On the day before, she would iron her uniforms and prepare her school bag. She would then wake up early to cook breakfast. Sometimes it would be a simple omelet and pancakes or toasted bread. If they have left over rice from the previous night, she would make fried rice out of it in the morning. Ever since Dawn started doing this, Anita had to wake up earlier as well since she didn’t want Dawn to be late for school. So she would help in chopping the ingredients. After a while, she learned how to make the omelet the way Dawn does it so from then, she would be making the omelet while Dawn makes t

Evelyn Vargas scanned the room. She has been looking for potential writers for the school paper of which she was its moderator.   She hoped that through this quiz she could find someone to recruit from this grade. But as she looked at the class’ faces, it was near impossible. The only ones who didn’t seem as nervous were those in the honor rolls.   “Alright, class. Pay attention. Hand me the paper with the score of Fifty..” She called out, not really expecting anyone to get a perfect score. She was about to move on to the lower number when she heard some students fussing on the side.   “Go.. give it to her!”   “Huh? Ah! Oh..” He s

The class went smoothly after that with the students afraid of triggering their teacher’s temper again. “Get a half sheet of paper, lengthwise.” Cyrus Montecillo instructed. Only the sound of their bags zipper and paper being cut in half filled the room. There were no whispers exchanged or any big movements made. Those who were asking for paper or pen were asking using hand gestures. Dawn’s brows knitted together, her lips pursed. She was worried for Valerie who hasn’t lifted her head since it happened. She turned to Aria, who was also looking at Valerie. “Number 1..” Cyrus started asking the questions, repeating it twice before moving to the next question. The ones in the h