Anakdatu - Chapter 16：An update on the happenings (A narrative)

Hey there, Ramil Liwayway here, well it has been 4 months since the fish ball talk on the bench of us three and to be honest, I will tell you my dear readers, it has been the best 4 months of my life because a.) there are no assailants or bad guys who tried messing our vibe up and b.) we’ve got the chance for us three to know more about each other.

For the 4 months, I just did the usual things again and again, sorta like a routine, just like what a student does. I wake up every morning, train, eat my breakfast, go to school, succeed, walk with my two friends home and study when I got home, send my mission log of the day to Datu Macabulos and again and again.

Me and John, well, we have lots of misadventures because Elise, as always, is doing her “other” school things, she is awesome that way. We made a food fight in the cafeteria a few weeks ago, oh I remembered the rice porridge (the good thing, it is cold that time) in a plastic bag that hit John’s face and splak! Oh the good times. But of course, we were suspended for a day and 5 hours of community service after that. It’s cool anyways.

And then some weeks ago again, me and John, we kinda joined the basketball team (I liked basketball you know) tryouts and it was fun, it turned into chaos after that, because we turned basketball into a dodgeball fight and sadly, I didn’t made it into the team for the reasons that I did it on intention because I want John to join. So happily, John was recruited for the basketball team even he has a very scrawny physique, I am sure he can survive the training.

For the meantime as my wingman is in his training and my damsel, Elise is in her break after all her activities, I took the chance on knowing Elise better and no, I didn’t took any moves or whatsoever, I am just being a friend and also the need to protect her. Every class, we will just chat about silly things, and of course smart things too like lessons and so on until the class nominated us both as the class’ “Power couple.” And All I keep on telling them is that we are not a couple. And now I’ve lived with it and I just smile whenever they say those to us.

Oh, and remember the day of the bump in the cafeteria? The days after that, indeed I was likewise famous, people asking me how do I manage to talk to Elise and that, but I just waved them off. I don’t like them messing around with my friends. Or else, I would unleash havoc to them, but of course, I need to maintain my cool and remember that I am an agent and I have a mission not to make friends but to protect Elise on any kind of assault or harm.

Well, yeah, there are no utmost attacks in the last four months which makes me worriless, but still, I feel uncomfortable like why aren’t they making moves and so on? And then the dream I had a very long time ago suddenly reappeared on my mind; scrawny Santa Claus saying that they will wait for the right time which made me worry more than ever.

So back to me and Elise, yeah, we hung out most of the time, chatting about ourselves, of course I used the background story I told John, and then I learned many things about Elise herself. She lived in Manila and when she was somewhat around 4 years old, they moved here into Batangas for refuge. She told me that she was born in a midst of a shooting and that her dad died moments that she was born from protecting she and her mom from the bad guys and the good thing is that she and her mother escaped the hospital after that and that is what her mom tells her but for Elise, her dad was still alive except her mother never tells her what is her father’s name. I don’t know but I think I felt a warm feeling in me when I felt that, like I saw that one time in a dream in which I felt it is insignificant in that time but yeah.

She also told me about weird things that happened in her life such as weird stalkers that comes in the form of janitors, ice cream vendors and of such anonymity no one could ever figure as stalkers. And also she told me a weird coincidence that whenever she cries, it rains but she has no idea why it always happens that’s why he keeps on being positive. She told me many things about her life, and she told me that her favorite ancient Greek person is Atalanta because she symbolizes that women can be in the same level as men. She is also part of all the organizations on the whole school from school paper, choir, dance troupe, basketball for women, basketball, soccer, badminton, tennis and such, all and everything.

We hung out most of the time for a long time because our dear friend is very busy and we rarely meet after that tryout. We can’t wait on his athletic body transformation after all those training but yeah, we’ll see. Me and Elise, we formed a very close relationship after that, telling each other our problems, our opinions and such and she became my best friend, on a higher level than John because John is yeah, busy. Once we went to a café in the city of Batangas, and took some frappes, I remember telling Elise a joke and she laughed so much, so much that the earth shook and caused a tremor. I am starting to think it’s not just because of coincidence but I think Elise has a different past, perhaps an Anakdatu too? I assumed that our very past is interconnected with each other that is why we had a sudden electric shock when we touched but who knows. Eve also told me that she has a very strong energy field around her, sort of a magnetic field which makes me more confused.

We played the arcades in malls in which she is good at almost everything in there, had food trips in which I teased her as a glutton because she eats so much, did some karaoke (her voice is so angelic.), and did maths. I walk with her to her house bringing her stuffs and so on every day. School is cool these times, I may have caused some offences from my misadventures but I’ll be a better student.

I have called my parents too asking how were they and they were good and they missed me so much that Mom cried because of missing me but heck, I did miss them too so much. I asked how was The Hut, Macabulos and the other Datus and they said everything is okay and I promised them that I will stay safe. And yes, we had an exchange of stories on the happenings here. I also asked if I have any grandmothers here in Batangas and told them about the lady who was looking for some things. When my mom heard that, she had a sudden pause and looked at my dad with fear but they dismissed that thought and bade goodbye after that.

After some weeks, finally John was back and yep, he looked damn ripped and buff from training, almost my body physique, almost in a million times of training. We just hung out then and now to our same spot in the bench outside, talked about the past few weeks and so on, and then life goes on. We just lived, laughed and enjoyed life.

Oh well, that’s it mostly, I guess. The circle of life just keeps rolling and I hope I hadn’t jinxed the bad guys for they haven’t attacked for a very long time. But of course I never let my guard down.

But boy, I was so wrong.