high school

i had dreams set in the high school setting on the last couple of days. not that it matters that much, but i guess it had something to do with my having read an article by mabelle. when i woke up last night a lot of memories came flooding back. i even remembered the writings in my handbook and looked for it, but i was in vain. so i just sat there and let the very random memories take over me.

i remember how private it felt when i sit with my friends on the grass just far enough from the small building that was our school. i remember the wild bushes and grasses at the side and the back of the school. i remember the first time we went to STEC, Basak and the way the airplanes' deafening roar would somewhat make us pause.

i remember the time when keith and i had to go into the side of the building to look for a frog for a stupid science experiment. we went all the way through the grasses to the runway (the airport isn't too far away) but we didn't catch any frog. we went back to our room and ended up using atan's blood (he accidentally got wounded) for the science activity.

there was also that time when we had to plant a tree and clean up a portion of land near the tree house so that we could plant monggo seeds. roi had an idea. why don't we just burn that little area so that we wouldn't have to pull out the weeds? the weeds were very dry and it was easy to start the fire. we went to fetch water as soon as the fire was big enough. we went to the well for water but before we could go back to the plot near our tree houses, we heard neighbors screaming for help. they were shouting that their houses are going to be burned down easily once the fire reaches any of their houses. i was thinking, what fire? where? and it turned out that it started from no less than the fire i and roi made.

i remember getting stones for the rock garden at the back of the building. the rock garden was quite nice and i was proud of it. i remember keith's drawing of the class which was hung just above the whiteboard. i remember the mulit-colored sheets that we used to cover our tables, especialy the table i shared with mabelle in second year and the way we would sit and sing songs in the corner with fernando or marlon's accompaniment.

the chaos that was our class in third year was unforgettable, too. it got very noisy when the teacher was not around. we were naughty but still we were very productive. our stage plays went nicely. i also remember how beautiful aiza looked during the prom. on the very last days of our fourth year there wasn't much academic pressure and it was fun. sometimes we would lock the air conditioned room, turn off the lights, turn the radio on, and yes, sleep. sometimes we would play the "kamatayan" in the swing or just sit around gossiping, playing chess, drawing, painting, taking turns playing the guitar, making creative syntheses and all the things high school students ought to do.