Chapter 8

“In about a decade’s time we will all live using clean energy”

Neil states proudly after concluding his report on the electric energy movement that is now sweeping the globe. He even has toy models of the current prototypes of the electric car’s that are going to be supplied on Philippine shores as a means of introducing electric powered vehicles in the country for the people to try out. Everyone cheers and claps for the boy as he takes a bow to receive the praise his peers were giving him.

‘And how do you think these cars are going to be powered?’ A voice from the back echoed through the room which silenced the cheers that had erupted. Neil tips his toes to find the voice that disrupted his celebrations. A single raised hand erected high and straight in the middle of the back row stood still and true and as everybody sat down and calmed an eerily beautiful face emerged. Her pigtails were now braided and hung low on her shoulders as opposed to how she usually wore them and her smile had a devilish tone that would make any student crumble under pressure as she always looked like she knew the answers to the questions she asked.

‘Ahh class prez, how “unexpected” really…’ Neil replies with a somber tone.

‘Well there are no established stations yet… but once these prototypes have gone through public opinion there might be an uprise in the companies wanting to invest in this new business venture of electric charging stations across the country.’

‘Might…’ She replied. The whole room, quiet and a single word, destroys the argument.

‘Dammit Yukino what’s your point?!’ Retaliated Neil, who was now clearly frustrated at the class president quizzing him on an extra credit sci-tech report on current scientific breakthroughs. ‘My point is that your report is biased against the use of current petrol powered vehicles. It’s pointless, unless you wanna stretch your timeline to fifty years or so when fossil fuels completely disintegrate.’

‘Listen Prez, I strongly believe that this is the future and that this future is rapidly closing and if I can spread awareness now maybe, just maybe our generation could learn to appreciate alternative sources of energy.’ He responds. ‘Or if that didn’t satisfy you well "Tl;dr" Why not? Why not use alternative energy for cars? But hey let’s not get too serious shall we? Besides, it’s just a science report can’t we just cool our jets for a sec?’

Yukino raised an eyebrow at Neil as she smiled with a response. ‘Cool my jets? I barely even talked.’

-RING-RING-RING-

‘Okay Neil, good report on the topic at hand. Meanwhile all you students study page 93 to 99 on different methods of energy production as we will have a test next meeting regarding the subject. “Dismissed” The teacher had spoken as he stood up, collected his belongings and walked out towards the classroom door.

“Goodbye and Thank you Mister Onizuka!” The class stands and bids him farewell in a chorus, a common practice in most schools.

It was already the final class of the day and everyone was excited to head on their way back home. Neil on the other hand looked perplexed while he was tidying up his materials as Yukino approached him with a warm smile. ‘Oh stop it, it’s just a report Neilsen…’ She said playfully.

He pauses and then replies: ‘Why me? I’m not the one taking it personally?’

‘Personally?’ She asked.

‘Well the last time I checked my Daddy didn’t have stakes in oil nor is he a Senator…’ He quipped, sending blood towards Yukino’s ears.

‘Well it’s up to you if you wanna put it that way… I’m just giving constructive criticism, that’s all.’ She answered as she walked away to exit the room. Neil just stares at her, doing her smug little turn as he shook his head in dismay at the spoiled, nosy female creature that ruined his spotlight. Meanwhile Pai was passing by the room where Neil was and spotted him packing up by the teacher’s table. ‘Hey!’ Pai greets him as he zips up his backpack, the very gesture itself made his heavy thoughts float ever so slightly as he comes up to Pai with a brofist in hand. ‘What’s up?’ Neil asked. ‘Nothing just passing by… What happened?’ Pai answered, noticing a frowned expression painted on his friend’s face.

‘That bitch happened…’ Neil irately replies as he points at the direction of the braided pigtailed girl at the end of the hallway.

‘Who’s that?’ Pai said as Neil frowns, confused but then realizes that the annual welcome assembly has not been held yet.

‘We call her the Double President, Yukino Loran, but don’t be fooled… she’s a bitch... the stuck up kind of bitch.’ He answers with a grinding grudge. Pai looks at him confused, asking why she is a Double President.

‘Cuz she’s the Student Council President and unfortunately the newly elected President of her cluster, which has been going on for the last two years.’ Neil replied. ‘Why? Hasn’t anyone stepped up to dethrone her?’ Pai asked. ‘Me…’ said Neil. ‘But she’s good at using your own words against you so… yeah… big fail.’ They both started to walk in the opposite direction of the girl in question. Neil continues to nag him about the negative qualities he finds in Yukino’s person while Pai politely nods to agree, reserving his judgement for when he finally meets her in person. He was starting to sense a bit of an ego lurking within Neil’s character which is why he now takes his word with a bit of a grain of salt.

‘It’s all political agenda I tell you, She’s against electric cars cause she knows well that it might drive her family out of business, or at least lose a high income market. It’s all about her father’s personal interest and not the people which pisses me off so much.’

‘Well although it’s bad I can’t blame her though..’ Said Pai, which he immediately regrets as he felt Neil’s anger slowly turning towards him. ‘I-- I mean… cuz its her family and… and… I think she’s just protecting them.... R--right?’ Neil takes a deep breath as he exhales long and loudly before turning his attention again towards Pai’

‘Yeah I think you’re right… but still… it’s corruption…’ Neil said with a disapproving tone. As a thought had embedded itself in Pai’s mind as he walked with him through the hallways of the school.

This wasn’t the kind of company Pai wanted from Neil. For the past week or so Pai has been on the edge of keeping himself “look and sound” proper. All the time he felt like he wasn't able to converse smoothly with Aida during their classes together and accidentally stammering his words when he was with Casper and Julian wasn’t making him feel any better. It made him feel like he was making his - now newfound - friends feel weird around him as he feared losing them because of it and now the toxic mood radiating from Neil wasn’t helping, although all of this might just exist inside Pai’s head, he wouldn’t know. He was so caught up in his own worries that it took him quite a while before he realized that he went silent again while with Neil, further increasing his worries.

‘Sorry about that…’ Neil surprisingly interjects as Pai was about to say the same. ‘Sometimes I just get so competitive about everything that I carry over the frustration to whomever friend I happen to be with at the moment.’ He continued, putting his hands inside his pant pockets. ‘You just encountered me at the wrong time, not that it’s your fault I mean, I was just in a bad mood...sorry you had to experience that.’

Pai looks at Neil as he felt guilt running through his veins as he he takes a deep breath and exhaled, replacing his worries with a smile on his face. ‘No biggie, just vent if you need to, tho a little heads up would be helpful.’ Pai replied as Neil smiles back at him, the act itself had cleared a heavy weight from Pai’s chest.

As they turned a corner they saw a beaming Aida Murai from a distance, she too had just finished her class and they had caught her talking to someone on the hallway just outside her classroom. There was something peculiar though, as Pai noticed, but he couldn’t pinpoint what. For some odd reason Aida looked and felt kinda different but the same, and strangely enough the difference faded the moment she had spotted them coming. Neil on the other hand had an eyebrow raised in suspicion, “maybe he has an idea?” Pai thought as they approached the two ahead.

‘Heyyyy guys… umm it turns out we’ve got another new student.’ She said awkwardly. Pai immediately noticed this as Denzo as he immediately held back with all his might to scream out that they knew each other. Denzo noticed this and shook his head discreetly to let him know that this would not be ideal.

‘Woah, where were you during the introductory meetings? I’m pretty sure I would’ve known by now we had another one.’ Neil said.

‘Oh umm… he just… he just started today…’ Aida replies, stuttering her sentences.

‘Why so late bud?’ Neil said in a joking manner, placing his hand firm on Denzo’s shoulder as he looked back unamused at Neil’s attitude towards him. Both Aida and Pai sensed this, feeling a bit uneasy at the current mood.

‘Oh sorry I forgot, this is Denzo Kalma by the way… Denzo meet Neilsen, Neilsen meet Denzo!’ She hastily injected as the tension rose uncomfortably.

‘Nice meeting you Denzo!’ Neil replied jolly as he extended his hand to shake his. Denzo responds in kind but squeezing the handshake a bit harder to make Neil wince slightly. ‘Nice to meet you too Neil but please…’ He said as he pulled him slightly closer. ‘No politics…’

‘Wow, so straight forward, I like it!’ Neil responds with a genuine interest in his eyes. ‘The world needs more people like you.’ Aida breathes a sigh of relief as the two look like they have gotten on well. She tells them she was going to Eggenham’s for lunch and asks if they could join her. Neilsen agreed nonchalantly while both Denzo and Pai hesitated but went along with it as well. The four of them headed straight for the huge cafeteria beside the football field. It was a two storey structure that was solely made to house long tables for different groups of students to use during their lunch break as the management felt the need to provide for an open spaced area where the student body could have supper as their research told them it would promote more creative and non linear thinking, which was weird, since their teaching methods require the opposite to succeed. Meanwhile as the group arrived they were greeted with a long line of students queuing up by the kitchen window barking out their orders.

‘Do you guys mind?’ Aida asked, concerned. ‘No worries, it smells good in here so the food must be nice.’ Denzo replied, which earned him a smile from Aida, an act that mesmerized Pai as he had never seen a more beautiful smile than hers before as Neil nudged him off his balance to wake him from his stupor. ‘Dude the line moved.’ He states as he points to the huge empty space in front of them. They spent the next fifteen minutes fidgeting around the cue as the noisy lower years crowd the whole of the lower floor, which irritated Denzo immensely. Thankfully Aida found a table on the second floor overlooking the swimming pool area as the cafeteria is also adjacent next to it, with the second floor connecting directly with the top of the bleachers with a chest high fence providing the only obstruction. Neil sat in the table last as he arrived with sizzling hot plate of “sisig”, which is a dish of sizzling minced pork sauteed in onions, garlic, butter and chili peppers, topped off with freshly cracked egg that you mix in as it cooked atop a sizzling hot plate. Both Pai and Aida had to jump out of the way to avoid the hot oil spraying all over the place as Neil set his lunch on the table, the golden crisp pork sizzling away as they say grace before eating. This Denzo fails to participate in, staring blankly as they finish.

‘You don’t pray?’ Pai curiously asked as Denzo shovels a spoonful to his mouth.

‘Nope’ He replied with a mouthful. Once again Neil started nagging the table with his complaints at the class president, his message, his point, mostly revolving around her ignorance with future technology and her PR focused politics which does nothing to elevate the dismal state of the school’s extracurricular activities which are always organized poorly and lacking any support from the “esteemed” faculty. As this went on for what seemed an eternity from Denzo’s perspective, his eyes had already started to wander as he observed his immediate surroundings, the intricacies of the metal works making up the chest high fence beside them. The bright turquoise of the swimming pool slowly setting after the last class had vacated as the school logo became ever so slightly readable the less the wave undulated. The slow spinning ceiling fans above them do nothing more in cooling as to keeping the air inside the building moving in and out its premises. And the slightly wrinkled face of a frustrated teenage boy who can’t seem to find anyone who could relate to his passions. For a moment he felt a tinge of sympathy for Neil as he felt the same way about his passions but the moment soon vanished after he had spoken the words “electric vehicle”

‘Really? Why? Asked Denzo.

‘Well we can’t run on gasoline for too long, the times are asking for it.’ Neil replied.

‘Well I sure am not…’ He replied, raising his brow high and proud over Neil’s gaze.

‘Why? It’ll promote green energy and it’s efficient and if we’re talking about the sound the silent whizz of an electric power unit has its own buzzing charm “and” it's as fast as a supercar racing at full song. Neil replies with an enthused gaze on Denzo’s face. An eagerness and positivity that for some reason started to make Denzo's blood boil.

‘I don’t buy it…’ Said Denzo stoically after a deep breath, his nerves kept in check.

‘Electrics are not cool and it’s dorky, I don’t like it. Besides, how do you think electric power is produced? And it’s components? Are they made out from factories powered by the same generators? It’s not as green as you think they are “bud”

‘Then what would you suggest is the main thing to power the future huh?’ Neil challenged, hoping to stomp him with his reply.

‘Nuclear.’

‘So you’d rather blow us up with cancer? Geez…’

‘Yup… cuz it’s the only thing you can take up in outer space.’

With this final sentence the whole table broke down in silence. Neil silently admits his defeat, Aida felt elated but had no clue on what Denzo said, and Pai sat there hoping that a fight won’t break out with his newly acquired friends where he’d be forced to choose a side. All these rambling thoughts disguised under the clanking of the plates as they tried to enjoy lunch on a beautiful blue sky at noon.

‘Anyways’ Neil suddenly bursts ‘What took you so long to finally show up for class? I mean it’s been a full week…’ Denzo replied with an irate gaze which unsettled Neil as he tried his best to keep from flinching his gaze.

‘It’s none of your business, as far as anyone is concerned, I’m attending my classes today, everyday for the rest of the semester.’

‘Alright, I apologize for being nosy but… hey i’m just askin’

They spent the rest of lunch mildly talking about things as they awkwardly try to always steer the conversation to include Denzo so as to not make him feel left out, but they always manage to bore him out of the topic. It wasn’t until the bells had rang that everybody felt a sigh of relief as they went on their separate ways, with Pai and Denzo walking back together as they coincidently shared a class after lunch. There was nothing to talk about during the walk up the classrooms as Pai twiddles his fingers as they walk, his slight unease magnifying with each step in silence. Denzo made sure to pick a seat far from Pai as he could and in the rest of the classes both had stayed silent with Pai the only one giving glances at Denzo, hoping he would glance back and acknowledge his existence. He was starting to feel that there was something wrong about him or that maybe this was actually his true colors but nonetheless it was far from the guy he had met that night where he saved him.

Halfway through the final period Pai saw the presidential posse passing by their classroom followed by the class that they were currently with. He catches a glimpse of Yukino Loran look over her shoulder as if she had spotted something inside their classroom and soon enough there was a knock on the door.

‘Who is it?’ The current teacher asked the class.

‘It’s Loran sir…’ One of the students answered as he signaled one of the students near the door to let her in.

‘Hi Sir Lino may I talk to you for a second?’ Yukino asked to which the teacher obliged. A few words were exchanged and after a moment, the teacher summoned Denzo to his side. Pai looked confused as to what was going on and after a few moments in observation, Denzo was let go from the room as he disappeared behind the door, presumably leaving with the Double President.

‘You know Attack 8?’ Yukino said as they both walked down the hall.

‘Yes why?’ He replies.

‘Well I’m running a little tournament you see and I’ve heard you got skills?’

‘Heard?’ Denzo squints his eyes in doubt.

‘Yes and if you accept I’ll pay you… is fifty thousand a good number?’

Before Denzo could open his mouth Yukino gave him a hard slap to his behind.

‘Woah there!’

‘Hold this! And don’t get any ideas, just business…’

Denzo grabs what Yukino had in hand, it is a plain white envelope and inside is a thick slab of crisp banknotes.

‘That’s ten upfront… you’ll get the rest after you win…’ She said as she briskly walks to get ahead of him.

‘Where exactly did you “hear” my skills?’ Denzo asked.

Yukino and her posse stopped in their tracks, focusing their gaze back at Denzo.

‘Why what’s it to you?’

Denzo pauses and then shrugs his shoulders as he hands back the envelope to Yukino.

‘I don’t like shady deals…’Denzo said

‘Shady? It’s just a game…’Yukino replies, downplaying his argument.

‘Really now? Cuz I’m pretty sure you’d have to hide it in order to operate it am I right?’

‘Hmm… fair point’ Yukino answered as she conceded her stance towards Denzo.

‘I know someone who works in “that” place, I believe you snuck in? If I’m correct I believe that would be called trespassing wouldn’t it?’ She said with a winning grin across her face.

Denzo, without words, knew what he had to do and followed suit. Yukino smiles and hands him back the envelope. He waited until they got into a hallway devoid of any students to count the bills inside. It was exactly ten thousand pesos in crisp thousand peso bills.

‘So… where to?’ He asked, as he buried the money deep inside his pocket.

‘You’ll see....’ She replied with a playful smile as they both made their way down the stairs.