30 Days with Fina by JellOfAllTrades

Chapter 1

I stared outside the window, watching the multitude of trees flash by, the occasional houses here and there and the flicker of colors as cars passed by on the opposite lane.

It has been hours since we left our house in Manila to travel south to Calauag, Quezon and my butt is now beginning to hurt. The ride has been long and boring, the van's steady purr the only thing to listen to. They turned the radio off a couple of hours earlier when dad complained about the crappy choice of music and I'm beginning to think it did us no good listening to nothing. Another hour of boredom like this and I might die.

"Kanina ka pa nakasimangot jan," My mom said from the front seat, her head turned to face me on the seat behind the driver. "Di ka ba excited na umuwi ulit after five years?"

"There's nothing to be excited about in Calauag," I scowled. "And it's not my home. My home is in Manila, two hundred and thirty kilometers away from here."

"Eh yung dagat? Yung seawall? Yung bahay?" My older brother, Kuya Ken said from behind the wheel. "Limang taon na din naman Jell, there's got to be something you missed."

"Yung mga pinsan mo, hindi mo namiss?" My dad chimed in, stretching his long legs beside me. I didn't even notice him awake, he's been sleeping the past three hours.

"Bakit ko naman sila mamimiss? I get to see them every other month." I said, which is true since our cousins living in Calauag go to Manila ever two months with their parents to settle some things for their hardware store.

"Ang sabihin mo, ayaw mo lang iwan yung mga girlfriends mo sa Manila," my other brother, Kier, younger than me by two years said from the back seat. I tried to hit him with the pillow I've been hugging the whole trip but he just caught it with his hand and tried to tug it away from me.

"Jell! Kier!" Dad scolded. Kier let go of the pillow and I glared at him. He only stuck a tongue at me.

"Umayos nga kayo jan!" Kuya Ken said, looking at us from the rearview mirror. "Para kayong mga bata.."

"Shut up," I said, rolling my eyes back at him. Kuya Ken acts all mature whenever our parents are around, but honestly, the guy is just as bad as I am.

"Jell, bago tayo makarating sa bahay, sinasabi ko na sayo ngayon palang na magbehave ka." Mom said to me. She and dad know about my flings back in Manila. They're concerned, of course, but more on the girls I hook up with since I tend to change girlfriends regularly.

"Yeah, sure sure," I muttered, uninterested. It's not a problem since I don't really plan on hooking up with anyone here. Probinsyanas aren't really my type. I like my girls hot and sexy, girls who can get wild and drunk. Although now that I think about it, if I play with one probinsyana, I can easily get away with it by going back to Manila. I smirked at the thought.

"Jell, seryoso ako dito. Makikitira tayo sa lola mo, kilala mo yun, relihiyoso." Mom continued. "Kinukunsinti na nga nya yung pagiging tomboy mo, wag mo nang hintayin magalit yun kapag naguwi ka ng babae sa bahay."

I didn't say anything, remembering Mamita's 'I'm-disappointed-on-you' look that she gives me when I do or say something that she thinks is very un-ladylike.

"Jell!" Mom called out since my thoughts are starting to drift off.

"What? I'm tired of hooking up anyways. Magbabakasyon muna ako sa pambababae since hindi ko naman type yung girls dun."

"Siguraduhin mo lang kasi kapag lumandi ka sa Calauag, kukunin ko yung susi mo!"

My neck almost snapped with the speed of me turning my head to face her. "WHAT?!"

My mom smirked, seeing the effect of her threat. She nodded. "Oh yes Jellane, kukunin ko yung susi ng kotse mo kapag lumandi ka dun. And I'm telling you, madami kaming kakilala sa Calauag. Madali naming malalaman kapag nagloko ka."

"You wouldn't!" I countered. The idea of my car being taken away from me is not a nice one. I don't want to go back to commuting to school, and besides, how am I supposed to impress my girls?!

"Two weeks lang naman eh!" Kier said, laughing at the back. The boy loves it when the attention isn't on him.

"Actually, sa 26 pa yung reunion pero napagusapan na namin that we will all be going to stay until the 30th." Kuya Ken said, smirking at me from the rearview mirror.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I almost shouted. "30 days?! Akala ko ba two weeks lang tayo sa Calauag?!"

"Kasi kapag sinabi namin sayo na isang buwan tayo dun, hindi ka sasama." Dad said. "Two weeks nga lang hirapan na kami sa pagkumbinsi sayo, isang buwan pa kaya?"

I eyed them angrily. How could they?! My own family, lying to me just so I'd agree to come with them to Calauag to spend the summer vacation.

"One month, Jellane. Mag-behave ka ng one month at hindi ko kukunin yung susi mo." Mom cleared to me.

I sighed and looked out the window. We've just entered the town proper of Calauag and the trees outside are replaced by houses of different shapes and sizes. "Fine."

Mom and dad nodded in satisfaction and as soon as our van stopped in front of our ancestral house where my mom grew up, I dashed off away to let off some steam.

"Wag kang magpapagabi!" Dad shouted at me. They all know I tend to go away to someplace quiet to let myself think and cool my head off so that when I return later, I'm much more rational. They also know that I know the way around here. It may be five years past since we last went to Calauag, but I've spent a lot of my childhood summers here, exploring with my cousins.

I made my way to the seawall which isn't really that far, just a couple of minutes walk. We always went there whenever we visited, mainly because it's one of the few places you could actually enjoy and pass time with; watching the waves crash on the wall, splashing seawater so close to you that you can actually feel the coolness of it.

I went to to the seaside playground on the far eastern end of the sea wall, remembering that when we were still kids, my brothers and our cousins would wake up early just to watch the sunrise up from the mountains while we sit on the swing set. Now that same swing set is rusty and old, it's yellow paint peeling off. The seesaw set that we used to play with, barely recognizable with one of its seats broken in half and the other one half-buried in the mud.

The sun isn't blazing hot anymore now that it's five in the afternoon and it's almost to the western mountains. The salty sea breeze let me cool off and I started to think about how I'm going to miss my girlfriends in Manila and how I'm being forced to stay in this hellhole for a month.

I walked on the edge of the seawall, passing a girl who's sitting on the edge, seeming to be deep in thought as she looked out on the sea and on the small boats nearby. I reached the end of the seawall and sat there to contemplate how utterly boring the next thirty days will be, unaware that my life is about to be changed forever.