Eliminating the Stressor

“I think it was nice for Janica to invite us to her birthday,” Mathias commented while checking through Arzen’s Chemistry worksheets. “More so myself, because we aren’t that close unlike you are.” Arzen smiled slightly and took a drink of coffee from her mug, nodding her head slowly.

“As long as you were nice to her, you’re on the guest list,” she replied, remembering the smaller girl’s guest list from a Monday ago. Written on the top in her handwriting was: Guest List. AKA, people who are nice to me. “I think you’ve made her list ever since you helped her out in Geometry.”

“Well, I am quite efficient in the subject.”

“Don’t flatter yourself too much.”

He flashed her a grin. “Come on. This is the guy who got into the ‘Niners Club’ as Sir Andreo put it. Second time in a row, darling.”

“Yes, yes.” She waved it off and snatched back her worksheets from him, “A European beat an Asian in Math.”

“Stereotypes.”

“Mm. Sure.”

“It looks like you’re okay with balancing,” he mused quietly, and in a louder voice said, “Do you want to work on Stoichiometry now?”

Arzen gave a grimace.

“Goddamn it. I hate that freaking topic-”

“You’ll hate it even less when I teach you.”

“Ha, ha.” Her voice dripped with bitterness. “Okay. Get me out of the hell they call Chemistry, Mathias.”

* * * * *

“This test,” Sir Andreo began cryptically, “is a tragedy.” Groans came from all students and he chuckled to himself as he distributed the papers. “Let’s hope you survive. Good luck and God bless.” The students murmured a ‘thank you’ and quickly began answering, Arzen first scanning the pages of the test.

It’s full of multiple choice, she thought with relief. And the word problems only have four items. This is good. She scribbled her name, class number, section and date at the header and quickly began answering, nearly laughing out loud at the first question.

Sir Magnus, she thought, liked to play with them.

Well.

At least she already had a point.

She continued answering the test, squinting her eyes at the next couple of items. Balancing equations. Figuring out the moles. It wasn’t as bad as she thought –

Until she got to the next page.

Oh my God. This is such a freaking dirty trick.

It was still multiple choice, of course.

It was still two points each, of course.

But the fact that there was space allotted for a required solution made her want to bang her head on the table and rip the test into shreds.

* * * * *

“Well,” Beatrice Mora began. “It’s over. It’s over and it’s done and oh my God bro, we’re going to die at our results.” She gave Arzen a steely look and ran out of the classroom, leaving a blinking Mathias and a slightly amused Arzen.

“Page three killed me,” he told her.

“I think the whole test was out to murder us.”

“That, unfortunately, is true.” They exited the classroom, Mathias with his bag slung over his shoulder and Arzen with her own backpack. “But I’ll admit – it was pretty smart to have the solutions required. So that he would see if we really understood the lesson or not.”

“As long as it’s over, I’m going to forget it even happened.” She turned to him, “We still have Janica’s party, remember? I’m – you’re – we’re going to have fun and forget about the freaking tests. Especially Chemistry.”

“But you can’t forget about the Filipino Performance Task,” he reminded. She sighed. Of course – a late project due probably a week after. And they hadn’t even started looking for news to report on yet. “But okay. Tonight, we’ll be partying at Janica’s. And playing with her 360.” He pat her shoulder sympathetically, “If it makes you feel better, I didn’t finish the last word problem and just shotgun it.”

And it did make her feel better.

Slightly.

“It might be a lucky shotgun.”

Memories of shotgunning the last Chemistry test came to mind.

“We’ll never know until after the test, Monika Arzen.” They spotted Elaine Rivers and Daniel Edevane walking out of the classroom, Elaine looking utterly defeated and Daniel with his hair tussled as if he had run his hands through it throughout the test. Which, they later learned, he did. Page three had killed him as well.

“That test is a freaking sensitive topic,” Elaine grumbled. Arzen smiled and glanced over at the III-3 classroom, where she was waiting for Maxine Ride to pop out with Liam Edevane. Oddly enough, only Liam came out.

“She’s got a Yearbook meeting, it might take long.” The others nodded and Mathias leaned against the wall, silently watching as Arzen playfully poked Elaine’s shoulder, making her blink and look at the smaller girl. Daniel spotted him watching and lifted a brow, to which the other merely shrugged.

He mouthed a single word.

Girls.

And he agreed. Silently. He’d never hear the end of it if Daniel Edevane found out that he was actually agreeing with him on the inside.

* * * * *

“And off we go!” Maxine Ride cheered, climbing in the back with Sharmaine, who was grinning widely. Arzen had Mathias right next to her, and her mother was in front, driving the car as they made their way to Janica’s house. “Who went with Janica, anyway? I know Gabrielle and Cianna did, but who else?”

“I’m not sure if Roza went along with them,” replied Arzen.

“Well, who else is going?”

Sharmaine spoke up next. “Therese, Liam, Daniel, Elaine-”

“I’m not sure if the last three can go.” Mathias spoke slowly. “Elaine wasn’t really…allowed. Last minute thing. And you know the Edevanes – changing plans like the weather,” and as he said that, the sky darkened. Just a little bit.

“Mom, are we going up?”

“Up Antipolo. Cainta would be filled with traffic,” came the reply. Arzen nodded and turned on the radio, to which Maxine and Sharmaine started singing along happily. Mathias noticed Arzen’s silence and nudged her shoulder, making her look at him and his ocean-blue eyes.

“You shouldn’t be so down about it.”

“I was planning to explain it all tonight…” she kept her voice low and sighed, “but she isn’t going. And I didn’t have time to FB her about whatever went on with me a week back. So it might be pushed to tomorrow if I’m lucky.”

“We have that theater show to watch, remember that.”

“Damn it.”

“And we’ll probably end back here around…midnight?” he glanced at the time, “your dad surprisingly didn’t limit you – us – to around ten.”

“He wants her to interact,” came the voice of Arzen’s mother, Ruby, from the front. “Arzen can’t stay cooped up in the house forever. She has to make friends and invite them to her sixteenth birthday-”

“Mom, I’ve got the group and the three guys.”

“Your club? Trumpets? You can’t restraint yourself to the group forever,” she met Arzen’s eyes through the mirror, “Branch out a little bit more.”

At that, she remained quiet. Sharmaine patted Arzen’s shoulder sympathetically.

“Mine says the same thing.”

“Hey,” Maxine added, “at least you got a free pass. My dad was about to unleash the Spanish Inquisition at me.”

“About to. I think those are the keywords, Ride.”

“Hey, you got a free pass, too – it’s not like you’re her brother or something.”

“And thank God for that,” Arzen muttered. This made Maxine and Sharmaine grin at each other, and Mathias might have flushed red, wondering what she meant by that.

* * * * *

“JUST DANCE!” Liam yelled – loudly – and everyone shushed him – again.

“Damn it Liam, Janica’s sister is asleep,” Daniel scolded. Everyone’s eyes went on Gaia, who was nestled in Janica’s arms. The small girl laughed.

“It’s okay, guys. I’ll bring Gaia up and come back.” Janica skipped up the stairs, her father warning her about dropping Gaia. “Don’t worry, dad – she won’t fall!”

Liam glanced at the big projector in front of them. “So. How do we access this thing?”

“I think you need to have the motion sensor…thing sense you.” Sharmaine replied.

“Like this?” he waved wildly at the motion sensor and the option ‘play’ was selected. The blonde grinned. “Okay. I’m getting the hang of this.” He swiped to the right and the song list came onto the screen, Arzen hopping off the couch and squinting at the screen.

“Lower, Liam. No – you move your hand lower – no, that’s going up!”

“WaitaminuteIgotit!” he protested as Arzen got in the way, moving her hand downwards.

“You don’t got it,” Maxine Ride called from the couch. Gabrielle Angeles laughed.

“You don’t get it-”

“This isn’t the English test!”

“Whatever, you’re giving our teacher a stroke!”

“A stroke – do go on,” Cianna quipped cheerfully. This made Elaine laugh, just watching as Liam and Arzen ‘argued’ over which song to dance to first. “So, ginger. You dancing with her?” Mathias shook his head.

“I don’t dance, Alrada,” he replied coolly. Daniel snorted.

“Yeah, right.”

“How about you, then? Try dancing Jai Ho or whatever shit’s in there-”

“There isn’t Jai Ho,” Liam called. Daniel smirked. “But there is California Girls.”

“I’m in!” Maxine Roza quickly stood up, running to Arzen’s side.

Arzen nodded.

“Get your butt in the front, Ride.” Sharmaine grinned. Evilly.

“What?! Fudgecakes, no!”

“Get her, Sharmaine – and Gabrielle, too!”

“What the hell, guys,” Gabrielle protested, but let the blonde push her (and Ride) to the front. Ride was blushing epically. “Please set it on easy. For the love of God.”

“We’ll do just that,” Cianna murmured, holding up her iPad as the song started…

* * * * *

Over five rounds.

California Girls: Arzen, Janica, Maxine, and Gabrielle. (Ride had backed out, and Janica took her place.)

Pump It (that lasted for only ten seconds): Therese, Elaine, Sharmaine, and Daniel. (Daniel had walked out at the first move.)

Dynamite: Ride, Elaine, Therese, and Roza. (Arzen had gotten the whole video on Janica’s phone.)

That Song Which Featured Cairo in the Title: Arzen, Elaine, Mathias and Daniel. (Liam had to walk out of the room because of his laughter.)

Let’s Go to the Mall: Gabrielle, Arzen, Therese, and Cianna. (This was picked purely because of How I Met Your Mother.)

Forget You: Elaine, Daniel, Maxine Ride, and Liam. (It was strangely satisfying to see two OTPs dancing together in the room. Sharmaine was dancing at the side of the room and took Maxine’s place when the other looked too tired to go on.)

Promiscuous: Mathias, Daniel, and Liam. (It was a dare by the girls. Somehow, they were able to accept the challenge.)

* * * * *

Mathias gulped down a whole plastic bottle of water. “That,” he began, “is something I’ll never do. Ever. Again.”

“For once in my relatively interesting life, I agree with you,” muttered Daniel. Liam merely nodded wearily. Roza and Arzen high-fived, seeing the score on the screen – both of them had tied exactly for first place. Gabrielle smirked.

“I think both of you are taking this too seriously.”

“We’ll be cheer dancing next year,” Roza grinned. “Hell yes.”

“In your dreams,” Cianna shot from the back. Arzen rolled her eyes and Roza faked a hurt look. Just as Liam’s hand reached for another game, the doorbell rang. All of them froze and shot a look at the door. Janica came back inside, unruffled.

“Is that-”

“Oh hell to the no-”

“Time to hide in the bathroom,” Gabrielle joked.

“I don’t think all of us will be able to hide there, Angeles.”

“Then easy. Lap sitting.”

A very loud HELL NO resounded from all of them.

Especially from Arzen, Elaine, Maxine Ride, Mathias, Daniel, and Liam.

“Come on, guys. Let’s go have some fun, okay?”

All of them glanced at Maxine Roza, who opened the door and gave them a thumbs-up.

“It’s not as bad as you may think it’ll be.”

“Oh fine,” Arzen spoke. Mathias frowned. “Let’s all shed our socially awkward selves and be less socially awkward for once.” Gabrielle nodded at this.

“That’s the spirit,” Janica smiled. “Now let’s go.”