Jack and Jill

Since the Ondoy catastrophe, I've been commuting to school and back home on most days because my car, Optramus, is a wreck. My usual commuting combination goes something like tricycle-tricyle-FX to school and FX-tricycle-tricylce back home. If I go to school after lunch hours, I go tricylce-FX-LRT-MRT-walk which is quite a pleasant adventure every time because I get to pass through Gateway and check out shops there.

Anyway, last Friday my groupmates in Pol Thought decided not to have a meeting so my class started at 10.30, Theology. Because I'm a lazy procrastinating person, I left the house at 10. When I got to the FX station, well... All the FX's are gone and they're no longer lending their services. Faced with the same situation some time in the past, I then waited for a jeepney that's going somewhere in Ortigas Ave. I got on and everything was still good. I got off on Ortigas Ave and waited for an FX there. But every public utility vehicle was just... Full.

It was 10.15 and I really must get to ACB50-something because we a quiz. In desperation, I walked and walked and looked for a jeepney that's going to "Crossing". Well... Sucks. Every fucking jeepney won't stop to have passengers get on because, well, they were all full. Although, there was one jeepney that stopped for me. It looked really full inside, but I suppose there was still space since they had stopped. When I stepped inside, there in the middle was a little kiddie stool and I was asked to sit on it. Having no other choice, I sat on the hobbit-y thing in the middle and tripped along the way. The entire journey to Ortigas was hell . It was full, hot, and sweaty and people inside won't stop complaining which made it even more hotter because of the CO2 coming out of their mouths. Also, a quabble arose between a lady passenger and the barker person. The jeepney took a strange route - at least, it's strange to me because the FX's I usually take stops me right in front of school or at least in San Miguel Ave.

This one didn't. I had to get off on the corner going to Escrive Drive. It was 10.45 and I had to walk a bit more to get to school. And so I walked - sweaty, tired, and freakishly pissed off.

When I got to the fifth floor, two of my classmates glanced when I stood near the door and was about to enter. They signaled something to me which I could understand. Then, I got a text from one of them

Kapag daw na-late tapos gusto pa mag-quiz, dapat kakanta sa harap.

OF ALL THE FUCKING DAYS. Our teacher never employed this rule on any of our meetings before. How timely. Hoping that our teacher never seriously meant this, I went inside with a sheepish smile. "Oh! Ms. Arellano! Do you still want to take the quiz?" he asked. I nodded a yes while still smiling at him, hoping that he wouldnt make any mention of any singing in front of class. "You're a performer, right? Good! I'll just finish this, and you're next on our agenda."

As I sat and waited for my turn to be humiliated, I thought about how indolent I was and I thought about the stupid people on the jeepney and stuff like that. In my mind, I also thought about what to perform.

So when I got to the "stage", I was given a mic. I asked the people in front of me what their favorite nursery rhyme was, and one of my classmates shouted Jack and Jill. "Easy enough", I thought. So there. I just sang with matching actions and when it came to the stupid "Lalalala" part I asked the whole class to sing with me.

The whole thing probably looked stupid, but hey... I made the whole class laugh. At me, that is. And, I still got to take the test which was the only thing I was terribly worried about the entire jeepney trip.

Well, that's it. Adios.