Count Me In

 By Raffy Lacsina Berina

They call us “firecrackers”, maybe because we are always too loud enough when we talk. We were best of friends since elementary level and we decided to enroll in the same secondary school after we graduated from elementary.

I am Ren and together with my friends Jean, Grey and Xy, I enjoyed my life as a teenager and experience he things that are supposed to be felt by any other teens. I can really say that in my friends company, I found a home and love that I was not able to feel at home since my parents got separated.

The day came that we have to take the entrance examination at the school where we applied to study. It was the most silent school I had ever visited. People were so silent and they seem to just keep their mouth fully shut. After the results were obtained, we found out that we are all qualified and when we started studying in there, we are always the center of distraction every time we make some noise. And that made us basically different from our other schoolmates.

The freshmen life was quite tough maybe because we are all in our adjustment stage. But our eyes were caught by a beauty of our new classmate, Jasmine. She was I think the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my entire life but sad to say, many boys in school admire her as well including my best friends. One day, we made a deal.

Since the four of us is madly in love with Jasmine, we promised to observe silence in just a week and the one who wins will have the support of the three to court her. The first, second and third days were tough and it seems that our mouth really missed to talk…but still, we continued to keep silent.

Unil one day, our teacher asked us if we could have a make-up class at 7:30 for Nuclear Physics in the evening and everyone agreed.we are about to begin with the discussion when a brownout occurred. Everyone in the room were at their adrenaline rush except for the four of us. “Ma’am are you all okay in there?” asked the janitor. But before our teacher answered, Jean impatiently shouted, “Hey, can you bring some lights in here?”. “We are not supposed to talk.” exclaimed Xy. “You two are stupid! Why did you talk?” Grey asked.

 Later that time, they found out that broke the deal and I was only me who is still silent. I smiled and they looked at me… the feeling was strange. And I asked, “What are you looking at? I’m the only one who has not talked.” Then I realized that it was just the fourth day and the deal will end at the fifth.