“So how was your first day?” asked Mang Gido after he turned the car stereo off.

“Well, it wasn’t bad, but it’s not really good, either,” I answered. “A lot has happened today that I’m not sure if I could categorize as good or bad. Everything seemed jumbled and stuff.”

Mang Gido smiled. “Ah, that’s life. It’s full of mysteries so it gets more complicated by the minute.”

My feeling of exhaustion has vanished almost instantly so I continued talking to him. “You’re very lucky, having a simple life without any complicated things, unlike me.”

It’s always nice to talk to Mang Gido. At first glance, you might mistake him for Hitler because of his moustache. He’s got cropped black hair, tanned skin, ash-colored eyes, a stubby nose, and slightly thick lips. But unlike the real Hitler, he’s a bit timid for a father with four sons. He has been widowed for two years already, so I could say that he’s well-respected by his sons. Every time it’s only the two of us in the car, he would always tell me stories about his life, even about his sons and lately, his late wife.

“Ah, but that’s not always the case, kid,” Mang Gido answered immediately. “My youngest son would start school this year in the province, too. Honestly, we’re not really sure how to support him emotionally because it’s his first time in going to school. It’s just like your situation now. I also need to think about those kinds of things.”

“Is that so?” I then remembered the first day in elementary school when I was still six years old. I almost didn’t want to go that time because I was unnerved of all the other kids inside the classroom. “Well now that I think about it, I was also like that. I was used to being all alone in the house with Chuck or Nanny Imang. So I was astonished with my classmated back then.”

Mang Gido breathed deeply and scratched his head. “All of us went through that tiny ordeal. But I suppose you went through it many times already.”

I snorted at what he said. “You could totally say that. First, when I was in elementary school, then in high school, then in college, and then just this morning. Around four times already.”

“Son of a gun! That’s long!” he exclaimed, astonished.

I just shook my head. “And I think this won’t be the last time I would go through that. Probably when I become a resident, and then if I become a doctor in the near future.”

“I know that this isn’t the first time I’m going to ask you this, but aren’t you getting tired og studying yet?” Mang Gido sighed.

I thought for a moment. “To tell you the truth, yeah, I kinda feel tired of studying already. If you would count it, this would be my fifteenth year in studying. But I just keep in mind that when I finally become a doctor, everything would be worth the hardships. Besides, I’m not really struggling that much. I just read enough so my brain doesn’t get fried. I really hate it when that happens. And what if what Chuck said about mushrooms growing on my head would come true?”

“That’s good, but I doubt mushrooms would really grow there.” Mang Gido then took a turn. “Oh right, Hector wants us to come over his office. There’s a small party in there and we were called up by his officemate. Would it be okay for you to go there?”

For some reason, my salivary glands started working double time at what Mang Gido said. “Of course, it’s okay. Actually, it’s more than okay! I was actually planning to have my snack at home, but if it’s free food, then I could never say never.”

Because the traffic is already congested, it took us a long while before we arrived at Chuck’s office. As we arrived, Chuck was already waiting for us in front.

Chuck called us as I opened the window of the car, “Mang Gido, Jay! It’s good that you were able to come. The party just started inside. Our boss said we can call some friends or relatives over, so I did.” We went out of the car and followed Chuck inside the building. As we were walking, Chuck and I had a small conversation.

“Chuck, it’s a good timing that we got dismissed early a while ago, so I was also able to come over,” I spoke.

He smiled and ruffled my hair. “Ha! I was actually expecting that you would come along when it comes to these kinds of parties, so it’s a given fact that you will be here, Jay.”

“Damn, stop it!” I cried while going away from his reach and flattened my hair again. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot, what’s the party for?”

Chuck’s smile widened considerably. “Our boss, Engr. Cardoso is finally retiring, so we’re having a party for him.”

I then remembered something when Chuck said this. “Engr. Cardoso? Wait, isn’t he the one you’re saying that… you-know-what.”

He stopped walking for a while so Mang Gido and I stopped too. “I’ll tell you when we get in the car. For now, let’s just eat, okay?”

“Okay fine, fine,” I answered, rolling my eyes.

When we entered the office, we were met by Chuck’s officemate and girlfriend, Candice. She’s as tall as Chuck’s shoulder; her neck-long hair is darker-than-blonde, but I think she just had it dyed; she has slit-like eyes, and slightly full lips.

“Oh, you brought your brother with you,” Ice said, smiling. “It’s good that you came.”

“Vhabes, I also brought Mang Gido over. It’s okay, isn’t it?” Chuck asked.

“Ah, no, it’s okay, Vhabes, there were only very few who actually came. It’s actually better if more people would come,” she answered.

It has been almost a year since Chuck and Ice were together. Normally, I couldn’t endure couples calling each other names like this. I’m not really a romantic person and you could probably say that I’m always the first one to ruin the mood in a romantic situation. But in the case of Chuck and Ice, I’m okay with it because they don’t abuse those names and they still often call each other with their real names. It’s fortunate that Chuck let me call her Ice, too.

Mang Gido sat in one corner while Chuck let me sit on his desk. I just took two chicken legs, some spaghetti, a cupcake with the words, “Happy Retirement, Sir!” on the icing, an a glass of Pepsi so I was able to finish early. I wasn’t able to eat much because hunger must have left me because of that long time without eating.

While waiting for the party to be over, I noticed that there was a laptop turned on on Chuck’s desk. I know for a fact that this isn’t his because Chuck’s laptop is large and metal-colored. That particular laptop on his desk was small and white, a lot smaller than Chuck’s and even mine.

I checked out what’s on the Desktop of that laptop. There were your normal icons that you see in a newly-purchased laptop, except for one. I looked at it to see what it is and I found out that it is a copy of the movie Wreck-it Ralph that was downloaded using torrent downloads. I looked around to see if someone is looking at me. It seemed that there was none, because all of them were surrounding Engr. Cardoso, who began giving a speech to his employees while they, I noticed by the looks on their faces, only pretended to listen. Mang Gido was also listening to the speech, but I can’t be sure if he can really comprehend any of Engr. Cardoso’s words because first, it has nothing to do with him, and second, even I can’t understand a single word he’s saying. I took my flash drive from my pocket, which I always keep in my person. I plugged it in the laptop and copied the movie so I can watch it at my leisure.

“Nice. There’s still space left,” I thought.

When I finally put my flash drive back in my pocket, Chuck approached me. I asked him, “Chuck, whose laptop is this?” so he wouldn’t get suspicious.

“That, well, that’s Rod’s,” he answered, scratching his head. “I don’t know how it got here. His laptop ends up in anyone’s desk for some reason.”

“Okay, I was wondering why there was a different laptop here,” I said. “Wait a minute, what’ll happen next?”

Chuck looked at his watch. “It’s already our dismissal time, so I’ll just have to pack my things I’ll just go give this back to Rod, he might look for this later. The bastard really is a scatterbrain, y’know.”

He closed the laptop and placed it on a table far from his and then went to where I was sitting (I already stood up at this point) and started packing.

We bid Ice farewell after a few minutes and went inside our car. Chuck didn’t need to drop Ice off because she has her own chauffeur. While on the road, Chuck began telling us stories about his boss.

“We employees were really overjoyed when we found out that he was going to retire,” he began. “Engr. Okido, the one replacing him, is definitely nicer than him. We even happen to have the same first name.”

“Do you already know Engr. Okido well?” asked Mang Gido.

Chuck yawned before speaking. “Not really, as of this moment, but we converse sometimes. I think I’ll give him more respect than Engr. Cardoso this time. His way of dealing with us in the office is a real pain in the butt.”

I decided to join in the conversation. “In that case, let’s talk about something else. Your butt looks like it could use some rest, too.”

“You’re right, Jay,” Chuck agreed. “So how was your first day as a medical student?”

This time, I felt like the back of my neck would burn because of that incident this morning. “Sh – can you please turn up the air conditioning unit?”

Chuck filled the car with his laughter while Mang Gido turned up the air conditioning unit. “Jay, from the looks of things, you had it rough this morning.”

“Not much,” I reasoned out. “Sure, I met some new classmates, but Manuel is gonna be my classmate again.” I placed my left elbow at the window frame, started nibbling my middle fingernail, and looked at the cars outside.

“Manuel? Manuel Sagrado? The son of the owner of Electron Philippines, Gregorio Sagrado?” Chuck said as he turned to me. “Tough luck, man. You’re probably gonna be seatmates again.”

I sighed heavily and said, “Thank God that wasn’t the case. We don’t have a seating arrangement in Gross Anatomy, and then someone else went in between us in Physiology. I just don’t know about our other classes tomorrow. Maybe I could get up and deal with it somehow. And don’t you remind me that their family owns the biggest motorcycle factory in the Philippines. That self-introduction of his during Physiology gave me cancer.”

“Jay, you shouldn’t be like that,” argued Chuck, shaking his head slightly. “You’re going to be in the same classroom for another four years. It’s impossible that there’s not gonna be a chance that you two could make up.”

I crossed my arms and said, “Three. We’re probably going to have our duties at different hospitals if ever. I dunno. If we’re going to make up, it should have been long ago. I’m hard-set cement now. He’s probably the same.”

Mang Gido decided to join in. “I wouldn’t say that if I were you. We don’t really know how someone’s mind works. Even my two eldest sons who are just a few years older than you two, even if I can say that they’re already hard-set cement, I can still notice them changing. It’s a part of growing up, and we never really stop growing.”

“He’s right, Jay,” Chuck added.

Deep inside, I was a bit insulted by what Mang Gido said about us not knowing how the human mind works, while I spent four years in the College of Psychology. I know a thing or two about the human mind and why they do what they do.

I’ll give Ash as an example. When I first looked at him, I saw that he is a studious person. He’s very studious up to the point that he would take all his books to put in his locker on the very first day of class. But why does he need to do this? I deduced that, even without asking him, that he has several siblings, and he’s probably a middle child. And because there are so many of them, he can’t help but work really hard so he could gain his parents’ pride. It is a natural part of having many siblings to sometimes be ignored by your parents, especially if you’re a middle child. Because of this, Ash works really hard, even during our first day as medical students.

“Jay, you’re so silent all of a sudden,” Chuck stated. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just pissed this morning. No point in worrying about me,” I answered nonchalantly, closing my eyes for a while.

I then looked outside in order to arrange my thoughts. At this point, I realized that Mang Gido was somewhat right about what he said. There was no denying it. Every single person will change as time passes. I could say that I have had major changes compared to the time prior to entering the College of Psychology. I just hope I could say the same about Manuel. I’ll confess that if I say that I would never ever want to make up with Manuel, I’d be lying. But if he continues to act that way, the chances of that lie becoming the truth will rise.

The car took a turn at a crossroad where our apartment is only several meters away.

This feeling is probably normal, I thought. Maybe it’s because of how Manuel treated me for a very long time so I feel this way, why I want to avoid him, why I really want to stuff Ash’s Anatomy book in his mouth for making fun of me… no – I have to repress that kind of feeling towards him. And I think Manuel would break every single bone in my body before I could even get near him.

A bit later, I realized that the car was already entering our apartment complex.

Come to think of it, I haven’t explained why we’re living in an apartment yet. Dad and Mom thought that because the whole family has to work or study here in the city, we thought of buying a small piece of land here and build a tall apartment complex we can make available for people to rent. Our unit is up at the eighth and highest floor in the building. We only let people rent the rooms from the second to the sixth floors and we left the seventh floor vacant because we never know when would guests arrive. We also thought that our relatives would be able to live down there if they ever decide to live in the city. As of now, no one is occupying the unit, but Chuck and I sometimes loiter there if we get tired of our room. Dad also lets us sleep there sometimes so it can’t be said that the unit is completely empty. We believe that a house (or in this case, an apartment unit) that no one lives in will become haunted by spirits, good and evil alike. It is better for us to avoid that situation. The first floor, on the other hand, serves as the garage for vehicles.

The third floor is also currently vacant because the family that lived there went back to Davao two months ago. Chuck and I get along pretty well with the children that used to live there, even if the eldest was merely three years old. The third floor is currently open for new tenants. If we’re lucky, we’re probably going to get along with our new neighbors.

It’s really fun living in an apartment like this because I could get to know a lot of people who rent our units. Most of them are working in different companies, while others are studying at different universities. I seldom get chances to converse with them because they’re also busy with their own lives. I remembered that I’m also going to be very busy with my own when the professors give us craploads of studying to do.

When our car entered the garage, I saw that Mom and Dad had arrived already, since I saw the car we used this morning parked inside. The three of us went up and we found Nanny Imang helping Mom and Dad with dinner.

Nanny Imang has been with us since Chuck and I can remember. She’s got dark skin, shirt curly hair, big, round and black eyes, a stubby nose, and thick lips. Nanny Imang stayed single and never had her own family. All her relatives are in Siquijor, but all of them are already very distant relatives. Her parents and siblings already passed away, and her nephews and nieces already have their own lives, so almost no one remembers her anymore. This might be the reason why she has stuck with us all this time. I guess we’re like family to her already. She’s also family for us.

After putting my bag in the living room, I remembered Ash. “Nanny, would it be okay if you would prepare lunch for me tomorrow?”

Nanny smiled. “But of course, it’s okay, child. What would you want me to prepare for your lunch?”

I couldn’t think of any. “You decide, Nanny. Surprise me.”

“Jay, may I ask why you would suddenly ask for lunch?” Mom asked.

I guess I’d just tell them the real reason. “You see, this afternoon, I asked a new classmate of he wanted to eat lunch with me. But when I told him we’re going to Mang Inasal, he declined.”

“Hmm, Mang Inasal?” asked Dad.

“I did think that he didn’t like those kinds of restaurants, so I initially thought that I should have invited him to my favorite carinderia,” I explained.

Mom giggled. “In Rose and Ted’s? What if he says you’re too thrifty if you ask him to eat there?”

“I don’t think he will. Actually, he isn't one of the rich classmates I have this year,” I justified. “But I then thought that if I would bring my own lunch, I could eat wherever he wants and I could still come along. He’s not really the type that approaches others in order to make friends, so I was the one who approached him.”

Dad then answered, “That’s good. But putting your lunchtime aside, how was your first day as a medical student?”

The back of my neck began to heat up again.

“Jay, it looks like you couldn’t endure another minute in telling them about it,” Chuck smirked. “What, should I do it for you?”

I rolled my eyes and said, “Hrgh! I’ll do it!”