I sulked as I went back to our classroom. I can’t help but to stomped my feet on the tiled floor after I sat on my chair.

Grrr! Damn you Ervic! You’re a monster!

I drank the homemade lemonade on my tumbler that my mother prepared for me this morning. Somehow, it helped me to cool down my temper. I don’t have any choice but to work on this activity all by myself.

Sir Crisostomo already assigned a class beadle earlier. I submitted our paper to him before I left our classroom. I went straight to the cafeteria since it was our recess.

Thoughts of Ervic’s bad behavior kept clouding my mind. First, he showed grudges to my grandfather during his speech and now he was being unreasonable towards me. What the hell was his problem?

I tried to avoid Ervic for the rest of my day at school. I diverted my gaze on our textbook when our eyes met as he passed by me on our classroom. I’d rather focused on our next class than to waste my time thinking why he hated me that much.

My last subject was dismissed around four in the afternoon. As I made my exit, I received a call from Stefan.

“Your Mom told me that your last class is 4:00 PM. I already arrive here since 3:30 in the-“

Suddenly, the signal reception of my phone became choppy.

“What? Come again Stefan? Your voice is unclear!” I explained loudly.

“I said I’m gonna –“ he repeated excitedly. But all that I heard was consecutive noise of static sound.

It’s one of the things that I hated on this town - the bad cellphone signal! I started to march outside to catch a better signal reception.

On my way out, I saw bunch of girls flocking towards the direction of Ervic and Marowe. I rolled my eyes upon seeing the two lads. Marowe kept in place the strap of his guitar on his right arm while Ervic was talking energetically to a lady with long brown hair.

She looked sexy on her mini skirt. Her cleavage was visible because of the high slit of her blouse with plunging neckline. I was not sure if she purposely bumped her chest on Ervic’s right arm.

The two guys were both grinning; they seemed to enjoy the attention they were getting from their ecstatic fan girls.

I returned my cellphone back inside my bag then I darted my fuming gape towards Ervic who kissed the right cheek of the sexy student. Jasmine was his girlfriend, right?

Ugh! He was a total manwhore! And he was flirting with her while we were still inside the university grounds!

Now, I could totally comprehend why Ervic was so full of himself! He was so egoistic and arrogant because he was Mr. Popular on this campus!

***

I went straight to the parking lot outside the school. I sat on a nearby bench after that I took the hand mirror inside my bag. I used my comb to brush my long wavy brown hair. They said I inherited most of my physical features from my mother. My eyebrows were slender that matched my rapture-brown eyes. I have a honey sweet thin lips and a dainty nose.

I moved my gaze around the parking area to search for our car. Minutes have passed and I still can’t find our BMW. I checked on my cellphone only to find out that our driver send me a text message earlier.

Julio: Ma’am Katarina your father told me that your boyfriend will fetch you from school today. He asked me to remind you about this. Have a safe trip Ma’am!

My mouth dropped open after I read his text. I totally forgot about my conversation with Stefan this morning. He told me earlier that he was coming to our province. I was astounded when a black sports car parked in front of me.

Stefan stepped out from the driver’s seat and greeted me with a warm hug. He removed his Rayban sunglass thus his chinky eyes came into sight.

“Bad signal reception won’t stop me from seeing my girlfriend. How’s your first day of school?”

“It’s fine,” my cold reply towards him. He opened the door of the shot gun seat for me. I sat in place as he locked the doors.

Afterwards, he granted me with his jovial smile.

“Are you still upset because you were obliged by your parents to study here in the province?”

I just shrugged my shoulder. I remained in silence and turned my gaze on the site outside the window of his car. But Stefan didn’t stop on persuading me with his idea.

“Let’s just obey your dad. We don’t want his rivals to think that he doesn’t support the quality of education here in your own town.”

He kept on glancing at me as he maneuvered the steering wheel of his car. I gasped a deep sigh and decided to just hold back whatever I have in mind.

The way I hated my conversation with Stefan continued at our dinner on our house. On the contrary, my parents were so delighted to see their future son-in-law.

“How’s business going Stefan?” Dad asked him during dinner. Those wrinkles on his forehead became visible as he spoke.

Stefan was sitting beside me while my parents sat on the chair opposite to us.

“It’s fine Sir, our sales doubled on the first quarter of the year,” he uttered in a pleasing voice. His Adam’s apple protruded.

My mother joined their delightful conversation too. “Congratulations, your father must be very proud of you!”

“Yes Ma’am. I’m doing everything to provide an affluent life to my future family,” Stefan said apprehensively as he moved his gaze towards me.

I shot a brow up but my parents were both gawking at me hence I was forced to grant a fake smile to Stefan.

I bit my lower lip in order to control the offensive words that might fly out from my mouth. I already made it clear with Stefan in the past that I didn’t have feelings for him but he was so persistent on our engagement. I bowed my head as I continued with my food.

“How’s school?” Dad asked me conscientiously.

I faced him gratefully. “I am doing well Dad. We had a graded recitation earlier. I made advance study that’s why I aced my recitation.”

My father’s smile widened. “It’s good to hear that sweetie! Job well done!” I beamed at him in return.

“After your graduation you will marry Stefan eventually. I always believed that you two will be good business partners,” Dad explained as he eyed me enthusiastically.

I kept on spacing out as I quivered with my Dad’s statement. They always believed that marrying Stefan will give me the bright future. In fairness to Stefan, he was good looking. He was considered as one of the most eligible bachelors back in Manila. He came from a wealthy family. He also landed as top 3 on the Civil Engineering board exam. He was nice and gentleman, unfortunately we just didn’t have the spark!

I’ve been ignoring my engagement with Stefan for a long time since my college graduation was few years away. I kept on wishing that our parents will eventually change their views and drop that idea in the long run.

It was one of the reasons why I strived hard to become successful. I wanted to show my parents that I will become a respected engineer someday. I will make my own name in the industry and I didn’t need any man’s wealth to achieve my dreams.

***

On the next day I expected our professor on Trigonometry to be as strict as Sir Crisostomo. It turned out that she was charming and approachable. She has long straight black hair that dropped few inches above her waist. She has a fair complexion and possessed attractive pair of doe eyes. She beamed to us cheerfully.

“Good morning class! I’m sorry if I didn’t make it yesterday. I have to process some requirements on my masteral class,” Ma’am Salazar announced in a soft voice as she distributed the handouts of our course syllabus.

“I will also be your class adviser for this year,” she explained.

After the discussion of the course syllabus she informed our class about the upcoming activities on our school.

“Every year there is a competition that’s very popular to all Engineering students. It was called the Math Wizard Tournament.” My eyes widened upon hearing her statement. Murmurs suddenly erupted on our classroom.

“Each school will send their representatives to compete to the whole province of Zarraga. In order for us to determine fairly, the College of Engineering faculty decided to give a qualifying examination to the top 10 students that will obtain highest GPA on all their Math subjects for this month. Whoever obtains the highest score on the qualifying examination will be the representative for first year!” she added.

“Did you know that San Ignacio College was the defending champion of the Math Wizard Tournament? We bagged almost all of the awards last year. That’s why the coaches for this year will be very strict on their training.”

I got more excited. I knew my parents will be very proud if I will become the representative of our year level. I’ll make sure that I will perfect all of my exams.

“I hope that you study hard. By the way we will have our first quiz on Friday,” she continued.

Ma’am Salazar discussed our topic for today. I made it a habit to do advance study on all my subjects that’s why I grasped our topic easily. In addition to it, Ma’am Salazar was a good teacher. She explained clearly the part that confused our class.

I was so glad that during Trigonometry class I made friends with my classmates namely: Liza, Carol and Geraldine.

On our way to the cafeteria we passed by the music room. My eyes nearly went out from its socket when I saw Jasmine snaking her both arms around Ervic’s waist. They were standing outside the music room.

Marowe and his band mates glued their stare towards me as we passed by them. Ervic followed their line of sight. He looked at me impassively and returned his gaze back to Jasmine. He whispered something on her left ear that made her chuckled.

“They are really cute. We’re so lucky because they are our schoolmates!” Geraldine whispered ecstatically to us.

Liza won’t stop on grinning as she replied to our friend. “Iñigo looked like Park Bo Gum- the Korean actor!” she explained gleefully.

“But Ervic is the hottest!” Carol said. The two agreed on her statement. They all started to giggle.

“Unfortunately he has a girlfriend!” Geraldine added.

“They said Ervic don’t do girlfriend because he was a notorious playboy!” I focused my full attention on Liza’s pronouncement.

“Let’s wait when he and Jasmine will break up!” Carol mumbled excitedly.

I remained quiet as they continued to talk about Ervic’s past rendezvous with different women. I guess, it’s not shocking anymore to learn that Ervic was a playboy! I had already witnessed his Casanova moves and cruelty towards women. He was such a ruthless brute! I didn’t understand why other girl still fell for him. How could they stand his rude behavior?

The week ended so fast. We had our short quiz on Trigonometry class last Friday. I was so eager to come to school on Monday to know my score on our quiz.

***

“This is such an amazing class. It’s just the first week of school and you’re exam scores are marvelous!” Ma’am Salazar halo white teeth were exposed as she beamed to our whole class.

“Two students on this class got perfect scores!” My anticipation started to build up. Our classroom was now filled with buzz.

“It’s Katarina and Ervic!” A round of applause from our classmates surrounded the whole classroom.

We both stood up as Ma’am Salazar handed our paper to us.

“Sir Crisostomo told me yesterday that both of you also got perfect scores on your quiz in his class. Keep up the good work! Now I am foreseeing a tough competition on the upcoming Math Wizard Tournament qualifying examination!”

I moved my gaze to the brute that was standing beside me. He raised an eyebrow upon hearing our adviser’s statement.

I nod quickly to Ma’am Salazar. I smiled wickedly as I returned to my seat.

Yes Ma’am! I am looking forward to the upcoming qualifying exam! I’ll make sure that John Ervic Fuentabella will eat dust!

Bring it on!