Homeroom was the last to take place for the day, which meant another forty-five minutes to endure before going home. Ms. Morales was asking how our day was and for the most part it was a boring, typical first day in school.

For the lesser part, I got slightly intrigued getting to listen to my classmates talk to the transferee during our free time. “You look like a foreigner. Did you grow up here?” they asked.

Soon, I learned it was her dad who is a foreigner and her mom, a Filipina. Born and raised in the Philippines. Just turned fifteen last May which means she’s two months older than me. Okay, stop. It’s not that I’m interested at all.

“Listen up now.” Our adviser caught our attention and the low bumbling of the class disappeared completely.

“Let’s play a game to see how well you had paid attention to each other,” Ms. Morales hinted. Back in grade school, we used to play games with cringe worthy consequences for the loser, and it always amazed me how teachers find ways to scheme their students into doing unnecessary things. It seems high school is no different when it comes to that, I thought.

“You’ll be in the same class for a year so you better start knowing each other now,” our adviser said and I remembered singing a song in front of the class in fourth grade. That was tolerable. Forget about ‘spelling words using the butt’ thing—that was beyond embarrassing.

The game this time, was to state the full name of the person next to us. And I knew then that I was doomed to fail.

I sighed as I watched my classmates tell each other’s names as if they’d known them their entire lives. Well, it couldn’t be helped if they had already met each other in grade school. Most of us had come from the affiliated elementary school and I was the only one from my class who had gotten into this section, which had made everyone here a stranger to me.

Speaking of which, it made me wonder how this girl managed to get to the top section given that she was a newcomer. Is she that smart? I wondered. I wasn’t super grade-conscious nor did feel threatened or whatsoever. It just made me curious.

And really, what’s up with her hair?

I found myself glancing at her radiant large curls again and I remember thinking it must be what a mermaid’s hair looked like in person (as if I’d already seen one). And there was her skin looking like those in whitening soap commercials; and I wondered if it was indeed soft and smooth to touch.

She was smiling all throughout as the class did the activity, and I thought it wouldn’t be surprising if she already had memorized all of their names with her attention so focused like that.

My thoughts got interrupted when the pair at my left had their turn. I felt sweat breaking from my palms as Santos and Salameda took their seats after giving the class a laugh.

My seatmate and I stood up next and I thought I was looking desperate, staring at her and silently asking for her name in telepathy. It made her speak first while I scolded myself, thinking I could’ve just asked her moments ago. But it was too late now.

She stated my name with confidence (which didn’t surprise me at all). After all, I was the first classmate she had heard speak in class, after getting interrupted by her this morning.

Having no choice, I decided to take it the other way around. “Well, my seatmate here prefers to be called Yana. It’s such a beautiful name that I forgot the rest.” And with that, I let out an awkward laugh.

The class snickered, and I felt a little less worried since they bought the joke. Even Ms. Morales didn’t hide her amusement. And my seatmate, Yana, giggled, which was relieving. Honestly, I didn’t want her to think that I wasn’t paying attention when she had introduced herself. Because it wasn’t the case.

“Well, Yana, may you please introduce yourself to your seatmate once again. I’m quite sure she can’t miss it the second time around,” the teacher said, still amused.

My seatmate turned to look at me and said, “I’m Julianna Sevilla. I hope we’ll become good seatmates.” She was smiling all the while.

So it’s Julianna. I made sure not to forget that.

After the game, our adviser declared that the consequence was to be done by pair so it means I had to do it with Yana. I felt guilty for dragging her into my punishment but at the same time relieved that I wouldn’t have to do it by myself.

Fortunately enough, we didn’t have to do any of those embarrassing stuff. Ms. Morales just appointed us as her student assistants to help with duties after class.

Oh well, it can’t be helped. I’ll be having my first class duty this early on. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

And so I, Irene Sebastian, seat #37 of Class 1 – First Year High, just hoped. Nah, more of wished.