53 Normality 1

It was around 8:55 am in the morning. Friday.

Wendy Gomez quietly furrowed her brows as she watched two figures walking side by side in the distance. One of them was someone very familiar to her. The long and straight hair that used to be black was now dyed dark blonde, but the girl's slightly upturned brown eyes, tall nose, nicely-shaped lips, and oval face revealed to her that it was Steffany Mendez, her best friend's pretty and cheerful adopted sister. She was walking very close to a male student which made Wendy blinked a couple of times. Steffy must be having a joyful conversation with the male student besides if she could laugh and smile like that.

As Wendy stayed seated inside her classroom, her gaze went passed the opened window next to her and onto the pair making their way probably toward the gymnasium. Their current PE attire was suggesting this. Besides, she could also see other students their age wearing the same uniform going in the same direction. The sight of these group of lively junior students marching in batches was not really entertaining, but she couldn't look away because she knew who the girl was.

"Steffy is with that swimmer?" She raised a brow and muttered under her breath, the last word uttered with disapproval.

In fact, she also knew the male student. Their school publication listed this fine male specimen as one of the male gods of the campus, the counterpart of people like her and Sofony. His name was Julius Gonzaga, younger brother of the current student government president, and a well-known member of the swimming club. He was from tenth grade which meant Wendy had limited contact with him, but even so, she knew the guy was not a decent one. When she claimed he's not decent, she was not basing it on any bad rumors of hearsays regarding him.

Julius' tanned complexion and handsome face made him very popular to female students, a fact he perfectly knew and took advantage of. It's because of this guy's Casanova reputation in school which was only a level lower than Floyd that Wendy frowned. Him associating with Sofony's sister was not a welcomed matter for her.

'Everyone knows Sofony's very protective of her sister. He's annoyingly daring.'

When the first break arrived, she promptly left her seat and walked out of the noisy classroom. From time to time she would pause walking and chat a bit with her friends and acquaintances on the hallway, but she didn't dilly-dally for long. Her destination was naturally the tenth grader's building diagonally across her grade's building.

A sigh escaped from her lips after stepping into the three-story high building. Given that Sofony never mentioned her sister being close to the school government's president's brother, it meant that Sofony was not aware of this. If only Sofony was not absent today due to the flu, Wendy would have nagged her to warn her sister about Julius. Sadly, her friend was not around. Now, in her best friend's stead, it would be her job to somehow leave a warning to that playboy's face.

When she came into Steffy's classroom, Steffy's group of friends were still there and probably had no intention to grab some snacks from the cafeteria. They were busy chatting, sometimes laughing and joking around, but just exactly when Wendy appeared on the doorway, she heard a name she usually didn't encounter.

"...Felicity?"

"You're new so you must not be aware. People in our school rarely talk about it given that it's about our school's two recent scandals."

"---Probably the most intriguing yet creepy scandals."

"Yeah. I get it. Don't interrupt me. So, Steffy. Who's Felicity, you ask?"

The voice belonging to her friend's sister rang as Wendy walked towards them. Steffy's circle was at the back but since there were few students remaining inside, the room was not as noisy, and she could hear the girls surrounding Steffy.

"Ahm, well, I ask only because Mikey mentioned about her in History class. She seems popular, but I don't see her name on the bulletins."

"I see. Actually, we have to start with Teacher Agatha's case. Oh, before I forgot, Teacher Agatha is one of the prettiest teachers here. Unfortunately, a bastard named Floyd Cruz murdered her. And another unfortunately, this bastard is Felicity's boyfriend."

"Girl, your language, please. And you're side-tracked. You have to start with saying that Felicity is a student here. I mean, she was. She's from Class F, a first-year senior high student. I think she's a friend of Miss Wendy and your sister. I'm not sure if they're close to each other, but I'm sure they're friends. Sadly, she's already..." The girl speaking uncomfortably looked away and dryly coughed.

Steffy made a confused expression but then later got the meaning when the girl soundlessly mouthed the word.

"Is that the scandal? She... died? Murder?"

"Yes, and, no. She did pass away, suicide, and probably it's been a month already. But the scandals are..." the one speaking paused, "First, it's her boyfriend killing Teacher Agatha after raping her. Second, it's her sexy videos suddenly spreading on the internet. Since the two incidents happened one after another, with both of them getting involved, it became a very controversial topic in our academy."

"Talks and rumors stopped after a week though."

"Well, it's not like the school will let bad words spread out. You know, who wants to enroll in a school where two deaths occurred? What if people become scared, thinking our school has become haunted?"

"Haunted?" Steffy puzzlingly interjected. At this point, she already noticed Wendy walking to them but she only nodded at her and turned back again to the one she asked. There was an unexplicable curiosity budding for the infamous girl of rumors and it was making her want to know more.

"Ah, she's just speaking nonsense. Well, some are making up stories."

"They're saying Felicity's spirit is haunting the school and she has shown herself to her ex-boyfriend's gang."

"Actually, I'm uncomfortable talking about her, how about we stop? I pretty much prefer gossiping on Steffy's closeness with our section's yummilicious hunk."

When Wendy saw the girl being interrogated laughed, she smiled wryly and erased Felicity's name from her head.

"We're not close. If you're expecting some juicy gossip from me, I suggest you give up," Steffy pouted and clarified. Her four friends clearly didn't buy it and only began to tease her.

At first, Wendy was frowning, but she slightly laughed when Steffy pleadingly looked at her as if she's asking to be brought out of the hot seat. She gladly spoke up though. It was her intention all along to take Steffy away.

A few minutes later, Wendy was seen confronting a good-looking boy somewhere in the tenth grade building. She had her arms crossed under her modest chest, her head raised high as she eyed the tanned boy condescendingly. Nobody knew how their conversation goes, but a few bystanders witnessed Steffy fleeing from there to the rest room with hands covering her face.

.. .. .. .. ..

"---You won't get in their way, you say?"

"---Yeah, I spoke with Steffy. She's a transferee so I gladly educated her about every playboyin school that she must shoo away."

"---Hmp. You're really lax as a sister. You think I did something unnecessary when I threa---, ahem, spoke with that boy? Hey, that's mean!"

"---Yeah. Fine. Don't blame me if she suddenly becomes a headline, like 'Sofony Mendez' oh-so-prized sister fell in love only to get discarded by a damnable playboy!'"

"---No, no. What the heck are you saying? I'm not treating all boys out there as bastards and con-artists that must be massacred. It just so happens that I have a verrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyy high standards. You get it? It's different, okay? And it's normal to distrust people you don't know. I'm telling you, I'm not being judgmental!"

Wendy annoyingly hung up after reminding her stupid friend not to forget her medication.

School had already ended an hour ago. However, instead of going home, she somehow ended up dropping by a flower shop and buying a bouquet of flowers. She was still wearing her school uniform, and she was on her way to the memorial park near Greenpark Village.

The taxi ride had been more than an hour so she relieved her boredom by telephoning Sofony. Her friend seemed really ill though. She kept on coughing as they spoke over the phone. Despite so, Wendy's not that worried. Catching cough, cold, or flu was something everyone goes through every year and Sofony was not a kid. Simple flu wouldn't kill her, unless she's stupid, which she was not.

Actually, the reason she frowned was Steffy's involvement with Julius Gonzaga. She really disliked the guy. For some reason, this boy reminded her of Floyd, who in turn made her reminisce about her other friend, the late Felicity Dimatrionez.

She couldn't understand why... but despite being just normal friends with Felicity, she couldn't help feeling uneasy whenever her name was directly or indirectly involved. She asked herself if it was due to the possibility that the person who released the videos to the world and caused Felicity's downfall was Floyd. She couldn't tell for sure. Highly probable that aside from a normal level of concern and condolences, not knowing all the details about Felicity and Floyd's cases made her discontent.A month or so already passed, but she couldn't shake off all her complexed emotions about these.

Not long after, as she continued deliberating, Wendy appeared in the Garden of Serenity Memorial Park and entered the moderately lit chapel. The flowers were held by her hands, her red sling bag dangling at her right side. Her complicated gaze went to the rows of urns left at one side of the place. There was no one around which made the small chapel appear very quiet and slightly eerie. Wendy took a deep breath then placed the flowers in front of her friend's ashes. She was preoccupied. Everything that happened before Felicity's death was playing in her mind as if it was still happening before her sight.

Even now, a puzzle she had difficulty understanding was why Felicity's parents hurriedly cremated her remains a night after she died. No funeral ceremony or anything of that sort was held. It was like all they wanted to do was make her death less known yet encompassing enough to allow the dirty stuff get buried along with it.

Could it be solely due to that scandal?

Was that all it takes to cast their daughter away, to the point they didn't even give her a proper funeral?

'Is she really from a perfect family? How come her perfect family had treated her like this?'

All sorts of questions popped up in her mind, but she later shook them away and stopped mulling about it. She's now inside the chapel.

Right before a dead person's remains, praying was something to be done with utmost priority. After all, this was also the reason she visited.

As someone indirectly involved with solving her case, something unseen nagged her to come here. Especially after hearing how she's still being talked about by some. While people gossipped about her death, let there be someone, in the form of Wendy, to pray for Felicity.

Throughout her brief stay in the chapel, no unusual thing happened and she had finished offering prayers for Felicity without any problem. Even though she was the only person inside and was quite uncomfortable about this idea, she didn't experience any spooky stuff like what people would get scared of when praying alone to urns of ashes. Halfway through though, without rhyme or reason, she remembered how some people were spreading rumors of Felicity's ghost roaming around the school at night.

'People really have so much time in their hand that they could even make ghost stories as pasttimes, huh.'

She shook her head in dismay. The claim was just plain ridiculous. A work of people who couldn't think of anything but gossips and nonsense. And fine... It's actually her fault for suddenly getting side-tracked when all she was thinking about prior to the ghost rumors was the quietness of place.

After throwing one last glance to the wooden cross displayed in front, she turned around and started walking her way out.

At the entrance though, she met someone who made her slightly surprised, then irked.

Still, remembering that youngsters must always show respect to older people, she quickly wiped away the displeasure that appeared in her eyes and in a polite tone, she greeted, "Mr. Dimatrionez."

The middle-aged man dressed in a grey suit and black slacks nodded at her. Nevertheless, the impure light that crossed his eyes didn't escape Wendy's notice. It involuntarily caused her face to immediately harden and she had barely concealed the disgust she felt for the man. Quickly lowering her head just to avoid eye contact, she politely bowed then hurriedly strode away. All this time, her grip on her sling bag was turning tighter.

'As expected, her perfect family is nothing but complete bullcrap.'

The frown in her face couldn't be erased because she was totally unnerved by the stare the man gave her. Those eyes were very muddy and malicious. The way he looked at her face and chest with suppressed desire made her feel goosebumps all over her body. Even now, she was like someone being stripped away by all the staring.

She wanted to dig the man's hateful eyes. But she also wanted to get very far away from him. Between the two options, the latter was what her body subconsciously chose to do.

She had really been angered yet scared. Despite being a fierce and bossy girl at school, in the end, she was still a weak girl. More so right now that she was not under the protection of her admirers or brother. Aware of the man's heated gaze towards her, she couldn't stop the goosebumps and the feeling of helplessness. Any powerless girl at her current situation would feel the same, no?

Wendy didn't even glance back as she exited from the main gate of the memorial garden. She didn't also dare relax as she stood near the gate waiting for any public trasport to pass. In fact, she was still unnerved even after getting into a cab.

Perhaps, her tensed nerves only eased a bit when she saw a flower-holding familiar figure dressed in black shirt and denim pants entering the memorial garden's gate. That happened when the taxi was slowly u-turning back to the left lane. She intently peeked at him from the taxi's open window, blinking repeatedly as she observed the cold expression on that well-featured face.

The tall lanky boy suddenly turned his head to her direction, which greatly startled her, but she discovered that when she had widened her eyes in surprise, he still had that same indifferent expression on his face, only blinking before looking back in front.

'A month changes him so much, huh?' Wendy mused with one of her brows raised as she sent Chris Meyer off with her eyes.