Monday, February 25, 2008...10:40 am
Fifth Grade
Carla was the girl who told teacher we cheated on the quarterly exams. I trudged my way to the homeroom chairman’s office with Aizel and Xutch to get a proper scolding. It was the first time I cried to save my ass.
Chaching was our adviser that Aizel wooed for a year. Understand that I come from an all girls catholic school and the student handbook says unhealthy girl to girl relationships are prohibited. I didn’t know what that meant at the time. Years later I found out that Xutch went steady with one other teacher and I had no idea at the time.
Marnelli was the coolest girl I knew. She had a unique handwriting in spite of all the penmanship books we all had to fill out from cover to cover. She gave me a red heart greeting me a happy valentine’s day. She asked for my phone number but we didn’t have a phone. And for the first time, I felt like a loser for living so far away from the city and having no access to a telephone line.
I liked sleeping over at my cousin’s house because they lived in the city and they had a telephone. I would spend entire afternoons calling everyone I knew just to show that I can use the phone. I also made a lot of prank calls and argued with the party-line. (In the 80’s two houses shared a phone line, with different phone numbers. Like a shared channel or port, wherein you can’t use it if your party-line is on it.) The phone was black and heavy as a rock. It was a turn dial too. And it was a pain to call a busy line because there was no call waiting and no redial button.
I had a crush on this boy who was so besotted with my pretty cousin. I remember looking in the mirror and wondering about what was so un-pretty in me. I could not understand what it meant to not be pretty when I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my looks.
Everyone was talking about getting their period and explaining the use of maxi-pads and such. I had extra underwear and clothes and maxi-pads and tissue in my locker which I always ended up giving to one of my friends who got their period. I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. I was hoping not to get it since it felt like so much trouble, what with everyone who had it wanting to go to the bathroom every hour.
James was my beloved half-breed dog. Everyday I spent time with him brushing him, stroking his head, rubbing his belly. It was wonderful. I talked to him too. He kept all my secrets.
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