The era before choosing to be a nurse

The Era before choosing to be a nurse

÷÷÷ Before 1^st
year high school—I smiled at the person sitting beside me during our entrance exam. She's quite chubby and has a smooth porcelain skin. Her hair was tied neatly in a pony tail. Looking at it made me touch my own hair and—

    I was right. My hair had really been chaotic.

    The exam was hard. It asked all those questions about science, math, English, and almost every subject that I could think of when I was in elementary except 'homeroom'. I prayed to God that he bless me to be admitted to this school because I knew that if I didn't pass, I'd end up in a public school, which will be catastrophic since almost all of my classmates in grade school will study in this particular private religious school and I didn't want to adjust to another set of snot-faced kids.

    "The exam was really hard, huh?" the girl with the orderly hair said as she picked her bag beside mine. "Uhh…yeah" I replied. She was applying lip gloss now. That was unusual for me because upcoming freshmen are usually (based on my own classmates), very babyish and wouldn't apply makeup (I consider lip gloss as a makeup) until maybe they reach 3^rd year high school.

    "I had a hard time solving number two in Mathematics. Elementary Algebra was not thoroughly discussed in our school. What do you think is the right answer?" What the heck is she blabbering about? Number two in Math? How am I supposed to remember the answer to that? "Oh, I'm sorry. I hadn't introduced myself" she says brightly and comes toward me. She must've noticed that I just stared at her with puckering eyebrows as if saying 'and you are…?'

    She's still extending her arms as I looked at her intently for three seconds or so (it was a longest three seconds), and we shook hands after that. "My name is Penelope" she smiles.

    I should say something—I should say something like, "Nice meeting you. Hello—goodbye. I hope we won't be classmates. You are weird and you make me feel insecure about my hair. Plus your cologne is burning up my sinuses. Colognes are not supposed to smell." But how the hell am I supposed to blurt those out?

    "Penelope. What a lovely name! Mine's Jana. I hope we both pass the admission test" I hear myself say instead, with a big plastered smile on my face.

    "Hahaha!" Why the hell is she laughing now? Okay, that's it. This girl is creeping me out. "It's okay, you don't have to put that much effort to be nice to me" she says brightly, interrupting my thinking system. What? Now I'm a 'trying hard goodie-goodie girl'?

I looked at her intently this time, raising my eyebrows as I did. Before I knew it, the silence was broken by that loud grumble in my stomach. *grumble* *grumble* *grumble*

Oops. Normally, a person having a tummy grumbling in an awkward situation would be embarrassed about it but not me. My starvation will not hinder the heat of this moment.

I have already planned my dramatic exit—I would ignore her and walk straight to the canteen. I rummaged my backpack for my wallet, but I suddenly remembered that it's left at our house. This is just great.

"C'mon Jana, Let's go to Jollibee—my treat" Penelope says, looking half-serious other than looking modest. And I don't know how or why. But because of that day, May 31, 2004, I found a friend. So maybe I should thank Jollibee and my demanding stomach.

We spent the rest of the day talking. She wasn't so bad after all. Though we have different personalities, it looks like we're going to be friends for life—if God permits (and if we permit it).

"So you're really the valedictorian in your school? Wow." I say, taking a huge bite from my jolly spaghetti. I didn't even make it to the top five in my class. "Well, yeah. But I'm still not as smart as Shinichi Kudo…" she replies after taking a sip from her coke.

I just stared at her, dropping my fork with my mouth wide open. "Oh. I'm sorry" she grins, "I don't suppose you know Shinichi? From detective Co—"

"Are you kidding?" I interrupt her before she could add anything more. "Of course I know him! I love detective Conan!" I say merrily. I'm absolutely hooked to that show. I never knew this girl even had a fetish for animés.

"Really?" she says, brightening. "You don't look like the kind of person who loves that kind of stuff" she adds, taking a slice of hotdog on my plate. Ha-ha. Humor me. You should take a look at yourself too, Penelope.

Before my thoughts flew any further, I remembered something significant. I hurriedly picked my bag and searched for my beloved DVD that has been living in my backpack for almost a month already.

"What are you doing?" she asks, leaning closer to my bag to see.

"Well since you've treat me some spaghetti and fries, then I must repay your kindness. I'll let you borrow my detective Conan season 3 DVD if you promise to take care of it" I say, still in the process of segregating my things.

"Oh thank you!" she says enthusiastically "I had a huge difficulty in finding that season!" she adds, still beaming. Before I could actually find the DVD, I noticed an even more significant thing buried in my bag. I shook my head, looking amused at the same time.

"What is it?" Penelope asks, she leans closer this time.

It was my wallet.

 

÷÷÷ Seven days after our encounter—it was the first day of class: We both passed the entrance test.

I'm walking in the hallway, seeing the whole school crowded with students. We're just about to look at our designated sections and it's good to discover that we're classmates; Penelope and I.

I looked closer at the full list of my class section. I now belong to first year-Our Lady of Perpetual help (1-OLPH is the abbreviation). It was a relief that most of my classmates are guys because girls are just too talkative and too gossip-related.

    I was still checking the list when somebody out of nowhere pulled me across the bulletin on the other side of the hallway.

    "You liar" it was Penelope. What is she talking about now? I placed a confused look on my face, trying to comprehend, but then she pulled me closer, to the bulletin board, pointing at the piece of paper at the center. It was a list of scholars. My name's on it—and Penelope's name is on it too—but how? I didn't apply for a weird scholarship.

"It turns out that the entrance exam was actually an IQ test. Those people with high scores got a scholarship. I also got one, but it's a half-scholarship. You're such a liar, Jana" she smiled sheepishly, and continued; "You're not brainless as what you've told me. Maybe you can outwit Shinichi Kudo this time" she rests her right hand on my shoulder and points at another piece of paper beside the list of scholar. It's the list of the people who got the highest scores in the IQ test.

The name Jana Amy Li was on the number one spot.

And it was followed by Penelope Garcia at the second place.