Bordeaux Boys... Reynaldo

I never excel in class not even won any special award for extra-curricular activities. Most of the time, I avoided joining class activities – too afraid that I may fail their expectations. I would rather keep quiet and watch, than be humiliated. I am just an ordinary boy, below average pupil… I told myself.

Yet lady luck smiled on me. I passed the USAID scholarship program and gave me free high school education in my old alma mater, Notre Dame School for Boys!

How did I made it? Hmm… I don’t know, I just took the exam and that was it. I didn’t even bother to study prior to the exam. I could remember my father looked at me on disbelief, saying “how did you do it… you even barely pass regular quizzes?” I just grin and replied, “Stroke of genius”. I also remember my uncle “smart” Chockoy used to throw nasty joke on me, implying that I got my scholarship because my grandmother was a school head teacher. Of course, I strongly protested and said that USAID scholarship was a private matter and certainly, my lola had no power to influence the result. I was furious with him. Good thing, I had a supportive Uncle Jimmy who told me to go on take the scholarship and enjoy the privilege.


* * * * * *

Nevertheless, I had to admit, I had a hard time during my 1st year in high school. Everything in the school were written and spoken in English. That was new! In my grade school, we seldom use the language and even our teacher, they communicate to us in Visayan dialect. Tsk.. tsk.. tsk! Patay na ako!

Every morning, I had to ask my seatmate to interpret for me what our principal - Bro. Manuel de Leon - was saying during the flag ceremony. At first, this young man was attentive and supportive but eventually, he got tired and started to shun me. I was so embarrassed that I forced myself to crash course in English. I made it a point that I arrive early so I may have more time in the library and whenever there are chances I skipped PE classes just to sneak in the library. It was hard and I could not see any progress with my endeavor – I am still stuck with my problem in English – but I didn’t give up.

Then one day, we had a surprise Unit Exam in Mathematics. Every one was surprised of course – including me – and we all the reason to be, because the coverage was never discussed in class. As the test went on, I look around and notice my classmates staring at the ceiling, some were praying to their “little gods”, some secretly scan their books, while other tried to imitate elastic man stretching their neck just to peek on their neighbor’s answers. My beloved seatmate was one of them.

I look at him in the eyes and said, “Go ahead… copy!”

Surprisingly, I found the exam easy… and guess what? When the teacher announced the result of the test, only one passed, and not just passed but also had a perfect score! Do I need to mention who the guy was? Hehehe… it was me! My seatmate had 49 over 100, which was the second highest score.

The next day, I followed my seatmate in the canteen during recess time. Without hesitation, I asked him to buy me a banana cue and an ice cream. He looked at me for a moment, argued, but eventually gave me what I wanted. I was very glad. Then everyday, I asked my classmate to buy me a snack – in short I was picking on him. I guess, he was feed up with me and that one day, he started to fight back. We almost had a fistfight.

I know it was my mistake, so I strike a bargain with him. He teaches me English, and in return, I will teach him Mathematics. That started our friendship.

Reynaldo Bautista became my 4th friend.