Chapter 2     :           Damsel in Distress

Pie Mindara Manaying

I closed the door behind me quickly and stood aside, trying to calm myself. I wished I could scream but I couldn’t do it here; I’m standing at the hallway and there were few people here. I took the envelope to the level of my eyes again, scrutinize it with a frown. Before I realized it, I found myself screaming but I muffled my voice by covering it with the envelope. What have I done? I was putting myself into a big trouble. A few of the teachers who walked pass by the path stared at me with their puzzle look but didn’t really questioning me for my weird behaviour. Good. I was not in the mood to talk to anybody. I counted till ten, inhaling a deep breath of patience before I walked down the hallway. I kept my pace fast and didn’t bother to return the greetings from anybody who saw me. The envelope in my hand began to crumple as I held it tight. I wish could throw it into any of the trashcan I found along my way. My fifteen minutes argument with the Principal kept flashing in my mind; he really pissed me off.

 I reached the teachers’ room faster than I could even imagine. Fern saw me walking to her direction; my space was next to hers. “Hello Mademoiselle.” She gazed at me expectantly while pulling a chair so close to hers that we could actually ‘talk’.

            “What’s up?” She asked, trying to read my facial expression.

            “I need to get married as soon as possible.” I told her. The reaction she gave to me was one I should have it recorded. She gaped at me with open for a few seconds. I have never seen her that speechless; she didn’t even manage to arrange a complete sentence to respond to me.

            “Why?” She finally spoke once she has recovered from her shock.

I wasn’t sure how I could explain to her. To make it easier, I handed her the envelope. Fern hurriedly took the content out and scanned the document briefly to get a whole picture of the thing I wanted to tell her. “You’re about to be sent for rural teaching.” She said, frowning.

            “What is its connection with your ‘I want to get married as soon as possible’?” She asked me, seeming not to understand a thing about the matter.

            “It’s quite complicated, Fern.” I sighed, taking the envelope back to me.

            “No. I’m your best friend.” Fern grabbed both of my shoulders until I looked at her again. “Talk to me so that I can help you.” She said in concern.

            “I don’t want to go for the rural teaching placement.” I told her and saw she nodded. “And to evade the contract, I need to marry someone before the upcoming week.” Fern widened her eyes in surprised upon hearing my explanation.

            “Are you insane, Pie?” She snapped at me. “Do you think marriage is like ‘pretending to marry your neighbour’s son during your childhood day?” She scolded me for real. I knew she wouldn’t agree with my decision. I couldn’t believe it myself either.

            “What should I do? The ministry was insane too. How could they use someone’s status to be the major reason for a purpose?” As much as I tried not to cry, the tears began to spill from the corner of my eyes shamelessly. Fern softened when she saw me crying. She pulled me in for a hug.

            “Let’s take a look on the contract again.” She grabbed the envelope again and pulled me closer to her. “You can’t make a decision absentmindedly, Pie. Not when you are messed up.” She said to me with soothing tone. “You’re risking your future and your happiness.” She got the point there. I rushed too soon to a conclusion. I missed the part where I should think about the consequences.

            “I’m sure you don’t even want to go to the rural region.” I told her. Fern froze momentarily and nodded awhile later. See; even my best friend didn’t want to go for such placement. In my opinion, the candidates for rural teaching placement need to come with personal characteristics, rural background or educational experiences that had at least predispose them to live in rural area. Me? I have never been outside of this metropolitan life. What they expect from me?

            “There are many other solutions to your problem and I totally disagree with your decision.” She shook her head. “Who are you going to get married with? You didn’t have any suitor.” She grimaced. Perhaps she could read it from my mind. I was thinking about any online dating chat room or anything related to it.

            “That’s the only way out I could think of.” Fern wouldn’t understand a thing about my problem. Desperate person was willing to do anything. She should have known that.

            “I have never seen you this idiot.” Fern was pissed off. “You’re the smartest in the district yet you were drawn to make a foolish decision out of your genius brain? This is not a joke, Pie. You can’t marry someone you doesn’t even know and love.” She dropped her head into her palms, sighing deeply to her disappointment.

            “I have to.” I spoke in a low voice.

Fern rose from her seat immediately, shaking her head in disbelief. “I won’t allow that to happen.” She protested. “You can’t do that Pie. Don’t you get it?” She growled.

            “Perhaps the person can be the one for me.” I shrugged at her. Fern grew even mad at me. I saw her trying to punch me in the face but she held in back.

            “Pie Mindara Manaying, let’s have a look on the contract all over.” She yanked one of the sheets out of the arrangement and placed it on the desk with a thud. The heading of the paper read ‘ALLOWANCES AND BENEFITS’.

            “We can start with the most pleasurable element.” She stated, smiling widely at me. Fern read it out loud for me and every details of it came to my knowledge. Along my stay there I would be paid over and above my annual salary with a few of other benefits which include; motor vehicle allowance to compensate for motor vehicle depreciation, enhanced leave provisions to enable me to attend to personal and family commitments, reimbursement of certain medical or dental expenses related to treatment, claim for travel and accommodation expenses and many more that were all advantage me for good.

            “See, it isn’t that bad.” Fern said, breaking my reverie by ing the envelope back to me. She might have been talking to me about something but I wasn’t really paying attention to her. My mind flew out to anywhere else. The offer didn’t excite me at all.

            “You should give it a try, Pie.” Fern encouraged. There she went; she was trying to persuade me to go for it. “This is your chance to gain more experiences.” She tapped on my shoulder lightly just like a mother who was trying to support her child who was currently in doubt.

I shook my head immediately. Couldn’t she get it? I have never wished to be there. “If you don’t want to stay there more often, I can visit you or we can ask P’Boy to take you home every weekend.” She said, obliviously giving me a false hope. Perhaps she wasn’t aware of it but she wouldn’t be able to visit me for the reason she needed to take care not just herself but also her pregnancy.  P’Boy the one I have always considered like my brother wouldn’t want to travel for hours just to pick me. It was impossible.

            “I’ll think about it.” I lied to Fern just to make her stop worrying about me.

            “That’s my clever, Pie.” She engulfed me into her warm hug again. “I care a lot about you, Pie. As much as I don’t want you to see you get hurt, I don’t want to see you suffering too.” She whispered to me, my hair to my comfort.

            “I’m a big girl.” I forced a giggle. “You don’t have to worry about me.” I assured it to her.

            “I know you won’t do anything stupid.” She freed me and gazed right into my eyes. “You can do it, Pie.”

I nodded at her again, just to ease her feeling. She didn’t know it that I would still stick to my plan. I need to find someone and sealed an agreement with that person. There was only a person whom I could rely on, right now; P’Boy.

            “Fern, don’t you have a class right now?” I glanced to her schedule and saw she has missed five minutes of her lesson. Fern whipped her head to check on the clock and I could have burst out laughing when she began to fret. She tried to assemble her teaching material but it all ended up fell to the ground.

            “Hey, chill.” I helped her to pick the papers.

            “Ugh, I have never been late to class. This will ruin my reputation.” She grunted. I couldn’t help to giggle. Fern, a kind of Ms. Perfectionist has always been punctual. According to her and perhaps anybody, time is money.

            “Should I apologize to you?” She stopped and gazed at me for a second.

            “It’s better for you to shut up and help me.” She rolled her eyes to me. Phew… mood swing. Did it have anything to do with her pregnancy? I should read about it later.

Fern has gone to her class. I reminded her to walk carefully. Surely I wouldn’t want her to get hurt. I didn’t have any class for the rest of the day but I still need to stay to get my work done. I would go to meet P’Boy later. He could help me. No; rephrase that. He must help me.

            *******

I pulled off to the side and parallel parked. I stepped out from the car and stood right in front of the exact building. The hair salon came to my view. Eventually, I walked myself into the salon. I was greeted by the workers who were very familiar to me. It was no bizarre to see me here. I came to this salon often – to meet my gay best friend, P’Boy. He owned the place and with his talent, he managed to attract many famous figures to his salon.

            “Where’s the squid?” I asked to one of his employees. I couldn’t recall her name. Perhaps it has something to do with Cindy.

            “He’s in the room.” She motioned with her chin. “With a boy.” The additional information made me smirk.

I walked briskly to his small office room. The door wasn’t locked when I tried to turn the knob. Before I decided to barge in, I leaned my ear close to the door, eavesdropped their conversation, if they had any. The thing I heard made me want to puke. They were grunting loudly and it was too gross. There he went again; having in his little private room.

            “P’Boy!” I knocked on the door, not wanting to listen to their annoying grunts anymore. “P’Boy, that’s enough for the day. I need to see you.” I knocked again. I heard she growled loudly from inside. A few seconds later, he showed up right at the door, crossing his arms to his chest in annoyance.

            “What?” He narrowed his eyes to me. Instead of answering him, I searched for the boy he has been with. Woah, he wasn’t t