Chapter 1
"Hey, cleaners! Group 1," the secretary yelled from the window.
"I'll list down those who escape, you'll be in trouble with Ma'am!" the cleaning crew leader said, facing the blackboard and searching for chalk.
"Jun! Damn you! Come back here! You're a cleaner!" the cleaning leader added before chasing the guy who suddenly grabbed his bag and ran outside.
"I saw fishballs and kikiam outside, let's buy some."
"Let's go to the CR first. I'll just put on some liptint and fix my hair, in case we bump into our crush. Their classes are over, right?"
"Damn, guys, let's go! Let's go to the computer shop."
A guy nudged his female seatmate. The girl, who was reading a book, immediately looked up and removed her earphones after the guy pointed.
"Class is over? You're not going home yet?" the guy asked. The girl looked ahead, then at several notebooks on the side of her table.
"Miss Ruth still wants me to go to the faculty to give these notebooks," the girl replied listlessly. The guy stood up, saying he would help her carry them to the office.
"Joaquin, bro! Aren't you going home with us? I thought we were going to play ML?"
A male student stood by the door with some of his classmates.
"I'll follow, bro. I'll just accompany the president to the faculty office," said Joaquin Chipeco, who had a big crush on their class president, Grace Veloso.
"Go ahead. There are only a few notebooks, I don't need help," Grace said, standing up. She grabbed the notebooks and walked past the guy, who facepalmed.
"Hehe, we'll just wait for you outside, Joaquin."
The friends shoved each other playfully and ran off.
"Espinosa! Damn you!"
The guy ran out of the classroom with his bag, chasing his friends who were running down the stairs.
"Guys! No running in the corridor!"
In the gymnasium, a girl was currently poking her teammate's forehead, calling her stupid.
"Because you're in Class F! Why did you even join this team? You're so stupid," Mika Gene Pineda, the cheerleader, yelled, hitting her teammate who was bowing her head and tightly closing her eyes.
The other squad members laughed, telling her to quit.
"You only got into the squad because your dad is that weird principal."
On the other side of the court, the school's varsity team was playing.
"Where's that idiot Joaquin again? Just because he's the MVP, he acts like that, didn't attend practice!"
The team captain, Vincent Baltazar, said angrily. The team's point guard laughed, saying that his head got too big because everyone believed he won the team the last competition.
"That guy's crazy! Who spread that rumor? Who said Joaquin only to played for our team to win?" Vincent said, throwing the ball to the floor.
"Because he really did do a big part for our team to win. Half of our score is thanks to him, even in our past games," replied the guy on the court, shooting the ball.
"What are you saying, Conrad? If we didn't pass him the ball, he wouldn't score points."
Conrad Libanan, the class president of Class A and vice-president, turned around.
"If we passed you the ball, would you be able to score points?" Conrad asked. Vincent immediately grabbed him by the collar, asking what his problem was.
"Hey, stop that!"
Their teammates intervened, trying to separate them. Conrad looked straight at Vincent.
"I know what you did to one of the girls from Class F."
Vincent stopped and slightly loosened his grip on Conrad. The two separated, and their teammates told them to calm down.
"We're on the same team!"
The guy clenched his fist, his eyes glaring at Conrad, who was dribbling the ball.
"You're really testing my patience, Libanan."
In Class A, the students stood up one by one.
"I can't go to the library, I need to go home early to finish my research," said one of the girls.
"That's why we're going to the library to look for research materials," said another girl, adjusting her glasses.
"My math score was a bit low, so my mom got me a tutor. I have to go home earlier," said a girl walking out of the door with some other students.
"I heard you were chosen by Ma'am as the school representative for the quiz bee."
"Yes, so I'll go to the faculty now to talk to Ma'am about it and get some textbooks."
"Lucky."
After Class A, the door of Class B opened.
"My head hurts. My brain feels like it's going to explode from all the lessons we need to catch up on."
"So many assignments. I want a vacation already," said a guy, approaching the railing and leaning half his body on it.
"It's not even been two months since classes started, dude."
The two stood in front of the railing, looking down.
"Class F has it easy. Looks like they went home early again," said the guy, then laughed. They saw some Class F students already playing in the field, and it seemed they had been there for a while.
"You can transfer so you won't complain about assignments anymore," said his classmate. The guy turned and narrowed his eyes at his friend.
"I don't want to be a loser like them. No way."
Who wants to be in Class F? The dumping ground for delinquent students, troublemakers, and those without dreams.
Later, in an abandoned building on campus, a group of boys were passing around something.
A student wearing glasses tripped and rolled on the ground.
"Your brother is arrogant. He thinks he's someone!"
The guy in front kicked the boy lying on the floor, stepped on his chest, and put his hands in his pockets.
"Tell your brother not to be so arrogant! He's still in Class F and a loser!"
The guy kicked the student with glasses in the face before leaving.
One of his classmate spat in front of him and scoffed. When the bullies left the building, tears streamed down the boy's face, and he cursed.
"That f***ing isn't my brother. I don't have a brother in Class F."
The boy said angrily, taking off his glasses. He was crying and trying to get up.
The boy's ID fell. At the bottom of the picture on the ID, it read 'Cedric Chipeco'.
"Were they beating you up again?"
The boy stopped and looked back. A girl was walking towards him. She was wearing glasses, carrying many books and a sketchbook.
"Stay away from me, you're a Class F!"
The girl stopped walking. Her ears and cheeks turned red after hearing that. She suddenly felt embarrassed, so she stepped back.
"I-I thought... Y-You needed help."
The boy quickly stood up and forcefully pushed the girl, saying he wasn't a loser like those in Class F.
"I don't need help, especially from someone like you!"
The girl fell to the ground, scattering her books and sketchbook. Cedric ran away, carrying his bag and going down the stairs.
"It hurts," Carmen Medina whispered, looking at her scraped palm.
The girl looked at her sketchbook and picked it up first. It was full of drawings of Cedric.
"G-Good thing he didn't see it."
The girl brushed off the sketchbook and tried to stand up. She often went to that place because it was quiet and there were no bullies. Now, realizing there were other people who went there, Carmen thought it was better to find another place to hang out on campus.
In that school, if you're in Class F, you're lower than a cockroach. That's how all the students there saw it, and why? It was all the principal's fault because of the unfair treatment of the students.
"I-I don't want to go to school anymore."
The girl approached the wall and slightly tiptoed to see the forest behind the abandoned building, beyond which was a lake.
"Such a beautiful view on this campus. It's a shame because the students here aren't human."
"I don't want to go to school, but I don't want to go home either."
"Mr. Banaag! I don't understand! I'm sure of my checking of the Class F test papers! Why are their report cards still like this!"
Ruth Napoleon, the class advisor of Class F, entered the office. She focused on teaching her class for a month, and after that, there was a significant improvement because all of them participated, but she didn't understand why some subject teachers still gave them a line of 6.
It was even more suspicious because all the Class F students had that on their report cards.
"Miss Napoleon, do you remember what I told you after I accepted you to this school and assigned you to Class F to be their advisor?" asked the principal, sitting in his swivel chair and looking at the teacher emotionlessly.
'Don't get too attached to Class F and pay attention to them. They don't deserve it, and you'll just waste your time.'
"You don't need to teach because you'll still get paid," said the principal. She didn't understand the policy of that university. What did Class F do to experience such inhumane treatment?
Ruth knew that many of her students were victims of bullying. Sometimes she saw it firsthand, but her students themselves told her not to interfere.
'Teacher, you'll only make our situation worse. Don't interfere.'
Despite the harassment her students experienced from their schoolmates, none of them reported it.
Disgust and intense hatred were evident on the woman's face. She didn't expect that the school she dreamed of was only beautiful on the outside. The system of that school was rotten, and most of the Class F students were victims of that system.
"I don't want to say this, Mr. Banaag, but you may be getting away with it legally, but not in God's eyes and with karma. You're going too far."
The teacher left. The principal immediately stood up and called the woman.
After closing the door, Ruth walked away from the office irritably. She passed many students, but none of them showed her respect or greeted her.
That happened because she was a Class F teacher, and she didn't understand why that school's system was like that for Class F.
Outside the school, a group of students were hanging out outside a store. They were eating jumpong while chatting.
"After what happened to the principal's child, the principal seemed to go crazy, then he added Class F to the senior high building," said the girl who was sitting.
"What was the cause of death of the principal's eldest child again?" one of the girls asked.
"Suicide, I heard. He drowned himself in the lake behind the abandoned senior high building. They found the principal's son's body floating. His body was full of bruises."
"Was the principal hurting him?" the girl asked. Her friend immediately hit her.
"Didn't you hear my story earlier? The principal was kind back then, I was also in high school at that time, and I often greeted the principal whenever he passed by our corridor. He was also handsome, so I kind of had a crush on him, but of course, I had a bigger crush on the principal's son because he was super handsome."
Her companions looked at her with poker faces. The girl cleared her throat.
"Anyway, back to the topic. It's impossible that the principal beat up his son because I heard that his two children still went to their dad's office to eat. You can also see that they were close, so it's impossible that it was the principal, so—"
"So, the principal's son was also a victim of bullying?" asked the guy sitting at the table. The guy looked at the girl who was currently sipping on her straw and drinking RC from a plastic cup.
"Yes, and after that happened, the principal's wife, a scientist, divorced him, and the principal's daughter's grades plummeted, so she ended up in Class F."
"Wait, she's also in senior high? What's the daughter's name?" one of those at the table asked.
"Joanna Banaag of Class F, senior high."