Page 4: Undulation... eh? Whazzat mean?

Czarina was just spacing out while looking through the window of the
science laboratory. It was at the second floor of the College of Sciences
building. From there you can see outside of the university. You could see
buildings, cars, people, more buildings, and more vehicles. But she wasn't
looking at any of those. You can see the beautiful afternoon sky, with
avian creatures flying above, and riddled with a bit of pollution. But she
wasn't looking at any of those.

"Hey Cza! Cza!!" said a classmate of hers while waving her hand before her
eyes. "Snap out of it!" She was now snapping her fingers before Czarina, as
if dispelling magic casted on her. By the third snap, she was surprised,
almost falling down from her laboratory chair. "Wah!"

"Get a hold of yourself! Were having an experiment here, remember?" she
nagged, raising her voice. "Everyone's participation is required! Space out
and I'll pound a beaker of this concoction down your throat!" pointing
towards a beaker of green-black, vicious-looking liquid.

Czarina felt terrified. "N-no need to do that, Sally! I'm OK!! See?" she
said, raising her arms up high. But in doing so, she almost hit someone
behind her.

"Hey, watch it, Cza!" said the guy.

"Sorry!" she apologized. Now she felt embarassed. She wasn't acting like
her normal self. She knew what was wrong, but she didn't want to
acknowledge it right away until all her suspicions are proven... or so she
thought.

It is already about 6:00PM. By now, Chuck and his classmates have finished
their lessons for the day and are now preparing to go home. Chuck is left
in the classroom, at the first floor of the College of Sciences building.
There he reads a text in his cellphone. His eyes, then wide open, started
to become narrow all of a sudden. Then, he dropped his head on his desk.

He gave out a big sigh, looking up to the ceiling of the classroom.

Czarina was walking around the first floor of the building, then she
noticed a room still had the lights on. While walking by, she took a peek
through the door, and she saw Chuck, all gloomy and looking exhausted. Just
by seeing him, her heart skipped a beat. Still, she is curious as to why is
Chuck like that. So, she took a deep breath, entered the classroom, and
went to give him a very jovial way of greeting.

...

A judo chop to the face. "Heeelloooooo!!!!"

The sound of the hand hitting perpendicularly to the face echoed throughout
the room. It's as if the hand imprinted onto his face, permanently putting
a dent on his once flawless complexion.

Like hell it did.

"OOOUUCH!!" screamed a shocked Chuck. "The hell, you bitch!?!?" he
complained, massaging his nose, checking if it got dislocated.

She just looked at him nonchalantly, while trying to cover the fact that he
made her heart skip a beat a while ago. "What's up?" she started. "You look
really down now. Is there something wrong?" She looked at the phone that
Chuck was holding a while back.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it." He turned away from Czarina, while
still massaging his nose. "That hurt, bitch! Tch..."

Czarina smiled a bit, but she tried to hide it. "Aw, sorry! I was just
carried away by the moment!" she defended. "So please, if you tell me why
you look so gloomy I won't hit you anymore! I promise!" she said, while
sitting down on a chair, leaning her back against the back rest.

Chuck thought for a while. It doesn't seem like it, but Czarina's pretty
reliable sometimes. And, in fact, they are what can be considered best
friends. He knows he can confide in her, but for his own sake, he'll only
make some parts clear. A summary, maybe?

"My folks texted me," he started in a solemn tone.

Czarina was surprised. Seeing and hearing him like that for the first time
made her fluster a bit. She blushed, or she thought she did, and held her
chest lightly. When she realized, she returned to being normal, hoping that
he didn't notice. But after Chuck answered, there was a sudden silence. Her
heart raced. So, to continue the conversation, and avoid detection of her
flustering...

"And...?"

With a pissed-off look, Chuck stared at Czarina, "You really wanna know,
don't you?"

"I promised I won't hit you anymore, right?" replied Czarina in a light
tone.

"Whatever," said Chuck, placing his hands by his waist. "You won't stick up
to your words, anyway. Right?"

Czarina relaxed, then she giggled at Chuck a bit. "Come on, tell me!" she
demanded.

He sighed, exhaled a lot. "Well," he started, "it's not like you'll stop
hitting me anyway. You'll just pester me with questions later on," he
mumbled while sitting down on a chair. He noticed Czarina was glaring at
him, smiling with an expectant look on her face.

"So my parents texted me," he said, looking out through the window of the
classroom. "Said that they'll have to cut my allowances for the rest of the
year. It's only temporary though." Chuck didn't look like worried while
saying it out. "That kind of thing, I don't really mind. The one that
bothered me is what they told me after that." He looked really serious
while saying that.

"And," Czarina hesitated, "what was it about?"

"...dy," he said with a low volume.

"Hmm? What was it again?"

"..dy," again with a low volume.

"I can't hear you. Louder, please?"

"I SAID TO STUDY, GOD DAMN IT!!!!" He shouted it out and it looked like he
was gonna go on a rampage. When he looked at Czarina, he saw her making a
blank face. It was insulting, a bit insulting. He felt it right there.

"Don't gimme that look, crazy bitch," Chuck mumbled, turning his head away
from the chuckling Czarina. She was smiling like an lunatic idiot, and she
couldn't stop it, because of the way he said that study bit. She was trying
very hard not to laugh, even covering her mouth.

"So," she said, still holding back, "what's wrong about that? Pufufu..."

Chuck got a bit pissed-off, but he persevered, thinking that there's no
meaning to being angry about that. So, he just continued. "Eherm," clearing
his throat. "so, as I was saying, they were pointing out that if I can
churn out my grades higher than before, they might consider reducing the
threshold of my allowance cut," he continued, crossing his arms before him.

"So, what's up with that?" she stopped laughing, but she was still smiling.
"I thought you don't care about the allowance cut? More so, your grades
aren't that low, if you ask me," she asked, as if proving a point of some
sort.

"It's not that I don't want an allowance cut," he explained, placing his
hand over the armrest of a chair. "The problem is that this is THEM we're
talking about!" he exclaimed, pointing his finger towards his cellphone.

"I don't get it.." replied a confused Czarina, scratching the back of her
head.

"You've met my folks once, right?"

She glanced up to the ceiling, "Yeah, a couple of times, yeah."

"What do you think of them, as your first impression of them?" he asked,
glaring his narrowly opened eyes towards her.

She thought for a bit, crossing her arms while she walked a few steps.
"They were..." she answered, "Pretty intimidating, I guess?"

"See what I mean?" he exclaimed, raising his arms shoulder-wise, spreading
his hands out as if he made a point.

Czarina wondered what he meant, looking at Chuck with much confusion. "I
don't see the analogy of your explanation," she pointed out. "What's with
it about them being intimidating?" she asked, while leaning back to a chair
herself.

Chuck grunted. He looked at her again with narrow-eyes, like he's getting
pissed-off at her. Then, he let out a big sigh. "Damn it, Cza. For an honor
student, you're pretty stupid."

True enough, Czarina is an honor student.

Czarina blushed. "Well," replied a flustered Czarina, "I'm sorry if I'm not
socially intelligent!" She held his neck with the intent to strangle, and
growled: "GODDAMN IT, CHUCK. DON'T PLAY CHARADES WITH ME...."

Chuck became terrified. He went pale. Czarina then released him from bind,
then he checked his neck if he had any injury. When he thought he was okay,
he started. "They're kinda like an authoritarian rule, or something." Chuck
sat down on a nearby chair. "It's when at times like this that I'm most
afraid of them."

Czarina shook her head, "I still don't get it."

"Well," Chuck continued, "in simplest terms, what looks like a request from
them is actually an order." He pulled out his phone and showed Czarina the
message Chuck's parents sent to him. "What looks like a nice condition is
actually what they really want," he explained, pointing at the part of the
text which says that he should study.

"So what you're saying is that you are ordered to study, right?" she
clarified.

Chuck nodded in agreement. "That's the gist of it," he replied, putting his
phone back in the compartment in his sling bag. "You should see them when
they are pulling out something like this." He pulled up his eyelids, "They
say it with the most vicious of smiles."

Czarina let out a slight laugh. She was laughing at the face that Chuck
tried to imitate. "Pufufu... stop it, idiot!" She tried to cover her face
that was almost past the limit of not-laughing. "If the wind blows and
you're still doing that face, it's gonna be permanent, y'know?"

Chuck was still holding his eyelids back. "So? I look good, don't I?" he
defended. "Familiarize yourself with this face, so you'll know when to run
away from my parents!" he said, waving his face left and right. Then, he
hit his face (unintentionally) on the wall of the classroom. "..."

Czarina couldn't hold it any longer. Chuck's last stunt really filled her
laughing limit to the brim that she laughed out loud like a lunatic.
"Hahahahaha!! Stop it, damn it!! I can't... hahaha... breathe... hahaha!!!"

Suddenly, Chuck placed his hand on Czarina's head. He gave her a slight
pat. She stopped laughing, replacing the noise with awkward silence. When
she looked up, Chuck was smiling at her. "I made you happy without
realizing it. Please stay that way."

Those words almost made Czarina's tears well up. But she stopped halfway,
realizing that part of the reason Chuck acted that way was to cheer her up.
"Thanks! I wanna hug you right now!" she said, with a smile that she
couldn't keep to herself.

Chuck opened his arms wide, suggesting that Czarina can do what she said.
In an instant, she embraced him, wrapping her arms around him. He
reciprocated the gesture, held her tightly, but not too tight. He can feel
her shaking, but he didn't say anything about it. He knows that if he said
something, he'll either break her fragile smile, or have his nose broken in
parts.