Yes, it’s the time of year where all the students get hyped to play games. All kinds of games, you name it. :] But sadly, this only lasts for a week.

I'm going to re-tell the story day by day, 'kay?

DAY 1, 12th of January 2009.

I woke up really early so that I could at least make myself look a bit decent, and go to school. While drying mg hair, my school service arrived early. I left home... with my hair dripping wet. While doing the parade, I noticed that all of our uniforms were shorter than what we expected. Roughly, I could say that it's an inch shorter for me. The weird thing was, we had our measurements taken before they made the uniform and it still ended up short.

Exactly at noon, we were supposed to have a game against the FORTITUDE HAWKS, but it was moved later that afternoon. So we went to our next game, basketball with VALOR WAVERS. We lost, aww. But it's fine. I can say that the WAVERS are really tough competitors in this division. We lost at the first volleyball game of Grade 6, no wonder why. This was clearly not our lucky day. The score gap was really big, trust me.

DAY 2, 13th of January 2009.

Palaro, I can't feel it too much. It's just like another regular day, with all the female sixth graders wearing contraptions we call, "Skorts". I really don't like wearing things like these, but they sure are comfy. No air conditioners, no lesson -no fun. Oh yeah, our adviser is in the room, watching us, so we're bound to maintain a level of peace. 36 people, trapped in one big oven for at least 6 hours, what a great day isn't it?

Hours passed, boredom starts to kill me bit by bit. I was staring at the clock and realized... it was time for Volleyball. It was between Perseverance Mavericks and Gallantry Warriors. We screamed cheered and made an unpleasant noise. Volleyball isn't really our thing, and of course, we lost. I was really into watching the game when, Christine started to call my name. By the look on her face, it might be something urgent.

TIN: "Naomi, kasali ka sa badminton."
OMI: "Ha?"
TIN: "Kunin mo na yung racket mo sa taas, dali."
OMI: "Ano?"
TIN: "Basta."

It all started there, mayhem. I soon figured out that the badminton team lacked a couple of girls to play against the others. And out of all the girls in Grade 6, they thought of my name. What gives? As if there’s a huge neon light in front of them with my name there. Sigh. We ran everywhere in the campus to find extra players and spare me from playing, and probably embarrassing me in front of people. The match was moved because of our beloved adviser’s request. They found someone to play, and I’m free again.

DAY 3, 14th of January 2009.

This is the day wherein I’ll finally play something official. Thanks to Sir Jimai, I played Patintero, which caused me a great deal of my muscle pain right now. Surprisingly, we won a game. I was surprised that we won, because there were so many substitutions. I don’t even know why we won.

So on to the next game, Kulyot, or as Americans call it, “Tug of War”. The first round was a bit easy, the rope seemed light. Then the next rounds were hard, uber hard. The rope was rough too, so don’t ask me why I have bruises on my hands. The last one was the most memorable, I think. Our players fell down on the cold asphalt ground. It was actually a chain reaction, cause Ian, the guy at the far back of the rope, tripped and stumbled. So the team powerhouse was out and I’m now at the end of the rope. We were dragged by the other team; many of us had “Dyesebel” moments, wherein the way they landed on the ground looked like mermaid poses. :)) We came in 3rd, I think.

It’s time for the girls to rule, Sangkayaw. It’s a game where girls walk on coconut shells that have strings attached to it. It’s simply a relay game. I felt strong that our team will win, but it didn’t. The GALLANTRY WARRIORS were surprisingly fast, it seemed like they were running barefoot. Too bad, we only came 2nd.

Tiyakad. It’s a game where we suck. :] No pun intended. We had last place, but we like to call it 5th place, it sounds better.

The Palarong Pinoy didn’t follow the schedule too much, so we were a bit late for a basketball game. It was against Fortitude Hawks. I couldn’t remember the details, but I do have one. We won! Finally we won a basketball game.

Bravery Stallions plays against Mavericks in a game of volleyball. This game was a really close one, this had a third set I think. Ugh, my memory isn’t that good as I remember it was. We lost by two points, I guess.

DAY 4, 15th of January 2009.

I arrived early, so I decided to play Badminton. It lasted for a good half hour, and then Teacher Joy arrived. We played, and of course… I got tired. At the other side of the Audi-gym, the guys were playing basketball. Sir Jimai then came by and played volleyball, driving us and the other dudes away from the court, afraid that we’ll be hit by the ball. Everyone joined in, except for me, because I don’t have an idea on how to play. :)) Well I do, but not as mush as I want it to be. Just at that moment, Teacher Girlee arrived and saw all of us playing different games. Then Teacher Girlee invited us to play Patintero. We agreed, but there were still some people on the court. So we invited them to join, so that the court will be cleared. Yeah, we played. We finished the game at 8:30. I started playing downstairs at 6:50. :)) Whopping.

Since I’m tired of typing all of this stuff here, let’s make it short. We lost at our last match in volleyball against the Valor Wavers. We won at Basketball which was against the Bravery Stallions.

PS. I was asked to play Table Tennis, but I denied. I don’t know how to play. :] Makes sense? The game was called into a default. There were no available players.

PPS. The other Palarong Pinoy games were continued today. We came in 1st place in Piko and 2nd place in Sungka.

DAY 5, 16th of January 2009.

NOOO! The last day of Palaro is today. I don’t want it to end, even though I’m really tired. I’ll miss everything. I’ll miss our uniform and the feel of the jersey’s cloth on my skin. The smell of food from the Home Economics Lab will be surely missed. Everything and anything will be missed.

We won against Gallantry Warriors at basketball. It was fairly great, excluding the blinding rays of the sun and the intense heat. After half-time (I think that’s what they call it) the crowd thickened. Students, seniors, (nope, not the old guys and gals) teachers and some people I don’t know came in. I enjoyed watching the game, there were truly some funny moments. :] Monkey-monkey.

Here it comes, the moment of truth, the time where we’ll harvest the goods of hard work, the awarding. As usual, the schedule wasn’t followed and it started late, again. To pass time, I borrowed a Sungka board from Michelle and played against Marielle. I won, at least one and half runs. Was it luck? Yeah, I think so. The game was cut when someone came up to inform us that the program was going to start soon.

We had the following awards:

(CHAMPION) Chess: Abrham Dela Vega
(CHAMPION) Scrabble: Neil Brillantes
(CHAMPION) Palarong Pinoy
(RUNNER-UP) Basketball

Yeah… Palaro is over. :[ Sad.

After the ceremony, we were asked to go home already, but I told my service driver that I’ll be going home at 5 PM, and it’s still 3:20 PM. So I changed my shirt, because Jerseys aren’t my thing and exchanged my rubber shoes for flip-flops. And I’m off to watch people play. I sat on the bench, together with my friends and chatted. Some decided to join the others who were playing, some decided to stay for a while, and let their mouths do the work. We sure were a talkative bunch. There were some instances that I keep on getting hit by volleyball and of course, I get pissed. :)) What’d you expect? 5 PM came. I left school. I was really bummed, Palaro was now officially over.

PS. I do sometimes wonder why the ball always heads towards me. Am I a ball magnet or something? :)) Guess not. Do people stare at me when they spike, set or serve? Uh-huh. One single question… so many possible answers.

PPS. The picture above is from the profile of UNITY. I loved the picture so much.