Ruth’s entry about her childhood crushes made me think about my own. I had my first when I wuz in kinder II but before that I used to be a loser in kinder I, where I remember being teased by an obnoxious classmate on tha table where I wuz seated. We were seated six to a table. And tha obnoxious gurl would be singin’ a song that goes “Red1, blue2, green3, yellow4, pink5…” all at once pointing to everyone else on tha table but me. I would protest then, claiming “pink 5” to be me. To which she would say no, she wuz pink 5. She would then end tha song by taunting me and singing,” Sunshine wala! Umuwi ka na!” I think she wuz jealous. Dark and ugly as she wuz. I’d never forget that incident so that years later when I wuz more popular and she wuz suckin’ up to me, I paid her no attention.

Well, anyway, in kinder II, I had my first crush as I have said. He was also my dance partner in nursery but he did not appeal to me then. His name is Thaddeus and he was seated next to me on the table. He was cute and nice. Thaddeus would always bring Dial soap wit him so all those seated at our table could wash our hands before eatin’. There was this irritating guy seated on my left named Christopher and he’d irritate tha hell outta me til Thaddeus would tell him,” Hindi kita papahiramin ng sabon. Inaaway mo siya eh!” referring to me. Christopher would stop teasin’ me for a while until after he had used tha soap, then he’ll start in on me again. It got to be so that one day I got fed up and shouted at tha Christopher guy, “Ano ba? May gusto ka ba sa akin?!” To which he turned red. What’s funny is I can’t remember tha gift Thaddeus gave me when I had a birthday party in school but I could remember Christopher’s gift. The others gave me expensive little cute gifts well-wrapped by their ‘rents. Christopher gave me a half-eaten bag of Chips Ahoy barely wrapped in wrinkled wrapping paper. I remember well coz my dad wuz laughin’ over it and wonderin’ to whom it came from. He said it looks like “itinakas lang sa bahay”. Well, I found out it wuz from Christopher tha next day when I finished handin’ thank you cards to everyone who gave me gifts. Tha teacher approached me wit Christopher trailin’ behind wearin’ a hurt look on his face. Tha teacher asked me how come Christopher didn’t git any card. Me: “Because he did not give me a gift?” Teacher: “He did. [to Christopher]: What was your gift?” Christopher: “cookies.” Me: “That’s because you didn’t put your name on tha gift.” Teacher: “You should have indicated your name!”