Since I'm in the mood for recollection, here's the story behind the explosion.

I was in my 3rd year high school. For the life of me, I can't remember my section. I know the rest, 1-Gold, 2-Green, 3-_______, and 4-White.

I want to say it was during Practical Arts. I'm not sure but it was definitely the last period before lunch. I don't know who started it but we have a dare: throw a triangle (fire-cracker) at the quadrangle. I was saying that it's pretty easy, all you need to do is take the paper around the wick and it will not explode right away. We excused ourselves to go to the bathroom, we unwrapped the wick in the and on our way back to class, we threw the lit triangle.

It worked, we were sitting in class when it finally exploded. It took too long to go BOOM! that we too were surprised when it finally did. We were saying it was not loud enough (we used a 3-star), so we decided to do it again later.

After lunch, I had a 5-star with me. Again, we unwrapped the wick. Using a gum, we stuck it behind the rail on the stairwell close to the clinic. It took forever to go and when it did, it was LOUD! Maybe the stairwell helped, but it was really loud.

The bell rang. Fr. L, our CLE teacher, who was acting-Prefect, came in and said he'll be right back but he needs to go around the classrooms for an inspection. This gave us time to hide incriminating evidence. We moved the platform and threw everything in there. But when Fr. L came back he said, they found a freshman with firecrackers on him. We sighed our relief.

Fr. L went on ranting about the dangers of explosives. He went on to say that another priest was pretty upset since it disturbed the afternoon mass. Somebody asked what's going to happen to the freshman, and Fr. L said, he will be suspended for 3 days.

That would have been the end of it but Richard M, the class president, bragged about how he knew who really was behind the explosion. Unfortunately, he bragged to the wrong guy. He was the freshman's brother and the brother went straight to Fr. L and told Fr. L that Richard M knew who did it.

The sacrificial lamb was RJ M. We talked about this and RJ said, he'll confess and we don't need to worry about it, he'll own up to everything. It was a real surprise to me then when Monday rolled around.

Fr. L came bursting into our classroom, pointed at me and boomed, "SINUNGALING!" If you know Fr. L, you know how scary that was. I felt so small. The bell rang for Monday general assembly. He then said, "Wait for me at the Prefect's office." I was so scared. Everybody else was walking to the gym while I was walking to the Prefect's office. I felt like crying. I sat in the office, I could hear from the PA system the assembly and before the School song, I heard RJ apologizing.

Fr. L came to the office and started his sermon. I don't remember all of it, I was too worried about how he's gonna call my mom. I do remember him saying, "santa-santatita, demonyita pala" and calling me "palestinian terrorist". He asked me who else was involved and I could have given him the names of the rest but I saw no point to that. It was Donna G, Jerome R, RJ M, Richard M and me.

I got suspended for 3 days. I cleaned the library (stole a book, too), the chapel, the faculty room, the girl's bathroom (the big one, the one on the ground floor). One afternoon, Fr. L told me to go to every classroom and collect the trash. I also had to sweep the gym, what made this even more humiliating was, I did this while one class was practicing for the choral speech fest. Finally, it was over. Or, at least I thought so.

The next Monday, Mr. P was back. After the assembly, he announced for me to report to the Prefect's Office right after the assembly. And I got another earful. He said he knows that it was me who's been signing his announcements on the bulletin board.(He used different colored chalks and I have access to it, my geometry teacher uses different colored chalks for illustration and she always asks me to get chalks). He said if I do it again, he's gonna make me erase all the little MD's that I've been vandalizing all over the campus.

After that incident, Fr. L was very aloof towards me. He seldom calls me in class. But at the last mass for the school year, I did caught his eye during the "Kordero ng Dios" song and when I did, I gave him the "V" sign for peace. I wonder if he ever forgave me. I wonder where he is right now.

2 things that I wanted to do but I never did: steal the prefect's sign over the door and ring the school bell 10 minutes early for lunch.