Interim Goddess of Love (6 page)

"
Hannah, if you pay enough attention,
everyone
is a project. And they all need you at the same time. I don't think you're ready for that yet."

I sighed.
"Is that why you're here, in a small school in the middle of nowhere, when you could be running the free world or something?"

"
I've been at this a little longer than you. I told you, I can multitask."

"
I bet you can."

"
Quin, having dinner with us?" said my tita, who had come out onto the porch without my noticing.

"
Yes, if you don't mind,
tita,
" he said, and of course Tita Carmen didn't mind, because Quin was always so polite, well-mannered.

"
Good! I made lasagna and cupcakes, more than Hannah and I can eat. You've got great timing."

I used to think that Tita Carmen secretly had a thing for Quin, or at least secretly wanted him to have a thing for me, because she was always cooking something enough for three when he happened to be around. Now I knew that
he
was probably orchestrating that happy coincidence. Oh well. The end result was cupcakes. Why should I complain about the means?

I rolled my eyes and gently pushed the sun god into the house.

The next day, Kathy made a grander entrance into the Guidance Office, guaranteeing that she would
not
be missed.

If the clatter of her chunky heels running down the hall into our room wasn
't a clue, then the dramatic
whoosh
of the door opening, and then the bang of it slamming shut behind her, definitely was.

I just so happened to have the printout of Carson
's psych test in my hand, which I dropped when I heard the door.

"
I got another gift," she declared, setting down a box of pastries on my desk.

A head peeked out of one of the meeting rooms. It was guidance counselor Farrah, who happened to be in a session with a freshman student at the time.

"Everything all right here?" she asked.

"
Yes," Kathy and I said at the same time.

She looked like she didn
't believe us, but I could explain it all -- or at least lie -- to her later. Ms. Farrah was cool.

So, another thing I had in common with Kathy -- mangoes were, truly, the best thing ever. Ripe mangoes, the dark yellow ones, would be my true love. Crunchy green ones, not so much, but I did have moods when only that and spicy sweet shrimp paste would make things better.

Although given the choice, I would take
a ripe mango fresh and whole, and eat with my hands (peeling the skin gradually around) instead of put it in a pastry.

But I would not say no to mangoes in pastry.

"This is so, so yummy," Kathy said, in between bites.

"
It's the best thing ever," I said, for the third time. "How did you even get this? I thought you couldn't send food through the mail service."

"
I'm almost sure that someone got paid off there. They won't tell me, and it's impossible that they don't know who's doing this."

"
It's not Carson," I told her, dropping my voice to a whisper.

Kathy
's eyes widened, and then she gulped a little loudly, probably swallowing some shame with her mango tart. "I thought so. Are you sure?"

"
Pretty sure."

"
He's not over Martha, right?"

"
Not yet. So this other guy, Ian, he knows about your thing for mangoes too?"

She paused, and then nodded.
"Yeah, he does."

"
We'll find out then."

The tart was perfect, by the way. Mango tarts were tricky because a too-sweet mango could ruin the thing, but this was perfect. Like
the baker adjusted the cream and crust sweetness to match the fruit.

"
What exactly are you doing, Hannah?" Kathy asked. "I mean, I don't mind that you're helping, but when I tell you stuff, what exactly do you do after?"

I shrugged.
"I find out what's up. So you get your answers. Don't you want that?"

"
Do they know that you're asking because of me?"

"
Not at all."

"
All right, good." She wiped a bit of tart crust off her lip, which reminded me to do the same. "I just worry, that's all."

"
I'm so stealthy, they don't even know you know anything."

"
I'm sure you'll find a way to charm them -- in a subtle way."

Never in my life had I been called charming, subtle or not. I knew it wasn
't me, but the goddess thing -- I couldn't even take credit for it.

Kathy cleared her throat.
"Because I do want the answer, don't get me wrong. I just hope it doesn't ruin anything."

Fear.
Not the for-her-life kind, but strangely close, and it was making my own heart pound just from being near it. She was doing the thing we teenagers do, trying to act as if this kind of thing didn't bother us in the slightest.

Trying.
Because, come on. This was the most exciting thing that ever happened to her. I had her heart in my hands. Her hopes for a memorable first relationship were all on me. Did I even know what I was doing?

Not going to tell her that.

So instead I told her I was proceeding with loads of caution, loads. "Don't worry. The bright side is that someone cares enough about you to do this. Your only problem, really, is if you like him back. That's not even a
problem
."

Some girls were just lucky.

Of course I knew who Vida Castillo was.

That w
as probably the one sign of truly belonging to the Ford River student body. The people who honestly did not recognize Vida when she passed them in the hallway were the freshmen on their first day. When I came into this school she was a junior, and editor-in-chief of the student news website. Now that she was a senior, she was president of the student council. What she had been before that, I didn't know, but it was probably awesome. People who were introduced to her didn't even bother with pretending they didn't know her name. They were all like, "So I finally get to meet you."

Even
I
got tongue-tied over how beautiful she was. And yet she wasn't like a commercial model showing off superpale skin, nor was she the polar opposite. I once described her to my mother (because Vida was the kind of girl you talked to friends and family about) as a hybrid of cultures, like someone had taken what was considered beautiful in about thirty countries, mixed it, baked it, and out came Vida.

My mom said that was impossible.

My moment with Vida happened in the school library. I was trying to find the single volume of a Philippine Myths and Legends book that was supposedly there, but wasn't really on its proper shelf. This had actually happened to me before. Some of the students in this school could be so inconsiderate.

The library took up the entire third floor of the West building,
although that wasn't large enough compared to the older schools. (Eventually I should stop comparing Ford River to the older schools.) The stacks and selection I found impressive, mainly because I often found what I needed for my classes. But I was surprised to find so little about other things, and in that regard the library felt more like a rather large chain bookstore.

Just in case it was just in the wrong place
, I scanned the stacks. When I took a U-turn into another shelf, I nearly bumped into Vida herself.

"
I'm sorry," I said automatically, even if I hadn't done anything wrong.

She was like a source of light between the bookshelves. Not that she was glowing (or maybe there was some of that), but she just couldn
't be ignored. It was Monday, uniform day, and in theory she and I were wearing the exact same plaid skirt and white top, but on her it looked tailored and perfect. Then I noticed that she was looking straight at me.

"
Hannah, right?" she said.

"
Yes… yes?" I stammered.

"
This library is so inadequate. People in this school have no respect for books."

"
I was… there's this book I'm trying to find. It's not here."

She shrugged.
"The shelving in this section is horrible. What were you looking for?"

"
Philippine myths and legends," I said, but it looked like she already knew.

"
Too bad. Can't you find that on the Internet?"

"
I tried. There's nothing much. I mean, I guess I wanted to check something not put up by some guy on Wikipedia."

Her hand came upon my shoulder, and I
was steered away from the maze of shelves. Near the librarian's desk was a short shelf of children's books, and without hesitating Vida pulled one out by the spine.

Ang Alamat ng Araw at Buwan.
The legend of the sun and moon. Illustrated and bilingual.

I wanted to ask if she was kidding.
"I think I need something a bit more… mature."

Vida ran the book, and the student ID around my neck, through the quick-checkout barcode reader and was obviously not kidding.
"Nonsense. Anything worth knowing is taught to kids first anyway."

Then the book was in my hand, and she and I were walking out of the library -- no, she was
escorting
me out. Each step of the way she caught every eye she passed, and some of them actually turned to me too. Just being around her for two minutes was already upping my social value.

Outside the library doors, a guy holding a woman
's bag and two books was waiting. "Thank you, darling," she said, taking the items from him, and on her, the additional bag and books still looked magazine-perfect. "Hannah, this is my boyfriend Jake."

"
Hi, Jake," I said. I knew the guy -- he was a sophomore too, and we might have taken a PE class together last year. He was one of the more good-looking guys, probably the cutest one in my batch. If Vida, a senior, absolutely had to date a sophomore, then Jake Lalisan was the guy to date.

"
Hi, Hannah," he said, and I almost laughed at how obedient we sounded. And then I picked up something from him as soon as I heard his voice.

He
's confused
. Jake did not know, apparently, that he was Vida's boyfriend, but was flattered to hear it.

"
Bye, Hannah," Vida said, taking Jake by the arm and waving like we were friends. "We should talk about the book when you're done."

Funny. I always thought that Vida got her reputation because she was just that pretty. As she walked further away from me, it was like I was waking up from a trance, and realized that she
had just monopolized my time and I had let her.

She is totally one of them.
I wondered why Quin didn't tell me.

THE LEGEND OF THE SUN AND THE MOON

In the days before human memory, when Bathala, the Great Father, ruled the sky and sea, a quarrel erupted between two of his children, Apo and Maya.

Apo was the strongest and most handsome among Bathala
's many children, while Maya was the smartest and prettiest. The other brothers and sisters knew it was best to step aside when their two siblings fought even over the smallest trifles.

But this quarrel was quite serious. Maya and
Apo were arguing over their birthright. It began when Bathala asked this question: "Who would like to rule over humans?"

"
Me, me, me!" cried Apo, bright and eager. "I will race across the sky, give warmth to humans, and shine upon their crops and cattle. They shall use the shadows I cast around them to measure their hours. Humans shall work hard under my light and know I am forever watching them. Humans shall worship me without fail!"