My Fantasy World: Who? Me?

I was relieved when everybody stared at me like that. It almost felt something very nostalgic. So, this Australian guy told me he’ll buy my lunch. I never actually say ‘no’ to free lunch. And when the speaker ended his fun, we were all told to have a short break.

As the Aussie guy was approaching me from my back, the guy sitting beside me looked at me with fidgeting hands. He was taller than I am with high heels on. He had deep blue eyes, fluffy hair and had a 3 o’clock shadow. He stared at me and I stared back. I felt I was deeply being swallowed by those big blue eyes. It was roughly my first time seeing eyes like that.

“Klaus.”

He stopped shaking when the Aussie guy called him. He immediately gathered his composure and smiled.

“Nicolas Vign.” He said as he reached for my hand and kissed it.

I was shocked. Or more likely, stunned with that smile.

“Shut your mouth, luv. You’ll give people ideas. Especially in front of this rude guy, eh?”

Was I drooling? I mean, this guy is really stunning.

Nicolas chuckled and said, “can I join you for lunch?”

How could this guy be so CHARISMATIC. I snapped out of it and started acting professionally, as what I should have done moments ago.

“Of course you can if you don’t mind this guy coming along with us.” As I was referring to the Aussie guy at my back.

“Oh, you’re with Terry? I don’t mind if he doesn't ” and in that instant, his lovely smile turned into a mischievous smirk.

So his name is Terry, huh? I can feel the tension between the two. Maybe I stepped on a landmine over here.

“Klaus, you bloody bastard, you. Come on.” He said in disdain.

As we went outside, the two were talking just in front of me and all I could was the backs of two foreign looking gentlemen in quasi-formal attires. Judging from how they talk to each other, it was either they are very close or they just hated each other that much. I stopped observing the two and started to look around the view. Open fields, good architectural buildings, houses, dormitory towers. It’s kind of cool here.
The two stopped and when I looked in front of me, I saw a tall building, like a shopping mall and instantly, it reminded me of a shopping mall in Seoul. So there is a mall here.

The moment we set foot inside the “mall”, I started questioning where the hell I am. Outside, it looked like a regular mall. But inside, it looked like the entire Rizal Park on the first floor. It was filled with restaurants.
I looked at the directory and it has nothing but places to eat. Fast-food, fine-dining. It has it all. Nicholas held my arm and scrunched his neck as if he was about to sneeze and mumbled some words. In a blink of an eye, I found myself inside a fancy European Style restaurant. There weren't too many people around and there were no familiar faces, except for my two companies. We sat in a corner in a 3-seater sofa with curtains around. The ordered for me and the two just stared at me in silence as the curtains covered us.

“Niccola Carmen. That name’s not familiar?” As Klaus broke the silence.

“For me, no. I’m Leila Parker. What kind of place is this?”

“You don’t like dilly-dallying, eh?”

“No.” I said cutting him off.

“Alright, I’m Terry McGuffin. A professor here in the Academy. Klaus is a professor here, too.”

“Okay. So what do you guys teach in particular? And why am I here?”

“I teach transfiguration. I have no particular shape, actually.” Said Klaus.

That actually made me doubt as if that’s his real face. Wait. Transfiguration? “Are you talking about magic?”

“Luv, everything here is about magic. I teach dragon wielding and spells.”

I don’t get it. It was like I was in a harry potter movie. “W-w-why am I here?” I started stuttering. That explains the weird stuff here. MAGIC!

“Do you like stories? I’m going to tell you a good one.” Said Klaus.

I nodded and he continued.

“As I was still a student here in the Academy, Niccola was the best dragon wielder. Because the dragons choose you, she was chosen by the fiercest and most difficult dragon. She named it Sophie. It had three colors. White, brown and black. Such a beauty when you see those two fly by.”

“She was also one of the most powerful student here. In my class, I challenged her to a duel. The creativity in her is boundless. She would defeat me without hurting me. She’s a real gem.”

“So what happened to her?”

“She left. Fell in love as the rumors said. She left 10 years ago. She never came back. It felt as if we lost our treasure. We lost someone very dear. The whole academy felt sad. Some professors treated their students lowly. As if they will never be like her. They wanted her back. Sophie was in an uproar and we kept her locked up. When you leave the academy, your memory of it gradually disappears. And when we found you, well the council did, they thought you looked like her.”

“Who? ME?”

“Yes, luv. When you smile, you light up the room just like her. The resemblance is really uncanny. I see her in you so much. That’s why I immediately approached you the moment you set foot here.”

“See, I can’t be her. Really now. I don’t even know any magic.”

“Trust me honey, you won’t be able to set foot here if you can’t do any magic.”

“But-“ The food came and we started eating. Not mentioning anything about it.

“Let’s talk about it when we leave here.”

My Fantasy World: The "Academy"

A letter came for me. A scholarship from some university with the coolest name - Draganov Academy. I never thought there existed such here in the Philippines. It’s either they’re asking me to work for them or to study for them. Or both. They didn’t specify in the said letter. They were just asking me to come. I managed to convince my parents to let me go. So I did. It took me hours on the road to arrive at the place. Good thing there was a map attached at the back. I was wondering what kind of school this is since they don’t mind me finishing my dissertation. It seems that they want me that badly.

While walking from the parking area, I cant help notice how big the place is. It was a huge place located almost the edge of the country. It has this tall dorm tower at the edge of some big rock. It looked like it was taken from a movie or something, but I never saw it in any. It was scary. I’m afraid of heights. But that was the least of my concerns.

I was at the gate and surprisingly, no guards. So I just entered and tried to look for where I should go. I had this tingly feeling as I entered the gate where I was either being paralyzed or being mildly electrocuted all over my body. It stinged but I assumed it was out of nervousness. I tried to read the letter again if there are any instructions where I should specifically go inside this academy. But there was none. How am I supposed to get there on time? I hate being late for interviews – if it was an interview.

As I was wandering around, a very tall guy approached me.

“Hey, where you goin luv?” he said almost shouting at me.

He was around 5”10’ - taller than my dad. He had this smiling face of a teenager. He was wearing black coat and tie, despite the hot weather. Come to think of it, it was supposedly hot here in the Philippines but why am I not dripping of sweat yet? By this time, I was supposed to be parched.

The idea didn’t bothered me much as I was thinking to myself. The guy approached me then.

“sweetie, you didn’t answer me. Are you okay?”

“ah yes. I was supposed to have an interview here. But it didn’t specifically say where to go.”

“ah right. It won’t hurt to ask right? Come on, I know the way”

I followed his back while he kept talking. I was lost in my own world because the academy looked as if it was in another world as well. I was a skeptic but I never knew such architecture exists.

There were a lot of fields, buildings, or are they classrooms? There were no students or even professors around. There might be some event here today.

“right, luv?” he said looking back.

“uhh sorry?” what was he saying?

“oh I thought you were so quiet back there, guess you were awed by the architecture of the
school huh?

“oh yeah. Uhmm is there –“

“here we are then. Welcome to dragonov academy.” Cutting me off with the biggest smile.

I know he meant well so I gave him a little smile and a thank you.  He looked so shocked after that. I just noticed by then that he had this Australian accent. Maybe he’s Australian.
As I look in front of me, another amazing architecture greeted my eyes. A building with baroque features and also modern textiles. I really don’t know what I’m talking about. I entered the room in front of me, with the guy following my back, and I saw this classroom full of people, one talking in front. But the weird thing is, there aren’t any chairs. There were four-seater sofas. Very modern, indeed.

“Seat anywhere you like, I’ll be with you.” He said whispering as I became more aware of his Australian accent.

I found 2 sofas at the back. One has two seats available and another with all four seats available. I want to sit with people so I went for the first one. I guess the guy didn’t like it and sat on the one vacant.

I wasn’t listening at the beginning because I was too busy admiring the environment. It was like a café. Very comfortable, but inspires work. I also can’t help notice that the guy sitting next to me was either very itchy or he’s just not comfortable. But I can’t see why because this is such a soft and comfy sofa.

As I decided to listen to the speaker, he made a joke.

“it would really be fun here in the Philippines if only the weather wouldn’t kill you for having too much fun.”

It was funny because it’s true. As hard as I retain my composure, I can’t help but bring a grin. And then he shocked me.

“DEAR GOD! She’s here! Miss at the back, are you Niccola Carmen by any chance?”

Wow I guess they were expecting me. But WHO THE HELL IS NICCOLA CARMEN? But of course I
was only thinking about it and answered very calmly – “Uhmm no. I’m Parker. Leila Parker”

The speaker’s eyes grew bigger and stared at me with his mouth open resulting everyone to look at me. They were all whispering and eyeing me as if I was someone very familiar. I didn’t get it. I looked back at my companion and he looked the same way, but he was rubbing his chin. He went forward and whispered something to me.

“Let’s talk later. I’ll buy your lunch.”

A woman, I am

There are a lot of women in history who pretended to be a man. For example, Billy Tipton, the jazz player, was a woman who wanted to be known for her art and lived her life as a man. She did that to be able to be acknowledged not for her sexuality, but for her talent. Marina the Monk is another example. The story goes that when Marina’s father decided to go be a monk, she shaved off her hair and joined him. These people’s genders were only exposed to people by their deaths. This is where the notion of men ruling history and being treated better as a man was observed. This is the reason why these women dressed up and became men for the sake of their passion and not being limited to roles of a wife. The simply wanted to expand their horizons and feel the equality of society.

Beauvoir made a point of liberation for women because in the past, you have to be man to be recognized for talent and bravery. It is quite unfair, actually, that women were only seen as those who tend to the house and to the children. She made a point that women shouldn't have to pretend to be a man in order to gain respect and to be treated equally. A woman becomes what she makes herself - that's what she said. It simply is if she allows herself to be discriminated, then she will be discriminated. Beauvoir gave the notion of a "genderless" environment for women, and that society has to be aware and be considerate of women all the time. But in my opinion, if you want a "genderless" society, then why does society need to be considerate of women?  A "genderless" environment promotes equality whereas the idea of being considerate with women promotes special treatment. Maybe because of certain circumstances that women need to be treated specially, but if you’re going to ask me, I think women are very powerful. Even though they are treated as weak and helpless most of the time, women can actually manipulate a man into doing and giving whatever she wants.

A woman is a man’s weakness. Sometimes, there are cases that women are head over heels for a man, but in most cases, a man falls for a girl and he’ll do everything to get her. What a woman can boast about is her manipulating power, but of course, that is kind of like using your advantages in an evil context. Honestly, I don’t like being a girl because of the biological factors like menstruation and heavy boobs. I’m not really a feminist but I really love the notion of a woman controlling a very powerful man. In the movies, they always use women for bait and it proves to be quite effective. Who knew that women are to be more powerful than men?

I find Simone de Beauvoir’s notion of sexual liberation very fascinating. I admired the way she lived – very free. She explored her sexuality and enjoyed her life. Carpe diem as they say. The thing is, most women are very timid. They get an awkward feeling by just looking at their bodies naked, well some of them. As a matter of fact, this is how the society dictated how a woman should react. As what Beauvoir said, society is unfair to women, but women are still able to prove to the society their power and ability to compete with the men. So what's the point of all this? Trust, I have no idea. Even though I am a girl, I am still a bit of a coward to living life the way I wanted it in my wildest dreams and fantasies. Maybe it's because I am too afraid to be deemed as a taboo person for society. Isn't that what most of us are afraid of?