When we were young, some of us dreamt of having a fairy godmother that could grant us any of our wishes. Well, too bad, because that only happens in fairy tales. It’s true that everyone has their own story, but it doesn’t mean that they’ve got a happy ending like those in fairy tales. Who wouldn’t want a happy ending, right? But the truth is, not everyone’s lives are the same; some have got sad endings, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the end.

“Once upon a time, there was a girl fearful that her ailing father would be drafted into the Chinese military. Mulan takes his spot -- though, as a girl living under a patriarchal regime, she is technically unqualified to serve. She cleverly impersonates a man and goes off to train with fellow recruits. Accompanied by her dragon, Mushu, she uses her smarts to help ward off a Hun invasion, falling in love with a dashing captain along the way.”

“Mom? Why did she go instead of her father?” The child asked.

“Hmm? Because she doesn’t want to see her family suffer” she replied.

“.....” the child didn’t say anything and was in deep thought while looking into his mother’s eyes.

“...then would you do the same if we were in that situation?” she asked the child.

“YES! Dad said that I should protect my family!” The child answered.

“That’s good, remember to protect your siblings, okay?” while she gently looked at and touched her belly.

“I will protect both of my brothers well!” As he smiles while leaning into his mother’s belly.

“Now, you should go to bed so that you can grow up fast and protect your brothers, okay?” While patting his head.

“Mhmm” he answered while slowly falling asleep.

Door creaks from afar.

“Honey, I’m home,” says a man quietly approaching her. He hugged her from behind and kissed her forehead.

“Welcome back” she said.

He approached their son, Chris. Kissed his forehead and said “sweet dreams, our little knight”

He looked at her with a warm smile and said “We should eat dinner now; you must be hungry after a tiring day” in a soft tone.

“Yeah” she answered.

While approaching the door out of the room, she asked her husband “How’s work?”

“The same as usual. Did he ask you to read that book again?” he replied.

“Yeah,” she answered while laughing softly. “He said that the dragon was his favourite because it’s weak,” she said.

“Hmm, I’m not saying that I’m into these kinds of things, but I prefer the main character. She reminds me of you.” he said while looking into her eye in a soft tone.

She was stunned by what he said and showed a warm smile.

Years have passed, and I'm glad that I met Daniel. If I hadn't met him, I would've died with so many regrets. Because of him, I found happiness.

There was a girl who’s tired of living; her family situation was a total mess. When her parents met each other, her mother was already taking care of her cousin. They eventually fell in love and her father also accepted the baby that she was raising and so did his family. After talking it out to each other’s families, they finally planned their wedding. A few months later they became a married couple and had a girl as their second child.

Her name was Angel Cruz. …..That’s how my life started obviously. Oh, about my cousin? They told me to address him as an older brother because he’s my brother by paper. I didn’t care if he’s not my brother by blood and we’re still cousins anyways, and besides, I always regard him as my one and only older brother. We were a happy family until my brother became a teen and my dad and mom got older. My dad would always fight with my brother and my mom would always cry. They would send him to our uncle’s place, and after months had passed they would say sorry to each other. I mean, that’s normal, right? Happens to every family, especially to Asians.

But that wasn’t the case; this happens every year just because dad would make the same mistake over and over again and chose to tell himself that he’s always right, because he’s the parent, the adult, and my brother’s just a teen who hadn’t even turned 18. I’m not saying that my brother didn’t make mistakes either; what I’m saying is that not all children or teens are the same, so don’t think that the way they disciplined you back in your days will work on your children as well in this generation. That’s just stupid, they kept on comparing the children back in their days and the children now. We live in a different generation now; don’t expect that everything is the same as the old generations. They kept on complaining about the children of this generation. It’s not even our fault that we got born into this generation where everything is toxic.

Nonstop blame for technologies and social media. They didn’t even notice that they’re also the ones at fault, sometimes or most of the time. It’s okay to make mistakes, that’s it’s normal unless you’re God or something; what’s not alright is not accepting reality.

So this has happened to my brother for the past….3-4 years of his life (the non-stop fighting). He wanted to leave that house no matter what; that he even threatened my uncle and mom to pick him up/let him leave or else he would commit suicide. I pretty much expected that, cause who wouldn't be tired, right? That night before he left the house, we watched some anime together. He warned me that the same thing would happen to me when I got older.

I told him that I knew that I was gonna end up in the same situation and that I wasn’t dumb as they think I am. I was just 12, so I told him that I’m just doing my best to act like how a 12-year-old would act and just go with the flow so that it’s not that obvious when I slowly start to show how introverted and emotionless I became so that they would think that it’s just part of “puberty”.

We tried to open up to them a lot of times back then, but they always shut us out and in the end, they’ll get mad at us; that’s when we realized that no matter what we do, our situation won’t change.

One day it happened again and it’s normal for us, but of course that doesn’t mean that we’re not getting tired and didn’t do any damage to our mental health- no, actually, you know what? They don’t even believe in depression, anxiety, and mental-related stuff, and so did we, because adults always say that it’s all “bullsh3t”. When my brother was staying at our uncle’s house, I happened to overhear my mom and dad’s conversation. It was about my brother’s studies.

Dad didn’t want my brother to continue studying. Mom eventually asked dad if they could talk about this because it’s my brother’s education that they’re talking about. My dad got angry, and because of his anger he shouted “then find that bastard!” I was shocked. I already had an idea about the situation, but I still continued on listening to their conversation cause their hella loud and just to be sure. My heart was pounding at that time and I was about to cry. My mother then replied as she shouted “You don’t know anything that had happened back then; you don’t know how much I’ve been through!” He then shouted at my mother “I don’t care!”. Then I heard my mother shouting her lungs out, and at that moment, I knew that my “cousin”, brother by paper, was actually my brother by blood. I couldn’t help but cry. I mean, I was 12. I was so angry at dad as I recalled a bad memory. How could he do that? Even if he’s not his child from blood, my brother still thinks of him as his own father, and he regarded him as his son.

The worst fight that they got into, which was recently before my brother left. It was when dad was about to explode when my brother decided to not do anything and just sleep 24 hours every day because he was so fed up with everything. He almost had thought of beating my brother where my brother could’ve died.

After a few days, they said sorry to each other and everything went back to how it used to be. My brother also gets to continue his studies at our uncle’s place. I felt bad for mom, she- no, they’ve been like this ever since they had me…..I know it’s sad I felt like I was the one who ruined everything and wondered how they would look like if I hadn’t been born, but of course, it wasn’t my fault at the same time because it’s not like I begged them to make “me”. Mom can’t leave dad because she loves him, even though she and her children are suffering. Don’t get me wrong, dad’s nice; the only thing that’s not nice about him is the way he thinks when we’re in these kinds of argument/fight situations.

Beep! Beep! The car honked as her dad immediately stepped on the brakes.

She looked at the front to see what happened.

“Tsk, alam nang paliko, talagang sumingit pa” said her dad. In other terms, he said that the other driver clearly knew that he was about to do a U-turn but still went for it.

“Hahahaha” she laughed in an exaggerated yet not in an obvious way.

Sigh, why do I need to act like this? Anyways I’m on the way to my new school to start “High School life”. This is the easiest way I could think of to get away from the house. Philippine high school for sports, a public school that had just opened. It was actually used as a venue for a big sports event, they built it last year. Since our country’s athletes won a decent amount of medals during the event, the government decided to make a public high school for sports.

They have everything there, a large cafeteria, students dorm, athletes dorm, tons of courts, and...literally everything except for the classroom that’s why it took a few more months to open.

It took me a month to convince my parents about me getting into Philippine high school for sports. I gave them a lot of reasoning, of course, I told them that if I got in I’ll have a scholarship, free food and that I don’t have to worry about my commute expenses every day but of course, instead of tuition fee, we have to pay 1k in every 2 months for the dorm. My mother asked me

“What if you lose some weight and starve because you don’t have food?”

so I said “Mom, as if they’ll let that happen, we’re all athletes there and of course they need to prioritize our health cause if not, they’ll get blamed for not taking care of their athletes. Besides, they have supermarkets there and I know how to cook.”

And of course thanks to my thinking, they finally said “ok”.

But that wasn’t the real reason why I was so desperate to go there. 1st reason: It’s the only way where I can be far away from the house. 2nd: scholarship and dorm.

I… Don't hate them and I can't blame them. We don't know what adults have to go through. But...I, still…

I don't know what went wrong that always led our family to the same situation over and over again. I know it's not easy raising a child…. We're lucky that they took care of us, I mean, of course, it's the parent’s responsibility to raise their children but some other people will just abandon you or give you to someone else.

I…. Just can't take it anymore…. And I want to be away…you never know, maybe without me, they might sort the problem out and make the situation better.

Anyways, For my sport, I did try out for the volleyball team. I’m not good when it comes to attacks and spikes so I just focused on receiving since I’m better at it and I think that that’s my only chance because I’m not tall….I’m short. I was an athlete for other sports as well but I chose volleyball, as long as I have a sport then I’m good. I got in, I passed the tryouts and they temporarily assigned me as the second libero of the team.

Family is the only ones who don’t see talent and they’ll do their best to make fun of what you’re doing and you have no choice but to laugh with them because it’s “funny”. I’m not saying that this applies to every family.

She looked at the car window to look at the scenery outside. She looked down at the Omamori charm that's in her hand. “Omamori means amulet (as a form of protection) or talisman (as a provider of luck), and the kanji at the heart of the word means “to guide or protect.” Someone she didn't know gave that to her, she was planning on throwing it away but decided to keep it in the end.

A few hours later, they finally arrived at Philippine high school for sports. It was really big, spacious, and new.

They got out of the car and gathered Angel’s stuff for her dorm. When they entered the room, they saw a bathroom at their left and 2 beds up ahead, one of them is a pull out so that make’s it 3 beds.

“Which bed do you want?” her mom asked.

“Ah….the left one, I don’t want to be near the window, It’s way too bright” she points at the bed while answering her mother’s question.

“What are you, a vampire? You don’t like garlic, you don’t like when it’s bright, you always like it when it’s dark.” Her dad asked.

“Pa, Vampires are good with garlic, you’re talking about “Aswang”. I also have fangs” she replied to her dad while pointing at her fangs with a disbelieving expression on her face.

She then asked herself “Is that even right?”

Aswang is an umbrella term for various shape-shifting evil creatures in Filipino folklore, such as vampires, ghouls, witches…

Later that day, after they fixed everything in the dorm. They went out to get dinner. Her dad and mom left afterward and told her to always inform them if anything happens. She was alone in her dorm because she wanted to be the first one to arrive to pick the spot that she wanted. She decided to try on her uniform since she doesn’t have anything to do.

For their school uniform, girls have black above-the-knee skirts with a white long sleeve polo tucked in and a cropped black coat over it with the included socks and tie with the school logo and black shoes. For boys, they have white long sleeve polo tucked in black pants, a black coat over it with the included socks and tie with the school logo, and black shoes.

Now that I look closely….I’m….pretty. Long black silk hair, fair white skin, almond brown lazy lifeless eyes….. full lips with a mix of a heart shape type, a pretty nose, a mole at the upper right corner of my brows even though I want it in the lower part but, eh. Not to mention an hourglass body if I don’t bind my chest. Did I go to a different type of puberty or something?..or is it just normal?..........

But I’m short, 5’3...at least I have long legs so that makes me look taller somehow.

Not gonna lie I want to have red eyes but I’m not a foreigner and having red eyes is really rare even for foreigners.

I have fair skin because I don't like it when it's bright, so when I go outside I usually try my best to hide in a shadow or just bring an umbrella and sunglasses. I'm… really thin, I'm like a stick that can be swept away any minute so I think a lot of people will be surprised at how I managed to be a part of the team… It's not my fault, I have the second biggest appetite in our family, the first one was my brother of course. We both eat a lot of rice since we're athletes except we don't really drink milk that's why we're short, he's 5'4.

The phone rings in the background. She goes to get the phone and answers the call.

"What?"

"You finally managed to leave the house."

".... Look….I just got here, I can't find you a job. It may take years, I don't know, but don't get your hopes too high, brother."

"I won't."

"IAN!"

"Is that Aunt May? Oh, don't forget to tell uncle jay that I'm still waiting for my Christmas money, I mean gift."

"Yeah yeah"

"Don't forget to drink milk hahahahaha, I turned 5'3 at the age of 12 and you're still 5'4 at 18. ……..Mom..forced me to drink milk…well at least it's fresh milk so it's better.

"..........."

Ian, Angel's brother didn't say anything after and hung up on her.

"Hahahahaha haaaaaa…. This is fun"

She then went to her stuff to check her schedule.

Sigh…. It's really not easy being a student-athlete.

7:50 flag ceremony, 40 minutes each for History, Filipino, English after that, a 20-minute recess, another 40 minutes each for Math and Science, and another 20 minutes for a Minor subject.

Great…...we start at 7:50 am and end at 12:00 pm for lunch and 1:00 to 4:00 pm for training. I thought that our studies would be easy but it's the opposite since we're athletes. Our lessons are way more advanced compared to other high schools. If you fail the entrance exam you won't get in. For other students who have poor studies but have a great talent for that specific sport, you'll need to attend extra classes and maintain your studies because if you don't maintain both your sport and studies then maybe they'll kick you out. They also take the athletes education above anything else.

For the food, our lunch and dinner will be provided for the weekdays, but we need to provide our own breakfast. For the weekends, since you can go home during that time, they won't be providing us any food but of course if you can't cook you can still buy some food in the cafeteria or outside the campus.

We won't be wearing our uniforms on Friday because it's laundry day.

Wait… What!?? Do we still have PE?

Angel reads the schedule seriously to make sure she doesn’t make any mistakes in terms of understanding her schedule.

Grade 7 PE day, Monday so I need to wear PE attire on Monday.

Grade 8 Tuesday

Grade 9 Wednesday

Grade 10 Thursday……. Sigh

"Are…. Are you serious? Dude…..We have 3 hours of training every day and you're telling me that we still need PE?"

“I hope my dorm mates aren't annoying and messy. I didn't bring so much stuff with me cause I hate it when it's unorganized and messy, it ruins the mood, not to mention I'm always not in the mood so that better not make it worse. I'm a minimalist person.

I think they'll be here tomorrow, during the time when they need to fix their stuff, I'll look around outside and inside the campus, good thing they gave us a map…"

She changed her clothes, took a bath and dried her hair. She lay down on her bed to sleep. A few minutes later, she felt uneasy because it's her first time alone in the dorm.

".... The lights are killing me but I don't want to turn it off cause it's my first time sleeping here, not to mention I'm all alone."

She gets her phone and plans on using it until she falls asleep.