Chapter 2

Dianna and Kristine's friendship

Dianna Andrada was born on January 4, 1988 in Bacoor, Cavite. Her parents were owners of a posh restaurant named After Dark. She has one sister and one brother. They are Bella and Anton. Dianna is the youngest of the three.

The Andradas lived in a great, beautiful house in a noisy and unruly subdivision. Their house seemed perfect: it was a two-storied house with some trees and flowers in the facade. A Ferrari was parked in front.

At the backyard there was a swimming pool, a table tennis and a videoke machine. They held parties there. Dianna brought lots of friends on her birthdays. Her mother would cook delicious barbecue, fried chicken and carbonara spaghetti for Dianna and her friends, while they would swim, sing and play.

Dianna had a best friend whose name was Kristine Robles. Kristine was her neighbor; she lived next to her house. They have been friends ever since they were kids.

Kristine was also a fairly attractive girl, but she was not as attractive as Dianna. They were very close even though they did not have anything in common. Dianna was gregarious. She could talk to anyone and she’s always the life of the party. She loved to make people laugh. Kristine was shy and quiet. She was an introvert.

When she was a little girl, Dianna knew all along that people only admired her for her good looks.  People complimented her physical beauty all day, every day. They would tell her that with her beauty, she could be a model or an actress. She looked like the famous child actress they saw in a soap opera that aired every night.

Dianna isn’t mestiza (fair-skinned) like the famous stars on TV, but she is mixed-race. She is a Filipina of Japanese and Spanish descent. Her mother is half-Filipina and half Japanese; while her father is pure Spanish. In this country, being mixed-race was such a big deal until now. You won the gene lottery and those genes could be useful. There’s a great possibility that you could be a celebrity if you tried to join a talent search or get discovered by a talent scout. Good genes are gifts.

Of course, not everyone who is of mixed race is really attractive, but in most cases, they usually are.

Dianna had mixed feelings when people only perceived her as just another pretty face. She knew it was a blessing to be pretty, for who would want to be ugly or plain? Unattractive people have it worse. They are bullied in school and rejected by their crushes. But deep down, Dianna knew that she should be more than just a pretty girl. She should prove to everyone that she had talent, too. There’s something more to her. There’s more than meets the eye. But how could she prove it? Where should she start?

One summer she told her parents that she wanted to learn how to sing, so they enrolled her in singing lessons. Her voice coach was a famous composer, singer and songwriter. He was a short and fat man who always wore black. He taught Dianna how to use her diaphragm and breathe properly while singing, and also a lot of singing techniques. But no matter how hard she tried, she just could not carry a tune. She was a hopeless sintunado (tone deaf). Dianna did not finish the lessons.

 

Dianna also enrolled in ballet lessons. Her ballet teacher was a famous ballerina. She was a thin and graceful woman in her 30’s. She taught the earnest little girl how to dance ballet. But her eager student couldn’t dance.  Dianna tried to dance but her movements were awkward and without grace. She later on realized that she couldn’t keep up with the lessons unlike her fellow classmates, so she gave up ballet as well.

One night after her last ballet class, Dianna threw tantrums in her bedroom. She threw her stuffed toys and dolls all over as she cried and yelled. Her parents came inside her room and asked her what was wrong.

“Whenever I tried to do something, I just keep failing! I can’t do anything right, can I?” she said in between sobs.

“Stop crying, my child,” her dad said. “Someday you’ll know what field you should go for.”

Her mom wiped her sad and beautiful face. “There, there honey,” she said to her daughter. “Kris told me you’re really good at sports.”

“Really?” Dianna said.

“Maybe if you try to play sports in school, you’ll excel in them.”

“I’ll do that, mom and dad,” Dianna promised. She stopped crying and began smiling after her parents comforted her.

Summer vacation ended and school began. Dianna and Kristine enrolled in an international school. They became classmates and were inseparable as the years went by. 

Dianna did her best when it came to physical activities in school. She excelled in Physical Education and did okay in her other subjects. She liked badminton, table tennis, volleyball, basketball and gymnastics and these sports liked her back.  Her P.E. teacher noticed that Dianna was spectacular in gymnastics. So, he invited her for tryouts. She attended the tryouts and aced them. She was a natural athlete.

Dianna hanged out with other athletes in school. But she still invited Kristine to go with them during break time so the latter won’t eat alone (because she’s Kristine’s only friend). Kristine didn’t mind hanging out with Dianna’s other friends. So, whenever she would hang out with the popular girls, she would wear light makeup and cute clips so they would notice her and talk to her. But they only talked to Dianna as if Kristine did not exist in the group. Kristine just kept quiet every time she hanged out with them.

Dianna noticed that her athlete friends did not like her best friend Kristine. So, she hanged out with her more than her athlete friends.

One afternoon, Therese from the cheerleader group told Dianna that they were recruiting new members.

“We need someone like you who is flexible enough to do the hard stuff like tumbling and other gymnastic stunts,” Therese said. She was skinny girl with a plain face. “Plus, it wouldn’t hurt if we have a pretty girl in our team.” She smiled at Dianna but looked down on Kristine.

“Okay, I’ll join your group,” Dianna told Therese.  Then she looked in Kristine’s direction, “If you also let Kristine in the group.” Kristine’s eyes widened. Was she serious? She thought. Secretly, she wanted to join the cheerleader group. She had been practicing how to dance by following the moves of her favorite singers on MTV. Back then, her favorite singers were Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera because they were popular. She always saw them on TV competing with each other. Even though they were rivals when it came to music, Kristine idolized them both. She admired Britney Spears’ slender figure and her confidence as she wore skimpy clothes, and Christina Aguilera’s vocal prowess and stage presence. Most girls prefer one over the other. But Kristine was not like most girls. She supported both singers and didn’t mind the rivalry between them. She kept their posters in her bedroom and drew clothes that were similar to what her idols wore.

Therese rolled her eyes. “Sure. If she passes the tryouts,” she said curtly.

“She will. We both will.” Dianna assured Therese.  She was sure that she and her best friend would pass the tryouts.

The two best friends attended the tryouts for cheerleading and they both passed.

“I can’t believe we have a nerd in our team,” Therese whispered to her friend Joy. Therese was referring to Kristine. Joy snickered. Joy was a chubby girl with pigtails.

When Dianna and Kristine reached teenagehood, their friendship continued to bloom like the flowers in a garden on a sunny day. They did not care whether people saw their differences and unlikely friendship. All they cared about was that they had fun being with each other and they loved each other as if they were sisters.

Author's Note

Tell me what you think about this chapter