“Ringgggggg…” the deafening sound of the school bell could be heard all around the campus. Students went out of their respective rooms with excitement. Some scurried as if were plague of rats running away from danger. All piled up in front of the school gate, like knights in armors  about to start their very long journey, waiting for the guard to open the barrier between boredom and adventure. Parents, outside of the gate, awaited for their child as the guard signalled the students to finally leave the campus, all rejoiced seeing their parents. Except of course for Ara and Theodore.    

Ara came from a family of poor, her mother left them when she was only three years old. Her father works for one of their neighbors as assistant “karpintero”, and had been giving her only enough amount of money for school. Ara  could choose whether to spend the money for tricycle fare back to her house or to buy snacks, since it was only a 30-minute walk from school to their place. Theodore was not so much different from Ara, only that he had his parents, but sometimes both of them neglected him as much as Ara was being neglected by her father. Theodore felt he was adopted.  

            Right after the guard opened the school gate, Ara pushed the other students out of her way. “Come on Theodeore! We have to be there first.There won’t be any available good piece if we go there late. ”  Yelled Ara as she glanced at her back looking if thedeore was following her. “Coming!” panted Theodore, sweating through his polo. The banging of his empty snackboxes slinged on his shoulder could be heard as he trudged his way towards Ara.   They are now outside of the school and went directly to a man who was selling spider. It was in fact the reason they got excited after the school was over, the spider merchant was only availabe until 4pm, as he usually been taking off hunting spiders in dusk. “Glad you came early, I have 6 freshly-hunted spiders for you to choose from. ” Said the merchant. “Hope you have a better set than the last time.” answered Ara. The merchant took a matchbox out from his pocket and started tapping the spiders out one by one and gave little descriptions about the creatures. “The first spider i’m going to show you is one hell of a creature….” mentioned the merchant with enthusiasm. He went back and forth explaining how awesome his spiders are until the last one was tapped out. Although slightly amused, Ara did not project any interest on the set of spiders the merchant was selling. Disappointment was written all over Ara’s face, the merchant was then sure that he wouldn’t earn any sales from the young lady that day. “How about the third one Ara?” Said Theodore. “It has long legs and small body, I bet it’s hungry and can chew whatever opponent you fight it against.”   “But it’s a regular furrow spider, can even barely hang on a stick.” replied Ara. “I had one of those once, but got savored by Enrico’s spider in no less than a minute. Betting with that class of a spider is a sure loss.” She added. The two young kids decided to go home early empty-handed. Disappointed, Ara and Theodore started walking back to their homes with their heads down. The sun was raging that afternoon. The scorching heat had defeated the purpose of Ara’s towel placed at the back of her blouse. Both of them are sweating as they finally reached the intersection. This is their regular doing after class, they both go out of school together but parted ways at the intersection, since Ara lives west and Theodore, east. They are only fortunate if the afternoons are gloomy, especially for Theodore who was not fit enough to carry himself at least half a kilometer.