region V

in highschool, i was part of the school paper publishing. i was in between writing about sports news and short stories. this one time when i got really busy, i knew i couldn't make my dead line. i think i was training for my math quiz bee that time. so what i did was, i went to my aunt's house and looked for really old magazines. i picked a story and copied it. didn't even read the damn thing. you know how you can copy things and not even comprehend what's in it? yea. and i submitted "my" story. somewhere around 500 words i think. week after that, i got summoned by the teacher who oversees these things. my paper got passed the head auditor, who was my classmate. but this teacher sure knew better. she asked, "did you really write this story?" i said, "well yes!" "you did not copy this somewhere else?", she continued. at this point, i was blanking it out. i didn't even know what was the story about. i simply said, "of course not. why would i do that?" and she said, "so this place in your story, you only made it up?" damn. i couldn't even recall a single sentence in it. so i just said, "yes!" i mean i'm capable of making shit up. i thought if i read that story, i'm pretty sure i can come up with something close to it. and then her next words floored me. she said, "this place in your story? this is a real place..in bicol." fuck.