I miss writing fics and this site as well. :)
I have forgotten the flow of the story, I have decided to remove my story for the meantime. I made some major changes in the plot and now, here is the new version of Lights, Camera, Action. Read on. :D
Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this world except a small black journal and a .3 technical pen. Oh yeah, I own my plates, too.
Nota Bene: There are Filipino words and statements in this chapter, but there will be translations in the end. The numbered statements are either for translations and/or for explanations. That is all. Oh, yeah, pardon me if there were grammatical errors in this fic. I have not been writing in English for God knows how long.
Lights, Camera, Action
Allence of the Weed
Prologue
Fast Forward: 1,2,3… ACTION!
Onizuka Eikichi called his advisory class to assemble inside Seirin Academy's audio-visual room to watch the documentaries they made for their Social Studies class. Divided into 8 groups of 5, the class was to shoot a 20-minute documentary about anything that had something to do with popular culture (1), which was the latest topic of their subject. The documentary must be able to give ample information about the groups' topic. In addition to that, there had to be two interviews, facts, and a short drama in it. They had one week to shoot their documentary and to edit it, and today was the deadline.
The audio-visual room was as big as the classrooms of the academy so it was not a problem fitting a class of 40 in. Inside, there were 45 plastic seats and a 29-inch television located at the front of the room. In addition, two DVD players and an old, nevertheless functional VHS player were there. Of course, CD racks and VHS drawers were present. The room had an air conditioner attached to the topmost part of the wall, which was why Onizuka decided to hold his class there.
Aizawa Miyabi and Fujiyoshi Koji were inseparable since they entered a relationship. They sat in front with Kusano Tadaaki and Murai Kunio, Fujiyoshi's posse, who still tagged along with Fujiyoshi even if he and Miyabi were on a date. Uehara Anko picked the seat near the front door of the AV room to get a good view of Yoshikawa Noboru, the geek she had been secretly admiring since their trip to Okinawa, for he sat just in front of Anko's row. Yoshikawa, silently playing with his brick game, was unaware that Anko was busy melting him. Nomura Tomoko sat in front along with Murai and his gang, watching Onizuka as he dealt with technology, placing the DVD player underneath the case of the television.
"Ohayo gozaimasu, minna-san," he greeted without facing the class for he was still arranging the DVD player. "Today, we will watch every group's documentaries. But first." Onizuka plugged the DVD player on the socket, dusting his hands off. He stood up, stretched a bit, and pushed the power button of the television.
Two years have passed, and the whole Seirin Academy grew to love Onizuka. Even Uchiyamada-sensei, the vice principal of the academy spoke of nice things about Onizuka. The school director was right about her hunch—that Onizuka-sensei would be a good teacher. Teacher bashing was no more, all thanks to him, for the students loved his uniqueness and his friendly approach to them. He was the star teacher of Seirin Academy and an example for fifth-rate College graduates to look up to in reaching their aspirations. Onizuka brought life to the once boring Seirin Academy.
He was still teaching Social Studies but he was now a high school teacher, which was originally his dream. As for the students, well, he was still the adviser of the infamous 3-4 back in junior high, now 2-4. Destiny, it was. It was. He had no problem with that for he grew to love his once notorious class, too and wished to follow them until college. That was impossible, though.
To Onizuka's surprise, the television did not switch on. He pushed the button again. Nothing happened. Panic mode sank in.
"Nani?" he mumbled, as he kept pressing the power button. "It was working fine last night when I watched the Porno Graffiti DVD that Kikuchi gave me."
"Technology failed you again, sensei." Tomoko commented.
"Yeah, and it sucks." He replied. Onizuka studied the television and it seemed to look fine.
"That can be possible, or," someone from the front of the room spoke, moving closer to where Onizuka stood to fix something. "…you forgot to plug the TV in." It was Ysabel, the newcomer in Onizuka's class.
Victoria Ysabel Mae Villongco, or Ysa-chan as her classmates called her, was an exchange student from the Philippine archipelago. She joined an exchange student program offered by her school and managed to pass the test. She was one of the ten fortunate students, sent to different parts of South and South East Asia, and was lucky enough to end up in Japan—the country she had been dying to see.
"Ayan, ayos na (2)!" She flashed one of her sweetest smile to her sensei as she went back to her seat.
Onizuka turned the television on, and with a satisfied smile, he saluted his Filipina student. "Maraming salamat, Ysa-chan (3)!" He said gratefully in his best Filipino accent.
After staying in Japan for a month, Ysabel had managed to instill a part of the Filipino culture—the Filipino language. She taught her classmates how to converse in Filipino as they did to her. Now, her classmates could comprehend almost everything she told them in Filipino.
"Okay, pardon for the delay, but what the heck! We'll start with…" Onizuka randomly picked one DVD from the floor and smirked, "…MURAI KUNIO AND HIS GROUP'S DOCUMENTARY ABOUT MORNING MUSUME (4)!" The whole class' attention shifted to Murai. Murai could feel his cheeks heating up.
"NANI?" Murai felt a bit embarrassed for himself and his group as well. It was not like him at all to shoot such a topic. Blame it on guilty pleasure. "He didn't have to announce it to the whole class." He muttered to himself, covering his face with his right hand. Onizuka saw that so he reacted.
"Oh, come on, Murai-kun! What is embarrassing about being a fan of Morning Musume? I like them."
As soon as Onizuka placed the first DVD documentary in, he asked Anko to turn the lights off for she was nearest to the door and the switch as well. A minute of dealing with the disc menu, and the first documentary played…
End of Prologue
What on ferking earth is popular culture? Why does it seem that the story is about to end? Why do I like starting my stories backwards? Am I psychotic or just plain sane? Do my questions even make sense? Who knows Keita Tachibana personally? How about Gackt—do you know him also? Should I just quit asking and make your lives easier? Tune in to the next chapter of Lights, Camera, Action!
Translations/Explanations:
(1) Popular culture is power, and whoever wields it to manipulate minds is likely to find its literary and technological machinery turned against him when the minds it has manipulated discover its potency as a political weapon—whatever that means. That was according to my readings in Pan Pil 17, which was popular culture. Sorry, I am incapable of explaining things like that. :P Haha. Why did I even bother?
(2) "There, it is fixed!"
(3) "Thanks a lot, Ysa-chan." It can also be, "Thank you very much, Ysa-chan" since they still have the same meaning.
(4) Morning Musume is an all-female group in Japan, composed of cutesy girls. Other information beyond that, I cannot give because I have not made a thorough research about them—yet. I love their song, Manpower, though. :D