The Tale of The Fish-Looking Lass

Agatha was sitting in her classroom pretending to listen to the English teacher and take down notes while doodling in her notebook. Her mind was flying somewhere and hesitated to focus on the lesson. She looked past her classmates’ faces to see if they were still listening to the teacher and saw that like her, they were doing something else. They were chatting and passing notes to one another. A bit later it looked as if they were doing more than just chatting and passing notes. It looked like they were talking about something hilarious or, could it be that they were gossiping about someone? Was there hot news about their fellow classmate? She had heard a lot of awful stories about her classmates. The rumor about Ruth’s pregnancy had been confirmed a week ago and Ruth just stopped reporting to school. Adam was cheating on his girlfriend Alexis by dating one of the popular lasses from another class named Quinn. Alexis broke up with him yesterday. Ochie stole her classmate’s cellphone. She was kicked out from school. What could they possibly have been talking about this time?

Agatha continued doodling. She was still hearing her classmates’ laughs. The teacher was infuriated because of the noise they were making and because they were not paying attention to him. At the last stroke of his chalk on the blackboard, Sir Warren turned to the class. “What’s the noise all about? Why are you laughing?” He threw these questions to them in an angry voice. No one answered. Suddenly, Sir Warren caught sight of a sheet of paper on Robert’s desk. This sheet of paper had a caricature of Agatha’s head, with bulging eyes and exaggeratedly wide lips, attached to a fish’s body. It had Agatha’s name under it as if to emphasize for the people who couldn’t understand who it was that it was her. Tears rolled down her face when she saw it. “Robert, did you draw this?” Sir Warren said while holding the caricature. He was holding it as if he was exhibiting to the class the most hideous mortal sin a human committed and that whoever did it should be sent to hell. The hand that was holding it was shaking in fury. The look on the teacher’s face was so madding terrifying. Robert answered the teacher with his trembling voice. “No I didn’t. It was Baron who drew it.” Sir Warren glared at Baron with a piercing glare and barked, “Get out of my class Baron and go the principal’s office!” Baron went out but didn’t go to the principal’s office even though he knew Sir Warren would be going to it after he finished his lecture. He just skipped class like he always did when a teacher told him to go to the office. The whole class was so silent.

The fish-looking lass suffered more than this. Her classmates bullied her because she was so ugly, called her fish names, pulled her chair when she was about to sit down and stole her school stuffs. She suffered hell in high school. She suffered everything an unpopular person in school suffered.

Now everything changed.

Agatha was now in college. She still had large eyes and wide lips. She was still unattractive but people didn’t mind how she looked. She had friends for the first time. They were Janin and Rochelle. They were a thousand times prettier than her and they were very charming. She was so proud to have friends like them. Agatha was so happy that she enrolled in this university. It was a perfect place for her because no one bullied her. Everyone was so mature and busy to do that. She was loving college.

She had been a busy young woman. Together with Janin and Rochelle, she joined the Tae Kwon Do team. As a member of the team she stayed not later than 7pm in school so she could join the training. She did just like that with her friends. The training sessions did not conflict with their class schedules since they were still freshmen and just taking minor courses. Aside from being a busy young woman, Agatha was also a party animal. She went to gigs and bars with Janin, Rochelle and her new friends from the team. Her friends introduced her to the most beautiful lad she had ever seen even though he looked rather plain. That lad was their fellow schoolmate, Mark. He was tall, lean and brown-skinned. His hair was clean-cut and black and his eyes were small and sharp. She fancied him so much so she made friends with him. Janin fancied him too but Agatha didn’t know it because she didn’t tell her.

Then a terrible thing happened and upset Agatha. She learned from Mark that he fancied Janin and that he was planning to court Janin. She was very wrathful when she learned this. I gotta do something that would make Mark hate Janin. She thought.Mark should only be mine!

So she texted Mark in a different number and pretended to be Janin’s boyfriend, even though Janin didn’t really have a boyfriend. The text message said, “Y r u courting my gf?” (Why are you courting my girlfriend?) in which Mark replied “Xcuse me? Hu r u? I’m not courting ne1s gf.” (Excuse me? Who are you? I’m not courting anyone’s girlfriend.) Mark thought that it was his first time to encounter that kind of text message from a lad. Only lasses do that when they are jealous of their boyfriends’ chicks. He thought this guy was a sissy. “I am Miguel, Janin’s bf (boyfriend). Stop seeing my gf.” Mark turned his cellphone off. He cried silently in his bed. How could Janin do this to me? He thought.Why didn’t she tell me she was going out with that loser?

He stopped seeing Janin since then believing she was going out with her scrawny and plain, nerdy classmate.

Agatha was walking through the corridor to the classroom of her next course. She was carrying her backpack as she walked. She was approached by Rochelle. Rochelle looked angrily at Agatha. Agatha looked so confused. She didn’t know why Rochelle was angry at her.

“So you like Mark that much!” Rochelle threw this statement to her in a vexed voice.

“Excuse me?” replied Agatha, trying hard to look so innocent even though she knew that what she texted to Mark reached to Rochelle.

“Don’t act so innocent!” Rochelle cried. “I know what you did! You texted Mark using your old number and pretended to be Miguel, telling him to stop courting Janin because you were going out with her!”

Agatha realized she made a blunder. Thinking that everyone deleted her old number, she used it to text Mark. She had used it a month ago before her old cellphone stop working and before she bought the cellphone she was using now. Her old cellphone included a sim card that enabled her to text all her classmates for free when she uses unlimited text, or at the lowest price, when she uses regular load. That’s the reason why she recently used the said sim card. She just kept her old sim card just in case it would be useful to her. Now apparently it wasn’t. “Mark told me about “Miguel’s” text message! He was crying when he told me about it. I noticed that it was you who texted him using your old number. I told him that it wasn’t really Miguel but someone I know who wants to make a fool out of him. ” Rochelle said. “Don’t you know that what you were doing would destroy our trust in you? Don’t you know you’re destroying our friendship?”

“Those things wouldn’t happen if you don’t tell Janin about the text message right?” Agatha said. “Please don’t tell her. ” She implored.

“I will.” Rochelle said. She walked away and headed to the classroom.

Since then Janin and Rochelle avoided Agatha. No one joined Agatha in lunch breaks. No one accompanied her to the gym and trained with her. Even her other Tae kwon do friends and Mark avoided her. Rochelle must have told everyone what I’ve done Agatha thought gloomily. She was beginning to be wrathful. She did a very disgusting thing to her friends.

She started spreading lies about her friends through text messaging. She used a number that no one from school knows. She texted her friends pretending to be the people they hated and the people they did not care about.

These were the text messages she sent:

Ei Trisha! Y d hell did u tell our classm8s dat I was paying our profs a huge amount of money so dat they’d give me passing marks for my courses? Ur a bitch!

(Hey Trisha! Why the hell did you tell our classmates that I was paying our professors a huge amount of money so that they’d give me passing marks for my courses! You’re a bitch!)

-From Patricia to Trisha

Anne and I had sex!

-From Tom to Carl

How dare u spread d lie dat u saw me dancing in a bar w/ no top on!

(How dare you spread the lie that you saw me dancing in a bar with no top on!)

-From Frances to Anne

What Agatha did was childish and exasperating and it wreaked damage to her friends’ reputation in the school. Fewer people hanged out with her friends.

One night Agatha was lying in her bedroom. She was so bored so she texted her ex-friends again. She texted them until her hand got tired.

Her left hand, the one she used in texting, began to get numb. She was upset that she couldn’t move it. What the hell is happening to my hand? she thought. It whitened. The white ran up fast her arm. When her whole hand was colored in white, it turned gray. Then in a flash, scales, which looked like a fish’s, formed on her hand. Shock and fear engulfed her. She screamed so loud.

A female figure appeared out of thin air. She was wearing a white gown and her hair was flying because wind just came inside the room. It was Janin.

“What are you doing here?” This question came out from Agatha’s mouth automatically.

“Watching you suffer in my curse.” Janin said. She laughed. Her laugh was louder than Agatha’s scream.

You did this! You’re a witch! You’re a friggin’ witch! Agatha thought. She couldn’t believe it. How could she believe in witches at this age of time? Witches don’t exist! She just gaped at her.

“So you couldn’t believe that witches exist?” the witch said. She read the mind of Agatha. “I can’t also believe that you will hurt me like this. I made life easier for you. I set up the college for you because I thought you were a miserable creature for you had no friends in high school. You are studying in a school where no one will mind your ugly appearance and where you will have friends. I befriended and trusted you. You destroyed our friendship and betrayed my trust.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I didn’t do anything wrong. ” Agatha said, her voice was quavering.

“I know what you did. I’ve known it before Rochelle told me. I can read your mind and see whatever you are doing wherever you are.” Janin explained. How could you do such a thing? How could you hurt me and make me unhappy when all I did for you was to make you happy?”

“You thought you were making me happy? How could I be happy if Mark likes you?” Agatha retorted.

“For our friendship’s sake, I will dump him if ever he courts me! ” She paused. “Even though it’s hard for me because I fancy him as much as you do…You are more important to me than him. I loved you so much but now I hate you. “

Janin transformed into an old lady. She was the poor old lady whom Agatha gave coins and befriended when Agatha was in high school. She was the one Agatha met at the streets after class. Agatha used to defend her when she was ridiculed by her classmates in high school. She was Aling Consuelo.

Agatha’s other hand was formed with fish scales. “That’s what you get when you mess up with me. ” Aling Consuelo said. “You should learn your lesson well Agatha.”

Since then, Agatha didn’t go to school for a long time because she’s afraid that everyone in school will freak out once they see her.