Aing Performed to an Appreciative Crowd

Last March 8, when the Mirriam College Child Study Center held its year-end School Play for all Pre-School levels, A-ing played her heart out in the role that she got - an evil queen named Reyna Lupita. The character was supposed to plot for the destruction of all the forests and anything green and turn the world into a drab, dusty and lifeless planet. Tto further her evil scheme, she made use of an unwitting real estate developer named Don Felipe who destroyed the forest and build malls and condominiums in their stead.

But the whole plan did not go very well because deep in the forest is also a band of good diwatas headed by another queen fully decided to thwart Lupita's plan. The whole plot was a struggle between good and evil, between man's greed and man's need to protect and preserve his world, between selfish ambitions and nature's fury unleashed by the very act of man's lack of concern or sheer ignorance.

A-ing put her heart out during the performance and in the process, put one over the other protagonist queen. By the end of the play and during the curtain call, it was not surprising that she got the louder applause than the other girl. A trip to the parking lot was like a celebrity's parade in a sea of fans as other kids excitedly point her to their parents, all the while recognizing her as Lupita. Her trademark laugh, WA, HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!, which she used to punctuate her every line, because the buzzword (if you may call it word) long after the play.

But the show was not without its hitches and something we were nervous about before the play even started. We saw other parents came with bouquets and we knew immediately that we were in trouble for coming without one. I guess parenting sometimes require some quick thinking and we were able to use her coming birthday as an alibi for her to wait for the flower and other gifts for her excellent performance that night. She was not fully convinced but she accepted the "reason".

Another downside to the new popularity was that Jane who used to be known in the campus and even in the higher-ups of Miriam College as a very competent instructress is now known only as Lupita's Mother.