Now begins the second part of this special series dedicated to the newest members of the MGC New Life faculty! We’ll be picking up the narrative from where the first article left off — this time featuring the teachers Mr. Mark Graida, Mr. Jerome Lim, Ms. Clarenz Aguilar, Ms. Danielle Asuncion, Ms. Melissa Castro, Ms. Maria Palamos, and Ms. Arianne King; all of whom teach in the Junior High School A and Middle School Departments.
Will they be the ones to find the missing student? Read on to find out!
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“Did both of you pack sinigang again?” Ms. Maria Palamos asked Ms. Danielle Asuncion and Ms. Clarenz Aguilar.
“Yes, we did,” they responded. “It’s just so good!”
Ms. Palamos, Ms. King, Ms. Castro, Ms. Asuncion, Ms. Aguilar, Mr. Jerome Lim, and Mr. Mark Graida were all on their way to the Junior High School B pantry to get their lunches. Sadly, their respective departments’ refrigerators were being repaired by Kuya Elmer, so they had to store their lunch elsewhere for the time being.
“I packed my favorite too: Beef Salpicao!” Ms. Palamos smiled as she pushed the door to the teachers’ room open.
“Good morning, everyone!” Ms. Palamos greeted as the seven of them entered the room.
However, they immediately sensed the tense atmosphere in the room. Matched with knitted eyebrows, the teachers in the department were all talking in worried voices. Confused, the seven of them reluctantly settled down to eat their lunches. Mr. Lim and Ms. Palamos wanted to jump into the discussion but, instead, waited for the conversation to finish. Finally, the other group of teachers stopped talking and began packing their things.
“Hello, we’re sorry to intrude, but we couldn’t help but overhear your conversation earlier. What’s this about a missing student? Is there anything we can do to help?” Mr. Lim asked.
The teachers explained the situation to the seven of them that it all began when they noticed a student absent during a cell group get-together. The student hadn’t been spotted since morning. However, she was not seen leaving the building either. When they finished explaining, the teachers took a moment to process all the information they had gained.
“You know what, I think we can help.”
“Yes, I’d love to help!”
“Me too.”
“Me three!”
The other group of teachers smiled.
“Thank you for volunteering to carry the investigation forward for us! I’m afraid we’ll have to get going now, however. We still need to catch our meeting. Remember, the student we’re looking for has black, medium-length hair and was wearing a denim jacket!”
Ms. Castro, Ms. Palamos, Ms. King, Mr. Graida, Mr. Lim, Ms. Aguilar, and Ms. Asuncion bid their goodbyes to the group of teachers. They then wondered what the next best step would be in order to push the search forward. After further discussion, they all came to the same conclusion: the CCTV footage.
The seven teachers went down to check the CCTV footage from earlier that day. Kuya Gamba was more than willing to help but warned them that a minor glitch prevented them from seeing footage between 10:15 am and 10:45 am.
“Oh no.... isn’t that the time frame the student went missing?”
“It’s still a start. We can see the last location; maybe that would help?”
“I’m sure it will. Wait, have her parents been notified yet? This seems a bit serious!”
“Sa alam ko po, wala pang sinasabi sa magulang niya. Kahit na nawala siya kaninang umaga, hindi siya umalis ng eskwelahan. Baka umalis lang nang walang paalam. Karaniwang pangyayari lang po ito, siguradong magpapakita siya mayamaya,” Kuya Gamba added, smiling rather mysteriously.
After about ten minutes, they narrowed the search down to three female students with medium-length hair and denim jackets on the screen. Each one curiously enough hid their faces each time they passed a camera, which meant that any one of them could be their missing student.
Mr. Graida wanted to check on the student who strayed from her friends in the lecture hall.
Mr. Lim and Ms. Castro agreed that the student wearing her denim jacket in the gym (who also had no reason to be there) was the most suspicious.
The rest of the teachers agreed that they would like to check out the 6th floor for a student who looked like she was using her phone and hiding from a group of teachers in the hallway.
“I think it’d be more convenient if we split up and check each of these floors. Perhaps we can all meet up afterwards.” Ms. Palamos proposed. They all agreed.
Mr. Lim and Ms. Castro arrived at the 7th floor, and, as expected, it was empty.
“How are we going to do this? Will we check the bleachers? The volleyball court? The wall climbing area?”
They suddenly heard the jingling of keys and a merry whistle coming from the storage room. Ms. Castro smiled. “Of course! Kuya Amar!”
They jogged over to his table and greeted him, then asked if he’d seen the student with a denim jacket in the past 2 hours.
“Ah, siya? Oo, nakita ko siya kaninang umaga. Nakasalubong ko sa 6th floor. Parang may hinahanap siyang mga cartolina na naiwan daw kahapon ng kaklase niya. Wala rin siya nahanap kaya umalis siya, papuntang baba.”
“Ah, ganun po ba? Sige po. Check po namin sa baba. Salamat po, kuya!”
They went back out and decided to search the 6th floor. They took the stairs and started walking down the hallway. It was Ms. Castro who found the jacket haphazardly dropped on the floor of the student lounge.
Mr. Lim picked it up and turned it over. “Look, it’s the same jacket the student was wearing in the CCTV footage! I don’t know who owns this… But I do know that this student needs to get this washed!” Mr. Lim said as he passed the jacket to Ms. Castro. She pulled out a tiny piece of paper sticking out of the jacket’s left pocket and held it up. She squints at the tiny text on the paper. “Is that… a movie ticket?”
Mr. Lim paused for a moment before nodding. “You’re right! I think it is. We need to get going, though. Maybe we should drop this off at the Junior High School B department?” Ms. Castro agreed, and they started walking hurriedly towards the elevators once more.
Meanwhile, Ms. Asuncion, Ms. King, Ms. Aguilar, and Ms. Palamos took the stairs up but failed to spot anything out of the ordinary in the 6th-floor hallway. They’d gone around the whole floor once and were now on their second round of searching. Ms. Asuncion was the first to say something as they searched a second time.
“There’s been nothing so far. Maybe we should go back to the other teachers or, at least, search elsewhere.” The others voiced their agreement and began making their way back near the stairwell.
Just when the others had found their clues, Mr. Graida huffed up the steps and wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. “Whew, I hope I’m not too late.” He was held up by one of his students asking about their Science project. He heard a noise from the Lecture Hall and opened the door to find groups of students reciting a poem on stage, playing with colorful props, and reading from their books.
“Hi, Bb. Dela Soledad! Excuse me, but may I ask if any of your students may have left or gone down early?”
“Mr. Graida, hello po! Yes, one of my students was excused, but it was for SG purposes. I’m so sorry. Kanina pa siya umalis.”
“Oh… that’s alright. Thank you, and God bless with your performance task, kids!”
Leaving the lecture hall, Mr. Graida bumped into the rest of the teachers waiting for him by the stairwell.
“Have you found anything?” he asked, wiping his brow once again.
“Well, Ms. Cui, the teacher from a while ago just texted me now. Apparently, in their meeting, they found out that other students didn’t go to their cell groups either.” Ms. King sighed and closed her cell phone.
“That does make sense. All of us have reason to believe each girl wasn’t where she was supposed to be,” Ms. Asuncion responded.
“Well, according to where we all ended up searching, I’m assuming they've been to the 6th floor. But for what?” Mr. Lim asked.
“I mean, I don’t know this floor very well yet, but I do know there are a few special rooms here, like the lecture hall, the computer lab, student lounge, and the org room. But they were all empty or being used!”
Ms. Palamos looked at her co-teachers. “Wait, I know we looked into all those rooms, but where’s the org room? And did anyone actually check it?”
The teachers shook their heads and just looked at each other.
Suddenly, a phone went off. Everyone looked at Ms. Asuncion, who answered it sheepishly. “Hello?”
She nodded for a while, then thanked the caller and put the phone down. “That was Ms. Papey; she wants us to convene at the auditorium in the next five minutes instead of the conference room for our meeting.”
All the seven teachers went down to the 5th floor, a bit discouraged. They weren’t able to find a single student!
“Wait, isn’t that Ms. Lao and Ms. Cui from a while ago? Why are they there by the elevator too?” Ms. Castro pointed.
The two groups noticed each other, and Ms. Palamos, Ms. King, Ms. Castro, Ms. Asuncion, Ms. Aguilar, Mr. Lim, and Mr. Graida waited while the other group of teachers caught up to them. “Hi everyone! What are you doing here?”
Mr. Gopez piped up. “Our supervisor asked us to go to the auditorium. Quite suddenly, actually. How’s the search so far?”
“Oh? We were called, too! We actually found quite a lot of clues, thanks to the CCTV footage.” Ms. Aguilar smiled.
The thirteen teachers continued discussing the clues and findings they managed to uncover as they made their way towards the auditorium.
“At the very least, we know that at least one of the students was called by the SG...”
While they discussed the clues they found, a loud bang shattered their gloomy thoughts.
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Although Ms. Palamos, Ms. King, Ms. Castro, Ms. Asuncion, Ms. Aguilar, Mr. Lim, and Mr. Graida were not able to find any of the missing students, they were four steps closer to finding them than they were before. What do you think happens next? Do you think the students will be found soon? Or do you think it’s going to take much more searching? Find out in the next article!
End of Part 2 of 3
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