I wrote this when I was in high school. Somehow, I have no idea why I haven’t thought of posting this until today. Anyways, I think it’s just something I wanted to write down even if there’s not really a very sensible story behind it.

This was actually inspired by a quote that I read in my English book in high school: “Youths are not bottles waiting to be filled. They are candles waiting to be lighted.”

Anyway, here it goes. Hope you like it.

FIVE CANDLES

I

When classes for the day finally came to an end, Katie and Sheena were found walking along the streets. They were headed to a store two blocks away from their school to meet a friend.

“So, can you come with us to the party tonight?” Katie asked Sheena.

“I want to but I don't think so,” Sheena replied, shaking her head. Katie asked her why and she said her usual answer – her parents would not let her. Her friends would usually say that she was missing out a lot in her teenage life but she was always quick to reason that her parents wanted her to stay home. She said she was just being a good daughter.

When they reached the next block, she turned to Katie and said, "Look, I have to go. Tell her I said hi, okay?”

“Alright,” replied Katie.

Then Sheena crossed the street to wait for a ride by the bus stop. And Katie continued walking to the meeting place.

Even before Katie could reach the store where she was supposed to meet her friend, she already saw her standing by a phone booth outside the store. Her friend was not very hard to see as she was puffing a smoke while reading something posted on the booth. She quickly walked her direction and greeted her with, “Mary, what are you doing?”

“Huh, it says here that smoking is dangerous to your health,” Mary said as a sign of reply. “Funny. I'm still alive. My father is still alive.”

Katie bit her lip. She knew that Mary was having one of those days again when she would smoke relentlessly and be mean to everyone because she had another discussion with her father about her future career. “You're smoking again,” she uttered the words with the apparent hint of disappointment.

“Obviously,” Mary said bluntly as she threw her cigarette butt on the ground and stepped on it. “Where are the others?” she asked, looking up back at Katie. Her facial expression shifted from irritation to enthusiasm.

“Sheena can't come with us. And I was wondering if you would come with me and meet the rest at school.”

At the said of that, Mary looked at her friend with every bit of hesitation that could possibly be traced in her eyes. She snorted as if Katie just told a terrible joke. “I’m not going back there,” she answered resolutely, shaking her head.

II

"I have to give it to you. This is the worst idea you have ever come up with," Mary complained, reluctantly following her friend through the school grounds. Apparently, despite of her unrelenting hesitation from going back with Katie to the school, she gave in anyway.

Katie kept on insisting that it was not a bad idea but she kept on insisting that it was. They were walking along the school grounds and she was becoming paranoid that everybody seemed to be talking about her.

“I was expelled from this school, Katie,” Mary whispered the words loudly – wanting people to hear and at the same time, keep to herself. “Just…dropped out. But people look at me like I'm some sort of a criminal on the loose.”

Katie tried to assure Mary. “You're—” She cut her sentence short when Mary left her and went off toward the school auditorium.

Inside the auditorium was a bunch of students practicing for the talent show. Therese was singing on the stage at that moment.

“She's been practicing that song for the talent show,” Katie said, when she finally caught up with Mary, who was watching the performance from the back of the room. “What do you think? She can be a star with that voice.” She saw Mary rolled her eyes. “What?” she asked as if she had said something so incredulously wrong.

“Life's not a fairy tale, Katie. There's a very slim chance for happy endings.”

“Why do you always have to think that way?”

Mary smiled, sarcastically. “I'm still waiting for enlightenment,” she mocked.

When practice was over, Therese went down the stage and met with her friends. “Hey. Let's just wait for Marlet then we can go.”

Mary narrowed her eyes at Therese. "Marlet? She's coming with us?" Apparently, Mary had a fight with Marlet in the past and she was still carrying the grudge.

Before anybody could say another word, Marlet was already standing with them. “Hi, everyone,” she greeted cheerfully. Then she turned to Mary, said hi, and asked her how she was doing.

“My life is none of your business,” Mary snapped, raising an eyebrow.

Marlet was taken aback. Then, realizing what her friend meant by that, she let out a loud sigh. “You're still blaming me, aren't you?” She waited for an answer but Mary turned her heels and walked out of the auditorium. “Mary!” She called as she followed her out of the room.

Mary stopped on her tracks in the middle of the school quadrangle and faced Marlet. “Look, I was aware that I was failing my grades but you didn't have to share my personal problems with everyone.”

Marlet knitted her eyebrows. “Everyone? Cutting classes, smoking, drugs and thought of suicide? You weren't listening to me so I thought maybe you'd listen to someone else but not everyone.”

“Oh yeah? And did you just happen to realize that that someone else was the freaking principal?!”

Marlet noticed that the students were starting to look at them so she decided to end the conversation. She looked at her friend with pleading eyes. And when she couldn’t see any hope in Mary’s expression, she shook her head in frustration. “I'm sorry for trying to be your friend,” she said before she left her.

III

Even after the argument, Mary insisted on Katie and Therese to go on with their plan. However, before they went for the party, Therese had to change from her school clothes so the three of them went to her place. Mary and Katie did not go in the house and decided to wait in the front porch – as Therese asked them to. For some reason, she did not want them inside the house.

After Therese changed her clothes, she went into the living room to inform her mother that she would be leaving. She found her mother talking with her sister.

Her sister was holding a trophy, which she probably won from a contest while her mother was listening eagerly to every word she was saying.

“Mom, I'm leaving for the party,” Therese said, interrupting her sister's story telling.

Her mother looked at her with a somewhat annoyed expression on her face. “Party. All you do is go out with your friends. You're with them all day and all night,” her mother started.  When that happened she knew that a lecture would come next. “When are you going to give us some pride like what your sister brought home? Look, she won in their Science Fair.”

She was expecting that. Her parents kept comparing her with her siblings and told her that she would never amount to anything with her singing and acting. That happened a lot of times that she had mastered the ability to ignore her mother when those times came – ignore the fact that those words were supposed to hurt her.

“I'm going now. I'll be home before twelve,” she said when her mother finally finished.

IV

The next day was a Saturday. Mary was home alone for the fact that everyone in her house was at work. She was busily typing on her computer when the doorbell rang.

When she opened the door, Marlet was standing in front of her. She felt like she wanted to slam the door shut; but what was the use? She also needed somebody to talk to.

“Will you talk with me now?” Marlet said but Mary was just looking at her without saying a word. “You know, I was just trying to help you. I didn't know that it's gonna turn out that way. It's just… I didn't want you to destroy your future but I feel like I'm the one who did.”

Mary looked at her friend blankly. Somehow, she knew that she wasn’t mad at her, she was angry with herself – with what her life turned out to be. She took a deep breath and said, “My future is the one that's destroying me. I can't imagine myself taking up law and be someone I don't wanna be. I guess I wanted to disappoint my parents thinking that they would finally sit down and ask me what's wrong. But they didn't. And that just makes me feel so stupid.” She paused and looked at Marlet. “Your life's perfect.”

Marlet shook her head. “No, it’s not,” she said. “Everyone’s so busy I’m starting to think I don’t exist.”

Mary smiled. Maybe she was not alone after all.

V

It was another lazy afternoon but at least Sheena had something to do. She was in their kitchen preparing food for her expected visitors. She was busy with her salad dressing when a girl walked in.

The young girl looked about thirteen years of age. She tried to approach Sheena but hesitated.

“What is it, Sam?” Sheena called when the girl tried to walk out of the kitchen.

Samantha turned around and faced Sheena. The resemblance between the two of them was so much that it almost seemed like Samantha was the thirteen-year-old Sheena. She walked near her and said, “I know tomorrow night is kind of a family night-out,” she began, pressing her right thumb anxiously on the counter where Sheena was working. “But there's this new kid in school and I was wondering if she can come with us?”

Sheena thought for a while and agreed to the idea. It would be better if Samantha had somebody her age to be with.

“Really?!” Samantha exclaimed. “Thanks, Mom. You're the greatest,” she said, giving her mother a hug. “I’ll go and tell Dad.”

“Now go fix yourself for the visitors this afternoon.”

Just when Samantha left the room, Mary suddenly walked into the kitchen using the back door – as she usually did when she would visit Sheena in their teenage years. She hadn’t changed much. Except that she was talking on her cellular phone with a very annoyed voice. “Ooh… this person just can't leave me alone,” she uttered, after she hung up. “I said I have no time for his stupid case but still he won't stop,” she said, more to herself than to Sheena. “I hate being a lawyer.” When she noticed that Sheena was looking at her with a puzzled expression on her face she looked at her and smiled saying, “Sorry to barge in like this. Wow, your place hasn't changed,” she said as she looked around.

Mary still did become a lawyer even it was against her will. Her parents were the ones who paid for her school fees so she did not have any say of what she really wanted to be. “Is Marlet here yet?” she asked.

“Not yet,” Sheena answered. “Katie called. She just arrived at the airport and she's on her way.”

Katie and her family moved out of the country before she graduated from high school. She attended college there and became a psychologist.

“And Therese?” Mary asked.

“Therese is somewhere out there,” Sheena replied, jokingly. “She also called. She said she'd try to get out of her busy schedule.” Therese studied college with the course that could please her parents. And the moment she graduated, she started from the go and tried to find success in singing and acting. She might still be starving because of that decision, but she always would assure her friends that at least, she was happy.

“First time in my life I'm early,” Mary kidded herself. She went over Sheena's salad dressing and tasted it. “Perfect. Leave it that way.”

Not far from Sheena's house, Marlet was driving her car to Sheena's place. With her was her fourteen-year-old son, Vinnie. Marlet was singing to the song on the radio when she heard a popping noise from the back of the car. “What was that?”

“Mom, I think the car just couldn't take more of your singing,” Vinnie joked, smiling widely.

Marlet looked at him, mocking a shocked expression on her face. “Uh, my singing ain’t that bad.” Marlet pulled the car over and got out. She saw that the tire at the left side of the back was flat. “Perfect,” she groaned. “I dunno how to do this.”

Vinnie heard his mother. He got out of the car and looked at what was the matter. When he saw that it was a flat tire, he chuckled. “Mom, it's just a flat tire,” he said, standing beside his mother. He put a hand on his mother's shoulder. “Watch me solve your dilemma,” he boasted.

He got the jack and the spare tire out of the compartment and replaced the flat tire. When he was finished he turned to his mother and proudly said, “There, see? Let's go.” He started walking back to his side of the car.

“Where did you learn to do that?” Marlet called after her son, pleased and very, very curious at the same time. “You’re fourteen, you’re not even old enough to have a learner’s permit,” she added as she opened the driver’s side door.

Vinnie looked at her mother across the car. “It’s a closely guarded secret,” he said in a hush, trying to tease her mother. When he saw his mother rolled her eyes, he chuckled.

Marlet buckled her seatbelt and looked at Vinnie.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Have I ever told you that you're my favorite son?”

Vinnie rolled his eyes. “Mom, that’s old…” he groaned. “You know I'm your only son.”

“Well…”

“Drive. Drive.”

* * * *

They used to be five youths who wanted to be seen as real persons and to be known for their originality and expression of their true selves. Some of them followed the desires of their hearts and tried to explore their way to success. The rest of them went with the flow and accepted the fate given to them. Either way, they were youths who unconsciously searched for someone to guide them through – someone to enlighten their lives.

So, how was it?

Feel free to tell me what you think.

Review! :)