kids...

i think i should write a book. seriously. i think my prep class is a microcosm of the entire world. some quips from my little charges.

background story: all the girls have a crush on this little boy named victor. he's okay looking. half french, half filipino. but the best looking of all the other little boys. i'm meeting his parents the day after tomorrow because of many behavioral problems he's been having. nice way of saying he's REALLY ticking me off.

me: why do you like victor so much?
maki (5 year old japanese girl): i like him because he's strong and dangerous.

i almost choked on my oreo. new insight: i guess a girl's attraction to the bad boy isn't developed after all. it's hard wired into our system.

then there's this little japanese boy i absolutely ADORE. takumi. he's courteous. nice, sweet, thoughtful... i could go on and on about him. he's the type who'd bring you flowers for no reason and pull out your chair. actually, he's more adorable than handsome. the girls don't really think of him as a hearthrob or anything. they just like him because he's nice and helpful and he helps them with their work. ah.. the makings of the "but you're like a brother to me" blow off.

then maki... the one i mentioned earlier. the ring leader, the alpha female, the queen bee. not that pretty but she's slim and tall. not too smart but covers it up by bullying her other classmates. a mean girl (yes, i mean the movie) in the making. she and her two other minions dani and rebecca, pick on the other girls in the class. especially ysa, the prettiest of them all. she's one of the boys and maki's object of desire loves hanging out with her to play ball or go climb a tree. dani adores maki. she's actually smarter and prettier but i think her being a bit chubby weighs a little heavily on her self esteem. maki gets her work done by copying maki and pretends to have come up with it on her own. she dresses like her, talks like her and even signs her name like her. rebecca, on the other hand, is the rebel of the mean girls clique. the one who occasionally mixes with the other girls and can call maki "stupid" to her face. she's street smart. she's also gorgeous. half italian and half dutch and can speak fluently in both languages plus english.

chabeli. the one who'll leave you out to dry. ysa's so called bestfriend, according to ysa. hardly says anything, except to rat on all the bad stuff ysa's done. ysa still thinks she's her bestfriend and is oblivious to all the backstabbing. then there's ju hee whom i really don't know what to make out of. the new girl and she's a non-english speaking korean. tries to imitate the other girls but it backfires.

there's matias. the ultimate mama's boy. girls make him cry on purpose and he falls for it everytime. think of a 5 year old robin williams. that's exactly how he looks. he has the whiniest voice but somehow he's endeared himself to me. he has not just one but a staff of yayas and drivers at his beck and call. one time, he made his driver carry him to the car because it was raining and he didn't wanna get wet. i pity whatever woman ends up with this one.

and who can forget victor. one of a kind. homicidal suicidal. hannibal in the making. he's done everything from almost hang himself from a bridge playset to cut his classmate's hair on a whim. he only writes with a red pencil. he's destroyed 6 chairs, 5 pencils and 4 erasers since the start of class. our directress wants me to set a meeting with his parents and recommend that their son see a psychiatrist. not something i'm looking forward to this week.

i wonder how these kids will turn out to be when they're older.