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and legends," I said, but it looked like she already knew.
    " Too bad. Can't you find that on the Internet?"
    " I tried. There's nothing much. I mean, I guess I wanted to check something not put up by some guy on Wikipedia."
    Her hand came upon my shoulder, and I was steered away from the maze of shelves. Near the librarian's desk was a short shelf of children's books, and without hesitating Vida pulled one out by the spine.
    Ang Alamat ng Araw at Buwan. The legend of the sun and moon. Illustrated and bilingual.
    I wanted to ask if she was kidding. "I think I need something a bit more… mature."
    Vida ran the book, and the student ID around my neck, through the quick-checkout barcode reader and was obviously not kidding. "Nonsense. Anything worth knowing is taught to kids first anyway."
    Then the book was in my hand, and she and I were walking out of the library -- no, she was escorting me out. Each step of the way she caught every eye she passed, and some of them actually turned to me too. Just being around her for two minutes was already upping my social value.
    Outside the library doors, a guy holding a woman 's bag and two books was waiting. "Thank you, darling," she said, taking the items from him, and on her, the additional bag and books still looked magazine-perfect. "Hannah, this is my boyfriend Jake."
    " Hi, Jake," I said. I knew the guy -- he was a sophomore too, and we might have taken a PE class together last year. He was one of the more good-looking guys, probably the cutest one in my batch. If Vida, a senior, absolutely had to date a sophomore, then Jake Lalisan was the guy to date.
    " Hi, Hannah," he said, and I almost laughed at how obedient we sounded. And then I picked up something from him as soon as I heard his voice.
    He 's confused . Jake did not know, apparently, that he was Vida's boyfriend, but was flattered to hear it.
    " Bye, Hannah," Vida said, taking Jake by the arm and waving like we were friends. "We should talk about the book when you're done."
    Funny. I always thought that Vida got her reputation because she was just that pretty. As she walked further away from me, it was like I was waking up from a trance, and realized that she had just monopolized my time and I had let her.
    She is totally one of them. I wondered why Quin didn't tell me.

Chapter 8

 
    THE LEGEND OF THE SUN AND THE MOON
    In the days before human memory, when Bathala, the Great Father, ruled the sky and sea, a quarrel erupted between two of his children, Apo and Maya.
    Apo was the strongest and most handsome among Bathala 's many children, while Maya was the smartest and prettiest. The other brothers and sisters knew it was best to step aside when their two siblings fought even over the smallest trifles.
    But this quarrel was quite serious. Maya and Apo were arguing over their birthright. It began when Bathala asked this question: "Who would like to rule over humans?"
    " Me, me, me!" cried Apo, bright and eager. "I will race across the sky, give warmth to humans, and shine upon their crops and cattle. They shall use the shadows I cast around them to measure their hours. Humans shall work hard under my light and know I am forever watching them. Humans shall worship me without fail!"
    " Ha! Ha! Ha!" laughed Maya, fair was her skin and passionate were her ways. "Dear brother, you are crude and naive. You cannot force humans to worship you. You must persuade them to open their hearts. If you show yourself all the time, humans will always be aware of your presence, and therefore shall always keep their thoughts and desires hidden from you. Father, look at me. Am I not your most beautiful daughter? Yet I know that the way to the human heart is to conceal my beautiful face from time to time. Only then will they reveal who they really are. In the end, humans always yearn for my return, and they gladly kneel before my glorious illumination."
    " I do not understand your fancy words, dear sister," replied Apo, who had turned red in his