Chapter 22: The Opening
The send-off took place in the school gym on a bright Thursday morning.
Every Davao City delegation had been invited. Rafael had expected a small ceremony for the baseball team, but when he walked in, he found rows of athletes in matching jackets filling the bleachers. There were swimmers with their hair still wet from morning training, basketball players who towered over everyone, football players in cleats, arnis fighters carrying their sticks, and runners stretching in the aisles. Somewhere in the middle, a group of girls in volleyball jackets were laughing too loudly for a school gym.
"There are so many of us," Joshua whispered.
"It’s the whole city," Miguel said.
A priest led the opening prayer, and the division superintendent gave a short speech about pride and sportsmanship. Then each sport was called to the stage, one by one, to receive a banner. Rafael watched the basketball team walk up. A tall boy at the front held the banner with both hands, grinning like he’d already won.
A strange feeling tugged at Rafael’s chest. The memory wasn’t Alex’s.
Rafael had loved basketball. He had spent years watching games and playing badly with his friends, and some part of that love still lived inside the body. Alex felt it for a moment, a quiet echo of a boy who used to dream about a different court.
"You okay?" Paolo asked.
"Yeah." Rafael smiled. "Just thinking."
When the baseball team was called, they walked onto the stage in a loose line. Daniel took the banner, and the whole gym clapped. Rafael scanned the crowd and found his family waving from the far side. Lia was standing on the bench again.
Mia was seated with her volleyball team. She lifted her hand and mouthed something. He couldn’t hear it, but he guessed it was "good luck."
He nodded back.
The bus ride to Tagum City took almost two hours.
The Davao City delegation had filled a line of buses, and Rafael’s was shared between baseball, football, and the swimming team. Daniel had mentioned that a sponsor had covered part of the transportation costs, and when Rafael read the small logo on the bus window, he understood.
Cruzstone Properties.
He thought about Vanessa’s card in his pocket. She hadn’t said anything about it again, but she had clearly made the arrangements. He hadn’t asked for help, and she hadn’t made it a favor.
"Look," Joshua said, pointing out the window. "Banners."
Along the highway, the roadside was decorated with colorful streamers welcoming DAVRAA delegations. Students stood near the gates of several schools, waving as the buses passed.
On the seats ahead, the football players were arguing about formations. Behind them, two swimmers were asleep with their heads against the window. A girl in an arnis uniform was practicing wrist movements in the aisle until the bus hit a bump and she nearly fell.
Rafael laughed. It was a noisy, warm kind of chaos, and he found that he liked it.
"I’ve never traveled with so many sports before," Miguel said. "It feels like we’re a whole country."
"We’re one delegation," Daniel said from the front. "That’s what this meet is. Eleven delegations, thousands of athletes, one region."
"And only one of us gets to be the best," Joshua said.
"Not true," Daniel said. "Every sport has its own winner. You just worry about yours."
Billeting was in a public school near the city center.
The Durians had been assigned three classrooms for the boys’ teams, and the desks had been pushed aside to make room for rows of cots. A teacher at the entrance checked names off a clipboard while volunteers carried bags upstairs. The whole building smelled like floor wax and instant noodles.
Rafael picked a cot near the window. Joshua took the next one and immediately flopped onto it.
"I could sleep for a week."
"You’ll have one day," Daniel said, appearing in the doorway. "Opening ceremony is at four. We leave in an hour. Eat something and get your uniforms ready."
The room became noisy again as players unpacked. Rafael sat on his cot and looked out the window. The school courtyard was full of athletes from other teams, walking in groups and comparing jackets. A pair of basketball players were practicing free throws against a rusty hoop. A football team jogged past in neat lines.
Rafael watched a young swimmer carrying a bag three times too big for him. Somehow, they all looked a little nervous.
The same nerves lived in his stomach, though he hid them better than most.
The rain began just as they left for the stadium.
At first it was a light drizzle, and the Durians held their jackets over their heads and laughed about it. By the time they reached the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex, it was falling hard. Water ran down the stadium steps, and umbrellas bloomed all around them. Organizers in plastic raincoats waved the delegations into line.
"This is a joke," Ethan muttered, wiping water from his face.
"It’s a blessing," Paolo said. "Rain is good luck."
"Who told you that?"
"My grandmother."
"Your grandmother is wrong."
"Maybe. But she’s never been wrong about the lottery numbers."
Rafael looked around. Eleven delegations were forming rows along the track. Each had its own color, its own banners, and its own noise. The Digos City Trekkers wore deep blue jackets and carried a flag with a mountain on it. The Mati City Eagles marched under red and gold. The Davao del Norte Pioneers were already lined up near the front, sharp and organized, with the host crowd cheering them on from the stands.
He studied the Pioneers more closely, and then he saw a tall boy with a calm, serious face standing near the baseball section. Someone behind him whispered, "That’s Mateo Arcenas." Rafael didn’t need the introduction. The boy’s shoulders were relaxed, his eyes were focused, and he carried himself like someone who didn’t need to prove anything.
Farther down the line, a left-handed batter was stretching with the Tagum City Premier. His bat rested over one shoulder, and his smile was confident and a little arrogant. The jacket on his back said LUMAPAS.
Rafael smiled to himself.
"Who are you looking at?" Joshua asked.
"Everyone."
"That’s not an answer."
"It’s the only one I have."
When the parade began, the stadium went quiet for a moment. Then music rose from the speakers, and the first delegation stepped onto the track.
The Durians marched near the middle. Rafael walked with the baseball team, directly behind Daniel. The rain soaked his jacket, but nobody seemed to care. The crowd in the stands cheered for every group, and it felt like the whole region was breathing together.
Behind the baseball team, the volleyball girls walked in a tight line. Mia was near the front, with her hair tied back and rain dripping from her chin. When they passed each other at a turn in the track, she caught his eye and grinned.
"Are you scared?" she called.
"No."
"Liar!"
He laughed, and then she was gone, swallowed back into the line.
After the parade, the delegations gathered on the field. The announcer introduced the officials, and a series of speakers took turns at the podium. The regional director said something about unity and the future of Philippine sports. The governor talked about opportunity.
Then a girl in a white taekwondo uniform stepped forward. She looked young, maybe sixteen, with a medal around her neck that glinted under the lights.
"I am a Palarong Pambansa gold medalist," she said into the microphone. "And today I will lead the athletes’ oath."
The crowd stood. Thousands of voices joined her as she recited the words of sportsmanship and fair play. Rafael stood with his hand over his heart, repeating them with the others.
For a moment, he forgot that he had ever been anyone else. He was just an athlete, in the rain, in a crowd of strangers who wanted the same thing he did.
The torch relay came next.
A line of athletes carried the flame across the track, passing it from hand to hand. Some were swimmers, others were runners or boxers. Each of them had stood on a Palaro podium. Rafael watched the torch move closer to the cauldron at the far end of the field.
"Do you think that’s us someday?" Joshua asked quietly.
"Maybe."
"You think we’ll ever be that good?"
Rafael looked at him. "I think you already are."
Joshua blinked. "That’s... nice. Are you sick?"
"No."
"You’re acting weird."
"I’m trying to be encouraging."
"Stop. It’s terrifying."
The last runner climbed the stairs to the cauldron. A girl in a Tagum City uniform, tall and graceful, held the torch high. The rain was still falling, but the flame didn’t flicker.
She touched it to the cauldron, and fire exploded upward.
The stadium roared.
Then the music changed. A group of performers in red and black costumes ran onto the field, spinning fire in their hands. The rain hissed against the flames, and the performers moved in perfect rhythm. Behind them, fireworks began to burst across the dark sky.
Rafael stared up as the colors reflected on the wet track. Lia would have loved this. She would have screamed so loudly that half the stadium would have turned around.
He thought about the long road ahead. The weeks of training, the late-night film study, and the family waiting at home. Alex Sterling had opened stadiums and thrown out first pitches in front of sixty thousand people.
This was different. This was a school stadium in the rain, and he was seventeen. He felt like a kid at the start of something new.
"Rafael," Daniel said, stepping beside him. "Look."
A large board had been rolled out near the field’s edge. The baseball groups were printed in bold letters, wet from the rain but still clear.
**BASEBALL — GROUP A**
- Davao City Durians
- Digos City Trekkers
- Davao de Oro Thunderbolts
- Mati City Eagles
**BASEBALL — GROUP B**
- Tagum City Premier
- Davao del Norte Pioneers
- Island Garden City of Samal Waves
Joshua read the list twice. "That’s it? Seven teams?"
"That’s it," Daniel said. "Three games in the group. Top two advance."
Paolo whistled. "Pioneers and Premier are in the other group."
"Which means we won’t see them until the semifinal," Miguel said.
"If we get there," Ethan muttered.
Rafael kept his eyes on the board. The names meant nothing yet. Soon they would have faces, tempers, and plans. Every team here had spent months preparing for a stranger from Davao City who had no reputation outside one school tournament.
He liked that.
"Our first game is the day after tomorrow," Daniel said. "Digos Trekkers. Rest tomorrow, watch film tonight, and no late nights."
The players nodded.
Rafael looked up one more time. The fireworks were fading, and the smoke drifted slowly over the stadium lights. Somewhere in the crowd, a girl in a volleyball jacket was probably looking at the same sky.
He smiled, turned toward the bus, and followed his team into the rain.
End of Chapter 22