When Jeff looked at Noel, he noticed him standing there like a statue, staring at him in a daze.
Even Ralya was caught in a trance, though she quickly shook her head to snap herself out of it.
Noel finally returned to his senses after Jeff repeatedly called his name.
From the beginning until the end of the presentation, the smile on Mrs. Baldoza’s face only grew wider and more visible, clearly impressed by what she had witnessed.
She was greatly impressed and amazed. After all, who wouldn’t be when one of your students was this good?
"Goodness, this student of mine has really been hiding his talent the entire semester," she growled inwardly, unable to hide her anger.
Ariana Willow’s gaze was intense as she watched Jeff at the front, clearly in awe.
Born into a wealthy family, she had been trained since childhood to sound classy and elegant.
Yet Jeff was different he did not come from that privilege, and still, he carried himself with such grace and confidence.
This only made Ariana admire him even more, not just for his naturally likeable personality but also for his intelligence and skill.
Even she could not speak in that manner. Her level was high, yet she clearly saw the gap between herself and Jeff, which only made her even more intrigued by him.
As he walked toward the center, taking out his notes, afraid that he might forget to explain certain points.
"So... the... uhh... now we are in Chunk 4, which is about intertextuality. Intertextuality is when a text implicitly or explicitly alludes to another text by using distinctive, common, or recognizable elements of the referenced text," he read directly from the module, then glanced at his notes for the explanation.
"So, intertextuality..." he began, but this time, he shifted to Filipino language as he continued his explanation.
As he finished, he glanced at Mrs. Baldoza, who was watching him closely.
"Can you explain it again?" she instructed.
Noel repeated the explanation, reading once more from his notes.
However, as Mrs. Baldoza listened carefully, her expression showed clear dissatisfaction. Even Jeff shook his head slightly, sensing the lack of clarity in Kiel’s explanation.
"Did you even at least try to fix the grammar? Also, it’s not really a problem to use Tagalog, but I can clearly tell that you just used Google Translate to turn this into Tagalog," she said sharply, crossing her arms as she spoke.
"Without reading the note, can you explain it in a very simple manner?" she added, her tone a bit heavy.
She gave this instruction directly, knowing that the student in front of her, was the same as Kiel, they lacked the hard work and creativity shown by the others.
"Ahh... ano po kasi ’yun, parang... intertextuality po is... ahm... kapag may, uhm, parang text na may kasama siyang... uhm... ibang text na, ano... kumbaga may kaibigan siya na text tapos parang nagtutulungan sila ganun po... parang bestfriend ng text tapos nagsasama sila... ganyan..."
(English translation from that explanation: "Ahh... so, it’s like... intertextuality is... uhm... when a text has, like... uhm, another text with it... kind of like they’re friends, and they help each other, like that... it’s like the text has a best friend and they’re together... something like that..." )
He stuttered, sweating heavily, as he struggled to give examples. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢•𝕟𝕖𝕥
The examples that even he himself did not fully understand. His words came out disorganized, revealing his lack of preparation and grasp of the topic.
The room went silent.
A few classmates raised their brows, struggling to process what they had just heard.
One of them leaned toward his friend and asked, "What?"
"Why are you asking me? Do I look like I understand it?" the friend replied, frustration clear on his face.
"I get that Celeste’s explanation in English is hard to follow sometimes, but with this guy, I seriously cannot understand anything at all," he added, trying to rack his brain and make sense of an explanation that felt completely impossible to grasp.
Mrs. Baldoza closed her eyes for a moment and let out a deep sigh, "Just continue and finish your part," she said, motioning for him to proceed.
She knew that forcing him to explain further would only make things worse. It would waste time and lead to nowhere.
Hearing this, Noel felt a wave of relief. However, standing at the center of the room, surrounded by gazes that seemed to pierce right through him, he could not help but feel uncomfortable and uneasy.
Everything had already been planned in his mind. Even if he ended up receiving the lowest grade, at least he could say he had participated.
This participation alone would be enough to keep him from failing this subject for graduation.
So, without much care, he proceeded to read aloud, "An implicit reference is when... and for an explicit reference is when the composer..." he continued.
Repeating the same pattern, he continued to simply read from the module without truly explaining or understanding the content.
All he did was translate the English description into Tagalog, without giving any clear examples to support his explanation.
The class quickly lost interest. No one bothered to listen as most of them dozed off in their seats, clearly disengaged.
When he finally finished reading the notes, which he presented as his explanation, the room remained silent, filled only with the dull air of disinterest.
Noel stood up with a happy expression. "That is all for intertextuality and its two key parts. Any more questions?" he asked the class, sounding confident that no one would raise their hand.
However, Mrs. Baldoza, observing the situation, turned to the students and spoke loudly, "Are there any questions, as asked by the reporter?"
What greeted her was utter silence. Just as Mrs. Baldoza was about to tell Noel that there were no more questions, one student raised her hand.
"There’s something I don’t understand," the student said loudly, her voice carrying a questionable tone.
It was none other than Celeste. Seeing this, Noel immediately frowned.
In their class, it was an unspoken rule that during reporting, no one needed to ask questions unless the person presenting was fully capable of answering them.
Asking questions was often seen as causing unnecessary trouble for their own classmates, who was struggling.
This was also the reason why Celeste herself had not received any questions during her report.
Her classmates avoided making each other suffer through the pressure of answering on the spot.
But Celeste did not care, even though she was fully aware of this unspoken rule.
Why should she care? If they had taken the time to actually study, this situation would not have happened in the first place.
She was not like the rest of her classmates, who followed such a weak rule just to keep those with low IQ’s comfortable during these moments.
"I don’t understand anything you’ve just explained. Can you explain it to me again? Also, please provide an example so I can understand it better, since the exam is nearing and this is a crucial part," she said directly to Noel, her eyes sharp demanding an answer.
Jeff, watching the situation unfold, knew that Celeste was not wrong.
If Noel had explained the topic more clearly, everyone could have understood it better and prepared well for their upcoming final exams tonight.
"Ahhh..." Noel panicked.
Flipping through his notes, reading the same lines over and over as he struggled to find the right words.
But when he was done, Celeste did not let him off so easily.
"I still don’t understand. Also, you didn’t even provide an example. Do better," she said in disdain, embarrassing him on the spot as the class quietly watched the exchange.
Mrs. Baldoza frowned at Celeste’s harsh words but chose not to intervene, believing that this experience might push Noel to strive harder and improve.
She decided that unless things became excessive, she would not allow the situation to play out.
Noel’s face turned bright red from embarrassment, while Ralya maintained a poker face.
However, beneath that calm expression, her eyes burned with resentment toward Celeste.
Given how close she was to Noel, seeing him humiliated in front of the class naturally angered her.
"Can you take cover for Noel, Ralya? I think he’s going to be roasted by Celeste if this isn’t handled soon," suggested by Cyrin Gomez, the girl with short hair, her voice was low and filled with concern.
Ralya looked troubled as she shook her head.
"I can’t. I haven’t studied this properly, and honestly, I don’t even know how to explain it. Just reading the description alone already feels so hard to understand," she sighed, helplessness was clear in her voice.
"Don’t worry, I’ll handle it," Jeff said to the two as he calmly stepped forward, positioning himself beside Noel.
"Ma’am, is it alright if I take over his part and explain it instead?" Jeff asked respectfully.
Mrs. Baldoza gave a slight nod, knowing that if this continued any longer without proper explanation, it would only waste more time.
"Go stand on the side and let me handle this," Jeff whispered to Noel in a low, steady voice.
Noel nodded, feeling a wave of relief and gratitude for the save as he quietly stepped aside.