My head is resting on something hard, and it's definitely not on a pillow. I slowly open my eyes, squinting every now and then as my eyes adjust to the room's brightness. Surprisingly, even though my head is rested on some hard object, it actually feels comfortable somehow. Once my eyes have adjusted, I look up to see what I'm resting on – and it's actually not an object, but rather it's a person.

Isaiah's still fast asleep, his mouth is slightly up. He does cute little snores that's not too irritating in the ears, and his chest heaves up and down slowly. His brows are slightly furrowed, his cheeks a little pinker.

Now I'm not one of those men who have toxic masculinity. In fact, I support all male physical contacts – whether it's a hug between two men, men cuddling with each other. It doesn't have to mean anything – it's just two friends having a great moment without turning it into an awkward fest. I mean, if there's something special going on between them, then who cares?

Back in the Philippines, I used to sleep over in Max's house, and vice versa, and we did a lot of cuddling. I also like to give him hugs in public because why not? I'm a total hugger. When someone goes through my Facebook photos, they'd usually comment about pictures of me hugging a lot of people.

As you can see, cuddling with my step-brother is no big deal for me. It's just quite a little shocking because, even though he's my step-brother and our parents are dating, I really don't know much about this guy. He's not a total stranger to me – it's just, there's something I can't explain when I'm with this guy.

Isaiah's arm is draped on top of me while his other hand is wrapped beneath my waist, and when I try to lift his arm, he clicks his tongue and tightens his hold on me. He mumbles in his sleep, pouting a bit.

"Isaiah," I whisper, blowing on his face to wake him up. "Isaiah."

His face scrunches up but he remains unbothered at my attempt to wake him up.

"Isaiah, wake up. You're crushing me with your weight." I blow on his face again.

His eyes flutter open. He looks at the room, then to me, blinks a few times, then his eyes widen. He rolls immediately and falls on the ground, groaning once he has recovered.

"I'm sorry," he looks apologetic.

I laugh. "That's fine. I was trying to wake up you, but it turns out you are a bit of a heavy sleeper. I just need to pee, but I couldn't get out since you were basically putting all your weight on me, so I had to wake you up."

"Well, I'm glad you did. Didn't want to crush you with my awesome built."

"Uh, sira-ulo. Abnoy."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know, try to figure it out." I tell him, laughing as I make my way to the bathroom. "We pretty much say that to anyone acting weird, mostly to friends."

From the corner of my eyes, I see Isaiah getting onto his phone and typing rapidly on the internet. I roll my eyes playfully and head straight to the bathroom to take a piss because, seriously, I've been holding this for hours now. This is the reason why I woke up. If I didn't need to take a piss, then I would still be sleeping at this moment.

"Hey, according to this site, it either means stupid, crazy, and lunatic! You are sira-ulo! Sira-ulo! Abnoy!"

I purse my lips, preventing myself from laughing out loud. Isaiah the word in an American accent. I put my hands in my face and take a deep breath. Once I'm done peeing, I wash my hands and head back to my room. When I get back to my room, Isaiah is already fixing my bed, nearly done. He rolls his eyes playfully at me.

"Let's go downstairs. I can feel Sarah is cooking breakfast now."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll follow suit."

When I get downstairs, mom is indeed preparing breakfast right now. She has already prepared champorado. That's one of my favorite Filipino breakfast of all time.

"Ah, what is that?" Isaiah asks mom as he takes a seat.

"It's called champorado, or in English, chocolate rice porridge. It's good." I tell Isaiah, raising my brows at him to hopefully convince him. Isaiah looks like he's not ready to eat this delicious stuff, but trust me, it's one of the best foods in the Philippines. "Hey, trust me. I'm sure you'll like it."

"It's his favorite," Mom tells him.

Bill, on the other hand, looks like he's ready to dig in. Mom gives him a bowl, which he thanks her for. He fills his bowl with the porridge. I give Isaiah his own bowl and he takes it with a slight hesitation.

Meanwhile, I, as a true citizen of the Philippines and a legit Filipino guy, am truly happy to eat my favorite food. Excitedly, I grab my own bowl and fill it up. My mother, knowing how much I love this breakfast, places a powdered milk in front of me and I grin. Ah, champorado with lots of powdered milk on top. Nothing beats that.

"Good morning Mr. Parlin & Mrs. Parlin," Kyle says groggily.

"I'm not a Parlin," My mom says as she hands Kyle a bowl.

"Yet," Bill grins, winking at my mother. "What did I tell you anyway, Kyle? Just call me Bill, and this is Sarah."

I swear I see my mom blushing, and I'm not used to it. Back in the Philippines, my mom has actually been labelled as a war-freak by the entire family. Because she usually gets into fights with her neighbors who like to gossip about our family. Nothing new. I mean, most neighbors always gossip about one another. Hell, even my mom does it sometimes, but according to her, hers is not gossip. It's a fact.

But hey, who am I to argue with her? If you do, make sure you stand strong and straight. Otherwise, my mom will entirely eat you. And in general, you're not supposed to argue with your mom. Like what they always say, don't bite the hand that always feeds you.

"What is this?"

"It's my favorite, try it." I tell him with such enthusiasm.

"Hmm, surprisingly it's actually good." Isaiah agrees.

"I told you!"

"Yeah, yeah, sira-ulo."

Mom stops for a moment before looking at me and I grin widely. Meanwhile, Kyle is too busy to eat his breakfast that he just doesn't seem to care at all. His hair is still in a groggy state, sticking up in every direction. Bill, on the other hand, looks very confused.

"It's a word for crazy or lunatic," mom explains as she takes a seat across from us. "By the way, it's already 5, shouldn't you guys be a little faster? There's three of you. You're going to be late at school."

Isaiah gave us a ride to the school. Since Kyle hasn't brought any clothes with him, Isaiah was forced to lend him some of his clothes. It's funny how Isaiah acts like a child, mumbling how stupid his best friend is for staying without bringing clothes. In Kyle's defense, he didn't go home because he didn't want to be present in his family's reunion.

If I were in his position, I would definitely go to that reunion. Philippines' family reunion is actually one of the best events for Filipino people. Of course, there's going to be lechon, karaoke, shanghai, desserts.

Man, there would be nonstop questions about your dating life. Your titos and titas would tell you how much you've grown, and that they used to carry you when you were kid. Like, thank you even though I don't remember. And if you're on a diet, family reunion is a cheat day you can't say no to. Everywhere you look, they'd ask you to eat or if you've already eaten. There will always be kids' show and karaoke!

In every Filipino's family reunion, there's always going to be one person who will hold the mic the entire day. And yes, it's my mother. She likes karaoke. She likes singing. Even though she doesn't have a good voice, she doesn't care at all. She will keep singing until everyone leaves the party.

"So are you excited for tomorrow?"

"Hey, good morning." I tell Dylan, who's grinning at me. "Yes, I am. Where are we going anyway? I think I don't have your number yet. For my mom."

Dylan chuckles. "Of course, give me your phone." I hand him my phone, and he enters his phone number. He also sends me a quick text. I save his number. "I'll pick you up at your house. We're going to Greensville. They've got nice camping spots and inns there. They also have a beautiful scenery. I'm sure you'll appreciate it. Here, take a look."

Dylan shows me photos of Greenville, Maine from Google. It's actually a nice city, but small. They have a big lake, which is really, really blue and clear. He scrolls down and points out to the picture of a woods overlooking the city.

"That's where we're going. Big Moose Mountain."

"Wow, this makes me even more excited." Dylan smirks at my reaction, shaking his head a bit. "I survived a 20-hour travel time from the Philippines to here, I'm sure I can survive another 6-hour journey. Roundtrip."

"I'm sure you can," Dylan shots me a wink and I roll my eyes at him.

As soon as the bell rings signaling the first class, Dylan and I part ways.

Overall, I think Dylan is really a great person. Dylan and Isaiah are closed-minded, and their judgement is so clouded they can't even see the better qualities of each other. Same goes for Isaiah. Despite what Dylan is saying about him, those are just simply false accusations. They just don't know each other well.

But if they get to have a chance to know each other well, I know they are going to be friends. They have the same personality type. They are also hot-headed. They're both captains of their respective team. They have a lot in common.

School isn't that much interesting, but I find myself constantly thinking about the trip tomorrow. I'm also excited at the fact that I would have some stories to tell my friends in the Philippines. I'm sure Max and Sophie would be thrilled to hear about my first little adventure here in USA.

I think I should take a lot of pictures and send it to them, or maybe we can do a video chat while I'm camping. And I can introduce my new friend Dylan to them!

The whole time, my mind is somewhere else. I'm just so excited at the fact that tomorrow, I'll have my first travel here in America. If there's one thing that I've always missed, it's definitely travelling. I don't even know why I got addicted to travelling.

In the Philippines, I was only allowed to travel if my friends were there, too. And if there's an official tour guide accommodating us. My mother had to know their contact number, and I was supposed to give her an update almost every hour. I guess if you have a son that is underage and likes travelling, that's pretty normal.

At lunch time, I'm seated between Dylan and Isaiah. They aren't really on speaking terms, and the occasional glances the students in the cafeteria are throwing us kind of puts me in a bad light.

"All right, I can't." I tell them. "For once, try to be civil with each other."

"This is us being civilized," Dylan replies, throwing a glare at Isaiah's way. Isaiah returns the glare and I let out a sigh. "This is as civilized as I can get, Chad. I don't even know why he has to sit here when his friends are seated there, and they've been giving him the stinky eye."

"Stinky eye, ha, how old are you, 5?" Isaiah shots back.

"Yes, 5, and I'm guessing you're about 3 considering your shade is lame." I purse my lips, refraining myself from laughing because that one is really funny. At least to me. Isaiah rolls his eyes. "Why don't you do us a favor and go sit with your friends?"

Isaiah drops his fork and glares at Dylan, his jaw clenching. For a moment, I get really scared because (hello, the signs are already there) a fight might happen. And the two of them is not backing out. Man, why does men have to be violent as if they have to prove something? Why do we always have to answer with violence?

"You're right, Dylan, I should sit with my friends."

"Damn right, I am." Dylan smirks.

"Matthew, Jonathan, bros, come sit here with me!" Isaiah taps the table and I swear I'm looking at a Pikachu meme when I see Dylan's surprised expression. "A guy is so concern with my friends and I think he's right. So come on, let's share this table because I miss my friends so much."

"Fucking asshole," Dylan grits his teeth.

Isaiah's friends, about 5 persons, sit with us. Dylan and I share a look, trying to figure out if we share the same thinking. I suddenly want to leave. I'm not really used to having strangers around me.

"You told me to sit my friends, so now I'm sitting with them."

"You have an IQ of a fox,"

"Oh and you know that because....?" Isaiah places his chin on his palm, looking at Dylan as if he's daunting him. "Oh, is it because you have an IQ of a fox? Man, I didn't know about that."

"Both of you, stop it." I tell them. As Isaiah is about to open his mouth to spew more shits, I cover his mouth with my hand. He glares at me and takes my hand. "You guys are not kids anymore. I swear one day this school is going to be a crime scene and I'm not going to be surprised to see your faces on the news."

"He started it," Isaiah laments.

"Ha, look at this stupid shit, you really have a brain of a 3-year-old kid, ay?"

"All right, that's enough." I stand up and take a deep breath. "From now on, you are not sitting with me. Same goes to you, Isaiah. If you both are going to keep this up, I'm out. I'm not interested to be in the drama club, and that's the last thing I need in my life. So kung gusto nyong magbasagan ng ulo, go ahead. Mga baliw."

And after my mini speech, I take off without looking back. If they want to punch each other, I'm sure someone would stop them. But I'm not going to be staying there when a teacher walks in and starts suspending people. No, if I get suspended, my mom would ask me if I did something crazy.

Rule number 1: Don't piss your mother if you still want to eat.