Page 10 of Chasing Mr. Prefect
“No idea. There wasn’t any email or post in the learning hub either. Which is really weird,” Gian said, and then checked his watch.“Well, we have fifteen minutes until we can declare this a free cut.”
“Sakto. I’m hungry. Let’s get tapsilog after.”
Just then, Cholo’s voice cut through every conversation in the room. “Miss Co had an emergency on the way here and won’t be able to attend today’s class,” he announced, holding up his phone. She probably messaged him. “She says she’ll be uploading the material in the Learning Hub. We’re all free to go.”
My classmates stood up, causing a lot of noise as everyone left the room and talked about how they were going to spend the free cut.
“Pass muna sa tapsilog, Vinnie. I might just grab my groupmates for a case meeting while they’re still in the building. I better see your face in the midterm refresher for Managerial Accounting next week!” Gian said, running off towards the door.
“I’m game for tapsilog,” someone said behind me. I turned and found Cholo there and I couldn’t help but make a face.
“Withyou?”
“Why not? We can talk about Ephemere. I can drive us there. Tara?”
I wanted to say no but the thought of getting a jeepney in the midday heat did not appeal to me.
Ugh. I was supposed to just have a quiet lunch. Now it turned into an Ephemere meeting with Prefect Brat.
So who is the ‘annoying little piece of work’ now and why do I seem to be the unluckiest thing on this planet?
CHAPTER 6
“Okay, not to be that person but we need to work,” said Cholo, mouth still full of rice as he pulled his backpack beside him and took out his laptop.
We were at the tapsilog place, which was almost empty except for us and two other tables. Cholo offered to pay for my meal, which I declined at first?—“You can’t bribe your way to me, noh”?—but then I remembered I was saving up for Seoul so I relented.
“This is what we need help with,” he continued as he opened a Word document. “Seth—you know, your team head?—said you guys already talked about this but to make it formal, I’d like your help on the letter templates and how to make them more appealing to sponsors.”
“Wow,” I said, unable to help myself, becauseOMG, WALLS OF TEXT. “Thesedoneed help.”
“That’s what you’re here for,” Cholo replied. “You know Ephemere’s reputation, right? There is a lot at stake.”
“I didn’t know you took the party club rep that seriously,” I quipped.
“We’re aiming to raise at least half a million pesos in profits,” Cholo said. “We’re short of time, too. Miss Co is determined tosecure the target profit amount for the beneficiaries by securing sponsors early.”
“Well, we can polish the header and footer branding all we want but these walls of text are not going to help.” I said, pointing to the document and suggesting other ideas.
He looked back at me, and I expected a raised eyebrow or an unconvinced smirk but instead he looked like he was seriously considering my suggestion.
“There’s a prescribed template. Any changes will have to be approved by the External Relations team,” Cholo replied.
“Maybe we can get the approval later,” I said, determined. “That’s the quickest way for people to say yes to a sponsorship. People are visual creatures. To avoid info overload, we can put a click-through image that links to a short video with the last event’s key achievements. We catch their attention and our email doesn’t end up in the junk folder. They bookmark it for reading later.”
Cholo’s brow was furrowed.
“It’s a suggestion. Still your call,” I said, shrugging.
“Ok. I can ask External Relations to fast-track and look at it first,” he said, looking convinced as the crease on his forehead disappeared. “I’m friends with the ExtRel head. And if that doesn’t work, I can run it by ExeCom.”
“ExeCom?” I repeated, not used to the jargon.
“Executive Committee. Club President and the VPs,” Cholo explained. “Though I must say, they are not the easiest to deal with. To make a change this big, we’d have to impress them. How quickly can you show me a sample?”
“Tomorrow afternoon,” I replied. Cholo raised an eyebrow. “We’re not passing it yet. It’ll be more of a rough draft that I’ll run by you or your marketing team. Then I can polish it enough to make it presentable enough for the powers that be on Monday. Does that work?”
I felt like I was biting off more than I can chew but if Cholo was risking his neck bypassing approvals for my idea, I needed to have something to show for it. I had to show I was willing to put the work in, too.