Page 16 of Chasing Mr. Prefect
“Vinnie’s right. My team would never have made it in time had she not helped out,” Kristine jumped in.
The tension was thick. The rest of the club seemed to be listening in.
“Besides, punishment or not, Vinnie’s doing the job really well. I don’t think it’s fair to question that. She’s done a lot for the team,” said Seth.
Summer looked at both of them with an expression of dislike but saved her best one for me. “Congrats, then,” she said and I gave her my withering glare in return. She folded her arms and stared at me from head to toe. “Looks like you’ve got fans, Lavinia. Careful, though, because the last time I checked, it’s not these two who would be reporting to Miss Co about you.”
Dread filled my stomach like lead. How did I forget that? I felt reckless talking back to Summer now. She was still chairperson. Useless and power-tripping as she was, she still had a say in whether I would pass 170 or not.
It still did not make me want to apologize or take anything I said back, though.
“Sure, you have Cholo and these two on your side now, but you have yet to impress me,” she continued, taking out a piece of paper from her file case. I recognized it as a poster draft Seth and I had been working on the past two weeks, which I uploaded on the shared Drive. She had printed it out with plain paper and substandard ink. “I won’t be so mean not to agree that your video was good, but you need to work on our still ones, too.”
She lightly threw the piece of paper on the table in front of me.
“Please do it over,” she said with her campaign poster smile. “I find it unfit for public viewing.”
Then she gave me a last smirk and walked away.
“Vinnie, don’t mind her,” Seth said, shaking his head. “Epal lang ‘yun.”
“Yeah, Summer’s just mad that she can’t smile her way into getting credit and titles with DMC. She’s had a spat with the Promo team, too, because she took too long to reply to something and it cost us a radio show guesting.”
“That…cockroach! What was even wrong with our poster?” I demanded, crumpling the paper.
Seth gave out a small laugh, scratching his head. “Well, for starters, it’s that now,” he told me, gesturing towards my hand. “But thank you for standing up for us, Vinnie. That took a lot of guts.”
“Yes, thank you. But can we not worry about Summer anymore?” said Kristine, patting my shoulder to calm me. “Our team’s got your back on this one. Tara, merienda?”
“Onga, you got top 3 on the 115.1 exam! Treat us naman,” Seth joked.
I couldn’t help but just smile. I was glad to have these brats as friends now.
“Fine. But siomai lang, ha,” I said, following suit as Kristine stood up. I picked up the crumpled poster as I did and threw it in the bin, not wanting to be scolded by the cleaners, then went along with them.
As much as Kristine and Seth reassured me, I felt like I had not defended myself. The thought ate at me and refused to go away. I knew from the moment I met Summer that she would not be easy to deal with. As usual, my first impression had been on point.
“So,”someone said behind me as I was waiting for the jeepney to the MRT. “May sinumbong sa akin si Seth.”
I turned to face Cholo, who was stuffing his laptop inside his bag.
“Am I in trouble?” I asked, getting to the point.
“After your idea secured us a hundred thousand bucks? No.”
“I talked back to her Highness,” I said. “She put me in my place. She reminded me that she had a say in my report to Miss Co, too.”
Cholo inched closer to me as people started to line up behind him.
“She’s right but, no, you’re not in trouble at all,” he replied, smiling.
I shrugged and stared at the end of the street.
“I just wanted to check up on you.”
That made me raise an eyebrow. “Don’t worry. I’m not quitting the team over that.”
Cholo cracked a smile. “Great. One less thing for me to worry about.”