Page 33 of Chasing Mr. Prefect
Uy, top secret? Not in the club room eh
Cholo Valiente
My conflicting thoughts and guilty feelings distracted me that whole day, which was bad. I already had a raging migraine when I woke up that morning and I was sure I bungled up all of my answers during today’s class recitations.
I was thankful when the day ended as I would only have the club meeting left. I thought I would be relieved but as I sat inside the conference room, I found myself dreading facing Cholo and Summer in the same room.
Deciding to worry about that later, I took a nap instead. I had maybe fifteen to twenty minutes of shut-eye before people came in.
“Psst, Vinnie, okay ka lang? You look pale as heck,” someone asked and I felt someone plopping down beside me. I opened one eye and saw that it was Kristine.
“Bad migraine. The sooner this is done, the better. Any idea what this meeting is about?”
Kristine’s face lit up.
“We’re getting a launch party!”
“Ssshhh!” said a voice and I saw Cholo with the rest of our teammates entering the room.
I felt the bottom of my stomach vanish as I caught his eye and I turned to Kristine instead.
“Sorry na,” Kristine said.
Cholo shook his head but was smiling and then he led the rest of the group inside the room.
“In you go, bilis,” he was saying to the last person. Our teammates waved at me and Kristine as they got in, all smiles,and Cholo closed the door. “So. We’re getting a launch party for Ephemere.”
There was an explosion of cheers and Cholo wildly waved his hands to silence them.
“Shh! We’re going to get kicked out if you don’t stop that!” he said.
“Let me get this straight, we’re getting a launch party…for another party?” said someone from the Finance team.
I could not help but laugh at that.
“One of our partner brands, Exonerate, liked our promo material work and they’re sponsoring our launch party for revealing the concept, poster, and event title, paying for the venue and all that.
Technically, it’s their launch for their new men’s skincare line called Exonerate, as they need help with brand awareness in the college market. But! It’s still a big deal, it’s a big push for our event promotions.”
Seth whistled and more clapping ensued.
“Thank you, thank you. I know some of you have Accounting review classes after this so everyone except Pub and Marketing are free to go. I just wanted to make the announcement in person. A round of applause, please, for Miss Exconde from Pub team who put together the promo video that caught their eye!”
Some of the team clapped, while another person loudly commented“Luh, Miss Exconde daw?”
I looked down, feeling my ears grow hot. People started leaving their seats while my teammates remained seated on either side of my chair.
“Pub and Marketing,” Cholo said, coming over to our area with an official-looking piece of paper. “Sorry to keep you here but the catch with the free launch party is they need a longer version of the video you made for them.”
Cholo handed Kristine the paper and I looked up to find Seth and Kristine looking atme.
“That’s the memorandum of agreement. Let me know if you’re happy with the terms so I can sign it off,” Cholo said.
Seth and Kristine stood up.
“We’ll look at it together,” Kristine said, pulling Seth out of the room with a knowing look on her face. I raised an eyebrow at her and I could swear she just ran even faster.
Cholo cleared his throat, bringing me back to the present.