Page 66 of Chasing Mr. Prefect

“Oops,” said Liana, making an escape as her mother ran off to get new bed covers. “She just used her dolphin voice. You’re on your own, sister.”

As much as my family,sans Dad, tried to get me over it with jokes and chicken soup, the sad reality slapped me hard in the face when I got back to school.

Summer acted more smug than usual and she kept talking in class to introduce herself as a University Student Council candidate. She made it a point to hand me a flyer, discussing herplans for an easier process for delayed students extending their residency.

“Pangit mo,” Kristine hissed as Summer walked away. She was beside me the whole time, rolling her eyes and making loud snorts every time Summer said something silly.

“Chill,” I said to her as we made our way to the library. “She’s not worth it.”

“Can you blame me?” Kristine interjected. “I’m just doing what you’re too polite to do. You could’ve walked away while she was reciting that absolute joke of a GPOA!”

“She was trying to get a rise out of me and I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction,” I reasoned. “By the way, what happened after I left?”

Kristine proceeded to fill me in about what happened at the launch after I left.

Apparently, the launch went smoothly after Summer had saved the day. Everyone in the team figured out what Summer did after she appeared with the ‘backup,’ but Miss Mikayla did not think much of this and just shooed everyone into action. The sponsors were apparently so pleased that they talked to Cholo and asked if they could partner up with one of our committees for an exclusive event—there was another men’s care product they were going to launch within the next year and they were looking for student orgs to partner up with.

“They said Dresden Management Club was their first choice,” said Kristine as we found a table in the corner. “Given how well the joint launch for Ephemere and their new men’s brand turned out, they just might ask us to be an official student club partner.”

“Good for you guys, then,” I said sadly, thinking of how I would not be able to handle events like that anymore.

“Anong ‘good for you guys’ ka d’yan,” Kristine scolded me. “You’re doing that with us.”

“I got kicked out of the club, remember?” I exasperatedly replied, opening my Business Law textbook.

“Kicked out? Miss Mikayla’s not a member, she can’t kick you out,” she replied. “Hello, you’re the next club president’s girlfriend! Who in their right mind would kick you out?”

Her statement rubbed me the wrong way.

It was a relief that she chose that exact moment to look at her own book or she would have seen me scowl. Sure, I was not an club big shot like Cholo or the rest of them, but could there not have been a more legitimate reason to make me stay other than the fact that I was Cholo’s girlfriend?

“Hey, Vinnie!”

Cholo had put his arm around me after class and he quickly turned it into a headlock. Our friends laughed at us as they passed and I good-naturedly waved them off.

“Hey yourself,” I said, elbowing him in the side. “How was your day?”

“Boring. I didn’t talk to you as much,” he joked and I made a face, pretending to barf. We hardly talked in classes today as there had been a lot to do since finals was already coming at us like a huge storm cloud. “Guess what. Our favorite ramen place just opened a branch in SM North. Let’s go?”

“I can’t, I have to be in Makati in a couple of hours,” I said. “Grounded, remember?”

“You poor kid,” he said, pinching my cheeks. “Since when did rules apply to you?”

“Since I flunked BA 170,” I answered sadly and I fumbled for a change in topic. “Have you enlisted for BA 199 yet?”

“That’s what I was going to tell you,” he said, squeezing my hands and I got the feeling he was more excited than me about this. “You didn’t flunk BA 170. Well, not yet.”

“Don’t you remember you and Miss Co agreeing to let me flunk BA 170 if I messed Ephemere up?” I demanded but a small balloon of hope had blown itself up in my chest and I hated myself for it.

“If I remember correctly, Patsy and I agreed to have you fail that subject if you slacked off,” he recited and I marvelled at the sharpness of his memory. “Which you did not.”

“But I angered a sponsor,” I said, hardly daring to believe this. “I pushed Miss Co’s sister! Well, by accident. Are you telling me she’s not mad at me for that?”

“No! Patsy heard everything and asked me to speak to you. She even made Ate Mikayla apologize to me,” Cholo said, laughing.

“She did?” I asked, tears of relief flooding my eyes.

“Of course,” he told me, rubbing my arms. “We can’t let something like this ruin my plans of us posing with the sunflowers together on graduation day!”