Page 9 of Chasing Mr. Prefect

“They’re on the way na daw, didn’t you check the group cha—oh,” she said, forgetting her train of thought as she saw me. Her smile vanished. “Sorry, Cholo. I didn’t realize we weren’t alone.” Summer looked disappointed about it for some reason.

“Probably a blind spot,” I said, looking at my chair then back at the door.

“Oh, introductions,” said Cholo.

I stood up and found myself at eye level with the other girl. I wanted to tell Cholo that I already knew her but she probably did not know me. I tried for a small smile, which she did not return.

Crap. How do you even do that smiling thing?I probably just looked constipated.

“Lavinia, this is Summer Tiu. She’s the Finance Head of the Dresden College of Business Administration Student Council. As I mentioned last week, Ephemere is a joint effort with the SC, so Summer is my co-chairperson for this event.

Summer, this is Lavinia Exconde. It’s a little late but Pats—I mean,Miss Coput in her word for Lavinia so she’s going to be our additional Publicity and Creatives officer taking Carina Lim’s place.”

I’mwhat?

“Just Vinnie is fine,” I said, making a mental note to berate Cholo about the ‘officer’ part later as I thought I would just be a volunteer or something. The decision to be in Pub was only made five seconds ago and now I was anofficer?

I extended my hand towards Summer, who stepped forward to take it.

“Nice to meet you, Lavinia,” she said, flashing the poster smile. “I’ve heardso muchabout you.”

Her tone made it clear that whatever she had heard about me was not good. Guess she knew me, after all.

“Carrie’s from SC. Shouldn’t we be getting an SC rep as a replacement?” Summer said to Cholo as she let go of my hand. It was like I was not even within earshot.

“I’ve sent my third follow-up to the SC Vice Chair last week asking for that and I didn’t hear back,” he said, looking at her straight in the eye. “I contacted them right after Carrie backed out and, weeks later, still nothing. We do not have the luxury of time so Miss Co and I took matters into our own hands and found our new officer.”

Miss Co and he did what? This is making no sense. He was so against me being in the team in the first place?—

Oh, wait. Is Cholo defending me?

“Well,” said Summer, giving me a once-over. “If you and Miss Co are vouching for Lavinia, then I guess we can work this out.”

“Oh, we will. I was just about to give her an orientation about the job when you arrived. Help me out with the basics?” said Cholo, sounding so confident, it was scary.

I sat back down, feeling both confused and vindicated. It looked like Cholo had a competitive bone to pick with Summer and the student council so he had to stand up for me as a part of it.

Luckily, the rest of Cholo’s event committee came in at that moment. The discussion room started smelling like food, andCholo chided them as the library did not allow students to bring any in. Summer presented me the event and its beneficiaries on her iPad while he was distracted. She also continued Cholo’s explanation of each team’s functions and matched the names in the file with the faces in the room.

The chaos died down as everyone followed Cholo’s orders for everyone to settle down. I was introduced to the group, making my anxiety levels rise, but everyone else except Summer made an effort to be welcoming.

As the number of people who were genuinely nice to me far outnumbered the one who was not, I decided not to care about Summer. She did her job orienting me quite well, anyway, and never mind that she was distant. Any qualms I had about her would have to be ignored. Like Cholo, she would be overseeing my performance and her feedback would be important. I had the feeling I would not be graduating on time if I ever got on her bad side.

Or if she got on mine, whichever came first.

CHAPTER 5

Iwas super late for BA 170 class. The teacher’s seat was not occupied yet so that was a relief but I still felt anxious as everybody in the classroom stared at me like I had an extra head.

I realized this was the first BA 170 class since last week’s brawl, and so much had happened since then that I never even worried about today. I hoped it would be forgotten by now.

“Psst. Vinnie. Here!” said Gian, seated in the far back with two people I recognized from the Ephemere team. I closed the classroom door behind me and sprinted towards them, not missing how Summer Tiu looked at me from head to toe as I passed her.

“Hi,” I said, out of breath. “Thanks for that.”

“Did you get into another fight again? Gulo ng bangs mo, eh,” Gian teased.

“I just overslept, ano ba. I was using my arms as a pillow and the bangs were in the way,” I said. “Where’s Miss Co?”