Chasing Mr. Prefect

One

"Siya nauna! I swear!"

It sounded more like a first-grader sumbong than a valid argument on why I shouldn't get suspended, but the adrenaline and the blood pounding in my ears was making it hard for me to think straight. I was sitting in the head prefect's office, hair disheveled and clothes sufficiently rumpled, waiting for my verdict as the professor surveyed me under her cat-eye glasses.

"You do know that brawling is a serious offense, right?" she told me sternly, sitting on the table beside my chair with her arms crossed.

"Yes, Miss Co," I replied, pouting as I cringed under her stare. She could not have been older than me by five years, but she scared me more than all of my other professors put together. "I'm sorry."

"I believe you, Vinnie," she said, getting off the table with such ease that it was hard to believe she wasn't just gliding or something. "But I can't let you off the hook this easily. Everyone already knows you're my favorite student."

Okay, that just made it worse.

Miss Co was my prof in Business Administration 170 (Marketing Management) and was something of a genius. She graduated Magna Cum Laude and had spent two years in the corporate world, rocking her stuff as a management trainee in a consumer goods company before quitting to go back to school. I admired everything about her and disappointing her was the last thing I wanted. Being told that I was her favorite after getting into a fight within school premises made me want to jump in a hole and never come out.

"Fill this up while we wait for Cholo," she told me, handing me an official-looking bunch of papers with formidable red letters on the heading. It basically spelled out that I was in serious trouble, but my mind seemed to be stuck on her last word.

"Cholo?" I sputtered, fingers shaking as I put the form down on the table. "As in Valiente?"

"Who else?" she said with a soft laugh. "You're in the head prefect's office, remember?

I closed my eyes tight and brought out a pen, willing the ground to eat me alive. First, Miss Co, and now him?

Sighing, I just concentrated on the form and wrote neatly in block letters.

Name: EXCONDE, LAVINIA MAGDALENE L.
Student Number: 2012-11481
Course: BS BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

I was nearly done with the thing when the door opened. A tall figure with books tucked under his left arm entered the room, then carefully closed the door with his right hand.

"Sorry, I got caught up in the Dean's Office," he told Miss Co, smiling, before his slanted eyes settled on me.

I became about ten thousand times more conscious of my bodily functions, and I hoped to heavens I did not look as ridiculous as I felt.

Ay, asa. My fresh-from-sabunot hair must still have looked like a bird's nest, judging by the look on his face.

"Does she need checking?" he asked Miss Co, eyes still on me. He just seemed to be fighting the urge to laugh. "Baka may bruises."

I was starting to consider that I might need a clinic trip as my scalp still hurt from all the damn pulling, but realized seconds later that Cholo was just pulling my leg.

Sipain ko 'to eh.

"Stop it, Cholo," said Miss Co, and she gave him her best attempt at a glare. "This is Lavinia Exconde."

Okay, this was so not what I had in mind for my first encounter with the Cholo Valiente, but I had to suck it up and shake his hand.

"So I've heard," he said, slanted eyes twinkling with mischief as he gripped my hand firmly. I let go of it rather quickly, trying not to think of how much I wanted in the past to run my fingers through his messy hair. He took the chair behind the table and checked the form.

"So, shall we get started? We'll need to hear your side." asked Cholo, suddenly business-like.

This was the side of him I had been more accustomed to. He was always Mr. Achiever, randomly standing up in our general curriculum classes to introduce himself as a candidate for freshman batch representative, leading activities in our org, and basically just being awesome and sparkly. He seemed like that college dream boy that would end up getting his JD while leaving girls' hearts broken in his wake, and back then I thought I didn't want to join that long line of girls waiting to be noticed.

And besides, baka duraan niya lang ako if he ever saw my grades. (Not literally, ha, but you get the idea.)

"Lavinia?" he said, cutting into my thoughts. "Care to explain what happened back there?"

"Nandoon ka kanina, diba?" I said. Even though I didn't mean to, I was sure it sounded rude by the way Miss Co started laughing. Even Cholo cracked a smile.

"Nasty little piece of work, aren't you?" he just replied, shaking his head.

So much for a first impression.