Chasing Mr. Prefect

Two

Good news - they weren't going to suspend me, but I'd probably get kicked out anyway.

I should have been nicer to Cholo when he asked me to explain, perhaps he would have given me a much lighter punishment. I had no room to complain, though, as the girl who had pulled my hair in class was the one who got the full blast of it.

Ugh. I shouldn't have risen to the said classmate's bait, but my temper got the better of me. It was a very stressful midterm week, and I was going to end it with a presentation in Marketing. I didn't have a problem with the subject, but being asked to talk in front of the class was what really riled me up.

"You were there," I had insisted earlier, after Cholo had called me a nasty piece of work. "You heard her asking one stupid question after another. I did you all a favor by asking her to shut up."

"Yes, but maybe you could have said it more nicely," said Cholo, taking notes on a clipboard. "That kind of language wasn't really appropriate for class, was it?"

See? What a self-righteous ass.

"What's the big deal? I just asked her to keep her mouth shut," I replied.

"No, you said closing her mouth was easier than keeping her legs closed, and that she should give it a try," Cholo argued, giving me a knowing look.

My face burned in embarrassment. The guy's memory was sharp as fuck.

"Fine," I said. "I'm sorry."

Unfortunately, my apology didn't cut it.

As we were already in college, they couldn't give me detention or make me write lines on the board. Suspension had been a consideration, but Miss Co shot that one down and told Cholo that I'd be brilliant for the upcoming org event in February.

"For Solstice?" Cholo had sputtered, disbelief evident on his face. Okay, that stung. I felt a little insulted. Who did he think he was?

"You said you needed someone with a good eye," Miss Co told him.

"Yeah, I can handle events," I snapped, clenching my fists.

"But you're hardly visible during org activities," Cholo told me, raising an eyebrow. "Didn't we apply in the same year for Dresden Marketing Club? You never showed up again after induction night."

I wanted to shrink when he said that, because it was true. The org, which Cholo was obviously obsessed with, had a good name and I thought joining would give me good content for my CV once I graduated. They had these fancy names and I thought employers would be none the wiser. I was once assigned as Project Coordinator for their External Relations event, but all I did was wait for the sponsor to show up in our building, help lift a few banners, and off I went to class.

Just like that, I was Project Coordinator for External Relations. I had wanted to stop my org career right there, but it seemed life had other plans.

"We have meetings twice a week - Wednesdays and Fridays at 5:30 PM," Cholo recited, deadpan. "That's for updates, since we're organizing this hand-in-hand with the College Student Council. Sometimes we'll need people to call up prospective sponsors, fix stuff for the venue, and decide on the designs for publicity materials. Can you handle that?"

I gulped.

Meetings twice a week? I hardly could manage my time for academics and get enough time to sleep. I lived far from school and just going home already took one and a half hours, give or take. Studying was always after dinner, and I could not imagine any time in the day I could use to call up random people for some event I wasn't even going to get anything from. Every single minute of my class breaks was allocated already, either to meals, skimming my textbooks, or just taking a nap in our college library.

I was handling six subjects this semester, all majors, and I was hardly surviving with my current routine. How would I even start doing all those things he mentioned without flunking everything?

"See?" Cholo had said to Miss Co, breaking into my thoughts. He was even shaking his head. "You'll have to think of something else. We can't put her in the event."

"Wait lang!" I said, now seriously offended. "I haven't even said anything!"

"That's my girl!" said my prof, clapping her hands together like a schoolgirl.

"Damn it, Perky," Cholo said to Miss Co, who merely giggled. "Pwede 'wag halata? You'd get a sucky evaluation if you kept playing favorites."

"Excuse me, you're the one calling her nicknames like Perky and I'm the favorite?" I snarled.

"Sorry, Vinnie, we happen to be related," said Miss Co, immediately cutting us both off as Cholo opened his mouth to say something else. "Cholo, stop calling me that in school. Nakakahiya."

"Look, I'm running late for a sponsor meeting," he said, all traces of his earlier trolling gone as he folded up the sleeves of his shirt. "We need to settle this now. Given her track record, we'll need something to make sure she'll take this seriously."

My track record? I tried not to look at him, as the look on his face made me want to kick something.

Asshole.

"Of course she will," said Miss Co in my defense. "You and Summer can start assigning her stuff, watch over her and rate her performance for Solstice."

"And if she slacks off?" Cholo prompted.

"Then she flunks BA 170," said Miss Co, folding her arms to look at me. I wanted to protest, as BA 170 was a subject offered only on the second semester of every year. Flunking it would delay me from graduating by at least a whole year.

"Fair enough," said Cholo, who stood up and checked his phone, then looked back at me the way one would regard a very problematic kid. "Lavinia, meet me next Wednesday at the DMC org room. I'll bring you along to the meeting."

"But—

"Don't worry, we'll go easy on you," he said with a last smile, and then he ran off. I looked at Miss Co, who watched him leave with an amused smile.

"Tangina, scumbag talaga," I said to no one in particular.

"Vinnie, do me a favor, won't you?" Miss Co said quietly as she watched me grab my bag. "He's just pikon about him not being my favorite, and he'll be so happy if I end up having to give you a 5 point zero. Prove him wrong, won't you? Don't mess this up."

Yeah. As if I needed any more pressure.

*****

Peg for MC is in the media area ❤️❤️🙃🙃