Jennafei was staring at a blank s.p.a.ce while fixing the books on shelves from the cart she was pushing. Before she go and after cla.s.ses, it’s what she usually does as a student a.s.sistant. She has a total of 5 working hours. What she’s earning in return is thirty percent from the expensive tuition fee of the exclusive university where she’s currently taking her 2nd year in Communication Arts.
Aside from that, she also have other source of scholarships. Which is the exact reason why she is staring at nowhere and deeply pondering.
She is one of the campus writers for the school publication and she currently has a very hard a.s.signment. She can’t accept how unlucky she was to pick this a.s.signment over lottery.
It is the new system of their editor in chief which was approved by the adviser of the campus paper. All the distribution of a.s.signments are going though lottery to avoid complains. And Jennafei seem to be the first victim of this new system. And why of all the writers, it was her who picked the hardest task.
Her task: To get an interview with John Dexter Peralta, more popularly known as “Dex” – the basketball varsity captain, the most infamous bad boy and, despite his despicable reputation, also one of the campus heart-throb of their university. He was nicknamed “campus king” because he’s like a king due to his dreadful reputation at university.
It’s not secret from Jennafei that it’s not the first time the editor in chief gave this a.s.signment to her subordinates. Dex was choses twice to be features at one section of the campus paper featuring the most famous personalities in their campus and they failed twice.
Apart from being a fearless bully, an expert playboy and a professional rule baker, Dex was also a sn.o.b. That’s what she learn from the previous writers the task has been given to. apparently, Dex does not like to be interviewed because according to him, it’s all a c.r.a.p and he does not want to announce all the things about him.
For someone who was so notorious, he was rather mysterious.
Even his true age, no one knows. There are gossips that he took a lot of years in high school and college because of being temperamental. He’s also not taking his studies seriously and he shifted to a lot of courses before he stayed in BS Marketing.
There are also news that the only reason he was not kicked out even when he has multiple offense, is that his wealthy parents pay for all his damages in discipline committee. It is said that Peralta family has donated a big sum of money to the school.There are also gossips that their family is a shareholder of the university that’s why they are all ignoring all his misadventures.
They said that he got into fight multiple times right inside the campus. There was even one time that one has been hospitalized because of him. It’s said that the family filed a lawsuit but they pulled back right after because they were paid 10 million pesos. (USD 223,916.600 )
And the last trouble Dex has been linked to, its a.s.sumpted that he impregnated the campus beauty t.i.tlist Cristal Valdez last year. She dropped out and got abortion because he does not want to take responsibility on the baby. She was not the only woman he threw away after playing with. There are other more who were all gorgeous and famous in the campus.
Troublemaker. Playboy. Arrogant. Heartless.
It’s all negative that she has ever heard about this guy. She did not hear even one good thing about Dex. And she might even get more bad things to learn about him if she’d can take an interview from him. That is if she’s even succeed on taking one from Dex, which possibility is even lower that the grade of her eyes that is three zero-zero.
Jenna fixed her gla.s.ses as she breathed a long sigh. Because of her dilemma with her a.s.signment, she has almost forgotten that her cla.s.ses for today is about to start. She was five minutes late. Since there are only two books left to be returned, she hurriedly pushed the cart towards the designated shelves.
When she reached the shelf, she quickly fixed the book in between. She only has one left and she went over the farthest and the most hidden shelf where it should be at. Almost n.o.body goes to this part as it only contains old books.
She paused when she reached the place and was shocked at the scene she caught.
Behind the shelf were Dex Peralta and a woman with an unb.u.t.toned blouse. The man was burrowed on the woman’s neck and the woman looked so delighted with what he was doing.
She covered her mouth with her palm. She was so so shocked she was unable to move. She just felt the book slip from her hand and it dropped on the floor. It created a noise and the two stopped what they were doing and looked at the direction.
She was expecting the two of them to be embarra.s.sed and to scatter away but it seemed that it was she who is more embarra.s.sed. There was no expression on his face as he looked at her. She knows that her shock and embarra.s.sment is written on her face. He did not even bother to distance from the woman, instead, placed his finger over his lips like. He was beckoning her to zip her lips.
Her shock was doubled. Gritting her teeth, she quickly took the book from her feet. She stamped the book right at the side of the woman. The woman even avoided like it will hit her. And Jenna left those shameless without looking back.
Dex Peralta! He really is the worst, that shameless jerk. He has no refinement. He is not even choosing the place to do his evil deeds. She gritted her teeth as she walked. She won’t tolerate his disrespect at the library, where she was working, right where they are studying. She won’t zip her mouth. She stopped at one of the officials of the library and reported what she has witnessed before she went out.
*****
It was her vacant period when she decided to talk with Leila, the editor in chief. After witnessing his vulgarity, she can’t even stomach talking or to have any relationship with the guy, not to mention that the a.s.signment in itself is impossible to be done.
“I’m sorry Jenna, I can’t listen to your suggestion.”
“How about if I interview Red Madrigal instead?” She was referring to Dex’s friend and teammate in varsity who is also one of the campus heart-throb.
Leila chuckled. “Dear, he was already featured in our paper even before I became the editor in chief. Read our archives, will you?”
She ignore the sarcasm in Leila’s voice. “But Lei, this is a tough a.s.signment and I know that you know that.”
Leila was clacking her pen as she stared at her. “The reason why I changed the way I hand tasks is because I don’t want to hear any complaints. Jenna, you have not even started doing your task and you are already backing out. ”
“Because I do not see any reason why you seem to push the same a.s.signment all the time. If the person does not want to be interviewed, don’t push him. After all, it’s his right to decline if he does not want to. Why don’t you just respect what he wants?” She calmly explained and firmly clarified the issue with her strict editor in chief. Leila has the att.i.tude for the reason that she is a candidate for magna c.u.m laude.
Leila arked a brow. “You don’t have to push him, Jenna. n.o.body knows that no one has a right to do that to him. Theoretically, he is the king of this university, o loud yet so mysterious. Everybody in this school is so curious about him. There are a lot gossip about him. Everyone wants to know which are true among them. Thus the reason why I’m pushing the task whenever I have a chance. And besides,that’s our school paper’s job. To give information, especially to those everyone wants to know about, right?”
“But did you never think that I will also fail like those who already tried to get an interview from him? So, why waste my time? Why don’t you give me a job which I can surely pull off?”
I know that it is your dream to become a reporter someday. But you will not succeed in this field if you just easily give up. For a dedicated reporter, every a.s.signment is a challenge. And you have to do everything to het the story. And besides, how could you tell you can’t pull off this task when you haven’t even tried it?”
Leila has a point. She wants to become a successful reporter someday. She wants to follow the path of Loren Venecia, a famous media personality she is looking up too. Loren started as a field reporter or news correspondent and got famous when she was able to get a good story that only she was able to cover because of her will power and determination. She did not give up however dangerous and challenging the job is.
“If you would be able to get an interview from him, your name will be well-known, don’t you want that?”
Although her name is already well known in her department since she is a consistent dean’s lister, she is not famous in the whole campus like Leila student government officials, campus beauty t.i.tlist and male heart-throb. Being famous itself is not that important to her but there are a lot of advantages in being a campus figure.
If she becomes famous, she will have a chance to be picked to be the next editor in chief which is her dream. The discounts she will get will be higher and she can resign as a student a.s.sistant at the library. She will no longer be a “library maid”.
“Jenna, you have to prove why do I have to recommend you as the next editor in chief.”
Jennafei decided at that moment. She will do everything to get an interview from the king of the university.
“Ma’am, what happened with what I reported earlier?” Jenna asked Mrs. Nambio, the school librarian she reported to earlier. Her cla.s.ses are already done for the day and she carried on her student a.s.sistant job at the library.
She shrugged her shoulders. “It’ s Dex Peralta.”
“I know. Did you bring them to the discipline room? It was a big offense. It is highly forbidden to do any immoral deeds in campus.”
She breathed a big sigh. “The discipline committee has no power over Peralta.”
“What?”
The librarian even looked left and right before she whispered. ” The Peralta family is a part owner of this university. Whatever he does here in the university does not have an attached penalty, not unless he kills someone.”
She gaped at what she heard. So the gossip is true. That’s why he has the guts to do his misdeeds at school.
“Part owner?”
“Sshh. Silence please,” She reprimanded. It’s SOP for her to say that line every time there is a noise. “It only means, his family is the one who is giving us salary and giving discount from your tuition fee.”
She was unable to speak. So it means that she even has a debt of grat.i.tude with that jerk? “Meaning, we don’t have the right to punish him even he make this library his personal hotel?”
Mrs. Nambio held her laughter. “Don’t say that, not that he will use the table as a subst.i.tute for bed.” She covered her mouth right after. “What am I saying, ah, whatever. We cannot do anything with those kind of things. I don’t want to lose my job. As long as they are not doing it at the center of the library…” She did not continue what she was saying as a student went over the desk to return a book.
Went the student went out, she asked her again. “Ma’am, since when did the Peralta became a part owner of the university?”
“It’s been four years already. It’s said that Don Romula Perlata III was forced to buy a part of the university because of Dex. He was always being reported to the discipline room and the committee has just decided to kick him out. Before, they were just donating a big sum of money to the university to pay for his offense. Until they decided to just buy half of the shares of the university to make sure that their son will finish his degree, who seems to be studying for 6 years already and still not planning to graduate.
“What kind of mongers is he?”
“Sshh!” She looked around. “Silence please. someone might hear you and you might lose your scholarship.”
“That’s why it’s okay to let him do whatever he wants?”
“I don’t want to lose my job. And besides, if even the discipline committee does not want to lose their job, what makes me a difference?”
Leila was saying the truth. Dex Peralta was the king of the university. And as she said, he is mysterious because he has a lot of secrets. And those secrets are what Leila wants her to unfold but it has to be something that came from him to avoid mishaps. If they ever write an expose about him to answer all the gossips about them, it might be them at the school paper committee who will be kicked out from the school he was in control of.
“What happened to you earlier when you caught them?” She worriedly asked the librarian.
“Are you asking for their position when I saw them?” She giggled as she asked back but stopped when she looked at her dirty. “Ah, what am I saying, for goodness sake.”
“What was his reaction when he saw you saw them doing miracles at the library?”
“He did not see me. I did not make a sound and went away right way when I saw that it’s him.”
She gaped. She clenched her teeth afterwards.
“That kid was so wild. He will grow mature as he grow older.”
“I don’t think so. As long as he has money to cover all his misdeeds and offences, he will not change. Those rich kids are really annoying.”
The librarian just shrugged her shoulders and gave her the books the students have returned. “Oh, well, just go and return these books where they belong.”
She followed as she controls her irritation.
End of chapter 2