New Ways

TWELVE

Sigrid

"Good job, Sigrid. As usual," Director Nelson gave me a thumbs up before he closed the door behind him.

Phew, that was one heck of a presentation. The last time I did this for the volleyball team I couldn't remember being this breathless after.

I returned to my seat beside Amery's and hovered over the table gathering my presentation set which included the budget proposal, lists of approved vendors, itinerary draft for the different events that we have planned and lastly my pen. I felt Amery staring at me and I glanced up to meet a pair of blue eyes blinking rapidly and rather, confusedly, at me.

"What's wrong?" I asked, loosening my tie.

"Nothing," she muttered, and then continued. "I just... how did you do that? Just now?"

A smile cracked across my lips and I started unbuttoning my blazer. "Confidence. I did the same thing for the volleyball team."

Amery sat in silence, still staring at me. I started feeling uneasy by this abrupt change. I mean, when I first sat beside her in the meeting room last Thursday she hardly even looked at me. Now she won't stop looking at me. Is this bitch bipolar or what? Also, as I realised that I was actually sort of stripping in front of her, the awkwardness of the moment doubled.

At the same time I was also silently basking in glory. This change was probably caused by how awesome I was earlier during the presentation when I saved Amery's ass. Amery had kickstarted the presentation, but somewhere along her speech one of the directors had lifted his head and maintained direct eye contact with her. As a result, Amery got nervous and lost part of the confidence she had earlier on and started stammering. She also fumbled to find the page of the proposal from where her presentation was based on.

That was when I came to her rescue. Well not really. I just wanted to show her the reason why she should start trusting me and to stop underestimating my abilities, if she was before. So I ran my mouth on all the figures of each activity or event and the reasons to why this budget should be approved, only stopping to catch my breath when I flipped to the next page. I didn't turn to check Amery's reaction to this, as I was busy focusing on the coordination of the information in my mind and its outflow via my speech. I was also maintaining eye contact with each one of the directors, ensuring that the carefully thought out ideas for the budget were communicated clearly to every single one of them.

"You really shouldn't pick on people's flaws, Am," I said, causing Amery to snap out of her daze. "Why do you think that screaming at someone because they didn't do something right is the correct way of leading a team?"

"It is," Amery said sternly, her blue eyes now returning to the cold state that I was more used to. "It is for the greater good. So that everyone else will not do what they are not supposed to do, and do what they are supposed to."

I almost laughed at how stupid that sounded, but out of respect anyway I settled with a small grin. "There are new, better ways to get that done. I'll show you next time. But now I gotta run. See you in class."

Just like that, I giggled as I happily skipped to the door and left Amery to fume by herself in the meeting room.