Ch 10 - Who Helped Rose

After the training session, Zara and the other girls from the cheerleading squad left with the basketball team. The task of cleaning up the equipment naturally fell to Alex, the service assistant. Rachael looked at Alex with pity. She wanted to stay and help him organize the equipment, but Zara pulled her away, saying, "Alex's only value to the cheerleading squad is helping us pack up. Otherwise, we would've kicked him out already."

As Alex was packing up the equipment for the cheerleading squad and putting it in the storeroom, his phone rang. It was Mark. "Sir, Ken said that the matter has been settled."

"Okay, that's great," Alex said and hung up the phone.

Alex couldn't believe how quickly his family had sorted it out. It had only been an hour since Alex called them. He guessed that Rose would soon hear the news.

Later, at around five that afternoon, Alex was jogging when he received a call from Joe. Joe seemed very happy, "Alex, where are you?"

"At the sports field. Why do you sound so happy? Is everything all right now with Rose?" Alex thought that the news must have reached her by now.

"Wow. How did you know? Her dad only called 20 minutes ago, and you already knew?" Joe asked in surprise.

"You sound so happy that I knew the problem must be sorted." Alex smiled faintly.

"That's true," Joe raised his voice again and said, "Now that you're back in her good books, Rose said she wants to treat you to dinner. We're already on our way there. "

"You guys go ahead. I don't want to go." Rose hated him so much. He knew that if he went, he'd just be miserable.

"Come on, come on, all your friends are here. Are you too scared to come?"

"I don't want to go. You guys have fun."

"Hey, you loser. If you don't come, you're not our friend anymore. You decide what you want to do." Joe shouted and hung up.

Alex smiled wryly as he heard the call end.

He walked slowly out of the school gate and went to the restaurant. As soon as he entered, he could hear his friends, and he followed the noise to find their table.

More than ten people were sitting around a table. In addition to Rose's dorm mates and his dorm mates, there were also a few unfamiliar faces. They must be Rose's friends he thought.

Alex walked slowly toward the table and everyone turned and looked at him.

Rose, who was chatting with her friends, turned around and saw that Alex had arrived. A look of hatred flashed across her eyes as she said, "Did I tell you to come? Fine, I'm in a good mood, so I guess you can take advantage of that and stay."

Then she resumed her conversation and didn't give Alex another look. 

As Alex stopped walking and looked at Rose's back, he felt his heart flutter.

Forget it he thought. Forget that I helped her this time. I won't have anything to do with her from now on. 

Joe quickly walked over to Alex and whispered to him, "Leave her alone. Your friends are happy you came. Come and sit with me."

As he spoke, Joe pulled Alex over and sat down beside him.

As Alex sat down, Rose glanced at him in disgust. Alex didn't even look at her, deciding to save himself from the embarrassment.

"Rose, what happened? Why do you hate him?" An unfamiliar girl glanced at Alex and whispered to Rose.

The others, who didn't know anything about the situation, also looked at Rose, waiting for her explanation.

Rose's gaze swept across Alex, and then she looked at the others. She sneered arrogantly and said, "This guy is unbelievable. He went to the Metro Sky Bank to withdraw money yesterday morning, but he doesn't even have a card for that bank."

Those who didn't know what had happened all covered their mouths and smiled when they heard Rose's words. They couldn't help but look at Alex.

Only Suzan, Joe, and the others who were familiar with the situation, looked extremely embarrassed. They were all thinking, We're all here eating together. Even if you don't like Alex, do you have to expose his weaknesses in front of others?

One by one, the waiter brought the plates of food to the table.

The ten of them gathered together, chatting and laughing while Alex only chatted with Joe and Ben beside him, not with Rose and the others.

Rose was saying, "Guess what? In the end, the chairman of the Heavenly Lion Group, Donald Brennan, personally came to my dad's office to apologize to him. That's what you call humility." She recounted the news she had heard from her father.

Her friends replied, "Awesome, Rose. To be honest, I didn't expect that your family could solve this problem so easily. After all, this is the Heavenly Lion Group, one of the top ten enterprises in New York City!"

"Yeah, Donald has awesome power. It's even on the internet. He once made a company disappear, but your family problem was solved in less than a day." Another guy said as he gave a thumbs up.

"Tell us who exactly helped your family so we can tell everyone," another boy said to Rose as he smiled.

"Of course, I also wonder who helped my dad. Donald Brennan might be a tough nut to crack for others, but it seems that he's no match for my dad." Rose said. "Wait a minute, I'll call my dad and ask him."

She took out her cell phone, dialled her father's number, and turned on the speaker.

"Dad, which uncle did you ask for help this time?" Rose suddenly felt that something wasn't right. When dad called me this morning to have a go at me, he said all kinds of mean things. She thought. He said that he couldn't do anything to make Donald give in after the disaster I've caused.

Could it be that later on, in a flash of inspiration, he's remembered someone powerful that he didn't think about before? An idea flashed through Rose's mind.