Anastasia

CHAPTER 6 : The Competition

Anastasia's POV

I was mesmerized by those green eyes. He was not looking at me. I didn't even know if he noticed me, or does he still remember me? He's talking to his colleague seriously but never puts his gaze on me. I sat on my chair beside Miss Lyn. The meeting will be starting in a moment and I'm freaking nervous, now I know why I felt anxious hours ago. It's not because of this meeting but rather him. There was a part in my heart that I wanted him to remember and notice me, but as I looked at my reflection on the glass wall, I saw a plain ugly woman wearing thick eyeglasses and pimples all over her face. I smiled bitterly. He won't remember me.

"Good evening everyone, let me introduce to you the C.E.O of Evans Group of Company, Mr. Lewis Evans."The man in the business suit was introduced.

To my surprise, the man I've been staring at since I entered the office stands up. So his name is Lewis. What a perfect name for such a perfect man.

"Good evening, I would like to show my gratitude to everyone for having me here. It's an honor to be a part of our upcoming project here in the country. I'm looking forward to having a great connection with all of you."His stern voice echoed in the whole office, everyone was focused and interested in every word he spelled out. The way he speaks seems music to my ears, it's soothing.

He's wearing a black suit that surely cost a thousand dollars, which compliments his white skin. His hair was perfectly combed and fixed. I was stunned the moment his gaze came on me. But it was only a few seconds, and I almost cursed myself for assuming that he was looking at me for a reason, but no, he was looking at everyone. He's a C.E.O of a well-known and prestigious company in the U.S. I am a nobody. The sudden realization hit me hard.

"Anastasia?"Sir Diego made me come back to my senses.

"Y-yes Sir."Damn, did I just stutter?

"Did you take down all the information discussed?"He asked.

"Yes Sir."

Finally, I managed to be calm.

"Good, we will be leaving in a few minutes. I'll talk to Mr.Evans first. You should come with me. It's important. I told Lyn to wait for us in the car. I know you can do that. I got your back."He assured me and smiled at me. But instead of calming, it gave me more chills, knowing the fact that I could go near with him in a few moments.

Please remain calm, Anastasia. Don't make a scene and focus on your work, or else they will throw you out of this building. My thoughts are pestering me and not even cooperating.

"Good evening Mr.Evans, it was nice meeting the youngest C.E.O of the Evans Group!"Sir Diego exclaimed. I didn't notice that Lewis was in front of us already. I felt my hands getting cold and they were a bit trembling.

"It was nice meeting you too, Mr.Williams, it was such an honor meeting one of the richest C.E.O in the country."He replied. But the way he spoke seemed so confident. I couldn't even trace any nervousness or discomfort in his voice. He's indeed a businessman.

I gulped when he looked at me and smiled. Those smiles, I felt my panties fall off. Darn it, Anastasia, what the hell are you thinking, you p*****t?

"By the way, this is Anastasia, she's my secretary."Sir Diego introduced me.

"Oh, I thought I knew you."He said and gave me the sweetest smile and extended his hand to me.

When our hands met for a moment, I felt shivers flow throughout my body and the unexplainable tingling sensation inside me slowly built up.

"My hands."He muttered before pulling out a small chuckle.

My eyes widened a bit. I'm freaking spacing out again.

"Oh sorry."

Darn it, Anastasia, you're a mess. How could you shake his hands and hold them for a minute?

I bowed my head in embarrassment. They talked about their business and here I am. I just want to evaporate at this moment.

"Let's go, Anastasia."I heard Sir Diego affirm and when I looked at him, Lewis was gone. Disappointed rush through me, I wasn't able to see him walk away.

I looked everywhere but he was nowhere. I don't know what I am feeling right now, but one thing is for sure, I wanted to meet him again. But what if we'll never meet again? What if he goes back to the U.S since he's only here for business? I am hopeless. I even promised myself that I'd find him and when I did, I let it slide.

"Are you okay, Anastasia?"Sir Diego asked. I didn't notice that I was spacing out thinking of him for the nth time, tonight.

"Yes, Sir, I'm good."

"Alright, I'll tell our driver to send you home. You should rest, you're probably tired," he said.

I only nodded. I didn't realize that it was late and the competition is tomorrow. Darn it, I almost forgot. After the driver sent me home, it was already 12:30 am. I took a few hours to take a nap since I set my alarm to 4 am. I only cook instant noodles, fry an egg and spend hours reading the book I borrowed from the library yesterday. I am familiar with languages and how their logic works. I just had a quick review to refresh it in my mind.

It's already 7:30 and everyone is excited. But I am not. Miss Moore entered our room and we greeted her.

"Alright everyone, may I have your attention, please. So we decided that for this competition to be easy, we would have an elimination first in your class. Even other courses are required to do so. The top 3 finalists will be your course representatives and will proceed to the next part of our competition. Is that clear?"She explained and asked.

Everyone said yes in chorus.

"Good, and I will be your proctor. We will start in a few minutes and prepare your things."She added.

The competition inside the class went smoothly. I didn't expect the easy and average round to turn out to be easy for me. They are important terms in computer science, and memorization has been one of my abilities since then. I had a perfect score in that category. And the last category will be the difficult round, and it happens to be my favorite since we will do actual coding.

There are only five and others have been eliminated. Unfortunately, Aly didn't make it to the top 5 and I understand her. She gave me a cheering smile and I nodded at her.

"Alright, so since we only have 5 contestants left, I will give you a laptop to use for this round. We installed a system that can monitor your code. You only have one chance to submit your finished program and once you submit it, it can't be undone. Understand? This is a hackathon competition. You should take into consideration the time limit and an error-free program. The first 3 contestants that could finish their program ahead of time with accurate logic will be representing their course later."Miss Moore explained.

The problem was given to us and, to my surprise, it is almost the same as the problem I encountered during my last national competition.

I did my program and after I checked it I clicked the enter button, which we could do once, only once. I smiled. It runs. Miss Moore looked at me with amusement, and it brings me to hope that someone finally notice my abilities in this field, I just hope it's real this time.