Chapter 23: Hidden talents

Andrew was very bothered by both Ivy and Sandra's actions of neglecting him as though they were hiding something away from him. He was furious when he received the messages from Ivy that she would be late as Sandra wasn't feeling well.

He suspected something must have happened to Sandra as he was determined to find out what happened to Sandra by heading to her house only to find Ivy at the carpark of the college waiting for him instead. Ivy had been contemplating with herself the whole way to college whether to tell Andrew the truth as it would upset Sandra if Andrew didn't handle the situation well. She knew from the look on Andrew's face, he already suspected something was wrong as he pulled her to the bench by the park nearby and pestered her for answers.

"Tell me now… What's going on?" It was Ivy's first time in a long time listening to the usually bubbly and goofy Andrew questioning her in all seriousness. The concern in his eyes was fiery especially when it comes to issues concerning herself and Sandra.

Ivy let out a sigh as she took a seat on the bench and patted the seat next to her in a gesture to ask him to sit. "Not until you tell me what's going on? Something happened to Sandra, didn't it? What happened Ivy?" Andrew snapped as Ivy stood and held him by the shoulders.

"Andrew… If you really care about her, it's an important phase of her life in which she needs friends' support. I hope by telling you what happened, you would make good use of it to be a good friend by her side and not take advantage of the situation…" Ivy explained as Andrew's eyes widened. He could half expect what had happened. "She broke up?" He asked in a sad tone as his forehead burrowed.

Ivy nodded as she watched Andrew sit on the bench lifelessly. "Andrew…" Ivy called out which sent Andrew into rage as he repeatedly asked himself of the possibility of someone to break up with Sandra who was so perfect in his eyes.

"What's the reason? Who is this jerk? How dare he hurt my Sandra?" Andrew yelled as Ivy once again had to control his temper by holding on to his shoulders. "Andrew! Listen! You promised…" Ivy scolded as Andrew calmed down and sat back on the bench.

"It doesn't matter who it was, Andrew. It was also for a better reason. If Sandra decided to give herself up to her first boyfriend in such an early stage of a relationship, wouldn't that mean the relationship meant more to her and deter you from having any chance?" Ivy asked while throwing some hints which Andrew caught and was beyond disappointed at the guy Sandra dated.

"Andrew… You weren't supposed to know all this but I know your feelings… I am telling you this because I don't want to be in an awkward situation between the both of you but instead I hope you could support her during such times and hold back on the confession perhaps?" Ivy pleaded as Andrew began to understand Sandra's circumstances and Ivy's predicaments. "I know… Shall we see her? I promise I will act normal…" Andrew asked as he nodded. He flashed a smile which made Ivy know she could trust him as she drove him to her house.

Sandra was with Lucky by the glasshouse when they both arrived.

"Hey!" Andrew greeted cheerfully as though nothing happened when Sandra smiled watching his goofy self-dancing around with Lucky who was equally excited to see him.

"Goofball! You're driving Lucky crazy soon!" Ivy laughed which made Sandra join in the dance. Ivy watched with relief before her phone rang with a call from Jason.

"Hey?" Ivy whispered which caught herself by surprise. "Busy? You're alright?" Jason asked after spotting something wasn't right with her voice. Ivy left for her car away from the duo who were enjoying themselves and cleared her throat. In mind, she scolded herself for worrying too much about being overheard.

"Sorry, had to send Andrew to cheer up Sandra. Lucky was playing with them as well…" Ivy said while she entered into the car and Jason heard the slamming of the car door.

"You're on your way here?" Jason asked. "Yes, driving over now… Why?" Ivy asked, realising it was weird for him to call to just check on her as she put him on loudspeaker and started the car's engine.

"I needed you to join me in a client's meeting…" Jason said while it took Ivy by surprise. She knew she should give it a try as it was part of the reason she was in the internship program. "Alright, I will arrive in the office in fifteen minutes if the traffic isn't bad. Bye…" Ivy said before hanging up. "Wait…" Jason said but heard the line went dead as he quickly texted Ivy the client's address and told her to head directly there.

"That was easy…" Jason said to Marcel who was listening on. "You're sure this is a good idea Jason?" Marcel asked.

"I don't have much choice Marcel… I need you to keep an eye on Nancy at work. Like you said her performance is clearly reflected on the output of work she did. Perhaps you're right about her sneaking around when Ivy is around but work when Ivy isn't around. So, let's try out this plan… Besides, Ivy is due for her next task. She should have long ago joined me in business meetings…" Jason explained as he held on to the file which contained Nancy's work which was full of errors and it was merely only sorting out the business proposal for one of Jason's upcoming talks. Marcel nudged him. "Time to go before it's late… Leave the rest to me…" Marcel said as Jason nodded and took his coat heading out of the office.

Ever since Ivy was assigned to join Jason on business meetings, she rarely stepped into the office during office hours. Jason would usually text her the address of their meeting place and she would head there from college to sit in and listen to their negotiation while she would take down notes from their discussion. Despite the excitement of an additional new task, she was still doing data entries for Ann as part of her tutor session with Jason every night when they head back to the office to practice her accounting concepts. She realised Jason always has a report on his table to go through every night when they get back.

On Friday, she knew he was having his band performance and thought Jason wouldn't head to office after dusk but he still did. She quickly placed her notes in order for him to check later but couldn't help herself from asking him the question she had in mind for the entire week.

"Why do you always come back to check on that file?" Ivy asked randomly when Jason was reading Marcel's report on Nancy halfway. Jason looked at Ivy half angered at her bold question as though it was questioned by Nancy herself.

"Who are you to question what the CEO does?" Jason absentmindedly replied to her, forgetting that it was Ivy who asked. Ivy knew she stepped overboard as she quickly apologised. "I'm sorry… I shouldn't have asked. I was just curious. You don't have to answer…" Ivy quickly apologised as she turned around to pack her stuff.

"It's a report on Nancy's daily performance…" Jason finally said in the midst of being furious with the report saying she had been working on the task assigned to her and the output was accurate. This statement for the entire week had appeared every time which made him furious as it confirmed their hypothesis that with Ivy around, Nancy switched off her rationalism.

"Why would you…" Ivy wanted to ask for a reason but knew she shouldn't cross the boundary. "Sorry…" Ivy apologised as Jason sighed and walked towards her. "Don't you think Nancy has issues lately?" Jason asked her casually.

Ivy didn't dare to answer as she wasn't sure if Jason was testing her or was he furious at her question earlier.

"I'm sorry… I was furious at the report… Marcel and I decided to swap you out with Marcel so that he could monitor Nancy. We suspected when you're around, she might be busy sneaking around us and neglected the quality of the output of work which proves to be right as the report continuously said she completed her assigned tasks without any errors and you have been out with me the entire week." Jason explained as Ivy didn't realise the arrangement till he pointed out.

"Do you think I should quit the job then?" Ivy asked as she pouted and looked on the ground while Jason looked at her sad face.

"I didn't say that… In fact, I need you more than ever. Your help this week made me realise you're a very capable assistant. The notes you took, I noticed the suggestion you wrote. They were brilliant." Jason complimented as he watched a smile form on Ivy's cracking lips.

"Drink more water… Your lips are so dry… I'm sorry you had to be so busy... We have a concert to catch and we are flying off right after…" Jason held out his hand to touch her tired face but held back in the midst of it as she looked at the time and rushed him to the concert.

"Hurry! You have only half an hour! Don't worry about Lucky… I will tell Andrew and Sandra to look after him over the weekend. They need him more than anyone else…" Ivy said while she quickly gathered her stuff and his bag before pulling him to the car park. Jason was enjoying having a competent assistant like Ivy as he let her drive him to the town field where the concert was.

By the time they got there, the crowd was already packed as the concert was about to start. While Jason rushed to the backstage, Ivy went to look for Andrew and Sandra who brought Lucky along.

"Hey!!" Ivy greeted them excitedly in her formal wear which both Andrew and Sandra were in awe of looking at her for the first time looking so smart. "Hey! Enough! Stop screening, I was in business meetings…" Ivy shook them both from staring at her for too long as she squatted and greeted Lucky who licked her. While she hugged Lucky she also noticed Andrew was holding on to Sandra's hand as she looked up at them suspiciously before standing up.

"Come on… Tell me what's going on?" Ivy teased while Sandra blushed as Andrew stood proudly and told her with drama. "Drum rolls please! I hereby announced…" Sandra covered Andrew's mouth for being too loud as Ivy laughed.

"Congratulations!" Ivy wished as she pulled everyone for a hug. "What congratulations when I haven't finished announcing…?" Andrew grumbled.

"I know… I understand… You don't have to explain…" Ivy teased while she kept her eyes on Sandra who was too shy to look at Ivy.

"So… I shall move away with Lucky now and not be a light bulb alright?" Ivy said while taking the leash from Andrew who pulled back the leash. "Where do you think you're heading to? We are only dating on trial… Who said we would abandon our friends huh?" Andrew said in a serious tone which scared Ivy for a moment but later when she realised he was joking about being serious, they all ended up laughing and enjoyed the concert.

When it was Jason's band turn, Burning Ember performed their winning song. Ivy secretly wished she was playing the drums just like back then while watching Jason immersing himself into the haunting tune of the song. She finally saw Nancy again after the accident in which her palm now still had a scar. She noticed she was a very different person on stage. It was as though she was released to her own world with a strong personality. She had no wonder they would have won a higher placing if Nick was playing that night.

The crowd cheered on the last note of the haunting tune Ivy was enjoying. She felt sad as she thought it would be the last time she would listen to this song again. She realised there wasn't any recorded version of it either. 

In the midst of reminiscing, she could make out the crowd was yelling for an encore as the band was caught by surprise from the crowd's request as she looked at Jason's direction who was exchanging signals with Nick. He then turned into the crowd and was searching for Ivy but knew where she stood. He looked at her and signalled her to the backstage as Nick and him went off backstage while holding the rest of the band members on stage.

"Did he just signal you to the back stage?" Andrew asked as he noticed Jason had been staring at their direction for a long while too. Andrew and Sandra quickly pushed Ivy to the backstage with Lucky in tow seeing Ivy had no response. Lucky pounced on Jason as he hugged him briefly while Nick spoke with Ivy when they reached the backstage.

"You should play the encore… You deserve it…" Nick said while handing his drumsticks to Ivy. He even twirled her hair into a bun and placed his cap over it while Andrew put his sunglasses on Ivy. "Perfect!" Andrew cheered.

"So you were the one who performed when they won?" Andrew teased out of realisation while Ivy smacked him.

"Keep your voice low… Don't tell anyone… Keep it to yourself…" Ivy hissed at Andrew while pulling his ears.

"Alright… Alright!" Andrew screamed as Ivy took a deep breath while the rest chuckled at the sight.

"You can do it… You did it previously…" Jason said while helping her to put on a velvet jacket as he led her on stage. He could feel her holding on even tighter to his hand before he let go when they took their respective place on stage.

There were some of them in the crowd who noticed the drummer was a different person and cheered louder as the first strum of guitar echoed through the crowd at the start of the encore. Ivy performed the entire song with the rest of the band members with a repeated chorus which lasted three rounds as she slammed on the drums leaving her whole soul into the haunting melody.

She took a bow at the finale as previously when she performed she was so nervous that she ran off backstage immediately. This time, she smiled coolly at the band members as they went backstage together.

Ivy had already scored two fanatic fans backstage; Andrew and Sandra.

"Wowwwwwww Ivy! You were superb!" Andrew cheered leaving Ivy blushed as Sandra clapped.

"Enough… Enough…" Ivy whispered as Nancy walked off watching them being childish. The rest of the band members praised Ivy before leaving to join Nancy outside. Ivy caught hold of Nick and returned his drumsticks.

"Thank you…" Ivy said while taking off her sunglasses for Nick to be able to see her grateful face and smile.

"You're welcome…" Nick was touched by her simple gesture as he patted her head and messed up her hair a little before joining the rest of the band members.

Jason walked over to Ivy who was still trying to get over the hype and messed her messy hair as well. Ivy smacked his hand as she warned him to not do that before. "Hey! How's that fair when Nick can do so without being smacked?" Jason scolded jokingly.

"Because I warned you before not to do it…" Ivy scolded jokingly too before skipping out of the backstage following Andrew and Sandra with Lucky in tow.

"Hey, we got to go… Flight's in an hour…" Jason said realising they were nearly late as she halted her steps and instantly sprang into action as Jason's assistant again.

"Right… I will head to the car first to drive outside before the jam starts…" Ivy said but Jason stopped her. 

"Let me… Go tell your friends…" Jason said as he took the car keys from Ivy leaving Ivy to explain her need to leave in a rush to her friends.

"Hey… I have a flight to rush to in an hour. I have to go now. Would you both be so nice to keep this buddy accompanied while we are away for the weekend?" Ivy rushed outside and pleaded with Andrew and Sandra who were both delighted at her request.

"Of course we could!" Andrew chirped and smiled as Sandra pulled her in for a hug. "You look so tired… You should take care of yourself…" Sandra said before they heard Jason's car honking. "I will… When I'm back I want details…" Ivy winked as Sandra blushed knowing Andrew and herself cannot escape from spilling the secrets to how Andrew reconciled and confessed his feelings to her.

"See you! Love you both!" Ivy said before hugging Lucky and ran off sadly to Jason's car. Jason noticed her pout as he reminded himself to let her sleep in the next morning otherwise she might have burned out.

Ivy also noticed Nick and Nancy were getting into the car as she raised an eyebrow at Jason. "They are coming with us on the trip as well… It's a collaboration emcee job this time…" Jason said hastily as Nancy and Nick got in the car. Jason sped to the airport leaving Ivy with an uncomfortable feeling about this trip as they rode in silence the entire way.