He shrugged, "Most men like women that put them in their place."

"That's fair enough."

"What took you two so long?" Martha asked as she saw us walk into the hall where a few students were also present. She walked to us and collected the book in my hand and flipped it open in haste. "We need to know we are all here and we won't do that without the list. Our sponsors will be here any minute and we need to be prepared and know who takes what."

She adjusted her glasses and began to read out the names of the students on the list. Whoever she called raised their hand and say here and so she goes on and on until she got to me.

"Avril Good," she called, turning to me with a raised brow.

I rolled my eyes, "I'm here."

"Good, you'll be taking the welcoming speech." She said it as though she just said; nice dress.

"I can't, that's always been your duties. To take the welcoming speech, I'll take time and practice and I have none of those two things now."

"You can and you will." Her tone was rigid, not inviting any argument and I glared at her. "And yes I've been giving the welcoming speech since forever and I'm good at it, but this is the Educate A Child campaign and our sponsors will be looking at how good the grade of the forerunner of the movement is. Jared fell two grade back this last semester"

"Then why is he here?" I asked with a groan. If he failed, why is he in the university's best student list? It doesn't make sense.

"Probably because his surname is Steel," is all she said before carrying on. "And Rose still battles to stay above the average, while I can try to be like you, I can't be better. Richard Hadid and Peter and the rest of us all know this; we also know that you are the top student when it comes to grade and books so there's no one better to take the opening speech."

I pressed my lips together, assimilating everything Martha had said before speaking, "So you all decided to fall short just to put my head in the chopping block?"

"You'll be great," Charlie assured, with a flirty smile.

I sent him a back—off glare in return and he raised his hands in surrender.

The rest duties were shared among the twelve of us before, four were in charge of showing the sponsor around the whole school, four were in charge of school donation record; in case there is any need for it and the rest four we're to see to every question asked during the formal introduction of the sponsor at the meeting.

"It's settled then. Please remember to always stick together and once the campaign begins, each of you is to come and take cardboard you'll hold throughout the campaign and no drinking until the campaign is over, I'm talking to you, Richard." She firmly told him and he raised his hands in surrender before walking away.

The rest students followed her out of the hall, but I stayed back and stayed silent, thinking of the task ahead of me as well as every other thing.

Hadid footsteps made me look back to see he's still here and I watched as he walked over to my side, "Nervous?"

I nodded and bit my lips slowly, "Yeah aren't you?"

He shrugged casually, "I only take questions from the students to the sponsors, that's all I've done for a year now."

"I only worked harder on my grades to get a chance at the TTW scholarship. I've heard if you keep your grades up and steady for a whole section you will be given equal ground to compete with the others for the scholarship."

"You've never talked about the reason Avril," he began but didn't complete his word.

He didn't have to, I knew what he was asking for. "It's always been shameful to think much less talk about it. My mom was not who I thought she was as a child and ever since dad died, she has changed completely. I shouldn't be afraid of getting school fees, dad made sure of that until his dying day and now what do I get? She took away all the money in my trust fund and probably spent it on one of her many boyfriends. So now I've got nothing. My job at the library is barely taking care of my housing and feeding expenses and I'm in need for at least two extra jobs to be able to raise my school fees." Tears were rolling down my cheeks and I couldn't help it.

After I found out the fate my mother had thrown me into, I began looking for ways to get a scholarship. The university scholarship scheme was on hold for now and so I had to look for other ways to get a scholarship. I later found the Teach The World body William McQueen had created in his last visit to the UK. There were rules though regarding grades and performance to be given a shot at it. Excellence grade was one of them and to get there I had to work harder to top the rest students that were ahead of me here and I did it and I had the highest GPA in the whole of Leeds and I was immediately qualified for the TTW scholarship board."

Everyone was surprised because I wasn't even close to the best four months ago and now I'm Leeds' star.

I told Hadid about my need for a scholarship but never told him why I needed one when my father had it covered a long time ago.

"Avril," he started to say in a hushed whisper, handing me his white handkerchief.

I collected it and wiped my face with it before handing it back to him, "I didn't study hard so I would be given a stupid welcoming speech, I did that because I need something much more important."

He wrapped his arms around me, "You'll be fine." He muttered, loud enough so I could hear it.

"I hope so too."

10:30 am

The whole hall was filled with students and lecturers alike and some and many of our sponsors are already around, but I hear that there are still a few more left to come.

This by far was one of the biggest campaign Leeds University had had in a very long time and the students that hardly turned out for anything they were invited to were all here.

I saw Hadid down, standing before the stage and facing the students just like, Ruth, Kevin and Iko. He looked up to me immediately and waved at me and I smile and wave a little at him.

It was time for the commencement of the brief meeting and introduction of the sponsors before the campaign begins, but one of the sponsors was still yet to come and I knew that because his spot on the stage was empty.

Mr Joe, one of our lecturer and spokesman of the whole campaign approached the standing mic in the centre of the stage. He tapped on the mic and once assure that it's working, he clears his throat.