Unexpected Creature

5: "I won lol."

“Oh,” was what Clementine only uttered after realizing that she had won one of the biggest awards to be given in the award show.

It was true that she was always receiving an award every year even if she only had started her perfume company two years ago but never had she ever won a big award like Businesswoman of The Year. The awards that she usually received for the past years were Best Inedible Business, which was an award given to five chosen businesses that were not about food or beverages, Business Rookie of The Year, and Popularity Award, which was also given to five chosen businesses that were popular at the moment. The order of announcing awards in this awarding event was different from most awarding events. Basically, they announce the major awards first before the minor awards to not prolong the suffering of the people, which was actually nice of them.

Clementine cleared her throat as she walked confidently to the stage with a smile of victory on her face when she realized that she actually just beat her sister at that time for winning the Businesswoman of The Year award. By winning that major award first before her sister, she thought that it was confirmed that she was definitely better than her older sister who was an executive director of Zale for three years now. Cara was expecting to take the CEO position as soon as possible but she was disappointed that she had to stay as an executive director for years now though she never gave up in working hard to prove her worth to her father, who was the CEO of the company. While Tyson was managing their wine company, Charli manages their other company, which is Oju, their juice company.

“Wow, it looks pretty fancy.” Clementine spoke in front of the mic stand as she received the golden award from the host who was smiling brightly in awe at Clementine’s pretty face up close. The crowd let out a laugh as they heard the first thing she said. “So anyway, thank you for the award. It was an honor to receive a big award like this though I actually knew that I would win this title but I had no idea that it would be this soon,”

“You deserve it, bae!” A female from the audience shouted, making the crowd laugh. Clementine flashed a small proud smile as she took a step forward and held the microphone while her eyes landed on her older sister, who was watching her with crossed arms with disinterest in her eyes.

“Thank you for those who have always been believing on me. Anyway, I would be happy to say this so I’ll say it.” Clementine cleared her throat before proceeding to speak with a haughty smirk on her face. “When I was younger, I had always wanted to own a huge company just like my parents since it looked pretty cool to be on top. Now, I can just simply say that CLZ is indeed a huge company. I don’t really care if father and mother decide to give me their companies but if they actually do, I would turn them into the best wine brand and juice brand in the whole wide world with no hesitation.”

Tyson flashed a proud smile on his face as he listened attentively to every word his daughter was saying. He actually did not really have a favorite child since he loves them all equally though he could clearly see how independently great of a woman Clementine turned out to be. It was the same for Charli whose tears around her eyes were close to falling because of how proud she was to see her daughter standing on the stage alone with a golden little trophy in her hands while speaking with so much confidence.

As for Seville, he may not show it but he was truly proud of his older sister as well even though she was always cold to him. Since Clementine and Cara did not have a good relationship with each other, Seville stayed by both of their sides separately though he was much closer to Clementine since Cara was always busy to interact with him. He certainly knew his second older sister more than their parents, who were always busy in work as well. Though he was already a college student, he still shows his childish side to Clementine, who was the only family member who could tolerate it.

Cara furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance when she saw how everyone including her parents and brother were paying all of their attention with awe in their eyes to Clementine on the stage. She felt a flare of anger within her as she opened her fists widely and closed them tightly, going on the same thing repeatedly to calm her anger down since she got to keep her cool and stay unaffected by her little sister’s boastful acceptance speech. She thought of happy thoughts for her to not think that she lost to her little sister. Cara let out a chuckle in amusement when she remembered how Clementine tripped on the ground and cried all day because she had a scratch on her face caused by the ground when she was ten. Thinking about Clementine’s miserable and painful moments certainly gave Cara motivation to prove that Clementine was no better than her.

“But that was not what I really wanted to say. What I really wanted to say to everyone is that me having my own company with a successful business and winning this award first before my older sister totally proves how more competent, no, better I am than her. She was literally born three years before me but I had to get my own big company and this award first before her? I am actually not surprised at this point since it is already expected from the first place, anyway.”

Cara’s eyes widened a bit as she was left speechless on how bold Clementine was to say that in front of a lot of people while smiling sweetly. The whole crowd went quiet as some uttered a low ‘ohhh’. Clementine certainly made every single person in the room speechless because of her boldness. She flashed one last sweet smile on her face while looking directly to her sister’s twitching eyes. She felt amused to see how her last statement made Cara triggered, almost wanting to lose her cool, though she felt a bit disappointed that she still remained calm on her seat while glaring at her.

“Once again, thank you for this precious award,” Clementine smiled as she walked down the stage with the trophy and confidently walked back to their table while the other people looked at her as if she was a goddess walking past them.

“I don’t mean to make you feel upset or anything, Cara, but that was so cool, Cle!” Seville said with his thumbs up to Clementine’s face when she finally returned to her seat. Tyson was absolutely speechless with what she said to Cara that he could not even utter a word even if Clementine had already returned to her seat.

“Clementine, did you really have to say that?” Charli asked Clementine and held her hand gently as she worriedly took a glance to Cara, who was just staring at the big screen in front without giving a glance to anyone.

“Hmm, did I? That’s what came to my mind that time and I’m free to say whatever I want, don’t I?” Clementine innocently said as she took a sip on her water. Charli just let out a sigh and continued to pay attention to the host who was talking about how cool Clementine was for being very confident.

Clementine flashed a smile of victory on her face once again as she brought out her phone to take a selfie with her trophy to post it on i********: to piss Cara off even more since it would surely blow up on the internet. Even if Cara would not want to see any posts about her, she would definitely see posts about her if she went to the internet.

‘I won lol.’

Seville laughed as he saw what Clementine wrote as a caption to her i********: post, making her wink at him proudly. He wiped a tear from his eye as he went back to playing Minecraft on his phone this time.

The host began to announce the following awards though Clementine paid zero attention to them and just started to play a rhythm game on her phone. She actually was not really interested in rhythm games at first but when she played it for the first time during the last time when she was bored, she got addicted to the game and finally realized that it was actually a fun game.

Different people who won awards were able to go up to the stage and give simple acceptance speeches; they only gave a brief thank you message and left after unlike Clementine who literally added an irrelevant statement in her acceptance speech. The people gave every person who won an award a round of applause since each of them deserved to win one because of their nonstop hard work. It was actually nice that the majority of the people in the venue appreciated each other even though some of them were insincere. After finishing the song, Clementine got an all-perfect while one side of her mouth raised as she thought that she was such an expert in the game when her attention got caught by her family, who suddenly stood up from their seats with big smiles on their faces.

“Congratulations, Mr. Zalekun, for having Zale as Biggest Business of The Year,” the host said as he smiled and waited for Tyson to go up to the stage.

“Cara, you should go get the award and do the acceptance speech,” Tyson told Cara and flashed an assuring smile when he saw how surprised she was to hear that from him.

“Me? But why? The host literally said Mr. Zalekun,” Cara responded. She did not see this coming and she was certainly not prepared for that situation.

“You’re my daughter, anyway. Come on, just do it. It’s too tiring for an aging man like me to go up the stage,” Tyson pouted as he tried to act cute to Cara so she would be convinced enough to go do it instead. On the other hand, Seville and Clementine felt nauseous to see their 50-year-old father with a thick beard to act cute.

“Alright, alright, fine,” Cara breathed a sigh as she stood up and walked towards the age. A bright lightbulb appeared above her head when she was walking, making her go up to the stage with a confident smile on her face.