"And that's the American's Best Club." I look at Kael after he said that. He looks at me. "I'm sorry for not standing up for you. I saw Ms. Cynthia watching." He simply looks at 2 o'clock from his position. We take a look too and to my surprise, Ms. Cynthia is really there. She's a music teacher, the principal's right-hand. She reports problems to the principal.
"That's also why I didn't make a move." Rei smiles apologetically. I remember her being called for guidance to be punished after punching a male student. That occured a year ago. "I was hoping that argument won't end up as a fight. We'd all be in trouble if it did."
That's why. I know Rei hates Toriㅡ she even calls her a blonde pigeon. Everybody here in school knows Tori for being competitive and smart. But despite having those traits, she remains as the school's top 2.
"Let's not take the bad energy they're giving and start to get in to business," Leo lights up the atmosphere, showing his smile to us while getting some fliers. Rei also gets fliers from the table and raises it to Leo.
"You call this business?" she says. "So what are they? Business partners?" She's pertaining to the ones having the same club as ours. If this was a serious business, I'd leave the company if we had business partners like them.
"Nice joke but uhmㅡ"
"I was not joking!ㅡ I'm annoyed, I'm angry, I'm raging, I'm trying to get a grip!" She says that while rolling the fliers, trying not to crumple them. Leo fixes his glasses, hardly blushing by her sudden shout. The others just laughed and tried to calm her down. They say she's been like that since yesterday when she saw Tori and the others giving the fliers. And to add something that really annoyed her, she said that Tori even gave a flier to her right infront of the other members while grinning.
"What's her problem? For an educated person, I thought she's not problematic," Shanaia says. She says it's her first time seeing Tori that close but that rude at the same time.
"She's the worst, I know." I gave her an understanding smile while nodding my head. When all of us begin to get back to what we are suppose to do, everybody splits up into two groups.
A few students starts to line-up at our table. We greet them with a smile as they sign-up the forms. I'm standing behind our table with Shanaia. We managed the line-ups and their signatures while the others are giving the fliers to different hallways. Some asks about the club and the movies, and some finalized their decision to sign.
As I wait for the student infront of me to finish her signature after questioning about the club, I hear murmurs from the students who follows.
"Isn't this the first time she enters a club? Unlike Tori, she's just a member here."
"Yeah. I wonder what's stopping her from hosting one. I meanㅡ she has the advantage, you know? Number one in class and in the whole school is such a great thing.."
I just stare at the signing papers. I see Shai from my peripheral vision. She looks at my direction. If it's time to admit, then it's time to admit that this is the first time I'm joining a socially related project here at school. And I don't want to think about it any further. I'm not messing my mind today. I mentally shaked my head, removing the things I'm about to think again.
The students who were talking earlier are now infront of me. They smile as I handed them the pen for them to sign in. I smiled back. They were the last ones in line so after they walk away, Shanaia starts to clean the table. She stretches and yawns. I do the same. "We should take a break now. C'mon, I bet they're already at the cafeteria."
We start to stand up and clear the place. I don't know if it is because of the hot atmosphere or just the way I'm thinking about the words Tori said to me. I didn't notice that I was being too quiet thay I forgot someone is walking beside me. While walking with Shai, I can feel her looking at me from time to time. It's like she has something to say. Before we could reach the cafeteria, I speak without looking at her.
"If something's bothering you, you can tell me." After saying that, she releases a heavy sigh. She stopped walking and faced me. I blinked two times because of that. She puffs her cheeks before talking.
"You know, I kinda heard the words they're telling about you earlierㅡ I thought you also heard about it or maybe you didn'tㅡ"
"Whoa, whoa. Slow down, I can't understand what you're saying." I laugh and try to calm her down because she was talking so fast. She breathes in and shows a laugh.
"I'm still hesitating to ask you, you know.." she continues as we start walking again.
"Ask what?" I ask, pretending not to know what she's talking about. I think it's about those students who talked about me. And to add Tori's words earlier. She must be curious and confused at the same time and I don't blame her for that. I was hoping she doesn't ask me this at this moment. I'm still thinking of the answers myself.
"About that.."
Just when she's about to continue speaking, Kael hops in, infront of us. We both got startled to see him. We three exchanged stares.
"There you areㅡ Oh, was there something going on? Did I interrupt you guys?" He asks.
Unable to know what to say, I take a look at Shanaia, wondering if she still wants to ask me about something. She looks at me with round eyes. Then looks at Kael, genuinely smiling. "Oh, you didn't interrupt us. We were just making our way to the cafeteria, that's all. We thought you and the others are already there but.. why are you still here?"
Kael stands beside us as we continue to walk. "The others are there at our table. I was just on my way to fetch the both of you."
He smiles widely, raising his brows, looking excited. Something's up, I can feel it. He shows this certain look on his face when he has something to share which excites him. Shai also notices 'the look' so she gasps.
"You're fetching us because you have an announcement?" She says this while pointing at Kael. He looks at her, showing a smirk.
"You'll get to know when we reach the cafeteria," he says, trying to tease us.
"It's obviously about the club, right?" I ask.
"If it's not, would I give a minute to walk around the hallways to get you?" He jokes. I roll my eyes.
"I don't know what it is but I have a feeling that it'll be great! We should hurry!" Shanaia says with excitement and with that she pulls me to walk faster with her. Kael who is left at the back, calls out to wait for him. We both just laugh it off as he runs to catch us. This is probably the first time in my life I could get a chance to run in the halls with new people as new friends here with me. In the canteen, we almost bumped into Rei who's been standing by the entrance.