The student council assignment for Erika and Sophia involved checking on sport clubs. They had to ensure that the lineups of all teams were agreed upon, for the upcoming regional high school tournament.

For the most part, these matters were handled by the teachers responsible for the clubs. However, the student council had to supervise that there were no clashes between different factions.

A problem often arose when one student was sought by two different clubs, which had overlapping schedules in the tournament. Each side conveniently ignored the fact that no matter how skilled the athlete was - he couldn’t clone himself to be in two places at once.

“But he’s our strongest striker! Our team’s power will be cut by half without him! Tell them to find somebody else!”

The manager of the soccer team yelled, unwilling to hand over his ace.

“I definitely understand your position, sir.”

Sophia nodded in agreement, but she nonetheless argued back.

“However, Mike can definitely win multiple awards in track competitions. If he merely plays soccer, then he’s limited to getting only one award for the school.”

“What do you know, girl? Soccer is the real star of the whole event!”

Such debates often led nowhere in Erika’s experience. Each club claimed itself superior to the rest and pretended to be the pillar of the whole tournament.

“My, these are such unfortunate circumstances.”

Erika meditated between Sophia and the soccer manager.

“This is clearly above our heads. We’ll arrange you a meeting with the manager of the track team. Please, sort out this issue with her.”

Erika smiled politely toward the manager and made him accept the offer. Sophia didn’t feel in peace with this resolution, however.

“Are you absolutely sure about this, Eri? The deadline is Tuesday, we definitely can’t leave any conflicts of this sort.”

“Don’t worry, Sophy. There are over two weeks until the event, we’ll have enough time to sort things out.”

Erika smiled casually, contrasting Sophia’s uptight posture.

There were many good things which could be said about Sophia. She was a diligent girl, always meeting deadlines and flawlessly executing her tasks. Alas, she had one glaring flaw: she was wired like a robot.

The deadline for the task was on Tuesday, therefore everything had to be perfectly settled by then. The slightest error was going to stain Sophia’s reputation for life and to make her lose face in public.

Sophy is such a worrywart.

Pushing some issues beyond deadline wasn’t the end of the world. The student council existed as a semi-club in order to let its members support each other, not to punish. But, for some reason, it was impossible Sophia to see things this way.

Sophia sparked heated arguments with club managers in order to secure the deadline, instead of redirecting the issues to the right channels and relieving herself from misplaced responsibility. Hence, she made poor progress and Erika often had to help out.

“My, this was so much trouble...”

Erika spat a sigh of relief once they cleared up most of the big conflicts. Thanks to Erika’s support, Sophia was able to “resolve” many of the problems... by pushing the responsibility onto the club managers themselves.

“Thank you for the help, Eri.”

Sophia wasn’t entirely content with these resolutions, but she had to submit to Erika’s reasoning. No matter how strongly Sophia willed it, the student council had no position or power to handle real clashes between authority figures. They could bring the issues to everybody’s attention, but nothing more.

“Do you have any remaining tasks? Let me help you out.”

Sophia was eager to repay Erika for all the help she received. It was hard to admit, but Sophia had no chance of wrapping up her tasks without Erika’s guidance. It made her hate her own incompetence, but it also made her respect her “boss” that much more.

“Hmm... let’s see...”

Erika was exhausted from all the walking they did in the past hour. The blazing sun was melting her brain, to the point she wished to turn into a puddle of sweat and laze on the ground.

“Here you go, Eri.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Erika received a bottle of water from Sophia and relieved some of her fatigue. Sophia was way better prepared for this adventure than Erika, going as far as carrying two water bottles around. There were times like these when Sophia’s strictness was a positive thing too, which made Erika respect her friend.

“My last task, let’s see... I need to form the dodgeball team, it seems.”

This task was a misfortune that befell Erika, for there was no official dodgeball club at school. She had to form the whole dodgeball team from scratch... out of volunteers. Not to mention, the schedule for dodgeball matches overlapped with many other competitions on the day of the tournament.

Now that I think about it, I probably procrastinated too much with this...

It seemed like such an impossible task, that Erika couldn’t even bring herself to begin it. Walking around and pleading to random students sounded painfully inefficient.

“Very well, let me handle it.”

Sophia volunteered with unwavering confidence. No matter how taxing the mission was, for Sophia the only course of action was to obey and fulfil it like a machine.

“Are you sure you can handle it, Sophy?”

“Definitely. I can’t let you do all my work for me without paying you back.”

“Alright then...”

Erika wasn’t convinced in the slightest, but she let Sophia inherit this painful task. As far as fairness was concerned, Erika truly deserved to be released of any more work after helping Sophia so much.

Sadly, Erika’s fears regarding the task soon confirmed themselves. The most likely candidates for the dodgeball team were benchwarmers from other sport clubs, and Sophia employed spectacular conversation starters with them:

“You weren’t picked to participate in any competition, therefore you should contribute by joining the dodgeball team. Your team already has enough reserves without you.”

Most students didn’t want to hear a single word beyond that. They were pissed off and everything Sophia said afterwards fell on deaf ears.

“Sophy... you need to appeal to them, not to rub salt into their wounds.”

Club members, who didn’t even get to be reserves for the team, were already dispirited enough. They had zero motivation to help people who treated them as fodder.

With some advice, Sophia managed to gather three boys for the team. She only needed five members, so three players were already more than halfway through. There was another hurdle, however.

Unlike other team sports in the tournament, dodgeball was unisex. In fact, the rules demanded a minimum of two players from each sex on the team. If finding male volunteers was a challenge, then finding female volunteers was nigh impossible.

Most girls didn’t appreciate a sport where the goal was to kill each other. They didn’t want to be rent asunder and Erika sympathized. After all, she was put through dodgeball hell just the other day.

Mini seemed to enjoy dodgeball, a tad too much even. I wonder if I could sneak her into the list.

Even with one paralyzed arm, Mina was a destructive force to be reckoned with. She wasn’t registered to any sport club, but there was no a shadow of doubt regarding her athletic skill.

Time for a little revenge~ You wanted dodgeball? You get dodgeball!

Erika registered the goddess of destruction to the dodgeball team. Mina almost wiped Erika out of existence with her strong shots, therefore it was Mina’s responsibility to participate.

“Mina Park...? Why her? She’s not in any sport club.”

Sophia narrowed her eyes while reading off her phone.

“She’s... a little special. She’s not in any club, but I can guarantee her sharpshooting is top notch. She was the one to beat me up during PE yesterday.”

“... did she agree to help?”

“Yes, she expressed interest.”

“... is that so.”

Sophia was still unconvinced with this pick, especially since gathering the dodgeball team was technically her responsibility. It seemed like she had more to say regarding the inclusion of Mina on the team, but she had to give up. After all, no other girl volunteered

“I...”

Sophia mumbled and bit her lip. Even after taking the task from Erika, she failed to see it through. Not only that, but the team formed thus far was only possible thanks to Erika’s helpful advice.

Sophia felt guilty about her incompetence. Therefore, she made a bold decision.

“I’ll nominate myself.”

“My, are you going to join the team?”

“Yes, I’ll take responsibility to the end. I can’t let you do all the work for me.”

Sophia was very reluctant at first, but her confidence surged as she spoke. The suggestion seemed a tad unreasonable, as Sophia was excused from most PE activities due to an old injury. Nevertheless, her pride and commitment defied such challenges.

“I’ll definitely make sure our dodgeball team wins this year.”

“Eh...?”

How did this task escalate from “gathering enough members” all the way to “winning at any cost”? What scared Erika even more, was how dead serious Sophia was about this absurd idea.

Sophy and Mini on the same team? I have a bad feeling about it...