Yuuta

It felt like some boogeyman popped into the door right in front of me however, that boogeyman was Alessia herself. I was frozen while Christian immediately raised his eyebrows,

“Are we really having new members?!”

Alessia crossed her eyes as she speaks to him. “Apparently yes, Miss Garcia told me so.”

“Oh right.” He said as he returns to his gaze to the papers. He looked at his smartphone as he heard the ringtone and scrolled through his phone. He stood up and looked at our direction.

“Gotta go, I have to attend the snorefest… I mean Student Council Meeting.” He said before leaving the club room.

“Sure.” I said as I pull up a marker and started lettering and Alessia sits across the table reading.

I looked at Alessia after stroking a letter ‘K’ on the paper with a marker.

“No, seriously we hadn’t got a word that Miss Garcia would have a new member on the club.”

She said nonchalantly as she flips the page on her novel,

“This is the only club that suits me best.”

I don’t think a club this obscure that would let her stay. I could see her being on the drama club probably acting as the stepmother from the play Sinderella or something. I think she would fit her role as the main antagonist on a play plus her looks, the drama club would have boosted their popularity.

Then again, that’s just me who got rejected on the drama club because of something petty as having looks.

I raised my eyebrow as she speaks and put the marker aside,

“I’d bet your ass would fit on the drama club than this obscure club.”

She slips a bookmark on her book and shifted her lifeless gaze at me,

“Isn’t because I’m more attractive and charismatic than you that you couldn’t join the drama club?” She made a smug at me. “Not even a single shot you would be picked even if you took the role as a tree.”

I shook my head, “No, seriously you would fit in the drama club.”

I unironically said it to her. And she made a wry smile,

“I was but unfortunately I said that the dialogue in the script was forced, and it feels like the director’s self-insert play. I was hated by the club president who is the director and the protagonist of the play.”

“That’s rather… convenient.”

She shifts her gaze at the poster I was working on.

“By the way, what are you doing here…?” She said looking at the poster I made which ended up looking like a war banner. “You’re making a poster.”

“I was making a poster for the club. Somehow Christian can’t draw.”

I show Christian’s doodle on the ‘Poster’ I saw earlier. She took it and looked in disgust,

“This… This looks like a drawing of a five-year-old.”

I smiled wryly, “Yeah it is, a waste of paper.”

I took a quick glance at the poster I made and it looked like a war banner with the name of the club written vertically and the banner was drawn in burning red pouring much passion on the color. But to be honest, I still suck at writing Roman letters.

“What is this club about? Come to think of it Miss Garcia didn’t bring it up.” She said as she returns the poster to the desk and picks up the book she was reading.

To me, I wasn’t that sure the main reason why is this club established. I haven’t asked Christian why he would volunteer to establish this club.

I’m gonna make a wild guess based on what he would likely say if he asked the same question to him.

“It’s about helping other people I guess, that’s what I know…”

“Helping what? Students? Charity?”

“No Idea.” I shrugged.

She rolled her eyes away from me,

“Well, this club is useless then. Asking us for help and then they would come back to do it again once they are in trouble again.”

“Then I should have got my club dismissal form signed right now.” I sighed, “But it’s either Garcia-sensei would nag me until the end of the semester or I would waste my staying here doing nothing every after school.”

“So you’re on the same case as I do… She keeps nagging me to join a club.”

I nodded, “Mmm, getting tired of it nagging me to join a club for a couple of days.”

“At least you’re not me, she’s been nagging me to join a club for the whole year. But now I’m part of this club, she might stop nagging me again unless we graduate.”

“Yeah, I hope so.”

I continued on making posters with my trusty marker. I’ve been trying to reproduce the design I came up with earlier with some variations into it hoping it would look like a real poster rather than a war banner.

I had to do this again later.

“You know, it’s a bit boring not doing anything in this club.” She said indifferently as she rolled her eyes around the room.

“Christian got me into this club since I don’t have any choice.” I paused as I took a new paper to scribble on, “And also to repay him, I might help him get more members.”

“Since when did you start pretending to be the part of the Student Council?”

She said while still remaining with her cool composure and her eyes were glaring daggers on me.

“I’m not entitled to be a member of any positions in the Student Council even the club suggests that the members here are the Student Council.”

“Then, change it into Student Help Desk or Service Club. That’s a fitting name if that’s the purpose.” She paused as she took a glance at me, “That’s just the same purpose as the Student Council label on it because of Christian.”

“Since when did you start renaming the club you just joined on?!” I retorted.

So this is the reason why she got kicked out from the Drama Club. Her arrogance starts getting into me since yesterday.

I remained silent as I continued working on the poster with some markers,

”Do you have something to do here?” She asked while remaining on her cold tone,

“I’m just making posters here.”

“Even if they would get neglected and thrown out in the end, I feel bad for the trees.”

“Hmm, but at the least to get more attention to the student body that would need some help with.”

I gave her some markers and papers to the position on her.

“Here, just try making posters for the club since you’re in.”

She started doodling with the markers I gave to her. She picked up a black marker and made four circles, a large one with smaller circles on the middle of the circle, and two on the upper sides. She proceeds to draw two dots inside the circle and a mouth.

By looking at the Illustration on the paper, it’s a bear but it looks cartoonish based on the presentation.

I tilted my head after she’s done drawing the Illustration.

“A bear? Do you have a liking on bears?”

“Mhm, and they symbolize solitude.”

Yes bears can go alone and they are stronger beings than humans, but having a cute bear is not something that comes in my mind.

“But why is it like that? It looks some sort of a mascot.”

I looked at the Illustration again and it looks simple as if a mascot out of a brand with some alterations to avoid any legal issues. More like a bootleg of an iconic mascot.

“I like cute bears; they look appealing to the eye.”

“That’s surprisingly blatant!”

Anyway, it sounds like she’s trying to sound cute but still remain her cold tone still tabs through my chest as if an icicle impaled on my chest instead of her charm.

She took another paper and drew a complicated shape and started drawing out the details of the sketch. I took a chair and brought out my smartphone to read some E-books.

“Here.” She gave me the picture after twenty minutes of hearing scribbling noises.

She presented an illustration of a grizzly bear about to maul a salmon, the details on the sketch looked spectacular yet intimidating to see a bear mauling a salmon caught with different strokes of markers. Just how she could draw like this over a span of twenty minutes?!

“Ah, it’s obviously like you I guess.”

I looked at the two pictures and she took a new paper to draw on an actual poster just like what I was working on earlier. While she was working, I took the marker and started continuing the poster design right on my mind after looking at the posters at the club board earlier.

In the end, she’s gone into the cute bears reaching their arms together. Along with the letters formed nicely to create a presentable poster to the ones can see it.

♦

As the both of us were finished working on the posters, Christian arrives holding a folder with him,

“So you guys are having fun.” He said as he sits the chair across the desk.

He took a glance at the table and found different styles of posters in the table. All of them at the least look more presentable than Christian did earlier. He took the two papers that stood out on his vision. One poster is from Alessia’s with a cute bear Illustration, the latter mine.

“These posters looked amazing,” Christian said as if his book got signed by his favorite author.

“Are we posting this or not?”

“Of course!” He said brimming with excitement on his face while Alessia remained neutral as she brought out her smartphone and wears an indifferent face as she swipes through her phone.

“Ahh… yeah, we might secure a permit to the student council to post these.” I said while avoiding his gaze.

“Leave it to me!” he said as he made a smug holding the two pieces of paper that Alessia and I drew on earlier.

“By the way, what’s the purpose of this club?”

With all the excitement in Christian’s body suddenly falls as a cold voice fills the whole room. Alessia took a cold stare at Christian, the same emotionless stare that she used on me earlier.

“Ah... As far as I know, basically to help other students…” He said while trying to look into her face.

That’s the same question I’ve been trying to ask Christian yesterday but I haven’t got an opportunity to do so.

“In what aspect?”

She said as if her tongue lashes throughout Christian's flesh from her tone of voice.

“Academics, personal issues; more like a service or some sort.” He said directly while tenting his fingers on the desk.

“So you’re meddling into other’s life like that?”

Christian shook his head on Alessia’s attack, “It’s not forced though… It’s their choice if they needed help or they would sort them out of themselves.”

Alessia starts to shake down Christian, but I feel like she’s overdoing it.

“That seems to be an unsustainable reason to be a club.”

“There’s always someone in need around here… I know someone who needs help during their hardest times.”

He said despite his knees started to shake while confronting to Alessia. On his looks, he can still remain his resolve in helping others.

“Might be a good intention to stay at the club until the end of the semester. But what are our club activities for this club?”

“Uh… That’s why I brought this folder here.”

Christian tapped the folder he was carrying with earlier. He opened the contents of the folder and found a school calendar where there are dates to suggest each event that the school holds in the semester. There is a marked day on tomorrow, Friday.

It was written, ‘Student’s Orientation’.

“???”

I read through the school calendar and read through the school events. Some might be familiar, but some are just entirely new for me.

“So, what will be our club activity for tomorrow?”

She asked while crossing her arms.

“Then what are we going to do? Everyone’s looking for clubs tomorrow, and then tell them this is a club that basically does nothing?”

“Ah… Actually, we will be helping the other students to look for the club for them.”

By looking the other paper, there is a list of available clubs, some from smaller circles to bigger clubs. Most of them looked like it’s recently established yet some clubs I attended are not on the listing.

I collected my thoughts and clubs are selectively picking out new students to be members of the club. I checked the drama club and some of them looked reasonable attractive even the members on the back look reasonably attractive.

“You know this will be a huge problem if some students know that some clubs are not open for recruitment.”

Christian said in confidence without any worry into it.

“We talked about that and here’s the list of some clubs open for recruitment.”

This would cause a huge debacle once they know that they are selectively picking members.

Alessia took a copy of available clubs and she clicked her tongue as she read through the whole list of available clubs.

“Tch, I knew these bitches….”

Christian looked at the paper and her index finger was poking towards the Tea Club

“What’s wrong with the tea-”

Alessia said in her sharp tone. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

She remained silent she reads through the note and she put her note aside and looked at Christian’s side,

“So we’re going to set up the desk and assist the school clubs?”

Christian nodded, “Yep, that’s the coverage of the school orientation; some clubs are not open for recruitment though, so we consulted some club who wants new members for this semester.”

“Hmm, since some bigger clubs have closed off recruiting new members. Looking for clubs can be difficult, might be easier if there are promotions of new clubs…” I heaved a sigh, “On the first day!”

Christian said as he moved his chest forward. “I’m sure this list would be that helpful.”

“I’d wish.” She said as she, as she rolls her eyes away from us and Christian approached me on the table,

“You know, I’m a bit afraid of Alessia even if she’s my classmate from a year.” He made a wry smile, “You know what she’s still a pain to talk with her.”

Well, there goes my praise for him, He's not a strong Club president to fight for his cause, but a wimp.

“Now, how we’re gonna convince her”

I asked while doing minimal actions not letting Alessia get her attention, I took a glance at her and she’s been looking at us, I returned to Christian,

“We’re going to talk to her,” He paused, “She might say yes.”

I pressed my right hand on my temples and sighed,

I shook my head, “No, isn’t that the same trick you pulled? Her answer will be the same until the end of the semester.”

“Yes, but I won’t give up trying.”

He still has the audacity to convince her. I might see him not to be convinced time in time, Maybe I found Christian’s Achilles Heel for his convincing powers.

“This would go on until she decides to leave, maybe let us experience what makes you like to do it.”

“I have a plan.” He smirked at me,

I don’t know what his plan is and I’m worried he might pull the plan to convince him. I kinda hope this would work.