September 14, 20XX

They say that people like to be consistent with what they've previously said or done.

Because of that, and only that am I writing outside of club hours. I really don't want to do it, but I did make the commitment to journal as an official club member, and we just had our first official external "club activity", so it's only natural. Claire said she was going to do it, and I would feel embarassed if she noticed I left an entry. Plus, it's too early to get complacent about things. Once you stop, it becomes harder and harder to restart. One time turns into two which turns into five and before you know it you've regressed to the habits and behaviors of early neanderthals. It's a real pain. I don't want to deal with all that down the road. Give it another month or two and then I'll be more comfortable slacking.

Anyway, that's why I'm writing. I am perfectly lazy, I repeat, and that's something I want to be consistent with too. So I'll be brief and get on with my night.

The ramen party—I mean team bonding get-together—was actually a lot of fun. Too fun, in fact.

Everybody showed up, and we had some fun catching up. There was a little trouble at the beginning. A few tough looking guys starting poking insults at Mark while we were waiting in line for seats. They seemed to know him. The restaurant was crazy packed, so we had to deal with it for a while. It made things pretty uncomfortable, and Mark wasn't doing anything besides occasionally rebutting. I couldn't handle it, so I stepped up to them, looked them in the eyes. It's something I'm way used to—confronting people. I had to do a lot of that back in my old school. It was a tough place. I had long gotten over the fear of it. Before I could do anything, however, Mr. Kafka put his hand on my shoulder. He gave me a serious look, and I fell back. From there, he smoothly dealt with the situation, and in the end the offenders left. Mark clicked his tongue and said something about them being guys from his dojo. Apparrantly they had some sort of nonsense grudge against him. He grumbled a thanks to Mr. Kafka, and though it sounded bad, I could tell it was genuine. Mr. Kafka really saved the day, especially because I could've very well made the situation worse if I wasn't careful, and I could've been beat up. Well, I suppose that wouldn't happen with Mark around. I wonder why he didn't intervene in the first place.

Anyway, I'm glad to have a sensible adult in the house.

...Not what I expected to hear myself to say about Mr. Kafka, but he for real came in clutch. He can be pretty goofy, even goofier than me, but down to earth he's a sensible adult.

I wonder how I'll mature... as an adult.

Anyway, from there, the festivities took off. We got seated, and had a blast. We ordered our food (I helped everyone make the best selections through a complex series of alghorithms (taking into consideration their personalities, preferences, and other pizazz), and intution. By intuition—and alghorithms, but mostly intution—I chose the perfect meals for everybody, and we chowed down. I made the mistake of getting into a competition of who can finish their ramen first with Mr. Kafka, later joined by Mark (he won—it blows my mind to this moment) and in the end we finished with massive stomach aches, except for Claire (and Mark, surprisingly—it blows my mind to this moment). Speaking of Claire, in the back of all this, she kept complaining about her evil piano teacher who has a habit of slapping her hands whenever she made a mistake playing. She'd constantly make references to it and her "bleeding hands".

It was great fun, all of it. I'm definitely down for it again in the not-to-distant future.

Ah, I have to be careful not to get too carried away. It's dangerous to get too attached. These people are temporary, after all. Someday we'll leave each other. No matter how much of myself I give them

Anyway, I can't forget that. I mustn't.

So, the evening ends, and I'm at home chilling with my cat. He keeps crawling all over the journal, so if there are any mistakes, I blame him. There. He got the pets, so he should be satisfied.

Also, if there are any mistakes on any of the earlier entries, I blame him for that too. Don't know why I gotta bring in the cat even though he's clearly unrelated and innocent in those matters, but some thing's gotta just be like that, ya know.

With that, I'm wrapping. Gonna get some sleep. Time to chill to some Nujabes, maybe drift to a faraway land.