Jake Addams April 19th, 20XX

“ Jake!”

A familiar younger guy, probably a first year ran up to me with a small crowd right behind him. they stopped about ten feet before he did, leaving only him to stand right beside me.

He looked at me with expectant eyes that triggered me to search my memories for his name.

“ uuh… Teor right?”

He nodded at a supersonic pace and looked back at the crowd with a gloating expression on his face that made even I, the one it was not directed towards, want to pinch it off his face. One of the girls in the crowd stuck out her tongue at him in a childish manner but shoved it back into her mouth when she realized I was watching her.

Teor ignored her and the others and turned back to me with that same expectant look in his eyes.

“ We know that since you broke it off with Alice you won't be joining her group...and I and my friends weren't all that close to the group in the first place so we wanted…. to maybe... team up with you for the showcase?”

At my surprised expression, he began to talk faster like he was in a race against himself or any thoughts of rejection that I may have had.

“ Don't get us wrong! it's not that we think you wouldn't be able to find anyone else it's just that we know that the third years Have to participate in order to graduate and first years cannot participate without being on a third year’s team so we hoped to team up with you!”

He ran out of words to say and simply just looked at me with imploring eyes. At some point, the rest of his group of at least 20 had floated up to stand right behind him so I struggled to think up a good response with 13 pairs of eyes on me.

Still, it was heartwarming to think that they had left the group of their own volition in order to help me out. the truth was that even if they were just extras in whatever setting they chose to take part of, just the participation points for such a large group would have been enough to propel them into being the leads of other more minor productions. be it singing or theatre.

“Ah... Thanks for that, I really appreciate it but I'm already a part of someone else's production…”

Like in a carton their faces simultaneously fell in disappointment which propelled me to hurry and tack on the next sentence. a choice which I soon grew to regret.

“ But since you guys already left Alice’s on my behalf I'll make sure you guys can join. I'm sure she won't mind.”

Teor, in particular, began to cheer but then froze in a rather fitting manner for a theatre student and his already large eyes widened.

“ …She?”

At the time I didn't really think much of it so I just nodded in response.

“ Yeah, since I didn't have a group I ended up pairing up with Sparrow and Finn. Right now we only have the design part so I'm sure that she won't mind registering as a multifaceted group so you guys can participate. I'll help out wherever I can as well.”

Well, I didn't even really know if I could count Finn as a part of our group but since Sparrow had been speaking so authoritatively about him and his role, I had begun to think that way as well.

They all murmured amongst themselves but one of them the girl that had previously stuck out her tongue at Teor seamlessly diverted the conversation somewhere else.

“ But the runway event? If you don't have any other sections then how can we-”

She said implying that the majority of them were only first years. She herself was a second year but she was one of few.

“ Pull on our own shows?

I could only smile in a bittersweet manner and say as lightly as I could,

Stolen novel; please report.

“ We already signed up under Alice... At my insistence no less but it’s not like they all joined because of me. I doubt any of them would want to leave a good gig just because of my break up.”

Doubtful expressions ran through the crowd so I hurried to put their minds at ease, thinking that they were anxious because of the lack of guidance.

“ Don't worry, I’ll help out as much as possible, and if needed I’ll ask a couple of third years I know to join us. We may not be able to win but I guarantee that it'll be a good experience for you guys.”

I could swear I saw someone's eyes roll but just as quickly as it was done it was replaced with a genuine expression.

The girl… I think her name was Nikki, who had stuck out her tongue before suddenly put on a big smile and began to usher the others away.

“ Do you mind if we bring a few more people as well then? There are others but they didn't know if you would even want to work with us.”

I nodded immediately, thinking that it couldn't hurt to have one or two more people.

If you choose to apply s a multi-faceted group or a company, then each section had to have at least 7 members participating. If possible I would like for each of them to be able to participate in sections relating to their departments rather than like myself who was modeling even though I was a sports student.

She smiled once more and pushed everyone away leaving me by myself once again.

I was confused but I figured out things would clear themselves up eventually and began to call Sparrow, thinking of how to propose to her to expand into a company rather than a group.

According to the rankings:

If you only participated in one specialized event you would be called a group. If you competed in multiple but related events like; modeling, fashion/set design and photography then you could be called a faction. If you participated in multiple varied events you could be called a company And if you competed in all then you could be called a conglomerate.

Alice’s group was close to being a conglomerate but she had failed to convince anyone from the classical music department or any of the traditional clubs to join her.

They were the only departments that were not required to participate in the showcase and had their own separate event later in the year.

I called a few more times but the phone rang to no end and I eventually decided to go directly to her, thinking that she was probably over-focused on one thing or the other.

It was on my way that my teammates suddenly accosted me with angry expressions on their faces. Matthew, my vice-captain for the track team being the ringleader of the left and Conor, the vice-captain of the mixed martial arts team on the right.

“Jake!”

Conor roared, attracting the attention of everyone else in the courtyard. In a few bounds he leaped into a grapple, trying to take me down to show his anger at me but I had been training with him for more than just a few years and knew all of his patterns.

There was a reason why he was still the vice-captain and I was the captain after all.

I dodged his attack and kicked backward, making him land on his face.

Taking heed of the other members of both clubs I sank into a defensive position and waited, thoroughly enraged. More than a few of them were scholarship students and unlike myself, they had yet to earn any merit for the school. I feared that if they were caught doing this they would be kicked out.

“ Anyone else wants to completely disregard school rules and start a fight outside of the practice area? If so-”

I switched to an offensive stance to emphasize my last point.

“ I’ll have to take it upon myself to educate you guys properly before I graduate.”

the whole club immediately backed down, putting their palms together and bowing their heads as they had already lost the fight, and the track team that never actually saw me fight was startled into doing the same.

By this time Conor got up with an even angrier expression on his face but it was obscured by all the dirt that clouded his eyebrows and lashes. Perhaps I had hit him a little too harshly but I needed to use him as an example and I knew that he could take it.

Matthew stepped forward with an uncharacteristically angry expression on his usually good-natured face.

“ Captain! how could you leave Alice's group and not tell us?! AND on top of that, you decided to take a bunch of Art students with you but not us?! Why? Do you think any of us hold any sort of loyalty to Alice? Don't remember that if not for you all of us would have stayed out of this. We want to be sports students, not all around that fill in spots missing under her dictatorship.”

Conor joined in.

“ Exactly! We all already Quit Alice’s group so make sure you make space for all of us in whatever group or faction or company or whatever you decided to join. it's the least you can do after all we’ve put up with on your behalf.”

I tried to convince them to go back to Alice thinking of how burdened Sparrow would be as well as all of Alice's connections that they were abandoning on my behalf. But I couldn't help but feel warm at the comradeship that they were showing me.

I ran an embarrassed hand through my hair and chuckled, not wanting to make this into a cheesy moment.

“ If you guys are willing to stay with me for that long, then let’s go to the end, yeah?”

Despite my best efforts the guys still groaned and saw me off with jeers about how I’d gotten soft and tacky.

But this time, just this once I would let them off with only a doubled intensity practice.