The first Monday after Manha High School’s big schedule change came to an end, students were either fleeing the school grounds, getting ready for sports practice or starting their after school activities. On the second floor of the building was a classroom, classroom 204C. It wasn’t really a classroom. The room was actually a conference room tucked into a hallway full of other classrooms. For that reason, people still referred to it as a classroom even though a class had never been held there.

The last period of the day just recently ended so students could be seen walking away from the school outside of the window. Some headed towards the line of buses, others walked to cars waiting for them in the adjacent lot. A mix of parents picking up their children and upper classmen driving themselves home. With having this many vehicles in a singular place it was only natural for complete chaos to ensue. Some students avoided this, either walking or biking home, avoiding the roads and parking lots..

Four students sat in classroom 204C, all of them female. Room 204C was only a classroom by name, its true nature was as a meeting room for the student council. The room was smaller than other classrooms. It still had a projector hanging from the ceiling pointing towards a screen on one of the walls. The other walls were littered with posters that shouted inspirational quotes in colorful and large fonts with cutely drawn images of cartoon students. A sole table sat centered in the room. It was a long ellipse that could hold around seven to ten people. The light from outside shined through the window and reflected off the fine wood finish of the table.

Rose Visca, the student council president, was sitting at the head of this table. She was typing away vigorously on her laptop. Her glasses that sat snuggly on her nose, reflecting her screen.

Rose Visca was a junior at Manha High School. She inherited the title of student council president from a senior who graduated last year. She had been in the council since her freshman year but this was her first year as president. She usually held herself in a professional manner at school, but when it came to her duties as the student council president, she usually brought an extra level of intensity. This led to other students finding her intimidating and even a bit insufferable. She deemed this was only a natural consequence with being placed in such a prominent and important role.

Along with the clacks from Rose's typing, a constant sound of light scribbling filled the room. Two seats down from her right sat Kobani who was propped up on her knees so she could more easily reach the height of the table. She was sketching a picture of baby birds in a nest being fed by their mother. It was of course extremely well done.

Kobani Schuster was a senior at Manha High School. Although almost eighteen, she had to sit on her knees in these conference room chairs to get her head above the table. Due to her small stature, if she sat down regularly at the table her head would barely peak over the table. This made it quite easy for her to go unnoticed. She had joined the student council during her junior year based on teacher recommendations as well as recommendations from Rose and other members. Not many students knew she was even a part of the student council, for she was the only female council member who didn’t wear a dress shirt at school. She sported her signature oversized sweater.

“Would you like the number of absences to be an average between all class periods or should I just give you the totals from each period?”

A girl sitting at the opposite end from Rose spoke.

“An average will be sufficient but document both. Thank you Kate.” Rose replied.

“Consider it done.”

Kate went back to punching numbers into her calculator and scribbling down on a clipboard. The focus in her eyes showed behind her overly large glasses.

Kate Meng was a junior at Manha High School. She had joined her freshman year along with Rose. Although her help here was greatly appreciated, she was mostly known for her duties as the head hall monitor. Similar to how seriously Rose took her job as student council president, she was more than meticulous when planning, scheduling and enforcing her duties as head monitor.

“Ugh, when are we gonna start?" A girl with her legs propped onto the table said.

“In a minute.” Rose replied, not looking up from her screen.

“I don’t like my time being wasted.”

“We’re waiting for the new member that Rose picked out,” Kobani said, “I wonder who he is?”

“Does it really matter? It’s just some caveman Rose fetched. He’ll be completely useless just like the rest of them.”

“I’ll give him a proper introduction when he arrives,” Rose peered up from her laptop, “Sarah would you please get your shoes off the table, it’s quite unprofessional.”

“Whatever,” she complied with her president’s orders, still leaning way back in her chair and reading her paperback novel.

Sarah Hunt was a sophomore at Manha High School. She was regarded as an academic prodigy. Although still a sophomore, she had taken the ACT and SAT her freshman year and scored both a perfect 36 and 1600 respectively. If it wasn’t for her poor behavior, her academic achievements alone would allow her to go to any college in the country. That’s why she had joined the student council this year. Her father on the school board had to pull a few strings to get her here so she could improve her college resume. She didn’t have the greatest reputation among the teachers and teacher recommendations were one of the main factors for deciding a new council member. Her father hoped that her joining would simultaneously help her college resume and her poor behavior. The latter seemed to have been a failure so far.

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The door to classroom 204C opened slowly. A tall figure hesitantly walked into the room.

“A bit late but you showed up,” Rose pointed to the seat adjacent to Sarah’s, “Sit down and we can get started.”

***

Despair filled Chad’s entire being. He had just begun the portion of his day he was dreading the most. The after school student council meeting. The fact that this meeting wasn’t going to be a one time thing and would have to be implemented into his daily routine made him feel that he was willfully accepting torture. Although it hadn’t started, he just knew this was going to be the worst part of his day.

His eyes went directly from Rose to the chair she had pointed to. His legs quickly followed suit and he was promptly seating himself in the chair. There were other people in this room, but he didn’t really care. The only duty that she had given him was to show up to these meetings. Participating and interacting with other people wasn’t a part of the contract.

“Alright,” Rose stood up at the head of the table, “Now that we’re all here we can commence the meeting.”

“Argh! Bam”

The person to his left slammed something onto the wooden table.

“I get headaches being too close to stupid people, can he sit next to Ko-ko instead?”

That voice.

The voice definitely belonged to a female but was way too sharp to be considered ladylike by any means. It had an arrogant and almost edgy tone to it.

He finally looked at the person next to him who seemed to be ridiculing his intellect.

What the-!

He stood up and pointed at the girl.

“Y-you?!?”

Words slipped from his tongue due to his astonishment.

“W-what are you doing here?”

The girl with the disastrous behavioral issues he met in Calculus class was sitting right beside him. Her last name was Hunt if he remembered correctly and Peter said she was bad news. There was no mistaking it. Her dark blue eyes pierced into Chad’s soul, digging their way into his flesh. Although she leaned back lackadaisically with her white dress shirt untucked, this girl’s aura was hostile.

“Is he really going to be this slow?” The girl lengthened the vowels in her words, “Aaiim iiin zaaa stuuudent coouunciil.”

“W-why would they have a delinquent in the student council?”

“I’m not a delinquent you imbecile.”

“Alright enough!”

Rose’s voice took hold of the room.

“It seems the two of you are already acquainted, but I still need to introduce him to everyone else.”

Sarah flipped her black hair, “I’m still not sitting next to him unless you prescribe me some oxy for the migraine he’s causing me.”

“The hell’s your problem?” Chad said, finding his thoughts materializing into words instead of being kept in his head as usual.

“My problem is that we have some half-brained monkey joining the student council. I mean look at him, he has incompetence written on his face. He can’t even comprehend what’s going on around him.”

“He’s not dumb!”

Someone’s shout cutoff Sarah’s harassment. Chad looked across the table to the source of the shout. His sight was met with two green eyes staring right back at him.

Wait, I think I know her.

A small girl was leaning forward onto the table with her feet presumably propping her up from her chair. She wore a sweatshirt that encompassed her entire body.

“Kobani?”

Kobani was leaning across the table, her eyes wide, almost as if he had caught her off guard. Her arms holding her upper body lost structural integrity from her slippery sleeves covering up her hands. She slid forward and landed face first on the table. She didn’t seem to be in pain, but she stayed in that position when she replied , face first into the table.

“Oh, um… Hey Chad, I didn’t know you were our new member.”

“Yea… I didn’t know you were on the student council either.”

While he and Kobani talked, Sarah had picked her chair up and carried it to the corner of the room furthest from him.

“If you’re not going to move then I will.”

“Please don’t be mean to Chad.” Kobani said, sliding back into her chair.

“If you’re so fond of him Ko-ko then you sit next to him. Or are you too scared?”

Kobani smothered her face into her sleeve covered hands.

Scared?

“Chad,” Rose let out a sigh, “If you wouldn’t mind, could you please switch seats to the one next to Ko-ko so we can have all of our members present at the table?”

Rose glared at Sarah sitting in the corner of the room.

“Gladly.”

He stood up and walked around the table, making sure to go around the side that stayed the furthest from Sarah. He promptly took a seat next to Kobani, whose nickname seemed to be Ko-ko. He was now seated with her to his right and the student council president to his left.

Sarah carried her chair back to the table from the corner, resuming her comfortable position and reading her paperback.

“Kate, do you want to bring up how you already know Chad so I won’t have to introduce him?”

“I have never seen him in my life.” A girl, who Chad had never seen in his life, replied bluntly. The light that reflected from her large glasses almost blinded him.

“Ok,” Rose let out another sigh, “This is Chad Nosmith. He is the student that I selected to join when the school board requested we induct a male member. He had high recommendations from all of his teachers and he is a great student,” she glanced at Sarah, “I think he will make for a great council member.”

“Objection.” Sarah raised her hand.

“I’m not taking any objections.”

“But-”

“Sarah!” Rose, for the first time, lost her composure.

“Fine…”

After she recomposed herself, the meeting started. It was now almost quarter past three, about ten minutes after when they were supposed to start.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?