Holy shit she looks pissed.

Rose usually had a very stern look on her face at school, but when she entered, the temperature of the room plummeted to sub arctic levels just from her icy glare.

“As I said, I just got back from an emergency meeting with the school board. It was about a vandalizing incident that took place at the local library.”

Oh yea, I saw that on the news. I’ll have to ask Yuna about it this weekend when I go in for work.

“How does that relate to us?” Kobani asked.

“The culprits were three high school aged boys, presumably students here. The librarian got a pretty decent look at one of them and was able to file a detailed report to the police. We have their physical descriptions.”

She took out a piece of paper.

“The librarian only caught fleeting glimpses of two out of the three. One was a bit shorter and wider while the other was taller and skinnier. Both hard dark hair. That was all she was able to say about those two.

“The third culprit, the one who actually did the vandalizing, the librarian was able to get a lot better of a look at. She actually put in the report ‘the dimwitted little son of a bitch just stood and stared at me through the window, like he was posing for a photoshoot. I ran outside to go kick his ass but he darted away before I could catch him.’

“As for a physical description, he has bright blonde hair, blue eyes and stands at around five and a half feet tall. He had an athletic build and the librarian specifically noted that he was very fast.”

For claiming to have such a good look at him, why couldn't Yuna spot a notable feature or something? That’s a pretty generic description of an average high school boy.

“Can anybody think of people who fit these descriptions?”

“No.”

“Not really.”

“I can’t tell the cavemen apart from one another.”

Chad just shrugged in response.

With a sigh, Rose continued her summary of the meeting.

“This also isn’t an isolated incident. Many places all across Manha have been vandalized by the same group, each being tagged by a spray painted picture of a crown with a zero in it. This is just the first instance where the culprits were spotted. Their appearance has made boys in our student body the number one suspects.”

“Again, how does this relate to us?” Chad reemphasized Kobani’s question “This seems like something that the police and the school board should be worried about. Why are you acting like it's the student council’s problem?”

“We will of course let them take care of the legal end, but as the student council we should do everything in our power to catch them. It’s our responsibility. We can’t have student’s of Manha High School promoting such dishonorable behavior. Our image as a school will crumble.”

“I’m with Chad. Seems like a huge bother just to try to prevent the inevitable. Even if we catch them, you can’t take the idiocy out of neanderthals. It seems inevitable that this will just happen again.”

Is she agreeing with me? A-and did she just call me by name?

Sarah had given her opinion as to why they shouldn’t be involved in these affairs, arguing for his point. Albeit, in her extremely male prejudiced way. This was also the first time she had referred to him by his name instead of some form of name-calling related to his inferior intellect.

“The school board assigned us the task of looking into this and stopping it, so there’s that as well…” Rose mumbled.

“Just seems like they’re pushing their work onto us.”

Rose opened her mouth to rebuttal his comment, but decided to continue to lead the meeting.

“I wasn’t expecting us to identify them off the bat, but I didn’t think it would hurt to ask. What I really wanted to discuss is what we can do to promote against this behavior. That is something more in our control. Does anybody have any ideas?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Oh, a pep rally!” Kobani said excitedly.

“Because the last one went so well.”

Rose glared at Chad.

“I believe the cause of the last one’s failure was due to extreme circumstances. The culmination of the shock and extreme implications of the announcement led to chaos. I also don’t think it went well that the news came from us. Our reputation amongst the student body is currently not the best.

“But if we are able to separate ourselves from this next pep rally and orchestrate it from the shadows, then maybe they’ll have a less hostile reaction. Ko-ko, what were you thinking about doing for the pep rally.”

“Well uh, maybe some sort of event. I’ve heard of other schools bringing in performance acts such as BMX riders and jugglers to promote anti-drug campaigns. Maybe something like that?”

“Cuz nothing says ‘don’t vandalize buildings’ like some hoodlum doing a backflip on a bike…”

Kobani shrunk in her chair at Sarah’s comment.

“I’m sorry Ko-ko… I didn’t mean to shoot down your idea like that… I just hope you understand the point I’m trying to make.”

She looked sympathetic and regretful for dissing her idea so bluntly. It surprised Chad to see the ruthless Sarah show some humanity for once.

“It’s ok… it was a dumb idea anyways.”

“It wasn’t a dumb idea at all.”

“Yea, cheer up Ko-ko.”

“I thought the idea sounded fun.”

“Uh yea, everythings alright. It’s a good idea but maybe just the wrong time for it.”

Everyone seemed to be consoling Kobani, so Chad felt forced to join in even though he hadn’t prepared himself to.

“The wrong time…”

Rose put a finger to her lips.

After a bit more discussion that didn’t lead anywhere, she ended the meeting, dismissing all the members.

Everyone began packing up, but before Chad could flee the room, Rose addressed one last thing.

“Chad, may you please stay for a little while?”

“Why me? Did I do something?”

“You didn’t do anything, I just need you to stay after with me for a bit.”

Ugh.

He didn’t let his inner thoughts that were portraying an eye roll show, instead he obediently sat back down in his seat and waited for everyone else to clear the room.

The silence sapped the energy out of him like a leech. Rose’s typing was the only thing reminding him he wasn’t deaf.

“Is there something you wanted to discuss with me?”

“One moment, I just need to quick finish this.”

Request me and then make me wait, is this some sort of intimidation tactic?

She seemed extraordinarily focused on whatever she was doing on her laptop.

Chad turned his gaze towards the window.

This is such a waste of time. Wait, why do I care about wasting time? I wasn’t going to do anything productive when I got home anyways. Well, I have that art assignment, but that’ll take five minutes. Maybe I should do that now? Nah. With my luck, as soon as I start working on it she’ll begin talking to me and demand my undistracted attention.

This sucks though. I usually take pleasure in sitting around and doing nothing, but now it feels so weird. Is it because somebody else is around? No. I can sit around and do nothing in large crowds at sporting events or school assemblies, so just other people being around isn’t causing the discomfort. Maybe it's because of who's around. Now I might be onto something. Rose is quite the nuisance.

Although, I’m not sure if that really explains why I feel so uncomfortable right now. Sure Rose is basically a borderline stalker, showing up at my house at random times and even at my work, but that doesn’t make me feel necessarily “uncomfortable”. I get more annoyed with her than anything. Hell, maybe I could even say I get angry with her and how she forced me into joining the student council. Not uncomfortable.

This feeling of sitting around, as if you shouldn’t be there, but you can see no reason why you should be feeling that way. It's completely irrational, and that only plays into it more. It's a feedback loop of growing discomfort. What the hell am I even saying right now?

Coming back to his senses, he noticed something was off. The room was now in complete silence. He looked over to see that Rose was no longer typing.

In fact, she was no longer conscious. She seemed to have dozed off in her chair, with her glasses slipping to the end of her nose.

She seemed peaceful resting there, matching the tranquility of the room. The setting sun gave everything a shade of red, turning her pale skin into a shimmering gold. Her chest rose and fell as she breathed shallowly. Her face was soft and exceptionally youthful, as if all the stress of the day had been lifted away by her slumber.

He took her nap as his cue to leave and began to stand up.

“Please don’t cry, It’s ok… I’ll handle this… Don’t worry, I’ll take care of that… I can do it, no problem… I’ll persevere, don’t worry about me, I’m fine…”

Chad turned around right before he grabbed the handle to the door. He thought Rose had awakened and said something to him, but it just seemed as if she was mumbling in her sleep.

Should I just leave her here?

He pondered the thought for a second and then decided there was no reason not to. She was safe so it didn’t seem negligent of him to leave her like this. She’ll wake up and go home when she’s ready, she doesn't need him to be her alarm clock.

“Sleep well I guess,” he mumbled as he finally got to leave school for the day.