Oct. 1, 2015 Thu.

Audrey

  "We should start a club!" Audrey said.

  Adrian seemed intrigued by the idea, Looz and Sam were surprised that Audrey would even want to try something like that. Although the two would be supportive of any one of Audrey's ideas, they couldn't help but be a little skeptical. Jacob imagined it would be a sports club. He'd be disappointed. 

  "You want to start a club, Dri?" Looz asked.

  "Yeah, why?" 

  "I know you wanted to be more outgoing, but isn’t a club a little extreme?" 

  "Well yeah, but that's why I said 'we' so I'd feel more comfortable."

  "Good for you babe! I'm happy to see you trying things outside your comfort zone!" Sam applauded.

  "What's wrong with making a club? Are you shy around new people?" Adrian asked. 

  "Well yeah, I just get embarrassed and overwhelmed whenever I have everyone's attention for more than a few minutes," she explained. 

  "Understandable, I get that."

  "What kind of club is it going to be?" Looz asked.

  "Yeah, let's do a health and fitness club!" Jacob said enthusiastically, flexing his muscles.

  "Actually I wanted to make it a writing club," Audrey replied. 

  Adrian perked an eyebrow.

  "That sounds awesome! It'd be nice to meet more people who want to write," he said.

  "Not my style, but if that's what you want, Dri, I'm all for it," Jacob said. 

  "Well, what do we have to do?" Sam asked. 

  "Well, we’d have to get a form from one of the counselors, and then we'd have to have a teacher that'll let us use their classroom," Adrian said. 

  "Let's ask Mrs. Sonne, since you're already there all the time," Audrey said. 

  They walked to Mrs. Sonne's classroom, which was on the third floor. She was a nice younger looking woman, with dark skin and beautiful curly hair. She teaches the creative writing classes that Audrey and Adrian have. 

  “Sorry guys but I’m already sponsoring Jessica’s Acting club,” Sonne said. 

  “Oh, it’s okay Mrs. Sonne,” Audrey replied meekly.

They proceeded to ask every teacher they could think of, all were already sponsoring another club or said no. 

  “There’s one teacher we can ask,” Adrian said. 

  “Who?” Jacob asked.

  “Mr. Harris, the English teacher." 

  "Oh no, like he's gonna let me host a club in his class! He thinks I'm lazy!" Audrey said. 

  "We miss 100% of the shots we don't take, Dri," Jacob told her with mock seriousness. 

  She was apprehensive at first but decided to give it a shot. His class was a couple of doors down from Mrs. Sonne's. They headed on over to his class. There were some kids in the class hanging out, and just talking with each other. Harris sat at his desk eating his lunch. Jacob nudged Audrey forward but she was too nervous to speak up. Adrian noticed and chose to speak to him. 

  "Hey Mr. Harris, we had a question to ask you if that's okay.”

  "Mr. Adrian and company, what can I help you with," he said, putting his food down on his tray. 

  “We were wondering if you would sponsor our club.”

  “Sorry Mr. Parker, but I'm already sponsoring another club,” he points to the group hanging out in the classroom, “they asked me a week ago.” 

  Audrey inched up to Adrian, tugging at his sleeve. “Lets just forget about it, maybe it's a sign that it was a dumb idea in the first place,” she said meekly to him, very defeated.

  “No way, it wasn't a stupid idea! There has to be something we can do,”  he reassured her. 

  Mr. Harris overhears this and interrupts them. “Hold on, this was Ms. Perrins idea?!” he asked in surprise. His voice gained the attention of the class. Red rushed to her cheeks as she slowly moved away.

  “I never thought you'd take initiative. Tell you what, I can sponsor your group but I can only do Wednesdays after school,” he concluded.

  Audrey was still embarrassed, but Adrian and Jacob celebrated their win. “Alright! Thank you sir!” Adrian said.

  They left the class.

  “What do we do now?” Sam asked.

  “Well, now we gotta go get a form and submit our club application to the counselor,” Adrian replied.

  “Alright, let's get to it,” Looz said.

  Before they could get anything done, the bell rang and they had to get to their 3rd period class.

  “Shoot!” Adrian exclaimed.

  “Fates conspiring against us!” Audrey cried.

  “There, there love, we still have time,” Sam said, patting her back.

  “Yeah no sweat Audrey, I can just write it, I have my electives next so I can probably just get away with working on it in there,” Adrian consoled her.

  “Alrighty! Sounds good!” Jacob said. The group dispersed and went to their classes.

   They met up after school near the counselors office on the first floor. 

  “Alright Audrey, here is our club application. Did you want me to turn it in,” Adrian asked her. 

  “No no, I have to do it! I want to at least feel like I contributed in some way,” she said.  She grabbed the application and proceeded into the office. Looz went with her.

  In the office was Mrs. Tan, she was an older woman, very thin and small. She wore business casual blazers. 

  “Good evening girls, what can I do for you today?” she asked them.

  Looz stood back casually, her hands in her sweater pockets. Audrey stepped forward, her shaky hands quickly extending the application. She worked up the courage to speak, her knees trembled and her body grew cold. 

  “um.. I was wondering if we could start a- uh club. Here is our club application. Sorry!” She handed the club application to her. 

  Mrs. Tan didn't even reach out to accept it. 

 “Sorry girls, but you do realize that these were due half a week ago. Club rush is tomorrow.”

  “oh… sorry,” Audrey quietly mumbled her words. She was about to leave when Looz spoke up.

  “Is there nothing you can do?” Looz pleaded.

  “Sorry girls, there's not much I can do. There were weeks in advance you could have done this.”

  “I understand,” Looz said calmly but annoyed. “Let's go Dri.”

  They left the office and told the news to the others who were waiting outside.

  “Damn,” Jacob said, “well we can always just join clubs together.” 

  “Yeah, it won't be that bad, I'm sure someone else made a writing club,” Sam said.

  Audrey slumped on a wall. Her back leaned on it and slid all the way into a seated position. Her heart was beating in her ear and her legs were shaking. 

  “You okay Dri?” Looz asked, inching closer, concern growing on her expression.

  "I'm fine, I just need a moment to breathe," she said, her voice shaking. 

  Adrian went over to Sam.

  "Is she okay?" He asked.

  "This must’ve been too much for her, she’s really pushed herself too much out of her comfort zone.”

  "Is there anything we can do?" He asked.

  "Just let her breathe and give her a moment to recollect herself," she replied. She walked over to give Audrey some more comfort. 

  Jacob looked down, defeated.

 Adrian just looked at her, pondering a solution to their problem.

  "Don't worry about it Dri, we can just make a club of our own," Looz said with her arm around her.

  Audrey lifted her head, her eyes glossy.

  "I’m just tired of this. It all feels pointless now. I mean why even try, I’m starting to feel like it’s a good thing we didn’t start the club.”

  “But you seemed so excited about meeting new people,” Sam said.

  “Yeah well I changed my mind, one person is plenty enough.”

  Adrian looked down, “there must be something I can do,” he thought.