Our hero – let’s call him Tom – was not really interesting when this story started. He was the type of teenager that isn’t particularly academic but who enjoys schools nonetheless. Tom liked learning new things, he just wasn’t that great at being tested o them.

He lived with his father and the man worked a lot. So much that he was rarely home until late and Tom tended to stay at school late, trying out every extra-curricular that didn’t require him to have any sporting or artistic abilities. He tried them all: debate, model UN, chess club, archery, cinema… He didn’t stick to all but he tried a lot.

It gave him four things: a wide range of (albeit non-mastered and slightly useless) skills, a large panel of friends (not enough to make him popular, but enough to never feel lonely), something to keep him busy whenever his father wasn’t home, and it gave his teachers a positive opinion of him despite his average results.

It also meant that he had been asked to come to the school’s open house to promote extra-curricular activities, as the expert that he was, and because his father had a construction job that day, he decided to accept. He had a bit of a teacher’s pet side to him.

So on that specific hypothetical day, he ended up on the stand with three other students. Mike, there to promote sports, he will not be important in this story, Edwin, there to promote sciences, and Jenny, there to promote the arts. She won’t be important either.

Tom happened to be pretty versatile in nature so he very quickly managed to copy his friends’ speeches and it wasn’t long until he spoke to prospective students and parents about the basketball team, the photography club, or the trips to the science museum like he was some kind of expert.

At some point, as Edwin was talking to Maya about possibly joining some sort of brainy club, Tom met Claire, who will actually be important in this story. She was definitely the sporty type, she seemed competitive, was moving from another country to join this school, and wanted to check it out before starting classes. She also wanted to know about the hockey club. Tom knew next to nothing about hockey but was pretty sure that he would be able to wing this entire conversation. He felt pretty confident answering her question until she asked: “You’ve never played hockey, have you? I’ll go as far as betting that you never even watched a game.”

“Maybe not,” he admitted. “But I did make you want to join the team, didn’t I?”

“Maybe,” she replied with a laugh.

“Alright, look at me, I’m clearly not the sporty type. People like me because I’m charming and friendly, not because I am likely to break any record, of any kind. You see the guy over there with the movie star smile and the broad shoulders, talking to that lovely family? That’s Sam. He’s the one you want to talk to about this stuff. He has real answers, I promise.”

“Alright. I might do that. Or…”

“Or?” he replied, intrigued.

“You could take me to the trophy case.”

“The trophy case?”

“Yeah. It would allow me to see if there actually is a team, no offense but from the terms you used, you might have been talking about soccer or baseball, so I’d like some kind of confirmation. It will also tell me if the team is any good and how they performed over the last couple of years. If the girls’ names are on any of the trophies, it will also show me if the team is friendly enough that people would want to stick to it over the years.”

“So you want to take the detective approach. You know what? I’m totally in. Let’s go.”

As he walked her to the P.E. cluster, he told her a little about the school, gave her details or warnings about every person they met along the way.

“You seem to know everyone,” she noticed.

“This school isn’t that big,” he shrugged it off. “Alright. Here are the trophies.” He looked for a minute before saying: “Look, here! The girls’ hockey team. First place! Which wouldn’t be so bad if that trophy wasn’t like twenty years old. I guess they’re not really good, sorry.”

“That’s fine. I like a challenge.”

“Oh, so you’re going to single-handedly better the team, are you?”

“Well… I guess you’ll have to come and watch a game to find out,” she teased him.

“Sure. But you might want to explain the rules to me first.”

She laughed. “Sure.”

“I’m not even sure there still is a team,” he warned her.

“Then I guess I’d better ask Sam!”

Before he could think about something to reply, he saw Edwin walking toward them with the girl he was talking to earlier.

“Are you giving school tours too?” Tom asked.

“Kind of. This is Maya.”

“Maya, aren’t you just a bit too young to come here?” Tom asked before letting fake amazement spread on his face. “Are you one of those geniuses who graduate at ten?”

She giggled. “No. My brother is coming here so my parents came to talk to the teachers. It was boring so I came to your stand.”

“That’s really smart. Best stand in the entire school!” Tom agreed, although what they all had in common was leaving said stand.

“Anyway,” Edwin said, “I was showing Maya where the toilets are and we heard some juniors say that there is cake handed out at the reception desk so we thought we’d go check it out. Wanna join?”

It wasn’t really his decision: he wasn’t going to just leave Claire alone in a school she didn’t know when he tacitly volunteered to be her guide. Until she decided to move on, he was kind of responsible for her. She had an easy smile and just said: “I like cake.”

This was the smallest of decisions, it was supposed to be the most uneventful of adventures. And yet they never made it to the reception…