After the bell had released the students for the first break of the day, Justin put up a list on the student council room’s door. All volunteering painters would write their names on it, and Stella prayed a lot of people would sign up. It would suck to paint the room with just a few people. In the worst case scenario it would be Justin, Melanie and her.

“Do you think people will show up?” Stella asked when Justin finished writing his and Stella’s names on the top of the list.

“Depends how good you’re at recruiting.”

“They won’t know what hit them.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of....”

The school bell rang again, Stella headed to the teachers’ lounge. She would make an announcement about the event after Mrs Styrne finished her morning speech that acted as the opening for the day. The teachers always tried to offer philosophical or fun speeches for the students to think about, but most of the time people just took it as an extension to the break and barely listened.

That morning Mrs Styrne tried to show the importance of numbers in everyday life by telling a story where all numbers were missing. The topic could’ve been interesting if Mrs Styrne didn’t sound like she had been punished with the task of reading. Stella could imagine heads knocking against desks when people fell asleep.

When Mrs Styrne finished, she pushed the microphone in Stella’s hand and walked out of the booth faster than Stella had ever seen her move. Stella rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath.

“Thank you Mrs Styrne for the thought provoking piece. Absolutely riveting. Good morning to everyone from me, Stella, and the student council. As you all know, for a big part of the year we have been preparing to renovate the old storage room into a lounge and cafe area where you can chill between classes and buy some snacks and drinks. And things are progressing great. On Thursday and Friday, after school, we’re going to paint the room, and we’d love it if people volunteered to help. The more the merrier and all that.”

Stella paused for a few seconds to give people time to digest the information.

“And now I’m sure you’re all wondering ‘how do I sign up?’. Well, it’s extremely easy. Just write your name on the list on the student council room’s door by Thursday and you’re in. Yay! Please use a pen or other permanent marker, no take backs unless you’re sick or a family member died. If no one signs up, the student council holds the right to pick a few lucky individuals to help us. So, remember to join! Have a good day!”

Stella ended the announcement and turned around. Mrs McTaggart stood behind her with her brows knit together. The principal looked like she wasn’t quite sure if she should reprimand Stella or not, so the girl took the advantage and slipped past her smiling brightly and headed to her class.

“What the hell was that ‘We hold the right to pick people to help us’?” Justin hissed at Stella when she sat next to him.

“I thought it’d act as a nice incentive,” Stella smiled and hurried to take out her books. She wanted to make sure she had done the homework correctly and that her tangents were in the right places on the parabola.

“Threatening, bribing or blackmailing always work. We don’t have anything to bribe them with, but we can threaten and blackmail,” she added with a wink, “or would you rather paint the whole room with just the two of us?”

Justin grumbled something too quiet for Stella to hear.

“Don’t worry, if it ever comes to the picking, I won’t choose Castiel.”

“Like you could even get him to do anything,” Justin scoffed. “He doesn’t have a helpful bone in his body.”

“Would you like to share what you’re talking about with the rest of the class?” 

The teacher's whiny voice pierced Stella’s ears. Mr Winston stared at them from the board. In Stella’s opinion, the teacher resembled a mole. He was short and bald with tiny beady eyes and thick glasses. He had long and dirty fingernails. Stella had disliked him the moment she saw him.

“Not really,” she said.

“Then shut up.”

Stella made a face at Mr Winston when he turned his back. Mrs Sanchez couldn’t come back from her maternity leave soon enough.

Finally, the class ended and Stella didn’t linger in the classroom. Stella and Justin headed towards the student council’s room and were surprised to see Quinn and Jamie fighting in front of it. Jamie had a pen in hand, and Quinn tried to pull his brother away from the door.

“Jamie, why are you doing this to me?” Quinn cried out in a dramatic fashion, “don’t you care about me at all?”

“I do and that’s why I’m doing this. Don’t shake me or this will be unreadable,” Jamie muttered and tried to keep the pen still. 

Quinn pulled him harder.

“Quinn, stop it. You need to do something other than play video games all day. Think how proud and happy dad will be when he hears we’ve done renovating? Real manly stuff.”

“I don’t care about dad. If I wanted to paint, I’d buy Splatoon. And when have you ever cared about being manly?”

Stella decided to walk closer. It was always interesting to follow the twins’ shenanigans but this required more investigation.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Jamie turned to them with a bright smile. Quinn hung on to his brother’s arm, defeated.

“Hi, Stella. Justin,” Jamie said, “I just added our names to the list since Quinn’s so excited about all kinds of renovation stuff.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Stella said with a smile. Her eyes stayed on Quinn for a moment and the boy straightened his posture slightly. A blush coloured his cheeks. Quinn had embarrassed himself royally.

“Can’t the sign up be reversed? I was forced into this against my will,” Quinn asked.

Stella laughed softly. The laugh turned into an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, but no. Otherwise everyone would run away.”

“You really rule with an iron fist,” Quinn muttered under his breath.

“We can find something other than painting for you. The floors and windows need to be covered, or you can be in the snack delivery.”

“Don’t worry about Quinn. He’ll come, and he’ll do what he’s told,” Jamie said, slapping his hand on Quinn’s shoulder so hard he flinched.

“Speak for yourself. Couldn’t you have forced Thomas or Basim with you instead?”

“It’s too late now, but maybe they want to join too. Let’s go ask!”

Jamie grabbed Quinn’s arm and took off with him in search of their classmates. Stella and Justin looked after the twins.

“I’m a bit worried about this,” Justin said.

“At least it won’t be just the two of us,” Stella replied and checked the list.

Jamie’s and Quinn’s names looked like a three year old had attempted to write for the first time. Above their names were a few first graders’ names.

“Hi Justin,” Melanie greeted when she walked to them.

“Hi.”

“I was thinking about signing up if there’s still room.”

“Do you think there’d ever be such a rush to paint that we’d run out of room?” Stella asked.

“Hmm, I guess not.”

Melanie scribbled her name on the paper and waved at Justin when she left.

Now there were seven of them, and Stella doubted they’d get more people. Everyone would look at the list and be relieved someone had signed up so they wouldn’t have to.

“At least we don’t have to force anyone,” Stella said and grinned at Justin.

“I’m sure everyone is grateful for that.”

Stella laughed. The painting would go a lot smoother when everyone actually wanted to be there. So, it was probably for the best that she didn’t go recruiting anyone. Although, it could’ve been fun.