“I simply wanted to get through college as quickly as humanly possible. I had no interest in extracurricular activities or anything that required me to be social. I was allergic to people”. — Nadine Velazque

          School Club Day

It was a bright sunny day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. The birds were happily chirping above in the sky and trees. The temperature wasn't too hot, cold or humid, it was perfectly warm with a light breeze passing by from time to time. 

Despite the glowing rays of the sun beaming down on the campus, Vallin still felt cold and tired. He rubbed his arms to generate some heat and yawned as he slowly looked around.

All the students of Pandora Hill Academia were standing outside the main building chatting amongst themselves. In front of them stood a wooden podium with three foldable chairs on both sides of it. There was an announcement that morning during breakfast for all the students to make their way to the front of the main building. 

Vallin did not pay attention to the announcement. He was too busy zoning out while picking at his cereal. It was a good thing he overheard some of the students going past him talking about announcements. The teachers were currently searching the campus for any students who missed the announcement or who were ignoring the announcement and trying to skip.

His gaze slowly made its way into the direction of the grass trail. Every time he attempted to sleep, the dead bird kept plaguing his mind, causing him to toss and turn all night. In the end, he wasn’t able to get an ounce of sleep before it was time for him to get ready for school. Vallin glared at the path as he clenched his fist. He made a vow to never walk the trail again after it disrupted his precious sleep.

“Ah! I can’t wait for the student council to arrive!” A girl squealed beside Vallin, startling him out of his thoughts, to her friend.

“You're just saying that because you want to see Katrine.” Her friend shook her head with a roll of her eyes causing the other girl to pout. 

“At least I don’t have a crush on Harry,” The girl smirked as a blush spread across her friend’s face.“ And can you blame me? Katrine is a goddess compared to us!” She cupped her hands to the side of her face while sighing with admiration. 

Vallin raised an eyebrow. He didn’t know the school had a student council. He let out a sigh and shook his head. No, the question is, what does Pandora Hill Academia not have? First the school’s shooting range and now the student council. Was Pandora Hill Academia preparing its students for something? Then again this school was different compared to the one he is used to going to. Perhaps it was normal for respected boarding schools such as Pandora Hill Academia to contain shooting ranges and student councils. 

“Here comes Headmistress Roseburg and the student council!” Someone shouted from behind Vallin.

He flinched at the loud voice but looked over at the main building. Headmistress Roseburg stepped out the building and held the door open as a line of students filed out the door. 

The female student leading the line looked like a younger version of Headmistress Roseburg whose cheerful face was sucked out and replaced with an unsmiling serious face. Her white curly hair was pulled in a low ponytail that hung behind her back unlike the high bun of Headmistress Roseburg. The way she held her head up high reminded Vallin of the sophisticated princesses in the fairytale stories he used to read to the younger orphans. It wouldn't surprise him if the girl was an actual princess enrolled in the boarding school. 

“Katrine!” Students started cheering and clapping at the sight of the white curly haired female student. 

Behind Katrine was the blonde girl from yesterday. Her green eyes were shining with happiness behind her black square shaped glasses as she stared at the taller girl in front of her. Following after was a boy who had similar facial features to the blonde girl. His eyes were the same shade of green as the blonde girl. The only difference was that his hair was a shade or two darker than her light blonde hair. There was another boy in the student council with dirty blond hair,light brown skin and light blue eyes. 

The last student from the line was the brunette girl who bumped into him on the first day of school. Unlike the other council members, the brunette girl’s light pink eyes darted around nervously at the crowd of students. She was so distracted that she almost tripped on her own feet when she tried to sit down on her chair.

There were a few giggles from the crowd of students when this happened. The brunette’s face turned red and bowed her head down in shame in her chair. The student council members did not react to the girl’s clumsiness nor offer to help. Not even sparing the girl a glance, the other members of the student council except for Katrine, sat down on the available foldable chairs. Vallin assumed they were used to the clumsy actions of the girl or they just didn’t like the girl.

Katrine stepped up to the podium and waited for the crowd of students to settle down until nothing but silence hung in the air. 

“Good morning fellow students. For those of you who are new to this school, let me introduce myself. I am Katrine Roseburg, your student council president and I welcome you to Pandora Hill Academia.” Katrine gives a small smile causing another round of cheers from the crowd of students. “I am happy that you are all here to join us, for today we are presenting the school clubs of Pandora Hill Academia.” 

Vallin was trying to decide whether he should ask another student if the student council president was Headmistress Roseburg’s daughter when Katrine announced the news about the school clubs. He frowned and hoped that participating in a school club wasn't mandatory. He didn’t mind checking out the clubs of Pandora Hill Academia but he had no plans on actually joining one. Unless there was a club dedicated to sleeping, then in that case he wouldn’t hesitate to join. 

“Instead of going to your classes today, you all will be dedicating time to exploring our school clubs. Inside the main building, club leaders have already set up their club stands and are ready for you all. If you have any questions about the clubs or anything else club related you can ask the club leaders or myself.” Katrine said, turning slightly to gesture towards the main building before turning back towards the crowd of students. 

“Now that I have explained everything, it is time to head inside and check out the school clubs. Oh,” She paused for a second as if she just thought of something. “For those of you who don’t know or who are new to this school, joining a school club is necessary. No exceptions.” 

With that, Katrine left the podium and the student council members left their seats to follow her inside the main building. Headmistress Roseburg was still by the door, but now she was holding a stack of papers in her hands. As the crowd of students made their way inside the main building behind the student council members, she handed out the papers she was holding to each student. 

When Vallin was given his paper, he didn’t read it until he got inside. He separated from the other students and found a wall to rest his back against as he sat on the floor. He felt that he did enough standing outside. Vallin held the paper in his hands and read it. The paper had a list of the clubs of Pandora Hill Academia, the names of the club leaders, and a brief summary of each club. Vallin could care less about the names of the club leaders and he could get the gist of what the clubs were about from their name,so he skimmed over that information and focused on the list of clubs. There was a cooking club, gardening club, book club,sport clubs(volleyball & basketball), art club, chess club, photography club, and music club. 

Vallin wasn’t a sporty person so he wasn’t interested in the sport clubs. He wasn’t a musical person, he couldn’t sing to save his life nor could he see himself learning or playing an instrument. He didn’t want to join the chess, photography and book club. His stomach started to hurt at the thought of joining the gardening, leaving the cooking club as his only option. 

Back at the orphanage he used to assist in the kitchen with the preparation of lunch and dinner(he usually slept in the morning so he was unable to assist with breakfast). Vallin had enough skills to make a decent meal from scratch but he didn’t mind improving his culinary skills. Especially seeing as he had no choice but to choose a club to join whether he liked it or not. 

“There are no exceptions.” Vallin muttered under his breath with a sigh, repeating the words of the student council president.

He stood up, and shook his legs to get rid of the tingly feelings that were beginning to develop inside his legs and pop his knees. Once he was done, his legs felt better and he was ready to go locate the cooking club.