“My dear Algy, I don’t know whether you will be able to understand my real motives. You are hardly serious enough…”

Throughout the empty classroom, the sounds of a lone student’s monologue bounces off the walls.

“When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very moral tone on all subjects. It’s one’s duty to do so…” As the student continues on, he slowly walks around the desks that fills the room, eyes closed in complete concentration. In every deliberate step he takes, his curly hair slightly bounces to match the rhythm. 

“And as a high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to-” 

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

The sudden knocking on the classroom door pulled Vincent out of his concentration in an instant, his head immediately turning towards the sound. When there was only mere silence for the first couple of seconds, he merely thought he misheard, that it may have been some other sound. However, that thought was quickly disproven by what he heard next.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” A feminine voice called out from the other side of the door, sounding too casual and high-pitched to be a teacher. Vincent stayed right where he was standing, deliberating on what to do next. Not now, he thought to himself. I don’t have time for this…

Maybe if I stay quiet, they’ll go away?

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

The door was knocked on again, with a bit more force than the last time. Along with the knocking, another voice came from the other side, this one being a bit more deeper and irritated than the other. “Hey, we know you’re there! We can see the light on!” Stay strong, Vince… That doesn’t mean anything… Vincent continues to convince himself.

“Please? We just need a little bit of help?" The feminine voice pleaded for one last time before Vincent gave in. He realized that these people were not going to leave until they got what they wanted. Besides, they already made him forget his lines anyway. With a defeated sigh, Vincent trudged to the classroom door. 

“Alright, I’m coming!” he yelled back, before they began to bang on the door again. Eventually, he arrives at the door, twisting the knob with slight reluctance before opening it all the way. With that action, he finally caught a glimpse of the two people that went out of their way to interrupt his practice session.

What Vincent saw in front of him was two fellow students, both in their standard blue and orange uniform attire, even though the guy’s uniform was a bit more untidy than the girl’s. Along with their bags, they both were carrying quite a bit of equipment on them. The dark-haired girl was carrying what seems to be streamers and wooden poles that surpasses her in height, which did not seem surprising to Vincent, given her petite stature. At the top of these wooden poles, Vincent could see small flags flailing around at the slightest movement. On these flags, he could only make out one word: 

CLUB.

While the girl didn't seem bothered with carrying her load, the opposite could have been said about her friend. Even though he was holding only a couple of boxes in his arms, the boy’s expression would have made it seem that there were nothing but cinder blocks in them. Vincent could only stand there in confusion while the two students stared back at him with wide smiles on their faces. “Uh… can I help you two?” Vincent asked cautiously, mostly out of politeness than genuine concern.

“Well, hi there! Yes, yes you can!” The boy hastily said, keeping his smile on his face. Although, to Vincent, it appears that his smile is becoming a bit more strained as his forearms slightly twitch under the weight of the boxes.

“Could you let us in for a sec’?”

—OD!!!—

As Vincent let the two students in, the boy quickly walked to one of the empty desks and dropped the boxes with a resounding THUMP. Finally free of the weight, he let out a hefty sigh of exhaustion. “Ugh, finally… my arms were starting to get numb.” The boy whined to himself. He then turned to his friend in a questioning manner. “Why couldn’t YOU carry the boxes?”

The girl turned to him, perplexed. “You’re the one who insisted, remember?”

“No, I didn’t. I don’t remember that at all.”

“Excuse me…” Vincent interjected quietly. He was unsure how to navigate the situation that was happening before him. However, his soft tone was completely overshadowed by the louder voices of the students in front of him.

“Well I remember wanting to let Eddie do the moving, but you were like ‘nO! I CaN dO iT mYselF! It’ll bE EasY!’” The girl mocked the boy with a nasally tone. He scrunched his face in offense.

“That’s only because you and Nico were saying that I was too weak to do it!” He spoke out in his defense. “Besides, I didn’t think we would have to carry all this stupid stuff across the WHOLE SCHOOL!”

“Hey-” Vincent tried to assert himself in the conversation once again before being cut off by the girl, who is now matching the unruly boy’s raising voice.

“So you DO remember?! And I didn’t say you were weak!”

“Oh come on, yes you did! Rule of thumb, Seina: No one likes a gaslighter!”

“Gaslighter?! I am so not gaslighting you! You’re the one who’s-”

“HEY!” 

At the sound of the booming voice, the two bickering students turned their heads towards Vincent, who was already looking a little annoyed with them. He felt a bit embarrassed raising his voice like that, but it was the only way to get their attention. The boy scratches his dirty-blonde hair, at least pretending to feel a bit ashamed. “Oh. Sorry… we kinda forgot you were there.” He offers pathetically. Vincent grimaced at the remark, he too feeling a bit offended. However, he shrugged it off to get to the matter at hand. “Can I ask what you guys are doing here?”

The two students looked at each other, neither of them knowing who should answer. After a moment of contemplation, the girl referred to as Seina started to respond, fumbling through her words. “Ah… about that… we nee-”

“Our clubroom is currently under… renovation.” The boy cut in hastily, his words being a bit more smoother and thought out. “So, unfortunately we have to relocate for a bit.”

The blonde sauntered over to Vincent, holding his arm out for a handshake. “Thanks for opening your door, by the way. Our legs were killing us with how much we had to walk around with this junk.”

Vincent looked at the boy’s hand and slowly decided to shake it. “Yeah, no problem, uh…?” Vincent wondered if they even introduced themselves.

“Oliver,” he replied. He then points to his bespectacled friend. “That’s my vice-president, Seina.”

Seina happily waved at Vincent. “Nice to meet you! What’s your name?”

“Vincent,” he replies. “You can just call me Vince, though.”

After the trading of names, the three students awkwardly stood in silence, waiting for each other to continue the conversation. Vincent decided to take initiative and asked a question that was on his mind for a while. “So. You got a club, right? What’s that about?”

Seina beamed at the question he asked. “Glad you asked!” As she exclaimed these words, she grabbed one of the wooden poles, straightening the flag on top so it could be read clearly. As Vincent saw before, the colorful flag did say the word CLUB. However, it appeared to be more of an acronym than a word. “If your club’s in a bind, then it’s our time to shine~! We are C.L.U.B!!!” Seina promoted musically. As she said this, she waved the flag for dramatic effect.

“C.L.U.B?” Vincent questioned. “Isn’t that just the word ‘Club?’ What does it stand for?”

“Name pending.” Oliver remarked dryly.

“We’re just a club that helps out other clubs, that’s all.” Seina added helpfully.

Oh, so they’re just volunteers… Vincent thought to himself. He supposed he could appreciate what they were trying to do, even though they were still cutting into his time practicing.

“Anyways, what are you doing here? Studying?” Seina questioned, as if she was reading his mind. Vincent snapped back into focus to reply. 

“Just going over some of my lines for the fall play. I just rented out the room so I can have a bit of privacy doing it.” He hoped the two would get the message of what he was saying when he slightly emphasized the word privacy. Oliver slightly widened his eyes in interest at that statement. “You rent out the room all for yourself, huh?”

“Yeah. You know, maybe you guys should try that. Rent a room for a couple of days,” Vincent suggested. “At least until your room gets fixed.”

“Ah, Vince… We would if we could, but you know how much of an ass the Student Council can be, right?” With the way Oliver bitterly said the last part, it sounded like he wanted someone to agree with him. So Vincent complied with a simple “Yeah, I-I guess.”

Another brief moment of silence befell on the room. Vincent’s hands fidget in impatience, with him getting tired trying to be passive with them. Perhaps the direct approach was best, after all…

“Well, speaking of play, I really got to get back to my lines, so…”

With that statement, Seina suddenly gave a face of realization and embarrassment. “Oh! We are so sorry! Give us a moment, we’ll get out of your hair.”

“Yeah, totally.” Oliver commented. He then tried to quickly get Vincent’s attention. “Hey Vince, quick question-”

At the moment Oliver began to ask his question, Vincent’s cell phone began to vibrate in his pocket. Excusing himself, Vincent pulled it out to see the notification. What he saw on the screen made his heart drop like a stone off a cliff.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!