“So let me get this straight: Some club came to you, asked to use your classroom-”

“Temporarily!”

“AND, now they won’t leave?”

“Yeah, that’s the gist of it.”

“Hm. I see.” Veronica leaned against her chair. “Have you ever… I don’t know… told them to leave?”

“I can’t do that!” Vincent exclaimed, still using his library voice. “I told you, Vee, this club helps people. I can’t kick them out. I’ll feel like a dick!” After staring at him in a deadpan manner, Veronica decided to turn her focus back to her studies, picking her pencil back up.

“Then I don’t know what to tell you, Vince. They’re a club, not a charity.”

“You’re just saying that because you haven’t met them.” Vincent accused her defensively.

“And who is ‘them’, exactly?” Veronica asked, continuing to take notes.

“Well… I only really talked to the president and his vice. The other two I don’t know much about.”

“Do you at least have their names?”

“I think their names were Oliver and Seina?”

Suddenly, the atmosphere between the two students felt as if it had dropped 20 degrees. Veronica stopped writing her notes, her pencil still pressed to the paper. Her body stayed dangerously still, as if taking the slightest movement would cause something to break. Vincent noticed the redhead’s change in behavior. “Vee?” he asked in concern. Veronica once again stared back at him, her glare being more piercing than usual. The rest of her body stayed in place. 

“This Oliver guy… is his last name Meriwether?”

“Don’t know. He’s in our grade, though. He's also a blondie with blue ey-”

Vincent didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence. In the middle of describing Oliver, he heard a light snapping noise coming from Veronica’s direction. Looking down, he found that the  pencil she was holding was broken, seemingly suffering from being pressed down on the paper too strongly. The paper itself now has a noticeable black mark in the middle. Veronica looks down as well, annoyed. “Shit.” she muttered.

“Hey, are you okay?” Vincent appeared to be even more worried. “Did I say something wrong?”

Veronica shrugged off his concern, taking another pencil out of the bag beside her. “I’m fine. Look Vince, I don’t know about the other people in the club. They could be decent, for all I know.” She then turned back toward him, eyes full of warning. “But what I DO know is that Oliver doesn’t have a single selfless bone in his body. Don’t believe in a single thing that bastard tells you, got it?” With the way she said it, it sounded more like a demand than a request. Vincent slowly nodded his head in understanding.

“Uh… yeah, sure.”

After feeling satisfied with his answer, Veronica focused back to her ruined paper, the tense climate finally dispersing. “Good.”

Silence overtook the two, with Vincent starting to go deep in thought. He always knew Veronica could be short-tempered at times, but the way she reacted towards hearing Oliver’s name was… different. Maybe I shouldn’t have come to her for help…

Veronica took a short glance at him, observing his contemplation. She decided to speak more softly. “Like I said, the only way to really get rid of them is to just tell them straight up. I’ll do it if you really need me to.”

“No,” Vincent responded quickly. “It’s not your problem. I can handle it.”

“You sure?”

Full of resolve, Vincent stood up and confidently declared to his friend.

“I can handle it.”

—OD!!!—

The Next Morning…

I can’t handle it! 

In the midst of the morning rush before school, Vincent hid around a corner of the hallway, students passing him left and right. As he peeked over, he observed his targets conversing with each other. While he did plan to either confront Oliver or Seina with the matter, he didn’t prepare for the scenario of them being together, much to Vincent’s dismay. Should I wait until later? He thought to himself, even though he knows that isn’t an option. If he did, then it would be too late! They’ll just use his room again. Vincent continued to think over his options, leaning his back against the lockers.

Let’s see… “Sorry guys, but your club’s gotta go!” No, that’s too blunt…

“Hey you two! Could you think about taking your club somewhere else?” No, they’ll just take it as a question and ignore it!

Man, I really should have gone over this more last night. Vincent silently groaned to himself. 

“What are you doing?”

Vincent whipped his head to the sound of the voice that was dangerously close to him. A few inches from his own, Seina’s face leaned close, with eyes full of curiosity as she peeked around her side of the corner. “AUGH!” he yelped, stumbling a few steps back, his glasses nearly falling off of his face. After straightening himself, Vincent attempted to recover and act normally. “Oh- uh- hey!”

“Hi?” Seina greeted back, as she fully walked around the corner. Not too far behind, Oliver also revealed himself from behind the corner.

“Seina saw you peeping on us from around the hall.” He informed dryly. “Kinda creepy, Vince. Not gonna lie.”

They found me out… Vincent hung his head with a little shame. He supposed spying on them was a little weird, in hindsight. “Yeah… sorry about that.”

Seina still carried herself in a curious manner. “Why WERE you spying on us? Is something the matter?”

Vincent searched for any excuse he could find in his head, but nothing came. He realized that there was no other choice but to be honest to them, no matter what happens. Taking a deep breath, he began his explanation

“Listen, I know your club helps, and I think that's great. It's just that… we can’t keep doing this arrangement anymore! It’s not like I want to kick you guys out, but the reason I rented the room in the first place was to help myself practice without distractions.”

The actor continued to ramble, moving his arms while trying to explain. “And I don’t even know if I can let you borrow the room without getting in trouble! And… well…” As he caught himself panicking to explain, he slowed down to reset. “What I am trying to say is that-”

“You want us to leave.” Oliver cut in, clearly tired of the awkward student’s long-winded explanation.

“Yeah.” 

 The two C.L.U.B members glanced at each other, silently communicating with each other. Vincent couldn’t refrain from feeling annoyed when they did this; he felt as if he was being kept out of the loop. Eventually, they both came up with an answer.

“Sure.”

Vincent was nearly floored by their blunt agreement. He had to make sure he heard correctly. “What did you say?”

“We said okay.” Seina confirmed.

“Really? J-Just like that?”

Oliver chimed in. “Yeah. I mean, we’re not really surprised. Nothing lasts forever.”

Vincent couldn’t believe his luck. He at least expected a little bit of pushback, but in just a couple of minutes, he got his room back. He held back a small smile.

“Besides, we don’t really need your room anymore.” The blonde added. 

Vincent had a moment of puzzlement. “You don’t?”

Seina took a couple of steps towards the drama student, pulling out a small business card from her bag, and handed it to him. “Yup!” She exclaimed cheerfully. “We finally finished rebuilding our new clubroom! It’s outside, in the old gym shed. Have a card!”

As Vincent took the card, his face shifted in surprise. “So you weren’t lying about the renovations?”

Oliver acted out in false umbrage. “Of course not! I’m offended that you’d think we would lie about that! Hurt, even.” He added a little sniffle to emphasize his last point.

“Alright, I get it! I’m sorry I doubted you.”

“It’s okay!” Seina said. “We’re sorry that we took so long. We didn’t mean to be a burden.”

“Hold on, ‘BURDEN’ is a really strong word-” Oliver commented in a quiet tone before being interrupted by Seina in a more forceful tone.

“We’re sorry, Oliver.”

“Okay, okay. We are sorry Vincent.”

Vincent laughed slightly. “It’s fine.”

Sensing that the conversation was over, Oliver straightened his blazer. “Well, if that's all, we’ll see you around, Vince. It’s been real.” Oliver turned around to leave. Giving a small wave to the drama student, Seina follows suit. However, right before they made their leave…

“Wait!” Vincent called out to them. “There is one more thing.”

Oliver sighed in exasperation. “What is it now?”

Remembering his conversation with Veronica yesterday, Vincent was conflicted. He was under the assumption that these people were selfish with the way she talked about their president. If Oliver and his club were as self-interested as believed, why give him back the room so easily? Why use the club to help others? It just didn’t make sense to him.

“This might be a stupid question,” Vincent started. “But why DID you guys make your club? It’s a lot of trouble, isn’t it?”

“Why? Simple.” As if they were prepared for this exact question, Oliver and Seina mirrored each other as they choreographed a dramatic pose, seriousness plastered on their faces. At the same time, they point at Vincent, proclaiming proudly:

“FOR SCHOOL DOMINATION!” “FOR SCHOOL PEACE!”

When they said that, another difference in their stances appeared. While Oliver is fully pointing his finger at Vincent, Seina inversely did a peace sign. Vincent simply stood there with a blank expression, showing no reaction to what was performed in front of him. Still in the pose, Oliver leaned over to his friend, whispering harshly. “Seina, you messed it up!”

“What?!” She whispered back in confusion. “I thought this was the thing?”

As they silently argued with each other, they failed to notice Vincent walking away into the crowd of students, not even uttering a word.

—OD!!!—

Trudging to his first class, Vincent was internally kicking himself over his past encounter with those strange students. Here he thought they were intimidating, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Shrugging off the second-hand embarrassment, Vincent's mind wandered further.

Even though they could have been over-exaggerating, he still wondered what they meant by “school domination” or “school peace.” To him, those were weird answers to the question of ‘why do you want to make a club?’ Not to mention, the type of clubs they helped were quite peculiar. As he looked at the business card the girl gave him, Vincent thought aloud to himself. “Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to visit them sometime…”

“Excuse me?”

Noticing someone calling out behind him, Vincent stopped to face them. A student in a blazer and a red tie is there to greet him. “Are you Vincent Duran?”

“Yes, I am,” Vincent answered. “Why?”

“Nick Harris, Student Council Secretary.” The student then raised his arm towards Vincent, with an envelope in hand. “I am here to regretfully inform you of your eviction from you rented classroom 217.”

Vincent’s eyes widened as he heard the words coming out of the student’s mouth. “Wait a second. What?!” He takes the envelope, nearly snatching it out of Nick’s hands.

“Here is your notice of eviction, both verbal and written.” Nick informed him. Ripping the envelope open and reading the letter, Vincent confirmed that it was indeed an eviction notice. The student continued. “You are also suspended from renting another classroom for three months. Do you understand the situation as I explained to you?”

“Well, yes I understand, but for what?!” When Vincent asked that question, Nick took the binder that he held on his side, opening it to read.

“Two infractions:” As he started, he turned to a specific page and then pointed at a specific section on it. “Chapter 3, Section 2A: Using your classroom for unauthorized activities.” Nick then quickly turned a couple of pages to point at a different section. “And Chapter 5, Section 3C: Acquainting yourself with a currently UNAUTHORIZED club.” He looked back up to Vincent. “You did commit both of these acts, right?”

Vincent could only sputter at the substantiated accusations. “Well- technically yeah. But I didn’t know they were UNAUTHORIZED!!!”

At Vincent’s concurrence, Nick simply closed his binder and began taking his leave. “Well there you go. Sorry it had to be this way.”

Vincent cried out to the departing figure. “WAIT!!! CAN I AT LEAST EXPLAIN MYSELF?!”

His back still turned, Nick waved goodbye to the drama student with his free hand. “Don’t worry, you could always make an appeal!” He offered, but not before adding. “Doubt it will be accepted, but hey, no shame in trying!” With that last statement, Nick turned the corner, disappearing from sight. All Vincent could do was look down in defeat, mourning for his lost classroom.

“Damn it…” He croaked out, nearly collapsing to his knees. Just like that, all positive feelings that Vincent may have had were completely gone. Nothing was in his heart now but grief and anger, pulsating all throughout his body. He silently cursed at his situation, but more importantly, he cursed at the people that put him in it.

Veronica was right, he thought bitterly to himself, ignoring the morning bell ringing out throughout the halls.

They’re the absolute worst.

END!!!