Chapter 5

I vividly remember the day things went wrong between Vivian Montgomery and I. It was back in freshman year – I was the boring, quiet student that didn't talk much and Vivian Montgomery, a month into school already teacher's pet and everyone's favorite, was assigned to be my partner in a science project. There wasn't even something ground-breaking that happened between us, just the way Vivian stared at me – brows raised, lips curled, as if she thought I was the dumbest girl on earth. Vivian asked to change project partners pretty quickly and the way she told our teacher she couldn't bear working with me, because I'm making things difficult on purpose apparently, made it official – Vivian Montgomery is someone I do not get along with. It didn't bother me, since befriending everyone I come across was never my plan, and Vivian never seemed to care much either.

Still, in some ways it's almost comical, Logan dumping me because of her, and not some random cute girl working at an ice cream shop. From all the girls, Logan chose Vivian Montgomery – mediocre pretty, extremely focused and involved with a lot of schoolwork and definitely not a lot of boys – which is everything but Logan's type. I wouldn't consider myself Logan's type either, but I thought I was the exception. Not Vivian. I thought I was the girl Logan befriended and somehow fell for, but apparently it was Vivian all along.

I have no idea how it happened though, since I can't really imagine the event council meeting up over summer, and it definitely felt like Logan spent all of his free time with me. So when did he meet up with Vivian? When did they find the time to even possibly hook up? I feel confused. So confused I'm biting on my thumbnail in math class, something I officially stopped years ago.

There are many points irritating me. How am I supposed to face Vivian and Logan, now that we're part of the same club and they're living the happy couple life right in front of me? Resigning isn't an option with Kaia anyway. And why do I even care so much? I shouldn't be bothered, I should be happy, glad I'm done with Logan, who isn't the love of my life anyway. I should write them a congratulations letter. Congratulations on hooking up, Logan and Vivian. Congratulations on destroying a relationship, Logan and Vivian. Congratulations on being backstabbing, little –

"June," someone says and taps on my shoulder.

It's Liling, smiling down at me. She's wearing a vintage British school uniform and her hair is straight and glossy, only curled as its ends, which amazes me so much I almost miss what she's saying.

"I saw you here – all alone. Why don't we go to the council meeting together?"

All alone? I'm partly confused, which lasts until I realize classes ended minutes ago. Apparently I was way more fed up with Vivian and Logan than I thought.

"Oh, right," I say and bend down to grab my bag, quickly stuffing my books and notebooks in it, "Thank you – you're a junior, right?"

Awkward conversation starters are awkward, but I can't think of anything better besides the bits of information I remember. Liling' smile grows wider and she shifts her weight to the tip of her blue Mary Janes, as if she's a ballerina.

"Yes! I'm in a lot of classes with Johnny and Duncan – that's how I became a member of the council," she explains, "Since the council is fairly new, we are part of its founding members!"

"The council is fairly new?" I say and quickly get up, which requires a few second to pause and balance on my shoes.

Liling nods. "Johnny – our president – was originally part of the student council. But the more events, the more complicated everything got. In the end, the student council decided to split and so we, the event council, were born. Just ask Johnny, he'll gladly tell you the whole heroic story about how he fought for our freedom."

The only thing I really get from this is the fact we're indeed somehow part of the student council. It sounds so – important. Like we're responsible and duteous students. I'm totally going to mention this on my résumé.

I send Kaia a quick message, involving just as many letters as necessary to let her know I'm already headed to the clubroom. She replies with a bunch of colorful emojis and the promise she'll be there in thirty minutes. Which means I'll be alone with the other members for now, this time probably including Vivian and Logan from the start. Great.

"Say, June," Liling asks while we pass the green & gold room, "How come you aren't part of any other clubs? I mean, this is already your last year in high school!"

"Um", I say, "I don't know. I'm not much of a club person, this was just Kaia's doing. Whenever something – well, bad – happens, she joins a club. This time the bad thing happened to me, so here we are."

Liling gives me a worried look. "What was the bad thing that happened?"

"Oh, something stupid," I say, "No biggie."

What a joke.

Thankfully, Liling doesn't pry further, but guides me to the clubroom with a light jump in her step and a bright smile on her face as she pushes the door open with both hands.

"What's up, guys?" she calls and pulls me in with a tight grip on my hand, "I'm here – and I brought June!"

Johnny looks up from where he's sitting at his desk and gives us a smile.

"Hey you. Lil, great you're here – Mrs. Bergmann already called three times, she wants to see the samples of our flyers for the green & gold cleaning before she gives us her final okay."

"Isn't that like Mathew's and Agatha's job?" Liling makes a face, "I want to work on my essay."

"Matty and Agatha are still working on the flyer," Johnny says, "There are no samples. So you need to go to Mrs. Bergmann and tell her exactly this. Reassure her everything will be fine, make up things if necessary, and she should give us her okay anyway."

"Sweet talk her, Lil," Carlos rolls over and pats her skirt, "Who can resist you – wait, where did you get this?"

"Goodwill. Twenty bucks for the whole uniform, plus stockings," Liling says and gracefully sits down on her chair, "I'll go see Mrs. Bergmann later. June, come sit with me! Oh, by the way guys, I talked with the school nurse today and she gave me this warning, that there's something going around at school – the flu."

"How on earth do you get the flu around this time of the year?" Duncan says and raises both eyebrows, "It's practically still summer."

"It's fall," Liling corrects him, "People like you are the ones that get sick first, think it's still summer and dress like it."

Duncan mutters something incoherent and then suddenly smashes both his fists on the keyboard.

"Shit! Thanks for distracting me, now I totally fucked up my quest because of you!"

"How is this my fault again? If you weren't so obsessed with your stupid video games –"

"Video games. What is this, the nineties – ouch!"

Liling threw her eraser at Duncan.

Right then, the door slams open and I'm actually kind of glad, since this seemed likely to be the beginning of a fight. My relief decreases drastically the moment I spot the girl walking inside. Brown hair up in a tight bun and arms crossed, Vivian Montgomery struts inside the rooms as if she owns the world.

"Hello everyone," she says, as if she's a TV announcer, "It's nice to see you all present."

There's a mumbled hello, Liling and Duncan still shooting daggers at each other, and I give my best to melt with my background – means a desk and a laptop. It's a hard task, and I'm not entirely sure why I try to hide from her anyway. Yes, we're not exactly best friends, yes, my boyfriend probably cheated on me with her, yes, she can't stand my guts, but we're both mature seniors and –

"Oh," Vivian says and stops from unpacking her bag, "You're the new face, right? We didn't really get a chance to talk last time. Jude, isn't it?"

My left eyelid twitches. "Hi – Viola?"

"Ah! Time for introductions!" Liling perks up and claps her hand, "June, this is our second vice president, Vivian. Vivian, this is June – she's super cool, a senior just like you! You probably share a few classes?"

What about all? Besides PE, because Vivian doesn't take any PE classes since she can't do sports for shit (me neither – it was actually just bad luck I had to take volleyball classes for the credits).

"I guess," Vivian says and opens her laptop, "Aren't you friends with Logan?"

She doesn't directly look at me, but it's still obvious. Vivian knows. She definitely knows something, if not everything, about what happened between Logan and I during the summer. She knows, and I could kill Logan for it.

"Not really," I mutter and roll around on my chair, "Logan just likes to bother me."

Vivian narrows her eyes, but doesn't say a word. Liling gives us a curious look.

"Speaking of Logan," Carlos grins and turns around on his chair, facing their VP, "Where even is your boyfriend, Miss Montgomery? What is this, dropping the bomb on us just like that and then leaving right away?"

"I was so shocked!" Liling exclaims dramatically and presses a hand over her heart, "I thought you guys were messing with us – I never saw Logan act so romantic! Whew, when he grabbed your scarf my heart stopped!"

Vivian smiles and looks very pleased with herself.

"Logan is just romantic like that," she says "You know, I only thought of us as friends, but then we randomly met at an ice cream shop two weeks ago. There was this – magic in the air, you know?"

Liling nods excitedly, while Duncan makes gagging noises.

"Logan actually kissed me the first time that day," Vivian says with a very dreamy, very unlike-Vivian voice, "We're dating ever since."

Oh, fabulous. Logan managed to two time me for two whole weeks. And I get it all rubbed in my face by his new girlfriend. If I ever were to hit the jackpot in awkward situations, this would definitely be it.

I press my lips together and focus on what's supposed to be an early draft of my literature essay. A very early draft.

"Wait, Logan actually found the time to meet you?" Duncan said and looks up from his computer screen, "I thought he's all busy with practicing his oh so amazing skateboard skills."

The fact my ex-boyfriend is some sort of skateboard prodigy is as weird as it sounds, especially since skateboarding isn't cool anymore since, well, the nineties. But apparently, being a prodigy is still something people notice, doesn't matter in what.

"He found time for me after his practice, you know?" Vivian says and there's something in her voice that gives me the chills.

Does she also know that it was me by his side, during every single one of his skateboard practices? Was it like this – Logan finishing practice, giving me a goodbye kiss before meeting up with Vivian, probably complaining about how he had to endure me all day long? I feel sick.

"I wish you good luck on your relationship," Johnny helpfully contributes from his desk, "Lil, it'd be good if you actually go and meet up with Mrs. Bergman right now. I'm not sure how long she'll stay at school today."

Liling sighs but grabs her back, quickly patting my hair. "Everyone, be nice to June. I'll be back."

Right after the door closes behind Liling, it opens again, revealing three other students. Kaia immediately spots me right from where she's talking to Matthew and Agatha. She waves excitedly and practically jumps to where I'm sitting.

"June, I'm so glad you came to the meeting," she says and grabs my hands, "I was so surprised when you texted me!"

She looks happy, like she thought I'd indeed skip. I narrow my eyes, definitely not as glad about my decision to show up. I wonder what Kaia would say if I told her all about Logan two timing me like the little rat he is, but can't really with the council members around us. Instead, I put on my best nonchalant face.

"Yeah well, here I am," I say and shake her hands, "Why are you late?"

"Mr. Gordon and I had an important talk about my last paper," she declares and bites her lower lip, "Apparently, I didn't reach full marks."

"Oh no, whatever we'll do," I say.

"This isn't funny June, what if I fail the year?" Kaia says.

"Because of one paper?" Carlos speaks up, rolling around, "Yo Mat – Aggs."

Matthew grins and bro-fists him. He looks good when he's smiling, not that intimidating. He combed his locks out of his forehead today, I notice, and I don't know why I do.

"This is not my nickname," Agatha says.

"What's your nickname then – Aggy? Gats? Aga?" Duncan smirks and turns in his chair.

Agatha pauses and furrows her brows. "I don't think I have a nickname."

"We'll find you one, don't worry," Carlo says.

"For sure," Duncan says, "I'm good with nicknames. Remember Lettuce? Remember how genius?"

"Dude, Liling will rip your throat if you ever call her that again."

"I don't think you need to find me a nickname," Agatha says very slowly and then sends a wave in my direction, "Hi June. It's nice you're here."

I smile and give her a wave back. Kaia sits down on Liling' chair and starts spinning around, which is put to a drastic halt when she finally spots Vivian.

"Oh," she squeaks and her eyes quickly dart to mine, "Oh, hi Vivian."

Vivian looks up and gives her a nod. "Hi Kaia. So you're our second new member?"

She's all sugary sweet, closing her laptop and smiling at her warmly. Kaia looks a little lost, but she's Kaia after all and can't really be mean to people. They engage in light conversation about the council and how Kaia loves everything about so far, something I don't intend to join. Instead, I focus back on my essay. It's supposed to cover a book I head to read until yesterday and I'm in the midst of contemplating whether looking up a summary on the internet will actually cut it, when Johnny speaks up again.

"So, our new coordinators," apparently he's talking to Kaia and I, "I've got work for you. The green & gold room cleaning is close and there's a lot to organize."

"Oh!" Kaia immediately brightens up, "I took part in it last year and it was so much fun! June was sick so she couldn't join."

Yeah. Sick.

"Good, so you already know how it works," Johnny says and starts rummaging through the huge stack of files on his desk, "I have the schedule from last year somewhere – yes, there it is. We put all the different cleaning steps in order, to make things work smoothly, and added the lunch break and what not. I suggest we don't change much, just look through it and set up a similar schedule."

I amazed by the trust he puts in us, but only until I get a look at the schedule that really isn't much but seven points in a certain order. There are small doodles at the side. Apparently, one council member is a fan of the Avengers.

"This is so exciting," Kaia whispers besides me and digs into the papers Johnny handed us, "Our first event and it's the green & gold cleaning, how great is that?"

I slowly nod and take a look at the next sheet, a sample of the flyers they handed out to the students. It looks like a pamphlet of some revolutionary student organization, bright red letters on black background with the slogan "Clean up your dusty school life!" and small drawings of stick figures raising brooms beneath it.

"What is this?" I can't help but chuckle as I hold up the paper, "Did you really hand this out?"

Johnny doesn't look up from his work. "Matty and Agatha designed it."

"I thought it looks good," Agatha says and sounds noticeably crestfallen. Matthew gives me a bemused look and Kaia nudges my side with a panicked side-eye. Oops.

"I mean, it is cool!" I say quickly and feel my cheeks burning, "Just – unexpected. But I guess that's what you were going for, right?"

"Yeah, kind of," Agatha smiles weakly and runs pastel crayons over the sheet of her sketch book, "This year, we agreed to go in a different direction– nicer, friendlier. I feel like the last one scared away the freshmen."

"What a god damn shame," Carlos says.

"The freshmen," Johnny looks up and gives us a serious look, "Are actually the people we want to address most– since it's important for new students to take part in the school life. So yes, it was a shame."

Carlos rolls his eyes but doesn't say anything, fingers clicking in a melodious rhythm over his keyboard. I wonder what the job of the tech crew is during events like the green & gold cleaning, since I don't know what technical devices you even need to set up for a cleaning event.

While Kaia's preoccupied copying the schedule from last year's in her best handwriting, I lean back on my chair and read through the finalized flyer they handed out last year. It's not that bad, considering what to expect from the cleaning of a common room. Nothing I'd be extremely thrilled to participate in, but it could be fun. Especially for freshmen, known to find fun in practically anything. I wonder why I didn't participate during my freshman year, but decide it's probably because I spent my entire freshman year lounging around watching Netflix. Which would be an accurate summary of my whole life if Kaia (and Logan) didn't happen.

"Say," Matthew speaks up, voice deeper than I remember it – then again, I haven't really talked to him before, "Imagine you're a shy and intimidated freshman – freshly graduated from middle school, means practically still in your diapers, and not exactly familiar with the other students yet. What would you prefer – 'Come join us at the collective cleaning of the green & gold room, it's super cool!', 'The highlight of the year, the cleaning of the green & gold room, is close, so sign up before it's too late!' or 'You feel like dust? After you cleaned the green & gold room you surely won't, so come and join us!'?"

There's a silence. Kaia drops her pen and bends down to get it. Agatha bites her lip and eyes Matthew, slowly putting down her crayons. Duncan curses because he missed a high score in his game.

"What was that last one?" Johnny asks slowly.

"I thought about something ... fresh?" Matthew scratches his neck, "Vivian?"

"It's not that bad," Vivian says and gives Matthew a tight-lipped smile, "I know you enjoy puns with dust, but comparing the freshmen with it is maybe a bit too much?"

"Are you still on about the dust puns?" Carlos looks up from his laptop, "Gonna admit it now, I voted for 'Me Dusta' last year. What a shame it didn't make it."

Vivian rolls her eyes, and Johnny furrows his brows and ticks a few points on a sheet in front of him.

"So, any other opinions?"

My mouth is open before I can't even stop myself. "The dust puns are cute. It'll make people laugh, don't you think?"

Matthew seems surprised for this sudden outburst, just like Kaia, who gives me a curious look. Then, Matthew ruffles his locks, until they're falling in his forehead and cover his eyes.

"Same," he says with a smile.

I swallow and put on an indifferent face. "Yeah. Well..."

No one else seems to be paying attention anymore, since Johnny continues ticking off points on his list and Vivian mutters something along the lines "we'll have an official voting anyway". The techies are playing computer games, Liling is still gone, and the arts crew discusses something amongst themselves again. I hide my face in my arms and notice Kaia giggling. She nudges my side.

"What?" I whisper and bite my lower lip.

Kaia just giggles some more. "Nothing."