Do It Yourself [Newspaper Club]

[Vicky Barnes]

Outfit

It was early. Very, very early, and no person in their right mind would be up right now. No… wait… it was already 7:30 am? When had that happened? Time truly flew by when one was having fun.
Vicky abandoned her spot behind the computer to unpack her bag and start setting up name-cards and other fun things that came with running a club. Not that she was in charge… but seeing as this school’s organization was cringe worthy at best, and there wasn’t even a teacher or supervisor assigned to the newspaper club yet, someone would have to take it upon themselves to get things started.
Of course there was no one assigned to something as important as the news. Heaven forbid students actually used their time responsibly rather than fooling around in a Dance club, which oddly enough did have a supervisor. And why not? Anyone could dance, it didn’t require much skills on either the teacher’s part or the student’s part, it was just all so happy, happy, happy!
‘Oh dancing is so much fun!’ you know what’s also fun? Having to explain to a University that the only extracurricular activity you took was dancing, and not competitive dancing, or classical dancing either. Just plain and simply flailing your arms about like a drunken monkey. If that didn’t get you into Harvard, nothing would.

She sighed in annoyance. It wasn’t necessarily that she hated dancing, or that she thought badly of those who had signed up, but honestly… why did a club like that get so much attention while the clubs that actually involved work and effort were left high and dry? Some students really required a swift kick in the butt to get them started and involved… if there wasn’t even a teacher, how could you expect students to do the work?
The bias towards ‘fun’ clubs was deeply disturbing in her opinion.

The same was going on with both the Yearbook club as well as SAC, though at least those clubs had capable advisers. Sean Neville most definitely wasn’t an unintelligent man, and he knew what he was doing. And Ingrid, well… she was her gran, so naturally she thought highly of that club’s supervision. So far, only Vicky had signed up for those clubs, and she couldn’t imagine why no one else was interested in joining.
SAC allowed you to have a say in student events! She’d expected loads of people to sign up and demand more parties. As for the Yearbook… oh well, even if no one else signed up, it would work out fine. If no one else joined, the Barnes Soul Sisters would get it done by themselves, no problem.
The brunette blinked a few times when she caught her mind wandering all over the place. “Come on, focus!” she told herself as she reached back into her bag for the pens and pencils.

It didn’t matter in the end. Even if the school wouldn’t properly organize the club, that was no excuse to sit back and do nothing. It would be possible for a Yearbook club, that only really had one deadline, but there was so much news to report, and the longer they waited with getting started, the longer Hammel’s students would remain ignorant.
No, that simply wouldn’t do. It was their responsibility to get people involved in the outside world as well as important school reportings, Hammel relied on them dammit!
And so here she was, acting more like a teacher than a student yet again.
Before going out to check the breakfast, lunch and dinner menu for today to put up on her site, so that students (And any teachers that happened to know about its existence) could decide whether they wanted to avoid the cafeteria today or not, she’d written up a few notes and left them outside the doors of her would-be colleagues. One on the wall opposite of the door – so everyone leaving the room would notice it – and for the shy, she’d also taped one to the floor. If they didn’t show up, at least it wouldn’t be for a lack of trying on Vicky’s part.
“There!” everything was in place, now all she had to do was wait for her co-workers to show.

As the minutes ticked by, Vicky began to worry. What if some Joker had found it funny to remove her notes, and her fellow club members wouldn’t know of this meeting?
7:50 am. “Don’t worry! It’s still early, they’re probably still sleeping, right? …right?” she sighed and made her way back to the computer she’d been working on. Might as well do something useful while waiting.

[Mayu Yoshiko]

Outfit

6:59 A.M.

[/i]

Mayu sighed to herself, rolling over in her white comforted bed to hit the cheeping alarm clock. Yes, her alarm clock was cheeping. She had found it at a garage sale ages ago, instantly falling in love with it. What was it exactly? Well, her alarm clock was a cute little pink egg with a circular clock in the center, anytime it would go off the egg would break open and start cheeping. Oddly enough it vibrated hard enough to bounce around and flap it's silver little wings. Yes, she had an odd little alarm clock. But you couldn't deny it's cute appearance. Mayu giggled and jumped out of bed in a rather hyper mood, her My Melody- Kuromi pajamas ruffled from her eagerness to get ready. She looked like a little kid with her hair at low hanging pigtails. With another smile she walked across plush white carpet and to the silent and cold bathroom to take her shower.

7:37 A.M.

[/i]

Mayu giggled again, sitting on her bed now and brushing out her hair. Today she had to go to school fairly early to go to a Newspaper meeting. Though they could have scheduled it another day, like when they had found an actual teacher to host the club. She pulled her hair back into the low hanging pigtails and slipped into the comfortable pink-and-yellow pajamas she would wear to school on those lazy days like today. Mayu shoved her notebook into a small bag before slipping on a black coat and heading out the door and towards the school.

7:52 A.M.

[/i]

She moved quietly down the halls, keeping her head down and trying to keep unnoticed so that no one stopped her. Mayu already knew she was terribly late to the meeting for the club, a fact not helped by her stopping to get coffee for the other two members. Making a bad impression would only get her kicked out from the one club she had wanted to join. She dreaded being stuck in a mindless school club, such as just twirling around in stomach turning circles and calling it an art form. With a shy smile on her lips, Mayu pushed open the door with her hip- cups carefully balanced in her hand on those foam trays they handed out-to the club room thinking that everyone must be already started.

What wasn't expected was for it to be fairly empty room with just one other girl. "Vicky Barnes, right?" Mayu asked with a calm voice going up to set a cup of steaming hot coffee beside the girl, quickly followed by some caps of cream and sugar in case she liked those too. Mayu herself liked her coffee nice and black, a habit formed by many years drinking after her older brother who refused anything but the black and strongest. "I'm Mayu Yoshiko, am I late?"

[Estelle Flores]

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEE—

Estelle’s hand reached over and smacked her little black alarm clock without her head ever leaving its cave of pillows and blankets. One bleary, sleepy eye opened to glance at the alarm clock. 7:00. “Nrrrggh.” Estelle mumbled intelligently, flopping the covers back over her head. Why on earth had she set it so early? Her first class wasn’t until 9:00. Without thinking about it, Estelle went back to sleep.

7:45

“OH CRAP.” Estelle bolted straight upright, her eyes wide and her hair sleep-mussed. Newspaper club! That was why she’d set the alarm so early! “Oh man, oh man, oh man… DANGIT.” Estelle hissed as she sprang out of bed and wiggled into a pair of jeans. “Way to go, Estelle,” She muttered, throwing on a clean shirt, her trusty jacket, and running her fingers through her hair. “You big lazy… person.” She hitched her backpack over her shoulder and ran out the door.

She managed to get there about three minutes til, panting and looking a little disheveled. “Hey,” Estelle greeted, breathless and embarrassed, “Sorry I’m cutting it kind of close, it’s been quite a Morning.” She blinked in surprise as she saw only two people in the classroom, one being Vicky, the girl in the physics class she snuck into the other day. “Oh good morning Vicky.” She smiled, giving the other girl a little wave.

[Vicky Barnes]

The brunette slowly leaned back in her chair to get a better look at the door when she heard it creak open slowly, when she noticed a girl carefully balancing a tray with drinks, she quickly got up and opened the door fully to make the other girl’s life a little easier. “There we go.” She said with a smile as the girl set down a cup next to her, along with some caps of sugar and cream.
"Vicky Barnes, right?" the girl asked with a calm voice, "I'm Mayu Yoshiko, am I late?"
“I am.” She nodded as she looked down at the cup. ”Is that… coffee…?” her face lit up with joy as she regarded the girl once again as she introduced herself as Mayu Yoshiko. Mayu Yoshiko? That name sounded familiar…

Of course! Mayu was a member of this club as well! ”Jesus Christ on a stick, the first to arrive and bringing coffee? Favorite club member has been found!”
“Nice to meet you Mayu!” she shook the girls hand with a great big grin on her face, “No no, you’re actually the first to arrive! Glad you could make it, please sit wherever you want.” She proceeded to turn to her coffee and dump some cream and sugar into it, “Thank you for the coffee! You are now officially my favorite club member.” She winked playfully as she took a seat as well.
“I hope the rest will show-“ before she could finish her sentence, another girl burst into the room, breathing heavily as she stepped into the room.
“Hey, sorry I’m cutting it kind of close, it’s been quite a Morning.” she seemed a bit surprised to see only two people in the room.
“Estelle! It’s great to see you again!” she placed a comforting hand on her classmate’s shoulder, “Here, have a seat and just take it easy, you’re not really late. Oh, and Mayu brought coffee!”

For a few moments, she just stirred her cup, occasionally glancing up at the door. She was quite sure Estelle and Mayu weren’t the only club members… oh well, at least someone had showed up this morning, which was more than enough to bring a smile to Vicky’s face.
“So have you guys thought about the position you’d like to have in the club yet?” she grabbed a pen and a sheet of paper, “Let’s wait a few more minutes for the rest to show before we start, alright?”
She began to scribble down Estelle and Mayu’s names before looking back up at them again. “Running a newspaper will be a lot of work, so I figured we should assign jobs and sections to each of us. It’ll help us produce better work at a faster pace. Of course, the positions we’d assign now wouldn’t be permanent, if you tire of your position, we could always call for another meeting and discuss it.” She bit her tongue softly, interrupting her little rant.
”NO Vicky!” she hissed inwardly, “You’re not in charge, so stop trying to boss over them already.”

[Ann Hudgins]

Ann usually had a good grasp on mornings. She had a tendency to wake up at about six in the morning, sometimes earlier. As it were, today, she had spent most of the night on a history essay and had very little sleep. She had woken up late, with just enough time to get dressed before she had to grab her things and run through the halls to the Club rooms. She'd only been there once, by walking the halls to learn her way around, and she had never thought she would actually need to know where they were.

But as it was, Ann had joined the newspaper club. She wasn't sure exactly what possessed her to do so, but Dr. Neville told her it would be a good place to experiment with what she was good at, and make even more friends, so she hadn't backed out of it. She had received word the other day that today would be the first meeting and Ann was so angry at herself for being late. She finally managed to thunder through the doors, to realize she was actually very late for it, indeed.

She recognized two of the girls, she was sure, but the third was unknown. She panted faintly and looked around for the adult that would be supervising them. She found none. "Uhm...am I in the right room? Newspaper?" She hoped she was, but something told her she wasn't.

[Mayu Yoshiko]

Mayu looked up as another girl busted into the room, god were they all going to be girls? That would drive Antosha up the wall. He liked himself some boys. "Estelle Flores...? I'm Mayu, but please call me May." she offered a smile to the new girl, and a cup of coffee. This, of course, was Estelle-a fairly good metal controller-and classmate to Vicky. Anyone else might find it odd she knew just about every person first and last name, but it was just a hobby of hers. You never know when you need information about someone.

"Great ideas, Vicky. And don't worry, no one thinks your bossy. Anyway, I think it would be in our best interests to find a supervisor, that way the school has less reason to shut us down. It would be best to be an English Professor, maybe Professor Dalton is up for it?" With that she sat down and took a drink of her black-and still steaming-coffee.

Another girl made an appearance, confirming the feeling it would be a group of girls. "Your... Ann Hudgins, right? If so then this is definitely the right room for you." May pulled her bangs over her eyes and resigned herself to scribbling her notebook, vowing not to talk again unless it was necessary. She felt too smart whenever she opened her mouth to talk, which was a main reason to why she was here. Smart people worked on the newspaper. She would have gone out for Student Council except Ant had already signed up for it. A bad move to let someone like him into that particular club.

[Estelle Flores]

Estelle beamed at Vicky, sighing gustily, “Oh good. Glad to know I’m not late.” She laughed breathlessly. “Oh, thank you May!” Estelle took the cup of coffee from May gratefully, enjoying its warmth. She wasn’t much of a coffee drinker, but she did love how warm it was. And besides, she couldn’t just refuse May’s coffee; that would be rude. Though, truth be told, she was a little taken aback at the fact that May knew her name. Maybe they’d met before…? Not wanting to hurt May’s feelings, but hating not knowing a classmate when she knew Estelle, Estelle smiled apologetically. “May, I’m sorry, have we met before? Because… I’m so embarrassed…but I totally didn’t remember your name at all and you knew mine.” She made an apologetic face at the girl, hoping she hadn’t offended.

Estelle turned to see Ann timidly poke her head in. She smiled, feeling a lot of affection for Ann, who never seemed quite sure of herself. “Hi Ann!” She waved at the girl, “Yup, this is the illustrious Newspaper Club! So exciting, right?” She laughed and waved her over, “Come and sit down anywhere.”

Listening to Vicky, Estelle leapt to side with Mayu in reassuring her friend. “Absolutely! I don’t think you’re being bossy at all. What positions should we have, do you think? I’ve never worked on a newspaper before, so this should be fun!” She brightened at Mayu’s suggestion that Professor Dalton be their supervisor. “Oh man, that would be awesome! Professor Dalton is really, really cool.” Estelle had something of a secret hero-worship for the older teacher; he was an old-fashioned, British, English professor who seemed like someone out of a novel. Coolest. Ever. At least in Estelle’s mind.