Clubbing with Classmates

 “Mhm. Perfect scores for all but history with one question not fully answered. Regardless, you did a wonderful job this first quarter, Mr. Baker.”

I sit across from my student advisor, Ms. Aria. We sit in an empty classroom after most of everyone had left the school. It is mandatory for all probationary students to have an advisor, and given that there aren’t many probationary students, many get their own advisor for however long they are on probation.

The advisor’s job is to make sure their student is on top of their work and offer help when necessary. Not that I needed someone else to keep me on track.
As for Ms. Aria, she teaches math to my class at the end of the day. Which would have been nice having her if I struggled with math.
She looks to be in her early twenties, though I am fairly certain she is older. She has long black hair that is neatly kept in a ponytail that drapes over her shoulder. Her grey-ish blue eyes hide behind slick-black under-rimmed glasses.
“I have my reasons to be upset about not getting a perfect score but it is what it is.”

“Well, I would feel bad for anyone hoping to take the top score from Ms. Wright.”
“And who is she anyways?” I say with slight disdain.

“Well,” Ms. Aria fidgets with her glasses. “I’m not too sure how much I can say aside from the obvious. She’s a natural born genius in all fields to what I would deem a scary amount.”

That makes two of us.

“She entered on one of the most prestigious scholarships, and I am sure she could have gone anywhere.”

“Probably a full ride if I were to guess. Reverse of how most people come here for the title of being an alumni of Gran-West, somebody wanted her name associated with the school.”

“Business is business.”

We both share a laugh.

Our meeting continues about school work and upcoming assignments. Very boring stuff, to be frank.
But soon, the meeting comes to a close and we start to leave the lonely classroom. “Oh, Mr. Baker.”

“Yes, Ma’am?”

A wince of a pained expression flashes across her face. “Have you thought about joining a club?”

“A club, huh? I talked with Hope about it briefly, since she says wants to start one. I joked about a study group, but she seemed to latch on to that idea.”

“Not a bad start, but I am sure it will need to have something more to it than just studying together. Perhaps a club where you can tutor other students on assignments they have questions with. Even through teaching, you can teach yourself.”

“I’ll think about it and bring it up to Hope. See what she thinks as well.”

“If you come up with an idea, I would be happy to sponsor it. But do remember you need at least three members to start a club.” Ms. Aria bows her head and we walk our separate ways.

The next day I walk sluggishly to class, skipping breakfast once again for those sweet extra minutes of sleep after a night of scrambling to finish an essay.

“I swear, do these damn teachers even know that sleep is important~?” A loud and long yawn escapes me.

I finish dragging myself into my classroom and slump down in my seat.

“‘Morning.”

“‘Mor-” I turn my head to see Miss Genius smiling towards me, “-ning.” Please don’t give me trouble. I’m too tired to deal with you right now.

“Good morning, Ray. And good morning, Ms. Wright.” I turn my eyes up to see Hope walking towards us.

“Ever the cold shoulder, mhmh~” Miss Genius hangs her head in defeat.

“Oh, right.”

I lift my head from my desk, “Hope, I need to talk to you about the club.”
“Yes.” Her eyes light up.

“I talked to Ms. Aria about it, or more so she asked me if I am joining one and I said I would join yours if you’d make one. She suggested that a student tutoring club would probably be able to get accepted as a club.” Though the idea of talking with a lot of people doesn’t really drive me to wake up in the morning.

“Hmm, that could work. We could just use that time as a study hall until people arrive in need of help.”

“Yeah. Though, there is one problem.”

“And that is?”

“We need three people.”

The both of us look at Miss Genius who is sitting with eager eyes. Our eyes turn back with a mutual look of “there’s no other choice” and in that understanding we nod to each other.

“Well, Ms. Wright, if you would like to join us you may.”

“Sure!”

Oh well, might not be our first choice but in all fairness, we don’t have a first choice. She just so happened to be the only person the both of us sort of knew. Thus became the start of the Afterschool Student Counseling Club. Hope as the president, myself as the vice president, and Miss Genius in charge of all the other small tasks.

By the way, I did try to get away with the Afterschool Student Study Club. No shot.

“And here we are.”

I slump down at one of the tables we made by pushing the desks together.

“You could look a little more excited.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Without anything better to do and nobody walking through the door I take out my textbooks and start chiseling away at the stupid amount of homework this school piles onto its students.

Following suit, Hope and Miss Genius start on their work as well. But not ten minutes pass and an unenthusiastic “done” escapes Miss Genius’ mouth.

Needless to say, both Hope and I stare at her in absolute horror.

“What?”

“H-How?”

“It’s easy.”

“‘Easy’ my ass! This is all stuff we learned today!”

“Yeah, we learned it today so it’s easy to do the work for it.” Miss Genius tiles her head, giving me a quizzical look.

“Alright, then explain it to me.” Yeah, there’s no way. I refuse to believe she is that quick.

“Well you… umm…” She stares at my paper for a couple seconds and then writes the answer.

“That wasn’t explaining it! You just wrote an answer! You gotta at least show your work!”

“Right…” A few more seconds passed and the formula had been solved.

“I-I can’t believe it.”

“She is inhuman.” Hope leans back in her seat in awe.

I pour over her work and low and behold, she is correct. Something that would take me several minutes to solve only took her several seconds.

“But you still didn’t explain it. Explain this next one.”

“Sure. Well… uh… you do this and that… and the answer is this.”

She just stared at the paper and wrote an answer again. How?

“Sorry, explaining how I got the answer isn’t really my strong suit. But the answer is correct, I’d bet my life on it.”

“A bit extreme dontcha think?”

“Ehehe~”

I break down the formula step by step and we come to the same answer. I suppose she is just able to solve everything in her head.

No! I can’t be satisfied with “I suppose!” I flip through the assignment. This one’s a bit too easy. This one as well.

“This one… wait we haven’t even learned this yet! Perfect! Solve this one!”

“Ray, I think even she-” Hope starts to talk but Miss Genius takes the paper and begins to scour through it.

One minute passes. Two minutes pass.

“Done.”

Both Hope and I scan through her work.

“It is new, but uses a lot of the same principles as what we learned today. All you gotta do is think a little bit.”

Oh don’t sound so condescending! No one would have been able to figure it out. “But everything seems to be correct. I mean, if you had just written down any random number, I would have taken it. But this is just…”

“On a whole different level than us.” Hope scratches her head.

“Is that so…”

I look up at her and her usual carefree expression is far more downcast.

“Well, I could keep on asking you questions until you finish my homework but I’d like to be able to know I’m gonna be up against when the next test rolls around.”

“Oh,” Her expression lightens up, “Are you sure? I can do it for you, for a nice reward that is~?”

“As if!”
“Boo~!”

-x-

Weeks passed. Club activity has been slow, days feeling even slower. Though, things started changing this week. With the mid quarter exams of the second quarter approaching, there has been more traffic coming to our club asking for help.

Frankly, I barely have the time to study for myself, much less help other people. Hope has been managing quite well, though in her words:

“I’m happy to work more.”

I’ll be sure to repay her kindness when the exams are over. As for the other one, well…

“Phew! Another long day. Ray, Sarah, you ready?” Hope stands up with her bag and stretches out her arms.

“Sure thing-”

“I need to speak with you for a moment.” I interrupt Miss Genius and both of my clubmates look at me.

“Should I be here for it?” I shake my head in response to Hope.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“R-Right.” Hope awkwardly nods and leaves the classroom with a clattering of the door.

“Hm? What do you need to talk about?” Miss Genius sits on the makeshift table, “Are you confessing to me?”

“Not a chance.” Her sly expression weakens. “I want to talk to you about your performance in the club.”

She straightens up.

“Frankly, it’s not been good. Right now, you’ve basically just been a human cheat-sheet or an answer checker. While that’s great and all, it’s putting a lot more work on both Hope and I to teach people.”

“Right…”

“We need to figure out a way to make you more useful or else why have you here, ya know?”

She casts her gaze towards the floor. A look of genuine defeat washes over her face, similar to that several weeks back.

Perhaps I was too harsh on her. No. If I don’t say it bluntly, nothing will change.

“If only we had more members…”

I sigh under my breath. Just then, the door clatters open. “Sorry, we are done for the day.” I turn to look at the door.