06: The music studio, the Student Government office, and the recycling area

“As I was saying, a deserted classroom like this is enough to be called any kind of room like a musical studio if you do whatever you want inside it. That’s the point of this guys here”

I said to Velle while giving her a tour of the said “studio”.
Patrik is on the door talking to us, while there are 3 other students inside.

“Don’t say it like that dude, we bring our own instruments here and we practice songs. This IS a music studio”

“Yeah yeah, I get it. I’m just explaining how you guys are getting away with using this room like a club. Even though there are no other clubs here aside from SG”

The “music studio”, like said before, is just a deserted classroom that Patrik and the others occupied and cleaned to be like a proper clubroom for a music club. That studio stands out because around it are classrooms that are full of broken chairs and desks. On the other hand no one can hear their noises because they are the only people in that building.

It makes it look like there are students here doing their club activities and learning something but in reality it's just a bunch of students that hang out after class and do whatever the hell they want.

“By the way, we haven’t introduced ourselves yet.”
“My name is Patrik, I’m kinda the band manager here.”
“That guy playing his mobile games is Miller”
“That girl practicing guitar is Andeya”
“And that guy with glasses watching anime porn on his phone secretly is Jephte”

Miller and Andeya waves and says “Hi” to Velle.

“I’m not watching any anime porn! Damnit!”
Shouts Jephte, the guy who watches different kinds porn even during class.

“Huh? Where’s Kris? Isn’t she part of your circle?”

“She’s with Daniel and Ayana right now. Your childhood friend is part of everyone’s circle here, just so you know”
“What? Are you gonna go two-timing? Hehehe!”

“Shut the fuck up dude, I’m just wondering why she isn’t with you guys here”
“We’re gonna go to the SG office next. See ‘ya tomorrow guys!"
"And Jephte, please stop your porn addiction!”

“FUCK YOU!!!”
Shouts Jephte, while still focusing on his phone watching anime porn.

As I make our way for the last destination of this school tour, I also make my way to ask a reeeallly trivial question to the one I’m giving tour to.

“Do you think those guys in the music studio are a lively bunch of friends?”

“Hmm? They are okay and I think they are really having fun. Why?”

“Uh-huh… if that’s what you think. Let me warn you that this last stop is gonna be a bit more intense.”

As we climbed on stairs where the SG office is right in the corner, various loud noises can be heard.

“C’mon man, that’s cheating!! A touch move is a touch move!”

“We’re not in a chess tournament, Nico!! Basic rules are the only thing here!!”

“HEY YOU IDIOTS!! DON’T PLAY CHESS HERE!! DO IT ON ANOTHER CLASSROOM!!!”
“ALSO YOU TWO GIRLS, STOP PLAYING SCRABBLE HERE!”

“Eh...? The pocket wi-fi signal is not gonna reach the next room. Claire need to check the dictionary”

“Heyyy Secretary Erika, your job here is not to discipline these guys. There’s still a ton of paperworks here”

“I’m still the class president, mind you!!”

“UNO!! HAHA!!, AND NOW I’M GONNA SPAM PLUS 4. HAHAHA!!”

“THAT’S AGAINST THE RULES, ASSHAT!!”

“Like Jamboy said, we’re not in a tournament so why not?”

“WE’RE PLAYING UNO, NOT CHESS!!”

The SG office that was supposed to be full of organized and diligent officers doing their job as the student authority of the school, is filled with loud students playing card and board games.

Although there are still some of them that do the paperwork jobs, particularly the top officers.

“D-does this happen everyday?”
Velle asked out of disbelief.

“I’m not really part of this club but I do know that this is the quietest they could get…”
“The worst thing is when an assembly happens and all of the members are here”

“W-woah…”

I don’t know if she was amazed or disturbed by the not-so-fun fact I explained.

“Hey Francis! What brings you here? Oh right, you still stuck on that punishment”

“No need to rub that Pres, this is going to be the last part of the tour anyway”

“Hey I told you before, don’t call me Pres outside the classroom. I’m a secretary here in SG”

“Wow… you suck at your job then.”

“You whispering something...?”

“Nothing.”

Just another fun fact: Erika and Pau basically swap roles of being President and Secretary in the classroom and SG.

“Huh, where is Pau? She runs this place doesn’t she?”

“Hmmm, she said she’s having a meeting with the teachers at the Principal’s office, but it’s almost time for us to go home and they are not done yet”
“By the way, you wanna tour inside the office? We’re not really busy”

The SG office is composed of 3 consecutive classrooms that were merged together by removing the walls inside. From the outside perspective, it’s not obvious that the office is as big as that because the glass windows are blurred and the doors are still present. That whole setup makes it look like the office is just a single room and the other are 2 blank classrooms.

“Wow…”

“You see, this is the best place in school, that’s why I saved it for the last part of our tour”

The inside looks really office-like and has a really welcoming atmosphere. The SG office is comparable to a prestigious school’s meeting room. It feels far away from the outside where classrooms are on the verge of collapse.

“These guys worked together to preserve the records and maintain the tidiness of this office ever since the senior students transferred to other schools”

But then again, the current SG members are still playing board and card games inside while being loud…

“Oh! You’re the transfer student! Your name is Velle, right?!”
“My name is Marjorie, you can call me Marj for short. I’m the treasurer of SG!”

“S-so small…”
Velle looks kinda amazed while shaking hands with a small classmate of ours.

Marj’s being the treasurer of SG is an indication that she is also one of the most diligent students in the class along with Pres.
Her most noticeable appearance is her short height, anyone who sees her would have thought that she is a grade 6 student. She could get really offended if someone teased her about her height unless it wasn’t intended.

“S-so cute…”

“Eh~ ehehehe, I don’t know about that~~”

And she could get really flustered if someone compliments her about it

The other SG members inside the office greets us with “Hello” and “Hi” while they are doing their stuff. After some time, we left the SG office. 

My tour guiding job ended and now we’re on the way to the school gate to go home.

“Are you fine with the tour? We’re really sorry if there’s only one or two place here that has a normal high school atmosphere”

“It’s okay~ I had fun seeing your classmates having fun. If anything I should apologize for being part of your punishment”

“Ahahaha! Don’t worry about that, I know it’s my fault anyway.”
“By the way, are you sure you’re gonna continue attending this school? It’s not too late to back down, you’re still on the first day.”

“Hmmm…”
“I don’t think I’m going to transfer to another school again, after all you already made me see how fun this high school is~”
“Though, I would also ask, are you going to stop attending this school if you had the chance to?”

“Well… it's not like I hate this school. But I think I’m gonna wait after a year to see if it is worth to stay here”

“Why do you need to wait for a year? Do you love your classmates so much and want to bond with them for that long?”

“Wha–!.. I-it's not like that!”
“I uh… I need to see if there are other better schools for senior years! Yes, that’s right! It could take a year, there are many schools around after all! Ahahaha!!...”

“Pft~ Ufufufu, you know, I know someone with the same mindset as you. I could also see some differences between you and that person, but you’re really alike.”

Somehow I feel like I got close to her a little bit, I really hope I’m not tripping any flags here. But I guess this is a good way to make her a little more comfortable in this school.

And somehow we got into the school gate in the middle of our conversation.

“Hey Francis, can I ask what that is?”

“Hm? Oh, that’s just the recycling area”
“We put bags of plastic bottles there during Friday”

“Was that gate supposed to be open?”

“Huh? Wait, you’re right. Why is this open? No one was supposed to go here, and the gate should be locked in this day”

The gate to the recycling area is supposed to be always locked. If a class wants to put recyclable trash inside, they need to ask the school guard or a teacher to get the key to the teacher's office.
As we wondered why this area was open, we heard whispers. It looks like there are two people inside.

“You keep it, dumbass!! What are we gonna do if that's a teacher?!”

“I don’t care! Shut the fuck up! They’re not gonna do anything to us anyway!”

From the sound of them, it looks like they heard us and panicked. I opened the door immediately to see who they were.

“Um, sorry if we disturbed you guys here but we need to close off this area. The school is also gonna close, so…”

It’s students from lower year, a guy and a girl. I think they are hiding something that a teacher wasn’t supposed to see, but I don’t think they are gonna appreciate it if I got into their business. Also I’m gonna stop assuming that they are doing anything indecent but I think it’s alright if I just warn them to stop staying here.

“Tch!... let’s go outside, my dad is waiting!”

“Ah! Wait for me!”

Good thing they didn’t say anything to us and got offended for disturbing them, although it’s obvious that the guy is glaring at me. Would be a bad thing if something happened while Velle is just a new student here.

“Um… sorry about that Velle, this thing happens a lot between us and the rest of the students here…”

“It’s okay, I experienced that a lot too in my previous school. So no worries~”
“Anyway, thank you for touring me inside the school, Francis. Lets see each other tomorrow~”

“Ah, don’t mention it. Right! I almost forgot that we’re on the school gate already”
“I guess I’ll see you too tomorrow then”

“Goodbye, Francis!”

“Bye Velle!”

As we waved goodbyes to each other, I kinda felt happy to realize that someone new came to this school to relate to. It is really fun to be in this school where everyday is unusual.

Deep down, I’m hoping those unusual things that happen everyday in this school are not gonna stop because those things make me look forward to tomorrow.

Or so I thought.

The next morning, a female student from our school died in an accident.