Getting the club room ready.

The process of getting the approval for a new club is usually long because, if there ARE new clubs starting, it’s at the start of the school year and all new clubs get approved together. Technically, we had missed the submission deadline by a large margin. However, Mr. Rodriguez vouched for us and took care of the teacher’s side of the paperwork himself.

By that Friday, the Occult Research Club was official. On paper at least. Our club room had to be prepared first, and that task was solely ours.

Alice, Noelle and even Isabelle and Thomas came to help us. We finish school early on Fridays, so we wanted to use as much time as we could to get it all done quickly.

Getting them to give us the storage shed outside wasn’t as difficult as we thought it would be. Or rather, Grace’s idea to make this an occult research club was what made us get it. Her foresight never ceases to impress me.

Also, I call it a shed, but it was only a little smaller than a classroom for 20 people and it almost looked like a small house. It was 5x4 meters with no dividing walls inside. The white paint on the wood outside was peeling off of it, the windows weren’t see-through from all the accumulated dirt (and cleaning them was a pain due to the iron bars on the outside) and the shingled roof needed a real good cleaning. I took on that job because I didn’t want to risk any of the girls falling and Thomas was maybe too heavy for it.

I was standing on top of the club room… Or maybe club house? I was sweeping and getting leaves off from between the shingles. Meanwhile, Thomas was carrying most of the heavy stuff inside to the shed that was actually in use. There weren’t many things to begin with, anyway. More tables and chairs, boxes with old gym equipment, leftover bags of cement from some construction work that had been done years ago, stuff like that.

“And the principal bought more cement to fix the parking lot earlier this year…” I heard Alice say, sighing in frustration. “There was more here!”

“And I’m pretty sure this trampoline can be fixed,” said Thomas as he carried said trampoline out. “I’m gonna tell the P.E. teacher. He was complaining about only having two and needing a third.”

“For a high profile school, we’re pretty disorganized, huh?” Mila commented.

“It’s what happens when you rely too much on throwing money at your problems,” Sarah told her.

“I hear the principal is actually crazy stingy,” Noelle said. “If he knew these things were here he wouldn’t be buying more.”

“Okay, but why don’t they know?” Sarah asked.

“Poor management, basically. Too much space, too many people and too many leftover supplies that people are too lazy to record or report,” Grace said nonchalantly. “Happens all the time and it drives my dad insane.”

Right. Grace’s dad owns a contracting company.

I saw Isabelle walking out of the shed. She looked up at me and asked, “You okay up there?”

“Yeah. How are you guys doing inside?”

“The lights all work as do the outlets. I’m also almost finished with the windows. They’re old and with a few scratches here and there, but they’re fine.”

Good, because changing them would be expensive, and our club had practically zero budget. Why else do you think we were allowed to form the club this late in the year?

We made a vote to decide who would be the president of our new club. Mila, Sarah and I voted for Grace at the same time. Honestly, we didn’t understand why she was surprised at all. Regardless, she laughed, called us out for throwing all the work on her and accepted.

Grace filled out the paperwork and when she had to give an estimate of the implements the club would need to function, she simply wrote chairs and tables, stating that most of our research could be done in our laptops and in the library. That earned us quick approval.

When I was done with the roof, I carefully jumped down. It wasn’t a long fall, barely two meters. Thomas could easily touch the ceiling if he raised his hand.

I peeked inside the shed and was shocked by what I saw. When I first looked inside, it was dusty and full of junk. Now it was completely empty and the wooden floor was spotless. Old, yeah, but spotless.

“Oh wow… You girls did some work.”

“Sweeping is barely worth mentioning,” Alice said. “I feel bad for Thomas. He had to carry almost everything out of here.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” Thomas said, smirking. “I pay back what I owe. And speaking off…” Thomas looked at me. “Your boss told you that she’s not opening the shop tomorrow, right?”

I nodded. “And this… ‘Family matter’ she told me about is not an excuse to spend the day with you, right?”

“Hah! I wish.” Thomas crossed his arms. “No, she’s driving her mother to see her sister, Maria’s aunt, who had an accident.”

“How’s that going, anyway?” Sarah asked him teasingly. “Having fun with your new girlfriend?”

You couldn’t have erased his dumb grin if you slapped him. “I’m not telling.”

“Anyway.” Grace sighed, turned to Sarah and poked her cheek. “Stop worrying about him and worry about yourself. You should’ve left half an hour ago, right?”

Sarah flinched and so did I. Our eyes met with nervous glances.

Sarah swallowed. “R-Right. Well… See you all around, okay?”

“Good luck,” Mila told me.

“Don’t worry,” Alice added. “Sarah’s parents are really friendly.”

“Don’t let her siblings push you around,” Grace warned.

Noelle giggled. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“Yeah,” Isabelle agreed easily. “If it was the you from three months ago I’d be worried, but now?” She shrugged.

“You girls know you’re just adding more pressure on the poor guy, right?” Thomas asked them. He wasn’t entirely wrong.

We finished up and went our own ways. I got in Sarah’s car and we drove to her house, to meet her family.

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