Slow and Speedy Win the Fight

88. Fire

Sheldon

I double-checked that I had the scrap papers I scribbled on for GSA but I was stopped by a familiar voice.

"Hey," Rudra pulled me to the side before I could even enter the club room and I raised an eyebrow.

"What is it? You know the club starts now."

"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to let you know that we're going to have to reschedule our date."

My eyebrows furrowed. "How come?"

"Something came up but I was thinking if we could do the Saturday after next week?"

I rubbed the back of my neck before I nodded. "I'll just have to double-check if I have to do anything since everything is sort of messed up since I teamed up with Haresa."

"How did the first mission go with that by the way?" Rudra asked.

"A disaster. Haresa nearly drowned."

"That wasn't what she told me," Rudra said surprised. "She said everything went well."

"They say that now but they wouldn't be saying jack if I didn't pull them out in time."

"Sheldon. Get in here," Haresa called out from inside the club room and I let out an exhausted sigh.

"I wish I wasn't here and decoding a data encrypted microchip right now," I said.

Rudra nodded. "That's a mo— What was that last part?'

"Now!" Haresa yelled.

"Christ, you don't have to get on my case. We're at school not in front of any cameras," I yelled back at them and strode to the front of the room.

Rudra took his seat amongst the other club members and I threw my bag onto the ground next to the teacher's desk.

"So, we got some bad news," Haresa said. "Everyone really wanted a trip but the school blocked saying it was too late into the school year so we can't get approval in time."

There was a wave of groans and exclamations of disappointment.

"But," I raised my hand instinctually to talk. I didn't really know if I was supposed to do that or not. "They allowed us to host an event in the school if we want one."

"School dance!" Someone called out and there was a mixture of responses following it.

"That was one of the options," Haresa started to say but the buzz of excitement quickly drowned out anything they were saying.

"I suppose we're having a school dance then," I muttered to Haresa.

"They didn't even listen to the other options."

"Makes deciding what to do way easier at least," I shrugged.

"But still, they should at least listen."

"Like how you should've listened to me yesterday?"

My comment seemed to have bothered them as they scrunched up their nose.

"I'm sorry," they mumbled.

"Was it really that hard to give a simple apology?"

"We don't have to make this a heated discussion."

"This isn't a heated discussion over something trivial. The situation went way past that and turned into a trash fire situation."

They seemed taken aback and looked at me in confusion. "We're in the hero and villain industry. You really need to relax."

I gritted my teeth. "I don't take near-death situations lightly."

"Okay, okay. Everyone, settle down," Mr. Dunson said. "It looks like we all want a dance."

Everyone excitedly nodded their heads or clapped except Rudra. His gaze seemed distant as he stared at Haresa. There was an uneasy feeling in my stomach as I could tell Rudra was upset but I wasn't sure why. Was he upset with Haresa nearly drowning? Since they were friends, it wouldn't be surprising if he was upset.

I tried to ignore the feeling and tried to keep my focus on the event we were planning.

"It'll be a dance just for the GSA club, we can have rainbow streamers and pride-themed food," Mr. Dunson suggested.

"We could borrow the lights and speakers from the drama club," Haresa suggested. "Just need to hook up someone's laptop and we can play music."

"Do we know when we're allowed to host this?" I asked Mr. Dunson.

"The principal gave me a list of days where the gym would be available for us to host the dance," Mr. Dunson said as he pulled out a paper from his pocket. He handed the paper to Haresa and they looked over the dates.

"We don't have a lot of options, so tonight we'll send out an email to everyone to a survey and everyone can choose which date works best for them," Haresa said. "Volunteer and food sign-ups will be part of the form too. Don't forget to write down if you have any allergies in the comment section."

"Was there anything else we missed?" Mr. Dunson asked us and I shook my head. He turned back to the rest of the students with a smile. "Alright, that's all for the quick meeting. Thanks for coming everyone."

The students began to pack their things while excitedly chatting with each other and I could see Haresa was typing away on their phone.

Rudra was now standing by my side and he seemed hesitant.

"Did you need something?" I asked him and I began to think about my part in the announcement. I didn't say that much, was he going to judge my role as president?

"I was wondering if the date we had planned could be for the upcoming dance," Rudra said with a small smile.

My heartbeat quickened and I coughed into my hand. "I wouldn't mind it."

"Awesome, I'll see you then," Rudra said as he walked off with a wave.

I waved back to him and I heard Haresa groan.

"What?" I asked them.

"You have to be working on that day," Haresa said.

"It's a dance, how hard could it be?" I asked.

They didn't look impressed and were still typing a mile a minute on their phone.

"Just don't expect to have the easiest time the whole night, you still have to make sure that the tech is still working by the end of the night and help with clean up," they said.

"That shouldn't take too much time and the clean-up is after the dance too," I pointed out.

"Just don't run off by the end of the night, okay?"

"Oh? The hero is asking the villain for help?" I said in mock surprise.

"No, the vice president is asking the president to realize that running an event is lots of work."

"Which is why I'm the president. You don't have to shoulder all that responsibility." I slung my bag over my shoulder and flicked their arm. "What the hell have you been doing on your device anyways?"

They dramatically gave a final tap on their phone and their shoulders slumped back as they let out a sigh of relief. "I just sent out the survey to everyone."

"What? We literally just announced it," I said. My jaw was barely hanging onto my face.

"When you're a hero, you get used to getting work some pronto, especially when emails are involved," they replied with a smug smile.

"Good for you. Let's just go quickly," I said as I walked out of the classroom. "We don't know what we might find in that old block."