Project: Socialize (Chapters 1-197)

56. School Festival and School Trip

Seventh period homeroom soon arrived once our last class of the day ended. The day outside was slowly nearing a dusk, but there was still plenty of daylight, which shined in from the windows and into the classroom. In the classroom with the students seated in desks arranged in neat rows and columns, our homeroom teacher, Mura, entered through the front door and stepped to the teacher's podium at the front of the class. She looked around the classroom, taking in the fatigued faces of the students, but she didn't comment on it.

"Alright everyone," she then announced. "I'm sure you all know, but the School Festival is in about two weeks. What we need to do today for homeroom is to choose representatives from our class to attend the Festival Committee meetings. These representatives will also host classroom meetings for ideas as to what our class will do for the School Festival and plan the necessary steps needed to accomplish the selected event. Any volunteers?"

She paused and looked around the classroom. As she did so, I looked around as well, knowing the almost nobody will raise their hand to volunteer for such a hassle.

"Come on people," Mura sighed and shook her head in disappointment. "It'll look nice for college."

Once again, the classroom remained silent despite her encouragement. Mura appeared quite cross about this situation, and I could visibly see the frustration building up within her. This scene made me feel as if something ominous was about to occur by the way she looked at me. It was as if facing a dangerous predator, making me cower down in my seat and avert my gaze. However, even then, my efforts were futile.

"Alevian?" Mura then said with a sly smile. "You volunteered, did you there?"

"No, I ugh..."

My attempts at escaping this responsibility was immediately obliterated by Mura, who progressed the selection progress by giving me a death stare, almost as if saying that my life will be in jeopardy if I do not comply to her request.

"So that's the selection for the boys," Mura said. "Any girls going to volunteer?"

Now she's done it. Now she's really done it. Mura had pushed me onto an execution platform before all the other students in the classroom. Usually, when someone's pushed into a situation like this and another volunteer of the opposite gender is needed, whether or not there will be a volunteer relies heavily on the other person's character and popularity. Either people volunteer because they are friends with the person who's forced to do so, or they like the guy who's forced into the position.

I know that if it was me, no one of the opposite gender will volunteer. That's a guaranteed fact. Not one girl in the classroom will raise their hand to volunteer for the female position, therefore, rendering me a laughing stock of the classroom. Even though I don't care about my reputation, it gets extremely annoying when it's the main topic of mockery in the classroom in the times leading up to the School Festival. In addition, the other member that will be forced to partner up with me will complain with her friends about me for absolutely no reason at all, further making more topics for people to mock me about. If it was to that point, even I would feel hurt.

Come on. Do it. Let those looks of disgust, repulsion, and disdain come my way. Let this unwillingness brew into a hurricane and blow all around me. I am the eye of the storm, the center of it all where everything will remain calm. I must remain calm.

"..."

Like I had expected, there was a prolonged period of silence in the classroom as eyes darted across the classroom. No girls dared make eye contact with anyone else, knowing that if they were to do so, they would most likely be forced to become my partner. As the girls did that, the boys did their best to contain their laughter, resulting in numerous muffled snickers.