teaser five MARCH 3, 2020   “Will you be here next week, Seth?”   “Probably,” he answered with a dazzling smile.   Giggles ensued. A few seconds later, “Okay then, bye, Seth! See you next week!”   He leaned back in his seat and cheerfully waved goodbye to the group of girls until they left the classroom.   “You really need to stop encouraging them,” Kallie told him as she began packing up her laptop and several administrative forms she needed to fill out by tonight for Circle K International, the community service club that she was currently the president of. She had just concluded her first weekly board meeting with the newly elected executive board that would be officially taking over once they were inducted at the annual District Convention next month. “All they do is fawn over you the entire meeting. They’ll never finish their training in time for DCON like this.”   Seth held up his hands in innocence. “I swear I’m not encouraging them at all. I’m literally just playing League the entire time like I always do.”   “Your existence in itself is a distraction,” his best friend replied with a loud sigh, although the beginnings of a smile were tugging at the corners of . “It’s like we’re back in high school all over again with your little fan club of underclassmen following you around everywhere you go.”   “I’m still convinced you made that up,” Seth said as he stood up and unplugged his laptop from the wall outlet. “I have no recollection whatsoever of any fan club dedicated to me in high school.”   “That’s because you’re a loser who ‘didn’t want a girlfriend, since there’s no point in being in a high school relationship,’ so you never actually paid attention to anyone who liked you,” Kallie recounted, pitching her voice deeper and using her hands to create air quotes during her imitation.   “I mean, considering every high school relationship we knew has broken up since we graduated, I wasn’t wrong,” he pointed out with a lopsided grin.   “That didn’t stop your legion of fan girls from lusting after you like sharks,” his best friend retorted in her normal voice as she slipped her arms through the shoulder straps of her backpack, having finished packing her belongings. Kallie then groaned as she continued, “I got swarmed by them throughout senior year, asking me who you were planning to ask to prom and begging me to help them win you over.”   Seth snickered loudly as he hoisted his backpack onto his shoulders and picked up his red penny board. “I thought you liked being able to keep tabs on that stuff. I’m pretty sure you knew who every guy was going to ask and who every girl wanted to be asked by.”   “Well, yeah, but there’s a big difference between collecting information and getting bombarded by a group of obsessed girls every single day,” she said with a shudder. “They followed me everywhere once promposal season began.”   After Kallie did a quick final sweep of the classroom to make sure no personal belongings were left behind, the two best friends exited the room and began walking down the hallway to leave Taper Hall.   “Anyway, I’m just saying that all of the girls on the new board have a huge crush on you and you’re going to break their hearts once we stop coming to board meetings in April.” She sighed loudly again. “And that means I’ll have to console them all at general meetings.”   “Or you could just stop going to CKI meetings and come with me to KASA meetings instead,” Seth suggested as he pushed open the door and waited for his best friend to walk out first before following her outside. “Boom, easy fix.”   “You greatly underestimate the lengths some people will go to when it comes to romance. I can guarantee that these girls will corner me somewhere on campus and grill me for information on you,” Kallie predicted with a slight grimace as the pair walked to Leavey Library. It was customary for them to book one of the study rooms in the basement for four hours to catch up on studying or—in Seth’s case—to play video games.