Wednesday, lunchtime, art room, manga club.

 That was today.

 Today is Manga club day.  

I didn’t get to go to the lunchroom because I was rather nervous about coming here. So I sat in the art table, working on my watercolor. Ms. Wayne didn’t mind, she was just on her computer, eating her microwaved pasta.

I tapped my fingers against the table; my heart was beating way too fast.

Did I get the date wrong? Was it not today?

I took a breather as I continued on to paint my self-portrait. Soon, a girl walked in. It was the same girl whom I didn’t know how to talk to when I saw her at the bookstore in the manga section. She saw me, but didn’t react to it and sat down.

She was wearing the school’s normal cardigan, so she could either be in my grade or a freshman (since she was so small—anyone could mistake her for a 12 year old if it wasn’t for the high school uniform). She has such big eyes—maybe she was wearing those circle lenses that are so popular in Asia. SPEAKING of Asia, she looked Asian, but I couldn’t tell what nationality she was. It’s a bit difficult—maybe she’s mixed and that’s why I’m having such a hard time. She had a boyshort haircut, but it was in the stage “awkwardly short and growing” but it surprisingly looked good on her.

More people came in, and it wasn’t a lot of people that I knew.

I looked around, still no sign of Kyu—then suddenly.

“OH MY GOSH.” He sighed loudly, walking into the art room. “NEVER GOING THROUGH THAT LUNCHLINE AGAIN!” he groaned, “Geez, seniors should have a lunch line of their own—god.”

“You didn’t bring a lunch this time?” Someone asked. This person was male, white, tall and lanky, and for some reason, he just looked clean. By clean, I mean, I felt like he took care how he looked, because he looked different.

“I only had a protein bar.” He complained, “Plus I have work after school, so I can’t just skip lunch.” He put his lunch down at the table where all the members were at, “Hey! Jane! You’re here!”

I turned red as now all the heads were looking at me, “H-hey.” I squeaked, suddenly becoming self-conscious of myself.

“We already got a new member without advertising? That’s a first.” The clean guy asked.

“Nah, I told her to come.” Kyu said, “We could use her for the Manga that’s coming up.”

I blinked, “Wait, what?”

“He didn’t tell you?”  He put his hand on his hip, “The manga club is another section of the newspaper.”

“So you guys are just the comic section for the newspaper then.” I blinked. “Then wouldn’t that just be—”

“SHHH.” Kyu suddenly said, wide eyed, “Don’t get her started.” He pointed at the small girl from the bookstore.

She was staring at me.

“Um…”

“Before we tell her everything, let’s all just introduce ourselves.” Kyu said, “I think it’d be easier.”

There were 4 people in the club, the purple one, the book store one, the clean one and Kyu. We were all able to fit in one table row.

“I’m Eugene.” Mr. Clean said.

“K.J.” Kyu smiled.

 “Katelyn.” The one that looked like a 12 year old said.

“Stephanie.” The girl with the puffy purple hair said.

 “I’m confused.” I say, “What does this club do?”

“Okay, to start off with the basics.” Kyu began, getting on the table and sitting on it instead of a chair like everyone else. “This club was originally the anime club. But, due to stupid people that were in charge last year—” this invoked a sigh out of a lot of people, “It was nearly shut down. So, I saved the club by joining forces with the newspaper club—and somehow, it just worked. Of course, we’re making manga, but it’s published on the school’s website.”

“…And why are you doing this?”

“You see, no one really reads the school newspaper.” Kyu said, “And they—the school—wants people to read the newspaper, and so it’s an art school, so why not put art in the newspaper? So that’s why they wanted a comic—” he looked to the side at Katelyn, “—I mean, manga section, because then people would want to read it.”

I stared at him, “This logic makes no sense.”

“It’s high school logic, it never makes sense. But, the school board bought it, and so here we are.”

I looked at Kyu, “So…Why am I here?”

“I just saw you painting, and I thought you were perfect for the team.”

“…And everyone’s an artist?” I looked at the group.

“HA. HA. HA. HA. No.” Kyu and Eugene both said in unison.

“We’re the ideas, and we’re the beta-ers.” Eugene said, pointing to both him and Kyu.

“…Beta-ers?”

“They fill in the blank space that’s supposed to be black.” Katelyn quietly said, “They also draw buildings since they can’t do anything else.”

“But, isn’t 5 people enough for this?”

“Another thing.” Kyu added, “One part of this deal to keep this club together was to have something due every week. So far, we meet only on Wednesday—something I hope changes soon, so we have to have a strip done every week to meet the monthly deadline of our spread.”

“So…It’s kind of like Shoujo monthly.”

“Yes, and it’s also a shoujo manga.” Eugene piped up, “Mainly because we had to change the main characters to a female because the school board was like, ‘We would love to have gay people in the manga, but we can’t because the amount of parental backlash there would be!’” he mimicked the board, rolling his eyes.

“So…What’s the storyline?”

“A girl who has a crush on sempai, but also ships sempai with his best friend, so she writes a webcomic about those two and finds herself with a hoard of readers who ships those two because of them.” Eugene stated matter of factly.

I stared at him.

“…Seriously?”

“Yep.” He nodded. “Knowing the school board, we’re only going to have to do this for a month or two, so there’s no real need to make a lasting storyline—or a smart one. We’ll be fine. After all, all we really need to do is draw it, and then hand it in.”

I nodded, “Oh, okay.”

“So you’re in?” Kyu smiled.

I shrugged, “I don’t see why not. I’d rather be here than in the lunch room.”

“Alright! Welcome to the team!” he looked around, “So, let’s figure out how the first chapter is going to be.”

Everyone was rather quiet about it, and it was mainly Kyu and Eugene spurting out ideas. Katelyn and was giving out quick sketches as to how everything would go as Stephanie went to microwave what I presumed to be her lunch (turns out that it was both Katelyn and hers).

And that smell.

It didn’t help that Eugene and Kyu’s lunch smelled delightful (which is a surprise, since it’s a school lunch), but the smell from Stephanie’s lunch made my stomach rumble. I was starving. I solemnly regret not having breakfast this morning—but I never have breakfast. It’s something that saved me time and gave me a few extra minutes to sleep. I don’t know what they were having, but it smelled so good, and I was dying.

My mouth was watering, and I was swallowing so that I wouldn’t drool. I was dying.

C’mon Jane! Just a few more hours until the entire day’s over. Oh dear god, and today’s the day that I have to stay in school longer than usual because Aiden’s at school!

Eugene looked at the time, “Anyways, lunch is ending. Meeting ajorned.”

Then everyone quickly grabbed their things and headed out. Stephanie and Katelyn together then Eugene left. I slowly put my stuff in my bag.

“So, are you cool with this?” Kyu asked.

I turned around and looked up at him, “Yeah, it’s just a quick warning would’ve been nice. But I’m cool with it.”

“I just didn’t expect them to tell you right away, I was hoping you’d all get along first.” He awkwardly laughed.

I nodded, zipping my bag up. “This is just really weird. And by that, I mean it’s really weird. The whole concept, it just all sounds like it’s from a really weird manga. The whole, club is being saved part.”

“Meh, it’s still good regardless.”

Just then, my stomach decided to do the worst thing possible. It roared, grumbled, and screamed. I clenched my stomach, but now my face was burning up with embarrassment. This was not something I wanted to do. It was expected, but I didn’t expect it to growl so loudly.

Kyu looked at me, “Didn’t you get lunch?”

My ears turned red as I shook my head. “I didn’t want to wait in line since it was so long, and I was scared I might miss the meeting. So I came here as soon as I could.”

He put his bag down and opened a pocket. “I have a protein bar if you want it.”

“It’s fine.”

My stomach screamed again.

“Take it.” He said, “It’s fine. I feel kinda bad not telling you about the whole manga thing since you did this.”

I took it, “Thanks.”

“Anyways, to Euro we go.” He sighed, putting his bag on again, “Oh, the joys of learning about the people who didn’t know how to shower.”

“—and died because of not showering.” I added, putting my bag on.

~~~

Close the door, turn on computer, get in closet, change, get out, sit on bed.

ElisaDarling: Yoooo

Jaygrey408: Hey! What’s up?

ElisaDarling: God, nothing much. College is just killing me like usual.

Jaygrey408: I can tell, I miss reading your fics :(

ElisaDarling: Oh, the joys of growing up.

ElisaDarling: So how’s school?

Jaygrey408: Far from fun, but I’m making friends—I think. Remember that one guy, the guy that had all those people talk to him while I was reading?

ElisaDarling: Right, you made a blogpost about him

ElisaDarling: What about him?

Jaygrey408: He’s…Nice.

Jaygrey408: As in, really nice.

Jaygrey408: I went to anime club! Or, manga club and what not, and I was really surprised at how detailed it was. I mean, it’s a part of the newspaper staff—for now. Anyways, he was like

Jaygrey408:  “Yeah, join because you seem good enough!”

Jaygrey408: Anyways, long story short, I went to the manga club without lunch, and we started talking after the club and my stomach DECIDES TO BE A JERK AND SCREAM AT THE WORST POSSIBLE MOMENT

Jaygrey408: And he just gave me his food.

Jaygrey408: I know that means nothing, but I thought that was extremely nice. I mean, at my old school, people would just ignore it and move on.

ElisaDarling: Aw, that’s sweet.

Jaygrey408: And I also made a friend—I hope, her name’s Victoria. We’ve been talking a whole lot, and she’s so cool! She just moved from out of state, so it’s this whole, “Hey, I’m new, you’re new, let’s stick together.”

Okay, so here’s a little backstory on ElisaDarling: I have very few friends online because just like in real life, I talking to people online also. It’s just this part of me that’s so scared to talk to people that it’s unbearable for me on so many levels because I’m scared that they’re judging me on the outside—or I see people talking to each other online and I’m absolutely scared of going into the conversation because they seem so close and I can’t help but want that friendship.

Again, I hate my social anxiety. I hate it with a passion.

I hate not being able to talk to people without the fear of being judged.

I just hate myself for feeling this way in every way possible because I feel so useless.

But ElisaDarling, she reached out to me. She was the one that talked to me first—which surprised me. And even though I absolutely at conversation, I’m so thankful that I have her who kept on trying to have a conversation with me over and over again, even though (again) I at it. Which is why, now, I can confide in her in anything.

ElisaDarling: Gah! Sorry kiddo, I gotta go. Job on the wait—see you!

Jaygrey408: Alright! Bye!

ElisaDarling is offline

I took a deep breath as I closed AIM. I put up my hair into a messy top bun as I began reading the comments from my fanfiction. Glancing at my bag, I sighed internally as I walked over towards it.

For once, there was homework, and I was not happy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey guys! I hope you don't mind this update! And I didn't update last saturday since I already updated Wednesday! I really just hope I can make it on schedule, but since university is starting, I'm unsure! But hopefully, I will! :D 

Anyways, I just want to say that has anyone ever joined the anime/manga club at their school? It was honestly how I made friends.