Blog-iary: After Hours: Club Editon

LATE RELEASE

“Wow, interesting how you planned all that out. You did plan all that out?” Page asked.

“In a way, yes. I knew that in the end, Dan was going to become friends with Jen, Jenny, Val and Mike. I did, but yet, expect Dan to learn how not to care to much about certain things. I just tried to connect the lesson to the who popular stuff because I still wanted him to think I knew everything.” I said.

“So you’re not a planning mastermind?” Sadie said humorously.

“Ha ha, no.” I said, laughing a bit.

“Anyway, back in Eighth Grade, were you and Dan in any other clubs other than Buddies 4 Newbies?” Page asked.

“Well, there was Green Team and the short lived Wood Writers. I think I put in Dan’s blog post about the time we joined Green Team,” I said, I start skimming through the book for the post. Once I got to the table of contents, I found conveniently next to the previous post I had read.

“Got it, I’ll just skip my commentary and just read the entire blog post.” I said

“Ok, that’s fine.” Page said.
"Ok... Yesterday was the first Green Team meeting. We went through all the basics, but I’m going to have to get used to having many ‘friends’ here. I guess you can call Jenny, Jen, Val, Mike and Danny my friends since they consider me their friends. It feels weird having a multitude of friends..."

September 12th, 2014

The Green Has Begun

Yesterday was the first Green Team meeting. We went through all the basics, but I’m going to have to get used to having many ‘friends’ here. I guess you can call Jenny, Jen, Val, Mike and Danny my friends since they consider me their friends. It feels weird having a multitude of friends. I’ve gone more than two years without friends. Getting five friends in less than a month feels overwhelming. Speaking of new friends, I think made a friend who happened to be in a certain club. Out of all the friends I’ve made in the past few weeks, he seems to be the most mellow and approachable. An approachable friend is all I need right now (not an orange hyperactive friend). On the topic of orange hyperactive friends, Mr. Bloo excused from today’s Buddies 4 Newbies meeting. This was because since Danny and I were “socializing in a social environment ” Mr. Bloo says.

After seeing Mr. Bloo, we went right to Mrs. Pratt’s room in room 230. We waited for part of the group to come here. In the meantime, I had started reading and editing one of my latest blog post, Hosting a Potluck. While I was doing that, Danny was texting a few people to whom I’m guessing was part of the ‘friend’ group.

“Jen isn’t able to make it.” he said as I looked over to him.

“Why?” I asked.

“She’s got fashion stuff to deal with.” he said.

“Fashion stuff?” I asked

“She has an online clothing line.” he said.

“Wait, really?” I said.

“Yeah, it’s how she affords her fabrics and her secret room.”

“Secret room?” I asked

“It’s a room that she stores a bunch of confidential documents from what I know.” he said.

“Uhhhhhh…”

“Don’t over think it.”

I paused for a bit and then continued to read my post.

After a few minutes, Mike and Val  and everyone else in Green Team had finally came except for Mrs. Owens and Jenny. Danny went over to Val and Mike and started to talking to them about stuff while I had continued reading my post. After a bit of some reading, yet again, someone interrupted by poking me. I looked up, startled, saw Jenny.

“Hey Dan! What are you doing?” she said.

“Uhhhh, nothing!” I nervously said. I then quickly turned off my phone before she could see my post. So far no one I knows that I have this blog and I’d like it to say that way, thank you very much.

“Okay?” she said, confused.

“Yeah.” I said, nervously dragging out the word.

“Anyway, why aren’t you talking to Danny and the others?” She asked

“I have some work to do.” I said.

“Could you you maybe try to work on that later, and maybe can you join the conversation?” She asked.

“Why should I?” I asked

“I don’t want you to feel left out of the conversation.” she said.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to feel left out.” I replied.

“Can you at least do it for me?” she said, smiling at me. I decided to go into the conversation.

Midway into their conversation, Danny looked around and something caught his eye.

“WAIT! Is that a pop-tart?!” Danny asked, pointing towards a guy alone in the front corner of the classroom. The guy turned around slowly and uncomfortably with a bewildered look on his face. He was holding a half eaten strawberry pop-tart in his hand and had two other ones in his lunch bag.

“Uhh… yeah…” he said in a confused tone.

“Can I PLEASE have one?!!!!” Danny pleaded, giving the guy puppy dog eyes.

“Uhh… ok?” He took the pop-tart from his bag and gave it to Danny.

“OH MY GLOB!! THANK YOU… Uhh?”

“Reece.” Reece said.

“THANK YOU REECE!!!!” Danny said, hugging Reece.

“You’re welcome.” He said. Everyone looked at Danny, questionably.

“What? Pop-tarts are my one weakness.” Danny said, eating part of his pop-tart.

Mrs. Owens came into the room and placed her stuff down. She then told us about the new year and how we’re going to continue to get this school to be a ‘green school’. This meant Mrs. Pratt wouldn’t be dealing with Green Team itself like last year. She then started explaining to all the new members (basically everyone except me). There hasn’t been a lot of people in Green Team since 6th grade. Back then the group was huge. There had to be two separate groups, one had all 8th graders and the other one had 6th and 7th graders. The two groups would alternate between each other every week. There were around seventy people in the whole team, but now there are only twelve members. If you’ve been on this blog long enough, you would know how important Green Team is to me. So, just seeing how much the club has shrunken is heartbreaking. To be quite honest, there’s probably going to be only six Green Team members next year.  

Anyway, Mrs. Owens told everyone what hallways to work in. Danny, Jenny, and Val had the back hallway and Mike and Reece had the seventh-grade hallway. Mrs. Owens told me to watch what everyone was doing since I’m a student Green Team leader. While walking to the bins, I started talking to Reece.

“Sorry about Danny, he can go overboard sometimes,” I said.

“It’s ok, everyone tends to ask for food and stuff once in awhile.” he said.

“I guess so. Hey, were you in S.T.E.M last year?” I asked.

“Yeah.” he said.

“Cool. Did you ever work with Jimmy in 6th grade?” I asked.

“No, but I really hate how he treats a few of his group member after S.T.E.M and everyone else in S.T.E.M.” he replied.

“Yeah. I sadly had to be on of his group members.”

“Ouch, how bad was it?” he asked

“Let’s just say after the final competition, him and his friends wanted nothing to do with me. They ignored me any chance they could.” I replied.

“Wow, well, at least this year you know not to work with him.”

“Weeelll, I’m not exactly going to do S.T.E.M this year or ever…” I said

“Why?” he asked.

“The experience was just that terrible,” I said.

“How so? I don't think he treated anyone in that group like crap during club sessions.”

“That’s why, though. The group was so nice to me and treated me like family. I still remember the times the group and I hung out around Rock Creek. It was the first time in a while that I felt like I really had friends. But to have them just ignore me like I was a useless piece of garbage made me heartbroken.” I said.

“Well, on the bright side of things, your new friends looks like they won’t abandon you.” he said.

“I-”

“Hurry up, Reece! We need to get bins before everyone else gets them.” Mike interrupted. He was about fifteen lockers ahead of us.

“Guess I got to go. Let us continue our conversation after Green Team?” Reece offered.

“Sure, see you later.” I said.

Once I arrived near the bins, Ms. Owens told me I should try to help Danny’s group since Mike has been in Green Team before. This was back in 6th grade during the golden age of the group. Before I left to Danny’s hallway, Ms. Owens gave me the keys to the dumpster so I could open the dumpster at the end.

In the back hallway, Danny, Val and Jenny were surprisingly waiting for me.

I greeted everyone and Danny said:

“So, what do we do now?”

I gave everyone a quick tutorial of what we’re supposed to do and then came up with a plan of what to do. I split the group into two groups. One group with Jenny and I and the other with Danny and Val. My group started with Ms. Pratt’s room since it was the closest. While working with Jenny, she tried to create small talk.

“So, how’s life?” Jenny said.

“That's a pretty big question to ask.” I said, mockingly.

“Phett, you know what I meant.” Jenny replied, a bit annoyed.

“Life is nice, I guess.” I said.

“How exactly?”

“So, are you just going to interrogate me until we get to Mr. Oakley's room?” I said, she laughed a little.

“I just want to start a conversation.” she said

“Pwebt, you and your conversations.”

“Hey, conversations are a gateway to having a nice and strong friendship.” she defended.

“Yeah right, I've never had a strong friendship.” I said with disgust.

“Well, yeah, but you're only thirteen. You've still got decades to create new friendships.” She said.

“I guess so.” I replied.

“Soo, why not make your first strong friendship now with me?” she said. She gave me the same facial expression she gave when she wanted me to join Danny's conversation. I stared at her for a few seconds and said:

“Can I trust you?”

“Why wouldn't you?” she said.

“I don't know… people change and-”

“Dan! We need your help!” Val yelled from across the hall.

“I got to go, can we continue our conversation later?” I said.

“Sure.” she said.

I went over to Danny and Val. Val was right next to a bin while Danny was in a classroom.

“What's the issue?” I asked.

“It's Mike. He just texted me to ask you to help them with a mess.” Val said.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“The special needs hallway in the seventh-grade hallway.”

“Oh no,” I said with dread horror.

At the moment, I knew exactly what was happening. You see,  all the school's shredding are in the main office and the special needs hallway. What makes this  a hassle is how much of a huge challenge it is to try to get all the shred in a bin . Sadly, it always spills to the ground. Some spills bigger than others.

Before I left, I quickly went over to Jenny and handed her the keys to the dumpster. I did this because they were probably going to need them later.

“I knew it!” I said when I arrived at the scene. The place was flooded with piles and piles of shreds of paper.

“Do you think you can help us?” Mike asked.

“Sure,” I said. I went next to Reece and helped collect the shreds.

“What happened?” I asked Reece.

“We were carrying the recycling bin and it just exploded on us. That caused Mike to flinch and spill the rest onto the floor.” Reece said.  I went over to look in the bin. There were a few shreds on in the bin.

“Doesn’t seem like you got too much,” I said.

“Well, we didn't start until you came. “ he said.

“Yeah. After I called Val, we’ve just been waiting here for about two minutes.” Mike added.

“Oh. Well, I probably should have warned you all about this hallway. It’s infamous.”

“Really?” Reece asked.

“Well, infamous to the people who do this hallway. It’s been a problem for a while. Once, It got so bad that we had to ask the administration to tell teachers and students to put shreds in a separate box. As you can see, it didn’t get implemented.”

“Wow, any other infamous obstacles you’d like to tell us about?” Reece ask sarcastically.

“Beware the hole punch scraps in the copy room,” I said in a spooky voice.

“Thanks,” Reece said, chuckling a bit.

“So, where were we in our earlier conversation?” he continued.

“I think we were talking about the terror that is Jimmy,” I said.

“Ah, yes! Have any Jimmy horror stories?” Reece asked.

“Well, there was this one time- Wait. Scratch that, there were seven hundred times where he would break into song randomly” I said.

“Oh my god, I hate it when he breaks into song!” Reece said.

“I know right!!” I agreed.

“Just yesterday in Mr. Bloo’s class, he broke into a song about how math and science gave him gingivitis.”

“Gingivitis?” I questioned.

“Yes!” he exclaimed.

“It’s not as ridiculous as the time he sang about the wonders of plastic during a S.T.E.M meeting,” I said.

“Oh my god, I remember that!!! It was so hilarious when Mr. Lewington yelled at him,” he said. I softly giggled.

“Wasn’t the first time either,” I said.

“Wait, remember the final meet?” Reece asked.

“Oh my god, that song was very, very… very-” I said.

“Egotistical?” he suggested.

“YEP! That’s definitely it!” I said. Suddenly my phone started ringing.

“Got to take this,” I said. I looked at my phone and saw Danny was calling.

“Hello?” I said, answering the call.

“Heeeeeyyyy Daaaannn!” Danny said in a ‘hey-I-need-a-favor’ kind of voice.

“You ok, Danny?” I asked.

“Not really,” Danny said.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I think I might need some help because there’s a recycling bin with a bunch of contamination.” he said.

“Ok, I’ll be right there,” I said, hanging up.

“Continue our conversation after Green Team?” I said to Reece.

“Sure.” he said.

I headed towards the back hallway but didn’t see Danny there. Although, there was recycling everywhere and a flipped over rolling bin on the floor. I tried scoping the hallway for anyone and found Val next to the elevator in the eighth-grade hallway.

“Val?” I said across the hallway. She turned around and waved hi. I headed towards where she was.

“What happened?!” I asked

“Well, we were collecting recycling from a room when we found milk bottles, wet paper, and some lunch in the bin. Danny and Jenny decided to get gloves so they could deal with it.  We also needed another bin because our first one was super full and the wheel broke.” Val explained.

“Guess that explains the piles of recycling in the hallway.”

“What?!” she exclaimed.

“The bin fell over because of the wheels I guess.”

“Ugh!” she moaned. Before she left, I stopped her.

“Before you deal with that mess, why were you waiting here?” I asked.

“I was waiting for Ms. Owens to come so I could try to help her in the basement while the others were gone.”

“Ahhh, are you going to need help with the mess?” I asked.

“Yeah! Thanks for offering!” she said.

I helped her get all the recycling into the bin and offered to take the bin to the dumpster. While through heading towards the dumpster, I realized that I gave Jenny the keys to the dumpster. After face-palming myself, I headed towards the cafeteria to get her, but Ms. Owens stopped me.

“Hey Dan, do you think you can get the keys to the elevator from the main office? I have to help Ms. Pratt with getting school data. While you're at it, can you also help all the basement kids? They should be waiting at the elevator. “ she said.

“Ok, by the way, when will we start dumping?” I asked.

“Most likely in 10 or 20 minutes.”

I headed to the office, got the keys and continued to drag the super heavy broken recycle bin to the cafeteria. There, I found Danny alone with two bags of bottles, yellow gloves but no other bin.

“Where’s Jenny? Wait- Scratch that, why do you have two bags of milk bottles?” I asked.

“When I went looking for gloves, Ms. Owens asked me to if I could get all bottles and cans all over the school.” he replied.

“Ok- wait, you finished already?!” I exclaimed.

“Yep, I was just about to throw these last bags in the back and deal with the really gross mess I called you about.”

“HOW DID IT GET ALL THE BOTTLES AND CANS SO QUICK??!!” I shouted.

“I don’t know. Guess I work quickly?” he shrugged off.

“‘Uhhh, ok? Anyway, where is Jenny?”

"She went to the dumpster to empty out a sixth grader’s bin.”

“Kay, thanks,” I said. I headed towards the door, but Danny stopped me.

‘’Aren’t you going to help me with the whole gross mess in room 246?”

“Oh yeah, do you have any more gloves?”

“Yeppers!”

“Don’t say that. Let’s go.” I said.

After cleaning up that horrendous mess, I hurried to the dumpsters. Although I was going the same speed a normal person walking would go since I was dragging a fifty-ton bin with me. I found Jenny standing alone at the dumpster.

“The king of quiet has finally arrived!” she said when she spotted me.

“Ha ha, Miss Conversation,” I said back. I was still dragging the bin behind me but I started to stop.

“You need help with that?” Jenny asked.

“Most likely,” I said. The both of us emptied out the bin into the dumpster.

“Have you ever been in the elevator before?” I asked as we headed back inside.

“No.,”Jenny said.

“Would you like to have a look inside?” I asked.

“Why I’d be delighted to!”

Once inside, we got another bin and headed to where Val was.

“Daaaannnn!!” Val mourned when she saw us.

“What?” I said from across the hall.

“Do you know where Ms. Owens is?!” she asked.

“She’s helping Ms. Pratt,” I said.

“UHG!” Val groaned.

“Don’t worry, I have the key to the elevator,” I said, spinning the keys in the air.

“And I’ve got the dumpster key for when we need to dump everything,” Jenny said.

“OMG! You guys are LIFEsavers!” Val exclaimed.

I put the key in the keyhole and waited for the elevator to come. Once inside, we waited for the elevator to go down.

“Smells like crayons,” Val said. Jenny and I nodded to agree. The elevator stayed silent for a bit.

“Wow, no elevator music? Disappointing.” Jenny said sarcastically.

“We could always hum some elevator music,” Val suggested. She then started humming. The tune sounded familiar so I joined in, but I whistled instead. Jenny started singing the tune through doots and duns after I joined in. We stopped when the elevator stopped. The doors opened and revealed Recce and Mike behind it.

“Where did you two come from?” Jenny asked.

“Danny said you all were doing the basement hall so we wanted to join in,” Mike said.

“How did you get the bin down here?”

“We threw it down stairs,” Mike said.

Silence.

“Ohhh kay, umm, shall we split the group up?” I suggested.

The group was split up into two groups. One had Mike and Val while the other had Reece, Jenny, and I. When everyone finished, we all met in the elevator. Although, we didn’t account for how cramped the elevator would be.

“So… Anyone got any elevator tunes?” Recce said nervously.

No one sang elevator tunes this time.

After dumping, we all met in Ms. Pratt’s room once again to retrieve our snacks for a hard day’s work. We were getting two pieces of candy. This is because a number of snacks there correlate with the number of members. At least I still have the memory of the one time there was a plentiful feast of candy. Anyway, when we got there, Danny was at the table we were sitting earlier with a lollipop in his mouth. He waved hi to us, everyone waved back and headed towards the candy. Once everyone sat down, Ms. Owens made a few end announcements about how the day went and asked how to improve. Almost everyone’s hand was up at my table, including me. We all complained about the problems we had that day and a few of us offered suggestions on how to improve. Ms. Owens said she would address the issue to the administration, but I have a feeling they’re going to ignore it. After the meeting was officially over, I gave the office all the keys I used and went down to my locker with Danny.

“So, it looks like you’re being social with everyone,” Danny said very happily.

“Yeah, whatever,” I said.

“Gladly, this was a great way to demonstrate lesson two.”

“Lesson two?” I asked, confused.

“On how to become popular. Don’t you remember our deal? It’s not like it’s been a year and ten months since I’ve last mentioned it. ”

“I know, but it feels like it,” I said

“Anyway, lesson two of being popular is you need strong connections with people in the school. From the chit chatter you’ve been having, it looks like you’re already creating connections.” he continued.

“Well, yeah, that’s what you're supposed to do with friends, make connections,” I said.

“Yep! Glad you’re making an effort to get to know these guys. Anyway, I’ve got to go, one of my old friends is meeting with me at Safeway.”

“Oh, you’re not taking the bus?” I asked.

“Yep, although your friend there is,” Danny said, pointing to Reece, who was a few feet behind me. I turned, waved hi to him and turned back, but Danny was gone.

“So…” I said, turning back to Reece.

“Let us continue our conversation?”

“I’d love to.”

And so, we left, went on the bus and talked the whole ride. Surprising the only overwhelming thing that day was the work I had to do. When it came to friends, things were chill and I didn’t feel overwhelmed with them one bit. Perhaps it was just me overthinking and worrying that made me overwhelmed in the first place. It makes sense; it’s the first friends I had in  awhile and it’s hard to see them not turn on my like all my other friends. Although, I have a strong feeling that my new friendships might last longer than I might think.

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