Chapter 4: The So-Called Foolproof Plan Was Full Of Flaws

  The large doors behold us, and we entered. I'm already getting hit by the constant social buzz.

  The foyer of Aethelgard always felt a bit too loud, even when it was empty. It was the architecture—lofty ceilings and polished marble designed to remind you that you were small and the institution was large. I followed Alizée up the split staircase, my fingers trailing along the smoothed wood of the railing.

  I had spent half of last night in a mental deadlock: Should I set a reminder for a 7:15 AM meeting? Eventually, I decided that the sheer anxiety of forgetting would be a more reliable alarm than my phone. I was right.

  Alizée walked with a terrifying amount of purpose. She seemed genuinely excited about the plan she and Ophelia had cooked up. I felt a preemptive pang of pity for her; confidence that high usually has a long way to fall. But in the Student Council, I was a minority. If there were holes in the logic, I usually just watched them widen. It was less taxing than trying to fix them.

  We reached the Council room at 7:11 AM. As we waited, my eyes drifted to the analog clock on the wall. I remembered a teacher once saying that most kids our age couldn't read those hands anymore. It made me wonder about the people from my past—childhood friends I’d long since forgotten from my memories. Did they matter? Or were we all just invisible strings that snapped the moment one person moved away?

  Those promises of being "Best Friends Forever" were all a lie, and people have the audacity to call it growth once you've become separated from them.

  "Zeke."

  I resent the thought of trying to reunite with a childhood friend, if you discover your old friend and send them a picture of them in their yearbook, you'd seem like a stalker. Not only that fact, but both of you may have outgrown each other with time. The interest that once kept you two close in the past is irrelevant to the present.

  "ZEKE." Alizee's voice obliterating my train of thought.

  "Gah—! What?"

  "Doors opened. Enter the room, you doofus. Stop haunting the doorway."

  Is she anything more than a bully? Or are we all meant to accept her behavior because it's been normalized? Stop normalizing crude things.

  The Council room was a nicer change of pace—lit by flickering candles instead of the sterile hum of fluorescent lights. Ophelia sat at the head of the long table, her shadow stretched across the walls like a master villain. It was an intentional look, though I knew her well enough to know she was anything but.

  Unpredictability seems to be a key factor in all conversations. With that, I've found the missing piece in my social skills.

  Glancing around the room, I noticed a few things that felt off-putting to my vision.

  There were a few of the student council members, I'm pretty sure we had 12 in total, 6 guys and 6 girls.

  This is totally irrelevant, but that's slightly more than the 10 perfect guys at our school, at least that's the amount I saw at breakfast yesterday. We're just a bigger handful in comparison.

  CLAP!

  "Alright, everyone. We are only missing 2 people, but we should be starting this meeting at 7:15. If they come in late, be sure to tell them our plans! By the way, this plan will be announced in the assembly after school." Ophelia started.

  Wait, assembly? I didn't hear anything about an assembly! I guess my lack of checking the school calendar for each month is evident now...

  "Our plan, involves ending certain social cliques. We must create unity among the student body so no one will be left out! The two main cliques we will be combining are the 'academic' students and the 'athletic' students. These two groups share a huge contrast in their brands, so that is why they need to set their differences aside and become one!"

  Ophelia looks at all of us with full confidence. The glint in her eye doesn't fail her.

  It wouldn't have failed her if I didn't notice how shaky her hands were, it was odd, but it's probably just adrenaline.

  I looked at Alizee, but she seemed to already be staring at me, basically giving me, "Don't ruin this for her" vibes, it's not that I really care though, if this fails honestly it's more just the groups we tried connecting had conflicting personalities beyond their skillset. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, she's only just summarized the idea.

  I feel like looking on this day from yesterday, it makes me regret evoking that "This meeting is my death date" feeling. I don't even have a real important say in what will happen, why did I dread this day? Am I really that self-centered about my well-being?

  My eyes were drawn back to Ophelia.

  "This program will last for three days, we must make it count!"

  Alizee waits for her to finish, then she looks at all of us, and then explains the main pillars of the plan.

  "Number one, the main idea. Mandatory pairings, every high-ranking academic student will be paired with a high-ranking athletic student of any sport, for an intensive 48-hour trial. They must attend each other's classes and share the same study schedule, forcing proximity creates empathy."

  "Number two. Within these pairs, both parties must complete a joint thesis or tactical report that combines the strategy of an academic student and the execution from the athletic student. It must begin during the second day of the program, and it may be worked on or turned in on the third day. This will be worth 15% of the semester grade."

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  This doesn't even make sense. I collected all of her words and dumped them out all onto a giant piece of mush I named "Important Information". I'm not even really paying attention, just acting like it by forcing a straight posture and a serious look.

  A male student council member raises their hand, nervously. It's obvious they're scared of the great Alizee.

  "Hey, 15% seems kind of brutal... uhh, should we bump it down a bit-"

  Alizee turns her head toward the male student in a very unnerving manner, glaring at him.

  That's her thinking face, but I'm not sure why she has to look so hostile with it.

  The male student flinches, bracing for impact as if Alizee's words could actually kill someone.

  They could by the way.

  "Fine. We'll bump the percentage to 10%. Anyone else want to be more graceful on the students?"

  No one moves. Objecting wasn't even an option anymore.

  "Number three. We will announce this plan to the entire student body. Then we will have a few dummy testers demonstrating how our three day experiment will work on stage. Any volunteers?"

  "Me!" yelled a female student.

  Oh, yeah, she's one of those extroverted types. I saw her in the library one time, she seemed desperate to turn in some late work. Running the pencil along the table like she's writing names in the Death Note.

  "I'll do it."

  "I can do it."

  "I'll volunteer."

  "Me, me!"

  If I were writing a story and I had to make a situation where people are willing to volunteer, those would be my five choices for a statement said by anyone. Unless you're different and say: 'Present'. Wait, no that's a whole different matter.

  "Alright, alright everyone settle down. If you want, we can try doing different gender or sports pairs as other examples too." Ophelia interrupts.

  No, you—you're supposed to try doing conflicting personality examples, like a delinquent athlete and a witty academic student that always has something to say. You're ruining this Ophelia! No.. what am I thinking? Students in the crowd will be asking questions, if I actually spoke up, I'd — I have no idea.

  "Okay, student council. Does anyone want to add on to our project?"

  A male student raises his hand, Ophelia points at him. The shadow of her arm practically reaching out to him.

  "We should...—"

  This is one of the most high-risk, high-reward plans. It's one of those where even if there were a small selective group of students that enjoyed their experiment, the big group will be the loudest. I can't just let that happen. I have to intervene, wait, no— if I intervene, then the whole plan will be gone.

  The schedule is going to intercept the travel time regarding the dorms and the training fields, this might make students lose sleep. Athletes and Intellectual students peak at different times of the day, everyone will become zombies. I was thinking about the conflicting personality examples, but there's no way around a pair containing a high-ego intellectual student and a passive athlete. It creates resentment, almost like one party acting as a bodyguard.

  I would reset all of Ophelia and Alizee's progress and no one wants to agree with me, someone who barely speaks, I don't have the energy to defend myself. I'm already coming up with counter-arguments against my own counter-arguments. This is—

  "Good idea! Let's add that into our plan, honestly you made our plan even more foolproof!" Ophelia says, adding on to the last students request.

  I inhale.

  "Hm? Zeke? Did you want to add something on as well?"

  "Huh?"

  "Oh, n-no. Sorry, I was just... uhhh." I say scratching the back of my head.

  "It's fine, Zeke! Just my misunderstanding. Anyway, does anyone else...—"

  What am I doing?! I should've said something! That was my only window! If this whole mess begins to unravel during the assembly, then we'll all have the bear the sheer volume of students voting against our plan. It will ruin our reputation and all of Alizee and Ophelia's progress will go down the drain like it isn't precious.

  The meeting went on in real time. It ignored my internal conflict, yet what is there to see of it? Those types of battles are invisible. Only an extremely emotionally perceptive person could tell what was going on in my brain.

  I exhaled. This time it was drowned out by all of the other conversations in the room.

  I have to remember that this doesn't really matter for me. I'm not going to just show off to the world that my ideas are superior. If I do that, people will think I'm just some quiet narcissist who thinks he's better than everyone. If the plan fails, fine, it's not like I had anything to do with it. Ophelia and Alizee will receive all the backlash while I stay hidden, as long as it as nothing to do with me, that's all that matters.

  I can't... no, that's not right. I have to speak up, so what if I'm not gonna be at fault when this all fails? Ophelia and Alizee are people I care about. It won't fail if I just speak up and fix the holes! I wouldn't have to worry about what happens to Ophelia and Alizee.

  These thoughts, I'm disgusted with myself. Why can I never find myself acting on my thoughts? Fear of judgement? Fear of what? It's certainly not the fear of being right.

  "Alright!"

  Ophelia claps her hands.

  "Well, that just about wraps up today's student council meeting. Head off to class now! Don't forget to get ready for the assembly after school too!" Ophelia says, as she packs up her things, and starts to the door.

  "Wait—" I mumbled, but the sound of chairs scraping and chatter drowned me out. No one heard.

  I sat there as the room emptied, feeling the familiar weight of my own cowardice. I told myself it didn't matter. I told myself Ophelia was smart enough to figure it out.

  The assembly was going to be a train wreck. And I was going to have a front-row seat.

  I sat there, blankly, in the chair.

  "Zeke, wake up." Alizee says.

  "Huh..? Oh.. right.." I got up, low iron levels kicking in as my surroundings darkened.

  My eyes adjusted—Alizee was still waiting for me at the door.

  I chuckled to myself.

  Overthinking is a man's greatest weakness anyway, all of my thoughts were a lie.

  Let's just wait to see how the assembly goes. It won't be so bad.