“And with
that I leave the word to your class representative,” Kondo-sensei
said.
Their popular
home-room teacher was replaced by their not so popular class
representative by the blackboard.
She wasn't
mean or anything, and Ryu appreciated how she refused to have
anything to do with him or Kuri. It felt refreshing if nothing else.
Outside the
classroom windows small clouds played on a blue sky, and it was still
hot enough to be called summer.
“Our votes
have left us with a cos-play café, haunted house and mud wrestling.
I hope you'll kill that last one quickly today,” the class rep
said. A loud murmur of agreement told him half their class had
absolutely nothing to do with the mud wrestling idea.
She placed a
ballot box on the teachers desk and had empty slips of paper passed
around in the classroom.
“Now, before
you vote, we'll apply for two events. If none of them pass it's
either food stalls or competition booths. Understood?”
Ryu grinned.
Harsh but efficient. You just killed the wrestling all on your
own. He stared at the perpetually sulking class rep as she
oversaw the casting of the votes.
When they were
all done she marked up three sections on the black board, and long
before half of the votes were counted it was clear that the café
would win by a wide margin with the haunted house in second place.
Ryu suspected
it would be the stalls for them in the end anyway. From what he heard
the second years had priority for the more popular events with the
third years running any larger arrangements. Well, they'd fight for a
slot in the gym for the fashion show, but that was the club and not
3:1.
The bell rang
and their class rep went for the student council room. Beginning
tomorrow the festival would get their own planning area in an empty
classroom, and they'd see very little of the class reps and the club
presidents for those clubs who managed to get an attractive event
depending on other events for timeslots in temporary locations.
As he wasn't
caught up is student council business he headed over to their club
room. On his way there he glanced into 6:1 to see if Yukio or Ulf was
there. They weren't, but a few girls gave him hopeful giggles. He
smiled back at them, waved for some extra brownie points and walked
another two classrooms.
When he
entered he arrived into a minor commotion. From the voices it was
clear 6:1 hadn't made a choice to the satisfaction of the entire
class. At least not those who were members of the club.
Hiroyuki-kun
and Hitomi-chan stood by a table in the office area. Another member
from 6:1 sat in a chair beside Yukio and Urufu took down notes on a
whiteboard.
Whiteboard?
When did we get one? Ryu looked around. There were three of
them mounted on the walls and another two on wheels. Damn, did
Urufu open those deep pockets of his once again?
“What's up,”
Ryu asked.
“Huh? Oh
it's you.” Urufu finished jotting down whatever it was he was
doing. When he turned Ryu could see he was nursing an aching back.
“We've got a play on our hands, well that or a café of some kind.”
“And he just
doesn't understand how important this is,” Hitomi-chan complained.
Ryu looked at
Urufu, but Yukio got in first. “Hitomi-chan, Urufu has never done a
culture festival before. He doesn't know, but I think we can make him
understand.”
Always
prepared to defend your friend. Still weren't you in the same class
last year? No, that's right. He got expelled, which makes it my
problem as well. “Urufu, it's the biggest happening during the
year, and Himekaizen runs it for two days.”
Urufu
shrugged. “They told me. So it's an all important annual event.
I've seen those you know, in Sweden.”
Yeah, I bet
you have. But we can't tell. “What's the problem?”
“If we don't
get the café we're stuck with a play!” Hitomi-chan said, and
Hiroyuki-kun nodded agreement with her.
“To be
honest I'd give up on the café,” Ryu suggested. “Second years
will get most of those.”
“You're just
as bad as Urufu.”
So that was
the problem. When Ryu looked closer at the whiteboard he could see
that most of Urufu's notes concerned a play. You
think you can land that one? “Urufu, you're planning for
the play?”
“Yeah, as I
told them, if we go for something modern, say West Side Story, we
could integrate the play with the show the club applies for. Thematic
cohesion should give both applications a greater chance for
approval.”
Thematic cohesion. Yes, that's Urufu all right.
Ryu decided against voicing his thoughts. “Sounds like an idea.
Probably won't get shot down like our café and haunted house.”
“You applied
for one as well?”
Ryu nodded at
Hiroyuki-kun who had asked the question. “Fat chance though. We'll
be doing food stalls this year.”
“Ah, on that
topic. Try to get something foreign. We'll apply for the barbecue to
be the centrepiece of some kind of international cuisine area.”
“Huh?”
“If we can
get enough of the food stalls to serve foreign food we can make a
thing out of it and concentrate it to one area separate from the rest
of the stalls.”
Ryu stared at
Urufu. “Why would we want to?”
“Because
it's more fun that way, and we could have a small stage and run mini
events as well.”
Yeah, that
definitely was Urufu. Always planning a little bit further than
anyone else. “There's more to it as well I guess,” Ryu said.
Urufu nodded.
“Yes. Everyone involved will feel like a part of something larger
locally. We'll get an excuse to carry out a lot of tables, and in the
end the freshmen will have their café anyway.”
Yes,
definitely Urufu. Father said he would make a good CEO. Ryu suspected
he had already been one.
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