Dr. Diast swatted Kalei with rolled up papers. Some students giggled as they walked past the tere standing by one of the lounge areas during club day.

  “Ow! What’s that for?” Kalei asked.

  “Because you found me in this big crowd just to tell me yiving up on the club event,” Diast said. “Pointlessly resigning yourself to a three-day rule fate for the entire rest of the semester.”

  “Eh.” Kalei said. “They told me beam chasers doesn’t t, so I give up.”

  “There’s still like an hour,” Diast said. “ you just try a little? Did you get any stamps at least?”

  “Kinda,” Kalei said, pig her teeth. “I grabbed an application from one of them.”

  “This is a job application for Treesburger,” Diast said. "You put ‘high quality beef’ on the qualificatioion."

  “Yeah, and?”

  “Are you that into the freaking sandwiches the robot makes?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where did you even find this?”

  Kalei shrugged and Dr. Diast sighed.

  “Any other clubs you checked out that you might like?

  “I watched py practice.”

  “Do you want to joiheater club then?”

  “Not really,” Kalei said. “Wait, are y to say I watched py practice for nothing?”

  “I don’t know! You’re the one in charge of joining a club or not.” Diast said. “I feel a headache ing on. I say anything to vince you to try and join a club before this is over?”

  “Mmm,” Kalei thought to herself. “Probably not.”

  “Alright,” Diast said. “I’m going to go do a stress reliever run or something or just stress eat, please just sider trying to pick a club because the three-day rule will be a pain for both of us.”

  Diast marched away and Kalei sighed.

  "I believe I told her I was giving up," Kalei said to herself. "How am I supposed to find a club when I’ve already given up?" She sat down and just people watched for a bit.

  A girl with long e hair and headphones on passed by. Her music was bsting loud enough that Kalei could hear the hard rock she had on. The girl stopped when she saw Kalei.

  “Oh! Hey,” she said, taking her headphones off. “It’s you.”

  “…uh, hi?” Kalei said. “Do I know you or something? Crap, do we have css together?”

  “Maybe, I dunno,” the girl sat dowo Kalei. “I watched you practice beam chasers.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Kalei said. “Thank you, I’m…not used to anyone saying that randomly like this.”

  The girl ughed. “I’m Nikki, you must think I’m weird.”

  “Nah, I’m fttered you noticed, really,” Kalei said, surprised that her voice faltered a little. It felt like her heartbeat was rising all of a sudden. “I’m Kalei.”

  “I think you’re pretty incredible, Kalei.”

  Nikki grabbed Kalei’s shoulder and leaned in close to her ear.

  “Uh,” Kalei said.

  “If you ever want to give me a one-on-one lesson, just let me know.” Nikki whispered, winking at Kalei and theing up. Kalei felt a shiver down her spine from Nikki’s breath on the side of her face. “Later, dude.”

  Nikki put her headphones ba and started bsting her rock again a.

  “Whuh…” Kalei said after Nikki walked away. Her heart was full on pounding now. But that doesn’t…make sense…why would…

  “What the hell just happened?” Kalei said to no one in particur.

  “What?” A girl nearby said. It was Kyre Krista, the girl who had a like tub of hair gel o all times that she glopped onto her short hair.

  “I wasn’t…I wasn’t talking to you.” Kalei said.

  “Then who were you talking to?” Kyre said.

  “Just…shut up, please.” Kalei said.

  “That’s not very nice.” Kyre said.

  Kalei got up and her head felt squeezy.

  Oh my god what the hell seriously just happened?

  She was screwed on the club thing, that she could handle. She’d just have to do the stupid three-day thing. But she couldn’t deal with the sudden feeling that wormed its way into her heart to make it beat so hard. To make her legs suddenly feel weak. It didn’t make sense.

  At least she could see SAND-ROBO make a Treesburger quality sandwid/or burger, that might help.

  On the way there, she stopped iracks. Nikki was walking with that girl who was always drinking coffee. They walked up to…Zeta? Who had a group arouhat looked like a club? That Nikki was joining? Kalei stood close enough to listen and turned around so none of them noticed her. And because looking at Nikki made her feel really floaty.

  “Hey,” Nikki said. “Latte told me you’re starting a bnk club.”

  “What’s a bnk club?”

  “You know, like a nothing club so people who don’t want a club have something to join.”

  “Oh yeah! Join us!” Zeta said.

  “Holy crap, that’s eight! Maia, eight!”

  “We actually did it…”

  Kalei made her demediately; whatever club Nikki was in, even if it was some super weird idea Zeta had, she had to join.