"Orange or Purple," asked Alya, turning to her sister while holding up two pairs of pants. Nora turned her head slightly, looking between the pants and her panicked sister.

"You are really coming to me for fashion advice when I showed up to my first day in high school in yoga pants?"

"Ooo, maybe I should go with that." Alya tossed the pants on her bed before rummaging through her partially unpacked box of clothes for yoga pants.

"Just wear whatever you normally wear. It's high school."
"Exactly, meaning I have to make a good first impression since we just moved here."

Nora shrugged, sitting on the only actual piece of unpacked furniture in the room, Alya's bed. Her own room was still packed as she would be leaving for university later in the month. About half the boxes in the room were unpacked, but the stuff around the room was still waiting for Alya's furniture to make its way to her room from the living room.

"What I'm trying to say is that it will be everyone's first day tomorrow too. Everyone is going to be nervous and not know anyone."

Alya stopped her searching and looked at her sister.

"You certain?"

"It was the same for me, and I went from the junior high to the nearby high school. Only a few kids from my junior high came over. You'll be fine."

Alya sighed, slumping to the floor.

"I hope you're right. I tried looking into what Junior High Schools transfer to Francois Dupont and they seem to come from all over."

"See, nothing to worry about."

Nora grabbed a pair of the pants on the bed and tossed them to Alya.

"Wear that."

"You didn't even look at the color."

Nora shrugged as she stood up.

"It's you, you'll find something to make it work."

Nora left her younger sister to mull over her clothing options in anticipation for tomorrow.
Alya's mother had been recommended to work at a famous hotel in Paris as a head chef, relocating the entire family to Paris. Meaning Alya was starting high school alone, with no friends. But her sister was probably right. 9th grade was about making new friends.

"Maybe bringing a comic will help," she wondered out loud, turning in her seat to find what she wanted.

Alya would be fine. Making friends would be easy.

Making friends was not easy. Nora and Alya's research had been wrong as it seemed everyone knew each other. Everyone entered the classroom in pairs or groups, leaving Alya alone at her desk in the front row. There was a boy who entered by himself, but a blonde girl pulled him over to her desk, already friends it looked like.

"Alright everyone, settle down class," requested the teacher, the noise softening as everyone turned their attention to the cheerful woman in the front of the class.

"My name is Ms. Bustier, and I will be your homeroom and English teacher for this year. Some of you I recognize from your older siblings."

She waved, Alya turning in her seat to see a girl with her dark hair covering most of her face wave back.

"But most of you are new faces. I look forward to getting to know each of you as we start your high school journey together.

"A quick announcement before we take roll, make sure you're in the right class, the clubs will be having showcases today at lunch and after school, so be sure to check the bulletin board for the different clubs. A couple of mine I oversee are the music club," a student in the back whispered a "yes" Alya looking back to see a baseball cap boy holding drumsticks in a fist pump motion sitting in the back of the class. The girl beside him looked equally excited as she bounced in her seat. Ms. Bustier smiled at the enthusiastic students before resuming her list.

"Mediation, Literature club, and assist with the theater department. So I will be happy to see some of you there."

She turned to her desk and picked up a clip board.

"Now, let's start with roll call."

Alya squeezed her way to the bulletin board along with every other freshmen in the school, trying to read the list of clubs. If her classmates were already grouped up, maybe a club would be better. Although a part of her said she should avoid the fiasco and just eat lunch. She could visit clubs in the afternoon.

A smaller girl slipped between her and the people with ease, making it to the front of the crowd. Attempting the girl's nimble approach, Alya tried to maneuver through the crowds, but found she wasn't very good at it. Blame her big shoes or her size, people seemed to squeeze tighter when she tried to get through. The small girl scurried back through the crowd with a list of clubs written down.

"Excuse me," Alya caught her wrist, the pigtails on the small girl flipping when she turned in surprise. "Was there a journalism club?"

The girl breathed a sigh of relief before nodding. "202," she whispered before dashing off to join the boy with the drumsticks. Maybe they were old friends? Or a junior high couple.

Alya looked back to the board, figuring she wouldn't make it to the front before lunch ended to find a comic club as a backup choice. She walked over to the stairs, heading up to the cafeteria for lunch. She would check out the journalism club after school. Lunch was more important right now.

Alya opened the door to Room 202 slowly, seeing several students at work, much like she would imagine an old newspaper office would be. But everyone was on their laptops. A couple of students stood along the wall, looking like shamed children in a corner. There was a girl in the font on her laptop, with thick rimmed glasses and a short haircut. Alya walked over to her, careful not to disturb the typers.

"Um, hello?"

The older girl glanced up, her fingers never leaving the keyboard.

"Can I help you?"

"Is this the journalism club?"

"If you're here to join, stand in the corner with the other freshmen?"

Alya looked to the corner, none of them moving a muscle as they waited.

"Why?"

"Did you show up for the lunch meeting?"

"I thought it was optional."

"It wasn't. Now your consideration will be at the end of the list?"

"Consideration?"

The older girl stopped typing, as did the other students in the class to look at Alya. She brought her hands together and pointed them at Alya.

"Let me explain this for you, so your freshmen mind can understand. We don't need reporters anymore. Our class is full of people who waited their turn to write. And this group due to its popularity and because everyone believes they can write a blog, is a first come first serve basis. We accepted the first freshmen who showed up, and now everyone has to wait. So you will wait in the corner until a writer needs assistance, then you can help, and then eventually write. Deal? Now go wait in line."

The girl went back to typing the other students following her example. Alya looked around the room, the other freshmen looking miserable. She wanted to harrumph, growl, or show some attitude at this treatment. Instead, she quietly left the classroom.

Alya mixed the food around her plate as her family sat around the table for dinner. Her younger sisters talked excitedly about their school and the new friends they were making, Alya sinking further into her chair. A larger hand on her own stopped her from moving the peas away from her chicken.

"Everything ok," asked her mother?

"Rough first day," Alya grumbled.

Her mother looked to her father, some sort of parent communication passing between them.

"That sounds amazing girls," he calmed his younger daughters, "why don't we listen to Alya now. It was her first day too."

The girls turned to Alya excitedly.

Alya sighed, sitting up in her chair to explain, " everyone already knows everyone in my class, the teacher's nice which shouldn't be a problem. But the journalism club is full and they have a terrible leader who is mean and it's all 'seniority first' so at this rate I wouldn't even be able to write until I'm a senior. And I could find any comic clubs so at this rate, I'll never make any friends."

She ended her rant with a dramatic flop of her head on the table next to her plate.

"Well, that's not fun," commented Etta, her father shushing her quickly.

"Nora made it sound easy."

"Because Nora's Nora and you're you. You won't have the same experiences," answered her mother, lifting Alya head up. "What matters is how you rise to it. Are you going to keep sulking or do something about it."

"Find a new club," offered Ella.

"One without a bossy leader," echoed Etta, since her sister wasn't scolded for speaking.

"Or make your own club. I'm sure there's other people out there who feel the same way you do," added her mother.

Alya smiled, sitting further up in her seat so her mother dropped her hand.

"Alright. Thanks mom."

"We helped too," insisted Etta.

Alya turned to her little sisters, "Thank you both."

The girls gleamed at their praise before continuing their story about school. Alya finally took a bite of her food, looking over to Nora who gave her a thumbs up.

"You got this. If anyone can overcome high school, it's Cesaire girls."

After doing some more digging, Alya concluded two possible candidates for reading comics: Literature club and Anime club. She enjoyed reading adventure books and watching cartoons with her sisters, so how different would either of those clubs be. The literature club, she found in the library after school, the head of the group smiling warmly at her.

"Welcome, are you interested in joining the literature club."

"Um, maybe, I just wanted to learn some more about it."

"Nice, well, just take a seat, we were actually discussing their year's reading list."

Alya nodded, taking a seat in the back. She didn't recognize any students from her class, but she did see Ms. Bustier in the corner, smiling at her.

"So for the fall, we were going to take a look at 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', or if anyone else has another book to suggest with similar themes, we can discuss."

Alya tentatively raised her hand, Ms. Bustier nodding in her direction so everyone looked at her.

"Um, do we read adventure books? Or comics?"

The leader looked to Ms. Bustier for an answer.

"Not too often Alya. This is like an extension of literature class, poetry, and writing."

"If you like comics, you can join the Anime club," offered a girl, a row ahead, "they read manga more often than watch anime."

"Or there's the card game club. They read comics, but they are mostly playing MTG or Yu gi-oh," offered another boy.

"Ok, I'll take a look and let you know."

Alya stood and hurriedly left the classroom, feeling a bit embarrassed by the display. They seemed nice and helping her writing skills would be a plus for her future in journalism. But manga might be interesting to try.

She made it back to the bulletin board as a blonde haired boy walked away, probably in a similar boat as she. The anime club was on the left side of the library, so she turned around and marched back up the stairs. She looked in the window to see kids surrounded by stacks of books, others walking around the room and taking a look at the collections. She stepped inside, no one really noticing her as she walked up to the first tower of books. The books faced the wrong way but had pictures on the cover as if the backside was the front of the book. She opened a manga and flipped to the front, to find out it was the back.

"You read from right to left," the student guarding the mangas corrected.

"Oh." Alya flipped the book back trying to figure out the story progression backwards. It seemed to be about girls starting some band in their school."

"Um, do you have anything more actiony?"

"Shonen? Over there." The student pointed to the other side of the classroom. Alya walked over and opened the book the way the other person told her to. The story was about two boys living in a hole and robots or something.

"Um, excuse me," she asked the student, "Do you have anything with girls fighting?"

"Magical girls?"

"Um, maybe? Like Majestia."

"Oh. American comics. Try the card game club. They'd love having a girl there."

Alya frowned, putting the book back on the pile before leaving the room, no one missing her presence.

She walked down the stairs and back to the bulletin board. She honestly should have looked this up before she went upstairs. The Card Game Club was to the right of the library, Alya groaning as she climbed up the stairs. One look in the window and she noped out of the school. Hell no was she going to be the only girl in a guy group.

Alya was running out of options to find friends. Most of the students in her class had joined clubs it looked like, and Alya wasn't happy with any of the clubs she found. She spun the application paper around on her desk the next day in school, waiting for lunch to be over.

"Hi Alya," greeted Ms. Bustier, stopping in front of Alya desk before getting ready for their next class.

"Hi Ms. Bustier."

"Did you give the literature club some thought? Or are you going to join one of the other two clubs?"

Alya sighed, resting her chin on the desk.

"I don't know. I wanted the journalism club, but they're pretty strict."
"So I heard. They started getting popular recently."

"Literature sounds alright, but not entirely sold on. Manga and Card games aren't really my thing."

"I see. Well, there are some smaller clubs starting this year, so you could shape those if you tried."

"Clubs starting?"

Ms. Bustier nodded. "One club I think. I overheard it in the office that some students weren't happy with the music programs. Maybe you could see about making it a mixed group club."

"Maybe, thanks."

Ms. Bustier smiled before returning to her desk as the rest of the class filtered in.

A different music club wouldn't be so bad. Maybe they listen to movie music. She could still do journalism if it was just that. Maybe they could go to movies for music while she practiced writing reviews. Might be worth a shot.

"Light Music Club," Alya read out loud as she looked at the bulletin board. The name was hastily written at the bottom, then crossed out and written with a curlish script. The mysterious light music club may even make a good story.

They were located in the second storage for the music clubs. So using the map of the school on the bulletin board, Alya made her way over to the club.

It seemed to be a hallway for music as the various clubs practiced. There was an orchestra club, woodwind, choir, even marching band.

She found the storage at the end of the hall, with no music coming out of the room. Maybe they were wearing headphones. The only reason she was certain it was the right club because the same curlish script decorated a piece of paper stuck in the window reading "Light Music Club" with song notes and a cat decorating the paper. Maybe it was all girls like that manga she read yesterday.

She opened the door, expecting to see cute girls listening to music. Instead she found the drumstick boy stuffing his face with macarons, the pigtail girl pouring tea into fancy chinaware, while a blond boy was insisting that the drumstick boy use a nice plate to put the other macarons. In the corner of the room was a guitar case and a keyboard case.

The group realized they weren't alone, turning their heads slowly to the door.

The drumstick boy stood up, mouth still full of macarons as he yelled, "Welcome to the Light Music Club!"

So, I had this story in my head a while. Like since I drew a picture for it on my Deviant Art. But then as I was driving yesterday, inspiration struck for the actual story. So here you go.

There will be more chapters. Which I will publish as I write them.

Currently working on the editing process for an original story. Or having an editor work on it now. Will keep you updated on release.

Thank all for reading and enjoy your Afterschool Tea Time!