It was a warm September morning; likely the last one for a while. When the Squad all came to school, there was a signup sheet for Dramafest 2003 on the bulletin board. Seeing the opportunity to make friends, get a full day off school with the school's permission, and scream at school without consequences, they took up five slots to sign themselves up.

There was a brief information meeting happening that day at lunch, and about a dozen and a half kids across all grades showed up. "Alrighty," said Ms. Inger, getting everyone's attention, "welcome to your first Dramafest meeting. I'm Ms. Inger, and Mr. Tate and I will be directing you this year."

She put up a poster for Dramafest on the whiteboard. "This year's theme is Overcoming Hardships, and we were figuring you could use your own ideas and tell us your vision of Overcoming Hardships."

"Does that mean we get to write our own show?" Miriam asked.

"Bingo," said Mr. Tate. "You don't want to read from some book, listening to some other guy talk about hardships. You want to tell your own stories, let your own voices be heard."

The students chattered amongst themselves. They could be published authors!

"Dramafest is on May 16th," said Ms. Inger. "That means from today, we have nine months to put a 45 minute show together. Think you can do it?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright, great," said Mr. Tate. "We're very excited to hear your stories."

That evening, at the dinner table, Mei was super hyped to tell her parents about Dramafest. "It's backed by the school, and a learning opportunity."

Ming read through the brochure that each Dramafest student was given at the end of the meeting. "It looks very cultured, but how exactly is it a learning opportunity?"

"We're writing our own script," said Mei. "Trying out a new writing format, and building stronger trust of others."

That seemed to please Ming. "I see. So, this is hosted by the school?"

"Yup," chirped Mei. "Two of the teachers are directing us."

"Huh." Ming handed the brochure off to Jin. "Do you have any ideas yet?"

"Well," said Mei, "we thought maybe we could do a skit about five kids who all have a different hardship, but the joke is that they think they all have the same one, and so they each tell each other their problems, and they just get more and more confused as the skit continues."

"Makes sense," mused Ming. "When you don't pay attention to someone when they're talking, you're bound to miss the details." She eyed her husband. "Jin."

"Hm?" Jin looked up from his food.

"Did you hear a word I just said?"

Jin paused for a second. "You told Mei that if she wants to understand her lessons, she needs to pay attention in class."

Ming turned back to her daughter. "I rest my case."

The three of them continued to eat, and Mei brainstormed the show idea. What kind of scenarios could they use for a skit like this? What was the craziest idea ever? There had to be a way to sneak a panda into there.

Whatever they ended up going with, she knew this was going to be the best club she'd ever joined.