After school had ended, Jack and Crutchie headed down to the English wing, stopping at room E109, where the meeting was being held. Jack opened the door a crack, poking his head in. "Uh, is this the Journalism meeting?"

A girl with chestnut curls popped her head up and turned to look at him. "Jack Kelly?" she asked, surprised.

"Uh, Katherine Plumber?" he questioned, wondering how she knew his name.

"Um, yeah, that's me," she answered. "How can I help you?"

"We're, uh, joining your club?" he responded, unintentionally phrasing it as a question.

"Really?" she asked, seeming amused.

"Uh, yeah, what's so funny?" he asked.

"Oh, well, you kind of have a reputation for being a slacker," she replied. Her eyes grew wide. "Oh I am so sorry I just blurted that out that was so rude-"

He waved away her apology. "Don't worry about it. It's just nice to know I'm so well known," he smiled smugly.

"Um, okay," Katherine answered. It's beginning to look like the talk is true, she thought. "So, what's your name?" she asked, turning to Crutchie.

"Peter," he smiled warmly, extending a hand. "Most people call me Crutchie, though."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Crutchie," she returned the smile. "So I guess you ought to meet the other members of the club," she now addressed both of them. "This here is Bill Hearst," she said, gesturing to a boy with gelled brown hair and an expensive looking sweater.

"Hello," he looked up from his notebook to greet them.

"That's Elmer Hopkins. And that's Patrick Finch. That's Ryan Samuels. You can call him Specs. Over there is Walter Cole." She then dropped her voice to a whisper. "But we like to call him Buttons." She giggled when she saw Buttons give her a look.

The boys waved. Medda wasn't kidding when she said light, Jack thought. The boys sat in various places throughout the room, all writing in notebooks, a couple frantically, as if afraid the words were going to fall out of their heads, and the others slowly, trying to find the words. Elmer bit his lip in frustration, obviously suffering from writer's block.

The two new recruits took in the scene for a moment. "So, what are we going to do?" Crutchie broke the silence and looked at Katherine.

Katherine smiled. "Well right now we're-"

"Um, excuse me, is this the Journalism meeting?" they heard a boy's voice from behind them. "I'm new here and I-"

"Are you joining?!" Katherine asked, rushing up to him.

"Uh, yeah, my name is Davey Jacobs-"

"Three in one day!" Katherine exclaimed. She could've hugged him. "I'm sorry," she apologized after she calmed down. "It's just this has never been a really big club and it's kind of my baby and-you know what? I'll shut up." She ushered him into the room. "Meet the boys. Bill, Elmer, Finch, Buttons-"

"Don't call me that!"

"Specs, Jack, Crutchie."

"Um, nice to meet you all," Davey said, a bit awkwardly. He wasn't the best in social situations, even though it was a small club. Davey was, in most every sense of the word, a complete and utter nerd. He was a straight-A student and had always been involved in a lot of academic clubs: Science Club, Mathletes, Journalism.

After she was satisfied that everyone was acquainted with one another, Katherine said, "Now, where was I…oh yeah! As I was saying. We are currently all working on articles for the end of the month's edition of The Central High Sun." She smiled. "It's all mostly first-month-of-school stuff. Covering all the activities now that they're in full swing. You guys shouldn't have too hard of a time figuring out what to write about."

"Uh, well I was kinda hoping I could just be, say, the photographer?" Jack said.

"Well, there's not really much to photograph," Katherine replied, looking about the room.

Jack sighed internally. Medda, he thought, a bit irritated, but amused. "Alright," he said. "I guess I'll figure something out."

"Um, okay," Katherine said. Did he not know what Journalism was when he asked to join?

"So, Katherine, you have any ideas for what I should try writing about?" Crutchie asked.

"Just try and think of something relevant to the student body at large. You can write about most anything that applies to people our age. That is, as long as it's school appropriate." She shot Jack a look.

"What?" he asked, defensive, yet still appreciating the attention he got from her.

"Just write what you know. You could write advice for students. You could cover school events. For example, the school play just started rehearsals, so I'll be sitting in on tomorrow's practice after school and writing about that. Just, write about something that interests you. Something exciting."

"Well then, I've got an idea of what I wanna write about," Jack said, winking at her.

She laughed. "And I've got a headline for you! Cheeky boy gets nothing for his troubles."

Author's Note: So guys thank you thank you thank you for your kind reviews! You're all so freaking sweet! Have any of you ever read Fangirl? If not, I highly suggest it. If so, I feel like Cather after that girl walks up to her and tells her how she's her favorite author, even though what she writes is fanfic. Even though I highly doubt I'm any of you guys' favorite, I really appreciate the compliments and I got super pumped to update. I'm kinda worried you guys won't like it as much, but I started this for fun, and I like it, so I really hope you will too. Love love love love love love love

-Bella

P.S. Expect the story to follow the musical a bit more closely after this chapter. Perhaps a run in with Dean Snyder is next? :)