Chapter 4 - Student Counseling
June 1203
The school bell rang all throughout Thors, signaling the end of the school day.
Towa watched on as all of her classmates got up from their seats and prepared their things. She could overhear some of them sharing plans for what they planned to do now that the school day was over, with many looking forward to meeting with their clubs.
"Hey Towa, where are you off too?" Emily greeted as Towa got up from her desk.
"Oh, me? I'm going to the library to read." Towa answered.
"Oh neat. Did you join the Literature Club after all?" Emily asked.
"No, I'm just going there to relax." Towa explained.
"Seriously? I'm surprised you haven't joined a club yet. I swear, I think you might be the only student at this school that's not in a club." Emily noted.
"Well, I'm not exactly required to join a club. If one catches my eye, then I might consider joining it." Towa argued.
"Whatever you say, Towa. Well I'm off to the Academy Field." Emily replied.
After saying goodbye to Emily, Towa picked up her things and exited the classroom.
"I'm not seriously the only student at this school that's not in a club, am I?" Towa questioned to herself as she made her way down the stairs.
Towa was certain that she wasn't the only student currently not in a club, after all it was optional. With many years of Sunday School under her belt, she knew that if something was optional then multiple people were bound to not do it.
"I mean, if I haven't joined a club then what are the odds that they've joined one?" Towa assured herself as she thought about the other members of Class VII.
"Thanks for helping me move these boxes." Angelica told Lambert as they both placed boxes full of scrap metal and spare orbal parts on the ground outside of the engineering building.
"It's the least I could do. Your donation to help fund the Riding Club this year is greatly appreciated." Lambert explained.
"Don't sweat it. The Biking Club and the Riding Club share a similar idea. Of course, I still need to build my stallion." Angelica replied.
"I'm surprised Principal Vandyck and Instructor Makarov allowed you to form a club about something that doesn't even exist yet." Lambert admitted.
"Well I did show them my rough drafts for my project, along with the materials I had saved up from working at the mine back in Roer. I guess they saw potential in my idea." Angelica explained.
"Are you sure the Engineering Club won't mind you working outside the engineering building?" Lambert pointed out.
"Oh relax, I already cleared things up with them. I don't cause too much of a distraction to whatever it is they're doing inside, and they'll let me continue using the outside of their building to keep my stuff." Angelica assured Lambert.
"Well then, I wish you the best of luck constructing your steel horse. As for me, I will be returning to my natural horses." Lambert informed Angelica before leaving.
"Steel horse, huh? I guess that sounds cool. But I think that I'll still go with calling this thing an orbal bike." Angelica commented as she turned to the boxes.
"That should be everything." Crow said to himself as he placed the final box of equipment in his unorganized clubroom.
"Look at you being a responsible student. A part of me is honestly impressed." Vita commented as teleported beside Crow.
"Oh shut up. I just didn't want any of the other club captains to constantly bug me to join their clubs so I made my own club for myself. I call it the Broadcast Club. This should help me not look suspicious when I keep to myself after school." Crow replied.
"I'm surprised the school gave you the greenlight considering your academic record." Vita noted.
"Eh, I suppose my club proposal won Vice Principal Heinrich over. I hear he's a big fan of those dance performances from Crossbell. Probably thinks I'll be eventually able to directly broadcast those onto his ARCUS or something. Thankfully that Michael guy from where you work at sold me some old equipment for cheap after I asked if he had some junk lying around." Crow explained.
"Speaking of not looking suspicious, I wanted to talk to you about your trip to Raquel along with those new friends of yours." Vita brought up.
"Calling them my friends is being a bit generous to them. Hey wait, how do you know about what happened in Raquel? I don't even fully remember what happened there. Just that the Herschel girl got so mad that she made a monster combust." Crow responded.
"Oh easy. Duke Cayenne told me to keep tabs on you to make sure you don't do anything too suspicious." Vita revealed.
"Hey, I'm pretty sure that's an invasion of my privacy!" Crow pointed out.
"Don't worry, I got better things to do than constantly seeing what you're up to. Grianos just shows me the highlights from time to time. Judging by your comment I think I should keep to myself what happened in Raquel." Vita joked.
"What was it you were originally going to say? Or are you just going to tease me over something I don't even remember?" Crow questioned.
"Right. I'll be blunt. You need to be a better team player." Vita answered.
"Excuse me?" Crow responded.
"You want to avoid looking suspicious so as to not put a spotlight on yourself, and frankly you're doing a bad job. You're lucky that what happened in Raquel was kept under wraps, otherwise I'm sure a faculty member would've looked more into your profile already. You need to work better with the other members of Class VII if you really want to avoid trouble." Vita elaborated.
"You say that as if it's easy. That Rogner chick is full of herself, that Nome guy has his head in the clouds, and that Herschel girl thinks that she can boss us around. I've got this covered, just got to keep to myself for a year or two until we can move on to the next stage of our plan." Crow complained.
"I had no idea that you were a lone wolf. Should I let G, V, and S know?" Vita responded.
"That's different! The members of the Imperial Liberation Front are united by a singular goal and idea that we all fully believe in. Unlike Class VII, which is just His Highness' pet project made up with the first four students he talked into joining." Crow argued.
"Crow, you're going to have to get along with the others. They don't have to be your friends, but you should still try to make them your allies." Vita advised.
"What do you mean by that?" Crow asked.
"Let them think they're getting to know Crow Armbrust, and that they're his friends. When in reality the real Crow Armbrust is hiding amongst their ranks, plotting his revenge against Chancellor Osborne." Vita continued.
"Let them think they know me, huh?" Crow repeated.
"That's enough of my input, I have an important meeting that I have to attend. Try not to do anything that'll get you caught." Vita informed Crow before teleporting away.
"I suppose she does have a point. Being in a group might help keep anyone from focusing on me. Not that having friends at this joint is all that desirable, but I suppose maybe they could serve as a nice distraction." Crow thought to himself.
"Sorry I'm late." George greeted as he entered the engineering building.
"Eh, you're not really required to show up here everyday. Much less immediately after school." Makarov responded as he graded his students' latest homework assignments at the front desk.
"By the way, are you sure it's a good idea having Rogner outside? I'm sure we could be using that space for more than just letting someone else do with it as they please." George questioned.
"We weren't using it. Her project also seems to have potential." Makarov answered.
"Still, I'm sure we could've done something ourselves. This is the Engineering Club after all." George argued.
"Listen kid, the point of this club is to give you kiddos a place to tinker away. I don't really care which club you're in, so long as you've got something to show for it by the time you graduate. Same applies to her and whoever else feels like using our equipment." Makarov explained.
"Fine. I should get back to work on my project. I started back with a few classmates at the Roer Institute of Technology. I should be able to finish up a prototype by myself while here. I'll be in the back if you need me." George informed Makarov before he made his way to the back room of the engineering building.
"Best of luck with that project." Makarov replied, still more focused on grading the assignments.
Once by himself in the back room, George took a deep breath.
"Finally, some peace and quiet." George said to himself as he began to tinker with his project.
Admittedly George was glad that Makarov was as hands off as he was. It meant he could work on his project however he saw fit. Which was something he greatly valued after having to deal with Schmidt back in Roer.
"Yup. I'm definitely not the only student who's not in any club." Towa confidently concluded as she stepped outside the main school building.
"There you are, Towa. Come with me, I want to talk to you about something." Sara greeted.
Sara had been waiting outside for Towa for longer than she wanted to admit. She figured catching her by surprise would've been cooler than just using the loudspeaker.
Towa lowered her head in shame as Sara led her to an empty classroom so that they could have a quick chat.
"Judging by that look on your face I'm guessing that you already know what I wanted to talk with you about?" Sara asked.
"Is it about me not being in a school club?" Towa answered.
"Right on the money. I need you to fill up this form." Sara replied as she handed Towa a clipboard.
It was a fairly ordinary form. It asked for all of the basic information, like her full name, date of birth, and class number.
"What is this for?" Towa questioned as she filled up the form.
"Oh, this is my solution to your problem." Sara answered.
"My problem?" Towa repeated.
"You aren't in any club. I figured I might as well push you in the right direction. Plus it helps me fill my quota." Sara explained.
"What was that last part?" Towa asked.
Instead of answering Towa's question, Sara took out her ARCUS and snapped a quick picture of her.
"I'm not the best photographer, but I think I did a good job capturing your nervousness." Sara commented as she reviewed the picture of Towa.
"What was that for?" Towa questioned.
"I needed to include a picture of you to go along with your application." Sara replied as she grabbed the clipboard Towa was holding.
"Wait, what was that paper for!?" Towa questioned, now realizing her mistake.
"This here is an application to join the Student Council. I'll turn this in for you to Principal Vandyck later. Why not go give the Student Council room a visit?" Sara recommended.
"But they still haven't reviewed my file. Plus of all the clubs, why the Student Council?" Towa argued.
"You'll understand once you see the Student Council room for yourself." Sara explained.
Towa wasn't sure how to respond. She didn't even have a choice in the matter. Sure, she had months to pick a club, but suddenly placing her on the Student Council just felt so sudden.
"I can see that you're nervous. Hear me out, once you're done meeting with the Student Council and you don't feel like joining you can just tell me and I'll find you some other club. I'll go with you to the Student Council room." Sara offered.
"Fine. I'll go see the Student Council room." Towa responded.
Towa knew that she wasn't interested in joining the Student Council, something told her that it would take too much focus away from her studies. Which was already the reason she hadn't joined a club in the first place. She just needed to go for a few minutes and tell Sara that it just wasn't for her. Maybe then she might be excused from joining any clubs.
Once inside the Student Council room, Towa was shocked to see what was inside. Or rather, what wasn't inside.
"Why is it empty in here?" Towa questioned as she walked around the Student Council room.
Besides furniture and school supplies, the room looked as if no one had stepped inside for weeks.
"From what I heard the former Student Council President got caught abusing their power to hook up with some of the first-years a few weeks ago. After interviewing the rest of the Student Council Principal Vandyck and Vice Principal Heinrich discovered that they've been covering up for them since last year when they first joined the Student Council. In response the Student Council President got expelled, and the rest of the Student Council got the boot for helping them." Sara revealed as she joined Towa inside.
"Wait, is this what you meant by filling your quota?" Towa questioned.
"Yep. Principal Vandyck asked all of the instructors and I to find students that we saw fit to form a new Student Council. Of course, you're the first one who actually agreed to check this place out." Sara explained.
"So you think I'm fit to help start a new Student Council?" Towa asked.
"I don't think, I know. I've seen your academic profile, you're going to do great as a Student Council member. Plus this should help with your leadership skills." Sara answered.
Towa took a few minutes to think things over. Sara must've been out of her mind if she thought that she was fit for such a position. She already had so much on her plate. What with her school work and Class VII. Adding not only joining the Student Council, but helping start it back up was simply asking too much of her.
Yet despite all that, a part of Towa found the prospect rather exciting.
"This is too much, but when has that ever stopped me before? This is a challenge being handed to me on a silver platter. If I do this well, it could look amazing on a resume. Plus, Ms. Sara did say this could help with my leadership skills. Maybe this is the key to getting them to listen to me on those field studies." Towa thought to herself.
"Well?" Sara asked.
Towa took a deep breath before turning around to face Sara and give her an answer.
"I, Towa Herschel of Class IV, agree to join the Student Council." Towa proudly announced.
"Glad to hear it, you're going to do great!" Sara answered.
With that, Sara left to go turn in Towa's application to Principal Vandyck.
Now by herself, Towa looked around the Student Council room once again.
"I suppose I should get used to spending my time here." Towa thought to herself as she questioned whether or not she had made the right decision.
Author's Note
I hope you all enjoyed this new chapter!
I was inspired to change the Student Council to how it is here by how the Branch Campus handled theirs in Cold Steel III/Reverie, and how it's sort of non-existent. Feels like a good base to work with, now that Towa has to be the one helping form the Student Council she later gets elected to lead.
Also, Crow was never mentioned being in a school club. Him being the one establishing the Broadcast Club in this fic is sort of a wink and nod to his connection to Vita.