Even till the next day, Clare was still pondering over the incident that happened in the shop. It had been a great coincidence that Teresa happened to pass by. In any case, why was the senior so good at fighting anyway? She didn't even get the chance to thank her.

'..lare. Dude, Clare! This is like the fifth time I'm calling you for goodness sake!'

Finally snapping out of her deep thought, Clare looked questioningly towards Helen who was waving her hand in front of Clare.

'Finally, some attention here! Not sure which cloud your mind floated to but Isley-sensei demands attention! He wants to see you outside the classroom. What did you do anyway? Never knew you were the type to get into trouble!'

Clare stood up and started towards to the door, strolling past the rows of chattering classmates. She opened the door to find Isley-sensei waiting for her, his hand supporting his laptop and file by his side. Quietly, she closed the door and stepped towards him.

'Mr Isley.'

This particular person was the homeroom teacher of Clare's class. The most distinctive features of him were his long snow-white hair and his unique sense of fashion. That included wearing suits and tuxedos to school, a different one for each day of the week, and wearing spectacles with matching colours to the suit. While his group of fan girls worshipped him endearingly, the boys scoff at his hairstyle a lot, though that may be due to the fact that they were unable to pull it off as fabulously as he could. That was what she managed to catch from the conversations of her other three classmates - at least the times when she happened to pay attention anyway.

Today, the teacher had donned a sky-blue suit and wore navy-blue half-rimmed spectacles.

'Yes, Clare. I need to talk to you regarding the Extra Activities.'

He pushed up his spectacles with his free hand before continuing.

'It has come to my attention that you have yet to sign up for any EAs, which also means you are currently not assigned to any...'

Frankly, Clare was quite surprised that they managed to track down that kind of data in a single day.

'…And it would be greatly appreciated if we could settle it right here.'

Registration was only yesterday, and today he knows that I didn't sign up for anything? Even if the Year One population is small… what kind of superhuman system do they have?

'Sensei, excuse my bluntness but I don't have time for EAs. I need to work. Or starve.'

'Indeed, you are the one with family problems aren't you…'

His face scrunched up and his eyes darted sideways, contemplating the situation.

'Alright, unfortunately I still can't allow you to not participate in anything, but here's the compromise. The EAs that are only once a week are Drama Society and Dance Society. The latter tends to hold many extra practice sessions as they participate in various inter-school competitions throughout the year. Drama Society, on the other hand, is a new EA that started this year, and the intake is very small. Extra sessions will only be held when necessary. Sometimes the session once a week may even be made optional. So, it's pretty clear which one of them is the better option, eh?'

'…That doesn't leave me with much of a choice, does it?'

'You see, all I'm asking is, you give a try for at least a month. If it is simply too time-consuming for you, I'll see to it that you are taken off the EA and I'll grant you special permission to not participate in EAs. Have we come to an agreement?'

...more like "Have I forced my plan onto you successfully?".

Appearing to take Clare's silence as consent, he gave her a smile, though the supposed gesture failed to reach his eyes.

'It's settled then. Sessions are held at the Drama Room every Wednesday from three to five in the afternoon, which also means that today will be the first session for Year Ones. The results of the posting of EAs will be passed down to each Year One class before the break so everyone will know their allocated EAs. By the way, I'm the teacher-in-charge of Drama Society, so do approach me if you have any problems. That will be all.'

Today? Just my luck... I won't be able to inform Josh that I will be late for work. Not that he actually minds.

Mr Isley turned to walk in the other direction, but suddenly back-tracked to face Clare again.

"It will be nice to have you on our side, Clare." With that, he strolled off.

Clare sensed that there was an implied meaning but failed to grasp it. Nevertheless, the tone of his voice sent chills up her spine.

Staring straight at the sign "Drama Room" hanging on above the door in front of her, Clare almost smacked herself for missing it the first time she walked past the third floor of the main building. She had first searched the entire main building, and even traversed the extension block, but to no avail. After deciding to check the main building again, she finally found it. The idea of approaching someone for help didn't exactly cross her mind, unfortunately. The fact that the Drama Room was just one floor above her classroom did not add any satisfaction to her "accomplishment".

Without a doubt, she was going to be late. Great way to leave an impression on everyone on her first day. Not that she really cared much about what anyone else would think - She just wanted to go in, get the session over and done and rush to work. In fact, maybe they would kick her out for being late and that would solve the problem of the EAs once and for all. Though that was probably wishful thinking on her side.

"Well, here it goes…"

As she reached to knock the door, a rush of wind hit her as the door flung open inwards and a figure stood in front of her. Looking up, her heart flipped when the saw who it was. Teresa. The senior seemed more amused than shocked at Clare's presence. Clare gazed into those black orbs, and the familiar feeling of warmth and comfort filled her again...

…though she this time she fought to snap out of it. This wasn't exactly the time to be caught up in emotions like that.

But what was that feeling anyway?

It was Teresa who broke the silence first as she lifted an eyebrow, a faint smile on her lips.

"So, you must be the new addition Isley-sensei mentioned. Quite a cheeky one to be late on your first session, eh?"

Clare just assumed her neutral expression, willing her nerves to calm down.

"But whatever, it's not like you're that late. Just come in, we're just getting started."

Clare followed Teresa's lead into the room which was the size of a normal classroom. She took a quick glance around, noting the raised platform on one side of the classroom and a whiteboard on the other. Teresa came to an abrupt stop in front of a cluttered group of students sitting on the floor cross-legged. All eyes fell on Clare instantly. She felt herself cringe inwardly.

A hand clasped down on her shoulder and she flinched.

'So guys, I assumed she is our last new member to Drama Society and if she is, her name is Clare. Please welcome her.'

Now standing beside her, Teresa turned away from the group to face her.

'Anyway, everyone has just finished introducing themselves, so now it's your turn.'

Not knowing what to say, Clare stared blankly at the many students eyeing her with differing amounts of interest.

'…My name is Clare. I'm from Class 1-2.'

There was a moment of silence before everyone realized that was pretty much all they were going to get from the new member. A quick applause ended her introduction.

'Alright, now you can join the rest and sit down.'

Clare shuffled towards the back of the group and sat down alone. She saw the weird expression Teresa shot her but dismissed it when a smile reappeared on her face as she crossed her arms.

'I officially welcome each and every one of you to Drama Society. There was overwhelming response during the sign up of this EA, and I congratulate all of you here for succeeding in getting your chosen EA. As you may already know, I started this EA this year and I hope to bring it to greater heights. For those who have no experience in drama, I implore you to cast your worries aside because this is exactly the place where we can learn. We have twenty-one members in total, which is a fairly small group, so I hope everyone will get close to one another in the time to come.'

Teresa shook her head gently until her waves of hair settled into a satisfactory place before continuing. In that few seconds, whispers and giggles were heard from the two female students sitting in front of Clare.

'Oh my gosh, I can't believe I actually got in! And Teresa-senpai, she is so cool!'

'Way cool! She's my idol!'

She frowned and focused her attention back on Teresa.

'Anyway, there is a Drama Night in school scheduled to be held next Friday night. While it may sound daunting to have such a time-tight assignment handed to us on the very first session, I believe if we work hard together, we will be able to make the best out of it. Firstly, we have to settle some housekeeping matters. Now we shall start deciding on the committee members….'

The members were split into three groups: acting, script writing and props/costumes respectively. Soon that was done and they started brainstorming ideas for the Drama Night. It was decided that the theme would be "Medieval", and the idea of the Twin Goddesses of Love popped out at some point in the discussion. Everyone came to an agreement to use that idea for the plot. The two hours of EA time passed swiftly.

'I must say, today has been surprisingly productive and I thank everyone for the enthusiasm. Today's session will end here. Before you leave, please fill in your particulars on that list on the table. Be prepared for extra meet-ups and practices during break time and after school this week and next week. That is all.'

Words of "thanks" and "good job" were shouted across the room and everyone proceeded to fill in the list. Clare ended up last in the line after a trip to the toilet.

She felt a tap on her left shoulder and tilted her head to find a boy smiling shyly at her.

'Hello Clare, I'm Len. Not sure if you recognize me but we're from the same class. I hope to work together with you from now on.'

With that, the boy blushed slightly and exited the room.

Clare did in fact recognize him. As much as she didn't voluntarily initiate conversations with others, that didn't mean that she was oblivious to the world around her. She had a rough impression of all her classmates even if she had yet to talk to most of them. Len seemed like a quiet boy who mostly kept to himself in class, occasionally chatting with few of the guys. It looked like she might get a chance to be acquainted with another person in class.

When it was finally her turn, the room was silent other than the clashing of glass. Looking over her back, she realized that she was the only one left in the room with Teresa, who was busy shutting the window panes. She tried to focus on the list. Her name, class, date of birth…telephone number, email address. Right. She couldn't exactly put a dash under both, but the fact was that she couldn't be contacted through either of the two.

She took a peek behind to see Teresa putting her hands on her hips, a satisfied expression on her face. She caught Clare's gaze and a hint of amusement flashed across her face.

'Yes?'

'...I don't have a handphone or computer.'

Teresa tilted her head slightly and stared at Clare for a moment before reaching for her sling bag at the side of the room, pulling out a white object. She flipped it open, fiddled with some buttons and tossed it over to Clare.

Despite being caught off-guard, Clare's quick reflexes made up for it as she grabbed the object in midair. Closer inspection had her concluding that it was a white handphone with a blue strap. Even so, that hardly helped her grasp the situation. Not forgetting, Teresa was very bold to throw her phone to someone who was clearly unaware that she was going to do so. She looked up to Teresa who was already holding another similar, or rather identical phone, seemingly checking something before snapping it shut. Hers had a black strap attached to it.

Teresa appeared to have sensed Clare's confusion.

'I happen to have an extra phone, so you can use that for now. The number is saved under 'Me' in the contact list.'

'What? But…'

'Relax, I'm just lending it to you temporarily. I need to be able to contact every member in case of any extra practices and also to pass down information. It's not like I'm doing it specially for you or anything.'

Even so, Teresa's expression was a little weird, not that Clare could describe it.

'Okay... thank you, Teresa. And another thing is, actually...I can't go for practices after school. I...need to work.'

Damn it, why am I even so nervous?

'At that shop yesterday right? I've heard about your situation from Isley-sensei. Well, tell you what, just drop me a message on how much you are paid per hour, and I'll pay you back for the time you spend at practices. Anyway, it's getting late, and I suppose you have work? Better get going.'

Clare wanted to protest against that plan, but Teresa was right. She really had to leave. But not without saying what she intended to say. Picking up her bag, she took a deep breath and faced Teresa.

'Thank you…for yesterday.'

Then she scrambled out of the Drama Room before Teresa could reply.