I do not own.

Rex vs. Clubs

Rex found Noah in the cafeteria bent over several flyers.

"Hey, dude. Whatcha doing?" He asked sliding next to him with his tray of food.

"Trying to decide what club to join." Noah didn't even look up.

"Clubs? Why?" Rex wrinkled his nose. "Why would you want to join a club?"

"Well, now that we're not joining that fraternity, I need some clubs to network." Noah replied as he shifted some of the flyers around.

Rex peered over at the different papers. "Business Network, International Business Student Union, Center for Financial Studies, Latin American Business Association… Dude, you're not Latin American."

"You don't have to be to join the club. Besides I know a Latin American…" Noah said.

"Who?" Rex asked.

"You, you idiot." Noah glared at him.

"Oh yeah…" Rex's face brightened. "I'm such an international man of mystery that I forgot."

"The only thing mysterious about you, is how you can polish off three double chili cheeseburgers and fries and still want a burrito." Noah pointed at his tray.

"Hey, burritos are the food of my people." Rex took a bite out of the burrito. "Anyway, those sound boring."

"Well, I'm not joining for fun." Noah said. "I'm trying to build a network for when I graduate."

"Yeah, I'm seeing a pattern with all your clubs here." Rex picked up one of the flyers. "Hey! They serve food at meetings."

"Rex, stop getting grease all over the flyers." Noah snatched the paper from his hands.

"Wait, wait, wait… you mean they serve food at all these meetings?" Rex asked fanning out the flyers.

"Yes, Rex. They serve refreshments." Noah said flatly watching Rex get hot sauce all over the papers.

"Heck, then join all of them. This meets Monday, this meets Tuesday…" Rex started organizing the papers. "We'll be fed all week!"

"We?" Noah raised an eyebrow.

"Of course, I can't let my best friend go alone." Rex took another bite out of his burrito. Cheese and sauce squirted from the other end splattering over the rest of the paper.

"Uh-huh." Noah grunted skeptically.

"Because I'm that kind of friend." Rex grinned.

"You're going for the food aren't you?" Noah sighed.

"Pffftt, no, no just providing you with support." Rex spit food all over.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Noah groaned.

"What? What can go wrong?" Rex waved his hand dismissively.

0o0

Noah walked into the room nervously. Several students milled around talking. He cleared his throat. "Um, hi guys, is this the International Business Student Union?"

One of the guys looked up and smiled. He stuck out his hand. "Sure is. I'm Jake, the President."

"I'm Noah." Noah shook his hand. "I see you have many connections to different industries."

"Yeah, several companies have partnered with…" Jake trailed off to look past Noah.

Noah turned to see what he was looking at.

Rex was at the refreshment table picking through the offerings.

"Uh, excuse me… that's for after the meeting." Jake called to Rex.

Rex turned to him. "Oh, sorry… just feeling a little peckish after a long day of classes. Oooo, is that fresh cobbler?"

"Yes, we're about to start the meeting. You're welcome to check out what we have to offer." Jake told him leading him away from the table.

Rex stared wistfully at the table. "I'll be back cobbler. Nothing can separate us." He whispered.

Noah pretended not to know him. It worked until Rex sat next to him. "You know they got a good spread. There're fancy sandwiches with the crust cut off, not like the other club that only had rice cakes. What's that about? If I wanted to eat Styrofoam, I'd go visit Holiday."

"Shhhh," Noah hissed. "I'm trying to listen… and pretend I don't know you."

Rex turned his attention to the student at the podium. He was describing all the different companies they had partnerships with. His eyelid grew heavy. He began tipping over. Noah elbowed him. Rex being startled sprouted his Smack Hands knocking over several people in front of him. People glared at him while Noah buried his face in his hands.

"Uhhh, is it time for cobbler?" Rex asked sheepishly.

0o0

"I'm sorry I got us kicked out of the club." Rex said penitently. They walked down the hallway of the student center away from the meeting room that they had just been kicked out.

"It's okay." Noah said dejectedly. "I'll just tell my parents that I'll be moving into their basement after graduation."

"Come on, it's not that bad." Rex said.

Noah sighed.

"Hey look, the Anime Club is meeting now." Rex pointed to a poster outside another door. "We got nothing else to do. Let's check it out."

Noah looked without seeing. "Fine, whatever." He allowed Rex to lead him in.

"Hey! Welcome to Anime Club!" An enthusiastic young man bounded over to them. "We're about to watch Spirited Away."

"Subbed or dubbed." Rex asked.

"Subbed, of course." The boy wrinkled his nose.

"I'm in!" Rex declared. "Uh… do you have any food?"

"What do you take us for?" He asked. "You can't watch Anime without popcorn and chips."

"Oh yeah, now we're talking." Rex rubbed his hands together. He glanced at Noah who didn't look impressed.

"What's with your friend?" The boy asked Rex.

"Oh, he's a little depressed because he's not networking." Rex shrugged.

"Yeah? What's he looking for?" The boy queried.

"Business stuff, I guess." Rex answered.

"Well, that's no problem." The boy yelled across the room. "Horace! You're in the business program, right."

"Yeah?" Another boy yelled across the room.

"Come over, got a friend for ya."

Horace ambled over. "What's up, Tom."

"This guy wants to meet business students." Tom nodded to Noah.

Tom stuck out his hand. "Tom, what's your name?"

"Noah?" Noah answered uncertainly.

"What? You don't know your own name?" Tom asked.

"Noah." Noah amended.

"That's better. Look there's a lot of us business kids here. I can introduce you to them." Tom took Noah off to another group of kids. Noah glanced back at Rex who gave him thumbs up.

0o0

"I can't believe how many business students are in the Anime club." Noah said later that evening as they walked back to their dorm.

"See, I told you everything would work out." Rex said confidently.

"No, you didn't." Noah scowled at him.

"Well, I thought it." Rex retorted.

Noah's face softened. "But everything did turn out pretty good."

"Hey, what are best friends for?" Rex asked.

"Getting you kicked out of clubs and then joining a better one." Noah admitted. "That movie wasn't bad."

"Are you kidding? Ghibli is a Japan's answer to Disney!" Rex lectured him. "Next week I'm bringing Circe. She loves Ponyo."

"Maybe I'll bring Claire." Noah said.

"It'll be awesome." Rex replied.

"It will be." Noah agreed. "Thanks, Rex."

Rex: 1 Clubs: 1 Woohoo, a tide!

This idea is from Peacexfreedom. I hope you like it. I have another request I'm working on from another reader and I'm finishing up Lost as I slowly drown in paperwork.