Rival

exploratories?

“Extracurricular activities?” Bom questioned with a dull stare.

                “They are worth points,” I nodded, “you need to at least get a thousand to graduate. It’s basically our exploratory class, but after school and student produced.”

                “What kind of activities?” Bom asked.

                “There are dozens of clubs you can enter,” I ranted on a list, “there’s music, sports, games…anything really.”

                “What are you thinking of joining?”

                “Tennis,” I shrugged, “the only one I have interest in. What about you?”

                “I’m not sure…” she hesitated, “maybe music?”

                “I didn’t know you were musical,” I wondered, “what instrument do you play?”

                “The guitar,” she grinned, “my dad used to play it so we have an old one at our house. I’m no good at it though.”

                “Bom, Hyori!” Mr. Parker shouted and made us jump, “you could discuss your choices later. Now is not the time.”

                “Yes,” we answered in union and embarrassment.

“As I was saying,” Mr. Parker glared at us, “the bulletin board in front of the office has the list and where the group meetings will be. The list will be posted tomorrow morning and the deadlines of your choices are due tomorrow.”

              “Do you want to join tennis club with me?” I whispered cautiously, not wanting it to sound too forceful, “it’ll be fun.”

                “I’m not sure…” she muttered back, “I’ll check the list first. See if anything interests me.”

                It was next day morning at exactly eight when the lists were posted. I arrived earlier than Bom as usual and checked through the list. As suspected there was the tennis club in the list between basketball and badminton. There was a sign up sheet next to it but I didn’t sign up yet. I decided I would wait for Bom and make a decision together.

                However, Bom was late than usual. She didn’t show up for the whole morning. Even through math and science. The day was already half over and Bom wasn’t here. I predicted she was sick but I wondered if she would show up in the end.

                “Yuri?” I asked carefully to one of the girls in the class, “have you seen Bom?”

                She shook her head, “maybe she’s sick?”

There was now only an hour left before our choices were due. Bom wasn’t coming today for sure.

I sighed and headed towards the office, where the sign up sheets were at. I found the sign up chart for tennis club in between all the other sports and art clubs. Unfortunately there was only one space left for someone to sign up. I was thinking of signing up for Bom myself but there wasn’t any space left.

Not knowing what to do I quickly tried phoning Bom after being grant permission from one of the teachers. Thankfully she picked up.

“Bom?” I asked, “Are you at home?”

“Hyori,” she sounded relatively surprised, but her voice sounded normal and not sick, “what’s up?”

“What do you mean what’s up?” I questioned, “are you sick? Why aren’t you at school?”