Adira walked along the sidewalk back to the school, her thoughts lost in the jungle of her mind. She didn't know what to think about the day's events, and she didn't know how to solve them, either.
It won't do for you to go and meddle into things now, she thought to herself tiredly. All I can do is let it take its course in its own way.
"But who knew all of this would happen today of all days," she said out loud, a slight frown marring her face. She couldn't help but think of Nolan, her thoughts curious about the newcomer. She didn't have many classes with him, other than first hour.
Yet, she expected that he was flowing through them easily, befriending many people with that wide grin of his and magnetic personality. Some part of her—a very, very small part of her—felt a thorn of envy poke at her. Some days she wished with a passion that she could be like everybody else—to smile like everyone else. But then she would disregard that thought because, why would she want to be like everyone else? She thought she was amazing all on her own, in a non-narcissistic way.
She started to hum mindlessly, not really thinking of one song in particular. That was a habit she developed as she was growing up; random humming soothed her nerves or thoughts when she had difficulty sorting through a particular troublesome problem. But it was also a good way to pass the time.
Adira walked leisurely, taking note of the beauty around her. White Rock was a beautiful small town with eternal azure skies and golden beaches to match the royal colors of the ocean blue. Beach houses of all kinds were scattered about the edge of the sand, the backyards facing towards the magnificent view. And Adira was lucky enough to be one of them. Of course, her house was the opposite direction that she was going, but the thought of her home made her torrential thoughts calm for the moment. However, the peaceful quiet was disturbed by a Maroon 5 song.
Fishing around her pocket, she pulled out her phone to see a name belonging to one of her fellow student council members. Pushing the green button, she pulled it to her ear and answered, "Hello?"
"Hey Adira! Are you on your way?" A worried voice filled her ear. She stopped and glanced around the street to make sure it was clear before walking across.
"I'm down the street. Why, did something happen?" She turned the corner and she could see the brick buildings of the school in the distance.
"Well... I wouldn't exactly say something happened, but at the same time something did." He sounded reluctant to tell her what the problem was, and a small part of her was becoming anxious.
"Ray, just tell me what's wrong." Adira kept her voice soothing, but her words were not giving him the affect that she wanted.
"Look, I'll explain once you get back. Just hurry please." She sighed and relented, her strides becoming more hurried.
"I'll be there in less than five." She ended the call and was almost jogging by the time she had gotten to the edge of the property of the school grounds. The parking lot was still full of student's cars as there was still an hour left of school left, but Adira paid it no mind as she rushed down the sidewalk and entered the building.
She navigated the halls with easy quickness, finding her way towards the student council meeting room. Turning down one last empty hall, she found herself in front of a lone door before pushing it open. Inside, she found Ray as well as the other members. Her eyes zoned in on Ray, however, as he kept fidgeting with his frayed sleeve.
"Tell me what's wrong." She didn't wait for any greeting before shutting the door behind her and staring at the group of teens. "And please explain to me why Ray looks as if he's about to drop dead."
"The trip to New York is a no go. It seems like the school board decided it would be too troublesome to watch over one hundred seniors in the Big Apple." Madison Beck, the secretary of the student council, was completely disinterested in the whole thing.
However, trips wasn't her favorite thing in the world to begin with. She was the type of girl who loved the small town life and had no intention of going anywhere after graduating high school. Adira watched the color of Ray's skin change into a paler color.
"Don't you understand the revolt we will get? Word is already out about this trip, making everybody beyond ecstatic. What do you think their reaction will be when we tell them that it's been cancelled?" He was starting to panic as well as hyperventilate. Another girl, Jade Oliver, went over to him and gave him a worried look.
Jade was the type of person who has the mindset of an innocent soul—sharing is caring and the whole nine yards. Yet, as much as she was sweet, she was just as brilliant, earning her a place of the vice-president. Even though she would never admit it herself.
"Ray, don't worry. Everything will turn out for the best. I mean, Adira is in charge of everything. When does anything ever go wrong under her care?" The girl smiled encouragingly and Adira gave a little sigh, the reliance that these people had on her was almost overwhelming. Her point was proven as Ray seemed to finally ease his tense muscles and gave a small smile.
"Yes, I suppose you're right. Because, Adira always knows what to do." They all turned their heads to look at her and she shook her head.
"All of you rely on me too much," she rolled her eyes at them before striding over and taking a seat. "All right, back to this New York business. I already had a backup plan just in case it didn't go through."
"Of course you do. That's why we rely on you so much Adira, because you always have a plan up your sleeve." Austin Park looked up from his phone, a game of Temple Run displayed on the screen. His position was that of a representative, going to all of the student council meetings and pretty much assisted with anything else that the council needed done.
"No matter what it is, we already have a good amount of money saved so we don't have to worry too much about that." Ray sat down and started to fidget with his hands, staring down at the papers in front of him. As the treasurer, he always kept a close eye on the savings, more so than most but Adira assumed that was why he was so good at it.
"So what was the backup plan, Prez? I'm curious to hear this." Austin put his phone down and focused his attention on her, waiting patiently. She waited until Jade sat down as well before starting.
"I already had a feeling that New York wouldn't work out, due to the fact that it is next to impossible to contain over fifty teenagers in such a big city. So, what's a place that you could put 100 seniors and they wouldn't have anywhere to go, but still have entertainment?" She looked at them expectantly, waiting for an answer.
"Prison?" Madison offered first. Adira raised an eyebrow and shook her head.
"I don't think prison has any entertainment, Madison," Austin told her incredulous. "And why would Prez suggest a prison anyway?" Madison shrugged and leaned back into her chair.
"What do you have in mind?" This came from Jade, who was beyond curious to hear what Adira had in mind. She cocked her head to the side slightly, her eyes shimmering.
"How do you all feel about going on a cruise?" Her question left the four other teens stunned into silence, the idea making their blood race with the excitement of it.
"A cruise? It could work," Jade murmured, thinking of all the pros and cons of the idea. So far, she seemed to be finding a lot more pros. "It would make it easier to keep track with all the students, and it would cost around the same."
"But where would it be heading?" Madison asked. Adira drummed her fingers on the table, her chin resting on her palm.
"We would have to first travel to Los Angeles where it will originally be docked, but after that, it would take a little over a week to get to Hawaii."
"Hawaii?!" All four teens stood so suddenly, all of their chairs fell back onto the floor. Adira was the only one still in her seat, looking at them calmly.
"Yes, Hawaii." She confirmed.
"Oh dear. This changes things," Ray muttered, dazed at the abrupt news. "This goes way beyond the price range of what we can afford."
"You doubt too soon, Ray." Adira tilted her head and the twinkle in her eyes only made him more wary. "I've already contacted the cruise that we would be on, and they agreed to give us a discount." The group was too stunned to give a response, and Adira couldn't help but feel utter amusement.
"Of course, we will still have to pay five thousand dollars, but we already have two thousand from the New York trip. We can get the rest if we work hard." She made it sound as if they were planning on saving money for groceries, not a five thousand dollar trip to Hawaii.
"And please, tell me exactly how we are going to get that kind of money?" Austin raised his brow, his own face covered with doubt. Her face was as stoic as ever, making hard for everyone in the room to figure out just what she was scheming.
She stood and pushed in her chair before facing them. They were all standing rigid, as if expecting another blow.
"We will continue doing fundraisers as usual. But," her eyes leveled on all of them. Jade stared at her levelly but her blood thrummed in her veins; Ray tapped his fingers in the table nervously while biting his lip; Madison frowned slightly while absentmindedly playing with her hair, and Austin stood with his arms crossed and stared at her blankly. "We are going to be competing in a competition with the prize being five grand."
That did it. The room exploded in shouts of disbelief and arguments on how it wouldn't work. In the chaos between the four other council members, Adira just stood there calmly, waiting for the storm to pass.
"Adira, this is crazy! Are you betting everything on this competition?" Ray was frantic to find the answers to her conclusion, but so far, no luck.
"This is a little too extreme, even for you Prez. What are you thinking?" Austin said this evenly, but his thoughts were in a complete disarray.
"This isn't going to work at all. We might just have to cancel this year's senior trip." Jade bit her nail nervously, her bad habit coming through at such a tense moment.
"You do know that Hawaii has unnaturally big bugs, right?" Madison shuddered just thinking about it. Adira waited patiently until she lifted her hand, the silence cutting the air immediately. She searched all of their faces, noting the similar looks of uneasiness etched on their features.
"We all have been friends for a long time, haven't we?" The question made them pause, unsure as to where she was going with it.
"Yes, we have." Austin answered slowly, frowning. "But what does that have to do with anything?"
"And we all know how to play a musical instrument, don't we?" The feeling of alarm increased tenfold as Ray kept listening.
"I feel like I'm not going to like what I'm about to hear," he remarked.
"Same here," Madison agreed. If Adira could smile, she would be grinning like a maniac at this moment. Instead, she just had to settle with a tilt of her head.
"I've entered us into a competition, called the Music Battles of the Century. MBC for short, and we will be performing in the spring."
"No." The reply was instantaneous, as well as firm. Adira crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. All four stood before her, like a wall that loomed above her. But she knew she could break the wall down in just a few moments with the right placement of words and persuasiveness.
"No?" Making them all jump, they were not expecting her to slam her palm onto the table, making the pencils on it jump from the impact. "Don't you remember when we were kids, that we made a promise to live our high school life to the fullest? And here we are, senior year and the most exciting thing that we can say that we have done is being on the student council." She spoke lowly, her green eyes getting brighter with her fiery vigor.
"This gives us a chance to not only win the money for the cruise, but it also allows us to live our last high school days with a bang. And you guys don't even have to worry about the music, I've already created some songs that we can try."
"This is just too crazy," Ray blurted. "Bizarre, unconventional, out of this world. Are you on drugs Adira?" She shook her head.
"Ray, take deep breaths. It wouldn't be good if you passed out." He followed her instructions and sucked in a deep breath of air greedily, letting it out slower.
"I can't blame him, though. This is by far the craziest thing that you've done, Prez." Austin sighed and ran his hand through his dirty blonde hair. Adira shrugged and tapped her fingers on the table thoughtfully.
"I would agree. But, I needed a crazy idea to get the money that we need. And this is the only way to do it."
"So the best idea that you can come up with is to form a band and participate in such a popular competition? Do you know how impossible it is to win?" Austin was beyond incredulous at this point, more skeptical than anything now. He just couldn't wrap his head around the thought of being in a band, much less performing in front of people.
"Look, we already have everyone to form one. Madison, you play bass right?" She nodded reluctantly, knowing it was useless to lie. "Ray, you can play keyboard, correct?"
"You know I do," he mumbled, not liking that her point was going to be right in the end.
"Austin, you can play lead guitar, and Jade is a wonderful singer."
"But we don't have a drummer," Austin pointed out. Adira raised her brow at him, a challenge if he ever saw one from her.
"That's where I come in. I'll be the drummer and voila, we have a band. Anything else that needs to be addressed?" She waited and everyone could almost see the satisfaction coming off of her in waves. The silence was answer enough and she nodded to herself.
"All right. We will have our first practice this weekend, if any of you are not busy. Just meet me at my house at three, but if I find out that any of you don't come just because you don't want to do it, well, let's just say your workload will suddenly become a little heavier." The threat was the cincher, all of their ideas of ditching being completely thrown out the window.
"Wow, Prez. This is the most brutal that I've ever seen you. I am slightly impressed and a little more afraid of you," Austin admitted, taking a seat once more. Adira shrugged but the impish look in her eyes didn't disappear all the way.
"I want our last year to be absolutely unforgettable, and entering into a band competition while trying to get money for the cruise should do the trick, don't you think?" Ray, still standing dumbfounded, started to burst into laughter. He couldn't help it—this whole situation was too surreal to take in. Jade looked at him worriedly but he just waved her off. While his laughter started to fade away, he stared right at Adira. She met his stare steadily and unblinking, ready for anything that he would throw at her.
"All right, Prez. You win, and I'll enter that dang contest. Do you have any other news to share with us?" Adira was relieved to see him grin at her and she shook her head.
"This was everything that I wanted to discuss for now. Later, we will go over the details in a little more depth." She looked up to see the clock, only to notice that track practice was to start in thirty minutes. Surprisingly, she didn't hear the bell signaling the end of class nor did she realize that an hour or so had passed. She stood and watched as everyone else began to get ready for their extracurricular activities as well.
"I'll see you all at my house later?" Adira asked and they all nodded their heads in agreement before walking out of the room. Soon, it was just her and Austin left.
"So Prez, do you think today is the day that I'll beat you?" Austin teased, opening the door for her. She nodded her thanks and waited until he had shut and locked the door behind them before walking.
"Only in your dreams, Tin-Tin." He groaned at his horrendous nickname as they walked side by side, seeing the entrance just ahead.
"I still can't believe you still use that dumb nickname," he said, frowning. She cocked her head to the side while looking up at him. Austin was the brother that she never had, and the same went with him. In his mind's eye, she was the cute little sister that he had always dreamed of, but instead was stuck with his older brother, whom he still loved anyway.
"I can't help it. You had a weird obsession with tin cans when we were kids." He sighed and once again, opened the door for her to walk through. As they entered the bright outside world, they cut their way across the lawn and towards the back of the school grounds. There, they found an expansive football field with a track around it, the hurdles already in place. Adira could see some of her teammates stretching on the field, getting ready for the hard practice sure to come.
"Why did Coach agree to be first in practice? I would rather run when the sun went down, but instead we get stuck with the afternoon sun while the football team enjoys the cool evening." Austin complained and they began walking towards the separate locker rooms.
White Rock was a pretty famous little town, known for their sports and winning streaks. As of right now, all teams had a ticket to districts, and the school board was anything but displeased. The principal herself could hardly go a day without complimenting the whole student body. To Adira, she sometimes thought it was oddly strange how peaceful White Rock was sometimes, questioning as to why there seemed to never be any drama here. But she supposed that was a good thing, living in peace rather than war.
"She told me that we weren't going to be little wussies and sweat it out like real men. So she says anyway," Adira informed him. He stopped and stared at her, his mouth slightly hanging open.
"That doesn't even make sense—you're not even a guy!" He exclaimed and Adira shrugged.
"Her words, not mine. You know how she feels about the football team." He grunted in response and they continued walking.
"Yeah, I know. But her weird competitiveness with them is sort of unhealthy, don't you think?" Once again, Adira just shrugged. She found it more amusing than anything, but she thought the subject should just drop for now, or else they would become late for practice.
"She's still a great coach," she answered before they arrived to the locker rooms. "After warm ups, want to have a quick little race before Coach gets here?" Austin smiled widely, the challenge not going to be unaccepted.
"You're on, Addie. I'll beat you this time, I can feel it." She stared at him in amusement before shaking her head.
"We'll see, Tin-Tin." He scowled at her playfully before disappearing into the boy's locker room. She turned and pushed the door open, waving to a few girls already getting dressed into comfier clothes for running. She went to her own locker and began undressing, letting her mind wander to other things.
If she could, she would be grinning from ear to ear. Curse her weird quirk, but she couldn't let it get her down because the thought of her senior year made her blood buzz with exhilaration.
Indeed, her last year of high school will be unforgettable.
YOU ARE READING
The Five Steps To Smile
Teen Fiction"Your persistence in this matter is becoming somewhat irritating," Adira couldn't help but give him a look of slight annoyance. "Why must I smile if you already see my amusement?" The boy before her shook his head determinedly, his mindset of that o...
