Survival Of The Fittest

((Conrad Timothy Harrod continued from Relaxa!))

Conrad stepped into the room that was designated to be used for a student council meeting, today.

Nobody was there yet. Unsurprisingly, considering that he was a litlle bit too early.

So, after sitting down and killing time with his phone, he unpacked a banana from his bag to eat it while he's waiting.

Hmm. He wondered what they will do today. Probably talking about Sadie Hawkins.

((Bridgette Sommerfeld continued from Having Fun Isn't Hard))

Bridgette generally arrived to events early, if she could help it. She just liked being punctual. Plus, ahead of schedule gave her a moment to take a breather and relax.

She strode into the student council room, politely greeting the only other person and sitting down. Today's agenda was the Sadie Hawkins dance. It was the council's brainchild, and something Bridgette herself was proud of putting together. However, she wasn't going to attend herself. Dances (and dating in general) were unappealing to her. Besides, she had better things to do that night.

But she'd think of that once the meeting started. With some time to kill, she pulled out her sketchbook and flipped to the latest page. She'd been on a medieval streak as of late, and had started a knight drawing earlier that day. She sucked at drawing armor, but practice couldn't hurt.

Ah, Bridgette came! But looking at the clock on his phone, they still had plenty of time.

After having finished chewing pieces of banana and swallowing it, he had the urge to talk to Bridgette. She took out, what Conrad assumed, her notes for the meeting, but it apparently was something completely different.

"Oh! What is that? Is it something for art class?", he curiousily said before biting his banana once again.

Bridgette instinctively covered her sketchbook when Conrad spoke. It was a habit from middle school, when she was more insecure and cagey about her art. But she'd grown out of it. "Oh, no, it's just something I do with my free time." She replied, taking her arm off the drawing. She paused. "...what do you think?"

Feedback was a vital aspect of art. Besides your own intuition, it was the only way to improve. Conrad may not be an artist, but you don't need to be one to tell if something looked good.

"That's a neat knight", Conrad said. Well, it was. Except it wasn't finished. But it would be, probably.

"My brother's all fascinated about them. He's a total Lord of the Rings nerd. And about everything that's about fantasy like in the medieval ages."

Ah, Robert also knew all things about swords and stuff. But hey, that is better than kids these days knowing all kinds of guns.

Well, at least Conrad liked it. He then mentioned his brother's affinity for traditional fantasy. "Huh. I'm more of a sci-fi gal myself," Bridgette replied, eyes flicking across the empty room.

She checked the time on her phone. It was still early, but she thought other people would've showed up by now. She shrugged and went back to drawing.

Conrad wanted to continue to talk, but then he noticed Bridgette looking back at the drawing. Hm, he did not want to distract her any longer.

Looks like he had to deal with himself while waiting for the other people. So continued chewing on his banana before going to the bin to throw it in.

Returning back to his seat, he continued using his phone to kill time.

She'd felt worse, but she'd also felt better.

A few minutes before she had started to head off to the meeting, Emma had spent a few minutes in the bathroom looking at herself. That fatigue that floated around inside her like a fog was still as omnipresent as ever, but honestly, it could be worse. It wasn't the best she felt, but it wasn't the worst, either. That was the funny thing about living with chronic illness. It made you think about what you can do, and whether or not you can do it right at that moment. She felt like she could do her duties as President today, though. Again, she'd felt a lot worse than this. Resting a few minutes after class was dismissed, then going to the restroom to make sure she didn't look too out of it, only made her more confident.

Besides, today they were discussing the Sadie Hawkins Dance. Emma was excited for it. All of it. Discussing it. Planning for it. Decorating for it. Actually attending it. Everything.

Sometime after she left the bathroom, she made her way towards the student council room, a bright red folder visible in her arms. This was where she kept her agendas, notes, and other information needed for meetings. It was always good, especially for the President, to come prepared.

As she entered the student council room, she saw that there were only two people here so far. It was early, though. They were probably going to pile in as it got closer to the proper time.

"Hey Bridgette! Hey Conrad!" she said, a small smile on her face as she sat down and placed the folder on the table.

Even with that familiar fog, she could still be perky.

Bridgette was making good progress. She finished refining the sketch, and just needed to clean up the lineart and add details. Drawing in this room was...relaxing. It didn't have the ambiance of the art room, but without much going on it was peaceful.

A third person stepped into the room. not just any person, but the class president herself. Bridgette looked up from her sketchbook and smiled. "Heya, Em," she replied, closing her sketchbook and slipping it into her backpack. Her little break was over.

Emma was carrying a bright red folder - dance plans, most likely. Bridgette quietly wondered what she had in store.

The senior class president had to impress, after all.

Conrad's view on the screen was stopping as he heard steps.

"Hello, Ems!", Conrad said when Emma entered the room. "We will talk about Sadie Hawkins today, correct?"

Conrad thought about the playlist of the Sadie Hawkins dance. Hopefully they would manage to create a playlist everybody likes. Conrad was on the Sadie Hawkins dance last year and the previous seniors...Man, he really did not like to talk bad about people, but the previous seniors had a weird taste in music.

No need to talk about the playlist before the meeting even started, though.

"Do you two already have partners to go there with?"

Emma rubbed the back of her neck with her fingertips a few seconds, in an attempt to stimulate her nerves.

"Yes, we are", she said. Her smile still remained.

There were many, many things needed to make a school dance actually work. For starters, you need a theme. A good theme is one that inspires creativity, but isn't limiting to people who don't want to stick to it. It also must be the kind of thing that wouldn't result in hurt feelings. She had to explain to someone why "Cowboys and Indians" wasn't the best idea for a theme last year when they pitched it. "Western", though, was somewhat of a compromise. Still some potential for problems, but not as bad. You also needed decorations that were both impressive and easy to make or buy. Another thing you needed was music. Last year's seniors had a… strange sense of humor, particularly the President. It resulted in some strange things on the playlist. Amusing? Maybe. But actually dancing to it was the hard part. It might be nice to get some kind of decent finger food, nothing too extravagant. And that was only the beginning on what they actually needed to sort out. Of course, that's what they were meeting for today.

"Oh, a date?" Emma said.

Of all the things that had come up in her brain about Sadie Hawkins, who to ask had, admittedly, not been at the top of the list. It wasn't like she didn't want one, though! It was just… who?

"I haven't figured it out yet", Emma replied. "There's probably someone who'd want to go as friends, right?"

So today's meeting was about the Sadie Hawkins dance. Despite Emma being here, they still couldn't start without the rest of the council here. But nothing  was stopping them from talking about it. Bridgette was about to say something when Conrad asked about dates. Emma didn't have anyone to go with either, but unlike Bridgette, she planned on going.

"I don't plan on going at all," Bridgette said curtly. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I love planning the dance, but I don't actually enjoy dancing itself. I prefer working backstage, y'know?"

She turned to Conrad. "Anyway, what about you?"

"Hm. Sounds fair", he said in reply to Bridgette with a quick shrug. Well, it was certainly a thing if you planned for something but didn't attend it. But knowing Bridgette she was not not going because of laziness or lack of support for them. She had a good reason.

"I go with Clarice, of course!"

Yeah, Conrad would go with Clarice and it'd be a nice evening, he thought with a smile. He looked to Emma, still with the smile.

"There are always people who need a partner. Finding one wouldn't be too hard."

"I see."

Emma couldn't judge Bridgette for not wanting to show up. After all, it would be cruel to force her, or something. Emma liked school dances, but she could picture a ton of reasons why someone wouldn't want to, or just couldn't, show up. It was a little strange that she didn't want to see her handiwork first hand, but eh. It wasn't Emma's job to pass judgement, you know?

No, her job was other things. Like what she was supposed to be doing in a few minutes.

Oh, she knew Clarice. She was the wrestling team captain, wasn't she? One of them. She was actually the co-captain with someone, right? Ty Yazzie! That was the person. Yeah, they both were the captain. She'd been in a few classes with Clarice, and she seemed energetic. A little hot-headed, but energetic. Were her and Conrad close? She couldn't remember.

"Yeah. I mean, it shouldn't be too hard to find a friend date, right?" Emma said. "I could just go up to a guy friend, and... be like 'Hey, do you need a date?' I'm sure that would be easy."

Friend date? That should be easy. Real, actual, boyfriend-girlfriend date? Woo boy. Emma had no experience with that. It was funny because it seemed like everyone else did in some way or another. It wasn't the end of the world if she didn't have a boyfriend, of course. There were bigger things to worry about. Asking someone out on a friend date, though... that seemed easy!

So Conrad was going with Clarice Halwood. "Oh, her? She's nice." Bridgette knew her from around school, and shared a couple of classes with her in the past. Admittedly, her and Conrad didn't seem like a likely couple, but maybe they had something in common. It wasn't her business, anyway.

"Friend dates are good," She responded, leaning on the table. "Who're you planning to ask?"