Breaking the Ghoster's Heart

Episode 5

"Ms. Ferrer, why haven’t you attend our meeting yesterday afternoon? I told you to visit our club station," said by our literature teacher, calmly, when she saw me in the hallway. Oh damn it, how will I excuse myself? Should I tell her that I’m not interested to the club? No, maybe she will think I look up to myself highly. Urgh! Or should I tell her that I wasn’t the one who wrote that essay? If yes, then, she will ask me who! Then, what should I tell her? That it was Blake, an internet friend of mine, who wrote that? She will probably think I’m making excuses just to reject her offer.

Oh my Lord! Help me with the situation I’m stucked, please.

"Ms. Ferrer?" she asked and her eyebrows quirked up.

"Huh?"

"Are you with me, Ms. Ferrer?"

I nodded twice when I got back to the world again. "Ah yes, yes, ma’am. I’m sorry for not attending yesterday. Maybe you should remove me now because I’m not a responsible person or whatever – "

I came to a halt when she smiled."It’s okay. I know you have reasons. " Wow, I’ve never thought she was a very understanding teacher, all my life, in my high school days.

"Can we have you now?" she suddenly asked. I don’t understand what she meant by that. "Pardon?" I asked and blinked twice.

"We will be having a meeting now. Don’t worry about yesterday. I’m sure your co-members will understand. Come, "she said and led the way to the club station. Oh my Lord! Am I dreaming? I pinch myself but it hurts a lot. No. Freaking. Way!

What the hell am I going to do? I bit my lips and mentally prepared myself for the panic attacks. We went to a door that had a placard in front that said ‘Journalist’. This is it. I am literally going to be part of this journalism club even though I don’t freaking know how to write, my grammar’s very poor, my sentence construction doesn’t seem excellent, and I hate describing people, places, and situations!

So, really, this is torture for me. Torture for people like me who are sluggish.

"Good morning, everyone. I am Ms. Evelyn Howles, your coach for the journalism club. " She announced in front of a few students inside the room. I was standing near to her, so their gazes eventually turned to me. I put an awkward smile on my face. Hello? I don’t want to be here in the first place, so don’t look at me like that! I thought, but shook it off before I blurt it out and caused embarrassment for myself again. I’m sick of it.

"We are gathered here to discuss the rules and regulations, our activities, agenda, goals as a journalist, the PRESS Conference, and last but not the least, to welcome you, the last member of the team. Ms. Ferrer? "our coach turned at me and smiled. She continued. "Why don’t you introduce yourself first? Yesterday, they already introduced themselves, but you weren’t here, so I guess they need to know you more. If you may, "she gestured her hand towards the center and walked away in front, leaving me alone in front of the crowd.

What should I say? Oh my God. I hate introducing names!

"Nice to meet you. I’m Heather Ferrer. Call me Heather or whatever you please, it’s okay for me as long as you’re not going to call me by rhyming words like Feather, Heather, something like that. " God knows how much I tried to loosen up the atmosphere, but it turns out I made it worse. No one laughs at my petty joke. Inside of my head, I am crying out loud. However, after a few long seconds, someone smirked. And all of us heard it.

We looked at the boy who was utterly cute but, at the same time, sexy in his way. Okay, don’t call me a slut because I know all of us are slutty in our own ways. Look at that smirk plastered on his face, everyone will eventually fall hard. Well, I already have Blake in my heart, so I’m an exception (or that’s what I think).

We locked our eyes.

He said, "I’ll call you Feather, then."

My forehead creased. "But I just told you not to call me names that rhyme with my name –"

He cuts me off. "Feather, it’s a nice name." He, then, gave me his charming smile that left me tongue-tied. What the hell is going on with me?Last time I thought about my next action, I am now seated next to this guy. And I noticed our coach blabbering about something in front of me, and I realized I'd been sitting next to him for several minutes.I should slap myself right now.

Anyway, I focus on what to do in order for my secrets not to spill. I heaved a deep sigh and sadly looked at Ms. Eve’s smiling face. How should I tell her that I’m really, really, not interested in joining this club? I thought.

"For today’s meeting, we will be choosing our club President. And I already have the list of nominees whom you wrote down on a piece of paper yesterday. I pick three out of the highest number of chosen names from the members. " Suddenly, Ms. Eve looked at me weirdly. What? I thought.

"And… I have also included a participant whom I think has the potential to lead this club. Will that be okay for you? " She asked and everyone agreed. My gut is telling me I should run away now before the situation worsens. Immediately, I stood up and our coach asked me what was going on. "U-Uhmmm…" I couldn’t help but to stutter words. "C-Can I recommend someone to the list? I wasn’t able to attend the meeting yesterday, so I’m thinking if I… you know… " I lifted an eyebrow involuntarily. This is one of the signs that I’m being social awkward in a certain situation.

"Yes, of course. Who is it? " Ms. Eve asked in a nice way. Pointing my finger to the guy beside me, who, surprisingly, only plays his phone in the middle of the meeting, which I find disrespectful. He lifted his head and stared at me. "Huh?" he murmured. Then, he looked behind me, at Ms. Eve. "What about me?" he pointed at his chest.

When I turned around, everyone had this look at me screaming, ‘You’re the dumbest person I’ve ever met, ghorl! Inside my mind, I thought, What did I do again to embarrass myself?!

A nerdy type of person whispered beside me. "You don’t know him? He’s the Supreme Student Government’s President. "

My eyes bulge because of that. Then, if he’s the SSG President, what the hell is he doing in a journalism club room?!

The girl who told me that bombshell news tapped my shoulder and shook her head in disappointment at me. Ms. Eve’s laugh brought me back to my senses. "Ms. Ferrer, he’s an exemption to this meeting. If you’re wondering why Mr. Masselin’s here, it’s because he needs to observe our meeting for today. " Observe my feet. I just badly want to crawl out here and get home!

I let out an awkward laugh and slapped the guy’s shoulder beside me. "Ah, I see! So you’re a President who’s making an observation to the other club. I don’t know about it. Pardon me, "I said and sat down on my seat. I heard the guy groan when I slapped his shoulder.

"Hey, that hurts."

I didn’t answer him.

The meeting continued and the list of participants was announced…including my name. My inner self says, ‘I told you! You should’ve run away a while ago before it worsened. See what happened. ’

I heaved a deep sigh and listened to Ms. Eve. "Okay, let’s get started with the votation."

Someone raised a hand. "Can we skip the votation, Ms.? We all know who’s gon na win… " She looked in the direction of a girl who was sitting proudly in her seat. I don’t see her face because of her position, but based on the aura she’s showing off, she’s pretty, I think.

"What do you think?" The girl who raised her hand continued and everyone agreed instantly. They are very synchronized. I don’t think there would be a problem if she was the leader, so I guess she deserves the place. I agreed with that, too.

"Pst!" I turned to the guy beside me. "What?" I hissed at him, the SSG President.

"I forgot to introduce my name properly." He cleared his throat and shook off his shoulders. "Hi Feather, my name’s Levi. Levi Masselin. It’s nice to meet you. "

I plastered a fake smile on my face. "Nice to meet you too. But it would be comfortable for me if you called me Heather. Heather, "I pronounced my name clearly. "Not…Feather," I spat the word Feather. Is he dumb? Do I look like a feather of a bird?

"I like Feather. They sound comfortable. So do you. " The guy, who has a name, Levi, said in a most annoying voice.

"I’m sorry, but I think you’re flirting."

He smirked. "Flirting huh."

"Yeah, I need to tell you this already. I have a boyfriend, and his name is – "

I stop myself before pronouncing Blake’s name. His eyebrows raised, expecting me to spill it out, but I refused. "Whatever. You don’t need to know him. A friendly advice to you, I have a boyfriend. " Even though I made it up and I’m being delusional here.

"Okay. I have a girlfriend, too, "he whispered and smirked at me. That leaves my jaw hanging. Why didn’t he tell me first?! Levi continued. "So you don’t have to feel uncomfortable in front of me. See that girl in front? " Where did he get that bottle of water, huh? He played it with his hand and pointed it to the girl.

"That’s my girlfriend," he whispered and left me so he could sit beside his so-called girlfriend. His girlfriend was the girl who was nominated to be the club President. Wow! They look so good with each other. Both leaders, huh.

Someone raised a hand again. She said, "I don’t think that’s fair and just. We need a President who deserves to be. Why not test their skills and knowledge in journalism? Don’t you think so? "

I said, "Yeah, that sounds fair and right." Everyone heard that. Uh-oh, I think I left a bad impression on Levi’s girlfriend because she gazed at me and turned her back. "You think so?" she asked with her normal high-pitched voice. "Uhmm, yeah. That’s what I only think though. " I said in a small voice.

She smirked. "Right, that’s challenging. Why not let’s do it, Heather? " Wait, what does she mean by that?

Before I could protest, she spoke to Ms. Eve. "I want to have a challenge with Ms. Ferrer."

What?! Are you kidding me?! Ms. Eve asked her. "How will we do that?"

"We just need to write an article for 30 minutes. It’s up to everyone what topic they will choose for us to write about. After that, everyone will read the articles we wrote and the winner will be the one who has the highest number of votes. For fairness, we won’t put a name on the article, so the quality of the work matters. "

Damn it, how am I going to write an article? And Jesus…for 30 minutes only?!