Their Voices

part 3

Until she turned towards the others. Her eyes glaring as she started scolding the classroom. All of them huddling together astonished and fearful of Sophie's fury. Finally, after about an hour of her scolding everyone she finally cooled down or as I like to say ‘she was all out of steam.’ Suddenly everyone turned to me “WE'RE VERY SORRY FOR BEING RUDE TO YOU PLEASE FORGIVE US” the class said in unison. Blushing I started waving my hands frantically “no no it..it’s fine I'm used to it plus you uh you all didn't really hurt my feelings.” I said looking to Sophie frantically for help as the whole class looked at me with confusion before a young black-haired man by the name Jake Taylor questioned “why aren’t you mad or raging with fury like Sophie was” he asked confused gesturing to the slightly less mad Sophie who was evilly smiling. I finally looked up at them, my face flushed “you see” I began timidity, “I don't talk to people that much. So I'm not sure how to act. Plus like I said I've gotten used to being made fun of. I'm not like Sophie. I can't just say what's on my mind whenever I want.” I confessed as Sophie started laughing, “Even though I’ve tried to toughen her up. She just won't take pride in herself to stand up for herself like today. Because of that, she's the main target for bullies, rumors, and other crap, I just don’t know what to try next” Sophie sighed. “She didn’t have any problem talking just now” someone explained “she's not always like that” Sophie explained. “Then if she keeps being bullied we’ll help stop it,” Jackson said happily. “Thank you, but no,” I said smiling. “We want to! This treatment is not healthy” Sarah stated. “They're not going to sit aside and watch,” Sophie advised. “You guys aren't going to step down are you,” I asked softly. “Nope, we are all determined to help you,” Riley said confidently. “Fine, Not like I can do anything to stop all of you” I sighed happily. After a couple of minutes, everyone finally started settling down just talking. I glanced at the time seeing that it was already one-thirty after lunch. “Crap we need to get moving. We have until six but it's one-thirty!” I said out loud causing everyone to start panicking as if I had just said the world was ending. As if incapable of anything they started hurrying and running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Not knowing what to do, how to do it, or where to start to finish in time. “Ex...excuse me can…can you just” I stuttered trying to get their attention in order to help. Sophie standing next to me saw everyone running around like they were about to die, she looked at the flustered me and became annoyed. “STOP SCATTERING LIKE ANTS AND CALM DOWN” Sophie yelled her anger startling everyone to a halt. Taking a deep breath Sophie looked around seeing everyone startled by her sudden outburst everyone still as if scared to move “Seriously shouldn't y'all have a president who guides you? Who is it?“ she asked, sighing as she waited for an answer. Quickly I tapped Sophie on the shoulder “we don't have a president no one volunteered all we have is a Vice President Vincent Blake but he's not here today.” I whispered, “And why isn’t he here?” “He's at a meeting for the festival,” I confirmed. Looking at Sophie smirking slyly “Oh really is that so?” she said as her smile turned wicked. “Sorry about this in advance...WHAT NO WAY!JASMINE YOU’RE VOLUNTEERING TO BE THE STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT? NO WAY” she shouted dramatically, turning to the entire room. Shakily I looked at everyone seeing their astonished faces. My face turned a bright red. Quickly I turned to Sophie “what..what are you doing I...I can’t be the Student Body Council President I'm too shy to be president” I said nervously as I shook Sophie's arm. “Sophie what are you doing? I can't be president. I can't even speak up for myself.” “I am here because of you because you care about this club. So,” She said with a wink. “WELL IF YOUR VOLUNTEERING FOR PRESIDENCY YOU HAVE MY VOTE! I MEAN YOU ARE QUALIFIED ” she said even more dramatically. What is she doing to me? I thought to myself. When suddenly someone raised his hand “I’LL VOTE FOR YOU TOO JASMINE!” astonished everyone started whispering. “Why not I mean she's really good at professionalism?” he said slightly laughing. I looked at him astonished as my nerves started to fade. “I don't have a problem with you being president. I like how you work in class” Sarah admitted. "SAME HERE! " Riley yelled excitedly. “Sure you are quiet but that's because you are never in this position so this could help your shyness” he explained as he smiled. Moreover to my surprise everyone suddenly started to agree. They all wanted me to be Student Council President which started to rile everyone. “IT’S SETTLED THEN JASMINE YOU ARE NOW THE STUDENT BODY COUNCIL PRESIDENT !” Sophie happily announced, everyone, clapping “wait what about the Vice President's opinion?" I asked shyly. "Y'all can't just decide without him!" “We can tell him Monday. I don't think he will mind” Sophie confirmed. “Now! What do we do Miss President?” Sophie said with a smile. “Umm well...” I stuttered unsurely. “C’mon you always have a plan” Sophie laughed. I looked at Sophie, her face full of confidence in me causing me to smile. Taking a deep breath I calmed myself down. “OK! I actually do have a plan.” “Since when?” Sam asked, astonished. “I got the idea when we decided to do the school festival” I admitted. “That was what two months ago, why didn't you say anything?” Jake asked. “I was too shy to offer an idea,” I admitted. “Ok well, a festival has a lot of different elements in order for us to have the best festival possible. Starting off with some helping hands.” I said to everyone nodding in agreement. “I figured we’ll have three groups one to deal with food, one for games, and one for logistics.” “logistics?” Sally questions. “Logistics are details, complex operations involving many people, facilities, or supplies” I explained. “So like main helpers,” Jackson asked. “Yes exactly! So this way everything can run smoother and everyone has what they need allowing everyone to be able to check out the festival and have fun” I explained “So the location we all decided on was the school right,” Jackson asked making sure he understood. “Yeah, that way we don't need to spend money on renting a place” Sarah explained. “Plus we can have things going on in the hallways, classrooms, gym, cafeteria and even outside like on the football, soccer or baseball/softball fields and since our festival will take place in more than one room and outside areas.” “But why so many places won't it be harder to find your way out of the festival,” Riley asked. “We won't have all of that but That is why it would be beneficial to have a map showing the location of each activity. The map will show where everything is like the stalls, cafeteria, gym, etc.” I explained. “It could even show the help center for people needing directions or something” Jake added. “Yeah A map is especially helpful since our festival will have multiple volunteer shifts, so if someone gets lost, they can just find a point on the map to go to so they can regroup. We could even make it to where a child could read it.” “But it's already after Halloween so it's going to start getting cold.” “That's another thing since we’re having it at the school we have heat. Winter! What is the first thing you think of? Warm and cozy Am I right? We all think about warm things in winter. And when people get too cold they start going home especially if they have kids. So we could offer hot chocolate to everyone, even the people working outside in stalls and games. Plus since we are wanting to have it on the week of New Years I think we discussed the Twenty-Ninth of December to the Fourth of January right?” I asked. “Yeah, since we are all out of school because of break” they agreed. “Good, I was thinking that our schedule could be from Two o’clock PM to Twelve o’clock PM but on the day of New Years we’ll have the festival opened from Twelve o’clock at lunch to Twelve O’clock PM. So we can celebrate the New Year with everyone but if there are any disagreements we can change the scheduling at will but we half to decide before the end of the week and we need to think about the weather as well. Help with making sure the people in booths and activities outside are warm. We don't need anyone getting sick on us. We also need to make sure our winter festival doesn’t conflict with many of our volunteers or anyone’s schedule. Your schedules are important too. So if y'all have any events please tell me so I know or talk to your guardians and get back to me as soon as you can so I can look for some more volunteers if need be. Now some great potential volunteer sources I've gathered are mainly from scout troops, community organizations, and church groups. The majority of the volunteers are either young or about our age and most of them will be our runners.” “What's a runner?” Sarah asked curiously. “The runners will be people who can get more prizes for booths, retrieve a first aid kit if needed. Also! I would like everyone to download an app for the festival. It will be easier to talk with the runners, and everyone can stay in contact with each other. For emergencies or just an update. ALSO! It would be a good idea to have volunteers wear matching shirts or maybe with name tags. To help identify each other, separate us from the crowd so if someone needs to contact us or needs help they can tell that we are volunteers. But before that, we need to discuss our budget since we have limited amounts we can spend.” I started “do we not have enough money for the festival even with all the fundraisers, bake sales, and school sales we did,” someone asked wirily. “Well we have about seventeen thousand dollars to use from the fundraisers we did and that is great, we can do a lot with it but we still need to be careful with how we spend it. Or we won't have enough for everything we need to do. So I looked into it and a common cost-saving strategy includes: borrowing homemade festival games from other schools or asking parents and other students to help us make or donate. So if you have games or anything to donate please do. Now there is the matter of the permits. I need to call and check with our local government office to find out whether any permits will be required for our festival. Like our outdoor use of electricity, food preparations, and sales we will be making.” “Are we old enough to get a permit,” Mikie curiously asked. “Technically, no, because I'm a minor the only thing someone can do is ask for a birth certificate” I explained. “So if you're a minor we are still able to get a permit,” Riley asked. “basically,” I said. “Cool,” he acknowledged. “Now there is also the subject of the food for the festival. First, we need to consult with our health department to find out what rules we will have to follow in order to legally prepare and serve food. The lunch ladies or even the culinary teacher may have a permit but I am not quite sure yet. Additionally, we need to rent equipment unless someone loans or donates any. Then we will need to run the numbers and find out what the cost for that will be before deciding but I am quite sure it won't be a problem.” I paused seeing if anyone had questions “Alright so I found some local businesses who are often willing to donate food/deserts but people wanting to do booths can choose to do handmade foods if they would rather. We will also need a ‘Food Service Manager’ meaning any person who supervises or trains a food service worker to follow all food safety regulations. The manager will be an employee of the Permitted Food Services so you would be an employee of the desert or food placement but overall I am hoping that either the lunch ladies or our culinary teacher will agree to be the ‘Food Service Manager’. So I was thinking that there would be some food stalls in the cafeteria with different meals, and desserts, or other edible products that we can serve directly to the customers. For the people to carry out or to eat.” “But how will we know what the classes are going to serve?” Sally asked. “I was hoping that all the classes will send us their information on what they will be doing. I’ll even give out a paper for them to write down what they will be doing. So if they are going to have food or drinks involved they will send us a list of what they are going to do and what they will be serving. This way we can approve and disapprove.” I explained “ok so we keep hearing you talk about food and drinks but what about games,” Riley asked confused. “Games! Yes, that's just it, who doesn’t like games? Especially if you win a prize. You see traditional festivals have games, like a cakewalk. There could even be face painting, a photo booth, a ring toss, or a fishing activity for all the kids and parents to play. The fun thing being if you win or lose you will get a prize this way everyone will be happy. So we might need to order enough treats to allow each child to win a prize at each game. It will be better if we order too many than not enough that way we don't risk running out. We can also ask everyone to bring a small bag from home or ask a local business. Like asking a dentist or an insurance agency, to see if they are willing to donate. That way both parties benefit. Plus the kids can keep their small prizes and pieces of candy in the bags as they move through the festival, that way their guardian can easily hold the bags while kids try out other games. There will also be musical performances by students or local bands to draw a crowd and show what they’ve got. There could also be a contest like bake-offs or a chili cook-off that classes could even host. I mean a lot of kids in this school like competitions so I thought why not?” I finished. “How will the groups be separated,” Sophie asked. “Oh well, that is the easy part. This will be group A” I said gesturing to the left side of the room. “You all are food so you guys get to both cook, taste, and sadly yes stock up on food. You guys get to give the food and drinks out to all the people who want to try it. You get to see their faces light up to how it tastes and everything! Y'all even get to host the cook or bake-offs” I explained happily. “Should we worry about the permit stuff?” Jackson asked. “No, I can deal with that.” “What about the lunch ladies and culinary teacher?” Jake asked. “I will be dealing with that too. I just need to talk to them” I explained. “Ok sounds good” he agreed. “Now you all are group B,” I said gesturing to the middle of the room. “You guys are games, so you all deal with games. You guys also give prizes to the people who both win and lose. That alright with all of you?” “I don't think we have any problems but if any come up we will tell you.” Sarah said. “Cool, so then you all are group C” I said pointing to the right side of the room. “You guys are the logistics. Y'all get to help find volunteers and will tell them everything they need to know. Though if you are unsure contact someone like me, Sophie or Vise President Vincent. That is if he is on board with this idea. You guys are also helping keep every game, station, or classroom stocked up on prizes. You guys get to deal with harder tasks because you all are the main helpers. So you all are our right-hand helpers. That also means you all get to go and see each cafe, lunch, snack, and or drink stations/booths to check out how they're doing and check if any complications are going on anywhere. So that we can help fix it. If you can’t just ask me if it is easier or you can even ask Sophie she can handle stuff like that too.” I explained nicely. “Alright, so that's my plan. Does everyone know their jobs? Any questions?” I asked nervously looking at everyone's stunned faces. “If you need me just come and ask, I will just be doing this paperwork dealing with the permit situations or helping with what I can...alright. I hope you understand because you're not saying anything.” I said, giving them a sweet smile all of them looking at me frozen in shock. I looked at Sophie nervously. “Did I say something? They are not saying or doing anything” I asked nervously. “No, they are just shocked because you're talking so much. You got to think not many people have heard you say a word” Sophie explained as she stepped towards the front of everyone. Loudly Sophie clapped her hands together grabbing everyone's attention. “You heard the girl! GO GO GO! Get to work" she yelled snapping everyone to work. “I would never have thought I would hear Jasmine mutter a word let alone speak like that” a girl said amazed. “Yeah I know it's pretty cool and she was so professional about it” another girl said. “I know right, she came up with that whole plan as soon as we announced that we were doing a festival” she laughed. “I know, anyway we’d better get to work before Sophie gets angry at us” the girl laughed nervously. “Yeah she is scary sometimes” they laughed as they worked. With everyone working excitedly the festival preparations began, becoming closer to our goal. But there was one exception, just one girl, in particular, Lilian Smith. Lillian is someone who always thought she didn't need to work. No matter the person nor the reason. Especially when it involved Jasmine so she was especially not happy with the council's plan. “I will NOT take orders from a little know it all loser” she declared. “And I just know Jain will love this" she whispered angrily to herself pulling her phone out as she walked out with a sinister laugh.