Welcome to the Mistakers Anonymous

"Welcome to the Mistakers Anonymous or MA for short! I'm Thaou, the club's president. Take a seat, I'll bring you a name tag." Okay but what did this man think "anonymous" meant? This wasn't what she imagined when opening the door : a man was angrily looking at his phone, another one was crying, two people had their back turned to Emel so she couldn't see what they were doing, and this Thaou guy was looking for something on a table full of treats. The chairs were put in a circle, in the middle of the room, and that's where everybody was seating at the moment.

The angry man suddenly stood up, walked to the table at the back and took everything he could before going back to his seat. Thaou raised his head to smile at him, his eyes disappearing behind his glasses and his long black hair. The other one was too engrossed in the food to reciprocate the gesture, or maybe he intentionally ignored him. He looked like someone who would ignore everyone intentionally. Thaou came back with a pen and a tag: "Here, write your name on it." After doing so and clipping the tag on her sweater, Emel took the only vacant seat: next to the crying man. Great. She hated seeing people cry. She always felt pressured to do something to stop them. What if they did something stupid otherwise? Like soiling her clothes with their tears?

"Are you okay?" she asked him. He nodded and sniffed before saying:

"You're the first person to talk to me in three weeks." What the hell? The guy next to him swallowed a piece of cake before mumbling:

"Maybe because you told us three weeks ago not to talk to you until the end of the semester."

"I think we are ready to start." Thaou exclaimed standing in front of his chair. He then turned to Emel: "Since you're new, you will go last." Okay? Last for what? The president then took a notebook which read "October" on its cover out of his bag and started flipping through the pages, looking for... something. The frown on his face grew bigger as he kept turning the pages. He then closed the notebook, looked at the cover, opened his mouth as to say 'ah" but no sound came out, put the notebook back in his bag and took out another one which read "November." After turning two pages he finally cleared his throat and Emel was relieved because this silence was starting to get embarrassing. A few more seconds and she would have had to crack a bad joke just to hear something else other than the sound of paper.

"I made a mistake." He paused to look at everyone's face before continuing. "I fell asleep during an exam."

"Happens to me all the time." a deep voice said. It was coming from one of the two people whose face Emel couldn't see at first, probably from the guy.

"Of course it does." He smiled. "You can't remain awake for more than four hours straight. Anyway I was driving when I dozed off and I think the examiner won't give me my driving license because of that."

"You think?"

"Yeah he said it was the first time in twenty-seven years this ever happened and that he will personally make sure I'm never allowed to touch a car again."

"Doesn't sound like someone who won't give you your driver's license to me."

"I know right?" And with that, he sat down. Unbelievable. The man who stole all the cookies was clearly making fun of Thaou but the latter didn't seem to know about the concept of sarcasm. "Next time I'm drinking all my coffee before going to the exam and not before going to bed." Poor guy didn't understand there would never be a next time. "Isaias, it's your turn." Said man had stopped crying and was now looking at his feet. His probably very red eyes were hidden by his afro. What it didn't hide however was the single teardrop which wouldn't leave his chubby left cheek.

"I made a mistake." He sniffed. "I-I got married."

"Oh I'm so sorry for you." The deep voice from before said and it sounded strangely genuine.