The Most Peculiar Sort of Person (Hiatus)

Leading the Freaks

“Um… I could probably change my shift.” Alec suddenly shouted at us, his fists clenched tight. His voice must have come out louder than he had anticipated, because even he looked shocked by the sudden outburst.

Karli grinned, “Really?!” She bounced up and down eagerly. “Alec the hero!” She cheered happily, giving him thumbs up.

“Now that that’s settled,” The girls chimed, Alec already fading back into the background, Harley looking down at her phone. She must have had the agenda written down, or something, but I had just noticed her checking it. Harley sighed, “We have to come up with a club name.”

“We’re a club now?” I questioned, and Harley rolled her eyes as Karli nodded. It was obvious who had come up with that.  “Okay, but why do we need a name?” Karli stared at me as if that was the most out of this world question I could possibly ask. Apparently a club name was vital.

Karli sighed, “I’m really bad at coming up with names…” She grumbled, and then poked Harley’s cheek. “And Harley is way too boring.”

“It’s not boring, it’s simple, and there is a distinction.” Harley responded huffily, flicking the side of Karli’s head. Karli then complained about Harley being a meanie, though at that point I was zoning out a bit. A club name? This was turning out to be harder than expected.

“School?” Alec suddenly blurted, his eyes cast downward as per usual. We all just stared at him in response.

“Oh, don’t worry. We’ve got school worked into the schedule.” Harley said, not bothering to look up at him from her phone.

“No… Um, I mean for the name.” Alec corrected, fussing with his hair. Nervous habit? “Like, you know a school of fish.”

Karli blinked, Harley sighed, and I stared. By no means was it a very good name, but the rest of us clearly couldn’t come up with anything boring. For a moment, it was just silence, before Karli broke into fits of laughter, holding onto her side.

“School!” She declared through fits of giggles. “We are officially School!”

Alec looked surprised, but I couldn’t see why. Karli seemed capricious, for the most part, it wasn’t that much of a shock she would agree with a ridiculous name like that. Not that I had any real problems with it, a name was a name.

Harley raised an eyebrow; finally looking up at her friend, before realizing arguing really wasn’t worth it. She sighed, shaking her head. “Okay, then that brings us to the final topic. Leaders. We need a leader and a co-leader, in case of sickness, injury, death, all that crap.” She sounded a bit too casual discussing our well-being. “A vote, then?”

“What? Hell no! This is not a democracy!” Karli protested, shaking her head. “You and I founded the club, we are the leaders!”

“I doubt you could even herd a sheep, and I hear they’re not the cleverest things.” Harley scoffed, “So, it’s a vote then. Except Karli cannot vote, and she can’t be voted for.” Harley flashed an evil grin in Karli’s direction, returned with a glare.

“Why not…?” Karli grumbled, and Harley just shook her head.

“Alright, so if you want Alec to lead us, hands up.” Harley declared, looking around though neither of us raised our hands. “Okaaay. Raise your hand if you want Aaron, then.” She said, lazily raising her hand by her shoulder. I was left to assume this was only because she wouldn’t vote for herself.  I still got the feeling she wasn’t very fond of me.

“And me?” She finished, smirking. Alec and I glanced at each other, tentatively raising our hands. And just like that, Harley clapped her hands together in an almost Karli-esque fashion, giving me a grin that was far from pleasant. “Then it appears that you and I are co-leading, Aaron.”