disturbing the universe

02.

people talked to belle now. it was odd. she'd only been at the school for a month, and she'd made no friends. but now everyone in the club wanted to talk to her? it was weird. she didn't understand. she didn't like talking to people.

she didn't like podiums either. it felt too impersonal to stand behind one and just talk. if she was going to speak to a crowd, she wanted to be as friendly as possible. the podium ruined that effect. but miss grayson told her she had to go up there. she was president now. she had to stand behind the stupid podium.

no one was looking at her. but it felt like everyone was. miss grayson wasn't in the room yet. the meeting was supposed to start five minutes ago. belle tapped her fingers on the podium. she wasn't sure if she should just start the meeting or if she should wait for miss grayson.

she looked at her watch. the meeting might never get started if she waited any longer. she cleared her throat and said, "umm, hello everyone. could we quiet down, please?" the chatter died down. "so, umm, i guess we'll go ahead and start the meeting..."

someone in the back corner of the room was saying something. belle couldn't hear what. but her face still heated up, and her chest tightened. speaking is hard. she didn't like it. why was miss grayson making her do this??

"so, ummm, because this is a service-based club, we need to start planning some service projects," belle said. "what, umm, do you have any ideas or anything?"

no one said anything.

she tried again. "i'm, umm, still really new to this area, so i, uhh, don't really know all of the problems you have here...how about we make a, uhh, list and see if we can make any service projects out of it." everyone stared at her. "if it makes you feel more comfortable, you can just shout out the issues..."

"teen pregnancy!" was the first, followed by, "drugs!" belle hoped pregnant teens weren't engaging in drug-related activities. then she decided that they probably were.

"our classes suck!" someone said. another agreed, "our teachers can't teach shit." a quiet girl in the front row said, "it's even bad at the elementary school. no one knows what they're doing."

"homelessness is a big problem," one guy said. "so is poverty," said another.

a guy in the back, one of the kids who was talking earlier, shouted, "i'm a fucking senior, and i have no idea how to file fucking taxes or pay for a mortgage or make a budget. our career counselors are never fucking here, and when they are, you can never find 'em. i'm fucking graduating this year and i have no idea how i'm supposed to live in the real world."

choruses of "yeah"'s and "you tell 'em"'s rang out. belle made sure to jot down a less expletive-filled version of that down. she knew that something that kids were passionate about was hard to come by. she knew to that those rare passions could bring great things.

maybe this wouldn't be as bad as she thought.