Grace, Henry, and Tara walked together through the glass tube from the cafeteria to the library. Their advisory was meeting in a lecture room in the corner of second floor of the library. As they were walking through Tara reveled at the beauty of the library. The entire structure was made of glass with metal beams. They strode through the doors of the room to find themselves in a cozy little conference room. There was a table, a white board, and several colorful plush desk chairs around the table. The table had a bag of doritos, a basket of apples, chocolate chip cookies, and a huge bottle of coke with glasses beside it. A few people were already seated around the table, and at the head of the table was an athletic looking woman in her mid-twenties. Her hair was honey-colored and pulled up in a pony-tail with bangs falling to the front. She had on jeans and a Wesson High soccer t-shirt.
"Hey guys! Looks like we have a few more of our group! I think we only have..." she quickly counted the number of people in the room., "two people left. Help yourself to the food, and when everyone's here we can talk strat."
Tara and Grace started helping themselves to the food and Henry quietly sat down and began talking to another guy. Suddenly the door creaked open and there stood Benson. Tara glanced up, and her eyes lingered involuntarily on Benson's gorgeous face. She quickly looked down, face flushed, as their advisor gave Benson the same speech.
He came up beside Tara and purposefully knocked his elbow into her arm.
"Hey, sorry I couldn't sit with you at breakfast today."
Tara:" it's not a big deal"
Tommy replied, "I know, but I'm just telling you--I didn't enjoy being in that situation."
Tara's heart and mind lightened slightly, and she glanced over at Tommy-her friendly attitude restored-and smiled softly.
Then, again, the door burst open and a breathless, high-heeled Lindsay stumbled in. Tommy internally groaned. He did not want this right now.
The blonde woman started her speech:
"Good, now everyone's here! Okay; hey guys. I'm your advisor--Reagan Strickland. We're going to be together for the next three years as an advisory, and according to the other teachers advisories get really close and whatnot. I'm the girls soccer coach and the art teacher, but i'm also kind of new--like you guys. I'm excited to have you as you're my first advisory, and today is just a 'get to know eachother kind of session.' We're just going to talk about ourselves for a little while and then we can talk strategy for the competitions."
Benson frowned and said. "competition?"
Reagan burst out, "OH right! They didn't tell you. There's an advisory competition over the period of the next week. Its supposed to be a type of advisory bonding thing. It consists of both physical and mental challenges, but we'll get to that later. First, lets get to know eachother better."
"What we're going to do know is your atypical introduction "game." We can go around the circle, introduce ourselves and talk about ourselves. That includes: sports, activities, passions, relationship status, where you're from, what you plan on doing with your life, what music you listen to, and anything else you think is important. Lets start with Stephen?"
A guy of about medium height with reddish brown hair of a rather stout build stood up.
"Hey. I'm Stephen Rutherford. I'm from Minnesota. I love to play hockey. I'm single. I don't really know what i want to do with my life. I listen to Pendulum and Disturbed and those kinds of bands. So..yeah."
Reagan said, "Awesome! Let's go on to the next person.
A very pretty tall lean-muscled black girl stood up.
"Hey guys! My name is Jennifer Wilson and I lived in Westchester my entire life. I am kinda in a relationship-we'll see. I absolutely love to cheer-lead and dance. My favorite activity is talking. My favorite color is bright blue. I really try to be a nice person to everybody. I love god. My favorite music is definitely kind of diverse. I like Carrie Underwood, Jordin Sparks, Mariah Carey, All Time Low, Nirvana, Coldplay and the Jonas Brothers. I know they are overplayed disney popstars but i just LOVE them. Thanks guys!"
After that, Henry and Grace stood up and introduced themselves. Tara went next.
Jonathan Brunson, a typical jock gave a nice little speech.
Parker Deloitte, a tall skinny guy with skinny jeans converse and a plaid t-shirt and a very sexy hair-swoosh with typical British features stood up and talked about himself.
Rebecca Collins went next, a brown-haired, green-eyed valley girl.
Then Lindsay....and finally it was Benson's turn.
He didn't want to tell Tara who he was. He saw looks of recognition on a few of the kids faces, and a few whispering "where have we seen him before." However Tara just sat, staring expectantly at him.
"Hey, I'm Thomas Benson. I like to draw. I like to read. I swim, play tennis, and play soccer. I can speak fluent French...he continued to blabber a few things about him, but never revealed the truth and sat down-relieved.
Reagan let out a huge breath and said, "OKAY. we're done. Here's what the games are: there are 5 games, one a day. The advisory that wins gets a two night, three day stay in New York City--since its only a few hours away"
The kids all leaned in, suddenly more interested.
"thought that would get your attention. So, we're going to have to work our asses off to win this prize." They could tell Reagan was now in coach-mode. "The first challenge is tomorrow night, and its going to be a surprise. We already know that its a combination of both physical and tactical skill. It is also going to be a group effort. Its in the woods. Wear shorts, tennis shoes. Girls wear high socks. Make sure you guys put on bug spray and wear the team color which we will now decide on."
The advisory ended up deciding on the color gold and the name golden gangsters, completely decked out with a handshake and everything. Then the meeting was adjourned.
