Continuous Misfortune

The Wall Flower Social Club

        For Austin Jones today was the beginning of the end of his life. See his school had this wonderful idea to start a "social club" for the "anti-social". This wouldn't have been a problem for Austin, he would've made fun of the idea of a wall flower social club. But unfortunately for Austin his mom had thought it was a generally awesome idea. It didn't help that he had made the mistake of telling her that he only had two friends which he didn't consider a bad thing. But no matter what he thought or what he said here he was. He pushed the door open and looked around the room, by day it was the health room, filled with long tables and chair, but now it was rearranged to fit a small circle of chairs in the center. He immediately felt out of place, looking at these people with labels practically stamped on their foreheads. The weirdos, the eternally sick, the gross, the depressed, the book worms and the rejects. He sighed and sat next to a girl with her nose in a book, seemingly unaware of where she was and why.

        "Hi," Austin said to her, she didn't acknowledge his presence, she just kept reading. "Right, anti-social club."

        Austin sat in awkward silence until the school counselor, Mrs. Towne, entered the room with her signature clip board and her rainbows and sunshine smile. She pushed her dirty blonde hair behind her ear and sat down in front of the students, staring them down for a moment or two before speaking.

        "Hello everyone, as most of you know, I am Mrs. Towne, you can me Kathy though. I just want to say how extrodinary and brave you all are for coming here, and coming here is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strenght." Mrs. Towne smiled and looked at all the children with a look of pity, Austin immediately hated this woman. "So we're going to start off this meeting by introducing ourselves, and then we'll have a breif discussion okay? Can you start young man?" Mrs.Towne pointed at Austin who sat up straighter and cleared his throught, looking nervously at the group, the fact that most of them were looking at anything but him was reassuring.

        "Um, I'm Austin Jones."

        "Nice to meet you Austin," Mrs. Towne smiled, she turned to face the next girl who still did not acknowledge that anyone was in the room with her. "Miss, hey!"

        The girl's head shot up and she looked around confused for a moment then looked at Mrs. Towne.

        "We're introducing ourselves, I'm Kathy Towne, that is Austin Jones, now it's your turn." Mrs. Towne explained.

        "Oh, well I'm Lois Cooper," she said then went immediately back to her book. Around the room it went, Steven Wayne, Diana Nichols, Bruce Queen, Wally Watson and so on and so forth. Wall flower after wall flower and the more Austin sat here the more he regretted not just ditching and going to play some basketball with his friends.

        "Well it's good to meet all of you, now we're going to start a brief get to know you game, okay?" Mrs. Towne smiled and looked around at the blank, unamused faces. "So this is how it goes, you'll all stand up and hold up ten fingers, I'll say something I've never done and if you've done it you put a finger down and say something you've never done, last one to have fingers left up wins, sound fun?"

        Austin felt bad for the lady she seemed pretty enthusiastic about this whole thing but no one was buying it. Everyone stood, everyone mumbled things they'd never done. Lois hadn't been to Mexico, Austin hadn't been hiking, Steven had never been invited to a birthday party and so the sad list went on. By the end of the game even Mrs. Towne looked a little depressed, while she had never seen Mount Everest in person, Diana had never seen her parents.

        "Okay everyone, good game." Mrs.Towne said half heatedly.

        "Can we go now?" Steven asked, "I have to go to work."

        "Um, yeah, if you want, next session is Tuesday same time same place, I hope to see you all here again and bring five items that describe who you are."

        Everyone stood and one by one they left the room, Austin hoped he'd never have to come again, it was a stupid program. As he walked down the quiet empty hallway towards the door a voice called out to him.

        "Hey! Hey, Austin!" Austin turned to see Lois coming down the hall.

        "Yeah?" He asked confused.

        "Have you had chocolate butterscotch chip cake from scratch?"

        "No... you know, the game ended."

        "Yeah, yeah, I just wanted to know if you wanted to try some, my grandma is cooking some and I---" Lois stopped talking and laughed under breath and shook her head. "Sorry, I forgot your rich, I'm not, sorry to bother you." Lois started to turn, Austin was confused a minute until he realized the face he was making, one of confusion and humor. She must've thought he was laughing at her.

        "Wait!" Austin yelled, Lois stopped and turned around. "Are you inviting me over?"

        "Well yeah, that is, if you want cake."

        "I like cake, wait here, I have to go ditch my mom."

        "Okay." Lois smiled, and Austin ran out to tell his mom he was going home with a new friend her made.