Project: Socialize

The next day after school, I waited outside the student council room for the meeting to commence. There were other students present as well, people who I believe to be the representatives from the other classes. They talked among themselves, occasionally checking their phone and laughing, probably because a friend or someone sent them something funny or something like that. Not like I would know what it is since I basically never receive messages. If you look in my phone, the only messages from humans you would find is from Loriana. Of course, we're not counting the angels.

It would appear that we're waiting for the student president to arrive to initiate the meeting, which helped explain why everyone was waiting outside. With nothing to do, I leaned against the wall and started browsing the internet using my phone. However, not too long after, I was interrupted by my two female companions to my right.

"Are you nervous?" Irina asked me with a smile on her face that exuded confidence. Of course it would. She's a celebrity and is probably used to all sorts of attention and human interactions. As for me... well... I'm not in the same situation.

"It's that girl," I heard a group of girls whispering to each other as they looked in our direction at Irina. They probably thought they were speaking at a volume only audible to them, but they totally misjudged my senses. However, Irina did appear to not have heard them.

"Just cause she's famous and sh*t she's been trying to seduce Wilus on the soccer team," they continued.

"What a b*tch," the other girl muttered. "Doesn't she know that Wilus is your boyfriend? Everybody knows that."

"You can't get sluts to change," the first girl shook her head and whispered in a mocking manner. "She probably slept with so many old men to get her position today. What a prostitute."

I heard their comments about Irina, and I looked at the girl before me. Irina appeared to not have heard a single word of what they've said, so I decided that she didn't need to know about it. Like if they're not doing anything to harm her, then it doesn't warrant action. Besides, even if they try and ruin her reputation, that's just impossible considering the mass fan following she has.

"Somewhat," I responded, tossing what the girls were talking about out of my mind. In all honesty, I was somewhat nervous. I've never attended any events like this one so I'm not sure what to expect at all.

"You don't seem like the type that would care what others think of you," Muria commented as she crossed her arms.

"I don't care," I sighed, slipping my phone in my pockets, "but that doesn't mean I don't get nervous."

"You shouldn't be," Irina smiled as she took out her phone.

"The reason being?" I asked, looking at her with a look of inquisition.

"I did not know," I responded with a sarcastic tone in my voice. "How would I know something that's only for girls?"

"Well that's not the point." She scrolled through her phone, probably looking for something, before she showed me the screen.

I leaned in her direction to view the contents that was displayed on her phone.

Best Appearance Ranking

"What the hell is this?" I looked up over the phone's screen and at Irina.

"It's an appearance ranking," Irina responded. "Apparently, the rankings are done based on votes by the female students at our school."

"Okay..." I nodded. "That's kinda creepy, like what if the guys were to do something like this? What would you girls think?"

"That... that would be kinda weird and disturbing," Irina awkwardly laughed as she imagined what I had said. "But that's not the point. The main point is—" she started scrolling down slightly. "—you're ranked number three in the entire school for appearance."

"What?" I stared at her and Muria with a blank look in my eyes. "People actually know what I look like?"

"Yeah," Irina continued as she pressed on something on the screen and pulled up the description and comments. "It says here that you're ranked three because you have a calm and collected exterior along with an aura of loneliness. And that the look of sadness and melancholy in your eyes is one of your main aspects."

"Wow..." It felt weird being judged by people you've never talked to before, but... since I'm ranked third, maybe that can be forgiven.

"A bunch of girls also commented that your appearance is their type," Irina then continued.

"How surprising," Muria exclaimed.

"I wouldn't say that," Irina looked over her shoulder at the girl behind her. "Alevian is pretty handsome looking."

"Well maybe that," she then chuckled and smirked. "Look in the Best Boyfriend Material ranking."

"Hold on." Irina began navigating the website by pressing the on screen prompts with her fingers.

"They have a ranking for that?" I exclaimed in surprise and astonishment. My corpse-like eyes were wide open and maybe my mouth was gaping slightly too. I couldn't tell because I was too busy being shocked by what girls could do.

"Where's Alevian now..." Irina began scrolling down. "There you go, number seventy-eight."

"That's surprisingly high," I commented. I was able to regain my composure with this ranking, but only slightly because, in my opinion, the girls still ranked me kinda high. Like why would they think I would be a decent boyfriend?

"It says here in the explanation that since you're so reluctant to socialize with others, there's no need to worry about cheating. In addition, they say that for someone who's extremely cold to everything in the world, once their heart warms up to you, they'll be extremely loving and spoil their lover with love."

"That sounds disgusting," Muria commented.

"I actually agree with you this time," I sighed.

"Is it?" Irina blushed somewhat and darted her eyes between Muria and I in panic. "I think it's quite romantic."

"No," I shook my head. "That's not me."

"Alevian is the type that wants to be spoiled with love, not the other way around," Muria calmly nodded her head as she explained.

"Correct," I nodded my head in agreement. In my motion, mixed in it was a hint of pride. Then, I suddenly stopped that motion and stared at Muria. "How did you know that?"

"It just felt like it," she smiled superciliously, which annoyed me greatly. However, I know that I wouldn't be able to do anything to her and expect to get away with it, so I suppressed that thought and merely sighed.

"So the type that gives love..." I heard Irina mutter something to herself but wasn't entirely sure what she meant. Even though she looked away from me, I could see that her face was red.

"What's that?" I then asked her, making sure that she wasn't talking to me.

"No, nothing," she turned to face me and awkwardly laughed, waving her hands before her to forbid me from pressing the topic even further. "I'm just talking to myself."

"Okay..."

I stared at her with a confused look in my eyes. As I stared at her, she looked away in order to avoid eye contact. Even then, her face was still red and her emotions still flustered. She occasionally darted her eyes back to check if I was done staring, but when our eyes would meet, she would then quickly look away once again. She was like a timid little animal, extremely nervous about something for some reason. I was unsure as to why she did that, and even when I tried to read her facial expression, I could not get back any reasonable explanation for her actions.

"Ah," she then said to distract me from that topic. "There's the student council president!"

She looked down the hallway and at the rapidly approaching student council president, a third year female student that walked with great authority, followed by members of the student council. Her light silver hair moved in the air as she walked, and on her face was a stern expression of confidence. She was quite beautiful in my standards, which come to think of it... most of the girl's I know are quite pretty. How weird is that?

"Sorry for the wait," she said to everybody waiting outside the student council room. "Let us enter and begin the meeting."

The first impression she gave me is that she's an empress. Her ice cold glare was that of an apex predator, one that knows nothing at this school will be able to threaten her. She spoke with great authority that rendered everyone else to the point that they behaved slavishly, everyone except me. She's at the top of the food chain, and she knows that. However, she must know that I'm not someone who'll submit that easily.

She looked around at everyone and then she met my eyes. She probably felt something different about me the reason being I wasn't entirely submissive at all. Rather, I stood tall with both hands in my pockets and just stared into her amber eyes with my corpse-like gaze. She met my gaze for a few seconds, but through these few seconds, I could tell that she didn't think much of me at all. It seemed that she didn't see me as much of a threat at all.

A student council member then unlocked the door to the student council room and opened the door. The student council president was the first to enter. She broke the tense standoff between us and turned to enter the room with the great elegance and authority of an empress that ruled all of the world. Maybe to her, I wasn't much of a threat, and that might be a good thing for me because then, I wouldn't need to worry about expectations laid onto me.

"She sure has a strong aura," Irina whispered as the three of us entered.

"Right," Muria nodded.

The student council room was situated in the secondary building, which meant that it was unlike a regular classroom. However, it was also unlike the club rooms due to its larger size. In the very center of the room were numerous rectangular tables, arranged in a manner that the tables formed a rectangular zero with an opening in the center. Each table sat a pair of representatives from each classroom with the student council members and the president sitting at the head of the arrangement in front of the white board they had rolled into the room. It seemed that Mura had explained to the student council regarding the situation of our classroom for there were three seats laid out for us on the table closest to the corner with the label 2-A, our classroom number. However, because each table was intended for two people, the three of us had to move our chairs quite close to each others, making it so that it was quite cramped at our area. The seating arrangement for us ended up with me sitting at the left, far away from the student council area, next to Irina and then Muria.

"Let us begin the meeting then," a male student that was the vice president of the student council got up from his seat and started directing the meeting. "Since today is the first official meeting, the plan is to explain the schedule and assign different jobs."

As he spoke, everyone else in the room listened attentively.

"The Nocsinis Imperial High School Festival, like the past, will be conducted over two days: Saturday and Sunday. It will be conducted next weekend. Therefore, we only have the rest of this week and next week." As he spoke, other members of the student council drew a simple calendar on the white board behind him. "So the plan is to give the students the entirety of the next week to prepare for their events. So our job this week is to calculate and distribute the necessary finances and take and judge the events the students submitted for review."