My Team

Today is a Tuesday. For the previous fifteen years of my life, Tuesdays were pretty lucky. We either had lab or physical Ed or extra-curricular activities. But this year, Tuesday is the worst day in the whole week.

You see every single thing has its ups and its downs. But there are some things which give you a slight advantage and later come and sit on your head like a baby turkey pretending to be a pet sparrow. One such thing is being the teacher’s pet. Teachers’ pets get extra attention during doubt clarification, they get nice comments for no particular reason (believe me that’s the truth) and they actually listen to you (that’s completely awesome).

But once you’re in high school somehow the teachers decide that their pets are the only responsible people in the whole school and pick the selected student council members without the kids consent. Now that actually hit me hard. A friend of mine who wanted to stand for the elections so bad, but they found a senior and told him that it’s not possible. 

Teachers are also very mysterious. They come and go like slushy flavours. We know nothing about them but we feel like we know everything about them. They give no reason to why they have come to teach us but also leave without giving a reason. But getting back to student council.

Right, so if you haven’t figured, I am the unlucky pet and the deputy disciplinary in charge of the school and an asset of the student council.

My life has been very stable. I’ve lived in the same house for my entire life, stayed in this school for 9 years and have my childhood buddies in my class. But out of all the student councils I’ve seen and all those I remember, I think that this one……. is the worst.

Woah! My thoughts in the hallway are so amazing. I cannot believe I came up with that and here I’m at the door to hell. Creak. I opened the old math lab ‘Is crazy Pete there? He’s always on time isn’t he? Of course he’s there! Doesn’t have anything else to do. Now I have to make a convo or it’ll get super awkward.’

“Hey Peter. Any idea what today’s discussion is about?” I said giving my hand.

“No idea. And we still haven’t settled on an idea for the science expo dates. And the captain was called to the staff room last class, must be something new. But I’m pretty sure we won’t accomplish anything today.” He said as we shook hands. Dead fish. Completely fits his personality. It’s funny how he was elected the head of sports. He pretty much does nothing but run in the field and doodle in his notebook.

I went and took my seat. Perfectly at 3:32, Anita the vice president entered with her drawing book in hand. It’s amazing how she manages to enter the room at the same time at every meeting. I think in the whole council, she is the only one I don’t have anything against. And it’s not like I go around picking fights with everyone I see, I would but it’s too tiring you know. Then everyone comes in a disorderly manner for the next three minutes. The captain (only for the council) came seconds before the meeting began.

But when you have people who come early and people who come on time you always have that one person (or a buncha kids) who come late for everything. From a funeral to a marriage, for church and for meetings. We had one too.

And amid all this noise and serious air my junior and my only friend in the whole council… George the late comer! Sorry the cultural in charge (He wasn’t elected. The dance and music teachers set him up). “Sorry for being a minute late.” He said.

“No problem. Even I just got here. Well now that everyone’s here… today we get to…… decide the place to camp!!!!!!”

Everyone jumped with excitement. We were screaming and roaring with joy. I was also very eager to know the place before all my friends and imagined how I’d keep them guessing at that vague clue I’d given them. But suddenly I realised that this was never going to happen. Our council…. It …. It isn’t a team. It’s just a bunch of people with independent thoughts, just hanging there, waiting for this year to end. It’s not that we don’t have leadership qualities; we just don’t balance the soup you know? This thought probably hit everyone in that room; like the bitter aftertaste of instant coffee. We all know what happens each and every Tuesday. We never compromise and keep telling our own opinion. Over and over again. We don’t listen to each other nor will we let them say anything.

“But…. We have a distance limit of 10 miles.” Nobody responded.

“Okay. But before we begin this discussion can we conclude the previous one?”

Who said that? Ohhh no! It was me! How on earth did it get out?

Then all of them raised hands and like every single time, this time too without knowing what started this verbal argument between the 7 people in the room we started shouting.

“I think I’ve made my point...”

“That is NOT possible. I hope that’s clear.”

“Come on people it’s just the date!!”

“Why can’t you agree it’s not the end of the world?”

“Oh shut up! You’re acting like it’s the end of the world!”

“Can’t we meet halfway? We can do that, can’t we?”

Among all these overlapping voices and the tiredness from a whole day of school

“Come on you people can do better. I don’t give a damn. This happens every single Tuesday. EVERY DAMN TUESDAY!!! You people are making me hate Tuesdays. Irresponsible normies. I’ve had enough! Goodbye. And if you can’t take such small decisions at this age think about when you’re older and just don’t let the students down. They have high hopes you know?”

I stormed out of the room. I don’t know why people tell that they can’t sleep well after a quarrel or a bad day, but I slept like a baby that night.

The next morning I got a text message from the council’s group.

Captain: meeting before the assembly today. Assemble in the art room.

Anita: aye

Pete: aye

George: aye

Dan (senior): aye

Samantha: aye

Me: aye

That’s the only thing we all agreed to from a long time.

I woke up a little late so; I walked directly to the art room. And the things that happened there….. Man were they expected!

Captain came up with a whole speech. Even though it sounded like something kids would sell for a dollar, there was something that I liked about. “The thing is … I don’t want us to be like ‘oh! Just another student council!’ I want us to be, ‘oh! You talking about that bunch of friends’.

So before we look at our posts and all the decisions we have to make… and our opinions…. I want us to be friends because we are colleagues only at work and just so you know I am ready to compromise, I’m ready to listen and don’t call me captain just… call me by my name.”

And I clapped. I actually appreciated that. The girls were in tears. I was almost crying.

Then we sat down and decided the dates for the expo based on our lucky numbers and keeping in mind the time needed for prep, and actually settled on the 16^th of next month.

Then we decided the location based on what our classmates sent on our groups and settled on a nice comfy place none of us had ever gone to and chatted for 15 mins. It’s like we were not the same people we were yesterday. Somehow we were a team, a team with a common vision. To do their best ; and to carve their names in history. After that Tuesdays were the best. We’d walk home together, have sleep overs and parties if we did something no student council had ever done before.

And somehow everyone we know and the ones we don’t know wanted us to stand again, for the elections. I mean not that I was surprised… from the third week of school to the three weeks left for school it was pretty evident that … this team was the best this school ever had.