Chapter 3 - Extracurricular Demo

Amy becomes Debbie's first friend as well as her seatmate. A girl with a round, stocky body with chubby cheeks with thick minus lens glasses that is clearly visible. Amy has an appearance and posture that is quite a contrast to Debbie when they are side by side. Debbie has a fairly small but proportionate body posture. Because of her height, Debbie always stands in the front row at every formal ceremony.

"This week we have to choose what extracurricular to join, but I haven't made a choice yet." Extracurricular is an additional activity that is carried out outside of school hours. The school requires every student to attend at least one extracurricular at school.

"Me neither, but don't worry. Today the seniors will perform, demo their respective extracurricular activities in Malabar. Let's go together, okay?” Amy asked Debbie.

"Today? After school?" Debbie was impressed, where did Amy get this information from?

"Yeah... We'll go there together with other." Amy smiled innocently. 

That's right, wherever they go, public transportation that supports the location of the school in this remote place. The day on which the extracurricular activities are scheduled, the first grade must change locations from Ceremai to Malabar. The one and only public tranpsort became the school's personal charm because the special route only went from Ceremai to Malabar, and vice versa.

It's not an exaggeration if Debbie calls the location of her school a remote area, because the place is like a land in the middle of nowhere. Or they call it Penguin's Kingdom. Thanks to the separate building location from the main one, new students can adapt to the school environment quickly. Without having to pay attention to how they behave so as not to be marked and then become the target of senior class.

***

On this day, all school extracurricular activities held demonstrations to attract and recruit new members. What caught the most attention were the three top-ranked extracurriculars in the school. Namely Marching troops, Cross-red and Scouts. The third demo appearance of the extracurricular received the most lively reception. Each extracurricular has its own characteristics.

"Have you made your choice?" Ask Alfred.

"And you?" Harry even asked questions instead of answering.

"Yes, I have decided to enter marching." Alfred said confidently.

"Okay! Same then." Harry said that he did not make the wrong choice after knowing that their decision was one vote.

"Huh? Marching is only for tall people or,” Alfred doubted whether he would be accepted if he registered with his height.

Someone beside Debbie made a loud enough sound to catch attention. Because the thought was exactly like what crossed her mind so that she listened carefully to their conversation. From Debbie's observation, the pair of friends stood out because of the contrasting height difference. One was tall and slender and the other was opposite with another. Reminds her of the comedian duo from Japan 'Hanshin Kyojin'

"No problem. There are no rules or height restrictions, so we can still have one extracurricular." Grace joined Harry and Alfred's conversation.

"But my main goal is to enter the student council!" Once again Alfred spoke in a voice quite loud and also gave a firmness in his sentence. The noise around forced him to turn up the volume.

"Yes, I understand," Harry grabbed his friend's shoulder, looking down slightly to speak closer so that it could be heard clearly. Because the cheers and applause continued. “Student council and also marching troops. Okay?"

Grace smiled happily seeing the enthusiasm of two friends, her goal was the same as them, namely entering the student council and also marching.

"Student council?" A big target as Debbie thought when she heard the word. “Not just anyone can become the student council and―”

"Debbie? you hear me right?" Call Amy.

"Yes? Sorry?” she didn't hear what Amy was talking to her at all. Too absorb because listen to other people's conversations.

"What are you thinking?" Amy waved at Debbie's face. "I said, I've decided to join marching. How about you?"

Debbie didn't know what to answer. "Uh..." she hadn't made up mind at all.

“Why don't you pick marching too, we can be together. Yeah?" 

Debbie could only respond to Amy's request with an awkward smile because she still couldn't make a choice. If the school had extracurriculars or clubs that matched her interests, such as comic cafes, associations for reading manga and something like that. Too bad, it's just an impossible dream. In the end, Debbie joined the marching extracurricular because she was dragged by her seatmate, Amy.

From about 300 new students, more than 100 of them joined extracurricular marching troops. As expected from the warm reaction they received during the demo, their performance in a line-up managed to attract attention and recruit the most new members.

Some of the faces of Debbie's classmates could be found there but her only one close friend remained just Amy, for now. Debbie tends to have a quiet and passive character, it takes a long time for her to be comfortable with classmates.

"Is it still a long to over?" Debbie was getting impatient waiting for the extracurricular meeting to end.

"Why? you have any other plans? Should you hurry home?” Amy felt a little guilty because the extracurricular meeting went on longer than expected. 

The enthusiasm and high interest of the new members made it quite difficult for senior to organize and handle the inaugural meeting.

"Not really, but I wanted to stop by the comic cafe before go home." Debbie's face looks disappointed because the day did not go according to plan.

“Jeez… Guess what! didn't you just go there yesterday?" Amy still remembers exactly what Debbie said when refused an invitation to visit her house.

Debbie smiled. "Yeah, I've finished reading! Today I want to return and borrow some again."

Amy couldn't help but chuckle in surprise, trying to understand that her best friend, who was being targeted, could no longer be cured of her infatuation with personal hobbies. If she can tell. Instead of hanging out with other children, Debbie is more comfortable and prefers to be alone in a corner of the classroom reading manga. Her comic reading books are hundreds of times the number of school textbooks. The persistence of reading interest is unquestionable, unfortunately it is only limited to entertainment reading.

When she was obsessed with a story, Debbie did not hesitate to read manga in the middle of class lessons. In various ways to get around the teacher's attention so as not to get caught. The manga was never left in the school bag she always carried. As a friend, Amy thinks that as long as Debbie doesn't harm other people with her hobbies, then that is her freedom.

"If there is a comic cafe club or association that likes to read manga, you must be the chairman! I don't doubt it." Amy said very confidently.

"Obviously! That's for sure...” Debbie giggles happily served Amy's joke.