Skip started the club. He started the club because of the usual reason he started anything, which was boredom. This was also the reason he started skipping class. That was the reason people called him Skip.

"But so the reason I'm asking is because I wanted to start some kind of student organization."

"But you don't have a clear idea?" The teacher looked confused as she regarded him through glasses that looked as if they would come into style again the following year. He hoped privately she would keep them and wear them next year too, so that people would call her hip, if this was the case. Surely she had not heard the word "hip" recently. Well, she may have, considering the limp in her—

"Did you hear me?"

His thoughts jolted back to where he was supposed to be telling the teacher why he wanted to start a club in the first place.

"Well, you see, it depends on the members I'm able to recruit, because as a club we will most likely decide to pursue something one way or another." He thought he must have smiled a bit forcefully.

"You know, for someone as bright as you, I would think you'd want to focus on studying."

"I do focus on studying," he said pointedly. "There's really no other way I'd be first in the year without—"

The teacher sighed and momentarily flashed her gaze out the window into the hallway where students had started to gather before their next class.

"Well I suppose it's not as if you lack the academic integrity to start a —"

"Thank you very much, I'll work hard to make it a success," he replied earnestly.

"Remember, by next month you'll have to apply for additional funding if you want to continue, but you have to have more than six members to qualify for something other than a study group," the teacher warned. "At that point you'd better have a clear motive or you won't get anything from the school board. They like to see organized plans, you know."

"I understand."

"Are you going to miss your next class, too? What class is that, aren't you taking advanced history of music?"

"Yes."

"Yes that you're going to skip class or yes that it—" The teacher's raised eyebrow was interrupted by the quick look at the clock by the student in front of her.

"It may be both at this point," he said, looking for permission to leave.

"Very well, go then."

He hurried out the door into the hallway.