IV: Origami club

"—the kind of club that it is," finished Skip, who was standing up and gesturing to a whiteboard where he had written nothing but "Need Funding".

"But it can't even be a club if we don't have more than six members," said Sunny in a monotone, from where he simultaneously had a book open about the Egyptian judicial system.

"Well, true," said Skip, nodding thoughtfully, and ignoring the fact that Sunny was reading at the other end of the table. "So should we just hold off on deciding what kind of club it is until we have enough members?"

"What if we just practice something other than our major?" said Daisy, who was leaning back in his chair. "You know, just in the meanwhile. Something fun. I've always wanted to try origami."

"Well, it's not like anybody's major can be origami anyways," pointed out Sunny, underlining some passage in his book without looking up.

Daisy laughed.

"I love origami," said Skip. He had pulled out a handful of tiny paper airplanes from his pocket.

"I don't think anyone in Japan would say that's origami," said Sunny dryly. "Don't most third graders know how to fold those?"

Skip and Daisy ignored him. Sunny sighed loudly and returned to his book.

"Those are so cute," Daisy said delightedly, picking them up. He grabbed one made out of a purple sticky note, to match his bucket hat, and made a tiny "wheee" noise as he made it fly through the air.

Sunny looked at Daisy with instantaneous confusion, like a dog who hears a whistle from an unknown direction.

"I keep making them," said Skip, sounding sheepish again. "I don't know how to fold anything else, just planes. I get bored in class..."

"Why are they all in your pocket?" asked Daisy. He seemed fascinated by how many different sizes there were.

"Well I keep wanting to throw them away, but weirdly there's very few trash cans in the hallways... and I don't want to litter, so..."

"Yo, we should keep these in a jar or something," said Daisy. "They'd look cool. You're the leader of the club, aren't you? So they can be a symbol of our club."

Skip laughed. "A jar is better than my pocket, anyways."

"Did you know that everyone thinks that Egyptians invented paper, but it was actually China?" said Sunny suddenly, looking up.

Skip and Daisy looked at him.

"Bro, are you an encyclopedia or something?" Skip asked, but adding, "Clearly they've popularized ancient Egyptian achievements more than those of the ancient Chinese in the mainstream media."

"You're the encyclopedia," said Sunny, in protest. "I'm just reading."

Daisy laughed again, which seemed to make Sunny defensive. "I'm just reading," he said again, "What, can't people read?"

"I saw a museum exhibit about paper one time," said Skip. He had already pulled out his phone and was showing Daisy. "They had all these paper cutouts on strings just floating there. It's weird, looking at that kind of stuff makes the world seem like we're all just floating here suspended as well."

"Oof.. that's deep," said Daisy, rearranging his bucket hat. "That sounds like something you would say."

Skip again looked a bit self conscious, but laughed as well. "I just did."

"Do you go to museums when you skip class?" asked Daisy, "Just out of curiosity."

"Not really," said Skip, shrugging. "This was during break."

"Then when you skip class...?"

"You know, here and there. If there's something I want to see.. you know."

"Next time go recruit new members instead," said Sunny. "Some of us have to go to class, you know."

"That's another thing," said Skip, who was playing with an eraser that had been left on the table by the previous class that had used the classroom. He was picking it up and dropping it back on the table with increasing frequency as he stared, lost in thought, at a random spot on off to the right. "How do we recruit new members? Who wants to join a club with no governing principle?"

"I guess I did," said Daisy, "Maybe that's the governing principle? Can we get people interested in the intrigue and mystique of the club?"

"Uh.. I really hope you don't think there's going to be mystique in here," said Skip, laughing. "Is that what Sunny said to you?"

"I didn't say anything to him," said Sunny, again seemingly affronted by the idea that he would want to convince someone else to be in a club with him. "He just showed up."

"Brooo, you're hurting me, bro," said Daisy, making a pained expression and clutching his heart. "We gotta support each other's dreams."

"I don't do clubs, remember?" added Sunny. "I just came to see what was going on." He suddenly made a choked expression as Daisy had shot him with a finger gun from where he was sitting at Sunny's left. "Why are you shooting me with that..?"

"It's my love," said Daisy, "Stop being so cynical."

"The world is cold and we are all just players in the cosmic progression towards entropy," said Sunny, but he was trying not to smile. "You're not going to skip out on us, are you?" he added, squinting again, this time at Skip, whose face was in shadow since he was sitting in front of the window.

"I only skip class," said Skip. "This is definitely not class. Plus it's not like I could ever be bored, at this rate."

"Let's work hard," grinned Daisy. "Hey, you too, Sunny, huh?"

"What is life but work," came the reply. "Fine." He muttered something else that sounded vaguely like "...you people are so weird."

Skip laughed in spite of himself. "Three members is a good start."

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top