“Last month, we asked you guys to submit your nominees for our Memorable Students contest,” Emily said, smiling into the camera. “We’ve counted up the votes, and we would like to announce the winners.”

Ophelia referred to her papers briefly, and said, “For the category of Most Likely to Succeed, there was a tie. With forty percent of the votes each, the winners are Maya Smith and Sara Lowry.”

“I hear they’re competing to be valedictorian,” Emily remarked. “It’s going to be really close.”

“For the category of Most Attractive Guy,” Tiffani announced, “the winner is Lyle Robbins.” She glanced down at her paper, frowned a bit, and continued, “The winner for Most Attractive Girl is Sherrie Aldrich.”

“In the category for Best Sense of Humor,” Ophelia announced, “the winner is our very own AJ Desjardin.”

“Nice job,” Emily remarked, grinning at her brother. “For the category of Most Creative, the winner is Ophelia Foley.”

“Seriously?” Ophelia asked, surprised. “You’re lying.”

“Nope. Look,” Emily said, passing Ophelia the list she was using.

“For the category of Nicest Person, the winner is Emily Desjardin,” Tiffani announced, over their conversation.

“Seriously?” Emily exclaimed.

“YES!” Ophelia and Tiffani replied simultaneously.

“For the category of Most Organized,” AJ said, reading the list, “the winner is Louie Rivers, our camera operator.”

“Awesome!” Louie replied.

“And the winner of…”


“That was a good show we did, I think,” Emily remarked.

“Yeah, it went pretty well,” Ophelia replied, tapping a pencil on the table. “I just didn’t expect any of us to win in any of the categories.”

As usual, the Clique News Crash team was spending their lunchtime in Ms. Gibson’s classroom, discussing their show and working on ideas for new shows.

“It’s kind of weird to think that soon, we’ll be graduating and attending college,” AJ remarked.

“I’m looking forward to getting away from this place,” Emily said. “I can’t wait to start college.”

“That reminds me, have you been accepted to any of them yet?” Tiffani asked.

“Well, I got offers from Harvard, Yale, Cambridge… you get the idea,” Emily began. “But I finally made my choice, and I got my letter of acceptance the other day.”

“Where are you going to go?” Ophelia asked.

“North Oakdale.”

Everyone stared in amazement at her. “You know,” Louie finally said, “if this had been an anime, we would have all done a facefault.”

“Yeah,” Ms. Gibson remarked, joining the conversation. “You’re a very smart girl, Emily. Why are you limiting yourself?”

“I want to stay local, and North Oakdale has a good program for what I plan to major in,” Emily explained.

“And what do you plan on majoring in?” Tiffani asked. “Not general studies, I hope.”

“I’m not the type to go for a M. R. S. degree,” Emily responded, rolling her eyes. “I’ll tell you guys when the time is right.”

“Well, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, then,” Ophelia said. “I’m going to North Oakdale, also.”

“Awesome! Maybe we can sign up to be roomies!”

“Well, in that case, you’ll be seeing a lot of me,” AJ replied. “I’m also going to North Oakdale, and I’ll be sure to drop in on you two a lot.”

“Just to see Ophelia, I bet,” Emily muttered. AJ lightly kicked her under the table, in response.

“What about you guys?” Ophelia said to Louie and Tiffani.

“The state college,” Tiffani replied.

“Yeah, I hear it’s a fountain of knowledge where everyone goes to drink,” Ophelia quipped.

“I’m not going there to party,” Tiffani said defensively. “What about you, Louie?”

“North Oakdale,” he replied.

“Maybe you and AJ should be roomies,” Ms. Gibson suggested.

“Wouldn’t work. They’d drive each other nuts,” Emily spoke up. “AJ’s probably going to show up at his first final hungover.”

“No, I’m not,” AJ replied. “The last final.”

“Sure, that makes it so much better,” Ophelia said, rolling her eyes.

A timid rapping at the door silenced them all. The group stared quietly at the door, waiting to see what would happen.


“Do I have to do everything around here?” Ms. Gibson grumbled. She rose from her seat and walked over to the door, then opened it. Standing in the hallway, looking quite humbled, was Angela.

“Uh… hi,” she said quietly.

“Yes?” Ms. Gibson asked. “Can we help you?”

“Um… can I talk to you guys?” she asked, peeking into the room at the others.

“Sure, I guess,” Ms. Gibson responded. “Take a seat.” Angela nodded and walked slowly into the classroom, but did not sit down. Ms. Gibson smiled knowingly and shut the door, then returned to her seat.

“So, what do you want?” Ophelia asked.

Angela took a deep breath and began, “I’m sure by now that you’ve all heard what happened with the cheerleading squad.”

“Some dissention among the ranks,” Tiffani said quietly. “A younger sister of one of the current members wanted to join.”

“Yes, and so, they kicked me out to make a place for her.”

“And what do you expect us to do about it?” AJ asked.

Angela bit her lip and looked down at the table. “I’d like…” she said quietly. “I’d like to be part of your group again.”

“We’ve already got a new camera operator,” Tiffani said, indicating Louie.

“Isn’t there anything I could do? Anything?”


Ophelia sighed and said, “You need to give us some time to discuss this. Come by tomorrow, and we should have an answer for you.” The others nodded in agreement.

“That’s fine,” Angela finally said, nodding. She began to head to the door. “Thank you for listening,” she said, nodding to the others. She quietly exited the room and shut the door behind her. As she walked away, she smiled and whispered to herself, “Step one has been accomplished.”