After Moldi High came under the radar of the Department of Education because of the rumors that said they were discouraging non-academic activities, a new rule was made. According to it, all kids had to be enrolled in a club if they wanted to graduate high school.
After that, Moldi high went to the devil.
Kids formed clubs like crazy. For every subject under the moon there was a club. There was a Clownology club where they studied clowns, the Ethical Hacking Club, the Dodo Bird Extinction Study Group etc..
But there were a bunch of high schoolers who just wanted to stay at home after school, so the new rule did not sit well with them.
They tried forming the Go Home Club but were immediately rejected.
So some of them came up with the 'Stare Into Lake Keeva' Club. They claimed they wanted to appreciate the beauty of the lake.
They even paraphrased Nietzche: /You stare long into the lake and the lake begins to stare back at you.. /
The lake was long and the school had a tough time figuring out at what point of the lake the dudes were standing and appreciating its beauty.
And during those difficult times, the person who was rumoured to be the laziest person in all of first year,his highness Heron Berthy, formed the Ghost club. Heron Berthy was that kid who never caught your eye, even if he were your desk mate or neighbour. His black hair grew a little below his ears and his bangs almost covered his eyes, not because he had fashionably maintained it that way but because he was too lazy to maintain it in any manner whatsoever. His mission in life was to graduate without any major events and live life without any major effort. No one knew of his existence till he decided to form the Ghost club.
'For the appreciation and study of ghosts in real life and fiction',read the application form.
He got approval and there were many members who went into the club room and could do whatever they pleased. Only they shouldn't disturb Heron Berthy, who had made a set up with soft jazz and perfect lighting for indulging in his primary hobby, which was sleeping...
And it was all good, until… Heron Berthy had to recruit new first years for the club next year. If he had only read the application forms carefully…
One particular girl had written:
Quote: 'I can see ghosts for real so I hope to be useful for your club, I promise to work hard...'
Poor Berthy had accepted all new members and realised with some horror later that one of them could actually see ghosts because of some crazy gene that ran in her family... Her name was Gara Shimlee and because of her and her friends, Heron Berthy's peaceful high school days came to an end..
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Present day
Noon break.
Ghost club room
Shimlee: "Senior Berthy, my friend would like to join our club..."
Berthy woke up from his slumber and looked at the new girl.
Berthy:"Can she see ghosts too?"
Shimlee:" No.."
Berthy:"Then it's alright."
Berthy signed the application form without looking at the name.
Shimlee: "Thank you Berthy."
He took another look at the new girl. Her face seemed familiar..Black hair, with a little sky blue in it.. . wait a minute...
Berthy: "What's your name again?"
Keiro:"Jan Keiro"
Berthy: "Wait, are you that Jan Keiro who got suspended from the newspaper club for publishing articles that defamed the student's Council?"
Keiro: "Yes, that would be me..."
I see… No other clubs would take her in because falling out with the Student's council was a bad idea, thought Berthy.
He lay back on the couch which was exclusively reserved for his "club activities".
"Don't make any trouble here..." he said before going back to sleep.
Shimlee went out of the clubroom with Keiro. Gara Shimlee as she was called, was that girl in class who could see ghosts. Wait! Under ordinary circumstance there should not be such a girl around! But Keiro had taken it as a normal thing because her long haired purple eyed friend Shimlee, had been with her since middle school. Keiro, who was from the countryside had innocently thought that it was one of those new things that one came across after childhood. But she later came to know that seeing Ghosts was indeed a matter that was generally not deemed natural. And the truth was that Shimlee was isolated without a social life till Jan Keiro had shown up.
Now the two friends walked hand in hand in the school corridor.
Shimlee: "Told you Berthy was a nice guy."
Keiro: "You mean he's too lazy to care? So what exactly do we do in the club?"
Shimlee: "We take cases."
Keiro: "Ghost cases?"
Keiro knew how Shimlee could see ghosts. That was the weird thing about her best friend's family. According to Keiro, every family had one weird thing which they inherited without question.
In Keiro's family, it was the love for the color sky blue. Everything from their house to their refrigerator was painted sky blue. All of Keiro's clothes and shoes were sky blue.
When she was seven she saw her grandfather's old photo in which his hair was dyed a light sky blue. She remembered saying,
"How disgusting!"
But when she turned sixteen, Keiro dyed a lock of her short black hair sky blue and thought it looked perfect.
If not for that one thing, she looked pretty cute. A guy in the fire extinguisher club had even confessed to her... But Keiro had to reject him.
Because, during that time, Keiro had a crush already. Keiro was always crushing on someone... she changed her crushes too quickly. This was the one weakness she had which did not run in her family.
Shimlee: "It's just puberty..."
Keiro: "What?"
Shimlee: "You're thinking about your crush aren't you?"
Keiro: "My crush..."
Keiro thought about her latest crush, that new red haired guy in the basketball club… She'd forgotten to ask his name...
But lately she had been thinking about one other guy, not because she had a crush on him, but more like she wanted to crush him into paste...
His name was Matt Moncee, the student council president who was unnecessarily handsome and popular. He was the school's sweet heart and the teachers' pet.
Keiro had found out that Moncee was a wolf in sheep's clothes. She wanted the world to find out the truth about him. Alas, she had messed with the wrong guy and had got suspended from her school newspaper club. But that's a story for another day.
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Present day
Year 1 Class C
After noon math class.
Keiro leaned forward in her chair and whispered to Marsha, her friend from the newspaper club.
Keiro: "What's happening?"
Marsha: "Nothing."
Keiro: "French fries at five."
Marsha: "The school beauty, May Rusa joined the basketball club as manager."
Keiro put her pen down.
It could be that May Rusa is into basketball. That must be it... We should not suspect innocent people.
Keiro: "Why did the previous manager quit?"
Marsha: "He apparently saw something like a ghost while cleaning the court.".
Keiro looked at Shimlee who was also listening to them. Shimlee nodded her head.
Shimlee: "Looks like we have a new case for our Ghost club!"