The Queen’s task was nothing impossible, but I still needed a suitable excuse to gather everyone. And to make Tomo-chan drag herself into our club activity. If she becomes a part of the club, then the Queen and Tomo-chan would become friends, and I would no longer have to hear my BFF’s complaints.

The excuse itself was easy to find. It was both convenient, beneficial to us all, and was a nice way to bond.

“That is why we are doing this now…?” Tomo-chan whined and went limp in a chair.

“Am I not a genius~?” I smiled.

“Yeah, Minohara-sempai surely is…” Yasuda-san was nervously looking around at a dozen new faces that I gathered in an ice cream café we scouted with Tomo-chan not long ago.

“Genius, dammit… If only your genius was about being a socialite, not about having us do the summer homework in the second week of June…” (T)

“Toshiba-san, from what I heard you’d do it only in September. During the lessons.” One of our new members, a very inconspicuous blonde, was diligently mentoring the freshmen.

“Jeez, I’d never think Yuki-chan and Minami-san would be the only ones in the entire school to finish the summer hell in the first week.” (T)

“That is why we never get the ‘privilege’ of being lectured by the angry teachers. Speaking of which…” Tomo-chan avoided eye contact, and obediently continued writing.

“Well, Toshiba-san is right in her own way. This grave seriousness is not what I expected.” (M)

“You learn to expect this from our acting President.” (T)

Only the newcomers were staying silent about what was happening. While I was trying hard to recreate the studying session we had with the Queen, I ended up recreating a library and its silence.

“No matter how much that person creeps me out, in times like this I feel like even that person is better. No offense, Yuki-chan.” (T)

“Minohara-san outdid herself. Usually the Council meeting are in even graver silence. At least right now she lets us… I take my words back, this glare is worse than when the disciplinary committee sees us all dolled up.” (M)

“Am I this bad…?”

Everybody nodded. Even Yasuda siblings.

“Fine, let’s finish at least one su… … FINE, we’re finishing. All, except for Toshiba-san.”

“WAT?!” Tomo-chan sat down immediately, after a waitress sent her gaze meaning ‘dear customer, you are bothering the other customers’.

“You’d never start doing this on your own.”

“That’s mean!” Before she continued, I put a huge nail into the coffin of her resistance.

“Not to mention you didn’t join the club, so you are trapped here as the one who genuinely tries to avoid the supplementary classes. You do want to avoid them, right?” Neither I, nor Minami-san told her that we have no way of enlisting her now that the vacations have started. But nobody would want to help Tomo-chan right now.

‘This isn’t fair…!’ She grumbled, but she continued writing at least something.

Meanwhile, the newcomers finally livened up.

“Ok, I get it that the studying session was a failure. How about we just try to get along then? Does anybody want to tell a story? … Anybody…?

Erhm…

How about we play chess…? No…?

Erhm…

So…”

“I wonder if Yuki-chan is the only one who will be trying without a direct order from Her Queenship?” (T)

I looked at the now-senior members. Yasuda-san was hiding herself behind the menu, while Yasuda-kun pretended to be meditating. Only Fukuda-kun was thinking about what can be done.

“So, ‘sempais’, do you have any ideas~?” Minami-san was looking at the other three members, and it was becoming more and more evident that today’s meeting was a complete failure.

“Captain goes down with his ship. Alright, people, how about we all grab an ice cream and go to karaoke? Hey, Minami-san, can we use your club card?”

“You ask~?” She grinned.

“Let’s do it then. Toshiba-san, don’t even try slipping away. Either you do it my way, or I will pay you a visit.”

“He-he-he, the parents are in Tokio, so you ain’t catching me~.” (T)

“I may not catch you, but I have their phone number and a spare key.”

Tomo-chan had to continue writing, even though she really wanted not to do it.