Newsworthy (Chapter 2)

The first newspaper meeting had been an introduction. Now was the first official meeting, and the Editor-in-Chief, Darren, was making sure things were perfect and precise.
“Deadlines are very important,” he told them as they sat in their Tuesday afternoon meeting. The room, filled with Mac computers, was also brimming with students. Their newspaper, The Excelsior, had close to thirty staff members. About 20 had dropped off from the first meeting.

“There's a specific time everything must be in to the printers, so we have to be exact on our deadlines,” Darren continued. He was only 5'6 but his voice was strict and authoritative. Not to mention, he looked every person in the eye as he spoke. “If your article is not in before the deadline, it won't be in the issue. Instead an alternate article will take your place.”
Darren went over the rule about missing three meetings. Basically it meant you were out, with no exceptions. “Excelsior needs dedication,” He told them, settling his eyes on Julissa. “We're looking for another prize in journalism.”
After he talked a little more about dedication. He opened the floor to questions. No one asked any. When Julissa looked around, everyone seemed basically terrified except for Sue - she'd been there the year before when Darren took over, and the three years before that.
Darren broke the silence. “Well let's talk about some story ideas shall we."
Now everyone was clamoring to throw out their story ideas. There was “Cheerleaders and Coke”, “Teen Boob Jobs”, “Mystery Meat or Human Excrement”, and even more outrageous stories than these. Julissa suggested “Bathroom Booty Calls” and Darren frowned. “We already did something about the makeouts in the bathroom. Sorry Julie.”
“Julissa,” she corrected quietly.
“That's okay,” Sue assured. “You deserve a real story anyway.” Sue was the only one who hadn't said anything so far, and she seemed like she wasn't going to. So far she'd just sat there quietly, listening to all the sensational stories and rolling her eyes. Sue didn't seem impressed at all.
Julissa liked Sue. They'd hit it off immediately at the first meeting and usually sat together at lunch. Unlike the year before when she'd just quietly sat by herself, she enjoyed having the company of someone else. She and Sue made up the minority faction of the paper and the school. Sue was probably the only Chinese girl she saw at school, even though she was sure there were more Asians – or at least that's what the statistics had said.
Maybe Sue was right though. She had just pitched the story idea because Darren made such a big deal about writing big stories that got readers. Even now, he'd chosen two stories about “Sexting” and one with the title “Pot, Porn and PE Class”. Sue literally looked like she was about to gag. “Wait until he gets to his coveted Gossip girl,” she told Julissa.
The gossip girl she was referring to was Nancy – the one responsible for the tabloid-y gossip column the paper wrote. She sat right beside Darren. He didn't even ask her what she was working on. She told him what she was writing and he moved on without scrutinizing anything she said. There was clearly favoritism there.
“I'm going to need several volunteers for a big story we want to work on,” he announced, as their hour meeting was drawing to a close.

Julissa was expecting several eager individuals' hands to go up, but instead there were none. She realized it was because she was the one of the three people in the room who didn't have a story idea. So, she raised her hand, and the other member followed. Sue was now the lone one without even a story assigned to research.
“The first part will involve attending Friday's game.” Darren said, “That's right, I want you to do a little investigative journalism.” He was looking directly at Julissa as if he was expecting her to object, but all she could think about suddenly was Calvin.

It had only been a day since they'd spoken in her kitchen. He'd said their game was on Friday. Now she had to be there just when she was finally getting him out of her thoughts. “Julie, can you stay after the game a little while?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Julissa answered without correcting him on her name. Darren gave her a curious look before filling her, and the other kid working on the story, in on the details. Apparently they were to pay close attention to the dealings of the teachers and athletes at the game. How and why they were going to do that was beyond Julissa. All she knew was there must have been something scandalous in the works, and whether it actually existed didn't matter to the Excelsior. Julissa was getting an uneasy feeling. She understood where Sue was coming from now.

“He's one of the most annoying people I know, Julissa.”
She and Sue were standing in the virtually empty hallway after the meeting. It was late – about 4 now, and no one but the students who were in the clubs were there.
Julissa loaded her books from her locker into her book bag. “Has he always been so strict?” She asked Sue.
Sue leaned on the locker next to Julissa.
“Yes,” Sue answered. “He's always been annoying. He's always been an overbearing jerk who encourages these crazy fabricated stories.” Sue sounded like she might breathe fire any instant.
Julissa slid her backpack over her denim jacket and turned to face her. “Why are you still on the paper?” She asked Sue, genuinely interested as to why she put up with it when her hatred seemed so deep-seated.
“Because I'm the one person who still cares about our prestige,” Sue answered. Her angered expression softened to a wistful one.
“Don't you still have to run your stories by Darren?” Julissa asked, still confused.
“We've argued so much over stories that he let's me do my own thing,” Sue replied, checking inside her locker, before turning back to Julissa. “Besides, I won two journalism awards for my writing. He has zero.”
Julissa laughed. How he managed to be Editor-in-Chief somehow was baffling to Julissa. Suddenly she wasn't so sure about what this prestigious paper had sold her on when he was recruiting her and when he'd introduced the club was so good.
“I guess I'm going to the game on Friday,” Julissa said with a little smirk, hearing the thunderous sound of footsteps echoing in the hallway. She and Sue stood with flat backs against their lockers as she watched the crowd of husky teenaged boys approach. Immediately Julissa noticed one of them was Calvin. He was dressed in a white t-shirt, loose fitting sweats, and black sneakers. A hefty duffle bag was across his body.

Julissa wanted to turn to face her locker, but somehow she stood frozen in place. Thanks to them being the only ones on their end of the hallway, she had no way to blend in.
“Hey Julissa,” he said. He had slowed a little to say hello and smile. Then he picked up the pace to keep with the others running in front of him. Julissa realized she hadn't even spoken in return.
“You friends with him,” Sue coolly asked, walking now in the direction of the exit.
“No, I just met him yesterday, actually.”
Sue looked at her with interested eyes, and a impish grin. “He's hot.” She said it so matter-of-factly that Julissa just laughed. “Not you too,” Julissa said teasingly, referring - of course - to the droves of teenaged girls pining for him.
“I'm just keeping it real,” Sue shrugged. They came out of the front door of the school and Sue offered to drop her off at home. Julissa decided she take her up on it, she could use the company.

She had told herself she wouldn't get too attached to anyone before college in the fall, but here was Sue – and she was cool – worthy of her friendship.