Drake made his way to go get breakfast before his mandatory meeting started. There was a joint slightly off campus that he wanted to check out. He figured he could’ve strung his brother along, but there wasn’t too much of a point. He enjoyed the stroll on the nice sunny day, catching the morning sun before enjoying his morning with a bagel and coffee. He sat at the café and thought about how trusting those professor ratings and word of mouth had gotten him into this predicament. Dropping the course seemed like the best option, but he also thought it would be way too hasty, even if he wouldn’t admit it. Shortly after enjoying his meal, he found himself running low on time and had to head back to campus.
After a brisk walk back to campus, Drake found himself at the meeting room that he was designated to be at was. He grumbled in his head about how stupid this entire thing was, even if it was supposed to be for easy marks. The class had trapped him – even if he was going to drop the course, which he was seriously considering, he still had to go to this first meeting to save himself from starting off on the wrong foot on the chance he stayed in it. He knew his brother would be trying to convince him to stay, now. It was some kind of karma that Drake found himself being persuaded to stay after he had to persuade Dakota to join the class in the first place.
Drake soon found himself in the classroom that the first meeting was located at, and wormed his way in. There were several students there, he quickly estimated about 60. The students seemed to by and large be clustered into groups of 3 or 4 people, standing in a circle talking to each other. Drake scanned the room and saw a few students who were very distinctly not Asian and gravitated himself towards them.
They watched him approach, and the woman standing in front of the two men behind her smiled and waved. She had a very friendly demeanor to her, her smile looking authentic. The two men behind her, a nerdy looking black man and a pudgy white guy, were watching him more observantly.
When Drake was within reasonable approach distance, she introduced herself cheerfully, “Hey! I’m Karen! Nice to meet you!” she said, her voice just as cheerful as her demeanor.
“Drake. We kind of stick out like sort thumbs, huh?” he asked, trying to break the ice.
The black man laughed, “Yeah. I think we’re all here for Professor Martinez’s class. The names Terrence,” he said, offering his hand out for a shake. Drake shook the man’s hand, surprised by his firm grip despite his weedy posture.
The chubby man spoke up, “Yeah, but at least we get the Asian Student Alliance! We can talk about things like anime!”
Drake grimaced as that phrase spoken a little too loudly attracted a few head turns. Drake wasn’t too enthusiastic about dealing with weeaboos, and while Drake was not happy to be here, he had enough common sense to not act like a moron to the group hosting them.
“Uh... right.” Said Terrence, his tone sharing the same vibe that Drake and Karen were obviously feeling. “You probably shouldn’t say that super loudly, Charlie.”
Charlie was completely unaware, as noted by his response, “Why? Literally the point of why we’re here is that Professor Martinez wants us to appreciate culture! I already do!”
Karen spoke up, her voice soothing over the awkward tension in the air from Charlie’s lack of subtlety. “Culture isn’t just anime, it goes far beyond that. Even so, anime is just a Japanese thing, there are multiple Asian students in this group.”
“I guess,” replied Charlie, not really happy with her answer but suddenly aware that he’d otherwise be causing a fuss. “Still, what do the group of “Asians” have in common? Why isn’t there a Japanese, or Chinese, or Korean alliance?”
Drake pondered the thought for a second, it was a good question. “Maybe shared identity under one label?” he spoke up, giving a textbook answer. Anything to get Charlie to stop talking about anime.
“I’m sure that we’ll be told that,” said Terrence, before appending a “Probably.” to the end of his sentence. Almost as if on cue, a Korean woman, definitely in her senior year, at the front of the room spoke into the podium microphone asking everyone to be seated to start the meeting. The group of four students here on account of Professor Martinez’s class sat along the back row together, while students hurried to sit down to listen to the well-dressed woman.
“Thanks, everyone.” she addressed after everyone had sat down in an organized fashion. “I appreciate that you’re all able to be here on such short notice for our first formal meeting. I especially appreciate the members of the kind Professor Martinez’s class to meet with us this morning right after being told of their term assignment.” she said, with a nod to the back.
Continuing on her monologue, she addressed a few things. “Most of you already know me, but to those who do not, I’m Sonya Kim, the president of the Asian Student Alliance. We’re a cultural group for Asian students, both those who have lived in this country for a long period of time and those students who moved here for college or are on exchange. We plan lots of events and are hoping that you can come to as many of them as you are able. We know that your studies are very important, but in college we should be able to balance having fun as well!”
Drake was a bit surprised, expecting the group to be more oriented towards studying hard and getting straight A’s. A passing through went through his head, maybe this course would be useful after all. He did know better that not all Asian people were cut from the same cloth, but he didn’t exactly know what they did as a group, especially one which didn’t seem very unified on the outside.
Sonya covered some additional matters such as the budget and some long term details about administration, and Drake found himself fazing out. These details were irrelevant to him as a guest member of sorts. He looked to his left and saw the other three people he was sitting by. Karen seemed to be eagerly paying attention, while Terrence looked like he was doing it to be polite. Charlie looked very obviously bored and huffy, not enjoying the details one bit of the society’s inner workings.
Drake starting paying attention again when Sonya introduced another of the society’s council: Han Pei. He quickly introduced himself as the chair of social events. “This week, we have quite a lot planned for everyone at the beginning of the semester! Tonight we have a karaoke event at the Five Fish Bar just north of campus, and tomorrow afternoon there’s a social for those of you who don’t have an overlap with class! The details will be posted on the Facebook page, which you should like to be able to keep up with events!”
He seemed so gleeful that it wasn’t even real, but his passion rang loud and clear through his voice. He talked a bit about surprise events for the rest of the week and a big ball night planned for later in the semester, and then gave Sonya the floor again. She talked very briefly about her experience with the Asian Student Alliance and how it helped her be more social after her first year as a shy student, and then dismissed the group with a thank you.
The room applauded, and Drake and the people in his row did as well, succumbing to peer pressure. While this was going on, Han made his way over to the row of students in the back row and introduced himself yet again.
“Hey guys! You must be the group here for Cultural Studies, yes?” he asked.
Karen piped up, “Yeah, that’s us!”.
“Great!” he exclaimed, pulling some papers out of his pocket and handing it to the students. “These are the course requirements for the society. It’s mostly attending our events, and while a lot of them are social, we’re hoping that you can also give us input once you’ve learned about our cultures somewhat. That’s why I’d like you to help us organize an end of term event after spending a few weeks with us.”
Charlie’s eyes lit up at this task. “That’s fantastic, Han! I think I already have an idea of wha-” he started, but was quickly spoken over by Terrence.
“I think it’s a group assignment, Charlie.” Said Terrence, both to address the point and prevent the pudgy man from embarrassing himself yet again.
“That’s right,” said Han. “We’re a very large group, so we have four new students from Professor Martinez’s class. Most others only get one. We have to accommodate that somehow into our group. Don’t worry about it too much though, just keep coming and have fun with it! I hope to see you all at karaoke tonight!” he exclaimed, as he headed out to talk with the rest of the council, leaving the group behind.
“Are you going to come tonight?” asked Terrence to the others.
“I think so,” said Karen. “It’s for credit, and sounds like it’ll be fun!”
“Fun? Hardly,” retorted Charlie. “I can’t sing and I don’t drink, this sounds horrible!”
Drake chuckled. “Middle road. I’m not super enthusiastic, but maybe we can fill our quotas at the beginning of the term and not have to go later when we’re busy as hell with other classes.”
This response got nods from the other students, even the reluctant Charlie.
“I guess we’ll meet up tonight, then?” asked Karen.
“Yeah, sure! See you there!” said Drake, before checking his phone and seeing the time. “Crap!” he exclaimed, “I’m going to be late for my next class. I gotta jet, sorry guys!” he apologized as he made his way to rendezvous with his brother in Abnormal Psychology.