“Excuse me, what?” I ask, clutching my books a little tighter than I meant to, dropping the small book piled on top for English. I pick it up, still staring at Mr. Owen.
“I want you to write a column for the school newspaper. It’s called the Safe Lord’s Problem Column, and people will anonymously turn in letters that you respond to, under the pen name Safe Lord, and help students feel a little safer in this school.”
“Um, Safe Lord? Really?”
“I don’t know what else. If you can come up with something better, I’ll gladly change it. Harper, I’m asking you this because you’re the president for the Safe Club. If we get this to stick, it could be a job for all future presidents of Safe Club!”
“Mr. Owen, I’ve never written for a school newspaper before. What would I even write?” That wasn’t my biggest problem. Even if I signed it under a pen name, the way I write is easily recognized, and everyone would probably figure it out.
“You’re just answering letters, so respond with what you think is best. There’s no need to try and figure out how to write like you’re writing an article or something. You should probably head to class. See you at Safe Club!”

“He wants you to do what?” Alex asked when I finally met up with her at lunch. “I know, right? It’s weird. He’s never mentioned a thing about a newspaper column, and now all of a sudden he wants me writing one? Isn’t that a little crazy?” I picked up my sandwich and took a bite.
“Well, Mr. Owen has been known to make up random ideas on the fly. Some stick, some don’t. I’m guessing this is one of the ones that’s sticking around.” She shoved another bite of her salad into her mouth.
“No, you don’t understand here. It’s not that, it’s the fact that I don’t know how to write anything for the newspaper.”
“Just write an answer to the letter is sounds like. No special needed types of writing there.”
“He said something like that, but answering letters? How is that gonna help anyone?”
“One person will admit a letter, and when you publish your response, more people will see others taking steps to answer their own questions, all while not ever having to talk to someone they’d be uncomfortable asking!” Alex threw her hands into the air, her fork accidentally landing in Kaitlyn’s food. “Oops…” she whispered.
Kaitlyn stared at the offending fork for, like, ever before she grabbed it and stood up. She climbed onto the table, ignoring the protests of the teachers and raised the fork. “Is this your clever scheme? Trying to take me down with a fork?! This is war! Your stupid club won’t matter once I’m through with you!”
Clearly she took the fork as a declaration of war from the members of Safe Club against the members of her club, The Religions. Naturally our two clubs don’t get along, but it was all an accident. “Kaitlyn, it was an accident!”
“You think I’m going to believe you, Alex?! You’re the vice president of that silly club, how do I know it wasn’t a cleverly concocted scheme?”
“Cause no one would want to hurt you.” She said, crossing her arms. There was some truth in that. Anything that so much as scratched Kaitlyn was given a stern sermon and lecture about how it’s going to H-E-Double Hockey Sticks for hurting such a pure girl. Her father’s a little overprotective.
“Alex, just give it up.” I say as I continue eating. I know Eli’s here, and if I make a scene, he’d surely tell Mom. That’s the kind of loving relationship we have.
Alex stuck her tongue out at Kaitlyn on her way to grab herself another fork. She sat back down and we started talking as if nothing happened.
“So what do you wanna do Sunday?”
“So clothes shopping, definitely. Maybe get some ice cream. I’m probably not getting cake tomorrow, so we can hit up that good ice cream cake place when we’re out.”
“That’s a great idea, Harper. We’re totally doing that!”
“I think Elliot’s in town Sunday. If he is, do you mind if he comes along?”
“Elliot’s the oldest? Yeah, sure.”
I nodded, finishing up my food just as the bell rang. I gathered my stuff and headed to class.

After school I ran to Safe Club. I had stayed in the library working on something in my free period, and now I was running about ten minutes late. I almost slid right past the door to the classroom. I turned back and headed in.
We’re a small club, so only about ten kids were in the room, each in a group of about no more than three. I headed over to Alex, who was playing cards with an Indian boy. His hair was pulled back, he was wearing a black shirt with a white star on it and jean capris.
“Hey Aditha,” I said as I sat down. He waved to me, focused on the game between him and Alex. I watched them play, giving them suggestions every now and then. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around.
A girl was standing behind me, her brown hair pulled into a low side ponytail. Her brown eyes watched me as the three girls behind her continued talking. “Hey Harper, I was wondering something. There’s a girl in Autumn’s art class, she thinks she might be thinking of joining…”
“Um, okay...why are you telling me?”
“Just wanted you to keep an eye out for someone staring at the posters but not doing anything.” She waved and turned.
“What did Vera want?”
“Just being Vera.”


Hey! So I got the idea for Safe Club from UnOrdinary, which is a comic that just introduced a new club that's a big player in the series called Safe House. I also mixed it with an actual club I'm part of called GSA (Gay Straight Alliance), so make a safe house for LGBTQ members. Also Vera (that entire group actually) is based off characters I made in a game I'm playing (Vera is a cheerleader and Sadie's older sister, she's also dating Emma; Emma is a jock and dating Vera; Sadie is a nerd, Vera's younger sister and is dating Autumn; and Autumn is an artist) If you understand the game reference, please post on my wall, I love it so much!
Thanks for reading this kind of crappy writing! I appreciate it! *Chibi Harper bowing*