Chapter 44: Sadie: The Collab

SADIE

"Okay, we’ll consider a friendly quiz with Northlake University next week," I say, closing my laptop after two hours of meeting. Trey’s visit has thankfully faded into the background, which is exactly where I’d like it to stay. "Nia, what else do we have on the agenda today?"

She checks her notebook before getting to her feet. "One more important thing. Club Recognition Review is next month, and we’re still at twenty-seven members."

Oh. Shit.

How did I forget about that? Out of everything happening in my life right now, this should have been impossible to forget, especially when I’m the one responsible for the club this year.

I’ve dreaded Recognition Review since I first joined Quiz Bowl because it decides whether we keep our status at all, and the numbers are already making my head hurt. Twenty-seven members. Fifty minimum. Twenty-three short, and I already know I’m not going to be satisfied with exactly fifty when one dropout could send us right back into trouble.

"That means we need twenty-three more members," I say, folding my arms. "Twenty-five if we want to be safe. And we need them before next month if we want to keep our funding and support."

Nia nods. "Exactly."

Twenty-five people shouldn’t be difficult on a campus this size, except Quiz Bowl has never been one of the clubs students fight to get into. We’re not cheerleading, football, basketball, student government, or anything else people already think is cool before they even know what it involves.

With us, there’s always an extra step where we have to convince people first. I love this club, so maybe I’m biased, but I still don’t understand why ’competitive’ scares so many students away. And the ones who call it a nerd center are usually the same people who have never bothered to find out what we actually do.

"We’re going to have to promote the hell out of this club." I drag my notebook toward me. "New members won’t join with a few extra flyers, so we need a proper game plan."

Marcus raises his hand halfway. "What if we just get people to sign up for the review? They don’t have to participate. We hit the number, pass, and they can basically be ghost members."

I’m already shaking my head before he finishes. "We don’t need ghost members. We need people who are actually going to show up."

Most of our older members have already graduated, and once my year leaves, the number is going to drop even more. Ghost members might get us through one review, but they don’t solve anything long-term. We need people who will actually show up, compete, travel with us, and eventually carry the club forward after we’re gone.

Nia taps her pen against her notebook. "I get that, Prez, but we’re running out of time. Midterms are coming up, and the last recruitment push ate up everyone’s schedule."

She’s not wrong.

"And most clubs already finished open recruitment," she adds. "If someone hasn’t joined anything by now, there’s a good chance they just don’t want to."

They’re all fair arguments, but none of them make me any more willing to watch this team slowly fall apart.

Call me cliché or whatever, but joining this club is one of the best things that happened to me at Boreal. I found people here, a routine, something I was genuinely good at, and I’m not about to sit through my presidency while all of that gets smaller and smaller around me.

I rub my forehead. Who in admin decided fifty members was the magic number anyway? Whoever it was better hope I never find out.

By the time I drop my hand, the room has gone quiet, everyone waiting for me to decide what we’re doing next.

"We’re doing this properly," I tell them. "No ghost members, no padding the list. I want ideas we can pull off before the review."

A couple of people complain under their breath, but nobody argues for long. Soon the room is full of suggestions, most of them useless, a few almost decent.

About ten minutes in, Sophia lifts her hand.

"What about doing an orientation for freshmen? A proper one. Not just handing out flyers."

I tap my finger against the page. "That could work. We can pitch it as something for high achievers. Competitive, academic, the kind of club people join because they actually want to be challenged."

That gets a few approving nods, so I write it down.

More suggestions come after that, and by the time the room starts quieting again, I’ve managed to pull five useful ideas out of the pile.

"So, five solid options." I run my pen down the list. "Now we need to decide which one we can realistically pull off."

"The cheapest one," Nia adds immediately.

Everyone laughs.

"Very useful. Thank you." I start going over the list. "Sophie suggested a freshman orientation. Noah said we could throw a party or get someone popular on campus involved, and—"

Wait. Hold on.

Why are we talking about finding someone popular when I already know someone who could pull a crowd without even trying?

"What’s going on, Prez?" Marcus asks.

I lift a finger, still following the thought before someone talks me out of it.

Trey could get people interested without us spending days chasing attention, and if one person has that much pull, what would happen if we involved the whole hockey team?

I start pacing between the desks, turning it over properly now. Would it feed the dating rumors? Absolutely. Would people probably make it weird? Also yes. But would it get attention? That part isn’t even a question.

We need members and the hockey team has the kind of campus pull we could never manufacture with flyers and social media posts. If even a small part of their crowd got curious enough to check us out, wouldn’t that already put us closer to the number we need?

The more I think about it, the harder it gets to dismiss. Maybe it’s a little insane, but is it really more insane than spending the next three weeks chasing people around campus and hoping they suddenly develop an interest in competitive trivia?

I stop pacing and turn back to the group. "What about a collab with the hockey team?"

The idea lands exactly the way I expected it to: with disbelief first, questions right behind it.

"Can we even pull that off?"

"They’ve never done anything with an academic club."

"Would Coach Jenson agree to that?"

"Okay, everyone, relax." I lift both hands and wait until the room settles enough for me to hear myself think again. "Yes, it sounds a little crazy, and no, I did not know they’ve never collaborated with an academic club before, but there’s a first time for everything."

Nia jumps to her feet. "I like this idea." She’s practically squirming with excitement now. "Think about it, guys. We’d be the first club to pull it off, thanks to our president here. Imagine how much people would talk about us."

Excitement starts spreading, with more heads nodding and side comments starting up again.

Marcus, however, looks deeply unimpressed.

He folds his arms. "The hockey guys are overrated."

I almost disagree out loud. I might have several complaints about certain members of the team, one in particular, but even I can admit they’re good at what they do.

"They’re also popular," I remind him. "And popular is what we need right now. If they can bring us the numbers, I’m willing to survive a little overratedness."

"And it should be easy," Nia adds. "You’re already tight with Trey."

I shoot her a glare.

The confidence she has in what she thinks is happening between Trey and me is starting to concern me.

Meanwhile, I haven’t even asked him yet. I’m just hoping the guilt from the way he treated me before is still fresh enough to make saying no difficult. Is that manipulative? Maybe a little. But this is Quiz Bowl we’re talking about.

"I’ll talk to Trey, but let’s plan ahead anyway. I have a feeling he’ll agree."

Why that gives me this small, stupid sense of being special is a question for another day.

"T-shirts need to be ready by Friday morning, which means every design decision gets made today." I angle toward Nia. "Budget?"

She makes a face. "Tight. Rushing it costs extra."

"I know a girl who’s fast and cheap," Sophie offers.

"Marry me," Nia says.

I turn to Sophie. "And she won’t mess it up?"

"She’s done most of our club designs. Trust me."

"Fine. I trust you." I glance down at everything we’ve written so far. "But seriously, guys, we cannot mess this up. If Trey agrees, way more people are going to be watching us than usual. One ugly shirt or badly planned event and instead of getting new members, we’ll be the club everyone is laughing about by Monday."

"We’ll nail it, Prez," Noah says. "Seriously. We’ve got this."