(February, 612)

Elizabeth had always enjoyed administrative work. As a child, her most prized possession was a box of colorful paper clips, and in middle school, she’d volunteered to be the librarian’s assistant - a position which hadn’t previously existed in the middle school library. She’d spent years gleefully reshelving, making lists, and sticking tags on books. However, in her eighth year, coincidentally during Borlême’s mayoral election, the elementary and middle school libraries were merged. Suddenly, Elizabeth’s peaceful world of young adult fiction and fantasy novels was overrun with children’s books, as well as grubby-handed classes of five-year-olds screaming at the top of their lungs as their teachers failed to alert them to the sign that said ‘Shh! Please be considerate of other bookworms’. Elizabeth had done everything she could to separate the two libraries again, but to no avail. Finally, she wrote all six Borlême mayor candidates, asking if they could help her. She got three letters back, all of them containing regretful denials, but one of them also suggesting that she should ask her student council.

That was the day Elizabeth Sawyer vowed to do whatever she could to become a part of the student council and finally make real and meaningful change.

The experience she had with the passive administrators and lazy bureaucrats during and after the library merger had somewhat prepared her for BISM high’s administrators. She wasn’t naive — If admin wouldn’t approve a Mad Hair day, they surely wouldn’t approve an overhaul of their meal plan. Elizabeth and David were going to have to hit them from all sides to get them going.

That was why Elizabeth found herself cornering Paul Kowalewicz after his Econ class, David trailing after her, trying to radiate Mature Compromise rather than Righteous Fury through his glower. Paul was one of David’s most outspoken opponents in the student council and rejected David’s suggestions with as much venom as David had proposed them with. Elizabeth knew that getting Paul on their side was going to be as vital to their cause as it was going to be difficult. The frown Paul wore in response to their greeting deepened as Elizabeth told him what she wanted to talk about.

“You know where I stand,” said Paul, more to David than to Elizabeth.

David opened his mouth angrily and Elizabeth knew she had to cut him off.

“We know where you stand on Meatless Mondays,” she said, “That’s not what we’re proposing.”

Paul turned his glare to her. He was a short but handsome guy, though Elizabeth didn’t think his looks were why he was as popular as he was. Paul had a lazy kind of swagger, a confidence that didn’t need perception but existed regardless of what those around him thought.

“And what are you proposing?” he asked.

Elizabeth chose to ignore the skeptical tone of his voice.

“My friend Isra is a vegetarian and—” started Elizabeth.

Paul waved her off.

“A good point can stand without a sob story,” he said.

Paul was also kind of a jerk. Elizabeth bit back her irritation and continued so David wouldn’t.

“We want to add a vegetarian option to the regular dining hall meal plan,” said Elizabeth.

Paul considered this.

“Isn’t there vegetarian food at the coffee shop in the student center?” he asked.

“There is,” she said, “But you have to pay extra for that, whereas the meal plan is included in tuition. Besides, the coffee shop is overpriced.”

Paul nodded contemplatively.

“True, true,” he said.

Elizabeth saw the opening and launched into a discussion of her plans. Paul was visibly interested in her ideas to convince admin and cut her off immediately after she finished explaining them.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, “if I help you, what are you going to give me?”

Elizabeth had the impression he knew exactly what he wanted. She asked him to name it. His expression darkened.

“The slipper policy thing is a complete fiasco,” he said, “Admin wouldn’t have to pay shit for that and they still denied it. You know that Hambledon Hall’s common room is carpeted? You know that Hambledon’s routinely gotten the lowest score for cleanliness?”

Elizabeth had not known the former and expressed it, though she doubted that Hambledon’s score was only low because of the carpet. There were rumors of what the boys in that dormitory got up to and it ranged from the mildly disgusting to the wildly unhygienic. She didn’t say this to Paul and quietly applauded David’s “that’s messed up”, which was met with vigorous nodding from their potential new associate.

“If your plan works,” said Paul, “If you want me to help you, you have to help me with the slipper policy. Otherwise, I’m not playing.”

Elizabeth held out her hand.

“Deal,” she said.

Paul rolled his eyes at the gesture but took her hand and shook on their new alliance.

After almost a week of similar conversations with several other student council members — including one with Silvia Rodriguez, who took the opportunity to give David a dressing-down the boy must still have had nightmares about — they all convened in the student council room for a meeting.

Jake had just gone through attendance and asked Clement to take the minutes of the meeting, when David’s hand shot up. Jake visibly deflated and shot the younger boy a pleading look.

“Can we just get through the agenda first?” he asked, “I promise you can go after.”

David looked unimpressed and raised his eyebrows, but he put his hand down. Jake looked pleasantly surprised and straightened up to recap the last meeting. His surprise slowly morphed into suspicion when his question of whether anyone would like to revisit any of these topics was met with silence and shaking heads. He glanced at Paul, who was slouched back in his chair, his legs stretched out in front of him. Paul, who hadn’t reacted to the rejection of the slipper policy in any way.

“Okay then,” said Jake, “I guess if nobody has anything to say about that, we only have one point on the agenda left.”

While it was only February, Jake had spoken with admin and they had agreed to let him build a prom planning committee to work closely together with the administrators and a few teacher. Jake realized this was a little early, but as this was his last year at BISM, they all had to understand that he was very invested in making this prom a memorable one. He suggested members from eleventh and twelfth grade to consider this opportunity and to ask their classmates if they might be interested in becoming a part of the prom planning committee as well. A few of the older members took notes and Jake looked apprehensively at David, who sat next to Elizabeth clutching his infamous spiral notebook. Jake looked around the room.

“Does anyone else have something they wanna discuss?” he asked.

David’s hand shot up. Nobody else spoke up. Jake’s eyes found the wall clock and he realized that they’d breezed through so quickly that calling the meeting to a close was not a believable excuse.

“David,” said Jake, “You have the floor.”

Both David and Elizabeth got up. Elizabeth grabbed a stack of printouts and passed them along to all the members of the student council before putting one on Jake’s table. She looked down at Jake. He looked confused, though Elizabeth thought he should have looked terrified. She smiled pleasantly and sat back down. She met David’s eye and he nodded.

“As some of you know, I tried to hold a protest in front of the teacher’s lounge last week,” said David.

A few titters went through the room. On the other side of the room, Gloria shot Tina a conspiratorial grin.

“The goal was — Well, the goal was a little unclear, frankly,” he said.

Elizabeth felt her chest swell with pride when David gave a self-deprecating chuckle. For the first time in his student council career, the rest of the room laughed with David instead of at him. David and Elizabeth had written this line together and she had made him practice it with her to his embarrassment. It had paid off.

“While my intentions seemed very obvious to me,” he said, “I realize that both my fliers and our discussions in this room may have made it confusing to figure out whether I wanted meal options, Meatless Mondays or,” He turned to Elizabeth, “What did I say again?”

She gave him a practiced smile.

“A meatless revolution,” she said.

This evoked another laugh and David only looked like he wanted to set himself on fire a teeny tiny bit. This was certainly an improvement from their practice sessions and his declarations that he would definitely self-immolate.

“Right,” he said, “So to be a little clearer this time: I want to talk to you all about meatless options in our dining hall.”

Elizabeth glanced over at Jake, whose eyes were flickering from David to Elizabeth. When they locked gazes, she shot him another pleasant smile and tried not to think anything excessively self-satisfied and vengeful as David expertly took the student council through their reasoning behind vegetarian dining hall meals. David’s presentation would have deserved a standing ovation, but Elizabeth was also alright with the approving silence that filled the room. She waited with bated breath until Jake cut through it.

“Well, David, you’re certainly very—” He looked down at the neat handout in front of him. “—prepared this time. But it’s still not something we can do anything about. You could talk to admin—”

Paul interrupted him.

“Jake, admin isn’t going to do shit,” he said.

Elizabeth was sure that the sight of Jake’s slack-jawed astonishment would eventually get boring, but it certainly hadn’t at that moment. Clement anxiously looked from Paul to Jake to Elizabeth as he seemingly tried to figure out if he should write Paul’s declaration down in his notes. Gloria mouthed the words ‘he swore’ to Tina with the barely-suppressed, scandalized glee.

“Paul, that’s a little unfair,” said Jake, “I know you were very invested in that slipper policy, but—”

Once more, Paul interrupted the student council president.

“Fuck the slipper policy,” said Paul. Clement gripped his pencil so hard that the veins in his hand threatened to pop. “Admin hasn’t done anything for the students at this school for months. We’re here to represent these students. I’m frankly sick and tired of admin ignoring our ideas and, by extension, those of the students.”

Jake began to argue, but Silvia Rodriguez jumped up.

“Paul’s right,” she said, “And it’s ridiculous that you’re defending them.”

Across the room, similar protests erupted and grew louder until they merged into incoherent shouting. Elizabeth had to smile when she saw the pleased wonderment on David’s face. They had done this — arranged it, prepared for it, and set it into motion. Jake tried to shout over his student council with increasing desperation. He turned to David and Elizabeth, an accusatory glare in place, before finally managing to quiet the room down.

“So,” said Jake, looking at David and Elizabeth, “You want to do something that needs the approval of admin but without involving admin. How exactly do you plan on doing that?”

David and Elizabeth exchanged looks — they hadn’t practiced for this part but David gave Elizabeth a nod that communicated that it was her turn. She glanced at Gloria, whose bright and excited smile threatened to outshine the sun, and then at Jake.

“The Parent Teacher Association,” said Elizabeth. Jake’s shoulders lost some tension and immediately regained it. “Gloria’s mother is the head of the PTA and she’s willing to include us in their next meeting. The PTA has more influence than anyone here and, provided we can gain their support, can put a considerable amount of pressure on admin.”

Jake sat down.

“That,” he said, “Might actually fucking work.”

Clement’s pencil broke.