Chapter Text
“Uhhhh Andy… Are you sure this is worth it?”
“I’m doing what I have to, Joe,” she spat back at him. Lykon and Joe shared a look of "she's going crazy but I'm too scared of my eminent death to tell her." They were sitting on Andy’s bed next to a slightly concerned Quynh on FaceTime on Andy's phone.
“Babe, I know you’re excited for Halloween and all,” Quynh started, “But like, are you seriously going to try and talk Merrick out of this whole advisory costume thing?”
“I actually think this might work.”
“Thank you, Lykon!” Andy replied.
“Emphasis on ‘might’ though,” he corrected.
“Love the enthusiasm,” Andy glared at him.
“He has a point though. You’re pretty much the only one who could convince him to cancel it. I mean as long as you emphasize that you want to “give back to the community” or “speak up for the students” or whatever.” Joe responded, using air quotes as necessary.
“I think I’m making that pretty clear.” Andy responded gesturing towards her laptop which displayed a presentation titled “Why Halloween Costumes Should Be Up to the Students” with the subtitle “Community Engagement through Choice not Mandatory Programming.”
“I would also work on not rolling your eyes every time Steven says something,” Lykon smirked. “Typically people appreciate not being actively made fun of when you’re asking for something.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible,” Andy smirked.
“As long as I don’t have to hear a rant about your meeting after the fact,” Joe grimaced.
“Oh, you definitely will,” Quynh smirked. “I will too.”
“Ughhhh,” Joe flopped down on his back. “Is it too late to abort this whole mission?”
“Yep,” Andy responded. “The meeting is scheduled for tomorrow during my free period. Also I made an entire presentation about this-- I’m not backing out now.”
And so at 9:05 AM, Andy found herself standing outside Steven Effing Merrick’s office. The door was decorated in pictures of him with old students. They were smiling but it was clearly that pained “Ugh, my parents want me to pose for a picture with this annoying teacher” smile. Andy painfully plastered that same smile on her face and knocked on the door.
“Andromache!” Andy forced herself to mask her natural inclination to roll her eyes.
“Hi, Mr. Merrick!” Andy grinned, trying to channel her inner Joe. “Thank you for meeting with me!”
“No problem! How was your weekend?”
“It was great!” Andy nodded, wanting to disclose as little of her personal life to this asswipe as possible. “So, I wanted to talk to you about Halloween this year.”
“Oh, did you have an idea for our advisory halloween costumes?”
“Um noooo, I uh, I wanted to talk about a different plan for Halloween. Would it be possible to let the students choose their own costumes?” Andy replied as nicely as she was physically capable of. Merrick paused for a second clearly reaching for the ‘diplomatic’ way of answering.
“Well that would be quite a change of plans, why do you propose we do that?” he put on a smile that was halfway to a sneer. “Barring personal interest, of course.”
“Well,” Andy nearly slammed a packet of papers onto his desk, putting on an equally intimidating grin (quite a feat for an 18 year old). “As you’ll see in the document I’ve created and in the presentation I’ve recently shared with you, it is not simply ~personal~ interest. I’ve included statistics from a small sample of the students in our community showing that the vast majority of students are against the mandatory costume contest. I've also complied a list of fairly scathing quotes in favor of cancelling a mandatory advisory Halloween costume. One student called the advisory costume a quote unquote infringement of student freedoms while another called it an embarrassment to the school’s reputation of celebrating individuality and self expression.” She neglected to tell him that these scathing reviews were from Booker and Joe respectively and the “small sample” of students was just Lykon’s AP Physics class. “I can’t tell you to do anything, but I think it would be unwise and a bit dismissive to ignore your students’ wishes by continuing your plans for Halloween.”
The two stared at each other for a solid three minutes, before Merrick arched an eyebrow and spoke, “Well done. I can’t say that I entirely expected that, but I admire the initiative you took on this project. I’ll look over this ‘data’ as you’ve put it, and I’ll- I’ll see what I can do.” Andy grinned. “No promises! But you should know that I am really on your side here, Andromache. Frankly,” he put his hand to his mouth like he was sharing a secret. “I have a killer King Lear costume that I was hoping to break out this year.”
“Great,” Andy said with any remaining enthusiasm left in her body. “Thank you so much for meeting with me!”
“Your welcome! Let me know if I can help you with anything else.” Andy barely heard the end of his sentence before shutting the door behind her.
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lykon 4:13 PM
ANDROMACHE
CHECK YOUR EMAIL!!!!!!!!!!
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Merrick, Steven
Mon, Oct 19, 4:05 PM
to bcc: [email protected]
Good morning, all.
I wanted to let you all know that due to popular demand the advisory costume contest on Friday, October 30th has been cancelled. You will all be permitted to wear costumes of your own choosing, and the assembly after school has been cancelled. Once again, costumes must apply to the school dress code and not contain any offensive or derogatory language or stereotypes.
Though I’m sad not to have an advisory costume, I’m incredibly impressed by the initiative taken by individuals in the student body to make a change in the community. Thank you all for reading! Have a great week!
Steven Merrick
Head of High School
Clementine Rivers Magnet High School