11

Code Red Ribbons

I STOOD IN THE hallway, book and lunch bag in hand, and blinked.

“What?”

“Student Senate?” Harrison’s bristly brows climbed. “We had an assignment? For Red Ribbon Week? Our substance-free awareness thing? Hello?” He reached out with a fist to knock on my forehead, but I twisted out of reach.

“Crud, crud, cruddy, crud,” I muttered, and bent to slide my book down the side pocket of my rolling backpack. Other than my imaginary theme, after seeing JC’s picture during morning announcements Tuesday, I’d pretty much forgotten all about the stupid senate thing. A subcommittee. I was on a subcommittee with Boy Mutant. Whee.

“Fine, I’m coming,” I said tiredly. “What are we supposed to do?”

“Make sure you have your notebook,” Harrison said, still breathing down my neck. “Mrs. Henry likes us to take notes.”

“Of course she does,” I muttered, zipping my bag and dragging it down the hall behind me.

Harrison followed as I stomped down the hall. “Do you have any great ideas?”

Great ideas? Please. I scowled down at the tiles. “What’s the point?”

“What’s the point of what?” Harrison demanded. “Ideas? Red Ribbon Week? Keeping people off drugs?”

When I didn’t answer, Harrison made a frustrated noise. “Are you going to be a lame partner?”

I was grinding my teeth. “I’m not lame. I know people shouldn’t do drugs,” I grumped, digging in my bag for my lunchtime snacks. “Some drugs are legal, though.”

“Not all of them. And anyway, what’s legal is not the point,” Harrison lectured. “The point is that drugs destroy lives. The point is that kids are just starting their lives. The point is—”

“I know what the point is, Harrison. Jeez Louise.”

“Whatever.” Harrison’s shoulders slumped on a big sigh. “When Mrs. Henry asks for our ideas, I’ll start. If you think of anything, you can add it at the end. Okay?”

I stiffened. If I thought of anything? “Why are you first? How do you know I don’t have a whole list of things I thought of already?”

Harrison rolled his eyes. “Because you didn’t even remember you were on senate, that’s how.” Shaking his head, Harrison lengthened his stride, leaving me behind. “Keep up, Hobbit.”

“Shut it, Mutant.”

Mrs. Bowers smiled as we walked through the administration office; me, glowering and out of breath, Harrison, just beyond reach of my kick. Harrison continued straight through to Mrs. Henry’s open door. I took a moment to open my notebook and scrawl furiously before shoving my pen in my pocket and following. I did too have ideas.

There was an upholstered loveseat in Mrs. Henry’s office where Sunita and Ally were already sitting, with Eliana, who was our class treasurer as well as our Student Senate representative, parked beside them in her chair. The rest of the seats were folding chairs, organized into a half circle around the front of Mrs. Henry’s desk. She sat behind it, her gold-rimmed half glasses sliding down her nose, while she typed something into her notepad. Ignoring the seat next to Harrison, I dragged a chair next to Eliana. In a few minutes, Sunita called the meeting to order and we got started.

Eliana gave us a report on the amended WinterFest budget, which we voted to accept. I scowled. The word “WinterFest” was in all caps on top of Eliana’s paper, and with the countdown at six weeks, I wasn’t ready. Six weeks! I didn’t want to think about it. I hadn’t even picked a project, much less bought the supplies or started work. How was I ever going to pull all this together?

Cameron droned on about turnouts for basketball, announcing that they were organizing a canned food drive for Thanksgiving. Hyung reported on plans for a service project for winter quarter. Through most of the unexciting meeting, Mrs. Henry looked like she was working on something else. She wasn’t even eating. I wasn’t paying attention really either—I was rolling my tangerine peels, wishing that instead of waiting for JC to call, that I’d called her about the Twin Day thing. I wondered if it was too late.

Suddenly, Sunita looked from me to Harrison. “If the Red Ribbon subcommittee is ready with their report . . . ,” she began.

I choked on the piece of tangerine in my mouth as Mrs. Henry looked up from her computer and smiled—evilly, probably. No, I was not ready, but Harrison jumped to his feet. He swung his briefcase onto the seat behind him and popped open the clasps.

“We’re ready,” he said, pulling out a thick sheaf of papers.

I rolled my eyes, but privately, I was a teeny-tiny bit impressed. Harrison had a whole pile of notes. He looked like a teacher, getting ready to hand out worksheets. To my horror, he handed the stack of paper to Sunita and said, “Take one and pass it on, please,” just like Mr. Van always said. I stifled a groan as I looked down at the title on the top sheet. THE HISTORY OF RED RIBBON WEEK was in all caps and centered.

I wasn’t the only one slumping. Mrs. Henry cleared her throat. “Remember, Harrison,” she said, “we only have forty-five minutes for lunch.”

“I know,” Harrison muttered, the tips of his ears turning pink where they stuck out from his shaggy brown curls. “It’s just my research. I’m not going to read it or anything.”

Eliana gave a choked cough that sounded a lot like a belly laugh stuffed down. I was caught between feeling embarrassed for Harrison and feeling annoyed. This was supposed to be our subcommittee, not Harrison’s personal committee of one. If he’d told me he was going to do this, I would have told him no. Then everyone wouldn’t be laughing at him.

“I thought some of you might like to know the history of Red Ribbon Week,” Harrison said determinedly, waving to the paper, “and why we even do this every year. I, um”—Harrison ducked his head awkwardly—“well, I hope you read it. I hope it helps you understand why I—I mean, our subcommittee—decided to do Red Ribbon Week with some Career Day stuff.”

Career Day? He couldn’t have given me a hint about this on the way to the meeting?

Looking through the handout was actually interesting—Harrison found the story of Red Ribbon Week and put in all this stuff about when it became an official week in schools, a long time ago. But it didn’t have anything to do with Brigid Ogan . . . at all.

“We can have people wear red, and all the rest of that, like we usually do, but I just thought this would be better.” Harrison gestured to the paper again. “I mean, just read it, and you’ll know what I mean.”

Having Career Day stuff for the last day was kind of good, though. I could feel ideas sparking through my head. We could do some fun things with this. I know JC’s mom—

I stopped that thought cold. JC wasn’t going to be someone I would be talking to about this. Not anymore.

Right?

“Well, Harrison, this is good,” Sunita was saying cautiously. “But you don’t have, like, activities lined up?”

The silence that followed was excruciating. Harrison shifted from foot to foot, the pink from the tips of his ears migrating across his cheeks and neck. He cleared his throat. “Um. Uh, well, I, I mean—”

We could have had fun with this—JC and me—but now, I’d have to do this myself.

“He means no, he doesn’t,” I blurted. “I mean, Harrison doesn’t. Yet. That’s my part. The activities, I mean.”

Eliana, who’d been watching me scribble in my notebook, turned wide eyes toward me. And Harrison, who had absolutely no chill, gave me a horrified look.

“Serena?” His loud whisper was completely audible in the quiet room, “What are you doing?”

Mrs. Henry took off her glasses, the smile broad across her sharp-chinned face. “Now this sounds like the kind of teamwork that I like. Serena St. John, let’s hear from you.”

Uh-oh.

I stood up slowly, stopping to pull up my socks so I could stall. The pressure of so many eyes on me felt like tiny weights against my body. I cleared my throat and looked at the big flower pin on Mrs. Henry’s shoulder instead of directly at her face, so I could avoid her sharp eyes.

“Harrison, um, had a lot of good ideas about Career Day, and since Red Ribbon Week is so close to Halloween, I thought we could, um, decorate? Like, have a Deck the Doors contest on Monday, you know, to decorate our homeroom doors with an anti-drug theme?”

I could hear my voice rising at the end of every line, as if I were asking a question. Mom always asked me if I was asking her or telling her something when I did that. I cleared my throat again, trying to sound sure of what I was saying. “And then on Tuesday, we can have a College Day maybe? So people can wear logo clothes from schools and colleges and stuff? And Wednesday,” I looked down at the scribbles in my notebook, “is Dreams Before Drugs, which is basically pajama day, which will be really easy.”

I snuck a glance at Ally, who gave me a thumbs-up. My mouth curved into a tiny grin.

“Um, Thursday, it’s Free to Plan a Future, and people can dress up like their future jobs. And Friday at assembly, we can have a Red Ribbon Rally and hand out awards for the door contest, and um, I was thinking, parents came to our class for a career fair when we were in elementary, and—”

“Oh! A career fair!” Sunita interrupted. “Good idea! We could have tables and booths in the cafeteria at lunch on Friday!”

“Uh, we need a fundraiser if we’re going to have prizes,” Eliana pointed out. “I mean, we have money in the budget, but we should do something . . . or sell something.”

“Can we sell candy?” Hyung wanted to know. “I don’t think basketball is doing candy bars this year, are they, Cam?”

Little conversations popped up around the room, as the whole senate started brainstorming. Sunita called for an official vote to accept our ideas, and when it passed, I dropped back into my seat, breathing a sigh of relief.

I leaned over to look at Harrison, who still looked a little rattled, and gave him a smug smile. “Who knew? I had more than one great idea!”

Harrison rolled his eyes. He leaned forward, voice low. “Hobbit, you do realize that we have to do all the stuff you just came up with, right?”

“What? No, we’re just idea people,” I argued, feeling my stomach sink. He couldn’t be serious, could he? The dress-up days wouldn’t be a big deal, but the prizes and the judging and the Career Day would be a lot of work.

“Idea people? Wanna bet?” Harrison laughed.

In a few minutes, Sunita tapped her gavel and wrapped up the meeting. “Thanks to our subcommittee, we have a ton of ideas and a lot of directions to go. Hyung and Cameron, if you could follow up on the candy sales, that would be great. Ally, if you could get something to the morning announcements team, that would help. Serena and Harrison, let us know what you need to get that career fair going.”

“I’m excited to work with you both,” Mrs. Henry chimed in, beaming at us.

Great, I thought, giving her a weak smile. Just great.