We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach Page B

the radio down.
    â€œA little.”
    He shook his head. “Of course they are. I’ll give you some books to read when you get home. And you’ll read them.”
    â€œOkay.”
    The only good news was that today was a Wednesday, which meant there was a student council meeting after school. These meetings could last anywhere from twenty minutes to two hours, and Anita’s mother could hardly be expected to just sit around the parking lot waiting. That meant Luisa would be coming, and Luisa could always be counted on to help Anita out. The goal was to get the meeting over with as quickly as possible. If Anita were lucky, she might end up with enough time to get a burger at Dick’s on Capitol Hill. Though it had only been a week, she yearned for a taste of the outside world like a prisoner ten years into a life sentence.
    Hamilton bylaws required that student council be made up of one boy and one girl from each class. Anita represented the seniors along with Peter Roeslin, the basketball player. The juniors were Damien Durkee and Krista Asahara. Krista was one of those hyper-earnest overachievers who couldn’t understand why anyone would ever disagree with her about anything ever. Also, she was pretty obviously in love with Peter. The sophomore class was represented by Charlie Howard and Julia Whyel, and the freshmen by Ajay Vasher and Nickie Hill. All the underclassmen pretty much deferred to Krista on everything.
    Anita called the meeting to order, ran over the minutes from the previous session (on the plausibility of once-a-month vegan lunches and fielding a Hamilton foosball team), and laid out the agenda. The only pressing issue was Olot, the schoolwide formal dance where the girls invited the boys, which was in need of a theme. As usual, Krista was the first one with a Statue-of-Liberty raised hand and the idea to go with it.
    â€œSo the newspapers are saying that Ardor—you know, the asteroid?—is going to pass by us around the same week as the dance. So what if we went with some kind of space thing? Not science fiction-y, but more, like, astronomy, all planets and stars and stuff.”
    â€œSounds great to me,” Anita said, already seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
    â€œWe can cover all the pillars and the walls in black felt,” Nickie said, picking up on Krista’s theme. “And we can use Christmas lights to make stars. It’ll be super pretty but also cheap.”
    Ajay always chimed in when budgeting was at issue. “We could ask people to bring lights in from home. Everyone has a box in their basement, and usually even if they’re dead, it’s just a bad bulb.”
    Krista was bright as a new bulb herself at these promising signs that her concept was a hit.
    â€œShall we vote on it?” Anita asked, glancing around the room. “All in favor of the theme of Olot being something space-related, say aye.” There was a chorus of ayes. “Perfect. Let’s brainstorm ideas on our own, and then we can decide on the best ones at our next meeting.”
    Krista gave a couple of weak, thudding high fives to Nickie and Ajay.
    â€œWell, that’s everything on the agenda. Is there anything else anyone wants to discuss?”
    Anita was afraid Charlie would bring up his favorite subject: the impossible, irreverent, and yet strangely divisive issue of allowing marijuana use on school grounds, now that it was legal in the state at large. But he seemed just as eager to get out of there as she was.
    â€œThen it looks like we’re done,” Anita said. “Thanks, everyone, for coming—”
    â€œWhat we’re doing here is a joke.”
    Heads turned. Peter sat slouched in his chair, looking uncharacteristically morose. He didn’t tend to say much in student council meetings, unless the conversation turned to something involving athletics or nutrition.
    â€œWhat are you talking about, Peter?”
    â€œI mean,