The Bylaws Nobody Reads
We read the pamphlet at Simone's kitchen table because Simone's kitchen table is quieter than mine. Simone has one younger brother and he is at karate. My house has two younger brothers, a dog, an aunt who lives in the den and watches telenovelas at a volume that could be used as a weapon, and my mother, who comes home from the clinic at six-thirty and starts asking questions about my day before she has fully taken off her shoes. Simone's kitchen has a fan that hums. Simone's mother is a pharmacist and believes in silence the way other mothers believe in church.
There is a bowl of cut-up honeydew between us that Simone's mother put there with the implication that we would eat it. Neither of us is eating it. Simone has a highlighter. I have a second highlighter, because Simone is the kind of person who owns more than one highlighter, and she has given me the yellow one and kept the pink one for herself, which I think says something about how she thinks this conversation is going to go.
"Article Two," Simone reads out loud. "*Membership of the Council shall consist of two representatives elected from each grade level nine through twelve, a President and Vice-President elected at large, and a Treasurer appointed by the body. The Council shall include, in an advisory and non-voting capacity, one faculty counsellor designated by the school administration.*"
"Non-voting," I say.