On her laptop was the image Jack and I had Photoshopped of the White House underwater. We’d named it The Picture Postcard Zone. “It’s a fabulous image. We’ll definitely use it on the posters. And signs on the day.”

“It was my idea,” I reminded her, though Jack had already given me the credit.

“I know it was. You’re a star. You both are. Now we need to think of something else. Something to go with the speeches. I don’t know exactly what.”

The doorbell rang. I jumped a mile. She pretended not to notice. I had made sure she arrived first because I wanted us to be deep in conversation when Jack got there so that he would be the odd one out. I wanted him to see I was someone to be reckoned with, even if I didn’t know what to do when a boy grabbed me out of the blue and then forgot to kiss me.

I heard Jack talking to my mother in the hall, and my mother directing him down. I had resolved to be looking elsewhere, but my eyes had a mind of their own. He joined us at the table, booted up his computer, and opened a blank document. I took it as a good sign that he could hardly look at me.

“Let’s brainstorm,” he said, as if we’d been waiting for him to come along and save the day.

“You can’t say brainstorm anymore.”

“You can’t?”

“It’s insulting to people with epilepsy.”

“Ha!” said Miss Sedge. “If I had epilepsy, I’d find it insulting to be patronized like that.”

She was not one for correctness, political or any other kind. True, she was an overly strict hall monitor, but Jack said that was to keep on the right side of the school authorities. They didn’t like the fact that she’d gotten herself arrested in the last campaign.

“Is this even legal?” I asked.

“Is what legal?” she said.

“Inciting minors to activism and civil disobedience,” said Jack.

“Is it legal to destroy the earth we all live on? Is it legal to poison the atmosphere? Is it legal to melt the polar ice caps?”

“It’s probably legal—” Jack began.

“Who cares?” I jumped in to cut off his technical point. “Change the laws.”

Miss Sedge gave a throaty, approving laugh. “Precisely. You can’t do the civil disobedience part, but you can work behind the scenes and go on the march. It’s you young people who should be up in arms. It’s your world.” Under her breath she added: “My ambition at that school is to resign before I get fired.” I liked the way she answered questions by not exactly answering them.

“What could we make?”