Refusing to give my face a chance to emote, I exit the kitchen and take the stairs two at a time up to my bedroom. Reid has no clue what he’s talking about and I can ride the early morning wave re: making it impossible for him to play the clarinet today.

Still, I can’t stop thinking about the sentence he cut off.

No one is as serious as you, and that will be obvious when you play.

I almost complimented him. Me. Completely out of character.

I’m glad Reid interjected.

The rest of the week passes in almost equal parts HAVE A HE(ART) preparation and pranks.

Thursday I bask in the result of my reed prank, derailing an entire Star Wars rehearsal. At lunch, I ignore aggressive side-eye from Reid and the band as I’m approaching tables, asking for signatures for our HAVE A HE(ART) petition to prove there is solidarity and excitement for our proposal outside the arts clubs. Connor DiMarco’s support is enough for the student council kids to sign; Cherish and Arjun emphasize Melted’s climate change themes to the environmental and STEM clubs and it is easy signatures from them. Makayla targets the jocks with surprising success.

“Mack filled us in on the situation,” Ivan says, nodding at Makayla. “That shit is messed up. It’s like if Mulaney cut basketball next week and said every athlete had to play baseball.”

He encourages the entire varsity basketball team to sign, and it gets us to more than three hundred signatures! As Makayla and I return to our table, we’re intercepted by Reid.

“What are you doing?”

My eyes snap up, meeting Reid’s annoyed expression.

“Hey! Would you like to sign our petition?” I say in a clipped, professional voice. “We’d like the school committee to reconsider the one-sided allocation of the arts budget, as it is unfair to the equally enriching programming LHS is losing.”

I hold the petition out to Reid, my smile sweet. He raises his eyebrows at the number of signatures. “Are you trying to get your dad fired?”

I refuse to give Reid the satisfaction of provoking me. “Nope.”

“Whatever, Natalie. Do your petition. Hide reeds. Stage a whole protest if you want. It won’t matter. The school committee has already chosen the band.”

“So why not sign our petition? I mean, if it won’t…”

Reid storms off before I even finish.