I invited Ms Chan to sit down. She did, and when she tucked the shorter side of her bob behind her ear, I saw that she had at least four ear piercings. She definitely LOOKED cool. Of course, it was possible Father Hughes had gotten extra devious in his spying on us. But all we were doing today was eating brownies anyway, so …

Looking around the table, Ms Chan asked in surprise, ‘Is this everyone?’

I was about to say yes when there was another knock on the door and Maggie, my Planned Parenthood road-trip buddy, appeared. She had another Save Your Heart girl with her.

‘Are we in the right place?’ Maggie asked. ‘Is this the Feminist Club? We want to join.’

And then Preeti arrived with a friend.

Then two more freshman girls turned up – one tall and one short. The tall one looked familiar, but I couldn’t place her. The short one pointed at Mary Kate and whispered, ‘That’s the vagina girl!’

Her friend corrected her. ‘No, that’s the vagina girl’ – and, when she pointed to me, I saw her black nail polish and the faded shadow of a henna tattoo on the inside of her wrist. It was my potential rebel from the September Club Fair – ready to be rebellious at last.

We were making room for everyone, shifting our puffy coats and backpacks off the last free chairs, when two tall figures appeared in the doorway, casting long shadows across our table. It was the Rowers. Mary Kate and I looked at each other in panic.

‘Is this the Feminist Club?’ asked the Rower with a long braid over her shoulder. ‘We need your help. The Toothless Beast just got to St Mary’s, and he’s getting all this attention. He got a whole welcome banquet just because he’s a guy and he plays hockey. We won the National Varsity Crew Championship last year and barely anyone even showed up. It’s not fair, and we want to do something about it.’

I was flustered. ‘Well … yeah. Definitely. That is unfair. We’ll … we’ll see what we can do.’ I looked around the table. ‘Does anyone else have something they want to change?’

Preeti spoke up. ‘I’m in sex ed right now and it’s ridiculous. Ms Hyde is totally clueless. I don’t think she’s ever even had sex. I’m pretty sure she wears a tankini in the shower.’

Maggie chimed in. ‘Well, I was gonna say we should have peer counsellors for sex ed. Older students you can go to and ask anything, and it’s confidential.’ She gave me a small, grateful smile before adding quickly, ‘Not that I have questions, but … hypothetically.’

‘These are actually good ideas,’ I said. ‘I should –’

Before I’d even finished the sentence, Mary Kate was sliding a crisp, blank notebook and uncapped blue pen in front of me.