43 west 22nd street

Manhattan Village Academy

Wednesday, September 13th

Today, the Big day! There was the big meeting between the Student Council, the presidents of all clubs, the principal, the vice principal and the Club's coordinator. I worked a lot on our program; I really hope we can continue our club officially.

The meeting was planned at 3.30 pm, so I'll have twenty minutes to read my notes again. I was walking to the meeting room when I saw the principal Ms. Peterson with someone. I tried to not be seen and I could listen to the conversation.

"I'm glad you're here Olivia, I asked the 13th precinct but they said that it wasn't possible, so I tried your precinct and here you are."

"Yes, I'm glad we could work together, I hope it will help your students. I know Jillian you're doing a lot of work here since last year and I'm really happy to help you."

"Thanks, I know, my new vision for the school is different than before but we're still a good high school and I hope this year will be quieter than last year, that's why I put the school in this program with the police."

"I hope so, that's why am here."

"Today you'll meet the Student Council and the presidents of the different clubs, they'll speak about the "prevention day." As we have some time left, we can go to my office to plan this day if it's ok for you."

"Ok, yes, let's do this."

Ok, so the big plan announced at the meeting during the first day was this… so the girl named Olivia is a cop… and we'll see her during our meeting… and our principal is a friend of the cop… I tried to gather my thought after this discovery. I sent a message to Lucas and Roman to share this information. Two minutes later, I had an answer from Lucas saying that he'll share the news with the other presidents and from Roman saying that he was on his way to meet me.

I discreetly walked to the meeting room, which was near the principal's office. I waited for Roman while I read my notes.

"So, a cop…" said Roman as soon as he entered the room.

"Yes… I guess our militia will be less useful."

"I'm not so sure about that" answered Lizzie, the president of the Student Council, who joined us in the conversation.

"Why not?" I said.

"Because there will still be some problems that we will have to solve without the police and the adults. I'm sure we will still have a lot of work."

"Maybe, we'll take about that later on. It's time now. We have to stop talking about that," said Roman.

We went to our places. We, sat, were waiting for the others.

A few minutes later, we were all here and the principal, the vice principal, the club's coordinator Allison Johnson and…the cop entered the room.

"Hello everyone, sit down please!" said the principal "Great, nobody is missing so we can start this meeting. As you can see, we have a guest today, this is Lieutenant Olivia Benson from Manhattan Special Victims Unit, she's here to discover the school and talk about our future collaboration together. I'll let her the first talk."

"Thank you, I would like to present you the concept of the collaboration. It will take place in four "prevention days." The first one, against the sexual harassments, will be on the September 23th. Another about alcohol and all kinds of drugs, another about the internet and the last will be an open one for all the students, except for the senior years, which will have a special meeting to talk about college and the new liberties you'll encountered after leaving the school."

"I remind you that you have to go to all the days. In case you'll miss one or more, we'll see how you can go to another day in another school or have a special homework about that. Now, we can continue with the program for all the clubs this year. Emma and Maggie, for the dance club, what will you have to offer?"

I was listening to the other presidents about their amazing programs... My stress levelled up when I saw it was my turn … ok, we have worked a lot on this, but I was still in stress and in doubt…

Roman kicked my foot to let me know that it will be our turn, I came back to reality and I put my fears asides.

"For the art club, what do you have to offer Luna and Roman?" said the principal.

I took a deep breath while I was looking to Roman and the adults. The cop was judging me, but I tried to stay focus.

"This year, we are determined to present a show about a different kind of arts and different universes. It links with the campaign, that we made last year, against the difference. The goal is to discover different universes and to mix with them in aim to create a dialog and to have an open mind and not to stigmatize them. Different workshops will be offered this year. We're still in discussion with some clubs, schools, and artists. We will let you know when we have further information. We will also continue our blog and add a forum to exchange with other students. The informatic club agrees to help us for our blog and forum.

"Can you have all the details for September 25th?"

"Yes, we'll have an answer soon and have almost our calendar ready" said Roman.

"Ok. We need to talk about all your programs and see if we all agree with that. So, you can go to the cafeteria, we will meet again in twenty minutes."

We left the room and went to the cafeteria. Lizzie wasn't so happy neither were Stephen and Liam from the cooking club. I think there were afraid to lose their club. Lizzie wasn't sure to stay the presidents of the council. The presence of this lieutenant wasn't welcomed...we wanted to manage our clubs and problems between students without the adults and the police.

20 minutes later we go back to the room all a bit stressed by the results of their discussion.

"So... We have decided to keep all the existent clubs open because next year the majority of the presidents will leave the school so there will be some changes for the clubs and you have all some good programs. Congratulation to all of you and good luck with your clubs."

We thanked the adults, relieved to keep our clubs open.

I was happy with the result of the day and this year is starting not so badly.