Searing showed up at Crystal Prep at high noon, as Midnight had told her to. It didn't take long for Searing to find him leaning against the doorway. "And the President shows up right on time," he said as she walked up. "I suppose you walked here?"

"I live a mile away," Searing said. "Walking that distance is no problem."

"There are some who think otherwise, but-" Midnight sniffed the air for a few seconds. "Do you have a dog?"

"I'm friends with one that lives a couple blocks away. I pet him every time I go past."

"You do know Principal Cinch is highly allergic to dogs, right?"

"So I've heard. Can we just get this over with? I have a lot of nothing I want to do today."

"After you, Madam President," Midnight said as he held the door open for her.

"So this is my office?" Searing asked as she entered the room.

"Our office, technically. Go ahead and have a seat, then we can start reviewing the existing policies to figure out what to simplify."

Searing sat down in the comfy chair behind the desk. "So what do you normally do?"

"Despite holding the title of Vice President, I'm really more of a secretary to you," Midnight explained as he set a stack of binders on the desk. "I do get a few of the same perks that you do."

"Like what?"

Another stack went on the desk. "The authority to forgive other students' tardiness within reason, though there's a policy in the way of that one." Another stack. "Being able to eat lunch up here away from the rest of the student body is pretty nice." Yet another stack. "Access to the teacher's lounge and office is very good." The stacks were piling up. "But the best part of all is having full, unlocked internet access in the library." One more stack got added.

"What. . . What is all this?" Searing asked with a degree of fear in her voice. "This can't be. . ."

"Oh, but it is. It's all of the policies that got enacted last school year!"

"Is that all I have to deal with?"

"There's two more school years worth of these as well."

"Give me the smallest one."

"This is the smallest one."

Searing slumped onto the desk in defeat, and one of the stacks fell over onto her. "Why so many?"

"So, did you get all that?"

"No, I didn't," Searing said. She'd been sitting still for over an hour, and they'd only gotten through half a stack, each rule in it deemed pointless, redundant, or harmful. The current rule she was working on made no sense to her. "You know what, buck sitting in this office! I'm going for a walk."

"Then I'll accompany you," Midnight said as he followed her out.

After a minute of silence walking through the halls together, Searing noticed something. "Why do you still have that binder?"

"Oh, this little thing?" Midnight asked as he held up the binder they were working on only minutes before. "I guess I forgot about it," he explained with a casual shrug. "Maybe we could go over it again while we're walking?"

Searing sighed. "Sure, not like we have anything else to do."

"Excellent!" Midnight opened the binder and began reading from it. "I'll give you the abridged version. Student Council elections are held every four years, mirroring that of the nation's Presidential election cycle, and only freshmen are allowed to run for Student Council. When the whole Student Council graduates, all non-procedural rules passed by them are removed. All procedural processes remain from year to year. In the event of anyone permanently leaving Crystal Prep early for any reason, an emergency election can be held. Any replacement candidates must be in the same grade as the one that left."

Searing thought it over a bit. "Freshmen are ninth graders, right?"

"Yep."

"And these elections are held only every four years, right?"

"Yep."

"So that means only a quarter of the student body is eligible for Student Council, based entirely on when they start here."

"Yep."

"How is that fair?"

"It isn't."

"Why is it still here?"

"Procedural rules are reviewed and renewed at the start of every school year. Thus far, they haven't been reviewed until now."

"Then we're getting rid of that procedure. Give me a minute to come up with a replacement idea."

After they walked around for a few minutes with no idea coming up, Principal Cinch appeared, stopping them. "Are you two done already?"

"No no no, we're just going for a walk," Midnight explained. "It's actually quite refreshing, and it seems to work for her."

"You do realize that one of the rules the Student Council passed three years ago expressly forbids working on these kinds of matters outside the appropriate offices, right?"

"What?" Searing asked. "That's. . ."

"It was passed in order to keep-"

"That's so stupid!"

Principal Cinch shot a cold glare at Searing. "If this were a regular school day, I would admonish you for interrupting me with such a childish choice of words."

"So what you're saying is that if we interrupt you with a more mature and adult choice of words, you would not admonish us?" Midnight rhetorically asked, earning him a glare. "Just saying."

"I will forgive this transgression if you go back to the office immediately."

"Fine!" Searing exclaimed. "We'll do that. Let's go, Midnight."

"But of course," Midnight said as they turned back around and went back to the office. "Of course, we still need to leave by three, but that shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"No, it won't be a problem."

By the time they got back to the office, Searing had figured out her replacement idea. Once they were inside, she started dictating it. "Student Council elections will be held every year, with nobody serving more than one school year on it. Anyone who hasn't held a position can run for the Student Council. If someone leaves, no emergency elections will be held."

"You are going to get so much hate from the rest of the Student Council on that," Midnight remarked as he dutifully wrote down her words.

"Why should I get hate? It's their last year here, so it won't affect them."

"It's part of the perpetuation of power. Personally, I'm fully in favor of this plan." He started looking through some of the older binders on the shelf. "I could have proposed it myself, but it would have gotten destroyed by the council or previous president faster than the truth at a congressional hearing."

Searing looked at him with a bit of confusion. "I feel like there's a punchline in there that I'm not getting."

"There isn't. Hmm. Which one is it?"

"So it's just another thing I don't get."

"Probably. Ah, here we go!" He pulled one of the binders out. "Oh, it isn't." The binder went back and he started looking again.

"How did you become the Vice President anyways?" Searing asked as she sat back down and picked a random binder from the stacks.

"I talked my way into it when the last guy was running. I had my own plans, but neither he, nor the rest of the council would consider any of my ideas. Then he graduated early and here we are now."

Searing looked past the binders in front of her as she thought about his answer. "So, am I. . . Which of us is really in charge here?"

"You're the president."

"But it's your idea."

"So it is."

Searing went back to the binder in front of her. "Monthly funds allocated for Pandora Music subscriptions for the various student clubs. . . Numbers number numbers. . . Yeah, no."

Searing came home feeling mentally drained. "How was the politics, Searing?" Discord asked.

"So much paper. . ."

Discord followed her upstairs. "You know, politics are a great source of chaos."

"I thought you didn't follow the rules."

"Only as far as I like. You would not believe what a few choice words from a person of influence can do within a system. Even the right words and phrasing, when spun the right way, can bring out so much vitriol. Why, I don't even have to do anything to cause chaos here."

"Yeah, yeah." Searing, upon entering her cloud themed bedroom, quickly shut the door behind her. "Worst. Vacation. Ever."