Meets Expectations
by Verdell Walker
Today I gave a presentation to my SVP with fifteen minutes' notice because my VP screwed up, and then I got a Meets Expectations rating in my annual review, but here I am at this 7 pm PTA meeting in the arctic school library with the sad sandwich platter, ready to start shit.
The PTA president Donna—who wears a nametag to every meeting even though we all know who she is—hands me a bill at the door for $100 for the cookies my son (and I) forgot to sell for the fundraiser, a sheet of crisp paper embossed with the logo of this $25,000-a-year private school and a QR code linking to the PTA's Venmo/Zelle, because of course.
My husband, who cuts wary glances my way, keeps his hand on my jiggling knee as I sit through forty minutes of Donna airtime about field trip chaperone assignments, the upcoming book fair, and next month’s seven spirit days before she opens the floor and I raise my hand so fast my elbow cracks.
I read from the PTA Handbook on my phone—“Section 3.1: all members shall complete twenty hours of volunteer service by the end of each semester”—then look up at Donna and say “you're at twelve, according to your Google doc” and the room goes the specific kind of quiet that means everyone was thinking it, but nobody said anything.
My husband sighs a deep, heavy Negro spiritual sigh as Donna twirls her gavel and says, “That doesn’t count my service as president,” to which I say, “It shouldn’t, according to Section 3.2 of the same bylaws, which we ratified in August.”
Now Donna will be running the book fair instead of me, and on the way out, the PTA treasurer Rachel pulls me aside and whispers: “She's been running unopposed for seven years, the election's in May, and I'll nominate you if you want.”
Yes, I want.
BIO
Verdell Walker is a writer from rural Georgia whose work is inspired by her heritage and her research. Her stories are published and forthcoming in Tractor Beam, Reckoning, Zooscape, and other fine publications. Verdell is a graduate of the 2025 Your Personal Odyssey Writing Workshop. She is a recipient of the Horror Writers Association's Diversity Grant, the Gotham Writers of Color Creative Writing Scholarship, and the John Lewis Writing Grant for Fiction. She is also a 2026 Periplus Collective fellow. Find her on her website and book review podcast, The Book Up.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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