When it comes to event planning by class presidents Lucy Sullivan (12) and Lily Bryan (12), there’s a special kind of chemistry that only exists because they’ve worked with—and cared for—each other for the last four years.

“Lily just makes everything fun,” Sullivan said. “When I’m with her, I really enjoy myself because not only am I getting work done as a class president, but I’m also able to appreciate the time we spend together.”

In a recent case of the year-end senior picnic, the two have split the duties of arranging details of catering, location, and time. After a casual conversation they were having sparked Bryan’s imagination, they decided to plan around the idea of sparking nostalgia in the minds of their classmates. 

“It just happens like that sometimes because it’s so easy for us to work together,” Bryan said. “Lucy and I will be talking about something and then we’ll just naturally start bouncing ideas off of each other about the event we’re planning [at the moment].”

This ease of conversation, and of planning, is something that’s been built up since the very beginning of their working relationship. While they went into their positions as class presidents in freshman year—after being chosen out of 14 candidates—as self-described “friendly acquaintances,” they soon became fast friends, Bryan said. Since then, they’ve grown close, not just as professional partners, but also as each others’ closest friends, in a way that helps them grow in both dimensions, especially the former. 

“There’s a lot of respect between us,” Sullivan said. “We understand each other so we can build off of each other’s ideas and balance [each other] out in a way that keeps both of us down to earth about what’s really possible with what we’re trying to do for our class.”

After braving numerous Homecoming weeks and ASB crises together, they’re now good enough at understanding each other that it’s easy to get on the same page.

“I think I’m the one that goes off the rails a little,” Bryan said. “I can go really big-picture about making the experience as good as possible for our class, which means I really need her to help me stay focused.”

Over these years, the pair has had to deal with expected challenges, in the form of wrangling freshman events without any experience as high-schoolers to unprecedented ones, like figuring out how to put on a Prom when there hadn’t been one in two years. 

“With Prom, especially, we wanted to go out of the box with our theme, because who’s ever done an art gallery Prom before?” Sullivan said. “Some of our biggest difficulties with that were in figuring out how to approach things in an unconventional way that was still familiar to our classmates.”

In looking forward, too, both Sullivan and Bryan want to stay original, and as close as they have ever been, having already made plans to visit each other despite going to college at NYU and Cal Poly SLO, respectively. 

Despite the bittersweetness of pulling off their last event, moving forward with their final plans has been a cathartic exercise in a ritual they’re now both so familiar with. After dual brainstorming, the last event this year is going to be a picnic, one that they hope people will truly enjoy. To that end, Sullivan and Bryan have brainstormed a comprehensive list of farewell activities and events, including slime-making, friendship-bracelet making, and detachable cap-adornment stations.

“In the past, seniors have just picked up their tickets [to graduation] from senior sunset and left,” Bryan said. “But we’re going to try our best to make it a full house, especially since it’s one of our last moments together as class.” 

And looking even further ahead?

“There hasn’t been a full class reunion in Westview’s history, so we’ve got a bit of a spotty track record there,” Sullivan said. “But mark my words, Lily and I are going to plan and execute the first one ever.”