The Notorious R(uth) B(arakat) G(rimaldi)

Chapter 13: Autumn Moves On

Ruthie was the talk of the school for the next few days, though she tried to put it out of her mind and focus only on her drama dialogue, the dance, and the spring play, which had finally been announced. It seemed Ms. Piper had been having a little trouble with the administration on this issue.

"Okay, guys," she said. "I know there's been some stuff going on with a few of the students in this class." She gave Elliott, Ruthie, Gordon, Brett, and even Amelia a look, before looking at the rest of the class once more. "I need you to leave that outside, okay? I have some things to tell you.

"I came here because I needed a job fast, and Warren High needed a teacher fast, so it's not necessarily the best fit, ideologically speaking, you understand?"

Ruthie thought it funny that most of the class nodded even though they probably had no clue what "ideologically" meant.

"So, I had a few ideas for what I wanted to do this spring, including To Kill A Mockingbird, Diary of Anne Frank, The Life of Brian, Wicked, or even something more out there, but," and here she paused, drawing a deep, tired breath, "we couldn't come to an agreement."

Ruthie sat up at the titles mentioned, even though Ms. Piper said they'd all been nixed. It was amazing that she'd even tried. Warren would never go for a play about racism, rape, Nazis, Jews, a play that made fun of the life of our savior Jesus Christ, or witches.

"I honestly don't know what I was thinking," Ms. Piper said, shaking her head.

"I don't either," Ruthie said without thinking.

Ms. Piper glanced at her, tired amusement in her brown eyes.

"Please keep your editorializing to yourself, Ms. Barakat-Grimaldi," she said with a dry smile.

"Sorry," Ruthie answered, making a locking motion in front of her mouth, and then a tossing away the key gesture.

"So, I finally just let the school board pick the spring play, and they decided on Les Misérables," she told us. "At least that's what I think they chose. I'm not exactly sure, because quite a few of the school board members said 'La Miserelle,' and I don't know what that is. But they kept talking about Jean Valjean and Cosette, so it must be." She smiled wickedly at the class, and Ruthie and Elliott were a few of the students who were brave enough to laugh out loud.

"Anyway, they said something about there being a lot of good singers at the school, because of all the churches?" Ms. Piper continued. "And they especially mentioned Susan Cornell? One of the board member's granddaughters? I guess she goes to school here, but isn't in this class, right? But she has an amazing voice, and is a soprano, so she should make a good Cosette." Poor Ms. Piper sounded almost bored, Ruthie noticed.

"So class. In spite of my bad attitude, which I promise will be gone by Monday, it's a lovely play, with plenty to do for everyone. It has a huge cast, and it's a huge production, lots of fun props and sets and costumes, so please, spread the word, okay? I didn't have a fall play on purpose, because I didn't know what I'd be walking into, what kind of talent pool I'd have. And I'm happy to say that you are so smart and talented, and I'm really going to enjoy working with you, I am."

Ms. Piper twisted her brown pony tail into a bun and secured it with the hair tie. "In fact, your dialogues are going so well that I was thinking of putting on a small show with them, in this room, what do you think?" She looked around for the class's reaction. "I've been timing you guys, and all of them come out to about an hour and fifteen minutes, which would put us at about an hour and a half altogether. And you guys are phenomenal, I think your parents and friends would love to see you. And, I think they'd love to pony up, say, five bucks apiece to see you," she added with a smile. "This would really help the drama club out, you know? Especially with our trip to New York in the spring?"