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

Chapter 38: Distracted

The almonds blossomed and the weather got warmer as the days grew longer, and Ruthie was as happy as she could ever remember being. She was in love, had an amazing part in an amazing play, and her horrible ex was no longer at school to torment either her or her boyfriend.

The police told Ruthie and her dads that they were looking for Brett, as he was wanted on assault charges. As best they could tell, he was somewhere on his parents' property, probably in one of the numerous little trailer houses they had strewn about their orchards and fields. The police didn't have enough for a warrant to search the entire thirty acres, and every time they went to the house, Brett's mother simply said that she hadn't seen him.

"There's not much else we can do, unfortunately," Officer Briggs told the Grimaldis. "We're a small outfit, the nimrods we had in custody aren't talking, and his mom and dad aren't giving anything away."

Ruthie laughed at "nimrods," but Officer Briggs looked at her sharply. They were all sitting in her living room.

"Those two aren't bothering you, are they, Ruthie? Because they're one shoelace away from being expelled anyway," the police officer informed her.

Ruthie shook her head. "I don't think they'll do anything without Brett to be their ringleader," she told him.

He nodded in grim satisfaction and took his leave.

"I heard that they're using their dogs to communicate," Pepsi told Gordon, Ruthie and Elliott at rehearsal. "They're paranoid about even using their cell phones, so they just tie notes to Blue's collar, and she goes and finds Brett out in their orchard."

Of course, the big change in Ruthie's life was in her relationship with Gordon. He rarely spoke to her, and didn't even look at her if he could help it. None of the others knew what had happened between them, and Ruthie was too ashamed to tell anyone, even Elliott. She knew that there was enough truth in Gordon's words and feelings to make her feel very small indeed.

However, even with all of the joy in her life, she missed Gordon, and felt his absence keenly, most of all during lunchtime. He'd taken to eating with his chess club friends in the math room, saying that they needed to "strategize" for tournament season.

Even today, Gordo just nodded at Pepsi's interesting gossip, and went to join another group of actors.

"What's that about, then?" Elliott asked Ruthie. "Still don't want to tell me?" He nudged her as they watched Gordon walk away.

"Nothing to tell," she tried to reassure him. 

Pepsi, too, was confused by the change in their group dynamics. 

"I've known both of you too long not to know that's a lie," she informed Ruthie. "Even Linda can tell, and she's not even around us that much. 

"I'm really quite hurt," she continued, raising her voice dramatically. "To think neither of you feel you can confide in me, I mean really."

"Gimme a break, Pepsi," Ruthie answered, slinging an arm around her skinny friend. "You know I still love you."

Even though Madame Thenardier was usually played by a larger person, they had decided to let her be a skinny, mean, shrew, rather than try to put Pepsi into a fat suit or anything like that. And, real life weirdness aside, casting Pepsi and Gordon as the Thenardiers had been a stroke of genius on Ms. Piper's part. They were hilarious together.

Ruthie and Elliott were called onstage at that moment, cutting their conversation off, but Ruthie was bothered, off and on for the rest of the afternoon, by how Gordon had abruptly left them for his "other" friends.