The next morning, as I walked to school, I smelled
bear. Aunt Lina. She had probably gone back to check my
kill. I hope the little dog got enough
to eat before she got to the woods, & frightened everything
off. Aunt Lina had been asleep when I
left for school, but it was one of my early mornings – I’m in the chorus &
they meet in “zero period” – Forty minutes before the first class of the day.
What can I say about chorus? I like to sing, and my friends are in chorus,
so I joined too. Mrs. Beach is so much
fun, and we sing cool stuff. But it’s
still a school class, and so stupidity is the name of the game. I think I’ve already written about the whole
“Christmas without Christ” concert before Christmas…
The Spring Concert has no stupid restrictions, because
it’s not tied to any holiday (like Easter or Passover). Mrs. Beach has used
gospel spirituals, Broadway show-tunes and pop songs in an attempt to win the
“Clash of the Choirs” trophy. Dor tried
out for a solo and will be singing “Frank Mills” from “Hair.”
Dor is a pretty good singer – that’s why I was so
surprised when she didn’t get a singing part in “Cheers Not
Tears—Just Smile!” But…that’s another
thing I’ve written about in previous posts, so I won’t waste time rehashing it…
As
I reached the front door of D. S. Whitstone, I saw Carl locking his bike to the
parking lot fence. He wasn’t supposed to
do that, but the bike rack was already full.
“Wait
up!” He shouted.
Ruby’s
dad’s van pulled up just as Carl reached the door, so we waited for her. She grabbed her backpack and lunch out of the
van and ran over.
“Carl,
is it true that your mom’s making you quit the play?” Ruby asked breathlessly
as we walked into school.
“Yeah,”
Carl said, grinning. “And I’m glad. I
have the chance to play with a real folk band at a benefit for Breast
Cancer. I was recommended by my banjo teacher
to play with this group. It’s all adults
& me. How awesome is that? Mom thinks that it’s a better opportunity than
doing Wren’s play. Who’s gonna come see ‘Cheers Not Tears—Just Smile!’ when we
do the single performance Antonio is planning?
Some local do-gooders will see it, but it won’t help me in my musical
career. Pete freakin’ Seeger himself
will be at this Breast Cancer Benefit, and I can use this as a ‘resume
enhancer’ when I’m trying for a music scholarship. That’s more important than chanting ‘Turn
that frown upside down!’ a few times for Wren. Although I will come see the play when --I
mean IF—it ever happens!”
“I
think it’s what’s best for you,” I said.
“But Dor’s not gonna quit – she still thinks Wren’s gonna come through
for us. Wren did promise us a fantastic
end-of-the-year trip out of this. Maybe
we’ll go to Great Adventure or the Museum or NY Aquarium or something.”
“My
mom likes that I’m doing an after school activity so I’m still in,” said
Ruby. “And Amelia’s mom’s been asked to
play Jackie’s mother.”
Carl
laughed. “Mrs. R is gonna play the depressed mom, too? She has the best line in the whole play! Lucky!”
“What?”
I asked, trying to recall the script.
“She
gets to bang on the table and yell at Shirley the Smile Sprite. The line is pure schlock. ‘I wouldn’t be so
unhappy, if he were a better kid!’ I
can’t wait to see that!” Carl crowed.
Misquoting
that line was the joke of the day for us.
Amelia adapted it in Mrs. Farfanella’s math class, when Byron Knight got
a problem wrong. She slammed her book on
the desk and said “Byron, Mrs. Farfanella wouldn’t be so unhappy, if you could
just learn to add!” I didn’t have Mrs.
F. for Math, but Dor and Carl did, and they reported it to Ruby & me at
lunch. It made Miss F. laugh, and she
didn’t even know about the play.
Then
Dor took it up to complain about how her Mom made a lousy sandwich.
“I
wouldn’t be so hungry, if she’d just make my egg salad with extra mayo!”
We
all laughed so hard, that the teachers began to give us weird looks. The kids
in our grade already thought we were geeks, so our odd behavior was hardly
noticed by anyone else. But it helped
make the day go faster!
Play
practice that afternoon was a disaster.
Wren was frustrated when a few of her “stars” didn’t show (and didn’t
bother to show). Only one of the
Madisons showed up, Heather’s threatening to quit, and no one could find
Brittany….When she found out about Carl, she nearly blew a fuse. Antonio was cool about it; Carl’s playground
scenes were mostly pantomimed anyway. He
figures one of Wren’s triplets could fill in.
Oh! Last week we got a new male lead, Roger. The girls are all goo-goo eyed over him. He doesn’t want to be bothered with them, and
sometimes hangs around by us, which is making us even less popular with the
Madison-Brittany-Heather-Madison clique.
It’s funny, I’m not even sure if they like each other, they just seem to
have banded together because of the play, and because they dislike the attention Roger pays us. Great, like we need more trouble than school
gives us.
I know I’ve
said this before, but I cannot wait until
this play is over.
Until my next
post…
Randi
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