“This isn’t dreadful,” Johanne said, handing the paper back. “Your sentence structure is improving.”
Meg looked down at her English essay and tried not to get dismayed at all of the red marks. Johanne was harsher than any of Rose’s teachers.
“Do I need to re-write it?”
“Do you want a passing grade?” Johanne said.
Meg groaned and shoved the paper deep into the bottom of her bag, where it would lay, forgotten until it was time to hand it in. She set her mind to the task at hand. Perking life back into her flattened hair. She had a serious case of hat head.
“Don’t forget to hand it in on time,” Johanne warned. She slid up next to Meg and gave her reflection the quickest of glances. “Katrina takes off a point for each day it’s late.”
“I’ll do it tonight,” she grumbled. She frowned at a cowlick that just wouldn’t sit still. “Thank you for all this. I feel like I should be paying you or something.”
“It’s just nice to actually talk to someone at school.” Johanne shrugged, then smiled. “Besides Sister Deirdre. Did you study for Bio?”
Meg considered lying, but Johanne had a way of sniffing out the truth.
“I meant to. I really did. I made flashcards and everything, but then Lucy came over.”
“You’re her new alibi, huh?”
“It’s not like that.” Meg winced at Johanne’s little smile. “We do actually hang out there sometimes. It’s not like she’s using me or anything.” She knew she sounded unsure. “Anyway, we had to go to Scott’s, and by the time I got home, I was just too tired.”
“Scott?” The smile disappeared. A little crease appeared between Johanne’s eyebrows. “Scott Boyd? Zach’s cousin? Are they dating now?”
“She wishes.”
As if on cue, Meg recognized the sound of Lucy’s footsteps as she stormed down the hall. Her heavy boots dragged across the floor, followed by the familiar sound of underclassman scurrying away.
“Here she comes…”
“Got it. I’ll disappear.” Johanne moved toward a stall.
“Johanne,” Meg began. She didn’t know what to say. She liked Johanne, but she liked Lucy more. She didn’t want to offend the one person that was helping her stay at Rose, but she didn’t want to piss off her Lucy either. “Do you want me to try to talk to Lucy?” she asked, but she crossed her fingers behind her back and hoped Johanne would refuse.
“What’s the point?”
She walked into the stall and shut the door behind her. The toes of her shiny penny loafers, peeking out below the door, seemed like the saddest little things in the world.
The bathroom door swung open, and Lucy strolled in.
“There you are.” She went over to the mirror and dumped her purse on the shelf. “Where were you at lunch?”
“In the library,” Meg lied. She turned on the faucet and began scrubbing her hands. “Studying for Bio.”
“Bio? That stuff’s cake.” Lucy grimaced, rummaging in her bag.
Meg snatched a paper towel from the dispenser and patted her hands dry. She hadn’t told Lucy about the trouble she was having keeping her grades up. Lucy thought the classes at Rose were ridiculously easy, almost boring, and even with minimal effort, she had one of the highest GPAs in their grade. Only Johanne knew how close Meg was to failing, and Meg wanted to keep it that way.
“You missed pizza day,” Lucy continued. She pulled out a small compact. “You can’t skip lunch on pizza day. It’s the only edible thing they serve.”
Meg watched as she pulled down her collar and swept a sponge over the enormous purple and brown hickey on her neck. The light powder did little to cover the vivid bruise. If she simply buttoned up her shirt, the hickey would be completely camouflaged, but then Lucy would be deprived of the thrill she got scandalizing the Scolders and the teaching staff.
“I think I’m going to grow my hair out.” She tugged at her short, glossy locks. “So I can cover up these little embarrassments.”
“Who’s the guy?” There had been a few random dudes at Scott’s apartment the previous night. Lucy had disappeared into the bathroom with one of them halfway through the evening. Meg assumed Lucy was trying to make Scott jealous.
“No one important.” She reached up and felt her throat. “Crap. My glands are swollen. I hope I don’t have mono.”
“Mono?” Meg stepped back, imagining tiny little germs oozing out of Lucy’s pores.
“It is the kissing disease,” Lucy explained. She stared at her reflection, mussing up her hair with her fingertips, giving the longer section on top a little shake. “I always get sick after I kiss a new guy. A sore throat usually. I guess it’s what happens when two sets of germs find each other, and well, comingle.”
“You make infectious disease sound almost romantic.”
Meg pulled out a travel-sized toothbrush and an equally tiny tube of toothpaste. Lucy zipped up her purse and watched her as she scrubbed her teeth.
“You’d probably make a poor guy gargle and floss before you’d let him peck you on the cheek,” Lucy remarked. “Are you still hung up on that Danny kid? You need to move on. I’ve never seen someone who needs to get laid more than you. You’re so damn twitchy.” Meg stowed her things back inside her bag. “Where are you going?”
“It’s free period. I was going to study.”
“Drama club is meeting,” Lucy hissed.
“I forgot,” Meg said, her hand hovering near the bathroom door. She’d been attending drama club meetings for weeks. She sat in the back and tried to stay out of the way, watching while Lucy submitted plays and monologues and skits for the group to perform. Occasionally the group would agree to read one of her plays, but they mostly sat around arguing. Everything was a topic of contention-costumes, props, sets, even other schools’ productions. They’d been so busy fighting, they hadn’t had time to plan one single production. Lucy seemed to be the only one legitimately interested in staging a play. The other girls, Debs and Scolders both, just enjoyed acting like complete drama queens.
“We’re deciding on the spring play today.” Lucy was insistent. “I need your support.”
Meg didn’t know what kind of support she could offer since most of the group ignored her, and the rest probably didn’t even realize she was there, but she followed Lucy down the hall anyway. If there were a vote, she would of course vote for whatever Lucy wanted, and that way, it wouldn’t be a total shut-out.
“They can’t say no to this,” Lucy whispered as they walked into the crowded classroom. “I really did my research this time.”
They sat down at the front of the classroom and waited for the moderator to come in. After several minutes, Sister Katrina came in, looking frazzled as always. Meg settled down in her seat and watched the normal proceedings. Two Debs performed a halfhearted scene from Romeo and Juliet. One of them was Loretta Miratti, a willowy senior whose sleek silver Audi was much envied by the rest of her clique. She was the official Drama Club president and was headed to Carnegie Mellon to study theatre in the fall. She’s a terrible actress, Meg thought, watching her wooden delivery. She was playing a love-struck young teenager, but she was too glamorous and sophisticated looking. She seemed more like a 40-year old divorcee. Juliet should be fresh-faced and dewy. Naïve. She looked over at Eleanor Anders, a freshman Scolder who sat, riveted, in the far corner. There was Juliet.
“That’s great, girls. Great,” Sister Katrina said. She untangled the long chain that hung from her glasses. “Do we have any new business?”
“Spring play.” Lucy raised her hand.
“Right,” Katrina frowned, anticipating the argument. “Well, we need to settle this today. Are there any suggestion?”
“Romeo and Juliet,” Eleanor cried.
“We did that last year,” Lucy said, glaring at the freshman.
“As You Like It,” Loretta called. She crossed her sleek legs. “We can ask St. Martin’s to provide the male cast. It will be fun.”
“We did that last year too,” Lucy grumbled. “Can’t we be self-sufficient? Why do we need the boys to come to our rescue all the time?”
“We don’t need to involve another school,” Katrina intervened. “If there are boy parts, you can have girls dress in drag.” The room erupted with silly giggles. Lucy rolled her eyes.
“Let’s do Hamlet then,” Loretta decided. “Something more serious. To stretch our acting chops.”
“Shakespeare isn’t the only playwright there is,” Lucy said, whipping around to face Loretta. “Can’t we do something modern? Something that wasn’t written by a dead, white man? Something that has, you know, actual female roles?”
There was an outcry in the room then, with lots of yelling and girls talking over one another, along with a few cries beseeching Lucy not to “insult the bard.” Sister Katrina managed to quell it before any punches were thrown.
“Let’s hear Lucy out,” she said after the room had quieted. “What do you have in mind?”
Lucy, smiling, rose from her seat. She started handing out a bunch of papers to the girls in the top rows. She purposely avoided Loretta, but Loretta reached over and snatched a copy from one of the freshmen and quickly began to scan it.
“It’s called Uncommon Women and Others. It’s a play with an all-female cast. It’s a little dated, but I thought we could play that up a bit. Go all retro with costuming.”
“They’re talking about birth control,” Eleanor said, her eyes wide. “And lesbians.”
“It’s really tame,” Lucy sighed. “By today’s standards. And there quite a few juicy roles,” she added, looking straight at Loretta. Loretta looked at the paper again, and her shoulders relaxed. Lucy smiled, knowing that the promise of a plum role had won the older girl over.
“Well, let’s do a reading,” Katrina said, pulling the teacher’s desk over to the side of the room. “And we’ll see if it works.”
“I want to be Kate,” Loretta announced.
“Anyone else? Lucy?”
“No, but Meg wants a role,” Lucy said.
Meg looked up, alarmed.
“Oh, I don’t think I’m ready,” Meg said, shaking her head.
Lucy pulled her chair closer to Meg’s desk. “I picked this play for you,” she whispered. “It’s perfect.”
The whole class was looking at her. Meg didn’t see any way out of it. She looked down at the paper, to see who had the fewest lines. “I’ll be Rita.”
“No,” Lucy said. “Rita’s too easy.”
“She’s funny,” Meg said, scanning her lines.
“Yeah, but how much of a stretch is that for you, to be funny? Be Holly,” Lucy demanded and pulled back Meg’s chair. “She’s the dumpy, insecure one. Now that would be a challenge.”
Meg slowly got to her feet and joined Loretta at the front of the room. Eventually, other girls joined them, giggling and happy, excited to try something new. Meg swallowed, and folded her paper, trying to steady her nerves. For so long she had been invisible, and she had gotten used to blending in. In all her time at Rose, she’d never been front and center. She didn’t like it. She could feel all the eyes on her, taking in her every movement, picking apart every flaw. Lucy was smiling at her, and that was encouraging, but she was the only one. The other faces were impassive and unsmiling, waiting for her to fumble on the words. She imagined a thousand more of them, watching her as she stood beneath a harsh, unforgiving spotlight, and she felt a bit woozy. Her right foot slid a bit.
“Are you Ok?” Loretta said, watching Meg as she tried to steady herself.
“I’m fine,” Meg tried to answer, but before the words could get out, the room started spinning, and at Loretta’s throaty gasp, everything turned black.
When she could focus her eyes again, she realized she was sitting on the floor, her legs tucked underneath her. She felt something pressing into the small of her back, looked over her shoulder, and noticed it was a bony toe. She was leaning up against Willy, the plastic skeleton that stood in the corner.
“She didn’t eat lunch,” Lucy was saying. “And she’s so grumpy. I think she’s on the rag.”
“Low blood sugar probably,” Katrina said, frowning at Lucy’s choice of words. “Run to the nurse’s office, will you, Lucy? Get some juice.”
Once Lucy had scampered away, Katrina helped Meg back to her seat and ordered the other girls to continue with the reading. “Eleanor, you take over for Meg,” she said.
Meg watched the younger girl leap from her seat.
“Don’t worry, Meg,” Katrina was saying. Meg tried to focus on her, but her vision was still a bit blurry. “I realize you’re on academic probation now, but you’ve got plenty of time to get your grades up before the play begins.”
“Oh,” Meg said, trying to hide her smile. “I forgot about my probation.”
She wondered if she should flunk a test or two, not enough to actually fail a class, but enough to guarantee she’d have to remain on academic probation indefinitely. She remembered the paper sitting in her bag, the one that Johanne had carefully reviewed, and thought she’d just hand it in as is.