Misfit Theater Company (Wattys Winner 2018)

7. Friendship is Hard

I was right. Gina is mad, and she's staying mad. I haven't heard from her since Thursday night when she was trying to get me to switch back to sewing. Usually she and I spend our whole weekends together, but this past weekend, all I did was sit at home and watch TV. She did this same thing for a week in 8th grade when we had our last big fight. She claimed to be sick every lunch period so that she could eat in the nurse's office. I had to sit by myself at lunch then, just like I've been sitting by myself now. I can only assume what is happening today will continue to happen all week until Gina decides to forgive me.

Today is day 4 without speaking.

I don't know where she's been eating or what she's been doing, since we don't have any classes together and the high school is far too big to go looking around for her. No, this time it's just the silent treatment, and I'm not sure what else to do but try my best with my classes and do my best in rehearsals with Thatcher for our ten-minute play. He was very patient with me today and last Friday, but I'm not getting the lines as quickly as I probably should. I'm afraid I'm letting him down. I'm pretty sure Patti and Moth already have theirs fully blocked and memorized. Thatcher got stuck with the dumb partner.

I'm about to text Gina for about the fiftieth time to ask where she is when Patti comes over with her tray. "Are you eating alone?" she asks before sitting down at the empty end of the lunch table with me.

I nod, a mouthful of salad stopping me from answering.

"Mind if I sit with you?" she asks. "I usually eat alone too."

I swallow my food. "No, come sit."

She smiles and takes the seat across from me where Gina usually sits. If Gina saw this, she would be furious, but I'm not worried, since I'm 99% positive she is in the nurse's office or something right now.

Patti opens her milk carton and takes a sip. "So, tell me about yourself, Janie."

"Like what?"

"Like what you're interested in, where you're from, what are your favorite things, why did you decide to take theater? That kind of stuff."

"Um, I don't know," I say, shrugging. I don't like talking about myself much. "You go first," I say.

"Okay," Patti says happily. "Well, I was born here. My parents met during their high school play, and have loved theater ever since. My mom is a financial advisor, and my dad works at Central High as a tech theater teacher." I look at her in confusion. "Tech theater is like building the sets and setting up the lights and doing all the music cues and all that stuff. So anyway, when I was born they named me after Patti LuPone, who is, like, one of the greatest Broadway stars of all time if you've never heard of her or seen any of her movies. I've been singing and dancing and acting since I was a baby, so it's basically in my blood. When I grow up, I want to be on Broadway, for sure. I take a lot of classes outside of school, like dance--ballet, jazz, tap--and acting. I take private voice lessons too. I'm pretty busy, but that's what you do for your dreams, right? You work hard. Okay, so now tell me about yourself."

Ugh, I think. I was hoping Patti's life story would take longer than that. I bite my lip to think about what I want to tell her.

"I don't really know, like... where to start."

"Any brothers or sisters?" Patti asks, taking a bite of her packed egg salad sandwich.

"Nope, I'm an only child."

"Me too. Hm, ok... so, why theater?"

I groan. "You really know how to ask the tough questions, huh?"