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

Chapter 4: Partnering Up

"Your first project will be pretty simple," Ms. Piper began. "I just want to see what's what, who's in here to begin a journey, so to speak, and who's in here to pass the time." She looked around. "I have no problem with the second kind of student, it's a perfectly legitimate thing to take drama for that purpose. That's what electives are for.

"However," she continued. "For some people, this class will be a starting point of a journey they'll be on for the rest of their lives."

Ruthie felt a shiver go up her spine at her teacher's words. She desperately wanted to be one of those people. She had taken voice and dance lessons until she started high school, and enjoyed and excelled at both, but she'd quit when she realized her dads expected her to really start focusing on school and preparing for college.

Next to her, Gordon looked over and smiled. He knew how she felt. They'd even talked about going to New York together, about being drama nerds at NYU and sharing a tiny apartment.

"In groups of two, you'll be working on short scenes of your choice. You need to choose them from books, novels, not plays, okay? They need to be about five minutes long, for two people, and you need to sit and read them, and convey the scene with no props or movement," Ms Piper said. There was a brief silence as she looked around the room. "That's the only direction I'm going to give," she finished. "The rest is up to you.

"Oh, hold on, hold on," she added, as she saw the students starting look around for potential partners. "I'm going to assign the partners, just for my own sanity, okay? No, no, sorry," she said, her voice rising to carry over the general unhappiness she was hearing from the kids. "I can't deal with trying to learn your names if you're all over the place, and you won't get much work done if you're being all social with your friends and boyfriends." She looked at Amelia and Brett when she said this last bit.

"So, here we go," she said. She began calling out names off her roll sheet, and the class began pairing up.

Gordon looked at Ruthie, eyes sad as he grasped her hand. His last name was Miranda, nowhere near Grimaldi. He would probably get paired with Beverly Michaelson, who was nice enough, but was completely and totally obsessed with Kpop and anime, and talked about nothing else.

Ruthie looked around the room, trying to figure out who she'd get paired with, but she couldn't remember anyone whose name started with G off the top off her head.

"Elliott Banks, you'll be paired with Ruth--uh, wow, forgive me if I mangle this--Barakat-Grimaldi?" Ms. Piper looked around with a smile. "How'd I do?"

Ruth could only stare. She finally spoke up when Gordon nudged her, hard, with his elbow.

"Yeah, that's me," she said, with a little wave. "You got the name right, too, so thanks."

Elliott was looking at her with a glint of knowing amusement in his eyes. His hands were jammed in the pockets of his skinny jeans, his hair was in a pony tail. He was almost too carelessly handsome to be believed. Ruthie couldn't help but feel that he needed a good slap, though she couldn't figure out why. Of the hopelessly weeping boy of the night before there was no sign.

"Oh, you're the very exotic girl," Ms. Piper said with a laugh. "I guess it makes sense that you have such a wonderfully exotic name. How lovely."

Next to her, Gordon spoke up. "But Ms. Piper, that's not her last name. I mean, it kind of is, but usually she just uses Grimaldi as her last name." He turned to look at Ruthie. "Right?"

Ruthie nodded. "Yeah, I kind of just use 'Barakat' as my middle name," she explained.

"Oh?" Ms. Piper looked at her attendance sheet. "But my roll sheet says that it's a hyphenate. Is it wrong?"