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

Chapter 20: Adieu et Bonjour

"I really hate the way those blokes look at you," Elliott muttered, shooting a look over his shoulder as he and Ruthie left the drama room to work on their dialogue. It was cold outside, but the weather was fine, so they were okay.

"I know, me too," Ruthie agreed, putting a hand on his arm.

The "blokes" Elliott was referring to were of course Brett and Leroy. Since they'd come back from their suspension, they'd taken to staring at Ruthie, though Leroy only did it aggressively when Brett wasn't looking. Brett still went all alpha male about Ruthie, and had actually shoved another football player into a bunch of lockers for making some comment about Ruthie's appearance in his, Brett's, hearing. Ruthie had no idea what the comment was, but supposedly it was something nice, to the effect of how beautiful she looked on that particular day.

Since then Ruthie, who was considered "one of the hottest girls in the school," and would've been chased by every available guy who thought he had a shot, had been left conspicuously alone. Which was just fine with her. She had zero interest in all of them, and only had eyes for the skinny boy from England with the really good hair.

Speaking of alpha male, though, Elliott was looking furious about Brett and Leroy, even after they were outside and ready to run through their dialogue.

"El, they're just looking. I mean, at the risk of sounding like a stupid Republican, this is America, and it is a free country, you know?" Ruthie tugged on his arm.

"I don't care where we are," Elliott said, looking over his shoulder at the door to the drama room. "The way they look at you isn't right. It's disrespectful and demeaning."

"Listen to you, Lancelot, getting all protective of my honor and everything," Ruthie teased, trying to lighten his mood. "Let them look. It just underscores what they'll never have. Are they imagining me with no clothes? They'll never see me that way. Or that I'll be their girlfriend? Not gonna happen. Sex slave? Definitely not gonna happen," she finished with the laugh Elliott loved.

"How can you joke about this?" Elliott asked. "Doesn't it give you willys to see them like that?"

"Like I said, I don't love it, but it doesn't affect me," Ruthie tried to explain.

Her words were cut off when Ms. Piper stuck her head out the door. She looked at the different groups of kids who were scattered outside, and she gestured to Elliott and Ruthie when she saw them.

They went into the classroom with no idea of what she wanted, and followed her into her office.

"There's no easy way to tell you this, so I won't even try to soften the blow," she said. "You guys can't do your dialogue from Lolita, I'm sorry."

Elliott and Ruthie stared at her.

"But we've been working on it for nearly two months," Elliott protested finally.

"I know, and I should've known that there would be a problem, especially when we decided to do a public performance." Ms. Piper looked apologetic, which made Ruthie feel bad.

"It's not your fault, Ms. Piper," she told her teacher. "I've lived here my whole life, I had a feeling this would happen."

"But the dialogue's taken from near the end of the book, after Lolita's grown, after she's become Dolly, for fuck's sake," Elliott interjected. "Humbert Humbert's an old man, they're just talking, nothing happens!"

Ruthie found his passion admirable, not to mention hot as hell, but she knew the battle was lost.

"So we'll pick something new," she said, her voice brisk. "We're professionals, right?" She looked at Elliott. "I mean, I never asked, but I assume you're a member of Equity, or whatever the English version is?"