Chapter 3: Drama
By Wilde Abrams
Monday morning, Kitty wasted no time assuming her new role as Principal Sue’s new Head Bitch. She arrived bright and early and took her place at the desk in the outer office.
She was just finishing up setting the desk up the way she wanted it when her nemesis strode into the office. When she saw Kitty there any stopped in her tracks.
Bree looked her up and down in a condescending way and asked, “What are YOU doing here?”
“Oh,” Kitty began, relishing this, “haven’t you heard? I’m Principal Sylvester’s new personal assistant?”
Bree took a moment to take this in, but decided not to comment. “Whatever. I need to see her.”
“Do you have an appointment?’
“I don’t need an appointment!”
“I’m afraid you do. Principal Sylvester is a very busy woman and if she dropped everything and made time every time someone decided to drop by she would never get any work done.”
Kitty glanced at her planner. “I can fit you in at 3:30 this afternoon….”
“That’s when Cheerios practice is,” Bree reminded her.
Kitty gave her an evil smile. “Well you could always tell me what you want and I could go over it with her.”
Bree was taken aback in a rare moment of speechlessness and Kitty took full advantage of it.
“Now this is how it’s gonna be. I’m the new Head Bitch In Charge … You may be the captain of the Cheerios, at least for now, but every student and club goes through me if they need something from Principal Sylvester. If you want my support and cooperation then here’s how it’s gonna be.
“As of right now the torturing of Unique is over. Further, you will stop your active attacks on former glee club members….and most importantly…. You will not tell me who I can and can not socialize with.
“If you can comply with that then we will have a decent working relationship. If not, I will do everything in my substantial power to block every proposal you and request that you put forward.”
“This isn’t over,” Bree responded.
“No,” Kitty responded. “It’s just the beginning.”
Bree stormed out and Kitty smiled.
*#*#*
With the glee club gone, Mr. Schuster suddenly found that he had a lot of free time on his hands and decided that he would be able to put his energy into the drama club this year. The four years he’d run New Directions, he hadn’t been able to give that club all of the attention it deserved, and the last two years he’d taken significant steps back because the New Directions was requiring more of his time, going so far as to completely delegate the fall musical to others the previous year. This year he vowed to make it up to the club. Normally the club would begin meeting just before tryouts for the fall musical, but this year he held the first meeting the fourth week of school, hoping to get people who were interested involved before their other extracurricular activities were set.
Since the choir room had been turned into a computer lab, he had to use the auditorium for meetings. This didn’t really bother him, because truth be told he thought that practicing in the same space as you performed in would help get the students more comfortable. That was part of why he used the auditorium so much with Glee.
In his first meeting he got a nice group of both familiar and new faces. As he expected, the remainder of the former Glee Club members were there: Jake, Marley, Ryder, Wade/Unique, and Kitty. He and Emma’s niece Betty had also shown up. He also recognized Dottie Kazatori and a few students from his previous and current history classes.
Among the new and unrecognized students was a young blonde girl. He notice some uneasiness between she and Ryder, and wondered what the story was there…
He also saw some apparent hostility between Kitty and Betty, and made a mental note to ask them about it. He didn’t want drama (so to speak) right out of the gate if he could help it.
Surprisingly he also saw three other members of the Cheerios. If Sue were still running the cheerleaders he might suspect that one or more of them had been sent to spy on him, but coach Roz Washington was more direct than that, and since the Drama Club only met weekly, and had a very minimal budget, he could not imagine Sue having any problems.
“Good afternoon,” he said. “I’d like to welcome you to the first meeting of the Drama Club this year. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Mr. Schuster, and I along with Coach Bieste, who couldn’t be here today because she’s having football tryouts, will be the drama club advisors for the year. In addition to our weekly meetings we will put on two productions this year. The fall production is traditionally a miscal. In recent years we’ve done both Grease, and West Side Story.”
He began handing out a sheets of paper. “Drama is all about self expression, it is an opportunity to express parts of yourself that you normally would not express. In order to do that, this needs to remain a safe space. Everyone here needs to know that what happens and is said will stay with the group. For that reason, I am asking that each of you sign these confidentiality agreements. Those of you who were in Glee Club will recognize the form as we used it in there as well. You can also all rest assured that coach Bieste and I will also keep what goes on here confidential as well, to the extent allowed by law.”
“What do you mean?” The new blonde asked.
“There are laws that require teachers and school staff to report things like child abuse or neglect that we suspect or is disclosed to us,” he told her. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ryder shift uncomfortably in his chair. “But other than that, you can be assured that what happens In here stays in here.”
There were nods of agreement from the former glee club members and a couple others, but clearly some of the others were not yet on board with the idea.. “I realized that some of you are being taken by surprise by this, so I’m giving everyone till the beginning of the next meeting to turn the these in. Those who are comfortable can drop them off on your way out.
“For now, I’d like to take a moment to go around the room and introduce ourselves and explain why we chose to become members of this club. I’ll start. My name is Will Schuester. Most people call me Mr. Schue. I’m married to you guidance counselor, Mrs. Pillsbury-Schuster. I spent about 2 years as a substitute teacher in the district, and I’ve been a teacher here at McKinley for 14 years. I taught Spanish for about a dozen years, and then moved to history 2 years ago. I’ve been one of the Drama Club advisors most of my time here, and was director of our glee club The New Directions for 4 years until it was disbanded last spring due to budget cuts -”
“- I thought it was because you didn’t win nationals,” the Cheerio with the neck brace chimed in.
“-like I said,” he corrected, “because we didn’t win, our budget got cut. I was a member of the National Champion Show Choir team here in 1993, and when I was your age I dreamed of being a professional singer and being the next Vanilla Ice or a star on Broadway …. But over time my dream evolved, and I became a teacher who inspired my student to reach for theirs. Kitty, how about you go next.”
“Hi everybody. I’m Kitty Wilde. I’m a junior this year and I’m here because I enjoy performing, and am hoping to get a better role in this years musical than last year.” There were chuckles from the former glee members. Despite an excellent performance Kitty was not happy playing a secondary role, something she let everyone know many times. “I was in Glee last year and am in my second year as a member of the Cheerios. I’m also Principal Sylvester’s assistant, which means I spend a lot of time in the office, and anything that needs to be dealt with by the principal goes through my desk first.” Will smiled even though he still didn’t understand Sue’s proclivity to use s student as her secretary.
“Hi I’m Marley Rose and I’m also here because I like to perform. I was Sandy in last years production of Grease, and was in Glee last year. I want to be a singer on the radio and I write my own songs. Oh, and my mom works I’m the cafeteria.”
“I’m Ryder Lynn and I’m on the football team. I played Danny in Grease and was also a member of Glee last year. Oh and I’m a Junior. ”
“I’m Jake Puckerman, and I also love to perform. I play the guitar. I’m also a Junior.”
“I’m Unique Adams. I’m a Senior this year and I was also a member of the Glee Club both here and at my old school. For the record, despite what my anatomy may look like, I’m a girl. I realize that may be hard for some of you to accept, but I hope in time you will. I was cast as Rizzo in Grease last year, but my overprotective parents removed me from the show. Hoping for a better outcome this year.”
“I’m Betty Pillsbury I’m a senior and new to McKinley this year. I’m a member of the Cheerios and at my old school I was the Captain of the Cheerleading squad and a featured soloist in Vocal Adrenaline. I’m here because my aunt recommended it. ”
Several former glee club members shifted in their seats and shared nervous glances at the mention of their former rivals.
“My name is Marissa,” the new blonde said. “I’m a Sophmore this year and I wasn’t in Glee Club or the musical, but I decided I needed to make some new friends and thought it might be fun to try my hand at acting and singing . . ”
“Welcome Marissa,” Will said.
“My name is Dottie. I’m a member of the Cheerios and I was never in Glee Club but I was the personal assistant to one of the Senior members last year. It was the longest year of my life…. I’m here because I want to try something new.”
“My name is Jordan Stern,” the Cheerio with the neck brace told them. “I’m hoping to find a fun extracurricular activity to fill my time with after I am eventually forced to quit the Cheerios, because Coach Roz is a psychopath who is trying to kill us. ”
Several people chuckled.
They continued through the rest of the group. After the last student had spoken Mr. Schu thanked them for sharing and handed out books containing Death of a Salesman, the first play they would be reading, and told everyone to start brainstorming for what they wanted to do for that fall musical. Fortunately the rental and performance fees were paid for by a grant (something he’d managed to arrange when he was on the a Blue Ribbon Panel For Arts Education the previous year), but since that budget for the Drama Club was next to nothing, they would need to use the props and sets they had, or do a fundraiser cover the costs.
***
Ryder was uncomfortable during that entire Drama Club meeting. He hadn’t anticipated ‘her’ being here. It had taken weeks for him to get over being catfished by Unique, and he’d even almost forgiven him/her, But now the physical manifestation of that experience was right across the room from him, and it all began flooding back again: the feeling of being exposed, of not knowing who this person was who he had told all of those private stories to and shared those pictures with. Of serenading a girl he’d never even met.
He was about to get up and leave when Mr. Schue’s voice called out to him, “Ryder, can I see you for a minute?”
“Sure Mr. Schue, what’s up?”
“I couldn’t help notice that there was some uneasiness between you and Marissa. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
“It might help if you did. You’re gonna be in here all year and probably gonna see her around in the halls too. ”
“I’m not sure I am going to stay in drama club this year.”
“Ryder, you need to face your problems head on, not avoid them. If I taught you all nothing else last year I hope it was that.”
Ryder sighed, “Okay Mr. Schue. Remember last year when I was bring catfished by someone calling herself Katie? Well that was her.”
“I thought it was Unique?”
“It was, but that’s the girl whose image he used. I didn’t find that out until after I had drug her by the hand into the choir room and serenaded her with Your Song by Elton John. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my whole life and seeing her here just brought that whole thing back again. I thought I was over it.”
“I see.” He said, placing an empathetic hand on Ryder’s shoulder, “I can understand why that would make you uncomfortable, but let me ask you something, is any of that Marissa’s fault?
“No, no I guess not. I suppose I should talk to her, eh?”
“That would probably be a good idea, yes. It’s going to be a long year if you don’t. And if you’re still having issues, I’m sure my wife would be happy to talk to you about it. ”
“Thanks Mr. Schue.”
***
That Wednesday evening Will and Emma had dimmer with Betty and her parents as sort of a welcome to town. During some down time, Will asked her about the reaction that she’d gotten from Kitty.
“I don’t know uncle Will, but she’s been watching me ever since I got here. I’m not sure what her problem is, but I was wondering if it was my chair. ”
“That’s very unlikely, she dated a guy in a wheelchair last year and they were good friends before that.”
“Let me guess, Artie Abrams?”
“Yeah how did you?…” But he stopped himself,
“Artie and I met last year at your almost wedding and went on a date afterword, but things didn’t work out . Somehow she must have found out…..what should I do Uncle Will?”
“Never underestimate that resourcefulness of Kitty Wilde.”
*#*#*
Author’s Notes: Okay folks you know the drill. Read and review. The more reviews I get the more inspired I will be and the faster I will get to the chapter where Kitty and Artie get to see each other again.