Excerpt from the Short Story - Riya's Backstory
Riya's Backstory
Seventh Grade
A week later, Riya paced anxiously in front of the
auditorium waiting for the director to post the cast list. She frequently
looked over her shoulders for the girls. She had auditioned in secret, and she
wanted to keep it that way.
Finally, the director emerged from the auditorium and taped
a single sheet of paper to the door. Riya nearly danced in anticipation while
she waited for him to leave. Then she rushed over.
A wave of excitement washed over her.
I made it! I
actually made it!
It wasn’t a big part, but she had a solo.
Then her smile fell.
The girls wouldn’t allow her be in the play. She had acted
on impulse when she had auditioned behind their backs, but she knew that if she
accepted the role, her entire life would change.
When she went to class that morning, she tried to act as if
nothing had changed. But then the director ruined it all by broadcasting the
audition results during the morning announcements.
Her heart tightened as soon as he started. Her pulse
hammered in her ears as her mind raced to find a way to make this okay.
Then her name was announced. Riya winced. The girls turned
towards her with looks of disgust. She hung her head.
“You have to drop out,” Kari demanded.
“Why?” Riya asked softly, still looking down.
“Because everyone will make fun of you,” Ellie added.
“Everyone?” She met their eyes defiantly. “Or just you
guys?”
Sydney delivered the ultimatum with a casual air, “Drop out
or you don’t sit with us anymore.”
Riya was sick of pretending. She was sick of playing their games.
“Who said I want to sit with you crusty butt-wipes anymore?”
Then, in a dramatic gesture, she moved to an empty desk at
the back of the room and tried to ignore their death glares.
All morning long, and into the lunch hour, she held her
tears in and tried to avoid watching the girls as they gossiped about her. But
the loneliness was overwhelming.
She didn’t know what she had been thinking. She had acted
out of pride and defiance, and now she had ruined everything. All of her hard
work to gain acceptance – the games she had played, the rules she had followed.
And in the blink of an eye, she had destroyed it all. Now she had nothing. No
status. No friends.
“Congratulations,” Chiara’s voice called her attention. She
stood next to Riya’s lonely lunch table. “For your first audition, it’s pretty
amazing to get a part, right?”
“Why are you
talking to me?” Riya snapped. She couldn’t help but be rude. That was the role
she had rehearsed for years. She immediately regretted it. She forced her tone
to a softer one, “I said all that mean stuff to you.”
Chiara simply shrugged. “I’ve heard meaner. You can sit with
us if you want.”
Riya’s heart leapt at the invitation, but her mouth moved
against her will. “Who’d want to sit with you freak shows?”
Chiara nodded with her mouth in a hard, straight line, then
said, “Well, let me know if you change your mind.”
As she turned to walk away, a part of Riya desperately
wanted to call her back. She glanced over at Sydney’s table and saw them all
watching.
Maybe she could undo the destruction. Maybe she could still
salvage her broken social life and gain acceptance into the group again. She
would definitely earn some points by berating Chiara in front of the entire
cafeteria.
But do I
even want that? she pondered.
Immediately, her heart screamed, No!
She had sacrificed so much for people who didn’t care about
her. She had hidden her beliefs, her heritage, and her talents just to be
accepted. And now, they had cast her out because of one false move.
She didn’t want to go back to her old life. She wanted to
destroy and obliterate her old life.
“Wait!” she called out, springing to her feet.
Chiara turned back with a hopeful glint in her eyes.
“Maybe I’ll sit with you,” Riya feigned confidence. “Just
this once.”
The smile Chiara gave her was pure sunshine.
As they approached the table, the science geek was lecturing
the sloppy, Jewish girl.
“So after decades of using low frequencies for things like
radio communications, earth actually has a cocoon or bubble around it. In
theory, it might even be protecting us from solar radiation.”
“Get out of town!” Mac exclaimed. “No, get out of the solar
system! Dude! That is so… In fact, what if… hang on a sec!”
She quickly pulled out a notebook and started scribbling
furiously.
Chiara chuckled as she and Riya sat down. “They’re always like
this,” she said. “Cosmo knows a lot about science and Mac is always writing
some awesome story.”
Riya’s mouth nearly fell open. She felt like she had
traveled to an alien planet. Chiara had just celebrated the differences of her
friends. Not mocked them.
“So are you excited about the play?” Chiara asked sweetly.
“Sort of, I guess,” Riya said with a shrug. She didn’t know
why she downplayed her excitement.
“Yeah, we saw about Sydney and the others,” Mac said
absently while writing. “You can hang with us as long as you like, though.”
Cosmo mumbled.
“What was that?” Mac asked him, sounding like a stern mother.
He sighed. “I was just saying that it’s a horrible reason to
ostracize someone – over something as inconsequential as performance arts.”
Riya snapped her head up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He shrugged with an arrogant smirk on his face. “Just, you
know, at the end of the day, it’s not like a play is going to make that much of
a difference. It’s just a hobby.”
Riya bristled. “It might not cure cancer or solve world
hunger,” she started, “but it’s just as important.” Her hands tightened into
balls in her lap. “Think of how many people come together in a cast, united in
a single purpose. They’re co-creators of something beautiful – something that
pulls the audience out of themselves. Co-creators of myths and stories that
reveal universal truths. Truths that are presented in a way that engages your
senses, embedding the message in your brain and burning it into your heart.”
She felt her face heating as her voice crescendoed.
“Why do you think so may religions have sacred songs,
chants, and dances? It’s because the performance arts have the potential to be
holy, mystical, and even life-changing!”
She braced herself for their reactions, expecting the worst.
After all, sharing her dissenting opinions was what had gotten her in this mess
to begin with.
Cosmo was obviously stunned, mouth closed and small, but
eyes wide. Riya had no idea what he was thinking about her. The girls were quiet,
too.
Then Mac started laughing. “She tooold you!” she said to
Cosmo.
“That was beautiful, Riya,” Chiara said, with her head tilted
to the side in thought. “It makes me think about how they say that the longest
journey is from the head to the heart.”
“Duuude!” Mac said on an exhale. “So it’s like the arts are
a bullet train for that journey! I think about stuff like that all the time,
too, with my writing,” Mac said, using her arms and bouncing in her chair as
she spoke. “It’s like, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, right?
So when we create something, it’s the highest praise we can give to our Creator.”
Then, in her excited movement, Mac knocked over her water.
It splashed onto Riya’s shirt, soaking it thoroughly.
Riya tensed. She knew what came next. Even though she hadn’t
done anything wrong, she would be the butt of jokes.
“Oh, my dude, I am so sorry!” Mac said sincerely.
Riya was not expecting that reaction. “It’s okay, really,”
she said.
Mac shook her head. “Come with me,” she said as she grabbed
Riya by the wrist and dragged her to the bathroom with Chiara following closely
behind.
When they reached the bathroom, Mac pulled her arms into her
big, blue sweater and – with clunky, awkward movements – took off the white
uniform shirt underneath. She then handed the shirt to Riya.
“Here,” Mac told her. “You can wear mine. It’s dry.”
Riya stared incredulously at the shirt. It seemed like a lot
of unnecessary effort. “Thanks. But couldn’t I have just borrowed your
sweatshirt?”
“No one wears my sweatshirt,” Mac declared seriously.
As Riya changed into Mac’s shirt, she was shocked to find
that it was a perfect fit. She couldn’t help but think of the proverb of
walking a mile in someone’s shoes – or in this case, their shirt. Riya had
always participated in mocking Mac and Chiara. And now, in a matter of a few
minutes, these girls had shown her more kindness than her other friends had in
years.
When Riya exited the stall in Mac’s shirt, Chiara and Mac
assessed her.
“There, good as new,” Chiara pronounced.
In a strange way, Riya felt good as new. It was as if the
spilled drink had washed away her old self.
She felt free. Free of her old life and free to be whoever
she wanted. She could try out for plays. She could be open about her faith and
her interests. It had taken the destruction of her old life for her to realize
the new life that was begging to be lived.
Out of overwhelming gratitude, she started crying.
“Are you okay?” Chiara asked sympathetically, with a warm
hand on Riya’s shoulder.
Riya could almost see her glowing with kindness. It was like
seeing sunshine for the first time after living in a dark cave for years. She
didn’t want to ignore or bury this feeling any longer.
“Can I please stay?” Riya begged.
Chiara and Mac both gasped. Then they simultaneously crushed
her in a fierce hug. Riya laughed her tears away, embracing the warm gesture
and her new life.
Read excerpts from the other stories here:
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