Misfit Theater Company (Wattys Winner 2018)

37. All Time High

Mrs. Thomas smiled at my little speech before sliding a course selection form across the table. "Pick your classes for the next quarter. Make the choices you want. Not the choices anyone else would want you to make."

"Not a problem anymore," I said, picking a pen from the little organizer cup on her desk.

Before I chose anything else, I put a checkmark next to Theater 4 on the electives side of the form. I chose English 10, Geometry, and Biology again, because I had to by state law, but then I made my own choices for the other classes. I didn't like Spanish, so I switched to French, just to try it out. I left a class blank so that I could have a study hall period during the school day for help with my studies and time to meet with the special ed teachers if I need. I chose Ancient Greek and Roman History as my humanities credit. I seem to remember something about the Greeks pretty much inventing theater as we know it, so why not?

It felt good to have a say.

Mrs. Thomas shook my hand as she wrapped up our meeting, and then said, "Before I forget, Grant O'Reilly emailed the information packets to us today to pass along to the four of you and then the two students selected to be extras as well. It has all the details about when you will leave, how you will be sent your tickets, all of that. But with that comes this other form." She handed me the packet and then placed another form on top that read Educational Trip Form. "Your mom will have to fill this out with the dates from the packet. Will that be okay?"

"Yes. We had a good weekend. She will fill it out."

"Good, because one of your peers was worried about the form."

"Worried about my form?"

"No, theirs."

It had to be Thatcher. Who else would have parents who wouldn't sign this?

"Oh, okay," I said. It was the only thing I could think to say in the moment.

She finished explaining everything, but my mind was on Thatcher. What did his dad say when he got home on Friday? I was so distracted by his sweet texts and my own family drama to ask about his.

I couldn't stop thinking about him all morning, and it didn't help that apparently his phone was off so he couldn't respond to my texts. Not even my last day in sewing with sweet Mrs. Larkin could distract me. She made me a special fabric patch to commemorate my trip to film with Grant O'Reilly. She hand stitched a red rose in the center of a black patch with the words "Misfit Theater Company" sewn below the rose.

"I know you weren't in this class for very long, and I know you didn't want to be here, but I'm proud of you. I just wanted to give you a little parting gift as a reminder," she explained, "that it doesn't matter how long you've known a person, you can still make an impact on them."

I thanked her, as well as apologized for not taking her class seriously, and then I found a safety pin to affix the patch to the front of my binder until I could put it on my backpack.

I was almost successfully distracted during fifth period English while reading the part of one of the apparitions who comes to Macbeth with a prophecy, but my lines only made me think about Thatcher.

"Be brave like the lion and proud. Don't even worry about who hates you, who resents you, and who conspires against you. Macbeth will never be defeated until Birnam Wood marches to fight you at Dunsinane Hill," I read. Well, the second part didn't have anything to do with Thatcher, but the first part made me think of him.

Be brave.

Be proud.

Don't worry about the haters and the people who do things to go against you, like possibly not sign an educational trip form to allow you to miss those days of school to film for a once in a lifetime TV show opportunity.