Dancing For Someone
Rory Gilmore groaned as she boarded the Connecticut
Transit public bus that would take her to Chilton Preparatory School. Mondays were her least favorite days; her
Latin teacher always piled on the homework on Mondays.
The bus
swung around the corner and went on for another mile, stopping in the small
town of Riverford, which was slightly bigger than Stars Hollow. Rory was puzzled. The bus had never stopped in Riverford before. There were no Chilton students from
Riverford, and the citizens of Riverford kept to themselves.
The bus
driver, Tom, slowed the bus down at a stop near the corner of Magnolia
Street. Two people were waiting – a man
who looked to be in his forties, and a teenage girl in a wheelchair. The girl was wearing a Chilton uniform. As the bus pulled up, the man helped Tom the
bus driver get the girl's wheelchair onto the bus. Tom came back onto the bus, and drove off.
Rory,
sitting in the middle of the bus, saw the girl's eyes sweep over the bus. What was she looking for?
Apparently
satisfied, the girl turned her attention to the book she held in her lap. Rory's eyes caught the title: Dancing for
Someone, but did not recognize it.
The bus
pulled up at Chilton, and Rory exited the bus without giving the girl a further
thought.
Latin was
over, and Rory had five pages of homework.
It wasn't bad, considering that the normal was nine. She headed down the hallway and into the
bathroom to fix her hair.
No one else
was in the bathroom, which was a usual thing.
Everyone else usually used the bathroom down at the other end of the
hall. Some said it was cleaner. Others just liked that there was a window
they could lean out of to smoke. Rory
didn't know. To her, the small,
windowless bathroom was the best place in the entire hall.
After
fixing her hair, Rory turned to leave, but stopped. Someone else was in the bathroom. "Is someone in here?"
"Yes," said
a panicky voice. "Who is it?"
"I'm Rory
Gilmore."
"Is there a
teacher around?"
Rory peered
into the hallway. "No."
"Can you
help me? I'm in the handicapped
bathroom."
Rory pushed
open the door to find the girl from the bus sitting on the floor. She had obviously fallen out of her
wheelchair, and couldn't get back in. "Hi, I'm Rory," Rory said.
"Annie," the
girl answered. "Annie Ecclesall. I'm so
sorry. I fell."
"Are you
okay?"
"Yeah, I
think so. It happens a lot."
"It's good
you called out," Rory said, helping Annie back into her wheelchair. "No one
else uses this bathroom."
"That's
kind of cool," Annie said, buckling her seatbelt. "Thanks. It could be like your own private bathroom."
"That is an
idea," Rory agreed.
Annie
washed her hands and turned off the faucet. "So, where are you going next?"
"Algebra
with Mr. Haney," Rory answered.
"Me too,"
Annie replied. "Is he a good teacher?"
"Pretty
good," Rory informed her, holding the door open.
"Thanks."
"So, when
did you move to Connecticut?" Rory questioned.
"Oh, just a
month ago," Annie replied. "I've been homeschooled since then. But my dad found out about this school and
thought it would be a good place to go.
I wasn't sure if I'd be accepted or not. So far, I've only been on people's bad sides."
Rory stood
back to inspect Annie. She looked like
every other Chilton student, in her plaid skirt, white shirt, and blazer. She wore navy tights with white leg braces
fastened over them, and saddle shoes.
Except for the leg braces and the teal wheelchair she was sitting in,
Annie was the picture of Chilton normality.
"Like who?"
"I don't
know, some blond girl, and her lackeys."
Rory
grinned. "So you know that word, too? I
thought I was the only who used it. You
mean Paris and Madeline and Louise."
"Yes, those
are their names," Annie agreed.
Rory turned
into Mr. Haney's classroom. "Have you met Tristan Dugray yet?"
"No."
"Stay away
from him."
"Ah,
another Black Plague Boy."
"What?"
"It's what
we called the snotty rich prep school boys who rode my bus back in Michigan,"
Annie explained with a smile.
Mr. Haney
began to take roll a moment after Rory and Annie came into the room. "Please
respond with either 'present' or 'here.'
Andrews?"
"Present."
"Arbuckle?"
"Here."
"Bascomb?"
"Here."
"Cohen?"
"Present."
"Cudgel?"
"Here."
"Dugray?"
"Present,
Mr. Haney." Tristan slid into his seat just as the bell rang.
"Thank you,
Mr. Dugray, for joining us," Mr. Haney said. "Ecclesall?"
"Here!"
Annie said brightly.
"Welcome,
Miss Ecclesall," Mr. Haney greeted Annie. "For all of you who don't know, this
our new student, Annie Ecclesall. She
just moved here from Temperance, Michigan.
Farley?"
"Here."
"Fredericks?"
"Present."
"Fuller,
Jane?"
"Present."
"Fuller,
Michael?"
"Here."
The Fuller
twins shot a glare at each other, then turned their attention back to the front
of the room.
"Geller?"
"Here,"
Paris said.
"Gilmore?"
"Present,"
Rory responded.
"Holloman,
Douglas?"
"Here."
"Holloman,
Callie?"
"Here."
The
Holloman cousins sat side by side in the third aisle. They looked like twins, but they weren't.
"Ingus?"
"Here."
"Joffrey?"
"Present."
"Kingman?"
"Here."
"Manning?"
"Present!"
Olivia Manning was a very perky person.
"Mueller?"
"Here."
Thomas Mueller was not.
"Nzyolanzya?"
"Here."
"O'Riley?"
"Here."
"Perkins?"
"Present."
"Quentin,
Gabriel?"
"Here."
"Quentin,
Anastasia?"
The Quentin two were of no relation
to each other.
"Present."
"Stoltzfus?"
"Present."
"Vassar?"
"Here."
"And
Zuckerman."
"Here."
Mr. Haney
handed the attendance card to Thomas Mueller, who went out the door to deliver
it to the attendance office. "Now, class, we're going to pick up where we left
off yesterday," he said. "Miss Ecclesall, we'll get you a book. For now, please share with Miss Gilmore."
Rory pushed
her desk over to Annie's, and opened the book to the place they'd been studying. Mr. Haney continued, "Who remembers what we
were talking about?"
Madeline
Joffrey raised her hand. "We were discussing variables."
"Correct,
Miss Joffrey," Mr. Haney replied. "Can someone give us an example of an
equation with variables?" He called on Lori Kingman.
"24 equals
2C," Lori answered.
"Very good,
Miss Kingman," Mr. Haney praised. "Who can solve that equation? Miss Ecclesall?"
"Twelve,"
Annie answered.
"Correct. Can anyone else give me another
example? Miss Gilmore?"
"Uh, 36 equals
4D," Rory answered quickly.
"Why don't
you solve that, Mr. Dugray?"
"D equals
nine," Tristan replied smoothly.
"All right,
people, you seem to understand variables," Mr. Haney said. "Please do pages 14
and 15, problems eight through fifty-six for homework. Miss Ecclesall, I'll go get you a book."
"Thank
you," Annie said.
Mr. Haney
left the room. Everyone bent intently
over their homework. Well, for a
moment, anyway. As soon as he had left,
Brandon Stoltzfus whispered across the aisle to Michael O'Riley, "Cripples
shouldn't be in this school."
Annie's
cheeks flushed a bright red. "Ignore them," Rory whispered to Annie. "Just
concentrate on your homework."
Annie did
so.
"They
shouldn't," Michael whispered back. "Cripples should go to their own school."
"Yeah,"
Gabriel Quentin joined in, "like the Hartford School for the Disabled."
Annie was
getting angrier. "It's okay," Rory whispered frantically. "Don't blow up at
them."
"Cripples
have rights, too," Tristan inserted.
"I am not
a cripple!" Annie yelled at them suddenly.
Her outburst startled Tristan so much that he dropped his book. "Just
because I can't walk doesn't mean I'm stupid!
In fact, I have more compassion than you bean-brains ever will!"
Tristan,
Michael, Brandon, and Gabriel just looked at her.
"Not being
able to walk has nothing to do with your mind," Annie continued. "So just knock
it off!"
Mr. Haney
came back in. "Miss Ecclesall, is there a problem?"
"Not
anymore, sir."
"Good. Here is your book. Don't forget about the homework!
It's due tomorrow. Class
dismissed." The bell rang as Mr. Haney said this.
The class
went out of the door, rejoicing at their freedom. Rory hung back with Annie. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Thanks." Annie unlocked her wheels and
rolled towards the door. "I just…I just hate people like that."
"I can
understand."
"I just
wish there was something I could do about it.
But there isn't."
Lorelai
Gilmore considered the contents of her cabinet. "Tuna or chicken?"
"Tuna,
please," Rory requested.
Lorelai
took the box of Tuna Helper out of the cabinet. "So, anything exciting at
school?"
"There's a
new girl. Her name is Annie Ecclesall."
"Ecclesall,
Ecclesall. We just hired a new
part-time chef today named Maire Ecclesall."
"I don't
know, it could be her mom. Annie seems
really nice. But she blew up today at
Tristan, Michael, Gabriel, and Brandon."
"Not the
Snob Patrol?" Lorelai gasped.
"Yeah. They were teasing her about not being able
to walk."
"She can't
walk?"
"No, she's
in a wheelchair. That's how I met her;
she fell out of her chair and I had to help her back in."
"How very
charitable of you." Lorelai turned the box around and began to read the
directions.
"Thanks. I feel kind of bad for her, though."
"Well, I'm
sure she doesn't need your pity, Rory."
"Thanks,"
Rory said dryly. "Hey, I'm going to study.
Call me when dinner's done."
"Will do!"
Maire
Ecclesall faced her daughter. "Tell me the truth, Ariana, how was school?"
"It was
okay," Annie said cautiously. She
maneuvered her way around the table, setting places for herself, her parents,
and her brother James. "It was fine, actually.
I met a nice girl named Rory." But the mean ones outnumbered the good
ones.
"Well,
that's fine," Maire sighed, and breathed a sigh of relief. She had hoped that Annie would do well in
Chilton, and everything seemed to be working out okay.
Sullivan
Ecclesall came in then, and he smiled when he saw Annie and Maire talking. Annie had changed out of her Chilton uniform
and now wore jeans and a sweater. "So, did you get the job, Maire?"
"Certainly!"
Maire answered with a smile, giving him a kiss. "And the manager is the nicest
person, her name is Lorelai Gilmore."
Annie
nearly dropped the plate. "Lorelai Gilmore?" How many Gilmores could there be in Stars Hollow. "Does she have
a daughter named Rory?"
"Yes, she
does," Maire answered.
"Rory was
the girl I met at school today!" Annie exclaimed gleefully. "That's fantastic,
Mom!" She rolled forward and hugged her mother tightly around the wait.
"Well,
we'll have to invite them over for dinner one night," Maire said.
"Great!"
Annie cried. "How about Friday?"
"Well, we
have to go to my grandparents' on Friday," Rory said apologetically on the
phone. "But I'm sure they'd love it if I brought a friend, especially a Chilton
friend."
"Oh," said
Annie, softly. "Well, I guess I can ask my mom. Hold on."
She set
down the phone and went off to ask her mother.
Rory took the opportunity to eat another bite of Tuna Helper. "Hey,
Mom! Can Annie go to the grandparents'
with us?"
"Sure!"
Lorelai called back.
In a
moment, Annie was back. "My mom says it's okay if it's okay with your mom." The
old excitement was back in her voice.
"Okay,"
Rory agreed. "We'll pick you up at about six-thirty. Where do you live?"
"1200 Marchand Street, in
Riverford," Annie answered.
"Great! See you then!"
There was
an audible click as Rory hung up the phone, and Annie grinned to herself. "I
have a friend," she whispered to the now-empty room. "I have a friend!!"
