A/N: I went back and added a better explanation as to how and why Spencer seemed to catch a luckier break in getting back into Mrs. Bernardo's good graces this semester than Ruby did last semester.
Ruby had begun to reevaluate what her life had been like up until the point that she and Shannon came to realize that they had fallen in love with each other, and more specifically, what her social and romantic life had been like…
As hard as it would be for some to believe, even for Shannon herself, as a little girl, Ruby was something of an outcast, and had even gone through her own personal ugly duckling phase in elementary school. Nature versus nurture, sometimes, children could be cruel, whether or not they were even aware of it, but for a number of years, many other children at Fern Valley Elementary wanted nothing to do with Ruby – she was just far too different from many of them for their comfort: she did not look like them, she did not sound like them, she did not act like them, and as such, the poor little Indian girl felt like a born loser.
By the time that she had reached her double-digits, things began to change… little by little, she seemed to grow out of her so-called ugly duckling phase, and gradually grew into the graceful swan that many would attest to her being today. Her life in middle school, compared to elementary school, was like the difference between night and day – even she was perplexed by it at first; it was as though, overnight, she went from being a loser and a nobody to being a somebody, as more and more of her fellow students wanted her to hang out with them; it was as though other kids stopped seeing her as being so different, and began to see her as being unique… Ruby absolutely reveled in her newfound popularity, and thoroughly embraced having gone from being a social outcast for much of her life, to an outgoing social butterfly. By the time that she was in eighth grade, she was most definitely considered one of the cool kids, and the sorts of cliques and social circles that she drifted her way through very much reflected such – in a sense, she seemed to have adopted a similar mindset as one Lola Loud (whom she had never met, let alone even knew), in that she would always set her sights higher and higher; her goal soon became to be one of the most popular girls in all of Fern Valley Middle. Over the course of those three years, she had been included in so many cliques comprised of cool, popular, and trendy girls, that it definitely had an influence on the way she acted and even spoke, as she quickly adopted a valley girl manner of speech – complete with the excessive, incessant, and even incorrect use of the word, 'Like,' in her sentences; a habit that has stuck with her, and was incredibly hard for her to try to break.
By the time she had reached the age of thirteen, not only did the now-teenaged Ruby continue to find herself being approached by other girls who wanted her to join their cliques and hang out with them, but she also gradually began to find herself being approached by boys who were awestruck by what an exotic beauty this Indian girl had grown into that set her apart from so many other girls at Fern Valley Middle, who were either vapid and shallow plastics, or androgynous hipsters. Although her parents were at least pleased that their young daughter now had something of a social life, they felt that she had become a little too wrapped up in such, and even that she was still a might young to worry about going out boys, when she should, instead, focus on her academics and education, especially when high school was just around the corner. While Ruby was not usually one to rebel against her traditional parents, she still felt that she had a right to live her life as she wished, and did, indeed, begin to go out on dates with any boy who asked her out – after all, that had to say something about her if boys were so enchanted by her to want to ask her out, did it not? There was just one problem, though: by that point in her life, Ruby had developed such high standards for herself, that many of these boys just could not measure up to those standards; too many of these boys would try far too hard to impress and charm her, that it became crystal clear to her that they all just put up big acts that made them come across as rather foolish… but, who could blame any of them? They had just asked out Ruby Patel, one of the coolest and most popular girls in all of Fern Valley Middle, on a date – of course they would be desperate to get her to like them. Unfortunately for them, their desperation did more harm than good in her eyes, and rarely, if ever, did any of these very brief encounters advance beyond just a first date.
Upon learning that a business opportunity was going to require the Patel family to relocate and move to the bigger neighboring town of Royal Woods, Ruby was eager to broaden the scope of her social life even more, and among the new faces who came into her life during her freshman year at Royal Woods High was one Spencer Banks, who had already established quite a reputation from his own middle school days as a star athlete, but the two of them had first met in the most unlikely of places: Mrs. Bernardo's drama club. Ruby had opted to enroll in this elective because she had figured it was a class she could breeze her way through – a few generations back, her family originally came to the United States from the highly affluent and economically-thriving capital city of Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, home to what many considered to be the show business capital of the world, Bollywood… as far as she was concerned, this meant that show business was practically in her blood. Spencer, meanwhile, despite his athletic prowess and competitive nature, which made him an absolute beast when it came to team sports, also possessed another side to his personality that he rather his peers knew nothing about, which was his appreciation for the arts, and had decided that the drama club would be one of his electives – so long as he could prevent his friends from finding out about it.
It was not at all difficult to imagine how these two found themselves gravitating towards each other in the beginning. Like so many other boys, Spencer was immediately enchanted by the hot Indian girl who was his fellow thespian, and on top of that, her free-spirited personality, along with an undeniable charm, a bold and seemingly fearless quality, and even a sense of humor, had made her quite irresistible. For Ruby, Spencer was unlike any other boy she had met before him: even though his bulky and burly build made him an unstoppable force on the playing field, doubling it with his softer side made him seem like such a big teddy bear of a boy, and being as cultured as he was, in addition to proving how talented he was, he seemed so unique and one-of-a-kind, that, likewise, made him seem so irresistible. They were very much drawn to one another, and in no time at all, the two started going out with each other. Ruby was elated to finally have her first serious boyfriend, and a boyfriend who was both a jock and a thespian on top of that; jocks were always popular in school, so that helped him measure up to her high social standards, and being a cultured thespian meant that he had broader interests than most boys who were always only into the typical guy stuff that girls could care less about. Everything seemed perfect in their little world for a few weeks… but then, it all began to crumble before her very eyes, until it reached a point that their relationship crashed and burned quite spectacularly.
So, the question became this: what went wrong?
In actuality, Ruby knew the answer to that; the question in her case was not so much what went wrong, but rather, how did it go so wrong?
Then again, Ruby was not even with Spencer anymore, so why did it matter so much to her?
Because she did not want to risk history repeating itself with her relationship with Shannon.
Ruby's friendship with Shannon was as serendipitous as it was unlikely. It all happened on their first day of high school the year before, when, by pure happenstance, Ruby made her way down the main hall, and ended up breaking Shannon's fall after she was given a forceful shove by another irate girl, whom Ruby recognized as an acquaintance of hers from her years at Fern Valley Middle: a rather unpleasant ginger-haired girl named Amy Reynolds. Shannon's only crime was that she had accidentally bumped into Amy while she was trying to find her first period classroom, which caused Amy to drop her books to the floor, and in a fit of pique, she gave the bespectacled brunette a shove, just as Ruby happened down the same hall in search of her own first period class, and caught her before she made contact with the floor. Amy was just as displeased to see Ruby again as Ruby was to see her, given their own turbulent history with one another: when they attended Fern Valley Middle, Amy was among the many different girls who wanted to hang out with a cool and popular girl like Ruby, and they actually did for a rather short while, but Ruby found that she could not tolerate Amy's narcissistic attitude, not to mention her downright bitchy personality, and ended up dropping Amy from her social circle – which the ginger-haired girl resented; it only supported Ruby's suspicion that Amy's unpleasant personality had to have stemmed from a home environment where she was undoubtedly spoiled rotten, and hardly ever heard the word, 'No.'
The chance encounter may have seemed random at first, but during the first meeting of Mrs. Bernardo's drama club, Ruby had discovered that among a few of her other fellow thespians who kept themselves amused until the class began, that same bespectacled brunette whose fall she had broken was off in a corner all by herself. Amazingly, Ruby could see a little bit of herself in this seemingly shy, mousy, and socially awkward girl – more specifically, her younger self, when she was a bit of an outcast herself. With that, she decided to mingle with this girl, who she came to know as Shannon Tannenbaum… Shannon the Christmas tree, which she found rather amusing, given that Shannon was actually Jewish. It was not too long after that that the two girls formed a friendship that even they both knew was highly unlikely and unusual: Shannon could see for herself that Ruby had something of a reputation of being an outgoing cool girl with high social standards, and could not even comprehend why somebody like her would even want to be friends with an introverted drama geek who clearly was not in her league… but the truth was, Ruby found Shannon to be quite fascinating… like an onion, in fact. If anything, Shannon sold herself far too short; beneath her mousy façade, Ruby saw that Shannon had many, many layers to her personality: she was talented, she was creative, she was imaginative, and the more layers that Ruby peeled back, the more she discovered that Shannon had so much to offer if she could come out of her shell.
Even so, Ruby and Shannon both came to realize that in spite of the differences in their social statuses, not to mention their cultural backgrounds, they actually were far more alike than they were different. They came to understand each other on a far deeper level than anyone else ever had before, it was almost as though these two seemingly polar opposites were actually kindred spirits. Because of this, Ruby soon came to realize that she had something with Shannon that she never had with anyone else before in her rather active social life: a connection. In hindsight, she realized that never before did she have somebody in her life who really was truly a friend, but Shannon was that somebody, Shannon was that true friend; never before had Ruby realized that in her continued efforts to be a high-flying social butterfly who wanted to keep soaring higher and higher, the one thing that was severely lacking in her life was having a real bond with a true blue friend. Shannon, meanwhile, did not make friends easily, and even if she did have but a few true friends, never before did she feel like she had grown close enough to somebody to consider them her very best friend like Ruby: never before did she have somebody in her corner who always had her back, and made her feel like she was wanted and appreciated in the way that Ruby had. Before long, the two girls came to feel as though that the other was not only just her best friend, but also, like the sister that she never had.
It still did not stop there; not by a long shot.
Eventually, both of these girls slowly came to the realization that they had actually grown to develop a feeling for each other that went far beyond just friendship or even sisterhood… they not only loved each other as best friends, or even honorary sisters… they were, in fact, in love with each other… and it took the both of them completely by surprise. Although Shannon was bisexual –a fact that took her about a year to come to terms with- she had never dreamed that she would eventually fall in love with her own best friend, and not only did Ruby share in the same sentiment, but she also never dreamed that the person she would eventually fall in love with would be a girl… and yet, despite having gone out with and dated boys, somehow, this did not seem in anyway unusual, weird, or even wrong to her… If anything, being in love with her own best friend, and her favorite person in the world at that, seemed so perfect – Ruby never felt so bonded to and connected with somebody like she did Shannon. Just to be able to hang out with Shannon brought Ruby such happiness like nothing else, and any amount of separation between them just made Ruby long for Shannon's company all the more… perhaps the old saying was true that absence makes the heart grow fonder. It was as though Ruby and Shannon were just made for each other.
Nevertheless, if Ruby had any goal in her life at the present time, it was to ensure that what she had with Shannon did not turn sour like it did when she was with Spencer, and this was what begged the question how did things go so wrong between she and Spencer?
In the beginning stages of their relationship, things were actually quite well between them: Ruby enjoyed being with Spencer as much as he did with her, they even felt as though they had become the it-couple of Royal Woods High… or, at the very least, the Royal Woods High drama club (not that Amy cared for such, considering she very much believed that distinction had belonged to she and her boyfriend, Rex)… however, it seemed that once they had dropped out of the drama club during the fall semester of their previous school year, that was when it all gradually began to fall apart. Peer pressure had influenced Spencer's decision to drop out of the club – even though he lead a secret double life, and tried in vain to keep the cultured and artsy side of his life a secret, it did not stop his fellow jocks from calling his masculinity into question; with that, he dropped out of the drama club to return to the sports club full-time, and at that stage in their relationship, Ruby was still very much loyal to her then-boyfriend, and dropped out of theater as well to show her support for him. She had no personal interest in sports, but she knew that they were among his biggest loves in life, and so she became a sports club groupie with an open mind, like any supportive girlfriend would of her boyfriend's interests and pursuits.
Even in spite of her open mind, try as she might, Ruby just could not get into sports, and she especially found it boring and rote to just sit out on the sidelines to watch Spencer and his teammates train for their football season day after day... it had gotten to a point where she wanted to be able to go back to doing her own thing with her own friends, while still, at least, sitting in on the big Friday night games of the season to watch Spencer and show her support. That would not have been so much of a problem, except that Spencer would not go for that… after all, having Ruby at his side was very much a part of the macho image that he tried to project of himself; how would it look to the rest of the team, whose girlfriends were either cheerleaders, or fellow club groupies who always sat in on training sessions and the big games, if his own girlfriend could not even show up in support of his athletic prowess? It eventually had gotten to a point where Ruby found that Spencer came to control almost every aspect of her life, and all because of his own insecurity… even whenever Ruby just wanted to do something for herself, that would be when he would decide to practice a little reverse psychology to convince her that she would be derelict in her responsibilities of being a supportive girlfriend. Anyone who could clearly see the red flags knew that Spencer had lost sight of Ruby even being a supportive girlfriend, who she tried very hard to be; in his eyes, Ruby had become his personal four-leafed clover, rabbit's foot, big ace, in short, a good-luck charm that he could parade around like a trophy. When Ruby finally learned the truth of how he really saw her, she was understandably devastated to think that her own boyfriend, of whom she tried so hard to show her support for, felt she was more of an object of convenience than a person with feelings and needs.
What soon followed was a huge spectacle of a breakup when Ruby had decided that she had had enough of having to forego her own life just to help Spencer maintain appearances in front of his peers: she was willing to be a supportive girlfriend, but if he could not appreciate her for such, then he was not worth her time any longer.
As she looked back on it in hindsight, Ruby had to admit that she was not entirely guiltless in the matter, and in fact, she was actually partly to blame for what happened between she and Spencer. She had made it clear that she wanted to be able to enjoy her own life, hang out with her own friends, do what she would like to do… but, she chose to let Spencer guilt-trip her into putting all of that on the back-burner for the sake of the so-called moral support he claimed he needed from a good girlfriend… and Ruby did want to be a good girlfriend. But, Spencer could not be a good boyfriend in return, and let his girlfriend have the freedom to live her own life without controlling almost every aspect of it.
To sum it all up, Ruby realized that the biggest mistake she had made in her relationship with Spencer was how she had allowed him to essentially seize control of her life for his own benefit, and as such, she had come to a firm decision that she would not make this same mistake again with Shannon… not that Shannon seemed like the kind of person who would seize control of somebody else's life… but, then again, neither did Spencer until he got back into that sports club again, and he began to reveal his true colors.
Still, Ruby was so much happier with Shannon now than she ever was with Spencer... even though they did have their share of happy moments together during their brief romance, they became fewer and farther between as the weeks passed by. Twice while they were together, they had shared a kiss, and both times, it failed to meet her expectations, as she felt absolutely nothing: no spark, no passion, no ecstacy, no intimacy, no love, nothing… just about the only thing she had gotten from kissing Spencer was a tactful remark of how her breath smelled like nachos (understandable, as she had consumed nachos while watching one of his games); and to think, this was the same boy who was almost the Romeo to her Juliet in the school play – and that would have been a kiss the whole world would have been witnesses to. The first kiss she shared with Shannon was another story… it far exceeded her expectations, it was everything she could have dreamed of what a first kiss was supposed to feel like, even more – and Shannon was a complete novice in the lip-locking department. It all astounded Ruby, but it also seem to reaffirm to her that if there was one person in the world who was the lid to her jar, it was Shannon… as to who among them was the lid, and who was the jar, well, that was unclear, but it really was not that important, anyway.
Ruby now had a new goal in life: to ensure that her relationship with Shannon did not meet the same fate that hers with Spencer did. She thought back to how she had foolishly allowed Spencer lord his superiority over her and take complete control of her life… if she wanted to prevent history from repeating itself and make sure that this very thing did not happen again with the one whom she truly loved, then she knew that there were some changes that were going to have to be made on her part, and had figured out exactly what she needed to do: she was going to need to do the exact opposite, and this time, take charge of the relationship herself.
The way that she saw it, doing so would actually have been mutually beneficial to both she and Shannon. Not only would it be in her own best interest to ensure that she did not make the same mistakes in her relationship with Shannon that she did with Spencer, but it also would have been in Shannon's best interest as well, as she had never been in any romantic relationship with anybody before – obviously, Shannon did not possess any sort of experience in this area like Ruby did, so in a sense, she would be doing Shannon a huge favor; the inexperienced brunette would not have to worry about doing anything that she was unfamiliar with, all she would have to do would be to go with the flow and follow Ruby's lead, as though Ruby was her metaphoric training wheels, in a manner of speaking.
Satisfied with her resolution, Ruby felt so confident now that such an arrangement would work out like a charm for she and Shannon both, that any concerns, doubts, or qualms she may have had before that something could possibly threaten to weaken or even end their relationship flew right out of the window.
As for Shannon herself, at the present time, she was very much happy and contented with Ruby as they stood, that she really had no concerns about their relationship whatsoever; if anything, much of her focus was on the upcoming b'nai mitzvah ceremonies for two of her younger, twin cousins who lived out of state. Having already had her bat mitzvah two years earlier, she remembered just what an ordeal the preparations for such had been, and could only imagine how both of her younger cousins must have felt overwhelmed with their own preparations – particularly with having to study the Hebrew language in order to read from the Torah during the ceremony. Of course, the ceremony was also not without its highlights as well, particularly the Hora – she very much enjoyed being lifted into the air in a chair, while her family danced in a circle around her, and knew her cousins would probably enjoy such as well. She was also certain that there would be a bigger turnout at their ceremonies than hers – despite all of the numerous invitations that her mother had sent out, outside of family, only two people showed up in attendance for Shannon's bat mitzvah: Benny Stein and Luan Loud. In the latter's case, not only was she invited as a guest of honor, but Shannon had specifically requested that Luan also be hired for entertainment as well; the comedienne provided the attendees with a stand-up set that consisted almost exclusively of whatever Jewish jokes that she happened to be familiar with (and a random cover performance of Weird Al Yankovic's Pretty Fly for a Rabbi) – while she did get quite a bit of laughter from much of Shannon's family, it had also gotten cringes from some of the older, more Orthodox relatives, who found much of Luan's showcase to have been on the politically incorrect side.
Nevertheless, despite the travel between two states over the course of a single weekend, the dual ceremonies were still an enjoyable celebration, as Shannon shared with Ruby through photos and videos the following Monday morning at school while they sat together on the steps outside one of the double-doored entrances, including a video she shot of her cousins being given a ride into the air in the chairs during the Hora.
"Wow, looks like you guys had a lot of fun," remarked Ruby as she watched the video Shannon showed her on her phone.
"There are fun parts of the ceremonies," nodded Shannon. "It's just all the formalities that are such a drag: the Torah reading, the prayers…"
Ruby smirked knowingly; she was all too familiar with the formalities and ritualistic aspects of cultural ceremonies being a drag, such as the numerous rites of passage ceremonies known as samskaras that her family have had in her honor, as she explained to Shannon, "We have, like, umpteen Hindu ceremonies for practically everything: our first time out in public, our first time eating solid food, our first haircut, our first ear piercing, our first time going to school… like, heck, there's literally even gonna be a ceremony for when I, like, have my first period!"
Shannon merely glanced at Ruby with a rather blank face; and here she had thought that Judaism was heavily ritualistic, but now it seemed to pale in comparison to Hinduism. She knew that different cultures had different rituals and ceremonies for different rites, so who was she to judge? But even she had difficulty wrapping her mind around the concept of a ceremony for celebrating a young woman's first menstruation.
With that, she extended her hand to place upon the late-blooming Indian teen's shoulder.
"You have my condolences…" she said as a young woman who began her monthly cycles early, and knew from experience that Ruby was not missing out on anything whatsoever.
Ruby smirked once again; she did not necessarily doubt the sincerity in Shannon's empathy, but she could just tell that there was also just a hint of derision in her voice as well.
"Is it, like, any wonder why I, like, can't even get into our own culture?" Ruby asked, half rhetorically/half seriously. "I mean, there's just, like, so many gods and so many ceremonies and so many rituals and, like, how can I, like, even keep up with all that?"
"Well… when you put it like that, I guess…" said Shannon as she considered the matter from Ruby's perspective.
"And it, like, totally bugs my fam, too," continued Ruby. "You know they were talking about enrolling me in that exchange program and have me spend, like, a whole semester abroad in India?"
"Wow, really?" Shannon asked.
"They said something about it being an eye-opener for me, or whatev," explained Ruby. "Can you, like, believe that?"
"Well… yeah... I could see that…" nodded Shannon understandingly.
"Seriously?" Ruby asked in dismay. "So, like, if your parents talked about dumping you in Israel for, like, half a year, you would go?"
"Maybe… I mean, it really could be an eye-opening experience for me to spend time in the land where my people came from…" pondered Shannon; other than attending Saturday Shabbat services at their synagogue with her parents, even though she did not strictly adhere to many of its customs as a part of her everyday life, and even considered herself a self-proclaimed casual Jew, she was still very proud of her Jewish heritage just the same, and considered it an important part of who she was.
"Well… I guess that's why, like, you're you, and I'm me…" shrugged Ruby. The very idea of her relationship with Shannon being turned into one of long-distance was not at all pleasant for her to think about, although it did give her a whole new perspective for one thing about her culture. "Now that I think about it, I actually have, like, a legit good reason to celebrate Karva Chauth now…"
"What's Karva Chauth?" Shannon asked inquisitively.
"It's a Hindu fall holiday where couples basically starve themselves to death out of love for each other… I used to have to celebrate it because it meant I hoped I'd meet my perfect life partner one day…" explained Ruby before she looked into Shannon's eyes with a smile. "I did… and, I'd, like, totally risk malnutrition for you…"
A crooked smile of bemusement quivered its way out of Shannon's lips; she responded, "How do you say something so weird and make it sound so romantic?"
Unfortunately, there would be no time to further expound on the conversation, as the first bell for the day rang, which meant if you were not in your first period class as you should have been, then you were tardy.
"Dang it!" The two girls muttered at having their quality time cut so short, before they raced into the building and made a beeline for their respective first period classes.
Okay… well… I… honestly had no intentions of turning much of this chapter into a freakin' history lesson! I went into this essentially to just recap Ruby's toxic relationship with Spencer, and the influence it would have on how she intends to handle her current relationship with Shannon, and the next thing I knew… well, this happened. I suppose this could be for the benefit of anyone who has never actually read This Will Be Our Year, and/or don't really wish to read through over thirty chapters of something I just summarized above.
Otherwise, even though there won't actually be a story involving Ruby being enrolled into an exchange program to send her to India for a semester abroad, I was able to figure out a way to salvage the idea by having her mention it to Shannon as part of a conversation.
On the subject of salvaging an old idea, I also salvaged (more accurately, recycled) part of an idea that Albertson had proposed during the original planning stages of This Will Be Our Year that did not make the cut. He was far more interested than I initially was in expanding on Amy and her feud with Shannon, and before we had agreed on the whole casting catastrophe with A Midsummer Night's Dream, his proposal was that while attending Fern Valley Middle, Amy and Ruby used to be best friends, until Amy realized she had a crush on Ruby; she not only began to act like a bitch to mask her feelings for Ruby, but also began to throw herself all over Rex as her beard to repress her sexuality; Amy's eventual feud with Shannon was out of jealousy of seeing her becoming closer to Ruby. An interesting idea, to be sure, but one that would not have worked for the story, because 1) it would have been a little too similar to the plot of Loud Triangle, and 2) in Ruby's case, having Amy, Spencer, and eventually Shannon all having feelings for her would have created one hell of a love rectangle! I could still imagine someone like Amy wanting to be friends with a popular girl like Ruby, although Ruby could clearly do without the hex that is Amy's bitchcraft.
Well, now that we have gotten the unnecessary exposition out of the way, perhaps now we can really move along and try to tell a story here…
