A/N: I need to address the elephant in this room... most of you know that, with some minor and infrequent exceptions, I try my level best to stay as true to canon as much as possible. With this story, however, that isn't the case... I will address this more specifically in the foot note.
It was a Monday morning in early autumn when Shannon Tannenbaum walked through the corridors of Royal Woods High for the first time. A young, bespectacled, freckle-faced brunette of Jewish persuasion, Shannon was mousy, shy, and socially awkward – it was not at all difficult to imagine that she was one of those kids whom others probably never knew even existed, because she hardly uttered a single word to anybody outside the very, very small circle of what very few friends she did have – particularly during her three years of middle school. If anything, she had a lot more online friends on social media than she did in the real world; at least on the internet, it was far easier for her to connect with like-minded people who shared in her interests, such as the theatrical world of lavish musicals and epic plays, or the literary world of Shakespeare and other noteworthy playwrights. One could assume that she was just an ordinary teenager who was obsessed with her mobile devices and electronic gadgets since she seemed to spend a considerable amount of her free time with her nose glued to her cell phone or tablet, but it was how she stayed connected with people; one could also assume that Brad Paisley's Online could, perhaps, be considered her personal theme song.
With a copy of her schedule in hand, she attempted to maneuver her way through the hustle and bustle of the crowded halls on the first day of the new school year to locate her first period class: History in room #125… where was room #125? She could only assume she was on the correct floor, as the room numbers she could see around her at the moment ranged from 101 to 105, with even more stretching down the hall in front of her. After she made the assumption that she was heading in the right direction, she took another look at her schedule card to familiarize herself with the name of the particular teacher, as well as the time period of which this class would be held every day: Miss Holzhauer; from 9:00 A.M. to 10:15 A.M.
Not paying attention to where she was walking, she bumped into another girl who stood solitary in the corridor to try and scope out where her locker was located. Amy Reynolds possessed curly, ginger-colored hair, more freckles than you could count, and a rather poor attitude that was about to erupt from within her as the text books and notebooks that were cradled within her arms spilled to the floor when this other girl had bumped into her.
"Hey!" She shrieked.
Upon the realization of what had happened, Shannon immediately began to apologize for the mishap: "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!"
"Look what you did!" Amy continued to shriek as she pointed to her books that were now scattered across the floor.
"I said I was sorry," stressed Shannon before she offered to help. "Here, let me get those for you…"
Before she could bend downward to help gather the mess of books on the floor, the ginger girl responded, "Why don't you just watch where you're going?!"
With a tremendous shove, Shannon found herself about to tumble backward until another girl who had also made her way down this particular corridor managed to catch and break her fall, which would spare her any contact with the floor.
"Whoa! You okay?" Asked the girl dressed in a maroon tunic and seafoam green leggings who had just broken her fall.
"Um… yeah… I think…" mumbled Shannon.
Ruby Patel was a young girl of Indian-American descent who exhibited both halves of her heritage in different ways: while her dark hair and skin and cultural apparel were visually indicative of Indian ethnicity, her teenaged valley girl manner of speech was a solid verbal indication of American nationality… these two halves of her heritage meshed together to produce a girl who emanated something of a unique aura that drew a number of her classmates and peers to her – whether they were boys who considered her to be an exotic beauty they hoped to charm into becoming their girlfriend, or other girls who perceived the seemingly cool girl as a perspective addition to their little cliques. And, she was cool… ish. That is not to say that she had anything of a swollen ego fed by her peers' perception of her; although she was very outgoing and had an active social life, she had also grown rather desensitized to meaningful connections and relationships after years of finding herself in one social circle after another. It was just normal for her. On the internet, her social media accounts had hundreds of people on her friends lists – some from school, others were mutuals of those from school, but the vast majority of them were probably people with whom she never even bothered to communicate, either virtually or in-person – it had gotten to a point where she could not even remember just who she was or was not friends with. Again, it was just normal for her.
As she assisted the bespectacled girl in the orange sweater and short denim skirt back into an upright position, she took notice of the ginger-haired girl in the light green t-shirt who gathered the books she had dropped and remarked, "O-M-G, Amy, is this, like, totally a small world, or what?"
When Amy collected her books and faced the other girl who addressed her, she likewise recognized the casual acquaintance from years past and snarked, "And getting even smaller."
"You can say that again," Ruby snarked back.
"And getting even smaller," Amy mocked with an eye roll before she went about her way further down the corridor to locate her locker.
As she watched the catty girl leave the two of them behind, Ruby shook her head and scoffed, "I cannot believe I'm, like, actually seeing her again…"
Shannon, meanwhile, was a little confused by this unusual encounter she had just gotten involved in; she asked, "You… know her?"
"Amy?" Ruby asked before she explained, "Yeah, we went to Fern Valley Middle together, and she has, like, always been a bitch…"
It was true. As far back as Ruby could remember first becoming acquainted with Amy during their years at Fern Valley Middle, she always came across towards a lot of other students as being needlessly unpleasant for seemingly unknown reasons, but reasons that Ruby personally had suspected were because Amy must have come from a home environment where she was undoubtedly spoiled and always allowed to have her way.
Whether or not this was actually the case, the discovery that their paths had crossed again was quite a disenchantment for Ruby, as she continued to explain: "Honestly, when I found out we were moving closer into Royal Woods' school district and I'd be transferred here, I was totally hoping I'd seen the last of her."
"Uh-huh…" Shannon meekly nodded, still unsure of what to make of what had just unfolded.
"Look; word of advice?" Ruby offered. "If you ever see her… avoid her… like the plague… you, like, totally don't need her bitchcraft in your life."
"Um… thanks… I think…" said Shannon while she stroked her arm; avoiding toxic people wasn't exactly something she was unaccustomed to.
"Well, see ya!" Ruby said in a farewell bid to Shannon as she brushed past her and resumed in her own quest to locate wherever her first period science class may be located.
Already this had not shaped up into a particularly smooth way to begin the first day of high school, but taking the advice that was offered to her into consideration, Shannon made mental note to avoid the seemingly catty girl known as Amy at all costs – especially after their first encounter with one another proved to be rather volatile.
For the time being, Shannon's schedule consisted of just some of your more basic courses and subjects such as history, geography, algebra, and science – not exactly the most thrilling classes to have to sit through, and it could be said that Shannon was an average student at best, but she usually applied herself to her studies to the best of her abilities; she rarely failed any of her subjects, though she wasn't exactly a straight-A student either.
Because there was a lack of competence within this educational institution's administration, it wasn't until the days that followed that a number of students, Shannon included, were able to finalize their schedules and choose their electives for the current semester – once she saw that one such elective Royal Woods High had to offer was a theater club that would meet every Friday after regular school hours, she immediately chose to enroll into this club as her elective; this would certainly give her something to look forward to every week.
After what seemed like a slow and rather uneventful first week of high school, Friday afternoon had arrived, and with it came Shannon's first day of the elective that she was both excited and nervous about being enrolled in. Upon her entrance into the auditorium, she soon saw who some of her other fellow thespians would be in this club – one of whom turned out to be that Amy girl she encountered from earlier in the week. This came as a shock to the bespectacled brunette to see her in this club, as she stood off to the side engaged in idle chit-chat with a rather slick-looking Asian boy who would turn out to be her boyfriend, Rex; Shannon was quite perplexed that a boy could even be charmed enough by this unpleasant girl to want to date her, but there is a lid for every jar… whoever of them was the lid and the jar was unclear.
As her eyes scanned their way around the stage, she took note of a couple of other faces she would be seeing in this club: a bespectacled African-American girl who hung out with a short, round, and rather androgynous-looking boy, named Lyberti and Leo, respectively; these were just the other thespians who were in this elective at the moment – there would be more to come when other schedules are finalized and students finish picking their electives. These other aspiring thespians were engaged in various different verbal activities like chatting or even singing, so with that, the shy and socially awkward girl eased her way into an empty spot on the stage and decided to connect with her virtual friends instead. She pulled her phone out of her skirt pocket and sent out a message to her friends lists:
Just joined the theater club in school. Maybe tomorrow I'll b on B-way!
The reactions of thumbs up, heart emoji's, and replies from her online friends who congratulated and wished her well did offer her a feeling of encouragement, and before she knew it, she found herself about to be approached by a certain Indian girl whom she had also encountered earlier in the week.
"Like, fancy running into you again," said Ruby as she walked up to the bespectacled brunette.
Surprised by this encounter, Shannon pocketed her phone and responded, "Oh, yeah, hi… are you enrolled in theater club, too?"
"For sure!" Ruby exclaimed. "Show-biz is, like, totally in my blood, y'know?"
"It is?" An intrigued Shannon asked.
"Ever hear of a little place called 'Bollywood'?" Ruby asked.
"Now that you mention it… yeah…" said Shannon as she gave it some thought.
"Bombay, India is, like, the show-biz capital of the world," explained Ruby. "And where my family came from, like, generations ago."
"Oh, wow…" marveled Shannon, as she gradually felt a little more comfortable in conversing with this other girl who seemed to share in her theatrical interests. "Well… there are always old jokes that my people practically own and control show-biz…"
"Really?" Ruby chuckled; the more she studied the appearance of the brunette she conversed with, it became a little more evident to her that she was Jewish.
Shannon perked up even more when she noticed yet another student had arrived into the auditorium; it came as no surprise to her that this incredibly familiar face with the braced overbite and large, swirled ponytail would have enrolled in the theater club, as she called out to her, "Hey, Luan!"
During their years at Royal Woods Middle, Luan was one of the very few other kids with whom Shannon actually became friends. While in sixth grade, the two of them had first met each other in an elective in which they had both coincidentally enrolled: a glee club. For Shannon, it was her love of musicals and a desire to develop a stronger singing voice that made this elective an easy choice to make; for Luan, it was at the suggestion of her big sister, Luna, because no other electives at the time sounded appealing to her (and she liked the idea of trying to form a musical comedy duo with her sister). Neither of them did particularly well in this elective, nor did they opt to enroll in it again for the following spring semester. Similarly, neither of them really got to interact with each other very much, nor did they share any other classes with each other their first year of middle school… sometimes they would pass each other in the corridors, or, depending on schedules, see each other in the cafeteria during lunch.
Before long, Shannon found herself becoming a frequent victim of Luan's bizarre pranks – whether it was a whoopee cushion that was slipped under her seat in the cafeteria, a fake arachnid planted in her locker, or her music sheets switched for something completely different whenever she would practice singing solo, the pranks just kept coming and coming. At first, she could not understand why this other girl with the pronounced overbite and a hyena's laugh had seemingly singled her out with such pranks – she had even jumped to the conclusion that this other girl was, somehow, actually bullying her. After she relayed her problem to her parents, a conference was soon called to order by Principal Ramirez with this clown girl, and it was only then that Shannon learned that Luan had repeatedly pranked her because she sensed the other girl was a kindred spirit, and just wanted to be friends. Although she came from a large family and was rather outgoing, Luan was also somewhat socially awkward in her own right, so her attempts to befriend other students were rather unconventional, if not outright eccentric.
After they cleared the air, the two did, indeed, become good friends with each other, as their shared interests in the performing arts had brought the kindred spirits together, and throughout seventh and eighth grade, Luan was one of the only other students at Royal Woods Middle Shannon would actually talk to… except for when they both were enrolled in Advanced Mime in eighth grade, obviously.
"Shannon Tannenbaum!" Luan exclaimed as she approached the bespectacled brunette. "Our paths have crossed again!"
Knowing how much this girl loved puns, Shannon decided to follow up with a quip of her own: "Oh, dear, does this mean you and I have reached a crossroads?"
Luan faked a stunned look; the ball was in her court, now she had to throw it back: "Well, you don't have to be so cross with me!"
"What's the matter?" Shannon asked before she followed with: "is it a cross you can't bear?"
Luan continued with her facade, though she had to admit, Shannon had clearly gotten a lot better at improvisation than she once was; she was mighty impressed. "Hey, no need to be so grizzly!"
At that moment, Shannon raised her hands into the air and accepted defeat: "Okay, okay, you win. I got nothing more."
The two brunettes shared in a good-natured laugh with one another over their little impromptu battle of wits. To finally see a familiar face in theater club at Royal Woods High, Shannon was delighted that she was among at least one friend in said club, that is until Luan decided she wanted to become acquainted with this other new girl she saw the bespectacled brunette conversing with a moment ago.
"Say, Shannon, who's your new friend?" The Loud girl asked in curiosity.
"Huh?" Shannon replied before she returned her attention to the Indian girl who still stood next to her; unfortunately, she did not know this girl's name, and found herself only able to stutter and stammer in response.
Once she realized that the girl with the large glasses on her face was at a loss for words, the Indian girl took matters into her own hands: "Ruby's the name, theater's my game!"
"Well, I'm game, too!" Luan exclaimed before she flew into another fit of obnoxious laughter.
As she continued to giggle, Ruby darted her eyes toward Shannon as if she was in need of some kind of an explanation.
"She has a… weird sense of humor…" Shannon explained quietly.
Ruby merely nodded understandingly.
Once Luan was finally able to calm down, she gasped when she noticed yet another theater club enrollee had just entered the auditorium: a young, curly-haired, Jewish boy named Benjamin Stein – or just simply Benny – a boy she had possessed a massive crush on since middle school; Shannon was likewise happy to see Benny was enrolled in theater club as well, as he was another fellow student she managed to befriend in middle school… no doubt the two of them were kindred spirits being of the same faith, but likewise, a shared interest in the performing arts had brought them together as well. Benny, meanwhile, was never exactly the masculine type, and often found it was easier for him to make friends with girls as opposed to other boys; similarly, while he never actually got to share many classes with either of them during their years at Royal Woods Middle, he always enjoyed their company during what little interaction they got to have over the past three years.
While a rosy-cheeked Luan merely stared at Benny as little hearts floated out of her head, Shannon waved to him from the other side of the auditorium and called out, "Hey, Benny!"
The curly-haired boy took notice of his two friends from middle school and happily approached them as he greeted, "Hey, Shannon! Luan!"
"Bey, Henny…" mumbled a red-faced and tongue-tied Luan before she corrected herself, "hey, Benny…"
He then took notice of the Indian girl who was with them as he greeted her as well, "Hello; I don't believe I've had the pleasure."
Prior to this moment, just about the only class Luan had ever shared with Benny was Advanced Mime – a class in which pupils had basically taken a vow of silence, so any opportunity she could get to actually talk to him was one she seized immediately.
"Oh, this is Shannon's new friend, Ruby!" The brace-faced girl blurted out for the sake of speaking to her crush.
"Hi, Ruby; I'm Benny," he said while he offered her his hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Samesis!" Ruby responded to the greeting and handshake.
"So, you're in theater club too, huh?" Luan asked Benny.
"Yeah, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised to see you here," responded Benny.
"Well, you know what a theater nut I am," said Luan.
"Well, I just know what a nut you are!" Benny quipped.
"Now that's just bananas!" Luan quipped back.
Another impromptu battle of wits arose, and one that was sure to last for quite a while - Benny always proved to be a worthy sparring partner for Luan... it was one of the things that had endeared himself to her. As they continued to exchange quips amongst themselves, Shannon and Ruby exchanged glances with each other before the Indian girl smiled and decided to resume the conversation they were having.
"So, I guess we're, like, friends now," said Ruby.
A crooked little smile quivered from Shannon's lips as the shy girl stroked her arm and chuckled, "Yeah… I guess we are… so… Ruby, is it?"
She nodded, "Yeah… thankfully, my parents, like, mercifully decided to not name me entirely after my great Aji."
"'Aji'?" Shannon asked.
"It means grandmother in Hindi," the Indian girl explained.
"Oh," said Shannon. "So… what was your great Aji's name?"
"Rubella," said Ruby, which garnered a rather perplexed look from Shannon's freckled face, so she tried to further explain everything to the best of her ability: "Okay, so, like, we apparently have some German relatives in our family tree, and, like, there was some miscommunication, what with the language barriers and everything, or something like that, I don't know…"
Shannon merely nodded before she contemplated aloud, "And here I thought it was strange having a last name that literally means Christmas tree, even though we're Jewish!"
Ruby chuckled, "Hey, Shannon Tannenbaum does have a nice ring to it."
Shannon shrugged, "Thanks, I guess… Ruby's still a nice name too, by the way…"
"Thanks," said Ruby before she took a look around the auditorium to take it all in, until her eyes fell upon the ginger-haired girl in the green t-shirt and blue jeans. "Shut the front door! Don't tell me Amy's in the theater club!"
"Yeah, I was surprised by that, too," admitted Shannon before she sighed. "Well, so much for avoiding her like the plague…"
Ruby took notice of the uneasiness that seemed to consume her new friend, so she offered her some additional advice to further aid her in dealing with Amy: "Ah, well, even if you can't avoid her, I wouldn't worry about her too much… she may be a bitch, but she's the kinda bitch who, like, talks the talk, but never walks the walk, if you know what I mean."
Shannon seemed to understand as she nodded, "In other words, her bark is worse than her bite?"
"Totally," said Ruby.
The students were stunned when the entire auditorium unexpectedly went dark and a mysterious, yet proud voice echoed from seemingly nowhere:
"And now, thespians, here is your drama teacher… the two-time nominee for the Royal Woods Dinner Theater's best director…"
A silhouetted figure who stood atop a small spiral staircase off in one of the wings of the stage was spotted just as a spot light shone down on a middle-aged, dark-haired lady dressed in a burgundy sweater that was accessorized with a pink ascot, and who clearly possessed a dramatic flair that would make Lola Loud seem like Lucy in comparison.
"MRS. BERNARDOOOOO!"
The students knew not what to make of this introduction from the woman who would be guiding them through a semester of theatrics; some of them clapped, if only out of politeness, while others were at a complete loss for words.
"Did she just announce herself?" A perplexed Benny asked.
"It sure looks that way," said an equally perplexed Luan.
"Stop it, stop it; you're too kind," said their drama teacher as she descended the spiral staircase and made her way onto the stage to survey her class. "I understand you may be excited about diving straight into the deep end, but let us not forget you are also HEEEERREEE TO LEAAARRRRRNNNN! Before we tackle our first serious production this semester, we will be engaging in various different exercises to hone your craft… exercises that will have you reaching into the very depths of your souls and expose them to the rest of the WOOOORRRRLLLLD!"
If some of the students hadn't worn any sort of a strange look on their face over Mrs. Bernardo's introduction, they certainly wore them now – their drama teacher seemed more like a drama queen; this was sure to be one very interesting elective.
"Always remember three things when it comes to acting…" continued Mrs. Bernardo, as she extended one finger at a time while she listed off what she considered to be three very crucial components that any actor should be mindful of in their performances. "Emote… be credible… and most importantly, connect! For the time being, we are going to be working on our chemistry!"
"In that case, should we head over to the science lab?" Luan asked with a laugh.
Benny and Shannon bit their tongues to repress their laughter over their friend's quip, and while a few other thespians actually had a laugh over the joke, others just glared at this weird girl with quizzical looks on their faces. Mrs. Bernardo, however, was very impressed.
"Ah! Quick wit! I LOOOOOVE that in a performer!" The drama teacher complimented. "Alas, my dear girl, improvisation will have to wait for another time; our lesson for now is to develop a rhythm and rapport, establish a connection not just with one another, but with the audience as well! Why don't we partner up, and I will assign a little exercise to see if you can work with each other one-on-one?"
Since she already stood next to her, Ruby turned to Shannon and asked, "Wanna be partners?"
The bespectacled brunette did not expect such an offer, but since the other thespians almost immediately partnered up with each other: Benny and Luan, Lyberti and Leo, and Amy and Rex, respectively, the process of elimination seemed to make it clear that it was an offer she might as well accept.
"Sure," she said with a weak smile.
As you can see, canon has been bent to the point of breaking. I'm not entirely contradicting the events of the episode "Stage Plight," since that and the other theater club episodes will be revisited in this story, though I have decided to have the students enroll in the club at the beginning of the school year, rather than sign up for the school play later. This, specifically, is so that backstories can be established to further explain minor details, such as this and ensuing chapters setting up why Shannon regards Amy as her arch nemesis, for example.