A/N: As promised... after three chapters of puttering along on even ground, we now begin our first ascent into the ensuing roller coaster.

The following Friday was a most peculiar one, if only because of the fact that the theater club did not meet up after school that day as they had been each week since the school year had begun, although a note that was taped to the closed and locked doors of the auditorium provided an explanation as to why that was the case for this week:

The theater club will not be meeting today due to the observance of Yom Kippur. Regular meetings will resume next week.

-Mrs. Bernardo

What would have been nice is if there had been some kind of announcement of this beforehand, as a few of the drama students that had gathered around the entrance into the auditorium and discovered the note now had found that they either had to race out of the building to see if they could still catch their usual buses for home before they had a chance to drive away, or make last-minute contacts to their parents or whoever usually picked them up after school to apprise them of this sudden change in plans. All the while, certain students kept reading over the note with a little perplexity.

"'Due to the observance of Yom Kippur'?" Ruby read aloud; Yom Kippur, apparently, was something she was unfamiliar with. "Like, what's that?"

Parvana explained, "I believe it is a sacred holy day that is observed by Israelis and those who practice the faith of Judaism."

"So, a Jewish holiday, then?" Spencer asked.

"Yes," nodded Parvana.

"Huh, well, that explains why Shannon was, like, absent today," said Ruby.

"And Benny, too," added Luan, a note of which neither of the students of whom they spoke had joined them for lunch earlier that afternoon as had become the usual custom with them. With the theater club closed for this week, and knowing that her only mode of transportation was a ride home in Vanzilla, which would be driven by Lori, Luan decided to kill her time elsewhere. "Ah well; maybe I'll leave a little surprise in their lockers for when they return Monday…"

With a look of fiendish glee that took over her braced face, Luan sidled away from the scene to rig the lockers of her friends with whatever sort of prank she may decide to surprise them with, and with not much else to do, Parvana also took her leave… that only left Ruby and Spencer, who merely exchanged looks with one another, as neither of them were even sure what to do now that they had no after school plans for that day.

"Like, so much for theater club today," shrugged Ruby.

"Yeah…" agreed Spencer. "Kind of a bummer, actually…"

Ruby shrugged once more. At least one advantage that she had was that her house was within walking distance of the school, only being about a couple of blocks away, so it was fairly convenient for her to return home on foot.

"Well, I guess I might as well, like, hoof it for home, then…" said Ruby as she clutched the shoulder straps of her backpack and started to walk away – that is, until Spencer spoke up.

"Yeah… I mean… unless… you… I dunno… wanna… do… something?"

Intrigued by what she had heard, Ruby stopped in her tracks and turned around to face Spencer once more.

"What ya got in mind?" She asked.

It could not have been any more obvious that the body language of the burly boy in the orange jersey was rather fidgety, between him tilting his head from one side to another, stroking one of his arms with his hand, and scratching the back of one of his legs with his foot; Ruby might have wondered what his problem was for his behavior to be this strange, but, finally, he made her an offer:

"You… wanna… go grab a bite… somewhere?"

Ruby gave the offer a thought for a moment; being teenagers, it was not at all uncommon for either of them to eat a little something after school and before dinnertime – sometimes a little more than what could even be considered a light snack. Nevertheless, the offer did sound reasonable, and since it was clear that their usual club would not be meeting this week, it also sounded like a way to kill some time before going home.

"Yeah, sure; why not?" She responded.

A smile spread across his rather round face before he made another suggestion of where they could go to grab them a bite: "You like the Burpin' Burger?"

Ruby's face soured just a tad as she responded, "Ehh… I think my folks would totally, like, die if they even knew I stepped foot in that place…"

Such a response provided Spencer with a generous amount of confusion as he further inquired, "Why? Your folks vegans or something?"

The Indian girl shook her head and explained, "Nah, it's not that… it's something about cows being sacred in India, so, like, I'm not allowed to eat burgers, or drink milk, or anything like that…"

"Really?" He asked as another look of curiosity and intrigue returned to his face.

"Yeah," she nodded. "I know I should know about this stuff, but, honestly, like, I've never been really clear on it… like, cows apparently symbolize Hindu gods or something like that, I don't know… sometimes, like, even I totally don't get our own culture…"

"It's cool," he shrugged. "Is there anywhere you like to go?"

As a matter of fact, there was: Jean Juan's French-Mexican buffet; in comparison to the overall spiciness of traditional Indian food, the spiciness of Mexican food almost seemed like a joke as far as Ruby was concerned. The suggestion was one that Spencer was game for as well; he very much loved Mexican food, and for him, the spicier the better. It was settled then; the two departed from Royal Woods High and made a trek across town to Jean Juan's, where they shared a booth and had pretty much made a meal for themselves out of a generous order of tortilla chips and a selection of the spiciest dips the restaurant had to offer, such as salsa, Chile con queso, corn dip, bean dip, among others – it almost seemed as though the two of them had turned this outing into something of a contest as to who among them could handle the heat better; although both of their faces had slowly turned reddish from the excessive consumption of incredibly spicy dips and the lack of beverage consumption, Ruby actually seemed as though she could hold out a little stronger than Spencer, as his eyes became misty.

"Feel that… burn…?" He wheezed from his inflamed throat.

"Oh, yeah…" she responded with considerably less strain. "That's goooood…"

"That's… really goooood…" he wheezed.

Competitiveness was definitely a part of Spencer's D.N.A., and he had intended to stay engaged in this little contest with Ruby as long as he could stand it, but he did begin to consider that her constitution must have been one made of iron, because it seemed no matter how much of these extra spicy dips she consumed, it had nearly no effect on her whatsoever; he could not believe it. A few minutes and several handfuls of dipped chips later, as tears finally escaped his red eyes, beads of sweat streaked down his red face, steam quite literally billowed out of his ears, and a lack of oxygen unable to make its way through his burning throat, Spencer, at long last, reluctantly threw in the towel and broke down; he grabbed his glass of iced water and chugged it down in one fell swoop… unfortunately, it was not enough to offer him any relief to cool off the steaming furnace his internal system had turned into, as he practically pleaded for a refill from the server when he walked by their booth, which offered Ruby quite a bit of amusement. She, too, finally took a drink of iced water, but it seemed more like a dainty little sip compared to Spencer.

After a few more labored huffs of pained wheezing, he remarked, "Dang, Rubes… you must have an iron gut!"

"Dude, have you, like, ever eaten Indian food?" She asked. "You'd probably, like, already run to the bathroom before now!"

The jock took another chug of iced water before he wiped away some of the moisture that had whet his forehead and underneath his eyes.

"I'll take your word for it…" he wheezed.

With a slight smirk, the Indian girl continued to happily help herself to what few chips were still left in their basket as she also continued to dip them as if her entire mouth was completely numb to all of that acidity; building up a tolerance to extremely spicy Indian food must have really given her an iron gut like Spencer had theorized – then again, should it be any wonder that such a hot girl could withstand such hot food? Nevertheless, he had to admit, this girl was amazing; simply amazing. Bold and beautiful may seem like such a cliché and unoriginal description, but it seemed to fit Ruby Patel like a glove as far as he was concerned; he just… had to have her…

"So…" he croaked as he tried to muster up as much of a voice as he could, "you're… cool with this?"

"With what?" She asked after she took another sip of water.

"This?" He pointed out. "Us? You and me? Eating together like this?"

She nodded, "Yeah. Why?"

"I just didn't want this to be a problem," he said. "Y'know… in case you're… seeing someone…"

"I see," she said before she grabbed yet another chip and dipped it into some cheesy queso before it entered her asbestos mouth.

"Are you?" He asked.

"Am I what?" After she finished crunching the chip and swallowed it into her iron gut.

"Seeing someone?" He asked.

"Nah," she brushed it off while she licked a little dribble of queso off of her fingers.

To receive such a response perked Spencer up a little; an awesome girl like Ruby was actually available? With another clearing of his throat, he fought through more than just heartburn to propose a question to this remarkable Indian girl:

"Would you… would you like to… would you be interested… um… you… wanna go out?" He asked.

"I thought that's what we were doing now, silly," she said in a facetious manner to tease the jock a little.

His mouth quivered into a crooked smirk over her little tease… but, then again, a sense of humor seemed to be another fascinating facet of who Ruby Patel was, and that just made her all the more appealing, which, in turn, made Spencer want her all the more.

"You know what I mean," he said. "I mean on a continuous basis? Like… well… like couples do?"

"Oh, I see what you mean…" she continued to play along. "One of those, like, 'More than just friends' deals, huh?"

"Well… yeah…" he nodded.

"Why not?" She playfully shrugged on the outside, but on the inside, she had a little burst of joy. Ruby had never had a serious boyfriend before; sure, she has had her share of a few dates over the past year or two, but none of them really went anywhere beyond that: far too often, she found some kind of fault in the numerous boys who wanted to take her out, whether they were rooted in her own petty and shallow superficialities, or that some of these boys really were just unsavory types of characters who clearly had ulterior motives in mind when it came to asking her out, and Ruby Patel would not allow herself to be taken advantage of in such a manner. Still, now being in high school, she felt it was about time for her to finally have a serious relationship, and Spencer really did seem unlike most boys she had encountered – sure, he was kind of cute in a big teddy bear sort of way, but he also possessed personality, a sense of humor, and seemed rather layered and cultured – qualities that many other boys she had dates with had clearly lacked; this could finally be a nice opportunity for her. "I mean, you seem like a totally cool guy; I'm game if you are."

"Hey, I'm always game!" He boasted.

"I can see that," she continued to tease.

This turned out to be a pretty nice little setup: not only did Spencer get what he wanted, but Ruby would get something out of it as well; it could not have worked out any better… and, who knows? Since a certain Shakespearean romantic tragedy seems to be a requirement in high school theatrics, maybe Mrs. Bernardo could recognize certain chemistry between them and come to realize that they would be the most logical choices to play the titular characters of said Shakespearean romantic tragedy. At this point, only time would tell, but in the moment, they both had felt like they had just scored in more ways than one.

The week started anew, and with it came a number of surprises that were in store, starting with a certain curly-haired, Jewish boy who spun the dial on the combination lock that dangled from his locker, but upon opening his locker, he was completely shocked by the sight that awaited him: meat! His locker appeared to be filled-to-overflowing; just the sight of so much meat was enough to clog his arteries. As if on cue, a certain brace-faced, ponytailed girl made her way down the corridor, and began to offer some passing commentary on this discovery…

"Whoa, that's some meat locker you have there, Benny Boy!" Luan quipped with a big bout of obnoxious laughter.

Benny turned to face Luan in confusion and ask, "Luan, do you know anything about how all this meat got into my locker?"

"Only that it meats my expectations!" Luan followed up with yet another bout of laughter.

Benny was well aware of Luan's rather bizarre sense of humor, it was actually one of the qualities that he found so endearing about her, but what he was unaware of was what a practical joker she was, as she had yet to target him for one of her outlandish pranks. The very fact that she found this unusual scenario so humorous began to awaken his senses that this must be some sort of a prank she had pulled on him.

"I think I get it…" he said with a suspicious look on his face. "This is some kind of joke, isn't it?"

"Well, it does seem as though you have some beef with it!" Luan responded with yet another laugh.

To feel as though his suspicion had been confirmed, Benny was able to work up a chuckle of his own, as he extended a little commendation to her: "Okay, you got me; good one! Now, would you mind giving me a hand here?"

"Sure, I can give you a hand…" Luan began before she flapped her elbow in a manner that looked as though she was imitating a bird, "or, I could give you a wing…" she then followed with the extension of her leg up into the air, "or, maybe a thigh and drumstick?"

The two shared in a chuckle, but Benny was ready to get a little more serious; after all, first period was scheduled to start in a few minutes, so all of this meat had to be removed from the confines of his locker.

"Seriously, Luan, could you please help me get all of this meat out of my locker?" He asked sincerely.

"All of it? Okay!" With that, Luan reached into his locker and pulled away what turned out to be just a photographic insert that she had slipped in to conceal the actual interior of his locker. "There ya go!"

Benny had to do a double take when he realized that he not only been pranked, he had been pranked big time. He practically stuck his head into his locker to ensure that all was well, and that everything was in its proper place in terms of his text books, and other miscellaneous items that he normally kept inside his locker. By now, another wave of genuine chuckles washed over Benny over just how absurd, yet amusing this prank had been.

"Wow that really was a good one, Luan!" He complimented.

With that, she bowed and took her leave, but not before she told him, "Until we meat again!"

Next stop was down another wing of this particular floor of the school, where the comedienne happened upon a certain bespectacled and freckle-faced Jewish girl who, likewise, opened her locker to a startling surprise: nothing; absolutely nothing. Her locker appeared to have been completely cleaned out of all of the contents that should have been contained within. Luan did her best to wear a straight face as she meandered over to the panicked Shannon.

"Hey, Shannon!" She greeted her. "What's going on?"

"Someone broke into my locker and stole everything I had in here!" Shannon shrieked as she showed Luan her emptied locker.

"Really?" Luan asked as she stepped over for a closer look. "Yeah, you're right; it's looking pretty cavernous in there…"

"How is this even possible?!" Shannon continued to panic. "Who else even knows my combination?!"

"Beats me… you sure everything's gone?" Luan asked.

Shannon seemed perturbed by such a ridiculous question and continued to shriek, "Of course I'm sure! All of my text books are gone! All of my notebooks! Just in this back corner I kept…"

She reached her hand in toward the back corner to show the comedienne where she had kept a particular little trinket of hers, but instead, her hand went straight through what turned out to be another photographic insert, and this one was that of the interior of an emptied locker.

"What the?!"

As she pulled her hand back out, the insert remained clung around the cuff of her sweater as it popped loose from where Luan had slipped it in; another look inside revealed, just as with Benny's locker, that everything that Shannon had left in its proper place within her locker was still there, as they should be. As Luan released yet another fit of laughter, she knew she had been pranked again.

"Dang it, Luan! That's not funny; I was legit freaked out!" She exclaimed at first in annoyance over how much this prank had scared her into believing that she had, indeed, been robbed, but then she could not help but chuckle in relief along with Luan as well; she knew her too well to know that her pranks know no bounds.

"Well, looks like you're locked and loaded now!" Luan quipped with another laugh.

Shannon reluctantly nodded, "Okay, that's a good one…"

Everybody had their fun, but the school day still had to get under way, which it did shortly thereafter, and there was certainly a number of really interesting discussions that were to be had over lunch later that afternoon, when Ruby had taken another seat next to Shannon in the cafeteria.

"So, Yom Kippur, huh?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah," nodded Shannon. "Did I miss out on anything interesting in theater club?"

"No, I guess Mrs. B. is, like, Jewish too, because the whole club was, like, cancelled because of Yom Kippur," explained Ruby.

"Huh… I kinda figured she was…" said Shannon as she thought about it for a moment.

"So, what's this Yom Kippur stuff all about?" Ruby asked.

"Basically, you spend the entire day starving yourself to death, owning up to what a horrible person you are, and praying you'll be good in the year to come," said Shannon rather flatly.

Such an explanation seemed to leave Ruby bemused as she asked, "For real?"

"Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration… but, that's the gist of it…" said Shannon with a smirk and a chuckle. "Do you have any holidays like that?"

"Kinda…" replied Ruby. "There's a Hindu holiday called Maha Shivaratri, where we, like, basically do all the same stuff you said; only it's done in honor of the Hindu god, Lord Shiva."

"Funny how cultures can be so different, and yet still the same in so many ways, huh?" Shannon asked.

"I guess so…" said Ruby with a shrug, but now, she was anxious to change the subject to enlighten her friend with her big news: "So, guess what? Spencer totally, like, asked me out!"

Shannon was a little surprised by such a bombshell piece of news; she remarked, "Wow, really? That's… fast…"

"That's the way it's done, girl," explained Ruby. "Whenever an opportunity comes along, you gotta totally jump on it and take what you can get!"

"Maybe… still, I mean, you guys just met…" Shannon may not have exactly been a romantic, in spite of the fact that she had seen her fair share of whirlwind romances in so many movies and plays, but even so, she felt like that while such whirlwind romances may make for good storytelling, reality is an entirely different program, and that to take things in a more slow and steady manner would be far more beneficial for everyone involved.

That was just her thinking, anyway. Ruby did not seem to share in such a sentiment as she added, "True, but he does have a certain… uhh… what's the phrase… 'Jenny said quad'?"

"Je ne sais quoi," Shannon corrected her.

Ruby shrugged, "Eh, I was never really that good with Spanish. Heck, I only know a few basic phrases and sayings in Hindi."

Shannon parted her lips to inform Ruby that 'je ne sais quoi' is French, not Spanish, but decided not to bother with it; instead, she decided to offer a little something else from the tongue of her own people: "Well, I guess all I can say is mazel tov!"

"Mozza-wuh?" Ruby asked in confusion.

Shannon stifled a simultaneous sigh and chuckle as she explained, "Mazel tov, it's a Hebrew greeting… it's a pretty common thing Jews say when we extend our best wishes to someone."

Ruby nodded, "Oh, yeah, we have a greeting like that in Hindi, too: Namaste!"

"Oh, yeah… I remember hearing people say that when my mom talked me into trying out a yoga class with her…" Shannon reminisced.

Ruby chuckled over the very idea of Shannon attempting yoga; she had to hear more about this: "Like, how did that work out for you?"

"I felt pain in certain parts of my body I didn't even know were possible to feel pain in…" admitted Shannon, much to Ruby's amusement.

"Yoga's a good way to stay nimble and flexible for pantomiming," added Luan as she took a seat at the table to join her theater friends for lunch.

"You do yoga, Luan?" Ruby asked.

"Lori roped us into trying it out with her once," explained Luan. "But her flatulence drove us away..."

A look of disgust sprang onto Shannon's face as she scooted her lunch tray aside and muttered, "Thank you for sharing that..."

"Who now?" Ruby asked in curiosity.

"My big sister," said Luan. "She's the oldest of the eleven of us."

"ELEVEN?!" Ruby asked as her jaw nearly banged against the table surface. "Girl, are you guys like a reality TV FAM or something?"

Luan laughed, "No, but, I wouldn't be surprised if my little sister Lola wanted us to have a reality show."

"So, you and your sibs all have 'L' names, huh?" Ruby asked.

"Yep!" Luan nodded. "Lori, Leni, Luna, Lynn, Lincoln, Lucy, Lana, Lola, Lisa, and Lily! One brother, ten sisters, including me."

Shannon had already possessed a degree of familiarity with Luan's siblings, but Ruby was still in disbelief as she lamented, "Whoa... I've always wondered what it'd be like to have a sister, but ten? How do you guys, like, handle it?"

"Duck, dodge, push, and shove; that's the way we show our love," quoth the comedienne.

Since Luan had mentioned the subject of love, Ruby saw this is an excuse to segue the conversation back into the discussion of Spencer and enlighten the comedienne of her news:

"By the way, me and Spencer are, like, totally going out now!"

"Aww, congrats!" Luan extended her felicitations, while a part of her also quietly wished that such a big step up could be made possible between she and Benny.

Ruby certainly wasted no time in exhibiting what she soon came to refer to as her 'Boyfriend Swag' – any chance she got, if and whenever hers and Spencer's paths crossed at school during the week, she just had to take a quick selfie with him to share all over social media, and truth be told, Spencer did not mind in the least, because he, too, got some enjoyment out of being able to also indulge in a little 'Girlfriend Swag' as well. As it turned out, at that point in the school year, Spencer's lunch period was not at the same time as Ruby's, so that meant they could not sit together, but that did not stop him from bragging about the personal little victory he had scored, as he held out his phone to show off the selfies of he and Ruby to a few of his fellow jocks from the school's sports club. Each of these three boys were lanky, wiry, and obviously athletic; Horatio was Hispanic and bore a striking resemblance to Lori Loud's boyfriend, Bobby Santiago, Carlton was an afro'd and freckle-faced African-American, and Brandon was Caucasian with thick mop of blonde hair.

"Yeah, I got a girl now," he boasted as he showed off the selfies to his friends. "She's real cool and all, you should see the way she handles the extra spicy dips at Jean Juan's like they're nothin'!"

The other jocks seemed mighty impressed with his little score as they offered their commentary:

"Man, she is fine!" Horatio remarked enthusiastically.

"Fine? She's a solid ten!" Carlton added just as enthusiastically.

"You shot yourself down a real bird there, Spence," added Brandon before he further inquired for more details. "Where'd you meet her?"

"I met her in…" Spencer quickly stopped himself before he could press forward with his answer; luckily for him, the sports club did not meet on Fridays, so that freed him up for theater club… but, obviously, he did not want or need for his teammates to know that was an elective he had enrolled into – after all, that might not do any favors toward the public image he tried to maintain for himself. Quickly, he attempted to salvage his explanation as best as he could, "in… here in school, where else?"

Still, Brandon wanted more specifics: "Yeah, but I mean, like, you have any classes with her?"

With that curve ball that had just been thrown into the field, Spencer now found himself in the situation of having to further fabricate the origins of his and Ruby's first encounter; luckily, this jock happened to possess some improvisational skills, and was able to quickly ad-lib another response…

"No, no classes with her… I've seen her around a few times, and one day, we bumped into each other in the hall, and sparks just flew…"

Luckily for him, his friends seemed to buy this explanation.

"Whoa, it's just like in the movies," marveled Carlton.

"Yeah, dawg, that is mucho Bueno," added Horatio.

"Yeah, awesome that it worked out for you that way," said Brandon.

"Yeah… it is…" said Spencer with a proud smile.

I am aware that nowadays, most, if not all of U.S. school systems dismiss all students and faculty on Jewish holidays, however, when I was in school, it was strictly the Jewish students and faculty who were excused for such... whether or not Mrs. Bernardo may also be Jewish isn't something I'm head cannoning so much like Shannon, rather, the whole thing served as a plot device to get Ruby and Spencer out of the school environment so they could rush into their whirlwind romance.

Also, here is another area in which I have bent canon. These three friends of Spencer's? They're not actually athletes; they're male cheerleaders. Upon a repeat viewing of "Deep Cuts," I noticed that aside from Spencer and Lori (and, I suppose, the karate girl), all of the other sports club members depicted in that episode were cheerleaders. Spencer needs peers of his own to help carry his plot thread in ensuing chapters, so I took the three prominent cheerleaders from that episode and "converted" them into athletes, while also giving them names and personalities.

Buckle up; we have quite a loop-da-loop in store.