Spencer had made up his mind: he was going to drop out of the theater club… or, better yet, he was going to pretend as though he was never in that club to begin with… whether or not he would be able to fool his fellow sports club jocks of this remained to be seen, but he was going to give it his best shot, especially when he happened to notice a certain trio of them had made their way down the corridor while he grabbed a few of the necessary text books he would be in need of for his next few classes from his locker.

"Hey there, Romeo!" Horatio remarked sarcastically as they approached the round boy in the orange jersey.

Underneath his pursed lips, he clinched and gritted his teeth – to hear that struck a raw nerve with him more than he expected that it would, but, he proceeded to put up his best act…

"Romeo?" He asked as he turned to face them. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Look, Spence, the cat's outta the bag…" said Carlton. "We know you're blowin' us off to be in the school play."

"What?" Spencer responded, as if he had no clue what they spoke of. "I ain't in no school play!"

"Then how do you explain this?" Brandon asked as he produced a copy of the cast list that had been tacked to the bulletin board, with his name printed right next to the name Romeo at the top.

"What, this?" Spencer asked as he took hold of the list and looked it over himself. "Aw, this… this is just… a… a big misunderstanding, yeah…"

"A misunderstanding? Really?" Brandon responded with a cocked eyebrow.

"Yeah… this is all… uh… a… prank?" Spencer ad-libbed. "Yeah, a prank… you know that Loud girl with the braces who's always pranking everybody? Yeah, she's the one behind all of this… probably trying to make me look like a sissy or something."

The jocks nodded along, since this was exactly the conclusion they had drawn when they saw Spencer's name printed on the cast list for Romeo & Juliet: that he was a sissy. He could tell by their responses that they still did not quite believe him, but lucky for him, his girlfriend had made her way down the corridor from the opposite direction; she had been in his corner all of this time, so surely, he could count on her to help sell another alibi.

"Hey, Rubes!" He waved her over. "The guys actually fell for that prank Luan Loud pulled on me; you can tell 'em I'm not Romeo in the school play, let alone, not in the theater club, right?"

His emphasis on that last word spoke volume; loud and clear. To see this little predicament her boyfriend appeared to be in, Ruby quickly dove into the situation to help him save face.

"Oh, yeah, Spence is totally, like, not into any of that theater stuff," she spoke in his defense. "Like, at all."

The jocks still were not entirely convinced, as Brandon pointed out: "But, your name's on the cast list, too, and as Juliet!"

Ruby was quickly able to cover up for herself as well, as she further explained, "Luan pranked me, too… you know how far she'll go to, like, prank someone…"

The jocks had to agree; Luan had only been attending Royal Woods High for a couple of months, but she had already established quite a reputation for herself as a class clown and extreme prankster.

"Yeah, I heard about this one time she broke into the girl's locker room and sprinkled itching powder into all of the towels…" Carlton remarked.

"So, you really have been having problems at home with your granny, then?" Horatio pressed Spencer for a confirmation.

"What, you guys didn't believe me?" Spencer asked. But, now that he had dropped out of theater club, this meant he could go back to focusing on sports club, as he added, "Good news is that it looks like my mom will be working new hours that'll allow her a little more time at home to help take care of granny, so I don't have to rush home after school every day anymore!"

"Guess we were wrong about you, Spence," Horatio attempted to apologize. "Didn't mean to give you the business, man…"

"Forget it," Spencer said, no, demanded, as he crumpled up the cast list and bounced it off the Hispanic jock's head to the amusement of the others; no way that he was a sissy – especially as he began to crack his knuckles. "But, if I ever see that Loud girl again, I'm gonna snap her like the pencil she is!"

Ruby knew that would be totally unnecessary, as she attempted to mollify her boyfriend's attitude: "Let it go, Spence… don't you see? Like, this is what she wants, to get a reaction out of you for her totally twisted amusement… like, don't give her the satisfaction… like, just be the bigger man and ignore her… like, she'll move onto other people to prank anyway…"

He was unable to tell if Ruby was actually sincere in her suggestion, or if she was still helping him to sell this act to the others – of course, he really had no intention of bringing any sort of bodily harm to Luan anyway since she actually had no real involvement with this fabricated prank; either way, he conceded to his girlfriend's insistence.

"You're right, babe," he said as he wrapped his hand around her shoulders. "She's not worth the time of day…"

"Guess we'll see ya later, Spence," Carlton said as he and the other jocks went about their way to get to their first period classes.

"Hey, I'll see you guys at practice!" He called out to them as they walked away before he breathed a huge sigh of relief and began to shower his girlfriend with gratitude. "Thanks a mil, Rubes…"

"Yeah, no prob," nodded Ruby. "So, does this, like, have anything to do with you dropping out of theater?"

"No!" He insisted at first. "Maybe… look, it's… complicated, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," she nodded again.

"Least I got you in my corner!" He said as he pulled her closer to him.

"Yeah, totally," she assured him with her arm wrapped around his middle. "I, like, got your back."

And she did. After briefly talking things over, Ruby had also made the decision to drop out of the theater club as well, if only to show her support for Spencer in his decision to do so; she still had no clear understanding for his decision, but she did have her suspicion that it had something to do with ensuring his peers saw him in a certain light. Besides, Ruby also figured she would benefit from this decision as well: it would probably get her back into a cooler and more popular social circle like she was accustomed to mingling with; not that she minded hanging out with a bunch of theater kids, but it did not necessarily do much to help boost her social status, that was for sure. In the moment, this seemed like the best possible solution for everybody.

Later that afternoon, Ruby went through the line at lunch that seemed to take forever to move; pretty typical. What wasn't typical, however, was when a certain jock slid into the line behind her.

"Hey!" Spencer greeted her.

Surprised to see him, she asked, "Spence? Where'd you come from?"

"They apparently changed our lunch period," he explained. "I wasn't crazy about it at first, but if it means we can now have lunch together, then I'm game!"

Ruby smiled; conflicting schedules made it difficult for her to spend much of any time with her boyfriend outside of theater club, so to finally have this little bit of time with him during the day certainly worked in her favor.

"That is totally awesome!" She squealed.

Finally, the two were able to make it through the long line and enter the main dining area of the cafeteria with their trays of food; while Spencer tried to scope out where his friends sat, Ruby's eyes just happened to fall upon a table at which sat Shannon, Lyberti, Leo, and Benny (apparently, Luan was nowhere to be found). Of course, the bespectacled brunette would just so happen to look up and see her friend standing solitary on the other side of the cafeteria, to whom she waved over, however, Spencer finally managed to find his friends at another table on the opposite side of the cafeteria, and started to head over towards them, though he could see Ruby just stood still.

"You coming?" He asked.

"Yeah, totally," she said. "Just, give me a sec, I'll, like, be right with you."

"Sweet," he said with a smile.

With a sigh, Ruby made her way over to the table where her theater friends sat, and all of them looked rather concerned for her; she was almost unable to bear the looks on their faces as she approached them.

"Hey, Rubes," said Shannon. "Is everything okay? We've been kind of worried about you these last couple of days; I texted you last night, but you didn't reply."

Ruby nodded, "Yeah, never been better; no need to worry about me!"

"You sure?" Shannon asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Totally!" Ruby insisted.

To hear the response Ruby gave did seem to offer them a small dose of reassurance before they invited her to join them as always.

"Okay, then…" said Shannon. "Well, have a seat!"

Lyberti was the next one to speak as she filled the Indian girl in on the discussion they were just previously engaged in: "We were just thinking of musicals we thought Mrs. B. should let us do in the club someday."

"I was just about to suggest Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream coat," said Shannon before she turned to the curly-haired boy who sat across from her. "I think Benny would make a great Joseph."

"Oh, puh-shaw," said a bashful Benny as he waved it off.

"Yeah, about that," the still-standing Ruby began, "ya see, I dropped out of the club."

This elicited more than just surprised reactions from the other thespians at the table; they were completely flabbergasted and stupefied to hear this.

"Huh?" Lyberti responded.

"You what?" Benny asked.

"What are you talking about?" Shannon asked.

"I dropped out of theater club," she repeated.

This sudden change in her attitude left a poor taste in the others' mouths – especially Shannon's.

"But, why?" She pleaded to know.

"Something don't seem right here… does this have anything to do with Spencer?" Lyberti asked.

"No," lied Ruby. "Spence and I have just decided theater's, like, not really our thing, that's all…"

"But, you so wanted to the part of Juliet," Shannon pointed out. "We even went through all of those exercises to help you learn how to dial into character and remember your lines… you were so excited when Mrs. B. cast you in the part!"

"What, I'm not allowed to, like, change my mind?" Ruby asked. "You guys don't have to, like, take it personally or anything."

"We're just a little surprised by this is all, Ruby…" said Benny.

"More like blindsided, if you ask me," added Lyberti.

"Like, wow, guys," huffed Ruby. "I'd, like, totally support your decisions if any of you chose to leave the club… I totally didn't expect this kind of response…"

"It's not that we don't support your decision…" Benny tried to continue before Lyberti cut him off.

"But, it does feel like you're just blowing us off…"

"Look, I'm totally sorry you guys feel this way, but I've, like, made up my mind, okay?" Ruby responded before she finally turned to face her best friend. "Shans… you got my back, don't you?"

Shannon felt rather uncomfortable with the look Ruby had given her… the very same look that Spencer had given her the night before… the look that indicated that she expected Shannon to voice her approval and support her decision. Deep down, she felt as though that Ruby was making a mistake, but something within her also told her that to say otherwise may not bode well with the Indian girl who stood in silent anticipation of her to say something.

Finally, in a sense of defeat, Shannon hesitantly spoke up: "Well… I think… that… it's your life… you're free to make your own decisions… so, you should do whatever makes you happy."

With a firm nod, Ruby accepted that little testimony and bode the four of them a farewell in a rather chilly and impersonal manner, "Cool. Well, it's been fun, see ya…"

The other thespians watched in dismay as the maroon-clad Indian girl marched away from their table, across the cafeteria, and over to where Spencer sat with his fellow sports club jocks, all of whom seemed to be rather satisfied to have her as a part of their little group. By that point, a rather peeved Lyberti began to wrinkle her nose…

"Well, fine, if that's the way she feels," she scoffed.

Leo merely shrugged and nodded in agreement.

"So much for her, I suppose…" added Benny in an uncertain manner.

Shannon, meanwhile, could only gently slide her tray aside; the food enough was difficult to swallow without the added disenchantment of the situation that had just unfolded.

"I'll see you guys later…" she mumbled as she arose from her seat and wandered away.

"Now where are you going?" Lyberti asked.

"What about your lunch?" Benny asked.

"I lost my appetite…" she responded.

They watched in just as much dismay as Shannon walked out of the cafeteria and left the rest of them behind as well – it was enough to elicit an exasperated head shake of disbelief from Lyberti.

"Sheesh. There's probably more drama happening outside the club than in."

Finally, Ruby grabbed a seat that had been reserved for her right next to Spencer who sat at another table with other jocks and their own lady friends from the sports club.

"Like, sorry about that," said Ruby as flopped herself down next to her boyfriend. "Did I, like, miss anything important?"

"We were just talking about how nice it'll be to no longer have any conflicts after school from now on," said Spencer with a sense of self-induced relief.

"Yeah, kinda hard to practice punting when you're busy prancing, huh, Spence?" Horatio joked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Spencer responded in a rather menacing tone.

"Whoa, chillax, man," insisted Carlton. "We're just ribbin' you."

"Yeah, you gotta admit, that Romeo & Juliet prank certainly fooled us," said Brandon.

He had almost forgotten about his fabricated fib that being in the school play was all just a prank by that Luan Loud girl as he quickly tried to drop the subject entirely. Meanwhile, Brandon's girlfriend, a little redhead named Tiffany, decided to enlighten Ruby on the special arrangement that they had…

"You won't even have to worry about getting a good seat at the Friday night games," she informed her. "The guys always reserve an exclusive bleacher just for us so we don't miss any of the action!"

"Unless you'd rather be a cheerleader," suggested a blonde, ponytailed cheerleader named Brittany, who happened to be Carlton's girlfriend.

"Yeah!" Agreed Sophia, a Hispanic cheerleader who was Horatio's girlfriend. "Our school colors would look so fab with your skin tone!"

"Oh, I'm, like, totally not built like a cheerleader," Ruby bashfully brushed off the flattery; she held but a modest amount of confidence in her rather thin body that lacked the blossoming curves that most other girls her age possessed, including these cheerleaders.

One of the perks that came with high school was that students were afforded a greater sense of freedom than they ever had in elementary or middle school… one need not spend their entire lunch period within the confines of the cafeteria, some students preferred to eat their lunch outside in the school yard, while others may decide to kill some time upstairs in the library, which is exactly where Shannon was headed for: some place where she could just have some peace and quiet, and more importantly, time to herself.

Other than specific class assignments, the library saw very little patronage these days, except for the occasion where students who may not have access to the internet in their homes decided to log onto one of the computers for the purposes of updating their Fartbook statuses, or watching dopey videos on YoohooTube. Because of this, Shannon was allowed more than adequate conditions for quiet privacy, as she wandered into one of the back corners of the library and slowly lowered herself down to the floor where her elbows met her knees, and her cheeks met the palms of her hands.

As she slowly slipped deeper into the depths of her racing mind, a rather squeaky voice startled her…

"Shannon?"

"NYAH!" She shrieked.

When she turned her head toward the opposite corner of this section of the library, she was surprised to see huddled amongst the shelves of books was a certain ponytailed friend of hers with braces across her teeth.

"What's the matter?" The comedienne inquired. "You look like you just lost your best friend."

That was because, in a sense, she did just lose her best friend; unbeknownst to Luan, since she missed out on Ruby's less-than-meaningful goodbye, and to keep thinking on it was hardly doing Shannon any favors.

"I don't want to talk about it…" she mumbled before an entirely different matter had just struck her curious. "Wait… what are you doing in here? Is something wrong?"

The response to that question was nothing short of an ironic echo as Luan likewise dropped her elbows to her knees and her cheeks met the palms of her hands.

"I don't want to talk about it…" mumbled Luan.

Unbeknownst to Shannon, Luan found herself faced with her most nerve-wrecking stage experience yet, and she did not know if she could even handle it… she could handle hecklers trying to throw her out of rhythm in a comedy club – enduring her family's jeers at her incessant hurricanes of puns had prepared her for such… she could handle rambunctious and hyper little children hopped up on sugary cake and other such treats at birthday parties – dealing with the after effects of some of her younger siblings' sugar cravings had prepared her for such… but what she could not handle? Her first kiss… with her crush, no less… and for the entire world to see at that. She had never kissed anyone before in her life – at least, not in a romantic way. Sure, there were countless occasions in which she had kissed one of her siblings, or either of her parents, on the cheek or the forehead; she was quite an affectionate sister and daughter… but the very idea of having to kiss somebody on the lips terrified the comedienne whose nerves were usually made of steel. She was so excited to be in the theater club with Benny and act in school plays with him since it was the first time she shared a class with him since Advanced Mime in middle school… But, what if she's so bad at kissing that she embarrasses and humiliates herself in front of everybody? Or even worse: what if she embarrasses and humiliates Benny in front of everybody? So much so, that he would want nothing to do with her ever again? Luan used to imagine sharing a kiss with Benny would be such a magical experience – just like in the movies… she never thought the very idea would terrify her like this… so much so, that she actually began to contemplate ways she could avoid having to kiss him.

Another rehearsal was held after school, and while some of the other thespians made use of their down time by working on getting the sets and scenery prepared for the actual play, Luan found herself standing before Benny in the center of the stage, as Mrs. Bernardo tried to direct them in their current scene, which, of course, lead up to the inevitable kiss.

"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take…" Benny recited his line so flawlessly; he really was one of the best actors in this club, and Mrs. Bernardo was so impressed with not only his ability to memorize his lines, but deliver them so naturally.

Without hesitation, Benny puckered his lips and leaned in closer to Luan, which only caused her nerves to fire all the more; I can't do this, she thought to herself as another scheme suddenly popped into her mind:

"Time out!" She exclaimed. "I need a pee break… I really hit the old O.J. hard this morning…"

Off the stage she fled, much to Benny and Mrs. Bernardo's confusion; little did either of them know the real reason for Luan's fleeing, and things got even more confusing when she returned to the stage a few moments later… all of the sudden, Lyberti, Leo, and Parvana were startled when a heavy sandbag fell from above, and just a mere few inches away from where they stood on the side of the stage; another sandbag fell from the catwalks above the stage, and then another – it was like a hailstorm, but far more dangerous as other thespians ducked, dodged, pushed, and shoved their way to avoid a falling sandbag.

Mrs. Bernardo was shocked beyond belief as she yelled, "GADZOOKS! Which is also the name of my one-woman shoooooow! Rehearsal's cancelled until I can get the janitor to fix the safety hazards!"

Like any decent teacher, she was thinking of her students' safety, and if there was, indeed, something wrong with the safety hazards, she could not have any of the young thespians incurring injury from a falling sandbag; as she dismissed her thespians, she ran off in search of one of the janitors to inform him of the situation.

Luan felt a sense of relief in dodging the bullet again, but so as to not arouse any suspicion from anyone –especially Benny- she feigned disappointment: "Aw, shucks! No rehearsal? So, uh, parting is such sweet sorrow!"

Once again, she turned tail and ran off… but, Benny could have sworn he actually saw the flash of a pair of scissors in her hands as she fled… did she have anything to do with the falling sandbags?

Throughout all of the mayhem and chaos that unfolded on stage, Shannon spent the entire time by herself in another corner of the stage and sulked as she updated her social media status again:

Theater club's gone weird. Idk what to do. Feeling kinda bummed.

The response from her loyal virtual friends was to send good vibes her way with comments of encouragement and animated gifs of fictional characters or cute animals hugging each other. It did very little to lift her crushed spirit. She was incredibly quiet for the rest of the evening at home, and if there was something wrong with her, she never said a word about it… she was always such an introvert, anyway.

One of Shannon's quirks was to listen to music whenever she experienced a mood that had her in a negative frame of mind... specifically, she always listened to certain songs that did more to actually set her into a mood, as if her very life was a production unto itself that was in need of musical accompaniment. Her bedtime had fallen, and she not only had slipped her long orange nightgown over her head and down her body, she also slipped a pair of buds into her ears, and after she sealed herself into the envelope of her sheets and removed her glasses from her freckled face to place onto the night table next to her bed, she scrolled through her various different playlists to find a particular song for her current mood: a song that was recorded by a Scottish band ironically named Texas, and had also been used as the theme song for Ellen De Generes's old sitcom:

Yeah
I'm gonna make you wonder
If you're my friend

Yeah
That's the way I choose them
All my friends

You think you're close with all your promises?
You think I act strange when you talk to me?
Cause I don't hear you

Yeah
I'm gonna make you wonder
If you're my friend

Yeah
I may as well tell you
You'll never be my friend

The telephone only rings when you've got success
You only want us when we're at our best
And we don't see you

Yeeeaaah, yeah

As the song continued to play into her ears, for a fleeting moment, Shannon actually considered that, perhaps, it may actually have been a good thing that she never made a lot of friends, because it sure did hurt to lose one – her best friend.

Of course, Ruby never actually said that they were no longer friends, but it sure felt like she was done with her and the other theater club members… she remembered when she looked at Ruby's social media profile after she had received a friend request from her, and how she thought that had she not already had gotten to know Ruby prior to receiving such a request, that she would have thought of her as the kind of girl who merely floats her way in and out of social circles all the time, just like the popular girls do in the movies… now, as she laid in her bed, stared at her ceiling, and immersed herself in a song that only aided in making her feel worse, she began to reconsider if maybe she was wrong about misjudging Ruby… with her lack of people skills, Shannon was not exactly a good judge of character; after all, she had once perceived Luan Loud to be a bully.

What if Ruby was actually a better actress than she let on? What if their friendship was all just an act this whole time? She failed to see why a cool and popular girl like Ruby would even want to be friends with a drama geek like her, anyway… maybe it was all just a cruel act she put on to get something out of it for herself. Maybe that was it… maybe Ruby just wanted somebody to help boost her presence in the theater club to get a big role out of it… but, if that was the case, then why would Ruby drop out of the club when she got the role that she really wanted?

With so many questions racing through her mind, Shannon felt all the more conflicted about Ruby. One part of her felt like she should just accept the possibility that Ruby was nothing more than a fair-weather friend, or that their friendship was a falsehood; that Ruby only hung out with her so she could get something out of it to benefit her; and now that she had gotten something out of it, she had no further need for her. Another part of her, however, refused to accept this at all… if Ruby was such a false friend, why would she always come to her defense, such as whenever Amy bullied her? Such actions made Ruby feel like more than just a friend – Shannon would even go so far as to say she felt like Ruby was the sister she never had. Plus, Ruby did seem sincere in her desire to better hone her acting skills, and she did seem so excited to be cast as Juliet in the play… Spencer seemed just as excited to be cast as Romeo, too… so, why the sudden change?

None of this made any sense at all to Shannon; if only she had answers.

Albertson and I happen to share the above-described quirk of Shannon's, which made it feel rather fitting to write for her in this scenario. Also, just to point out that in spite of the song selection, we're in no way showing any kind of support for a rather toxic personality like Ellen De Generes... I merely thought the theme from her old 1990's sitcom seemed like the most fitting song selection for the scene as Shannon contemplates her friendship with Ruby.

Just to give everyone a head's up, there is going to be a shift in the storytelling beginning in our next chapter; you will see soon enough.