Two weeks flew by in a flash. Before anybody knew it, winter break had reached its conclusion, and it was time for the second half of the school year to begin for the new semester. Ho hum. During those two weeks off from school, Ruby could see that the number of friends, mutuals, and followers that she had on social media experienced a significant drop. It came as no surprise to her that among those who disappeared from her friends lists were from Royal Wood High's sports club (although Tiffany was the sole exception to this). Given the popularity of school jocks, it was inevitable that gossip of Spencer's breakup with her would have spread among each of their own social circles like wildfire... his side of the story, anyway. Even if she may not have actually known who each and every single one of her countless social media friends were, just the fact that the numbers had noticeably dropped was a might disenchanting to the Indian girl who just wanted to be popular and well-liked among her peers.

When she returned to school on that chilly Monday in early January, she almost felt ostracized… of course, it did not help that when she and Spencer were dating, he had all but isolated her from any of her own friends and acquaintances. Still, she became so accustomed to being included within various different cliques and social circles, but after the tremendous spectacle that was made out of their breakup, almost nobody would talk to her, reach out to her, nor seemingly want anything to do with her; she was angry and got caught up in the heat of the moment, but to exchange heated words with Spencer so publicly –and even call his macho image into question- probably did just a little bit of damage to her own image as well.

If that was not enough to make her feel bad, when she dropped by her locker for the first time that morning, she found something that had been slipped in for her to see: it was her application to re-enroll into the theater club. As was the case of middle and high schools, the new semester brought about some changes to students' schedules, and not just as far as their required academic courses were concerned, but their electives as well. With the human drama of the previous semester behind her, she wanted to immerse herself into theatrical drama again, but upon pulling the application out of the envelope it had been slipped into, she saw that it had been rejected.

As far as Mrs. Bernardo was concerned, Ruby was the type of student whose heart and passion clearly were not into the world of theatrics, given how abruptly she had dropped out of the class last semester. She perceived Ruby to be the kind of irresponsible student who would enroll and drop out of electives to see which one she could join without having to put much effort into for the sake of filling out her schedule and/or acquiring credits; some students were like that, especially when it came to the more artistic electives – they, rather incorrectly, figured that they would not be graded for things such as art projects, school plays, and the like… Mrs. Bernardo saw Ruby as such a student, and if that were the case, she had no need for such a student in her class.

This only deepened the regret that Ruby came to feel over her dropping out with Spencer last semester; if she was allowed just one do-over, it would be to go back in time and never drop out of the theater club.

To walk into the cafeteria during lunch period for the first time again actually felt rather awkward for the Indian girl as there were no tables that seemed to be the least bit inviting, regardless of who sat at them. She decided she may as well just take a seat at an empty table that was in one of the far corners of the room – if nothing else; at least, perhaps, she could eat her lunch in peace without anybody feeling the need to drudge up her big blow-up and hound her for details. Luckily for her, she would soon be within good company…

"Ruby!" Shannon exclaimed as she found her best friend at the table alone, and sat her tray of food down to take a seat next to her. "I couldn't wait to see you again!"

"Yeah, samesies…" Ruby muttered somewhat listlessly.

That was not exactly the kind of reaction or demeanor she expected from her bestie on their first day of seeing each other again for a new semester.

"Is something wrong?" Shannon inquired.

Ruby sighed, "I guess we probably, like, won't be seeing much of each other this semester after all…"

Shannon looked visibly stunned to hear this and further inquired, "What do you mean? What are you talking about?"

"Remember I was gonna try and enroll in theater again this semester?" Ruby pointed out.

"Yeah…" said Shannon, who now looked a little concerned. "What happened?"

"I got rejected…" answered Ruby in a morose tone.

Again Shannon was stunned to hear this, and thoroughly disappointed as well that her best friend, who wanted nothing more than to have a second chance in her chosen elective, was not accepted back into the club.

"That's awful!" She sympathized.

"What's awful?" Luan asked as she, too, carried over a tray of food and took a seat at their table.

"Ruby wasn't accepted into theater this semester," explained Shannon.

"She wasn't?" A surprised Luan asked before she turned to the Indian girl for further details. "Why not?"

"I don't know…" said Ruby with a shrug. "I found my application slipped into my locker this morning with Mrs. Bernardo's rejection on it."

"What did Mrs. B. get rejected from this time?" Benny asked.

He, too, joined his fellow thespians for lunch as he sat at their table, but was only able to catch the words, 'Mrs. Bernardo's rejection,' to which he assumed meant that she was rejected from a role that she had auditioned for – which commonly seemed to be the case with her.

"No, Mrs. B. rejected my application to enroll in theater again this semester," repeated Ruby.

"Oh, that's a shame," said Benny. "We were kind of hoping you'd come back."

"Me too," mumbled Ruby with another sad sigh. "I, like, totally regret dropping out even more now."

The other three exchanged sympathetic glances with one another other over Ruby's rather crushing news, though none of them looked more disappointed than Shannon – it did not appear, according to her schedule, that she would share any classes with Ruby this semester, and she had so looked forward to seeing her in theater again.

Ruby then grabbed her tray, arose from her seat, and prepared to leave, as she said to her friends, "See you guys later."

"Where are you going?" Luan asked.

"I think I'll just hang upstairs in the library where it's a little quieter…" said Ruby before she shuffled away and left her friends behind.

"Well, this is really disappointing…" said Benny.

"Yeah," agreed Shannon. "I know Ruby really wanted to enroll in theater again, and I was really looking forward to her being back in the club."

"There must be some way we could convince Mrs. B. to give her another chance…" Luan thought aloud.

"Could we really do that?" Shannon asked, feeling as though this seemed like a bit of a far-fetched notion.

"What do we have to lose?" Luan shrugged.

A sudden remembrance from last semester made its presence into Shannon's mind: despite her wishes to the contrary, Ruby had gone to Mrs. Bernardo to inform her of Amy's unpleasant attitude not only making the theater club insufferable for her, but how she had also pressured her into giving up the role of Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream so that she could have it instead; Ruby's actions prompted Mrs. Bernardo to call a conference together with she and Amy to rectify the situation, and even though in the moment she was upset that Ruby had disrespected her wishes to not get involved with said situation, it did have satisfying results (well, Amy would have begged to differ at that time). One other thing that she remembered about the conference was the simple fact that Mrs. Bernardo took such action after Ruby had gone to her not-so-anonymously, which got Shannon to ponder that, perhaps, one good turn deserved another.

"You know something?" She spoke up. "Mrs. Bernardo just might listen to reason if we plead Ruby's case…"

After the final bell concluded the school day for students, Mrs. Bernardo sat in her tiny office located in the back of the auditorium behind the stage, where she perused through a collection of scripts she had to decide what may make for a good selection for their first production of the new semester; of course, since the semester had just begun, and there were a few new enrollees, there would still need to be a few weeks to put her students through some exercises to prepare them for a theatrical production – she even considered a buddy system to have her returning thespians partner with the new enrollees to show them the ropes, as even she was aware that many students not only do well on a one-to-one basis, but even more so when that basis is among their own peers.

At that moment, the drama teacher heard an unexpected knock at her door which startled her into sending script pages flying across the room, but she quickly regained her composure and responded, "COME IIIIIIINNNNN!"

The door opened and she soon was met with a number of her veteran thespians: Luan, Benny, Shannon, Lyberti, Leo, Parvana, and yes, even Amy and Rex; they invited themselves into her cramped office to make an appeal…

"Mrs. Bernardo? Could we speak to you for a minute?" Shannon asked as she led the charge.

"My goodness!" Mrs. Bernardo responded in her usual flamboyant flare; this scene looked very much familiar to her, only she had been on the opposite side before in joining other actors who marched into the office of somebody higher up in the theatrical food chain. "I certainly admire your tenacity, but I do believe you young thespians still have a loooong way to go before you should unionize!"

"Actually, Mrs. B., we wanted to talk to you about Ruby Patel…" Luan pointed out.

Mrs. Bernardo looked somewhat irked at the mentioning of this name as she began to reference Shakespeare: "Some are born into greatness… some achieve greatness… some have greatness thrust upon them… and some simply don't have what it takes…"

The thespians had mixed reactions to this peculiar response from their drama teacher, particularly since her last line had actually deviated from the Bard's work.

She looked at them once more to expound on her decision: "This is, after all, show business, and like any business, if an under achiever is a liability to the rest of the company, they need to be cut loose… not to mention, too many students have enrolled in this course without taking it seriously; theater is still a class, after all… I've no time to deal with students who aren't here to learn anything."

The other thespians began to contest in Ruby's defense.

"You've got Ruby all wrong, Mrs. B.," said Luan. "Okay, maybe things didn't really work out last semester, but that was then, this is now; she's willing to give it another shot if she's given another opportunity."

"If you don't mind us saying so, you should reconsider allowing her into the club again," suggested Benny. "After all, you're the one who always told us if we have any sort of talent, it should be nurtured and allowed to flourish; Ruby has a lot of talent to offer, even if she did waste it…"

Parvana then reminded their drama teacher of something she had made a point of mentioning at one point during their previous semester: "Mrs. Bernardo, you had also said the world of theater needs to open its doors to allow for more opportunities to be available for culturally diverse performers who may, otherwise, never be discovered… such as Ruby."

Shannon finished with: "Mrs. B.? I know Ruby better than anybody, and she's told me multiple times she regrets dropping out of theater more than anything… she really hoped to be given another chance this semester… I mean, as an educator, wouldn't you agree that students need to learn from their mistakes? Shouldn't Ruby be allowed to learn from hers?"

After the thespians had spoken their peace, Mrs. Bernardo sat in stunned silence; at first, she looked almost like a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching vehicle, but pretty soon, she looked as though she was beaming with pride over what she had just witnessed.

"That… was… MARRRRVELOUS!" Her loud exclamation took them by surprise. "My dear children, you are a COMPANY OF PLAYERS! I haven't seen such loyalty and unity among a group of thespians in YEARS! You have learned well!"

This seemed like a hopeful sign as far as said thespians were concerned as each of them began to cautiously smile at their drama teacher's response.

"Does this mean you'll let Ruby back into the club?" Shannon asked.

Like the flip of a switch, Mrs. Bernardo's demeanor quickly reverted back into that of a serious teacher who still had a duty to maintain.

"I'll have to think about it…"

Those cautious smiles immediately disappeared from her thespians' faces.

"After all, a group of thespians is also like a family," the drama teacher continued. "But, sometimes in life, families break apart and go their separate ways…"

Silence took over the room once again, until Shannon mustered up the guts to make one last ditch effort to persuade Mrs. Bernardo otherwise:

"Sometimes… families can be reunited…"

The other thespians mumbled in agreement with the Jewish girl's sentiment.

"As I said, I'll have to think about this," repeated Mrs. Bernardo. "But, otherwise, I do look forward to our first session of the semester this Friday…"

The other thespians exchanged looks with one another as they finally left their drama teacher's office and trekked their way off of the empty stage towards the exits.

"Well, that didn't go so well…" mumbled Luan.

"I don't know," said Benny. "I mean, she didn't give us a definite answer, so there's still a chance she might let Ruby back in…"

"She didn't sound too receptive to the idea, though," said a disheartened Shannon.

"I hate to say it," Lyberti added, "but the way Ruby blew us off last semester, I wouldn't be surprised if Mrs. B. won't let her back into the club, anyway."

"At least we tried," concluded Benny. "That's all any of us could've done, right?"

The other thespians mumbled in agreement.

"Are you going to tell Ruby about it, Shans?" Luan asked.

Shannon looked rather uneasy over that question as she pondered, "I'm not sure… I'd really hate to get her hopes up if Mrs. B. says no…"

Indeed, it became a notion that Shannon debated in her mind: on the one hand, Ruby felt disheartened enough to be rejected by Mrs. Bernardo from enrolling in theater again, to get her hopes up over a second chance only to have Mrs. Bernardo say no again seemed like the last thing she needed right now; on the other hand, Ruby also seemed to be in need of at least knowing she had friends in her corner who support and went to bat for her. The bespectacled brunette found it perplexing that her heart bled the way it did for Ruby – she never experienced such empathy for anybody before in her life.

Even if they did not say anything otherwise, the fact that her fellow thespians still sat with Ruby during lunch in the afternoon seemed to reaffirm to the Indian girl that these other students were, indeed in her corner, regardless of what happened in the past – it was a little something she could hold close to heart, which did lift her spirit to have them back in her life … this must have been what it felt like to have true friends… no friend seeming truer than Shannon, as she always met up with Ruby before or after school to get the most out what little they saw of each other in person during the day, regardless of how brief it was. It was a simple gesture that Ruby came to really appreciate more than any social circle or clique she may have been included in in the past or a dump of comments to any of her social media posts. She really liked it; as did Shannon.

Come Thursday morning, Ruby had pulled a text book from her locker, which she would need for her first period Biology class – at least that was one of the more interesting subjects she had in school. Shannon, meanwhile, had made the trek down the hall to Miss Holzhauer's classroom for her first period History, but decided to make a brief little pitstop when she saw Ruby by her locker to engage in conversation about what their day held in store for them.

"Anything interesting happening today?" Shannon asked as she clutched her books to her chest.

"Yeah, apparently, we're like, makin' babies…" said Ruby with an absolute straight face.

"You're WHAT?!" A stunned Shannon responded.

"Ms. Borutski is giving us, like, a bunch of genetic traits to draw from a hat, then, like, pairing us off with partners to see, like, what sort of baby we'd produce based on what genes we draw from the hat," explained Ruby.

The very idea of this sort of Biology project sounded, to say the least, interesting, and to say the most, amusing.

A giggle became trapped within Shannon's throat as she suggested, "Well, I'm sure whatever baby you produce will be just as beautiful as you…"

Whoa. Did she really just say that? From where did that even come? Shannon's cheeks turned bright red as she felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her from that unplanned remark she had blurted out.

Ruby's cheeks reddened a little as well, though for a different reason, as she responded, "Aww thanks. I'm, like, totally flattered…"

That was a relief. Shannon still had no idea how that possibly could have come out of her mouth… even though, if she were to be completely honest, that was no lie – Ruby really was beautiful.

At that moment, an announcement reverberated through the corridor as a young man's voice was broadcasted from the crackling P.A. system:

"Would Ruby Patel please report to Principal Rivers's office? Ruby Patel, please report to Principal Rivers's office."

The two girls looked rather perplexed by this announcement as they shared curious and uneasy glances with one another.

"Like, what is that about?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know," said Shannon. "You're not in any kind of trouble, are you?"

"What've I ever done to, like, get myself in trouble?" Ruby asked.

"You don't think it has anything to do with that big blow-up you had with Spencer, do you?" Shannon asked; perhaps another had student reported her for dropping a 'D'-bomb for all to hear.

"I hope not…" mumbled Ruby as she reluctantly headed toward the staircase at the end of the corridor to climb to the principal's office on the top floor.

Both girls were incredibly worried over why Ruby was summoned by Principal Rivers; granted, Rivers was not the most efficient principal to be placed in charge of a high school, or any educational establishment for that matter – it could very well be something so insignificant that it may not even be worth fretting over. Still, to be summoned to the principal's office was an unsettling matter. Shortly thereafter, Ruby had reached a door that read PRINCIPAL RIVERS on the glass panel, and eased it open to be met with a bespectacled young man in a green sweater vest and khaki pants, who also possessed a sash across his chest that proclaimed his position among the school's faculty as the principal's assistant.

"Uh… hi…" Ruby greeted the young man who looked away from his clipboard. "I'm, like, here to see Principal Rivers?"

"Come in…" Oliver invited the nervous girl into the office and directed her to the large desk in the far corner of the room, where a dark-haired, middle aged woman who looked as though she may be better suited for a role as a fortune teller in a crooked carnival, dressed in a purple outfit with a lavender shawl upon her head and a string of pearls around her neck, sat in befuddlement.

"Ohhh… which folder should I keep the faculty reports in… the red folder, or the blue folder?" The woman asked herself aloud, as she struggled to make a decision. "Red folder? Blue folder? Red? Blue?"

Ruby cleared her throat in attempt to garner the principal's attention without being rude about it, which caused her to snap her head to attention to see the nervous young girl who stood before her.

"Um… you… wanted to see me, Principal Rivers?" Ruby queried.

"Oh, yes, Ruby," said Principal Rivers with a nod of her head. "I just received a memo regarding a change that's being made to your schedule for this semester… uh… now, where did I put that memo? Ohh... where is it?"

The flustered principal rifled through the piles of papers and folders that buried her desk in search of this memo of which she spoke, though unfortunately, she could not seem to find it, which only added to her frustration, as well as Ruby's concern. Luckily for the two of them, Oliver stepped over with a slip of paper that he had removed from his clipboard; with a clearing of his throat, he also managed to capture his superior's attention…

"I took the liberty of holding onto this so you wouldn't lose it…" he said as he handed the principal the memo.

Principal Rivers sighed in relief as she took the memo into her hand and thanked her assistant.

"Oh, Oliver, what would I do without you?"

"Perish the thought, Principal Rivers," said Oliver with undertones of sarcasm.

Principal Rivers briefly skimmed over the memo to make sure that she had her information correct before she passed it onto her student.

"Okay, Ruby, it appears that Mrs. Bernardo in the drama department has rescinded her prevision decision of rejecting your application to enroll in the theater club…"

Ruby was a little confused and further questioned, "What does that mean?"

Principal Rivers looked up at her student and said, "I think it means she changed her mind."

Ruby's eyes widened in shock; she asked, "So, does this mean I'm, like, back in theater club?"

"I think so," nodded Principal Rivers.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Ruby squealed in sheer delight, which startled the principal and her assistant as they witnessed her little victory dance while she gave praise in her cultural tongue. "BHAGVAAN KO DHANYAVAAD!"

The administrative pair exchanged glances with each other before Oliver handed Principal Rivers another slip of paper from his clipboard, which turned out to be a copy of Ruby's revised schedule for the semester.

"Okay, so, here's a copy of your schedule," said the principal as she handed the slip of paper to her student. "And just so you know, the theater club meets every Friday after school."

Ruby happily snatched the paper out of the principal's hand and practically bounded out of her office while she continued to exclaim Hindi expressions of praise.

"VAAH VAAH! BAAP RE BAAP!"

"NO RUNNING IN THE HALLS, YOUNG LADY!" Oliver called out to the girl who just leaped out of the office.

"Rather spirited, isn't she?" Principal Rivers remarked before she resumed contemplating another pressing matter. "Now then, which was it again, the red folder or the blue folder?"

Oliver simply rolled his eyes; it was going to be another one of those days.

Ruby could hardly contain her excitement over Mrs. Bernardo changing her mind and allowing her back into the theater club, she felt like a dam that was about to burst at the slightest provocation, and was more than ready to share the good news with her friends over lunch that afternoon. Sure enough, Shannon was quite curious to see why she seemed so giddy when she grabbed a seat next to her in the cafeteria.

"So, what did Principal Rivers want to see you about?" She asked.

"Mrs. Bernardo changed her mind," Ruby blurted out. "I'm back in theater!"

"Really?!" Shannon squealed.

"Really!" Ruby also squealed.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Shannon squealed before she threw her arms around Ruby.

"You want us to give you two some privacy?" Luan quipped as she and Benny walked over to their table to join them for lunch.

"There seems to be excitement in the air today," Benny pointed out. "What's the occasion?"

"Mrs. B. is letting Ruby back into the theater club!" Shannon exclaimed as she pulled away from her friend.

This certainly excited Luan and Benny as well and they joined in on the celebration.

"That's fantastic news!" Benny exclaimed.

"We did it!" Luan cheered.

"Huh? Did what?" Ruby asked.

Shannon explained, "Well, after you told us about your rejection, we all got together with Mrs. Bernardo and did some schmoozing on your behalf."

"Definite schmoozing," added Benny being familiar with such a common Yiddish word.

"I guess you could say we all did some schmooze talking!" Luan quipped with a laugh.

"You did that for me?" Ruby was incredibly touched by the gesture as her eyes widened and gleamed in deep gratitude. "Wow… you guys are, like, totally the best!"

As Ruby continued to express her gratitude and appreciation to her fellow thespians for going to bat for her, Shannon was suddenly struck with an idea to orchestrate a little surprise to celebrate Ruby's triumphant return to theater. Since it did not look like some of the other thespians would join them for lunch today, she pulled her cell phone from her skirt pocket and typed up a text message to send out to the others to update them on their little demonstration persuading Mrs. Bernardo to change her mind, and requesting that they get together to prepare for a little number to surprise Ruby with tomorrow.

No, dear readers, you are not imagining things - you are actually seeing Principal Rivers in a fanfiction story of mine. Shocking, isn't it? Considering that, as has already been mentioned, "Deep Cuts" is another episode this story will revisit, her inclusion was unavoidable. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean this could not have been an AU in which my OC Principal Jones got involved with the protests instead (Albertson and I had some discussion about this), however, I had never even considered such a direction when writing the drafts for our ensuing chapters; I had opted to stick closer to canon.