Gypsy Rose...ME?

         How’d you get yourself into this? I scolded.  Better still, how are you gonna get yourself out?  How had the shy, quiet, ‘new girl’ in the ninth grade been talked into joining the speech and debate team?  Then I remembered… I joined because Kelly wanted to try play acting and needed a partner.  You’re a pushover!

         Mrs. Bell, the team coach, explained the rules of competition and worked with each student to find a topic, research materials, or a script for their presentation.  “Play acting is the most difficult category and the most critically judged.  You must be a perfect team.  Last year’s team dropped out after the second competition and they’re still not speaking.”

         She gave us the binder of scripts, but three days before competition we still hadn’t made a choice. 

         “This is it,” Kelly announced, tossing me a hand-written script.  “I saw a show on public TV about the Burlesque actress named Gypsy and I knew this scene would be perfect.  I found it at the library and copied the parts word for word.”

         “What’s it about?”

         “Gypsy is a striptease artist and her mother manages her career.  Just try it,” she urged.  “You be Gypsy.”

         “Me?” I squeaked.  “But…”

         “We have less than three days till competition.  Trust me.  Read the part and see how it goes,” Kelly pressed.

         I began reading and soon felt the part.  The hallway echoed with applause from the students and teachers who stopped to hear our practice.

         Mrs. Bell stepped from the crowd, “A tad rough, but a little practice will help.”

         We practiced before and after school, during lunch, on the bus, and on the phone.  Our work paid off as we took first place in every competition that year, and brought home the State Trophy for play acting!

300 words