Yakkity Yak

Without skipping a beat, I continued to address students in a cool, calm and sometimes funny manner; I was determined not to let what he said get to me. Unlike him, I didn’t think that bringing our past up in front of a group of kids that he had to deal with everyday was the smart thing to do – it didn’t matter that no one but me heard what he said.

“I know you all have expressed interest in performing on stage, which is great, we certainly appreciate it but with that said, I feel that I should tell you that, more than likely, not everyone can perform – we only have three hours of show time.”

Before I had even finished the kids were talking amongst themselves and they didn’t sound too happy about it, if you were to go by the increase in the noise level and the rude remarks.

“Wait…” I tried to get their attention but they weren’t listening at all.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Josh bring the whistle to his mouth again and I quickly covered my ears. Like before, he blew it loud and hard, until all the kids were silent once again. “Before you start complaining,” he snapped. “You should let Anna finish.”

My eyes widened as he turned to me. “What?”

Instead of saying anything, I shook my head and returned my attention to the kids. “Yes,” I flashed them a smile, despite wanting to rip Josh’s head off for being such a jerk. “Like I was saying, we don’t have a lot of show time but that doesn’t mean that you can’t help out with the show.”

“What else is there to do?” A male voice called from the seats.

“I’m glad you asked,” I turned to Josh, who was paying more attention to me than the kids. “Coach Baker has, in his hands,” I shoved my clipboard at him. “Sign up sheets for various things – performing, set design, production assistants, ticket sellers, advertising assistants…” I chuckled. “The list goes on and on guys. We need a lot of help with this show, we have a month to pull it together and as you can see,” I motioned around the room. “We are it, this show is our baby and it needs a lot of TLC.”

Instead of moving to make the sign up sheets available for those who wished to sign them, Josh remained in place and did nothing. “Oh for the love of God,” I muttered. “Do I have to do everything?”

“I want to talk to you,” he told me.

“Well,” I pulled my clipboard back again. “I have nothing to say to you that doesn’t involve this show.”

He started to protest but I couldn’t be bothered to take the time to listen, I had certain goals set for the first meeting with the kids and I wanted to achieve them. Plus, at 5:30 that evening, Jordan and I were going to meet with Wanda to view houses that fit our needs.

“The sign up sheets are here,” I waved my clipboard in the air. “Read the list, think about what you want to do and then sign your name.” A couple students came forward the moment I dropped the clipboard onto the stage.

“Ok, so, anyone wishing to perform, we’ll need to have a little ‘audition’ and we’ll need to know what your final piece is going to be for the show – you’ll have until next Monday to think about that one. Those who wish to do set design, we have a basic idea of what we want but it’s still open to suggestion. Remember, we will have to take into account the various acts and accommodate all of them equally. Anyone who is artistically inclined –” I paused, scanning the crowd for Lindsay, who I told to be there because I would like her help with the posters; she waved at me from the seats. “We need posters, and lots of them. We’ll need a name for the show, a few different designs and we’ll need to go around town and ask various stores if we can hang them up on their community boards. Also, don’t forget the reason we are doing this –“

“For the kids!” Cassie shouted out when I paused.

I laughed, “That’s right Cass, we are doing this for the kids –those who deserve to have the same joyous Christmas that you all have but aren’t able to because of various reasons. All money raised by us will be split between Santa’s Elves and the Food Bank – so please make note of that somewhere on your posters.”

“What about the production stuff?” Someone asked as I turned to go into the back rooms to see what was there that we could use.

“Oh!” I completely forgot about that assignment. “The people who sign up for that role will be sort of a go between for Coach Baker, me and the other groups. We’ll need people who are organized, outgoing and able to handle pressure. I won’t lie, it’s a difficult role and you’ll probably feel stressed and pulled in every direction but I promise it will be rewarding come December when we show the town what we can do.”

When I finished, I asked if there were any more questions and Cassie asked where we stood on the other ideas we had for the show. “Are we allowed to do the intermission bake sale, Aunt Anna? And what about the door prizes? Are we allowed to do that?”

These were questions I didn’t have the answers to. “Coach?”

Josh cleared his throat as he came forward. As he stood way too close to me, he told everyone that the bake sale wouldn’t be an issue but he would have to check into the door prizes. “Anna and I still have a few things to discuss regarding the door prizes.” Turning to me, he told me that he thought it was a good time to talk. “About the door prizes, of course.”

I had a feeling he just threw that in there so I would agree to talk to him.

“Thank you Cassie for reminding me,” I said as I grinned. “Guess what that means guys? We need people to take the bake sale project in hand and see if we can get a few dozen different items for the sale. And, if we can do the door prizes, we’ll need the people selling tickets to make sure that everyone knows not to lose their tickets!”

The kids were no longer listening to me; the air was a buzz with excitement and talk of who was going to sign up for what.

“I believe this leaves enough time for us to have that talk,” Josh told me as he motioned towards the back corner of the stage.

“But the kids –”

“They are all wrapped up in the sign up sheet right now.”

“Ok,” I reluctantly agreed. “Just let me grab Cassie…”

Josh’s hand shot out to stop me. “Afraid to talk to me alone Anna?”

“No,” I chuckled. “If we are going to be talking about the door prizes, Cassie should be involved, it was her idea you know.”

Josh nodded. “I know it was her idea but do you think it’s wise to pull her into this when we might not even be able to do it? The principal is going to want to know where you, not Cassie, plan on getting the prizes.”

“Well, we aren’t going to be talking to the principal right now, so what difference does it make?” He started to speak but I interrupted. “And you know what? I think it’s wrong for him not to want to hear what Cassie has to say. Isn’t the whole idea of projects like this to help develop a student’s ability to arrange stuff like this for the future? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to give the students a little more responsibility and make them accountable while giving them guidance and a helping hand?”

I guess he had nothing to say to that because he turned and walked away from me.