Page 40 of Inside Out

“What’s that mean?” I asked her. “Are you even considering honoring the petition?”

“We have to take these things seriously, Rome,” Earl said. “None of us want cancel the play.”

“Okay, then why the gloom and doom?”

“We think it’s best to at least hold a public meeting to allow the parents to speak their minds and let them hear our thoughts in return.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. “I agree that’s fair, but are there really that many parents upset about the play? How many signatures did they collect?”

“Seven hundred and fifty,” Cait said.

“We only have six hundred and thirty-two students registered at Blissville High School,” I stated. Cait snorted, Earl chuckled, and a few others snickered in the room. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t aware of enrollment numbers.”

“It’s okay, Dr. Bradley. We understand why you’re upset. We are too.”

“I think we need to cross reference the names on the petition to the names of our high school student body,” I recommended.

“Why?” Betsy Jones asked.

“Because I’m not willing to listen to any complaints from anyone outside our school district or anyone who doesn’t have a child enrolled in the high school. If parents of a kindergartner don’t want their kid to attend the play, then they don’t have to drive them to Goodville to attend any of the performances. It isn’t like they can accidentally stumble across the play.”

“You make a valid point,” Cait said. “I’m so irritated I didn’t think of that.”

“I’m plenty fired up about it, but that only makes my thoughts sharper.”

“I’ll ask Sandra to compare names on the petitions to our roster,” Cait said. Sandra was the assistant assigned to the board members.

“Or you can have Priscilla look at it,” I suggested. “She knows everybody in this town. Hell, she’s worked in this district for fifty years.”

“True,” Earl said. “Her mind is quicker than any computer.”

“That’s what she keeps telling me,” I replied. “Who drew up the petition in the first place?”

“Roy Halifax,” Cait replied, disdain dripping from her tongue. “There has never been a more grotesque man to walk this earth.”

“He founded the Preserving Our Society group, and they hold meetings each month to discuss ways they can run off the gays and other minorities who they feel are ruining our way of life.”

“You don’t say?” I asked, sitting back in my chair. My mood had improved for the first time since I arrived.

“Why are you smirking?” Cait asked suspiciously.

“I refuse to fear any group with an acronym of POS.”

“He is a piece of shit!” Cait declared then covered her mouth and burst into laughter.

The rest of us followed her until we were practically crying from laughing so hard at her outburst. I knew in that moment we would take on the piece of shits together and come out the victor.

“We’re set to have the auditions next week,” I reminded Cait. “Do you want me to slide them back a week?”

“No,” she replied firmly. “We’ll schedule a public meeting for Friday and take it from there. Emails will go out to high school parents, and I’ll make sure it gets announced in the Blissville Daily News.”

“Do you think it’s wise to encourage more people to show up?” Earl asked.

“First of all, we don’t do things in secret,” Cait said firmly. “The previous school board, along with the former superintendent who is serving time in jail, operated on corruption and deceit. I promised transparency, and that’s what I’m going to deliver. Besides, if we don’t tell our students and their parents, only the people who want to stop the play will show up. Is that what we want?”

“Not at all,” Cheryl said.

“We’ll need to include the overview of the play in the newsletter and inform the parents that three of Blissville High’s students wrote the play and lyrics for the songs. I would think that most parents would be impressed,” I suggested.