"Look at Tara," said Mrs. Tyndall. "When people see her, they won't have a hard time imagining she's an all-American girl from Pleasant Valley. It's our job in the theatre to make it easy for the audience to imagine they are right there with her."She made it sound so reasonable.She said: Tara looks like she's from Pleasant Valley. She meant: You look like you're from someplace else. Someplace that isn't Pleasant Valley. Someplace that isn't even in the United States. Why hadn't I sung the Star-Spangled Banner for my tryout instead?"You'll do a great job in the group numbers. You'll help everyone stay on pitch," said Mrs. Tyndall. "Don't forget, every role is important or it wouldn't be there. Most girls would feel extremely lucky to make the ensemble."I would have felt extremely lucky to be in the ensemble, too. If Mrs. Tyndall hadn't said what she'd said. And if Tara wasn't poised to be the peanut butter. Again."Won't the audience wonder why there's one Chinese-Jewish girl in Pleasant Valley?" I asked, just to show her that I got her point about sticking out. Though there was only one Chinese-Jewish girl at Dwight D. Eisenhower, too."You're Jewish?" said Mrs. Tyndall. "Are you sure?"I wanted to say I wouldn't have spent so much time being bored out of my mind in Hebrew School if I wasn't Jewish, but I decided against it. The Chinese part of me was the part she could see, but the Jewish part of me was always there, too.Mrs. Tyndall made a little sweeping motion with her hand. "Anyway, that's the ensemble. They'll barely notice."Because I was an apple. A French fry. A green bean and macaroni and cheese and corn. I was the side dish. I didn't have reddish brown hair or blue eyes. I had black hair and brown eyes like my mom and a dimply smile like my dad's. Some girls in my grade liked to put their arms against mine and say how tan I was, even at the end of winter. I had thought that was a good thing. Until now. Excerpted from Not Your All-American Girl by Wendy Wan-Long Shang, Madelyn Rosenberg All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
