Rita Desjardin - Novel

Novel

As the story begins, Rita at first feels the same disgust everyone feels for Carrie White. However, when she witnesses Carrie being humiliated by the other girls in the locker room after gym class for her hysterical reaction at her first period, she realizes that Carrie didn't even know what a period was and takes her side. She wants to punish the girls that taunted her by having them suspended for three days and barred from the senior prom, but the principal settles on a lesser punishment: a week of boot-camp style detention in the gym; refusing to attend detention will result in suspension from school and banishment from the prom. In Desjardin's view, the only reason the administrators didn't go along with her proposed punishment is that they are all men, and thus didn't really understand just how nasty the girls' behavior had been. Lead bully Chris Hargensen skips the detention and thus is barred from the prom. The principal reprimands Desjardin for cursing at Chris, but stands by her when Chris's lawyer dad threatens to sue unless Chris is allowed to attend the prom and Desjardin is fired.

At the prom, she talks with Carrie about her own prom night (she was several inches taller than her date and felt awkward, but remembers it as a beautiful event) and later, congratulates her for being voted Prom Queen. Chris has rigged a cord connected to two buckets above Carrie and Tommy, and pulls it when they ascend the stage, drenching them with pigs' blood. Miss Desjardin runs to help Carrie, who pushes her aside with her telekinesis. Once outside, Carrie uses her gift to wreak havoc on the school, then leaves for home, destroying everything she passes. Miss Desjardin is one of the few survivors of the "Black Prom". One month after the catastrophe, she retires from teaching, saying she is consumed with guilt for not doing more to help Carrie, and that she would rather commit suicide than teach again.