Chương 271: WHAT IS NOT ROMANTIC

1 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, ENGLISH Setting up the new picnic area in our school had made me forget Ms Pitera's idea of fun when she wanted us to perform Aladdin's "A Whole New World" in boy-girl pairs. Singing badly on an old rug with a guy not of your dreams in front of your classmates was not cool. It wasn' t romantic either. I' m not sure what she was thinking, but I think if the boys hadn' t stormed out of the music studio like they did, I would have gained a traumatizing memory from her class.

Today at English lesson, our teacher, Mr Devon, also had a terrible idea. I almost wanted to completely not write about it, but I thought it was important to record my most harrowing experiences in school, so that if I ever became the kind of grown-up who would become nostalgic and say, "High school days were the best," reading today's entry would remind me that it was not. Mr Devon, with the honors in English Lit, remembered our interest in Macbeth (Vol2. Chp80) and decided we would do a Shakespeare project.

And since Valentine's Day was just around the corner, why not do a teenage love story? No! Omo. No, no, no... Because I knew what would happen next. I had watched enough TV to know where this was headed. Our class was going to study the play Romeo and Juliet. Who knows? We might even be able to perform it in front of the school at the end of the term! Mr Devon was planning to organize a special assembly and allow all his four freshman English classes to perform in front of the school.

Since he was the teacher in charge of the drama club, he would lend us props and costumes. If we did really well, who knows? We might be the next drama star for the school play at the end of the year! In other words, he was about to embarrass the majority of us while conveniently scouting and auditioning for the school play at the end of the year. Each class would perform an excerpt from Romeo and Juliet. He would even present the best class with a prize at the end of the special assembly.

I couldn' t help but feel a bit excited, though. I won' t lie in my diary. But I wasn' t going to gasp happily or clap my hands together overenthusiastically like Abigail, Jasmine, and Pearl. Mr Devon handed out the printouts with the script and notes. There were four scenes to choose from.

"We have all the coolest freshman guys in our class, of course we have to do the kissing scene," Abigail said. No! I felt my hair stand up immediately. Everyone looked over, so I was forced to say something.

"I want to do the fighting scene with swords."

"Yeah!" The guys agreed.

"That scene isn't in the printout," Henry informed us. Oh.

"Don't worry," Mr Devon smirked deviously.

"You may all play any scene you like. Just break into groups, choose a scene, and act it out. If the scene isn't in the printout, I'm sure you can find it online somewhere." Oh. I waited for the catch.

"Alright, you can form groups of two to four. I'll give you the rest of this lesson to discuss it. I expect you to practice your parts and be ready to perform it on Friday. I will select the actors for the performance at the end of the term from there." Oh. Okay, this actually sounded like fun because I wasn't going to actually try to win. I was just going to have fun.

"Don't forget, this is a graded assignment," Mr Devon added. So much for my fun.

"Sam, you still want to do a fight scene?" Henry asked. I nodded. Henry pointed to Marcus, himself, and then to me. He chuckled." We' ll give Liam to Jasmine." Liam looked back at that, and then at Jasmine.

"Okay?" Jasmine turned red and nodded.

"What about me?" Pearl asked.

"You can be Juliet's nurse," I offered, looking at the printout where the window balcony scene listed "Romeo, Juliet, and Juliet's Nurse" as the characters needed. I was just joking, but Pearl's eyes burned with fury. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"I dub thee Mercutio," Henry told me.

"Who?" I turned away from Pearl.

"But Mercutio is a boy!" Pearl said.

"Okay!" I said.

"I'll be Mer-cheto." As long as it's a boy not named Romeo, I felt sure I would be in the kiss-free zone.

"Mercutio..." Marcus corrected absentmindedly.

"Hang on, let me send you the notes." I hoped Merman was someone who fought with a sword. Henry, who was consulting his phone, nodded.

"I'll be Romeo, Marcus will be Tybalt, and Sam will play Mercutio." I opened up the link that Marcus sent and did a bit of speed-scrolling.

"Isn't this a fight scene? Why are there so many words?"

"I want to do Romeo and Juliet's first kiss scene!" Abigail announced, and then she smiled and turned to us.

"Henry, would you be my Romeo?"

"Woooooohhhh!" the whole class went off. My mouth dropped open. That girl had a lot of confidence. If Henry said yes, I would... Lol. Henry didn't answer immediately. Was he considering it? No way!

"Class, class!" Mr Devon shouted above the fray.

"QUIET!" The class quietened.

"Now form your groups and start discussing your scenes. I want every group to hand in the names of their group members and the scene and act they would be performing by the end of today's class," Mr Devon said. The class had a very hard time settling into groups. All the guys decided to do fight scenes and form all-guy groups. A few of the girls really wanted to play Juliet but only if Romeo was Henry, Liam, or Marcus... Or someone like that.

Abigail said we should break our team up and release Henry and Marcus to be Romeos.

"What about me?" I protested.

"You can join the other girls. You're out of bounds anyway, remember?" Abigail waved me off. Wow. That girl had a lot of confidence... And a brazen disregard to hierarchy. I'm the Alpha! Sigh, humans!

"Join us, Sam," Zara offered.

"We don't know what we are doing yet, but you can join us."

"Can we do the fight scene?" I asked.

"Hey, hey, stop. Sam, you already agreed to be in our group," Henry said.

"But don't you wanna kiss Abigail?" I asked. I could be brazen too. Henry froze, and then he answered low and growly, "Not in front of the whole class." Then he smirked at Abigail. Gah! Was that Henry flirting? So he was indirectly saying he did want to kiss Abigail, but not in front of the whole class? Marcus coughed a little. The rest of the class watched to see what would happen. Was Abigail Henry's soulmate? No way! Omo.

"Henry, if you don't play my Romeo, I'll kiss someone else!" Abigail threatened. Henry shrugged.

"You're free to kiss whoever you like."

"Well, you can forget about Friday night." Abigail huffed. The class gasped in unison. Who needed Shakespeare when there was Class 1-7 drama?

"It's fine. I'll just call someone else," Henry smirked. That answered my question about Abigail being Henry's soulmate. Ooohhh... But Henry, that's mean! I raised my hand to hit him.

"Don't forget, you can't ask Sam out! She's out of bounds," Abigail added. Ooof... Hey! I'm just an innocent bystander! I put down my hand.

"I wouldn't ask Sam if you paid me!" Henry shot back.

"Who takes a five-year-old to King's Theatre?" I raised my hand again and punched Henry on his shoulder.

"F***, Sam. That hurts!" Henry growled.

"It was supposed to," I said back.

"Oooh, are you watching a play? I love plays!" Pearl enthused.

"What are you watching?"

"I don't know. Opening night, box seat. My parents are patrons, but they are away on business, so I need to fill the two seats on their behalf," Henry shrugged.

"Why don't you take Peter?" I asked.

"Why the hell would I spend the evening watching a play with another man?" Henry sounded rather mortified.

"Just go by yourself and sit on both seats," I said with a grin. I was just provoking him now.

"Sam, your name should have been Mercutio." Marcus laughed.

"It suits you."

"What kind of name is that?" I complained. Mr Devon was just staring at us. And then he walked over to the back of the class.

"Now, what's going on here?" Something in Henry lit up.

"Sir, would you like the tickets? There's a play opening in King's Theatre this Friday night. It's a box seat, but I seemed to have lost my date."

"Oh... Those were sold out—how did you get box seats?" Mr Devon said.

"My father, Alpha Patrick George, is a patron there. These were given to him. Unfortunately, he is away for business. If you think you and your mate would enjoy the show, I'll be happy to pass the tickets to you." Henry's voice had taken a strong and reassuring tone.

"Ah, that is too much to accept," Mr Devon said.

"Well, not really. They were free, and at this point, if you took them, it would be a great help to me. You see, I absolutely cannot let this pair of prominent seats go empty on the opening night." Henry said.

"I would be very relieved to pass them to you on Friday after class."

"Ah, well... Yes... If you have no one else who can help you by then, I, ah, don't mind helping my student," Mr Devon said.

"Thank you." Henry smiled again. When Henry smiled like that, he took the form of a rather charming young gentleman.

"Ah, yes, well... Carry on." And Mr Devon retreated back to the front of the class.

"So I'm going to write our names and the scene in which Mercutio dies, alright?" Marcus decided to get back to the task at hand.

"I died?" I pretty much exclaimed loudly. But for some reason, Mr Devon decided to turn a blind eye, or rather a deaf ear. Hahaha.

"He was stabbed in a fight," Marcus informed me.

"Yes!" I punched my fist in the air. Henry laughed at that.

"Alright, how do you want to play it?"

"With a lot of action and stunts!" I said immediately.

"Oh boy," said Marcus.

"Can you?" Henry asked. I nodded.

"Probably." Henry raised his hands.

"Mr Devon, we've decided on a scene. Can we try it outside the classroom so we have more space to try the movements?"

"Yes, of course. That is an excellent idea!" Mr Devon agreed.

"Class, if you've decided on the scene, you can start practicing. Just remember to hand in your group names and scene." Our group was the first that got up. Marcus handed the sheet of paper with our names and the act and scene number written on it.

"Let's get as much as we can done today," Henry said.

"Then we go back, memorize, and stay back Thursday afternoon to rehearse. Friday lunch we would do a last practice."

"Since when were you so passionate about Shakespeare?" I asked.

"Since it's graded," Henry said.

"I'm getting straight As this term." We walked out. I had expected to go to our usual place at the picnic table, but Henry led us to the new picnic area instead.

"Nice." He said to the budding trees. He took a deep breath, eyes never wavering from the treeline ahead. Something was up.

"What's up?" I said.

"What do you mean?" Henry asked.

"You have something on your mind, but you're not saying it," I said.

"There are many things on my mind that I don't say, Sam." Henry smirked at me. He was so frustrating to talk to.

"You might as well tell her now, Hen," Marcus said.