Shakespeare's Play

"This time we are doing 3 performances for the whole school throughout the year! So we have to make this a good one. It is your last academic year after all!", our drama teacher, Ms. Cratos vocalizes through an ear-blasting mic from stage that we are doing the old classic; Romeo and Juliet for the 1st term. First class of the day and we get a loud dramatic lecture, as 25 of us sit in an empty crowd of 400+ spare chairs. She hands out auditions for both the male and female lead characters to everyone.

"Hah... isn't it obvious? I will be Juliet. You all know I will. There's no point in anyone else auditioning for the position", Proudly chuckles with her chin up, Claire Hopkins, the head girl of drama. She's always been lead for every play, not once has she ever disappointed either. Her dream is to be the next Kate Winslet. Not going to lie, it's pretty uncanny how much she looks like KW.

"Oh, get over yourself! Just because you look like her doesn't mean you're her!", Kylie grunts. This year Kylie wants to be the lead and will do anything to get it. I, as always, will support her, "I'm sure you got this in the bag Ky-"

"Now, now ladies! Calm down. Everyone will get a fair judgement. We are doing something a little special this time and allowing 3 judges to judge your performances and they will assign what role you would be playing for this project", Ms. Cratos announces, surprising the whole drama league.

It was clear that we were expecting something more, frantically looking at each other with excitement and murmuring all across the room asking one another who it could be. "Who are the judges? Are they famous?", Kiki from Professors English class raises her voice to Ms. Cratos. Kiki is short for Kimberely, except there's two of them so the selfless one decided to change hers to a nickname her friends must have given her.

"No, don't be ridiculous! We don't have that kind of budget. The judges will be our very own teachers here at Al'Burdene; Mrs. Mullers from Maths, Mr. Jackson from History and Professor Vanderwalt from English", She adds to our heavy sigh of disappointment.

"What about you? What will you do?", Claire voices after much silence receiving an eye-ful stare from Kylie and others she may have disregarded in the past.

"Well, I'm the organizer, I'll be helping you guys backstage of course!", She answers as if everyone was supposed to know what she's talking about.

Well, Claire is furious. She didn't expect a sudden change during her last year and that on her birthday Month, "Why now?!", she whines clenching her fist and stomping her foot like a little brat Kylie claims her to be.

I take a good look at the pile of stapled papers before me and highlight all of Juliet's quotes. There was an annoying whistle the exact same one from yesterday's Maths class, but much closer this time, like it was right behind me. My skin goes quite cold, my eyes start to ache from staring at the script while day dreaming back to what happened in Maths.

A voice lingered through my ear and out another, "hey! You look so different. I'm glad. What do you think about hanging out after school? At Jango's Burgers?", Michael the perv compliments out of nowhere.

Why was Michael talking to me in the first place I couldn't understand, "How about... no?", I rapidly decline hoping he would leave me alone.

"What? Why?", he pursues, oblivious to yesterday's incident.

"Are you that thick? I'm with Gabriel, he's my boyfriend", I insult him, visibly rolling my eyes while shaking my head back and forth to make it even more clear how uninterested I was.

"Yeah right, for how long? He's only using you as a rebound from Vanessa", he attempts to throw a curve ball at me. But I'm not taking anything from him, "Please don't talk to me!"

He was getting a little flustered, he was so desperate and really wanted to associate himself with me, "Okay fine. We can hangout as friends?", he asks with concern. Concern not for me, but about me hurting his pride again. I wouldn't mind being drenched in juice just to see Gabriel bruise Michael even more and possibly make him feel guilty for messing with me in the first place!

"What makes you think I'd want to be friends with you?! Especially after yesterday!", I lash out aloud at him and make sure he remembers what he had done to me. I grab the attention of the other students near by, just gazing at us with tensed brows to see if some actual drama is about to go down.

I shut my eyelids for a few seconds taking a deep breath, slowly I head up off of my seat to move somewhere away from Michael. Suddenly, I pause due to the pain I felt coming from the prints of Michael's fingers pressed against my arm, he was holding so tight, I couldn't shove him off, "let me go!". His claw was digging into the flesh of my soft pale arm, rendering my limb blood red.

In disbelief, he tries to actually justify himself, "Yesterday? Okay listen, half the time I'm hardly paying attention to whatever is happening around me. But if it helps, I'm having a party at mine this Saturday, come by. Bring your friends, bring Gabriel so we can call a truce".

"Again. No thanks", I brush aside harshly, tugging my arm away to no avail.

"Please! Let me make it up to you", he started begging, gripping my arm even tighter, making my teeth clench in agony as my eyes squint.

"I will see!", I came to a fake truce as I couldn't bare his nails jabbing my delicate skin any longer.

At last, he releases his grip, "Great! I'll see you ther-"

Gabriel interrupts him, "what the hell do you want? Another beating?", my hero, once again, sticks up for me. It's about time! Thought he was never going to notice me with him hurdled in a corner surrounded by half the girls from class.

Michael annoyingly explains, "she will tell you everything", pointing at me before leaving our presence in a rush to avoid anymore conflict.

Gabriel scoffs as he lifts his hands gently rubbing my shoulders to my arms. His face tenses as he glares into my eyes, "You okay? What is he talking about?", he queries with genuine care.

I pull him in for hug, yearning for his comforting touch all over, "It's nothing. He just invited us to his party on Saturday", I disregard as I detach myself from his brief yet warm cuddle.

"A party?! We are sooo going!", Ecstatic Kylie brings our conversation to a halt.

Two snappy claps of the hands of Ms. Cratos, echoes across the room from the stage, "chop chop students! Get ready, to recite your dialogues on stage!", she verbalizes.

Even though it's literally been 5 minutes. I haven't had time to practice at all thanks to Michael. I guess his way of truce is sabotaging me like this! At this point, I'm hysteric. I quickly head backstage and read whatever I can remember.

Kylie shoves past Claire as she prepares to go first. She takes the stage with such confidence and seriousness, opening with her first line, "I'll look to like, if looking liking move: But no more deep will I endart mine eye. Than your consent gives strength to make it fly...", she gave her best Juliet performance.

"Wow!", everyone's jaw drops, applauding. Especially, the judges. Not sure how Claire can top that. It was amazing! It was like actually watching a Shakespearean play in person. I don't plan on performing any better, I'm perfectly content with playing a side character, to be honest.

Gabriel appears from behind and places his hands on my shoulders as we watch the next performer, he massages his manly fingers deep into my muscles. I can feel his nose rubbing against the back of my fallen apart updo. The heat of his breath intensifies, pulling my baby hairs up with goosebumps. "You forgot to make it up to me".

Distracted and feeling my eyes drifting away to the back of the sockets from his graze, I ignore my lines, "You were too busy fighting", my voice, indirectly, rustle.

His hands make it down to my waist, folding his arms around grasping it. He places his head on one side of my shoulder, squeezing our cheeks against another, "I mean, I don't like it when another guy is touching my girl", he declares me as my cheeks pigment red.

"Your girl?", I tease.

I hear my name being called out to walk the stage and I start to panic! I haven't even memorized any lines, again! I was too distracted with Gabriel this time. My body is shaken with anxiety and a hint of stage fright crept it's way up my spine as I made it to the middle of the platform, "Oh, R-R-Romeo...", I begin trembling. It dawns on me that this is the start of my downfall. Probably the only one in drama who sucks right now. The blur to my vision takes over as a fog would.

One of the judges interrupt, what I would call, my performance, "Maybe try reading at least one right line before trying the stage? You have so much potential, it's a pity you don't attempt to reach for it! Boys are only good distractions and nothing more, I'm sure you have figured that out by now...", Mr Vanderwalt grills me. I don't understand him, sometimes he's caring and other times it's like I'm dealing with a whole other person.

Silence falls, unaware of what the crowd's thoughts about me were and the way Professor called me out, I almost broke down. All wandering eyes were on me, murmuring and pointing with one or two chuckles. I could barely let out a word, my mouth was just... stuck. I felt myself drifting from the stage passing the doors out of the lesson. As I sat outside the corridors of drama, with a slamming migraine escalating from my brain, I hear footsteps coming towards me.

"Jennifer?", the deep enchanting voice inquires. It was the professor, the last person I wanted to see right now. I was hoping Gabriel would come after me instead, I really needed his support.

"...hmm?", I try to give a decent response without sounding rude or showing visible annoyance, viewing the wall straight ahead.

He kneels down to my level, "what's wrong?", just like Michael he forgets how he's upset me. "Is it because of what I said while you were up on stage?", correcting his question.

"I wasn't prepared...", I look towards the ground for sympathy as I didn't know what to say because I really wasn't prepared.

"And I meant what I said. I'm sorry it hurt your feelings, but sometimes you have to take the advice in order to succeed", he suggests with an apology. At least it's better than Michael's 'truce', he hardly apologised for his behaviour as well. Professors apology may be short, but it brought me at ease. I mean he was right about me losing focus. Although, a part of me feels it was uncalled for, for him to just embarrass me like that.

He places his cooling hand on my exposed knee, caressing the tip with his thumb, peering into my face through his clear shades, waiting to drown himself in my ocean blue eyes. "I-", I observe. My heart thumps so fast, revealing the uneasiness as I gawk back at him, mildly thrusting his hand away.

He snapped back, focusing, "Who was that boy you were talking to before the auditions?", he curiously asks.

"Oh, you must've seen Michael. He's really such a headache, nothing more", I aver, passing that issue off as unimportant.

"Michael? The one you were hugging?", he interrogates with a hint of inquisitiveness.

"Ew gross! No! That's... Gabriel. My boyfriend", just as I disclose this information, professor looks at me as if he's almost distraught. Like I had broken something belonging to him.

He descries that his expressions have gotten me a bit concerned and confused so he brushes it away with a short exhale.

"You know, it's not easy, trying to learn while you have someone else in the way..." He paused inhaling deeply for a second like as if he found something ironic, looking the other way then panning back his attention. "If you want, afterschool drama is always available. Ms. Cratos always has time for her students who are struggling. If anything I can come help too", he volunteers to help me. For my own benefit, I simply nod. He nods back as he lends me a hand off of the floor, shaking off any excess dust.

He opens the door like a gentleman, once again, for me. I watch Gabriel as he gets off the stage and approaches me. No wonder he didn't come after me, he was auditioning for Romeo, I told myself. Mr. Vanderwalt heads back to his temporary position. As I take a few steps towards my boyfriend, I hear my name again. Apparently, I had gotten one more chance to audition. As much as I didn't want to go through the whole grueling process again, I strongly felt that I needed redemption.

Kylie gives me a boost of confidence before I get back up and recover, she helps me go through some of the lines, "you've got this, Jen. If anyone has a problem after this, they better watch out", she threatens in the nicest way possible.

"Thanks Ky! I'm a little nervous, but I feel more positive about the dialogues before", I assure myself as well as my best friend. With more determination I get on stage and give it all I got.

To my surprise, I hear a small clap that grew to a crowd pleasing applaud, I knew I was done. I finally did it. It wasn't great, but it was much better. The confirmation of my classmates slapping of the palm, gleams the proudness out of me.

"Well done, Jennifer! You did so well!", Mr. Vanderwalt exclaims.

"I mean Kylie was better and so was Claire. Maybe for a side character, she did good I guess", Mrs. Muller declares.

"Only time will tell who gets what", Mr. Jackson intervenes.

Auditions go by, and you guessed it, the bells from the hallway taunt people's hearing. It's Mr. Jackson's class this time; History. I actually don't mind History, I like learning about the past, it's like a mystery unravelling itself through time. We all leave our scripts with Ms. Cratos before shifting to our next lesson.

"So... what do you think about going to Michael's party?", Kylie wraps her arms around mine making small talk before we split into different directions.

"Erm, did you forge-"

"Before you say no, remember this, it's his house, he has a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff we can maybe accidentally trash?", she makes a good point. "Revenge is sweet", she ends, with the most commonly used quote, as she makes her way towards Physics while I continue to History.

It's the first time I'm in Mr. Jackson's History lesson. I stand awkwardly looking for a seat, there are empty seats available, but I don't know who to sit next to as I don't know anyone here. Usually, I have Penelope, I mean Ms. Kepler, she was my favourite. She's the only teacher that let us, her students, call her by her first name. She was replaced recently by Mr. Jackson, nobody knows why. I miss her.

I peer around the room, poking my neck high making it obvious that I was searching for a good place to settle down my ever so aching feet. A quick few taps of a ring, from a finger to a silent chair, drag my eyes in the vicinity of its route. The finger on my supposed seat happens to look so intimate, like I knew it not so long ago. I couldn't see the person but it's finger, only because someone else has taken a seat directly in front.

I began walking towards the appointed chair by the familiar stranger. "Huhhh", my lips couldn't shut itself as I recognise my neighbouring classmate. His dark clothes, pitch black hair, heavy leather boots with sharp shining spikes, gorgeous dark tone beaming from the natural daylight. Of course, it's Chad, the guy I would usually hang with, but haven't seen since before the holidays.

He turns to me, "Almost didn't recognise you. The new Kylie, huh? Or did she force you not to embarrass her this year?", he expresses his disfavour of my new sense of style in a defensive manner. He never really liked Kylie nor does he now. He's always been there for me too when Kylie was busy. Especially, when I was being picked on for dressing different last year, was called all sorts; emo, depressed freak, goth wannabe, etc. Now, that I'm this new person, he makes it out like it's some kind of betrayal. However, we're still friends.

"No. It wasn't because of Ky. I just wanted to change for once. I was sick and tired of feeling sorry for myself when I can make this comfortable change for myself. Nobody else", I explain as genuinely as I can.

"Not even Gabriel?", he sarcastically adds with a query.

"What? How do you know about Gabriel?", I puzzlingly ask.

"Oh. Please. Like you weren't seen together in drama? It's drama. Everyone talks", he taunts.

Mr. Jackson hands out the World History: Ancient Civilizations book to all the students, including myself. "I hope everyone has gotten their notebooks ready, we will be doing a little exercise before starting the actual unit", he instructs.

As hours pass, finishing all my Tuesday classes including Maths, Chemistry and lastly PE, it's finally time to rest my head properly in my own bed. I manage to get home without any trouble, school isn't far from home. Only about 30 minute walk away. It's pretty annoying how close a place you don't really like can be.

Mother jumps in a panic, "Gah!... you're back already?!", she relieves herself from stress with weed stenched smoke steam passes from her breath, rolling back to her wandering state staring into the ceiling.

"Yeah... same time. 5 days a week. Monday to Friday, Mom", I repeat, constantly shaking my head. No amount of what I say will ever make her understand me. She needs help. I miss her old caring self.