Acting On Love

"Alright, class. I am your teacher - my name is Mr. Valo. Just call me 'Ville', if you like," he smiled, sitting on the edge of his desk. He was like no teacher I'd ever met.

I sat near the back, in the last seat available. To my suprise, there was only about ten students in the room. I was sharing my desk with a blonde-haired boy. He smiled at me when I sat down next to him. I smiled back weakly, still thinking about my t-shirt.

"Alright, first of all, shall we get a little bit better acquainted?" Ville suggested, bringing me back into reality.

I figetted nervously in my chair as the class told him their names and their aspirations. The boy next to me answered.

"My name's Jake. After uni I want to be a movie actor." He combed over his fringe to the left side of his face with his fingers as he spoke. At least two thirds of the class had already said they wanted the same thing as him.

"Ok, Jake," Ville nodded, before his eyes landed on me, calmly waiting for my answer. I gulped.

"I'm Kristen," I said, almost mumbling, "and I'm really bad at acting."

The reaction of the room varied from laughter to shock. I kept my eyes on Ville, who smiled grimly to himself.

"I'm sure that's not true, Kristen," he said, letting his eyes linger on me for a few more moments.

"It is," I replied, ashamed of myself. I knew I didn't belong there.

"You wouldn't be here if you couldn't act," he smiled.

"She's only here because her mother knows the guy who decides who gets in..."

The whole class turned around to look the girl who had spoken. She sat in the corner, chewing gum. Her eyes were plastered with too much black make-up, and her hair was dyed a bright red colour.

Ville's smile faded. "And what's your name?"

"What's it to you?" she muttered.

Ville's pleasant face quickly turned into a frown. But he let her off the hook.

"I think we should head over to the theatre to start working on the play I want you to reenact," he said, stepping off the desk.

Everyone started picking up their bags - I copied. On the way out of the classroom, I noticed how the girl with red hair scowled at me from her desk. I walked quickly through the door.

"Ok, has everyone got a copy of the play?" Ville asked, as we all sat down on various chairs in the theatre.

"Mr. Valo, why do we have to do Romeo And Juliet again. We've done it so many times over the years..." a brunette, overweight girl asked.

He smiled. "Because I'm going to teach you how to do it right," he grinned. "Alright, so I assume you're all familiar with the roles of each character. Who would like to be Romeo?"

Jake's hand shot up first, followed by a few more eager boys.

"Alright, Jake," Ville nodded, then returned his gaze to his own copy of the play - most likely to the character list. "Who looks like a Juliet?" he asked, smiling.

Several hands shot up. I made sure not to draw any attention to myself, and kept my arms folded. There was no way I would play Juliet...

I watched as Ville's eyes scanned the faces of the girls who were desperate for the part. He didn't pick anyone. Why wasn't he picking anyone? I stared at the floor below me, when his voice said the words I was dreading to hear.

"Kristen, why isn't your hand up?" he asked.

I looked up to see him smiling at me eagerly.

"I can't act," I sighed.

"Sure you can."

"I don't look like Juliet."

"Yes you do."

"Juliet's really pretty."

"Exactly."

Both our smiles seemed to fade the second the last word left his mouth.

"What, what I mean is you and Jake would look like a couple together," he said, frowning to himself as he said it.

Jake smiled next to me. I sighed.

"Alright, so we have our Juliet..." he said, quickly changing the subject.

I looked around - everyone else seemed to have lost interest as soon as they didn't get picked to be Juliet. But somehow Ville managed to get parts for all of them by the end of the lesson.