Did You Get What You Deserve?

The next week flew by. Gerard turned 42, an event he was not too excited about. On the Friday after my birthday, the audition scripts were handed out for Romeo and Juliet. After school, James and I holed up in his bedroom to study his script.

“God, this is hard.”

I grinned at him.

“Monologues are, generally speaking.”

He sat up and ran a hand through his hair.

“Okay, let’s try it from the top.”

He cleared his throat.

“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun...”

He frowned.

“I don’t get that. So basically: What is that light... It is the east. What? The light is the east?”

I laughed.

“Shakespeare’s monologues never made sense, Romeo’s especially.”

“You’re telling me.”

Ten minutes later, Mikey stuck his head around the door.

“Alec, your dad just called. It’s 5:30, time for you to go home.”

“Five thirty? Shit! We’ve been here over an hour!”

I gave James a quick hug.

“Just run over it a few times. Try breaking it down so you understand it.”

I followed Mikey out of the room.

“Bye Mikey.”

“Bye Alec.”

I quickly ran home.

Two weeks later, the auditions were held. James was a nervous wreck the whole of lunchtime, so we sat at the far end of the field and ran over his monologue again and again. We both went into English absolutely terrified that he would forget his lines. As the aspiring Romeos were called up one by one, we got more and more nervous. Finally Mrs Arbelle smiled at James.

“Come on up, James. Let’s see how you go.”

James stood up nervously and walked to the front of the room. Then he turned and took a deep breath. I smiled warmly at him.

“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.”

I relaxed. He was fine. The rest of the monologue went smoothly, and when James finished the class applauded just as hard as they had done for the other auditions. James couldn’t keep a grin from his face as he hurried back to his seat.

“Was it good?” He whispered.

I grinned and nodded. Mrs Arbelle stood up.

“Well, James, that was phenomenal. Now, if you could all just do the activity I’ve written up on the board, I’m just going to add up the scores and see who our Romeo is.”

I caught James’ eye. He looked about as shocked as I felt. No-one had thought we would get the results back this quickly.

While we wrote down adjectives to describe various characters from Romeo and Juliet, Mrs Arbelle looked through her papers, frowning and making notes. After five minutes she stood up, and we all dropped our pens.

“Now, I can see you’re all on the edge of your seats, so I’m not going to beat around the bush. Our Romeo and Juliet are...”

I gripped James’ hand under the desk.

“...Scott and Alec!”

I dropped James’ hand. All I could think of was that he wasn’t going to be my Romeo. It was only when he poked me in the shoulder that I realised I was supposed to be surprised at being picked for Juliet. Luckily I was in the front row so nobody could see my face properly.

“Scott and Alec, come up the front.”

I got up and joined Scott next to Mrs Arbelle. Scott was a jock. He had brown hair that the sun had bleached blonde streaks into, and a smirk was permanently plastered across his face. He was hot, yes, but his attitude was repulsive.

“Class, this is our Romeo and Juliet. Congratulations, Scott and Alec.”

I tried to smile, but all I could see was James’ face. He was happy for me, yes, but I was still sad for him.

**Author's Note: Oooh! To all those who said it was predictable who was going to be Romeo: Ha ha! WRONG!

... Sorry.
Anyways, slightly sad how James didn't get to be Romeo, but sad's the way I work. I was planning out some future chapters last night, and man, this story's SAD! However, I shan't give away too much at this point.**