A Dustland Fairytale

"Would you let me know? Cuz I can't read your mind." - Ra Ra Riot

I was slowly getting used to life in California. The tanned people, warm weather, and ocean breezes were beginning to seem normal, and time wore on as September ended. I was making some new friends, including the Kyle kid who had given me Juliet’s address weeks ago. The one guy who really refused to talk to me was Hunter, Juliet's unofficial boyfriend. I wasn’t sure if he was scared of me, or if he saw me as competition with Juliet. To be honest, I really didn’t care.

In the first week of October, on your average Thursday, I was walking to my favorite class of the day: English. Most people would expect me to hate school, teachers, classes, and everything, but I really loved books. I was a fast reader and writing came easily to me; I understood words a lot better than equations and numbers.

There was another reason I liked English class. We sat in what our hippie teacher Miss Baker called a “discussion circle,” and I sat directly across the room from Juliet. She stared moodily at the carpet for the whole hour, every day. It was pretty obvious she loathed the class.

I sat in my desk, my copy of The Great Gatsby in my hands. Miss Baker walked into the circle with a broad smile on her face, her swishy skirt touching the ground. “Now that you’ve read The Great Gatsby, you’re probably expecting a test on it,” she said, watching our facial expressions. Juliet looked dreamy, as though she wasn’t paying attention at all.

“Instead of having a test, you’re going to be put into pairs,” Miss Baker continued, slowly walking around the circle. “You will write an in-depth analysis of a certain character and present this analysis to the class.” There were only twelve students total in our class, so it was obvious there would be no repeated characters. I was probably the only student who was somewhat enthusiastic about this project.

I looked across the circle to Juliet, who now looked almost worried. Her eyes scanned the other students in her class – none of them were people I would consider her friends. I could tell she would rather work with any one of them than with me. “I’ll put you in pairs now,” Miss Baker said. “How about… Dean Montague and… Juliet Hanson.”

I smiled broadly, but Juliet pressed her lips together unhappily. She was suppressing a pout, probably wishing she could just disappear. “You’ll be writing about Jay Gatsby,” Miss Baker announced excitedly. The smile remained on my face; this would be one of the easiest papers I’ve ever had to write. Jay Gatsby was one of my favorite literary characters. Juliet’s gaze was intensely focused on the carpet and I started writing down ideas in my notebook while Miss Baker continued to pair students together, assigning the other characters of the book.

“Okay.” Miss Baker clapped her hands together. “I’m going to give you time to get together with your partners so you can get started. This assignment is due one week from tomorrow, on Friday October 16. Get to work!”

Juliet remained in her seat, her arms crossed stubbornly over her chest. I carried my books across the room and dragged a desk next to Juliet’s sitting down and looking at her. She was still staring at the carpet, completely ignoring me.

“Your reaction is really mature,” I said. “Ignore me. When’s the last time you did that, third grade?”

“I do not appreciate your antagonism,” she said coldly. Her shoulders tensed and I could practically feel the icy energy radiating from her. I tapped my pen on the desk, waiting a few seconds before responding. I really didn’t want to be snapped at again.

“Jeez,” I said. “I was only trying to be nice. Did you like Great Gatsby? It’s not my all-time favorite, but at least we got Gatsby; he’s definitely the best character in the book. I would have been so mad if we got Myrtle. No on likes that – ”

“Don’t talk to me,” she snapped. Her eyes flashed with irritation. She was obviously not in a good mood at all. For the first time since I met her, I wondered if her anger towards me was genuine, not created to please her mother. She was so cold towards me, but I’d seen the warmth in her eyes when I took her to the beach a few weeks ago. There was no way she could hate me. I just had to break through her mask.

“Okay,” I said, pulling my desk around so I was sitting in the chair backwards, leaving my notebook behind me. “I don’t know what I did to offend you, but we’re going to have to talk to each other to do this project. I’m not going to write an entire paper for you, and I don’t think you want to write this whole paper without me.”

“Fine,” she said coldly, glancing at the clock over my shoulder. A small frown quickly flashed across her face. There must be a lot of time left before the class was over.

“Besides,” I added, a crazy grin on my face. “I’m sticking to my theory. You want me because you can’t have me.”

Her pretty, composed face crumpled. In a second, her calm exterior disappeared and her eyes shown with a genuine anger I was surprised to see. “I don’t know why you think I would like someone like you at all,” she snapped, her voice low and her words fast. “You are the most arrogant, conceited jerk I have ever met and I will be so glad when I graduate and never have to see you again. Now leave me alone.”

My eyebrows rose in shock. I would never expect such an outburst from Juliet. I felt my jaw fall in surprise, my face a perfect reflection of my emotions. “Sorry,” I said quietly. “I guess I’ll leave you alone and we can get started on this project.” I turned to a clean page in my notebook, forgetting all my old ideas and deciding to start over. I wrote “Jay Gatsby” at the top of the page, underlined it, and began to write down Gatsby’s qualities, starting with the one I recognized in myself: In love with someone he can never be with.