Real Life Romeo

I stumbled into class as the minute bell rang and received a seething look from my teacher. I could tell she wanted any excuse to send me to detention, and she had almost had it! I chuckled quietly to myself and thought Not yet, bitch. Not yet..

You see I had a... complicated relationship with Mrs. Dawn, I once dated her daughter. We were head over heels in love. Or should I say, we were infatuated; in love with the thought of being in love. Needless to say, it didn't last, after our 1 month mark I felt my feelings for her slowly deteriorating... Something felt off to me, and it didn't take me long to figure it out. I wasn't straight, girl were slightly less appealing than guys, but I didn't mind the girls. So for a while I thought all the girls seemed monotonous and boring because they weren't 'the one' and when I found that one girl she would be an explosion of color in this world of shades of grey. So I dumped her. And Mrs. Dawn still hates me... And this happened when I was in 7th grade, now I'm about to finish off my Sophomore year in High School.

Ironically, the girl and I are still friends. Her name is Kiara, she understood what I was going through, and accepted me 100%. It felt nice knowing she didn't hate me. She didn't judge either, she is the embodiment of all things innocent and kind. She's never had a condescending thought about a single person, and that's what I loved about her. Sometimes I wished I was straight for her, or that I could some how change and be with her. And I've told her this, she just chuckles and says:

"I wish you could too, that month with you has spoiled me for any guys. You were so sweet, charming,and understanding. You never tried anything I didn't want to do and you always waited. Now all the other guys seem less appealing, their to rude and don't seem to understand me as well." Personally I wanted to hear her call them 'self-centered pigs' but she's too kind to do that. I don't know what I did to get someone amazing as her but I'm glad she's in my life. She's my anchor when the jocks push it too far and it feels as if living is pointless.

Anyway back to class. I shuffled to my seat in the back of the room and plopped down full force into it. It made a nails-on-chalkboard screech. Truly I just did it to piss of Mrs. Dawn more. It worked; she shot a glare at me. I smiled too innocently at her.

"Now, that there's not more disruptions," She spat the word in my direction. "Will you all open your books to page 467, we'll start reading Romeo and Juliet." There was a groan throughout the class. We'd already read that in 8th grade, or some of them read it in 9th, but that's because they lacked the awe-inspiring amount of intelligence I had.

"Now, who will be Rome-" She was cut off by the a knock on the door. It was swift and powerful. I guessed the person behind the door would be one of the runners of the school; the ones that are lean, and agile. We she opened the door there was someone I've never seen before. I shrugged he must be a transfer. But why would he transfer so late? The school year is almost over.

"Mrs. Dawn?" He asked, seeming unsure if this was his class or not..

"Yes." She smiled at him, putting on her I'm-really-not-a-mean-teacher charade. I scoffed and rolled my eyes, she shot daggers at me through her eyes... If looks could kill I'd be dead a million times over.

"I just transferred here from Verona, in Italy." He said shaking her had. How ironic, that's were Romeo and Juliet takes place. Well, I guess it is true that whatever you read in English corresponds with something happening in your life...

"Are you sure you have this class, they didn't send me an e-mail..." she trailed off and looked at her computer. "Oh! She exclaimed, I must have missed it, I'm sorry. Okay then, why don't you introduce yourself to the class?"

"Hello," He said formally, I rolled my eyes. "My name is Shane Speare." He looked over to Mrs. Dawn as if to ask 'can I be done now?'.

"Why don't you tell them about yourself?" She said causing him to heave a giant sigh.

"Like I said I moved here from Italy, I was there for a couple years. I learned how to cook amazing Italian Cuisine. I worked at a 5 star restaurant there. And before that I lived in Canada... Yeah... That's about it." He looked at Mrs. Dawn again. She nodded at him.

"You can go sit in the seat next to Fay." She spat my name. I smirked deviously at her.

"Aw don't say it like that, people may think you don't like me or something." I rolled my eyes. She shook her head and 'tsk'ed' at me then turned back to the white board. Then she started assigning parts to everyone in the class. The new kid sat next to me and looked my way.

"What's Fay short for?" He asked suddenly.

"Faith, my mom had a truly cruel sense of humor." I said coldly.

"Why is that?"

"The doctors thought I looked too feminine and tested me for Klienfelter's Syndrome. Turns out I didn't have it. So my mom decided to name me a girl's name. It's not even that funny." I glared at my paper.

"It is rather cruel." He agreed with a nod. Then he chuckled slightly, at a private joke.

"What was that for?" I said defensively.

"In old English Fay, or Faye with an 'e', means fairy." He laughed again to himself. I took me a minute to get the connection, but when I did I groaned loudly.

"I tried to make Faith into a less girly name and ended up calling myself fairy?" Shane laughed again and I set my head on my desk and allowed a slightly uncomfortable silence fall over us.

"Alright let's start reading." Mrs. Dawn's voice cut through the awkward silence between Shane and I. I listened to the play and turned the page when needed. Needless to say, I wasn't interested, but I listened none the less.

I looked over at Shane and found he didn't even have his book open, and he was looking at me. I shifted uncomfortably.

"We're on page..." I started but he just shrugged indifferently showing he didn't want to know what page. "Oh, okay then."

"Listen, Fay..." he was cut off by Mrs. Dawn.

"Faith." She yelled my name. I jumped a foot in the air.

"Yes." I said, recovering instantly and acting as if nothing had happened.

"We are reading a play, you must pay attention. And stop talking." She said sternly and plastered a sly look on her face. "Why don't you read the last few lines of Romeo and Juliet to us?"

"Uh...erm..." I fumbled trying to pull the words from my brain and find them on the page. I know I heard them but the problem is that I hadn't listened to them.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Dawn." Shane said, his dark blue eyes shining innocently. "I spoke to him first, I didn't realize it would be a problem." I saw her sway a little, or that might have been me. His voice had taken a new smoothness to it which made me want to listen to him talk or read to me for hours.

Mrs. Dawn, wasn't so moved. "Then why don't you read it. I see your book isn't even open." She raised a perfectly tweased eyebrow. He leaned back in his chair and began speaking in a way that made you believe he was the real Romeo. As if he had lived in that time period and knew exactly how do say. And may I mention he did it without the book and all from memory.


Everyone's chin in the class dropped to the floor. Mrs. Dawn's eyes were wide and her mouth stayed agape for a few seconds before she managed to recover.

"Oh, erm, wow. I apologize, Shane. But may I ask where you learned those lines?" She cleared her throat nervously, she had never been proved this wrong before. Sure I'd gotten her a couple times, but nothing like this. I have to admit, I was liking this new kid.

"We did the play in England and I got lead part." He shrugged easily. For some reason I highly doubted it...Wait didn't he say he lived in Italy...I shrugged and ignored it. I had to torture Mrs. Dawn more; I know , I'm a terrible person.

"Mrs. Dawn?" I called too innocently.

"Yes?" She returned in the same tone.

"I think you missed a little drool." I pointed to a spot beneath my lip and laughed. The rest of class joined in. She just huffed, and then the bell went off. I gathered my book and started to walk out of the room and Shane called after me.

"Hey Fay! Wait up." I stopped and turned toward him.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Oh... I didn't think you'd really wait..." Shane said. "Well, since you're here, could you show me around?"

"I guess...." I heaved an exasperate sigh. Sure I was over doing it but, who cares? "Who do you have next?"

"Algebra 2 with Mrs. Jankoviak.." He read off his schedule.

"I have that too, we can walk together." I said. "What's you're third hour? That determines you lunch."

"Gym with Mr. or Mrs. Heckler... It doesn't give a first name..." He said holding the sheet close to his face as if it would reveal the invisible ink Mr. Heckler's name was written in.

"It's Mr., and you have. I have him too..." I trailed off. "Give me this." I said ripping his schedule from his hands. He had every class with me.

"Well I guess you can officially stalk me now?" I sighed. "we have all the same classes."

"Wow. I can't believe that." But he didn't sound surprised. I crossed my arms over my chest.

"You don't look surprised at all." I shot a glare at him. He was probably responsible for this.

"You think I purposely signed up for the same classes as you, even though you hardly even know me, nor I, you." He mimicked my defensive position.

"Yes as a matter-of-fact I do." I huffed. He said nothing, but , instead, looked deeply into my eyes. I was trapped in the warmth of his dark blue eyes and I found it hard to remember what I had been about to say.

When I looked into his eyes I felt as if I had met him before. I got the tingling of recognition in the back of my brain, but I just couldn't reach it, and pull the memory forward. It was as if it was blocked and I wasn't allowed to see it. I knew he felt it too because I could see it in his eyes, they had changed from amused and bored to warm and longing. Does he know me? Do I know him? And more importantly, who is Shane Speare, really?

"Shall we be on our way to class." He said, his eyes hardened and he looked away from me.

"Uh, yeah of course. I just have to get my friend first." As if on cue Kiara walked up to me and gave me a hug. I looked at Shane and thought his expression portrayed disappointment but it was gone so quickly I couldn't be sure.

"Oh, he's cute. He's the new kid right?" She whispered in my ear, I nodded. "You two would be perfect for each other." She pulled away and smiled at him. He had a huge smile on his face as well now. It flitted through my mind, that he may have heard what Kiara said. But I doubted it.

"Are you read for Algebra 2, buddy?" She said linking arms with me.

"Yeah." I smiled and laughed. "Oh, this is Shane, by the way he has it too." She looked back in his direction.

"Hi Shane, I'm Kiara." She tossed a smile at him over her shoulder.

"Hi." He said back lamely. I started to turn down the hallway when Kiara stopped me.

"No, not that way." She gave me a looked.

"Why not?" I raised an eyebrow.

" 'Cause, I...Uh... Found a short cut?" Her voice shot up a few octaves. Huffed and pulled her down the hallway. it wasn't long before I saw what she had tried to protect me from. Down the entire length of the main hallway that said:

Fay For Treasurer. I hadn't planned on running, but I didn't mind. Well, not until I saw that someone had taking the time to draw in a 'g' at the end of my name on every poster in sharpie. So, instead of saying 'Fay' it said 'Fayg'. If you don't get it... Say it out loud a couple times...

On others they had drawn over the 'y' and made it a 'g'. But I have to admit that Fayg was pretty original, no that I enjoyed it anymore.

"That is just cruel." I heard Shane gasp. I fumed and ripped one of the posters off the wall. The hall almost instantly cleared. Except for the jock-squad standing at the other end of the hallway. Other than them, everyone knew to just leave me alone when I was angry. I have quite a temper and no one wants to be there when I finally go off. I kind of have a bad rep. Unfortunately, I'd never actually done anything, I just stood there and looked intimidating and everyone would run away.

Kiara ran and jumped behind the nearest trash can, but Shane stayed at my side.

"Don't you dare try to stop me." I growled at him under my breath.

"I wouldn't think of it, I just wanted to give you some back up. No one should treat another human being like this. No matter what." He shrugged easily. Then his tone turned dark. "I'll take the ones on the left. You can have the ones on the left."

I wavered slightly, stunned by the amount of anger I could feel rolling off of him. I recovered and nodded curtly. I couldn't wait for this to begin.