It's My Life • Shawn Hunter

20| The Play's The Thing

During School, Zoey was sitting at her desk, board. She leaned her chin on the palm of her hand, while Cory and Shawn were having a conversation.

"Good morning, class." Mr. Feeny greeted as he walked into the class. "I would like you all to let out your most agonized groan." Everyone in the class groaned. Mr. Feeny clasped his hands together. "Good. Now, let's start playing our springtime class play."

"Ohh!" Everyone in the class, including Zoey groaned even louder. She looked down, placing her hands through her hair.

"Been there, heard that." Mr. Feeny told the class. "Now, before you give up in despair... you may want to hear my play selection. It has sword fights, murder, skulls... even ghosts. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like Spielberg." Cory said, rubbing his hands in excitement.

"Sounds like Shakespeare." Mr. Feeny corrected.

"Sounds like a loser." Shawn stated.

"We will be doing selected scenes from the play Hamlet." Mr. Feeny announced.

Zoey scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You just love it, don't you, Mr. Feeny?"

"Just a little, Miss Francis." Mr. Feeny said, before he began handing out the book 'Hamlet' to the class. "Mr. Hunter, in the parlance of the theater... you will be a spear carrier."

"Excellent." Shawn said, smiling. "So this guy I play is like, what, a warrior and a hero?"

"No. This guy you play has very few lines to memorize." Mr. Feeny said, before he turned to Zoey and placed a book at her desk. "Miss Francis, you will be playing Gertrude."

"Who's that?" Zoey wondered.

"She's the mother of Hamlet." Mr. Feeny said.

Zoey smiled. "Cool."

"Miss Lawrence, you will be playing the tragic heroine Ophelia." Mr. Feeny informed Topanga, passing her a book. "Now, this is a challenging role. She goes quite insane."

Cory huffed. "Topanga insane? What a stretch."

Topanga turned around in her seat to face Cory. "If I were a less-evolved person, I'd say cram it, brillo-head."

"Mr. Minkus... you will be playing the role of the wise old Polonius." Mr. Feeny told him.

"Polonius?" Minkus questioned. "He only has forty-eight lines. I sort of pictured myself as the melancholy Dane."

"For those of you unfamiliar with the reference... Mr. Minkus means the lead role, Prince Hamlet." Mr. Feeny explained to the class. "Now, this is a tricky part to cast... because Hamlet gets on a lot of people's nerves. He makes one stupid mistake after another... and for five acts he never shuts up."

Zoey immediately snapped her head towards Cory... Everyone in the class did as well. Cory wasn't paying attention until he noticed the room go quite. He looked up to see everyone looking at him, knowingly.

"What? Do I have a booger?" Cory asked.

••••

Next day in class, everyone had placed their desks in a circle inside the classroom. Zoey sat beside Shawn on one of the desks, while Cory was reciting his lines since he was the main character in the play. He held the book and began to read it.

"'To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the sling and arrows of - Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." Cory said, starting to get bored. He then turned to Mr. Feeny, who sat at his desk. "Mr. Feeny, who wrote this garbage?"