It's My Life • Shawn Hunter

29| Wake Up, Little Cory

"Love... sex... slander." Mr. Turner said as he wrote the words on the blackboard. "Now even though Much Ado About Nothing was written four-hundred years ago, Shakespeare has captured raw human emotion in a way that is still riveting today. Still had us glued to our seats."

Zoey lifted her head from her desk when she heard a thud. She tiredly looked down to see that Shawn had fallen from his chair and was now sleeping on the ground.

Zoey and the rest of the class were so bored that they all were asleep.

Cory kicked Shawn, who let out a groan when he woke up.

"You know these chairs really aren't the best for sleeping." Shawn said as he got up and sat back down at his desk.

Mr. Turner sighed. "Oh, come on! You got this innocent young girl and somebody says that she slept with this other guy, right? And her reputation is shot and we think she's killed herself. Now where you going to find this kind of stuff?"

"Melrose Place?" Zoey wondered.

"NYPD Blues?" Shawn guessed.

"Barney?" Cory asked. Everyone in the classroom, including Zoey gave Cory a confused look. "My sister says he's gotten edgier."

"Mr. Turner, we just can't relate to these characters at all." Topanga said.

"Why not?" Mr. Turner asked.

"Because nobody acts like this." Shawn responded as he held up the book that they were reading for class.

"Just because some guy says something about some girl, the girl wants to kill herself over it? They say that stuff about Heather Locklear every week and she doesn't want to kill herself. She's on the cover of TV Guide." Cory told Mr. Turner.

Mr. Turner nodded. "You're right, Matthews."

Cory's eyes widened in shock. "I'm right?"

"No, you're exactly right." Mr. Turner said.

"So am I done with my education? Can I go?" Cory asked.

"In Shakespeare's day, the play's the thing. In our day, I guess the thing is TV." Mr. Turner began as he walked around the classroom. "So maybe we should put ourselves on TV and ask ourselves what we think about love, sex and slander."

"You mean interview each other?" Cory wondered.

"Kind of like a documentary?" Shawn asked, slowly getting excited.

Mr. Turner nodded. "Exactly."

"Hey, you know, my uncle Ralph was in a documentary. They put a big blue dot over his face and changed his voice." Shawn said with a wide smile. Mr. Turner opened his mouth to say something to Shawn, but quickly decided against it and continued on with the class.

"All right, the school's got video equipment. Let's wear it out, okay? We'll split into teams of two. I want a video report. Interview your friends, your families and each other." Mr. Turner informed the class as he sat down on his desk. "Let's just see who's got the more mature attitudes - Shakespeare or us."

"Us." Cory said confidently.

Mr. Turner raised his eyebrows. "Really? Okay, my mature young friends, pick partners." And straight away Topanga and Zoey smiled at each other, knowing that they'll be partners. "Uh, boy-girl pairs."

Zoey turned her head to see that Shawn was already looking at her with a wide smile.

"Partners?" Shawn asked.

"Partners." Zoey agreed, smiling.

••••

After school Shawn and Zoey walked over to her house to start on their English project. When the two of them walked into the house, Zoey saw her mother on the couch, watching the news channel.