20th Generation: No Fury like a Fire Verve

Chapter 1

Skipping Literature class isn't like her.

My school tie felt tighter around my neck than usual. I felt the familiar urge to cut it and promptly reminded myself that it was mandatory for male students to wear said tie, and I already had it as loose as was acceptable on my neck. The stupid tie wasn't worth getting in trouble for. 

I could, however, start tapping my pen against the desk more aggressively. 

I was getting impatient. Where is she?

I knew she was always late but it has already been half an hour since Professor Payton, the Literature teacher, started talking about some Shakespearean play. And she loved all that romantic crap. She talked my ear off last night about how dreamy Romeo was and how manly he was to defend Juliet's honor.

Psh. Manly my ass. The guy willingly drank poison! Talk about having issues. That's not romantic. A real man defends her woman's honor without killing himself.

I did express my less-than-stellar Romeo opinions to her last night, which led to a very lengthy explanation about how the poison was symbolic, how it was true love and oh-so-romantic, yada yada yada. It was half past midnight when we finally ended the call - with me afraid of eardrum damage after listening to her high pitched voice go on and on.

And she hasn't even shown up today! I glared at the door harder, as if willing her to arrive.

Professor Payton clapped once, bringing my attention back to him. "Now then. I want you guys to partner up and come up with one alternate plot ending to Romeo and Juliet. Write your ending down on a piece of paper, and I will collect them at the end of class today - which gives you guys around... 25 minutes to come up with a brilliant idea," He waved his hands as if to shoo us away.

As the others in the class shuffled around to partner up, I turned to Blake who sat to my right, noting how his school tie, too, was as loose as mine.

"Blake, where is she?" I pinned my best friend with my gaze. I've known Blake for a very long time and trusted him with my life.

He grinned widely. "Awh.. Miss your girlfriend already Cassius?" Blake replied teasingly.

I bristled at that. That clumsy, idiotic, unpunctual girl was not my girlfriend. The clumsy girl frequently collided with telephone poles, slipped on imaginary cracks on the street too often, and laughed at random points in conversation. I refuse to be attracted to her. Even more so, be her actual boyfriend.

I retorted coolly and sharply. "Right. Tease me all you want. You want me to tell Dekker you planned a surprise date for Valentines Day?" Blake was dating Dekker Hall, a self-proclaimed man-hater. She had seemingly mellowed with the man-hating by dating Blake, but still held a respectable grudge for anything remotely gooey or romantic. There was a high chance she'd castrate my best friend for even thinking about having a surprise date on Valentines Day.

"And, I don't have a stupid girlfriend," I added, even as I swiveled my head to the door and watched as Mrs. Miller, the Dean's secretary, knock to enter and hand a piece of paper to Professor Payton.

It's not her. Come on clumsy girl, Where are you?

I swiveled back to face Blake again and found him sporting an even wider grin than the last.

"Riiiiight. Not your girlfriend. I could very well argue that you guys do a lot of couple things together, but since you just threatened to snitch on me to my man-hater of a girlfriend, I think I'll let it pass."

Blake's eyebrows scrunched, as if in deep thought. "Come to think of it, where is she Cassius? I saw her at Dekker's dorm room yesterday, when I picked up Dekker for dinner. They were having some kind of girl-to-girl discussion I think. I wouldn't worry about it, but it isn't really like her to skip Literature class, especially with all this Romeo and Juliet stuff."