Dream Boy

Chapter Ten

"Okay, class! Today, we are getting our first partner project." It has been a week since Christmas break, and our teachers are back in the swing of things already. "The project you will have to hand in for half of your semester grade will be based on the Shakespeare play you and your partner are given. I have randomly assigned partners, so listen for your name." Don't you just love when your teachers assign your partners?

"Emily, Jake. Carly, Emma. Chris, Christine. What a coincidence there! Anyway, who's next...Sophie, John." Ms. Gables reads off names for another thirty seconds or so, and then finally arrives at mine. "Sarah and Evan." What? No, no, no! Okay, okay...as long as we don't get Romeo and Juliet!

"Okay, now I need everyone to sit next to their partner, and I'm going to walk around and let you pick a play from a hat." Groans fill the air as tired students wallow around, looking for their partners. I make my way towards Evan and sit down without making eye contact.

"Okay, Evan. Reach into the hat please." Of course he gets to pick. That means that I have absolutely no control over the situation. "Ooh, that's a good one! Here's the assignment write up for it." I grab the paper out of her hand. Across the top it reads "Much Ado About Nothing." Thank the Lord.

"Wow, you were excited to get a hold of that paper. Can I read it?" I roll my eyes at Evan, finally glancing towards him. "Fine, here you go."

"Okay, so it says we have to read the play together, pick out our favorite comedic section and then rewrite it in modern "lingo." Oh, and would you look at that. We have to act it out!"
"Ughhhh." I slap my forehead. This is not going to be fun. But then I remember something, and my lips creep into a smile.
"What? What are you smiling for?" Evan stares at me, quizzically.
"Well, we'd have to pick an excerpt that only has two characters, and there is this perfect scene where Beatrice and Benedick bicker back and forth. It would be fun, because they keep trying to outdo each other with insults."
"So you've read this before, I see."
"Well, yeah. You know me, little Miss Bookworm."
"Actually, I don't really know you."
"Well, hopefully you learn quickly."

"Hey, can I walk you to lunch?" I am closing my locker, lunch bag in hand, when Christian suddenly appears behind me.
"Um, well, I know how to get there...and this isn't a particularly dangerous hallway..." He jokingly glares at me.
"Come on, Sarah! Let a guy walk his girl to lunch!"
"Oh, so I'm 'your girl' now?" I look up at him, one eyebrow raised.
"What? Are you objecting my calling you mine?"
"Not necessarily, though we haven't even been on a date yet--if you don't count your party."
"Well, actually I was just about to ask you about that."
"Oh really?" I had start dragging him down the hallway, making the situation more me-walking-him than the other way around.
"How about tomorrow, Friday? Dinner at that new restaurant in town? I'll pick you up at seven?"
"Deal. But make it six. Evan and I are working on our project on Saturday, so I don't want to be out late the night before."
"Oh, yeah...I forgot about that. Christine is so high maintenance, I doubt she'll let me write one word of ours."
"Good luck with that! Now go buy lunch so you can come sit with Taylor and Harrison and me."
"Okay, whatever you say, Muh Lady."
"Oooh, I like that much better."

Harrison had asked Taylor to be his girlfriend (unsurprisingly) the first week back to school after break. He had somehow gotten her locker combo (wink wink, via moi) and filled it with roses. One plus about having rich parents, is that you can afford to buy your high school crush roses. Of course she had said yes, and they haven't let go of hands since.

"Hey guys. How's the hand holding marathon going? What, it's been a week now? Is that a world record?" I plop myself down across the lunch table from Taylor and Harrison.
"Oh, stop that Sarah! That joke is getting old. I like to hold his hand, okay?" Taylor pretends to sound angry, but easily loses her composure.
"Don't quit your day job and become an actress."
"Darn, I guess no broadway for me."