Romeo and Juliet

Chapter 3 - The Offer

Elizabeth

"What is the answer to question five, Elizabeth?" Mrs. Gunderson asks me, bringing me back to reality. "Romeo!" I blurt out. I look at the board, question five was, 'what is x  X 5'. Today is a quiz! I totally forgot. "Last time I checked, 'Romeo' wasn't a number" Mrs. Gunderson smiles. The whole class chuckles.

Ugh. I can't get what happened in drama out of my head. Also the offer! What is it! The bell rings and everyone get's their stuff. "I expect more from you, Elizabeth" Mrs. Gunderson scolds me. "I know, I'm sorry" I apologize, grabbing my binder and heading out. Finally it's the end of the school day. I'm utterly exhausted and in no mood to walk two flights of stairs to the second third floor, but I have to get to my locker some way or another and I also have to talk to Karen. Mrs. Gunderson teaches history and history is not a good subject to have a yoour last period when your brain is all mushy.

Once I get to my locker I set my binder down on the floor and put in my combination in. My locker opens and I get my gray backpack out. It's bland but it has back support and it holds all of my stuff, and still has space in it.

I put on my backpack, close my locker and start heading to the drama room. Once I'm at the door eighth graders spill out of the door. Masters Drama. The highest level of drama, actors in the making, they must be the best actors in the school, and very mature, wow. An eighth grader walks out and jumps on another eighth graders back and yells, "giddy up!". The eighth grader with the other one on their back runs off. Okay, maybe not mature, but still admirable. I walk into see a girl with short brown hair, light skin, wearing denim overall pants with a hot pink turtle neck talking with Karen. I walk up to Karen. "I might try out for Juliet" the girl says. "Well then you're gonna have to beat this girl" Karen puts her shoudler around me. "What's your name?" the girl asks. Wee wooh, wee wooh, systems shutting down, eighth grader alert! This is not a drill! Prepare for social interaction! "Lizzie" I say, making my mouth move in an awkward way.

The girl laughs. "Is she running for Juliet?" I ask Karen looking up at her. "They" the eighth grader corrects me. "I am so, so, sorry" I apologize. Gosh, this is so embarrassing, It's always embarrassing when I mess up someone's pronouns. "It's fine, my name is Calia" Calia says. "Aslo Karen, what did you mean by,'you're going to have to beat this girl', when you put your shoulder around me?" I ask. "That's my offer, If you audition for Juliet, you're bound to win, I loved your passion" Karen smiles. "Okay, I'll audition, but if I don't get the part, I don't want to be the understudy, I want to be on lights crew with Rachel" I say.

"Deal" Karen nods. "See you in auditions!" Calia says as they grab their stuff and walk out of the room.