Posted Five Minutes Ago [TreeBros/Cevan]

~Double English~

Connor's POV

I walked to school, shooting an email to Evan despite the cold air making it difficult to keep my hands out. It doesn't take long, and as soon as I get near the school gates I return my hands to the warmth of my pockets, partly to stop them from freezing, but also to avoid having to get rid of my nail vanish. The bell seemed to ring the second I stepped through, so I was to head straight to my first lesson. I had a double session of English to make it through, the fact that the teacher had suddenly become strict about phone usage during class making it even more unfavourable. She used to just pretend she hadn't noticed, but I suppose she's had to put her foot down with the fast-approaching exams. Which I can't blame her for, it just makes it harder to email. 

I sit down at my seat, taking my bag off my shoulder and setting it down under my seat. I sit near the back on a table with two quiet kids, who most of the time don't even look at me, and one pretty eager girl. She is always the first to raise her hand, even if she isn't sure of the answer one hundred percent. I actually have quite a bit of respect for her for that, since it's clear that she doesn't care what anyone else thinks. Or at least, she doesn't act like it. 

It takes a few moments for everyone to get settled, but soon the teacher is stood at the front of the room, hands clasped infront of her, and a slideshow with the title "Themes of Romeo and Juliet" projecting behind her. 

"Good morning, everyone. Don't take out your things just yet, we're going to be switching things up for today." She grabs a sheet of paper from the desk next to her. "I thought we'd do some group work for this double session since we seem to be struggling with themes. I've made up some new groups so you can get the most out of this!" She seems genuinely happy with herself and her decision to mix up the class, but the mood can't be associated with the rest of the class. The louder kids were excited, perhaps expecting to be put with their friends, but the rest seemed to have been made uncomfortable by the proposition. 

"I've put you in groups of mixed abilities," She added, before reading out the groups. That's me as the 'lower ability' person, then. "Alana, Connor, Evan and Jared." I glanced at the girl on my table who smiled back, and soon Jared and Evan come and join us, the two quiet kids having moved to a different table. 

Jared Kleinman is an interesting person. He's a vocal nerd, if you will. He acted mostly confident, and was in most of my classes. Judging by what I've seen in those classes, Jared is also of a lower ability along with me, and Alana and Evan were put with us to help us. The teacher came around the tables with large sheets of paper and handfuls of colourful markers pens, explaining that we were to go through each of the themes in Romeo and Juliet and make posters with quotes and such as a team. 

"We're going to smash this. With your brains and your art-skills," Jared said, pointing at Evan and Alana and then me. "We're going to have the best damn posters this town has ever seen." There was an essence of sarcasm in his voice, subtle enough that one could actually interpret this as him being really enthusiastic about posters. 

"That's the spirit!" Alana beamed, removing the cap off of a marker. "What do you want to do first?" I shrugged, not really knowing where to start. I wasn't even sure I knew what all the themes were in this play. English wasn't my strong point, let alone Shakespearean English. 

"Should we just work our way down the list?" Evan chimed in, his voice soft. A familiar softness. Too familiar. 

I suddenly lifted my head, looking at the boy sat opposite me, hoping he'd speak again to make sure I hadn't imagined it. Sure enough, he quoted the play as Alana wrote what he was saying down, and it was like being in a call with Evan. But not this Evan- surely not. On one hand, there's such a slim chance of him sounding like my Evan, and also sharing his name, but on another hand there's an even slimmer chance of me being in the same town as the stranger I met on the internet, let alone the same school. I found myself staring, sharply turning my head each time Evan Hansen caught me before looking back the second he looked away. 

"You okay there, Connor?" Jared asked, smirking ever so slightly. "Has Ev got something on his face or are you imagining him naked?" He laughed at his own joke, but both Evan and I flush red. I scowl, taking a marker and angrily doodling Romeo and Juliet onto the paper. I looked up momentarily as Evan is writing, and sure enough, their handwriting is the same. Or similar. Probably just similar. 

"Hansen," I said suddenly. He didn't seem to recognise my voice, which is either because this is a different Evan or it's because I seem to have a different voice when calling versus in real life. "Do you have your physics notes with you?" 

"Physics?" Alana said, tilting her head ever so slightly. 

"Are you doing okay, Murphy?" Jared added, but I kept my focus on this Evan. He began raking through his back and eventually pulled out a handful of paper. Neat. Colour coordinated. And Lastly, a spider diagram on required practicals, pink smudge and all. I handed them back, taking a deep breath, everyone else on the table looking on confused. Evan doesn't seem to realise that I've just found out that the boy I've been mostly anonymously emailing and chatting for months is currently sat across from me in double English.  

~

The next couple of hours seem to drag, and I really couldn't think about Shakespeare. I needed to tell him at some point that I knew who he was, and tell him who I am. But I couldn't help but worry. He might not understand right away that I didn't know he was up until now, and I wasn't trying to gain all this information about him to be cruel. I haven't been equally as open with him, why would he think anything different? I didn't want to lose our friendship, or him to go back to how he was feeling before. I really cared about Evan, and I didn't want things to change. 

A week passed, and Evan was still none the wiser.