When Mrs. Fenton walked into the classroom, Karyn and her classmates were already seated and waiting. The elderly teacher had an amused look on her face, as if someone had just told her an inside joke. Karyn wondered if she, too, had the same look on her face. Probably not, as she was less amused and more excited. She couldn't wait to see what would happen to Moose.
"Well class, we're going to pick up where we left off last time. Romeo and Juliet. Act two, scene two. Any volunteers?"
With no hands going up, the teacher scanned the room. "Roger, you're Romeo, and Moose, Juliet."
"What?!" Moose protested while the class snickered at him. "That's a girl's part!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Matthews, are you too much of a man for the part?"
"Damn right I am!"
"Language!" she slammed her open hand on her desk, sending a jarring slap into the air, "I am in charge in this classroom, and if I say you are Juliet, you are Juliet! Now, Juliet, front and centre!"
Moose begrudgingly made his way forward amid the twitters of laughter from students around him.
"He jests at scars that never felt a wound," Roger began, "But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon..."
Soon Moose had tuned Roger out. This Shakespeare crap was lousy. Nobody understood it, nobody cared.
"Ahem," Mrs. Fenton cleared her throat.
Moose realized that Roger had stopped speaking. Realizing that he must have a line, he scanned the page. Finding his mark, he said, "Ay me!"
Ay me? What the hell is that supposed to mean anyway? Moose looked out at the classroom. Most students had the same glazed over look he wanted to have, but not that big titted blonde chick, Karyn. Man, that girl was a stone fox. Too bad she dressed like such a tomboy. Maybe she just needed a man like him to show her how to be a woman.
Another throat clearing brought his out of his thoughts. Another line.
"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love..."
Moose paused as the class laughed again at him. That was it.
"This play is garbage," he said, throwing down his book, "and I'm not playing no chick!"
"Oh, is that the way it's going to be?" Mrs. Fenton replied.
"Yeah, you can't make me do nothing!"
"Alright then," she said in a eerily calm voice. The teacher grabbed a note and scribbled something onto it, "Here, take this to the vice-principal. I'm done with your attitude, Mr. Matthews."
Swearing, Moose grabbed his bookbag and stormed out of the room. He was almost at the school office when he read the note. Moose won't play Juliet it simply read. Fine, Ms. Tantree would definitely take his side once she learned that he had to play a girl's part...
Wouldn't she?
