Oh Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou - (open)

[gioia hendersen]

In this day and age, who wasn't familiar with the story of Romeo and Juliet? The whole forbidden love, getting swept away in a romance, going against parental wishes, it was just what almost every teenager wanted. The story was probably more popular than Cinderella. It seemed that everyone wanted a piece of the forbidden romance. The romance, the suicide, the love, the passion, the anger.

It was a classic play studied in almost every high school across the country. At the Parthenon, the students got the honor of studying it in English. Usually Gioia dreaded English but the whole forbidden love story seemed to draw her in. That and she felt like she already knew the story since growing up she had watched the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo. It wasn't often that Gioia didn't get the Cliff notes version of a book but with this one, she hadn't even come close to it.

Gioia walked into English carrying only her copy of Romeo and Juliet by the man who said he knew love, William Shakespeare. The raven haired girl slid into the desk that was her seat as the book slammed down on the desk. "Oops, sorry," Gioia said realizing the book made a bit too much noise. But that was the whole point of the book slamming. If anything Gioia liked her time in the spotlight. She always liked the attention.

[samuel norcross]

Fuck. That really hurt. Ziv was right. He really needed to stop playing with fire. The burn was already begging to scab, which Sam guessed was a good thing. He did have a lot of respect for fire, but who wouldn't play with it, if they could control it? Not many people.

As he strolled to English, he ran his free fingers over the tattoo on his left hand, pulling back his sleeve a little to look over the mark on his hand. A star of david, with four sets of numbers in the outline. His grandparents numbers, left behind behind the Nazi's long ago. He had always hated when people complained about thier lives. Thier parent's not letting them stay out till four in the morning. His grandparents, the very same who had raised him, had lived through hell, and were still the nicest people around. It just didn't seem real to him, and he couldn't even fathom the mental burden.

These kids would never understand. They didn't care anyway. They were just selfish little brats, spoiled beyond belief. He wouldn't even be here if The Parthonon didn't have a scholarship program. These people drove him insane.

He stolled into English and sat down. his favorite subject, aside fromk Chemistry, was English, and he couldn't wait to get to this class, to relax a little. Although he wished it wasn't Shakespere. That guy had no perception of real life. His works were sexist, explotative and honestly, they created steriotypes of what love is. What a jerk he was.

"Oops, Sorry." The girl next to him said. he didn't even look at her, just rolled his eyes. The teacher walked in, smiling. "Well, let's continue our conversation about Romeo and Juliet. We were adressing his id..e..a...s..a..b..o..Mr.Norcross?" She had roused him from an antypically vivid day dream, and he was a little upset about it. "Maybe you can give us your thoughts on Romeo's characther? What do you think of him?"

"You want my honest opinion?" She nodded. Bad move. "He's a horny, sex driven jerk."

(Sorry, it's sooo long. They won't all be this way.)

[gioia hendersen]

"You want my honest opinion?" She nodded. Bad move. "He's a horny, sex driven jerk." Gioia laughed. What a typical guy, only thinking with one thing. But she decided to play off what this guy said. "Then you could argue that Juliet wanted nothing but sex at the tender age of what thirteen. It's so Disney meeting a guy and selling your soul to guy you have only known for a few days." Her blue eyes turned to look at the boy. There was something about him, something different yet something familiar.

The teacher looked over at Gioia. "I suppose you have a different opinion about it Miss Hendersen can you elaborate on that?" Gioia looked the teacher up and down. "Well it's the typical forbidden love thing like most movies these days. Just think about the movies that have come out in the past year. How many of them are based off of Romeo and Juliet? The forbidden love. And what teenager doesn't want to go against their parents. I mean hello. It's called rebelling. Romeo and Juliet just rebelled against there parental units in a time when children were to be seen and not heard."

Gioia looked over at the guy sitting there. Impulsive was her middle name, doing without ever thinking. Those blue eyes scanned him up and down. "You can't tell me you have never rebelled against your parental units?" Rebelling was something Gioia did often against her grandparents. She wore tighter clothes and shorter shorts then they liked her too. Ever since she and her mother moved off the streets of New York into the Park Avenue life, Gioia had been raised more and more by her grandparents verses her mother. Most of the time she off trying to start a franchise of her own little cafe that she opened up. But Gioia always hid the fact that she spent the beginning of her life on the streets. That was not something she wanted to ever share with anyone.

[samuel norcross]

"You can't tell me you have never rebelled against your parental units?"

He chuckled. "No. I don't have them, but, that's beside the point." He ran a hand through his hair, before turning to look at her. "Romeo's a player; he corrupted Juliet, however, she was willing to be corrupted. Thier love was like the love of teenagers today. They believed they needed to be in love. They were together so they thought they needed to love each other. It wasn't real. And then there's the whole 'Romeo and Mercutio' thing. Were they just really good friends, or more than that? And, what about Paris? Did they have potential as a couple? Would Juliet had loved him had he not been chosen by her parents?"

He didn't understand the whole 'rebel without a cause' act that most teenages put on nowadays. They always fight to be diffrent, when, if they just acted like themselves, they wouldn't have a problem.

"I don't think they were mature enough to be in love. If anything, they were lustful; all Romeo wanted in the begging was to get into her pants.."

[lilly van allen !]

Lilly walked into class, her hair completely wild, but in a good way. She had been running late to class because of her father. he had tried to make her take his car to school instead of her kind of beat up scooter. Which she refused, because she was just not the type to be rolling up in the rolls with a driver and everything.
She wore a grey sweater with a white tank top under it with the eifel tower on it. Her skirt was a tad too short, but she liked it with the extra fabric hanging down. Her shoes were the only pop of color her outfit had, green plaid.

The moment she set off into the class room, she heard what the conversation was about. She saw Gioia sitting there, and she waved a small wave.

She started walking further in, catching the end of the conversation.

"I don't think they were mature enough to be in love. If anything, they were lustful; all Romeo wanted in the begging was to get into her pants.."

"Oh dear god no," She said, wanting to back right out of the room. Not Romeo and Juliet. anything but that.

"Miss Van Allen, if you would take a seat in front of Mr. Norcross,'" She said, ignoring her comment.

Lilly stomped over to her seat.

"What is the fascination with Romeo and Juliet? I mean, I can do Macbeth, but ugh," She siad, taking her seat, and tucking her ankles around eachother. She shot Gioia a smile before hse turned back to the teacher.

Outfit

[gioia hendersen]

Gioia nodded her head as Lilly came in acknowledging her friend. "And then there's the whole 'Romeo and Mercutio' thing. Were they just really good friends, or more than that? Gioia let out a chuckle. "Like Romeo and Mercutio had this whole forbidden love thing themselves. Did Shakespeare write that in or do the characters have a secret life that Shakespeare didn't even know about." Gioia bit her lip. The idea of Romeo and Mercutio wow that would be quite interesting. Almost better than Romeo and Juliet itself.

"I don't think they were mature enough to be in love. If anything, they were lustful; all Romeo wanted in the begging was to get into her pants.." Gioia shook her head. "Such a typical guy only wanting to get in a girls pants. It's like that's all he can think about. Of course it was lust. Guys can't love especially at that age. What was Romeo no more than sixteen right? And to die for love, I mean come on. He and Mercutio could have gotten it on and had just a meaningful relationship. Probably even better." Gioia smiled at herself. It wasn't like her to get all fiery over a class assignment unless the teacher was to die for hot and she wanted to impress them.

Gioia heard Lilly's complaint about Romeo and Juliet. She turned to her friend. "National High School standard, that's why. Otherwise we would be studying something else like Alice in Wonderland. She let out a comforting smile to her friend.