Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of characters used. All are licensed to their respective owners. I am not making any money through authorship of this fic.
--
The girls sat in Yukari's empty class room with Tomo and Kagura back to swinging swords.
"How the heck did we become this school's drama club? As was previously shown to our year, we don't really know anything at all about drama!"
"What are you talking about Yomi? Sheesh they loved us! Didn't you have fun? You got married to Sakaki!"
"Ok ok so it was a little fun, but still, I don't understand why we have to do a weekly presentation!"
"Because everytime we do something good, Yukari looks good and if she looks good we get juice."
"How about I give you juice and you shut up?"
"Yomi! That's blasphemy!"
"No it isn't."
"Monogamy?"
"No."
"Anatomy?"
"Tomo just shut up."
--
The rest of the girls, including Kagura who had just put her sword down, sat at the desks trying to decide who would play which part in their next presentation.
They had decided earlier that they would do parts of Romeo and Juliet and that since Tomo couldn't learn lines it would generally be an adlibbed kind of affair.
The said wildcat who noticed something important was happening without her, wandered over to the group.
"Hey! Have we decided which lead I'm going to play this time?"
"We haven't decided who's playing who yet Tomo, but here's a copy of the synopsis," said Chiyo-chan as she handed Tomo the piece of paper.
"We're doing the balcony scene? Isn't that a little bit cliché?," the wildcat asked.
"I suppose it would be if anyone else was doing it," said Yomi. "But seeing as it's us, I don't think people are going to be seeing many similarities…"
"Good job Yomi!," said a grinning Tomo. "That was almost funny!"
Yomi smacked her in the head and order was restored.
"Right," said Osaka.
The rest of the girls looked at her questioningly.
"Right what?," Kagura asked.
"I've decided the best parts for everyone."
"Hey no fair you can't decide that on your own!," protested Tomo.
"Tomo gets to play a lead."
"There's another good call you've made Osaka! Good job!," the wildcat said, quickly changing tack. "So, which one am I? Romeo?"
She pulled a sword from it's sheathe and stood on one of the tables.
"Or Juliet?"
Dropping the sword Tomo flicked her hair and looked liked she was looking out from a balcony.
"Watch out Tomo, you'll fall you moron," said Kagura.
"Why do you always feel the need to warn her about these things Kagura?," Yomi asked. "You'll soon find all warnings are unnecessary with Tomo, she doesn't listen to any of them."
"Hey you take that back Yomi you… aah!"
Everyone looked at Tomo who was now lying on the floor.
"Tomo plays Romeo," said Osaka.
"That's a good choice Miss Osaka, I think it would be dangerous for us to put her on anything resembling a balcony."
Sakaki nodded her agreement and helped Tomo off the floor.
"So since I'm Romeo, which lucky lady gets to be my Juliet?"
Yomi immediately took a step out of the circle.
Sakaki and Kagura looked at each other.
"I'll be Tybalt," Kagura said.
"Umm, Mercutio," Sakaki followed.
"Ok then, Chiyo-chan that leaves you to be my Juliet!," said Tomo as she got down on one knee and extended her arm to Chiyo before spouting off a line she had just read.
"I
take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo."
As soon as she had said this, Tomo stood up and scratched her head.
"Hey, what's the deal. Did he just say he didn't wanna be Romeo anymore?"
"Idiot Tomo. That idiot Romeo just said he would denounce his name if the girl just said she loved him."
"Aww how sweet," said Chiyo-chan.
Sakaki blushed.
"I find it all just a little ridiculous though," continued Yomi. "They only met like a minute ago."
"Hey wait, what's going on?," asked their stressed out director. "Why are people picking characters that aren't even in the balcony scene?
"To avoid Tomo's death kiss probably," said Yomi under her breath.
"Kiss? What kiss?," Chiyo-chan asked.
"There's no kiss!," said Osaka. "Ok, Ok Sakaki can be Tybalt and Mercutio but we have to add on the fight scene just to include all those characters."
Yomi thought for a moment.
"Tomo has to fight too so I think we should give her the bluntest sword possible," she said.
"Agreed," said the rest of the girls.
"Hey! I did ok in our last stage fight right Sakaki?"
The tall girl looked at the small bruise on her hand where Tomo had accidentally hit the last time they sparred in a presentation.
"Umm," she managed to get out.
"Tomo gets the blunt sword," Osaka stated before continuing on with their plans.
"Ok, so we'll do the balcony scene together with the fight scene in Act three. Since we don't have a balcony right now, we'll start with Act three. Tomo, Sakaki and Kagura pick up your swords and we'll start."
Tomo picked up a sword and immediately started swinging it.
"Oww!," said Sakaki and Kagura, one after the other.
"Oops, sorry, it kinda got away from me there."
Osaka took Tomo's sword and handed the girl a pencil to Yomi's great amusement.
"Osaka what is this?!"
"Safety measure. The shorter your reach the better," she said standing by her decision, to the relief of Kagura and Sakaki.
"You three read through your lines for a minute before we get to the fighting."
Tomo nodded and spouted off another perfect line;
"Tybalt,
the reason that I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the
appertaining rage
To such a greeting: villain am I none;
Therefore
farewell; I see thou know'st me not."
The girls found themselves once again impressed by the wildcat's natural ability to read Shakespeare perfectly.
--
Unfortunately and as was expected, on the day of the presentation, Tomo remembered nothing.
Still, the wildcat was happy as her pencil had now evolved into a proper sized, albeit blunt, stage sword.
Yukari had organised to have a small 'balcony' built by the architecture club and had acquired the use of the gym for the presentation. It seems that the girls' 'drama club' was now popular with their entire year.
With everyone seated, Osaka got her troupe right where she wanted them and signalled for the curtains to be drawn.
Soft light shone on Chiyo-chan atop the 'balcony' and on Tomo who was leaning against it. The wildcat looked as if she was worried about getting caught in the act of pursuing her 'love'. Yomi was sitting on the step next to Chiyo-chan, not showing herself to the audience.
'Wow, these girls really are good at Shakespeare presentations. The effects and their costumes look amazing,' Yukari thought to herself.
"Psst! Juliet! Are you up there?," asked Tomo.
'Uh, nevermind,' thought Yukari.
Osaka and the other girls all cringed.
'Hundreds of years of celebrated literature, and what does she choose to say?!,' Yomi thought while shaking her head.
Chiyo-chan was too stunned with Tomo's massacring of arguably, Shakespeare's most famous lines, to say anything herself.
The wildcat called to her again and thankfully, since she caught Osaka's murderous look as a result of her last statement, came up with something a little better this time.
"Oh Angel, speak to me. For you are more glorious than the light that now showers us."
Chiyo called out her line softly, overwhelming some of the crowd with her pronounced cuteness.
"Oh
Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse
thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll
no longer be a Capulet."
"I'm here Juliet!," Tomo called up.
"Wherefore means why, idiot Tomo!," Yomi hissed.
'Oh? Better try again,' the wildcat thought.
"I am here to catch another glimpse of your beautiful face and to try and capture your heart, as you have captured mine…"
Chiyo-chan took a breath and delivered her next line.
"What man art thou that thus
bescreen'd in night
So stumblest on my counsel"
'Huh? What did she say?' For the life of her, Tomo couldn't remember what that line meant.
Osaka, who had been standing in the wings being pained by Tomo's antics decided to feed the wildcat her lines. After she had mentally apologised to Shakespeare several hundred times.
Tomo caught on to what Osaka was doing and puffed her chest out before easily spouting off a perfect line.
"By a
name
I know not how to tell thee who I am:
My name, dear saint,
is hateful to myself,
Because it is an enemy to thee;
Had I it
written, I would tear the word."
Chiyo-chan was extremely grateful to Osaka for giving her something to work with and also gave her best.
"How
camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?
The orchard walls are
high and hard to climb,
And the place death, considering who thou
art,
If any of my kinsmen find thee here."
Osaka sighed and nodded to her actors to continue on with their previously planned adlibbing. She thought it safe to let them run through on their own as it seemed Tomo was now in the mood to perform for juice.
"I easily climbed over fences to get to you my love, for stone walls and wandering guards cannot keep me from you."
Chiyo-chan gasped for effect and the crowd gasped with her.
"If any members of my family see you here they will kill you!"
"Do not worry yourself, for I am hidden by the night and they cannot find me here."
"If that is what you believe young Romeo then you are even more of a moron that I had originally thought," stated Kagura walking on stage from the right wing, sword drawn and looking sufficiently angry.
"Tybalt!," called Chiyo-chan. "Stay your sword!"
"What's going on here?," asked Yomi, finally showing herself to the audience.
"Nurse! It's Tybalt and Romeo."
"A Montague?"
"Nurse please, cease this madness! Blood will be drawn!"
"Tybalt! Listen to your cousin and stay your sword!," Yomi yelled in Kagura's general direction.
"Never! This dog is on our lands and so he must die!"
The words 'dog' and 'die' registered on Sakaki's mind and she immediately ran in soliciting gasps and sighs from Kaorin and a few other fan-girls.
"Romeo! We must flee this place immediately! At his one call we could be surrounded by fifty swords with points held at our throats."
"Nay Mercutio," said Tomo. "Love will end this peacefully," she said as she lay down her sword.
"Then I will have to fight to defend you!," said Sakaki as she drew her own sword. "Tybalt! Ready yourself!" she said before running in ready to 'strike' Kagura.
Kagura grinned, took a tiny step backwards and 'rammed her sword into Sakaki's side' a second before the other 'man' was about to do the same thing to her.
Sakaki stood still for a moment before dramatically falling to the ground.
"Mercutio!," yelled Tomo before running to Sakaki's side and holding the girl in her arms.
--
"Miss Sakaki!! Nooooo!," yelled a voice from the crowd.
"Kaorin, relax, it's only a show… geez don't cry," said Chihiro from her seat next to the girl.
"I know that! But look…. Tomo's holding her!"
--
Tomo gathered herself and prepared for Romeo's revenge, drawing her sword as she walked towards Kagura.
"Tybalt! You have killed my best friend. Prepare yourself!"
"Romeo no!," Chiyo called.
"I'm sorry my love. I have no other choice."
"Come come Montague, let's not be so dramatic about it. Be you ready to fight?" asked Kagura as smugly as she could manage.
Tomo locked eyes with Kagura, and released a strangled "Aargh!," before launching into battle.
Osaka was rather impressed by the stage-fight. 'Must be all the practice they get from actually fighting,' she thought.
The two traded blows with Tomo looking like she was on the back foot.
"Is this all you have for me Romeo?," Kagura asked.
"I do not wish to take from Juliet what you have taken from me," Tomo replied softly with pain written allover her features.
Yukari and Nyamo leaned closer to each other and wiped at their eyes.
"Weaklings! All of you! Just like that stupid Mercutio that lies in the dust at your feet. But do not worry Romeo, I shall obligingly ensure you meet him again on this very night."
Tomo was preparing for Romeo's incensed finishing blow when suddenly a small projectile flying through the air caught her eye… and smacked Kagura right in the head.
The athlete/ moonlighting drama student immediately dropped her act and peered out into the audience obviously looking for the pen-throwing culprit.
'So much for keeping in character,' thought Osaka as she sat down in the wings, resigning herself and pulling out a melon bread from her bag.
"Owww! Kaorin? What in the hell?! Did you just throw a pen at my head?!"
"You insulted Miss Sakaki!"
"It was my line!"
Tomo shrugged.
"Wow so the pen really is mightier than the sword," the wildcat said before laughing like a maniac.
Silence.
"What? Not funny?"
"Just shut up Tomo!!," her annoyed cast mates shouted at her.
However and as was expected by the wildcat, roaring applause drowned out their shouts.
"Thank you, thank you! I'll be accepting offers of juice from all!"
--
Yukari and Nyamo walked towards the parking lot together after the performance, both smiling happily.
"That was an excellent performance from your girls Yukari," said Nyamo. "I especially liked how they planted Kaorin in the audience so they could use her as comic effect for the ending."
Yukari nodded.
"Yeah that was good wasn't it?," she asked. "You know, that was actually all my idea…"
--
AN: Thanks very much for reading! Hope some of you enjoyed this XD Please review if you can spare a moment.