or
Kiss Me, Kari
(a parody of Taming Of The Shrew by William Shakespeare)
"Okay, class," the teacher Ms. Yamahana said, as she passed out papers to the 7th grade class in Odaiba Middle School one day. "What I'm handing out to you are your end of the year assignments for English. Since we have just finished reading the play The Taming Of The Shrew by William Shakespeare, I have based each assignment around the piece. I have taken into consideration everyone's special abilities, talents, and hobbies that I have observed throughout the year, and gave you an assignment that would allow you to use that talent, whether it be writing, art, or...computers."
When she said the word "computers," Ms. Yamahana looked in the direction of 13 year old Koushiro "Izzy" Izumi, who had his fingers crossed for the past five minutes, hoping that the teacher would give him something to do that involved computers, like a multimedia report. Ms. Yamahana knew how involved Izzy was with computers, and he was really aiming for an assignment that would let him use his vast knowledge with ease.
But, when Ms. Yamahana dropped Izzy's sheet onto his desk, his eyes widened in shock. Instead of seeing the words "Multimedia Report" on the top of the assignment sheet, it read, in clear, bold letters:
"The Taming Of The Shrew" by William Shakespeare,
along with...
"Ms. Yamahana!" Izzy cried out, jumping up from his desk. Almost simultaneously, a pink-haired head shot up from across the classroom, equally shocked at her own assignment. 13 year old Mimi Tachikawa's eyes darted across the room, and met Izzy's. They both, at that moment, knew that they were in big trouble.
Without any permission from the teacher, both Izzy and Mimi rushed up to her desk, where Ms. Yamahana had just sat down after delivering all of the assignments to the class. They reached the desk at the same time, identical frantic expressions on their faces. "Ms. Yamahana," Izzy protested. "You can't possibly expect us to do this!"
"No one else is working together on this project!" Mimi interjected, just as panicked over this very difficult assignment as Izzy was. "Why have you paired us together?"
"And the assignment," Izzy added, showing the teacher the paper, "How you do expect two thirteen year olds to modernize a brilliant play written by the greatest author in history?! I was hoping on a project that involved computers..."
"And I was looking forward to a fashion overview of sixteenth century clothing!" Mimi cried.
Ms. Yamahana sighed, and looked the two teenagers in the eyes. "I think the both of you are underestimating your abilities," she said. She turned to Izzy. "Mr. Izumi, what I've seen this year, is that you hide behind your computer skills. You write your essays and your English papers so well, but you drag them down with fancy technical tricks."
"And Miss Tachikawa," the teacher said, turning to Mimi, "Ever since you moved back here from New York, I've seen you have such potential to be a great writer, yet you never think past expensive makeup and pretty clothes.
"I gave both of you this project because I think you can actually pull it off, if you try. You can make this assignment into an interesting learning experience that will help you mold your creative abilities."
Both Izzy and Mimi opened their mouths to protest, but Ms. Yamahana cut them off. "As for working together," she said, in a more serious tone, "I don't want to hear that you can't, or won't, do it. I now that you two were part of the eight kids that saved the world three years ago...you were called...the DigiDestined, am I right? Izzy and Mimi nodded slowly, disbelieving that their teacher knew they were DigiDestined the entire school year, and hadn't said a word about it until now. "So I don't want to hear that you two can't be partners in a little English project if you can save the world together."
"But Ms. Yamahana," Izzy asked, taking a look in Mimi's worried direction. "Just how are we going to modernize Taming Of The Shrew? We wouldn't know where to begin!"
"Why don't you start with something familiar?" the teacher suggested. "Set it right here, in modern-day Odaiba, perhaps. Or, you can use your friends as characters, as just a suggestion."
Both Mimi and Izzy's eyes widened, and the idea popped into their heads at the same time. "Friends as the characters," Mimi said slyly, naughty ideas of putting her friends into the plots of Shakespeare already popping into her head. "I think we can pull that off."