A/N: A short story that will consist of only 2 chapters. This is slightly based on the Romeo & Juliet episode, but doesn't follow it completely. Just the idea of the two being in the play with their respective roles, the dialogue and almost everything else is different. This is my first attempt at writing fanfiction, so constructive criticism on my writing would be greatly appreciated.


With frazzled hair and a piece of toast that might be a little to hot trapped between her teeth, Ritsu sped towards the block where she'd usually meet up with her best friend, Mio, before going to school together. As she was approaching her destination, Ritsu, the tawny-haired drummer, spotted a familiar raven-haired bassist waiting for her with a raised brow and crossed arms. Ritsu tried her best to muster her usual cheeky grin while desperately holding on to the toast clenched between her teeth. The toast-wielding girl noticed that Mio's eyes seemed to dart from place to place, unable to focus on her; the grey orbs seemed to be more interested with everything else that was around Ritsu. Was the scenery that wonderful given that it was winter? The drummer wondered what was bothering her best friend as she arrived right in front of the raven-haired girl.

"What took you so long?! Ritsu, we're going to be late!" Mio had spoken up while Ritsu quickly swallowed her meal and caught her breath. It was not an easy feat to be able to run while keeping a piece of toast in tact, the tawny-haired girl mused.

Ritsu had instinctively scratched the back of her head as she began to explain herself, "Well… ahahaha, my alarm—" Before she could even finish her sentence, Mio had suddenly grabbed Ritsu's hand and broke into a run as soon as the bassist saw the stoplight switch colors. This forced the exhausted girl to quickly cross the street and run once again, but this time towards their school. Ritsu's thoughts stopped completely as she tried her best to catch up without being dragged entirely, as the raven-haired girl had her hand in a vice grip that would have stopped all the functions of her left hand if their school was located any further than it was.

As soon as they arrived at the entrance of the school, Mio had suddenly stopped running and then proceeded to walk; the tawny-haired girl did not anticipate the sudden decrease in speed, however, and bumped into the raven-haired girl, which caused the bassist to fall on the pavement and the Ritsu to fall on top of her. The tawny-haired girl, did not realize what had just occurred, and concluded that the pavement was surprisingly soft today. She remained still for a few seconds as she tried to steady her breathing.

Ritsu's heart skipped a beat when she discovered that she did not, in fact, land on the pavement, but instead landed on Mio as a result of their crash. It took a while for the raven-haired girl below her to come back to her senses. Mio noticed the predicament they were in and blushed furiously. The tawny-haired girl assumed that the evident blush her best friend donned was caused by the fact that they were in this strange situation in public. Ritsu knew she had to do something before Mio died of embarrassment, but couldn't find the heart to until she had mentally forced herself to speak as the situation was becoming ridiculous; the tawny-haired girl could feel all of the eyes that settled on them out of shock and knew that the bassist could feel them even more intensely given her introverted nature.

"S-sorry…" Ritsu stated, although uncharacteristically meek as she stood up and helped the bassist get up as well. The usually energetic drummer thought of apologizing properly as she had always caused her trouble. However, Mio seemed to have found her apology to be adorable as she stifled a small giggle with her hand. This caused Ritsu to look away as her face decided to adorn reddish hues against her will.

"Don't worry about it. Actually, I should be so—" The bassist suddenly stopped mid-sentence as her eyes widened and decided to just stare at her best friend.

Mio was staring at her for a bit too long, Ritsu noted. She didn't know why until she had noticed that something was missing: her yellow headband. The drummer knew that the bassist thought that she looked a lot better with her bangs down, but she didn't understand why she was staring so intensely. Mio probably just wasn't used to the sight of it, Ritsu mused.

But enough of that, this was the perfect opportunity to catch her off guard. Ritsu just loved seeing the plethora of adorable reactions Mio presented when faced with something she feared or found embarrassing. The drummer adored the way she crouched and hid in a corner while she covered her ears, the way her grey eyes watered and shone as she asked if the coast was clear of all of her fears and every other reaction she put out was amusing yet beautiful to Ritsu. She was kind of addicted to teasing Mio and it was evident by the way her mind quickly came up with something and her body delivered the actions to tease the bassist almost immediately.

"Aaah! Mio! …I-I think I see a gh-ghost behind you.." Ritsu suddenly blurted out as her face paled significantly. Her acting skills were improving, the drummer noted. The color of the bassist's face was akin to a sheet of clean paper as she immediately ran towards Ritsu to hide herself from the threat. The drummer's eyes widened as she knew that Mio would rather hide in a corner, not in her arms. That was odd, but the tawny-haired girl had nothing against it. But as much as she'd like to envelop Mio in a protective embrace against a threat that didn't exist, she finally realized that both of them were going to be late and Mio hated being late. But first the drummer decided to take a look at the bassist to see if she was all right, even though she knew that she was perfectly fine. It was an excuse her mind made so that she could just stare at her for a while. Mio was taller than Ritsu by about an inch, so the drummer could clearly see her pale face and trembling lips as her flowing raven hair cascaded around her face just by tilting her head upwards. Oh, how she loved seeing her reaction. It was even better up close, she quickly concluded.

After a while and even though it was against her will, Ritsu coughed to catch Mio's attention. She then informed her that it was just a joke and that they were about ten minutes late for their first class. Mio mercilessly smacked the drummer upside the head and called her an idiot while trying to ignore her searing red cheeks as she did. The pair ran towards their classroom, not caring about anything else but getting to class as they were already late and also because they knew the huge possibility of their teacher giving them the most terrifying glare and/or threat they've ever received. Sawa-chan only looked nice and sweet on the outside, but she was someone not to be reckoned with.


As soon as they arrived at their destination, Ritsu forcefully slid the classroom door open as she heaved out of exhaustion. Because of the sheer force the drummer had applied, the door hit the wall with a loud clatter. The whole class stared at the pair dumbfounded and surprised until Mugi had let out an involuntary squeal, which she immediately tried to stop with her hands as she saw them. Ritsu swore that she also noticed blood somewhere on Mugi's face, but she couldn't be so sure. The pair who had just arrived were equally dumbfounded until they looked at each other and suddenly reddened, embarrassed at their state. Ritsu and Mio had forgotten that they had ran towards their classroom while holding hands and that their clothes, including Ritsu's hair, was dishevelled due to them running, then falling on top of each other and then running again just to get to class.

"Ahahaha, sorry we're late Sawako-sensei! I can explain—" Before the tawny-haired girl could even continue, her teacher had interrupted her.

"You can explain later. Take your seats and listen for your assigned roles for the Romeo and Juliet play we're going to have for the festival." After she had said that, although in a weirdly relaxed tone, the two shuffled quietly to their seats, desperately trying to not get any more attention that was already on them, especially Mio. Ritsu was slightly worried that her best friend would faint out of the sheer attention she was receiving. Mio was already a popular girl in general, despite the fact that she didn't want attention, she always had eyes glued to her. This was probably because of how attractive, intelligent and talented she was. To the drummer, she was somewhat akin to a goddess. It was only somewhat because the drummer doubted that a goddess would be afraid of ghosts and barnacles. But there was even more attention on her now, and it wasn't at all the same kind of looks she'd receive before. There was a mixture of confusion, admiration, and other expressions the tawny-haired girl couldn't quite read.


People being assigned various roles from the play were met with some amused giggles and expressions of shock from the class. It took a while but they had finally arrived to announcing the leading roles and other important roles for their upcoming Romeo and Juliet play. Ritsu was quite shocked that she didn't hear her name earlier for it meant that she probably landed a major role in the play by doing absolutely nothing. That was amazing yet terrible for the drummer as that meant more work for her.

"Tsumugi Kotobuki will be the director of the play." Their student representative had stated. Ritsu had turned around and grinned at Mugi to congratulate her. She deserved it as she did create the initial script to be used and a lot of other things, based on the drummer's observation prior to the selection of roles that was happening. Ritsu couldn't recall everything as she usually dozed off or doodled on her notebook during class.

"Now, for the role of Romeo we have…. Mio Akiyama," The student representative had spoken up again after tallying the nominations and votes. Since they were in an all-girls school, there wasn't much of a choice but to choose among the girls within the class.

All of the other girls in the classroom seemed quite psyched that Mio would play as Romeo. Some squeals and joyous laughter could be heard from the class. What Mio couldn't fathom, however, is why they chose her out of all the people. She clearly wasn't suited for this role. It was more of Ritsu's thing, given her bravado, she mused. Speaking of Ritsu, the bassist had cocked her head only to find her best friend's usual teasing eyes and cheeky grin flashed right at her. The tawny-haired girl was trying to stifle her obnoxious laughter that would erupt and be heard from the ground floor of the building if she decided to open her mouth. The raven-haired girl blushed, embarrassed at the role they had given her. However, just as she was about to protest, their student representative had moved on to the next role.

"And for the role of Juliet we have… Ritsu Tainaka." After a while of grinning at Mio, Ritsu had finally processed the words their student representative had said. Her jaw fell, leaving her mouth agape as Mio let out a giggle immediately after seeing Ritsu's reaction. The whole class seemed to be equally shocked yet delighted at the results. The drummer immediately snapped back to her senses, stood up from her seat and answered back.

"Wait, wait, wait no! Why am I Juliet!? Mio should be Juliet! She'd definitely play a better Juliet I swear—" The tawny-haired girl was interrupted yet again for that day.

"If Mio and Ritsu are the main characters, then I'll have to change the script!" Mugi blurted out in glee as she clasped her hands together. Some of the other girls could be found nodding in agreement to what their director had said.

"What do you mean by that!?" The Ritsu and Mio said in unison with terrified and embarrassed expressions as Mugi seemed to be on cloud nine.


Days had passed as they practiced for the play. Both Ritsu and Mio had difficulties with their roles, but Mugi and Yui had helped them overcome some of the obstacles along the way. Since Mio seemed had a character Ritsu was more suited for and Ritsu had a character Mio was suited for, they proposed that the bassist and the drummer act like each other for the week so that they could get used to it. Ritsu and Mio tried their best to imitate each other. Some of the things they did include Ritsu wearing her uniform the way Mio does and vice versa, Mio trying to tease Ritsu as Ritsu was to over react to whatever Mio does or says, (In which the drummer was surprised to find out that Mio could be very, very evil when she was in control.) Mio wearing more ridiculous costumes out in public so that she could get used to the attention drawn to her by her apparel, Ritsu wearing a more girly set of clothes so that she could become more 'shy', as Yui put it, and a lot of other things.

Although the director's actresses completely loathed her suggestions to get into their characters at first, they decided to stick with it and see if it would do them any good because despite the fact that they did not like the roles they were given, they were both eager to do their best for the class. The results, to Mugi, were splendid. They did not completely change character like what most professionals did, but they had improved significantly. Mio could confidently say all of her lines and had only faltered twice. The first time being, well obviously, on their first practice and the second time was probably because the director secretly stole Juliet's hairband in the middle of their fourth practice. The blonde director smirked at the memory of Romeo trying to look her Juliet in the eyes to say her cheesy lines that the blonde had specifically modified to not only make Romeo and Juliet blush, but also to make Mio and Ritsu turn red as well. Ritsu on the other hand, was surprisingly good at her role. As soon as Mugi had told her to just 'act like Mio,' it worked almost like a charm… Except for the fact that Ritsu had a tendency to forget her lines frequently and that she had a very short attention span.

Either way, it was relieving to know that their practices were going very smoothly and Mugi no longer needed to worry too much about the two. All Romeo and Juliet needed to do now was to practice for their final scene, which Mugi brilliantly designed to have a kiss to conclude the play. Mio and Ritsu weren't aware of this, however, as they hadn't finished reading the whole script as of now, because if they did, they would've spoken up about it. But since they hadn't, there was no more escape. The director had received approval from her teachers to include the scene after she had argued on about how Romeo and Juliet should at least be somewhat modernized and that the beauty of Shakespeare's work would be gone if they removed all of Romeo and Juliet's moments of intimacy with each other, which basically served as the highlights of their love for each other.

Mugi smiled as she remembered that Ritsu, with newfound determination and energy coming from god-knows-where, told her that she and Mio would practice until the end of the script at her place so that they would have a head start for tomorrow. Dreams do really come true, the blonde mused as her smile turned into a wide, toothy grin.