Beware the ides of March

Act 1 Scene 1

Assemble all the poor men of your sort

"Settle down, settle down" Mr Mason banged gently on his desk as he surveyed the class, "I know you all must want to talk about how 'like so totallyawesome' your weekends were but perhaps we could refrain while we are all in my class".

Bella looked down at the notepad in front of her, drawing circles along the edge only keeping one ear on what Mr Mason was telling the class. In truth it was probably her favourite class, but she had spent the weekend working and really could not be bothered to look like she was paying attention. All she really wanted was to go and eat lunch and take a nap. She was half conscious that Mr Mason was talking about Shakespeare and the rest of the semester.

"Therefore, my lovely seniors, I have decided to do something a little different" Mr Mason continued, Bella zoning in more so to his lecturing, "instead of us all studying the same play and all giving presentations on the same topic which means I get very bored. You shall all be put into twos and each couple will study a different play and shall deliver a presentation." He surveyed the room, "and no, you shall not be picking your own partner, the magic of the hat will do that for you." A few groans across the room, "now, now, it isn't like you don't all know each other." He picked up two hats that had been sitting on his desk but no one had noticed. He walked over to Ben Cheney and handed him one hat. "This side will pick from the hat in Mr Cheney's hand, and the other" he handed the other hat over, "from the other".

The hats were passed back; Bella took one piece of paper hurriedly before thrusting the hat behind her. She thumbed the small piece of paper in her hand. Before slowly unfolding in to see Julius Caesar printed in block capitals on it. She folded it up once more and went back to drawing circles on her paper. Carefully attempting to shade them in with her biro but they just became stripy circles. She zoned out again truly, focusing on her circles, ignoring all that was going on around her,

"Julius Caesar?"

A deep, bored voice from the back of the class responded, "Yep".

"Excellent, Mr Cullen, and…." Mr Mason looked up but no one else responded, "Julius Caesar?" again no answer, "Julius Caesar" he paused and looked around at the class, "Come on people, Mr Cullen isn't that bad, I'm sure" A slight giggle around the room occurred but no reply, "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar" his final words woke Bella up from her retrieve with a jolt, "Julius Caesar, please"

"Sorry Sir, Yes" Bella said, feeling herself grow red and embarrassment coated her words.

Mr Mason sighed, "Finally decided to join us, Miss Swan? Excellent. You are with Mr Cullen".

Bella slumped down in her seat as Mr Mason continued listing plays.

Why did it have to be him? Of all the people in the class, even the creep with the wonky eye would have be better than Edward 'Everyone loves me' Cullen. He was probably the only person in the room she didn't want to be placed with. Granted they hadn't spoken since his 13th Birthday but she knew him, or rather knew his persona. Everyone loves him and he loves everyone loving him. "At least" she thought, "At least he isn't stupid"

~#~

"Howdy, Partner" he dragged out the partner, leaning against her locker. His lips curled into a slight cocky smile, his eyes studying her as she walk up to him.

"Hello, Could you move please?" she tried to sound polite but she knew she had failed the fake-ness in her words was obvious.

He just continued to smirk at her, "now, now no need for that. You should be nice to your new Shakespeare partner."

She just stared at him, eyebrows raised. He did eventually slide over so she could open her locker door.

"So, what's the plan Stan?" He tried again, the permanent smile not moving from his face. Part of him felt odd to be speaking to her once again. He could probably count on one hand what they had said to each other in the last 5 years.

Bella looked at him as she closed her locker, "Well unfortunately we can't just do this project by text so I guess we will have to meet up" she responded bitingly.

"Haven't lost the wit then" Edward retorted, as Bella began to walk away from her locker and he followed. She just sent him a withering look.

"Tomorrow?" She asked, sounding increasingly annoyed with him walking next to her.

He shook his head, "Football practice. Wednesday?"

It was Bella's time to shake her head this time, "I babysit."

"You do?" His question came out more shocked than he had meant it to be, after all Bella had liked children when they were younger, he had no reason to believe that had changed, "Who?"

If she was shocked by his question she didn't show it, "Not that it matters, but one of my dad's men. He and his wife always work late on a Wednesday" She told him.

Edward nodded in understanding, "Thursday then."

She stopped outside of a classroom, "Thursday would be okay."

Edward opened his mouth to say something but it was drowned out by the sharp bell. Bella raised one side of her mouth at him before entering the classroom behind her.