Thanks for those who have reviewed! Chapter has been revised! So without further ado, I give you [edited] chapter two.

Disclaimers: HnKnA is the property of QuinRose. Shakespeare's Hamlet is the property of Will himself and whoever holds the rights today.

Ch. 2: Planning

After it was decided that they would produce Hamlet Alice realized that they would need a much larger cast. She walked out of her room and into the workroom where Julius sat, as usual, tinkering away with the clocks. Ignoring the impulse to sit and watch him work she went to a drawer and pulled out a sheet of paper and a pencil, then went to sit at the work bench besides Julius.

She wrote at the top of the page: "Character/Cast" and began to try and remember all the names of the characters in the play. Of course, there was Hamlet and his evil uncle Claudius, and Ophelia, her brother Laertes…

"Hey Julius?"

Without looking up from his work he said shortly, "Yes?"

"Do you know Hamlet?"

He looked up, confused, a small frowns on his face. "The play?" Alice nodded. "I do. Why?"

"Dee and Dum and I are thinking about putting on a play and we're doing Hamlet. But I can't quite remember all the characters' names."

Julius, on the other hand, did remember and soon Alice had a list. Now to decide the cast, she thought.

"Hey, Julius?"

Again, not looking up from his work he replied, "What is it, Alice?"

"How does one put together a play?"

His hands stopped working and he looked down at her, peering like a 30-year-old virgin librarian over his glasses at her. "Are you serious?" When Alice shoes not to respond he sighed and removed his glasses. "Well, you need to hold tryouts to see who's interested in participating and see how well they can act. From there you decide on the roles and begin rehearsing."

Alice pondered on that for some time. "Wouldn't it be easier to just tell people what role to play?"

"I suppose it would. But parts are usually decided based on how a person presents themselves in another person's shoes. Say if someone gave a really funny performance; you wouldn't want that person to play a serious role if humor was their strong point."

"Hmm. Somehow…never mind." She sat, thinking for a while, and so Julius put his glasses on and went back to work.

"Okay. Thanks." She got the twins together and they went around telling friends in each of the territories about the play, even going so far as to put up a couple of handmade posters, with the time and requirements for auditions, which were set a week away to give people time to prepare. All in all, Alice felt pretty good about the play's prospects.

A week and a day later:

"Hey Julius?" Alice groaned out tiredly from the doorway.

Julius sighed and looked up from his work over to Alice, who had dark circles under her eyes, hair messed up and sticking out in all the wrong place, looking clearly harassed and thoroughly exhausted. He just stared, unsure what to do.

"How do you make 13 people who hate each other put on a play?"

This is much shorter than the original chapter, I know, but the old material is still in use; it'll just be added to a new chapter.