They're reading Romeo and Juliet
in an all boys school,
you can see how this wouldn't go well.
Keating had assured them
'boys played girls in Elizabethan times'
but that doesn't make it better
especially when Todd is Juliet.
He'd been elected jokingly,
picked on by the boys
about his chemistry with Neil
when they were Hamlet and Horatio.
His cheeks are scarlet
palms sweaty
but Neil's smile
makes the tension in his shoulders ease.
Knox makes it better too
with his rendition of Mrs. Capulet
and Charlie as the nurse.
.
The balcony scene is the worst
and the best
Todd can't quite decide.
He's standing on the desk
in view of everyone
his text book in his arms.
Neil is below him
positioned on the ground
with eyes that gaze up at him
filled with mirth.
The boys don't laugh
at Todd's stutter.
Not because they're nice,
but because Charlie threatened to knock out teeth.
At first
his face stays red
tongue stumbling over words
it has known for years.
Keating tells him to speak up
that Shakespeare should be shouted
to say the words like they're truth.
They are truth
in a way
but that doesn't really help.
He's already waxed poetic about Neil
just in his own words
not someone else's,
but those are never supposed to be read.
.
Things change
when Neil starts reading.
He was born to act
and attention reverts to him.
Where Todd was monotone
Neil has feeling
Neil has longing
Neil has joy.
Neil isn't just speaking truth
he is truth
he embodies it
shining through any lies that Todd has ever been told.
He believes every word he says
and then some.
He is amazing-
but Todd already knew that-.
.
When it's his turn to speak again
he hardly stutters
too busy being enraptured
by everything his friend has said.
Their eyes meet
in the confrontation
and during the declaration of love
Todd could have wept
with the truth in his friend's eyes.