I've been busy throwing up. *sigh* Yay, influenza.

Virgo Writer suggested Romeo and Juliet

Hamlet

"Just because I'm not romantic and I don't know all the words from Shakespeare doesn't mean I'm stupid! It just means I'm bad at romance stuff! I'm good at other stuff! Like battling or…or…" He blushed, realizing his list ended there, and fashioned together a clumsy lie to make up for it. "Well, I'm good at a lot of things."

She rolled her eyes. "I didn't say you were stupid for that. You're stupid for other reasons. I said you were an uncultured pig for that stuff." She crossed her arms and glared. "Ash, you've never read a classic or seen one of the great plays of movies. Your mother tries! I know, she's told me. You're just a lost cause. You hate the arts."

"I love art!"

"What about the time we tried to go to that classic art museum?" Brock challenged.

"That wasn't art. They were naked." He crossed his arms as well and pouted. "And half the stuff wasn't even close to the size stuff is supposed to be. I mean, a girl must have done it, because there's no way that a guy messed up that badly."

Which set Brock off into hysterical laughter and Misty squealing "Ash!, you idiot!" before burying her face in her hands while she went red to the tips of her ears.

"I liked the pictures that weren't of naked people."

"Just stop!" she shouted.

The oblivious boy continued, almost mercilessly, "Hey, Misty, is that really what girls look like naked?"

"Oh my Mew," she gasped, hands dropping to reveal a horrified glance towards the twelve year old who dared ask her that question.

Brock, on the other hand, was gleefully merciless, saying, "Yeah, Misty, is that what girl look like naked?"

She screamed and blushed, burying her head back into her hands and shaking it wildly. "Just stop! Just stop! Can't we just go back to talking about Shakespeare?"

"Romeo and Juliet is stupid," Ash said helpfully.

That was an argument she could get behind, and jumped to her feet, shouting, "It's one of the most famous plays of all time, Ash Ketchum!"

"And your favorite."

"It's not my favorite," she said, blinking. Just like that all her thunder was gone, replaced with curiosity. "When did I say that?"

"I don't know."

"My favorite play is the Glass Menagerie. My favorite Shakespeare play is Hamlet." She scowled at him. "I just think the words in Romeo and Juliet are pretty. I think everyone in it was stupid. I know better than to even kill myself over some guy."

"Hamlet?" he asked.

"To be or not to be?" she asked, looking for recognition, and, finding none, continued, "Alas, poor Yorik? Good night, sweet prince, and a flight of angels sing thee to thine rest?"

"That's all from Hamlet?"

"Hamlet Prince of Denmark. The Lion King is based on it."

"The Disney movie?" he asked excitedly.

"Uh-huh."

"That's so cool!" he gasped. "No one ever told me that before."

"See? It's good stuff," she chirped. "They're classics for a reason."

"But Romeo and Juliet is a classic, isn't it?"

"Romeo o' Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" Brock said, leaping up dramatically. "Deny thy father and refuse thy name! Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love and I'll no longer be a Capulet."

Ash frowned. "I don't know a lot about it...but that's the girls part, isn't it?"

"Uh-huh."

"Why does he know that?"

"I don't know."

"It's creepy."

"Yeah," she said, eying the boy who was acting out the balcony scene on his own, switching between the male and female parts with an ease that she was afraid to think required practice. "Creepy's a good word for it, though I'd choose psychotic. It's a stronger word."

He sighed, looking up at her with big, brown eyes. "You really don't like Romeo and Juliet?"

"I love it." She shrugged. "It's just not my favorite."

"But isn't it romantic?"

"Sure, it's romantic." She snorted. "But I'm looking for a Hamlet, a sane Hamlet, not a Romeo."

"Is Brock a Romeo?"

"Uh-huh."

"What am I?"

She blushed for a second, then stood up sharply and scolded, "You're an Ash. Now shut up."

My sick mind says, "Not bad, kiddo. Not bad. Hey, did I remind you that you have the flu? No? Well, here's a fever and an all over body ache. There you go. Good effort."

So, if this is terrible, I'm sorry!