Romeo and Julie.

Author - BanksPortmanMendozaWu (Tara, that is the name that my mum gave me!)

Summary - They are studying it in English, but are Julie and Portman even acting.

Pairing - Julie Gaffney/Dean Portman.

Feedback - Please, I would love it if you did.

Notes - This is my first step into the world of MD romance fiction. I am so hoping that it is not completely lame. I am testing the waters of a new ship, that being Dean and Julie. (Usually I am kind of a Cake-Eater/Julie type of person. Although, I don't have a preferred ship really.) And oh yeah, I may have gone a bit overboard with calling Dean "Portman" but there is a reason for that. Anyway…

Oh yeah, and the character of Meredith, well, she is the type of teacher that I never had, but have always wanted. She is the type of teacher that I intend to be.

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Dean Portman opened the door to his English class and paused. Seconds later, he felt his best friend Fulton crash into his back, and then a few others crashing into him.

"Dude, why did you stop!" Fulton asked, but then, he realised for himself.

"What is going on?" Connie asked, stepping around the two hockey enforcers and further into the classroom. The desks had all been moved into a circle with a bare space in the middle. The others slowly stepped into the room, looking around.

Sure, this was not the first time that they had entered their English classroom to see that it had been rearranged. Their teacher, Meredith, (Or Miss Degas, when some one else was around) was a woman who had only been out of Collage three years and liked to teach in a way that no other teacher at Eden hall really found acceptable, often did crazy things with them. But she had been told the year before to tone it down, and since then, her lessons had been well, boring, to say the least.

"Oh good, you are all here, take a seat." Meredith smiled, entering the classroom and sitting on the desk at the front of the class. The class sat down, and Julie raised her hand.

"Meredith, what's going on?" Julie asked when she was called upon. "I mean, I thought you said that we were starting a new section of work today?"

"We are" Meredith smiled, standing and handing out the booklets that were pilled at the end of her desk.

"Romeo and Juliet?" Averman asked. "We are learning Romeo and Juliet?"

"Yes, out next section of work is Romeo and Juliet" Meredith told them, handing the last of the booklets to the remaining students. "Your assessment…" there was a collective groan when she said the word assessment.

"It is not something written is it?" Portman asked. Meredith smiled.

"Come now Portman, you really think that I would choose to mark your work when I could be doing other things?" She asked. Portman smirked. "I spoke with the Dean, and he has agreed to let me set my own mode of assessment, and mark this unit of work as I see fit."

There was a cheer. Meredith, being the coolest teacher in the school, was always not as hard on the students as the other teachers.

"Therefore, In three months time, in front of your peers and family, you will present Romeo and Juliet!"

Meredith seemed proud of herself. Many jaws dropped and there were a few groans. "You cant be serious!" Fulton exclaimed.

"Mr Reed, I am dead serious." Meredith smiled. "A passing grade will be based on your participation not only in class, but also on the night"

"So, you expect us to perform Romeo and Juliet…in front of people" Russ asked. Meredith grinned.

"In front of your peers and family" She repeated. Once again, most of the class groaned. "Come on guys, 90% of this class are Ducks. You play hockey in front of mammoth crowds. You played the finals of the Good Will Games to a sold out crowd…"

"But that is different!" Charlie replied. "Hockey is hockey, this is…acting"

"You don't want to?" Meredith asked softly, sitting back on her desk.

"It is not so much we don't want to" Goldberg began. "It is more like, we seriously don't want to!"

"Ok" She sighed. "Then I will make participation optional."

Julie leant over to Connie and Guy. "Didn't Miss McKay say that to us once?"

"But…" Meredith began.

"Yeah, we get it…" Adam interrupted.

"If we don't attend, we will not be eligible to play" the ducks coursed, quoting what their Team USA tutor had told them. Meredith grinned.

"And I would hate to have to give you all a failing mark." Meredith shrugged. "that would lead to the loss of scholarships…"

"We understand, we understand, lets just get this over with" Russ announced.

"Fantastic, I knew that you would see things my way" Meredith grinned. "Now, in order to make this all run smoothly, I have already assigned you all characters…Some of you that have smaller roles will be needed to do other backstage things. Right, when I call your name and character, come stand up the front here…"

She picked up her list. "Ken Wu. You are Prince Escalus. Ruler of Verona." there was a cheer as Ken stood and made his way to the front of the room. Meredith laughed, it was going to be fun teaching Shakespeare to this excitable group.

"Banks, Adam" Meredith read from her piece of paper, and Adam stood, moving to the front of the room. "Paris. Handsome and Nobel suitor to lady Juliet."

"Handsome, I can deal with that" Adam smiled as he took a spot beside Ken.

"Yeah, well, he is also a bit of a Preppy, so I thought that the role suited you" Meredith grinned. Adam blushed, and the bash brothers cracked up.

"That's cake eater, all right" Portman smiled. Adam glared at him, even though he saw the humour in the situation. It had just become second nature to glare at Portman when he said something like that.

"Mr. Mendoza" Meredith began, and the others all quieted down. "Tybalt. Cousin to Juliet. Bit of a hot head. Doesn't know when to stop sometimes…"

That made the whole class laugh. Luis smiled at her. Meredith shook her head and moved on.

"Mr. Averman, you are Friar Lawrence." Averman stood and made his way to where his team mates were standing. "This role involves a certain amount of maturity. I know that is a stretch, but are you up to the challenge?"

Averman saluted her. "Ma'am yes Ma'am"

"Ok, moving on. Benvolio, cousin of Romeo and best friend. Charlie, this is you" Charlie nodded and made his way to the growing group at the front.

"Mr. Germaine and Mr. Robertson" both boys stood. "You are Mr. Capulet and Mr. Montague respectively. Guy, you are Juliet's father, Dwayne, Romeo's father"

Meredith made her way over to where Portman and Fulton were sitting, and rested her hand on Fulton's shoulder. "Join the others Reed. You are in the role of Mercutio. Best friend of Romeo, his second in command, you could say."

Portman watched as Fulton stood and did as he was told, joining the gang at the front of the room. Portman looked back down at the character list in the front of the booklet. He had been watching it closely since casting began. He had his eye on a role, it seemed rather small. Page. He could do that. But his eyes scanned the list again. There was only one major role left.

Then it clicked. He looked up at Meredith, who was staring at him. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no…."

"Portman"

"No. I know what you are thinking and no" he stood. "No"

"Come on Dean" Meredith sighed. She knew how much the young man hated being called by his first name, and for the longest time she had been with the majority and calling him Portman, but it was time to pull out all the tricks that she had. "You would make a fantastic Romeo."

"I disagree" he told her. "I would make a pathetic Romeo, the worst. I don't want to do it!"

"You don't want to do it? Ok Dean, I wont make you" she sighed, moving to her desk and pulling a binder out of the draw, opening it. Dean watched her as she flipped through the pages, read something quickly, then picked up her marking pen. Every one in the room winced as she wrote the letter F on it.

"Wait, you cant fail me!" Portman exclaimed. "I need to pass English to stay in school and play hockey."

"Yeah Meredith, have a heart!" Fulton said. Meredith looked up at them. The whole Duck's team was pleading with her in different stages of shock and fear. She sighed.

"I will change his grade, but he knows what he has to do" Meredith told them. The team now turned their pleading eyes to Portman.

"Just do it Portman, it is not as bad as you are making it all out to be!" Connie told him. Portman sighed.

"Fine, I will be Romeo!" he exclaimed and made his way to the group. "Now change my grade please"

Meredith grinned and held up the binder so that every one could see it. The only thing written on the blank paper was the letter F.

"You tricked me!" Portman smiled. He couldn't be angry, because he had to admit, that what she had done was pretty cool.

Meredith shrugged. "All the other boys in the class are going to fill the roles of the various pages and servants." she came out from behind her desk with a box, which she opened and began distributing the contents to the actors. "I had the metal shop boys put together some basic props for us. These are not dangerous, well, at least they are not if you are sensible with them"

Each of the boys looked at the metal swords that they had been handed. Fulton and Portman grinned. "On Guard!" they both exclaimed together.

Meredith caught their hands before they could begin swinging them at each other. "Don't make me take them away from you"

Meredith then turned to the girls. "Fortunately, the fact that there are a small amount of girls in this play evens out to the fact that there are a small amount of girls in this class. Emily and Melissa, the two of you will be Lady Capulet and lady Montague, mothers of Romeo and Juliet."

The girls stood and Meredith turned to Connie and Julie. "Connie, I want you to play the nurse, Juliet's closest friend, confidant and protector." Connie nodded and stood, and then Meredith turned to Julie. "Want to play Juliet?"

"As the only girl left in the class, I don't think I have much of a choice, do I?" Julie grinned. "I will do it"

"Good, fantastic.

"Every one, these are you characters. Juliet, why don't you go up there and join Romeo" Meredith told Julie, who stood and made her way to the gang, standing beside Portman.

"Portman, as Romeo, you are going to have to pretend to be in love with Juliet" Meredith informed the young enforcer.

"Wont be to hard, right Portman" Fulton said from somewhere behind him. Charlie and Adam chuckled, but luckily for Portman, they were the only ones who had heard what he had said. Portman just accidentally slipped his elbow into his friends ribs. Fulton laughed.

"And Julie, do you think that you will be able to manage that?" Meredith asked. Julie laughed.

"I'll manage"

The bell rang, signalling the end of the period. Each of the students began to file out of the room. "For homework, read the character analysis at the beginning of the booklet. Familiarise yourself with the character that I have assigned you. And if you feel up to it, I recommend that you begin to read the play"

They all nodded, saying goodbye to their teacher. "Wait!" She yelled, they all turned. "Swords back in the box boys!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Portman found himself at the back of the group for sprints that afternoon at practice.

"Hey, Romeo, lets pick up the pace"

He skidded to a stop and glared at Orion, who was chucking at his little joke.

"God, does everybody know about this damn play!?" He exclaimed. A few others laughed.

"Why Romeo, Art thou mad?" Charlie asked. Portman took his attention away from their coach and settled it on their captain. Charlie had the good sense to start skating before Portman began to chase him.

"Poor fool, you know not what you do" Averman yelled after Charlie. The others laughed, and took off into their sprints again.

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Ok, tell me what you think. Review. Thanks.