Romeo and Julie - Chapter 3

Disclaimer - As before, I do not own the ducks.

Feedback - please, thank you to my reviewers from last chapter, I am glad that you are liking this piece.

Notes - I don't think that I have many notes on this chapter. Just read it and go with the flow.

As always, reviewing is fun.

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"I hear you want to make out with me?"

Julie looked up from her book that she was reading over breakfast to see Ken sitting at the other side of the table. The two of them looked at each other for a few quiet moments before they both burst out laughing. Obviously the joke had reached Ken via the other bash brothers. Ken stood quickly, came around the other side of the table and sat, wrapping an arm around Julie's shoulder.

"Ken what?"

"Shhh" he smiled, indicating to the door. The older bash brothers, along with Luis and Dwayne had just entered the room. Julie smiled and settled into Ken's side, resting her head on his shoulder. Ken smiled and began whispering fake sweet nothings in her ear.

"You have got to be joking" Fulton sat. Portman just burst out laughing.

"Yeah guys, it is just not believable…" Luis replied.

"What, you don't think I could pull a chick like Jules?" Ken asked. Julie smiled and kissed his forehead.

"Of course you could, but you wouldn't want a chick like me, believe me…"

"Yeah, no one wants a chick like Julie" Portman smiled. She kicked him in the shin, making the larger boy wince. Ken laughed and went with the others to get something to eat, leaving Julie at the table by herself.

"I was thinking…"

Julie jumped at the sound of the voice behind her. She turned and looked at the owner of the voice that had shook her from her not very interesting thoughts. Portman sat beside her at the table, and dumped his breakfast tray in front of him. He spilt his juice, but that didn't seem to bother him.

"Well, more hoping then thinking really…could you help me again tonight, with the Shakespeare?" he asked her. Julie looked at him, and then turned back to her breakfast. She had had a lot of fun the night before, studying with Portman, but did that mean that she wanted to do it again? And he had almost kissed her the night before. Did she want to tempt fate and have some one storm in again if it got that far.

"I don't know. I mean, we have class and then the after school practice, do you really want to spend time tonight practicing to?" Julie asked. Portman shrugged.

"Not if you don't want to" He replied. She smiled.

"We will just see how we feel at the end of the day."

But Portman understood her reasoning, even before he had entered the English classroom, he knew that he would not have enough time to work on the play with Julie that night. He had so much other work to do from his other classes, plus the work that he had only half finished the night before.

"Romeo, Juliet, front and centre!" Meredith smiled as the group began entering the room. Everyone else sat in the desks around the performance space. Portman and Julie made their way to the centre of the room.

"Now, read through it once to yourself, get a feel for the words, and then, we can put some action into it." Meredith told them. Julie and Portman read it quickly and then smiled at each other. They had gone through it the night before, and for the first time since being offered the role, he was comfortable in his own skin.

They read their lines perfectly, and they began to instinctively move around each other, circling each other as though they were prey. They got to the first kiss and paused. Was Meredith expecting them to kiss today?

"Just keep going, we can come back to the kiss."

So they kept going, covering everything that they had covered last night. Much like the night before, the subtext of Romeo's last statement hung in the air between them. They had naturally moved closer together while they had been taking, and now, they stood dangerously close.

"That was amazing!"

Just has Fulton had unintentionally done the night before, the magic was ended between them. Dean looked from Julie to the rest of the class, half of which were struck dumb with shock, other who were cheering, and then, in true Dean Potman fashion, and took Julie's hand in his and bowed.

"You practiced!" Meredith was shocked. "I asked you to practice and you practiced. Let this day go down in history as one that Dean Portman actually did as he was asked. It is amazing."

Portman took a deep breath. This was easy, and even a little fun, he could do this. For the first time, he was honestly looking forward to playing Romeo in this god forsaken production.

"Ok, lets move onto the kiss" Meredith began. Every single duck that was sitting in the desks lent forward a little. Even though they had been told to bring extra maturity to class today, they knew that this would be an amazing sight for all to behold. Dean Portman, a guy who considered himself a player, and Julie Gaffney, a girl who had only had one relationship since they had met her, were going to kiss. To others, it was no big thing, but the Ducks saw it all on a different level.

Even if they didn't see it, there was an attraction between the goalie and the enforcer. It was a strange type of attraction, it had been strongest while in LA at the games, but since then, when both of them hit an age where they started taking notice of members of the opposite sex, and the plethora of opportunities that were available to them at Eden Hall, they had drifted apart from what they had all suspected was envitable.

But Portman had since admitted to Fulton (who told Charlie, in confidence, who let it slip to Adam accidentally, who may have mentioned it to Luis, who tells every thing to Dwayne, and Dwayne told Russ and Goldberg, who then told the world) that he had always considered Julie to be on of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen. And Julie had confided in Connie (who told Guy, Who told Averman, who in turn told Charlie and Adam, well, you get the point…) that she had always found Portman attractive, but she had never even considered him to be anything more then a friend.

So now was the moment of truth, could their friends play lovers, could they kiss each other and not have it effect them.

Little did the ducks know that it was already effecting them.

Twice in her recent life, Julie had thought about kissing Portman, it was as easy as just closing the miniscule gap that they had given themselves, but both times, something had happened, something had come between them. Maybe it was for the best, maybe it was just a sign that said that they should not mess with the perfect friendship that they had. Or maybe, some one up there was purposely building the tension and frustration between them.

Of course, she had thought about kissing him before, but that was back when her and Connie used to have silly little discussions over which of the ducks they thought would be the best kisser (Portman won, coming in a close second was Ken, and Adam, tied on the fact that it is always the quiet ones that were the surprising the hell out of you.)

And Portman, well, it was common knowledge that Portman would kiss anything. But kissing Julie was something that he had thought about before. She held a certain amount on intrigue, a certain quality.. Now it looked like he would get his chance to act on his thoughts.

"Hey, don't look so shocked" Meredith grinned at the two of them. Julie smiled a little, wondering what the look on her face must have been like if she had looked shocked at the prospect of kissing Portman. "I am not going to ask you to kiss each other till this afternoons practice."

Portman nodded. They still had lunch and two lessons (elective subjects. Portman had Art and physical Education. Julie had Chemistry and physics), before they would have to kiss, so that gave them something to look forward to. Portman couldn't help but grin at Julie, who smiled back at him.

As they all filed out of the room in single file, Porman caught her hand and pulled her down the hall with him. It was their second break of the day, so they had about forty-five minutes until they had to be in their next class. Behind them, Adam, Fulton and Charlie watched them walk off together.

"Well done at practice today" Julie smiled, patting him on the arm. Dean laughed.

"Oh, that, it was nothing. I understood it all. Thanks to you I didn't feel like such an idiot up there" he shrugged, and then went on with the conversation before Julie could tell him that he was not an idiot. "So…you get to kiss me this afternoon, must be a pretty exciting event for you? Something to write in the diary, remember for all eternity."

"Sure, Dear Diary, turns out all the girls are liars, Dean is the worst kisser in the world…" She could not help but joke about it. Dean just grinned at her. Julie then looked around her, she didn't know where she was. "So Portman, where are you taking me?"

"I was thinking again. And maybe, well…" He began and then paused, taking her by the wrist and entering the empty classroom beside them. He shut the door behind them, and Julie looked around.

"Not that I don't love being dragged into classrooms for no reason, but umm, what is going on Portman" Julie asked him. Dean nervously made his way to one of the seats and sat down. Julie shrugged and took a seat beside him.

"First kisses are bad" he announced. Julie, surprised by her friends revelation, could not help but nod. She had no idea what he was talking about. "Teeth always get in the way, and there is the akwardness of where to put your hands, and well…"

Julie understood now what he was talking about, but did not necessarily understand why he was saying it. "Portman…"

"I think we should kiss first" Dean told her, Julie was shocked by his forwardness. "Just to save it from being ackward for us in class. If we at least make it look natural, we wont have to listen to Banks and Conway and my so called Bash brother giving us hell for the rest of our lives. "

"You want us to practice kissing" she confirmed. That had not been what she had expected him to say, but it was an exciting idea all the same. And his reasoning made quite a bit of sense, because she knew that not only would the three aforementioned Ducks give them crap if the kiss didn't look natural, but the rest of the team would feel free to add their two cents worth, and then, by the end of the day, the school would know about it, then Coach Orion would know, and since he considered it a comedian, he would never let them live it down.

"Ok" she nodded.

Portman nodded to. "Ok"

Neither of them moved. All Julie wanted was for him to make the first move on her. Couldn't he just reach out and kiss her. He was Dean Portman, super stud, why wasn't he doing anything.

Portman was just staring at his foot. He could not believe that his idea had worked. When he pulled Julie into the classroom with him, he had the vivid mental image that he would be walking out of there with a broken nose. But she had said yes, and now he had no idea what to do.

Julie stood, Portman stood to. She looked at him, he looked at her. The first step was taken by Julie. His arm wrapped around her waist and hers around her neck. Julie couldn't help but laugh, now all that they needed was for some one to storm in.

Portman paused. "I know" he sighed, letting her go and stepping away. He had misinterpreted her laugh as a nervous reaction of not being comfortable. "It is strange…"

"Not strange, come here" Julie replied pulling him closer again. Their arms tightened around each other. They paused again, and this time, Portman laughed and let her go.

"It is strange, cat lady"

"You know what, one of us just has to jump the other." Julie explained, moving to sit on the desk. "We need to take each other by surprise and not think about it so much. That is what the problem is…"

Portman nodded, agreeing. He had been thinking to much about what he was doing, that was why it didn't feel natural. But that was the whole point of this little exercise, first kisses were never natural, and this was what they needed to do.

"So, are you going to jump me, or what?" Dean asked after a few moments silence. Julie looked shocked.

"You are suppose to jump me!" She exclaimed. "That was why I suggested it…"

He could not help but chuckle. It was pathetic. He was so glad that Fulton was not in the room for this. In the back of his mind, Potman could hear him laughing anyway. Taunting him. They sat there in silence for a little while longer, neither even moving. They refused to look at each other. The bell rang, bringing both disappointment and relief to both of them.

Julie stood. "I guess I will see you at the practice this afternoon." she sighed. Julie turned to leave the room, but only got two steps away from him before she felt some one grabbing her around the waist. Julie turned just as pulled her into his arms.. His grip was pleasant on her as he held her close, cupped her cheek, and prepared to kiss her.

Julie smiled, relaxed into his embrace, and prepared herself for the kiss.

But the classroom door opened before he had a chance to close the gap between them. A few students who were in the room for the next period entered, taking loudly. Julie could not help but laugh. That was three times that had happened to them…maybe some one up there really did hate her.

"Well" Dean chuckled, taking a step back for her as the students continued to stream into the room, and they were soon joined by their teacher. "I guess we will just have to continue this at practice… Unless of course, you like an audience?"

She sighed, and left the room. Dean quickly followed her out, laughing to himself.

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Ok, I hope you liked it. Look out for the next chapter, who knows, it might even have a kiss in it.