Whitney: I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Finally! As promised, I drew some pictures of my costumes, you can see them here:

Nino: It's also on in the bio.

Whitney: Two scenes today, neither of them are very long. I've finally decided to do Review Reponses, yay! Those will be at the end of the story. Apologies to people who reviewed in earlier chapters, I really do appreciate you!

Erk: suuuuuuure.

Whitney: Are you still around? I thought Serra or Jaffar might have finished you off by now.

Erk: Nope, still here.

Jaffar: #appears behind Erk#

Whitney: ... You sure?

Erk: ... #sweatdrop#

Whitney: On with the story! -

Whitney: - Right after this disclaimer thing.

Disclaimer: I don't know Fire Emblem, or anything else in this fic. But I think we all knew that by now.

"You'd think they'd wait until next week at LEAST to fix the roof," Hector grumbled as he and his group made their way towards the gym. Again.

"At least we got a day and a half off," Lyn smiled happily. "That was a lifesaver! I almost didn't have my math homework done in time!"

"Math homework?" Hector asked. "What math homework?"

"Ah... that huge project we got at the beginning of the week that's due today?" Lyn said with raised eyebrows. "Did you FORGET? Hector! I reminded you yesterday and you said you had it all done!"

"Oh. That one," Hector said absently. "I'll just pay Matthew and copy his answers or something."

"Hector!" Lyn growled, punching his arm.

"Ow! Quit it Lyn!" Hector yelled and the two took off sprinting down the hall.

"Lively, aren't they?" Eliwood remarked to his girlfriend, who laughed.

As usual, Ms. Spencer was around ten minutes late, and arrived in the gym to find it in absolute chaos. "CLASS!" She screamed over the confusion. Silence reigned almost immediately and she took a deep breath. "I'm glad to see you're all rested from you're day – days – off, but now it's time to get to work. We're almost at Open House, and we have to be ready. Ok, we're going to work on Act 3, Scene 1 today... Nino, Olivia, Sain, Erk, and Kent, you'll all be acting today, as well as you, Rebecca. Get changed as fast as possible, I want to get through two scenes today if it's possible."

About fifteen minutes later everyone was assembled onstage/ offstage as the script demanded, and they were ready to start.

"Finally..." Ms. Spencer muttered to herself. "Begin whenever ready!" she called to the people on/offstage.

Lyn's POV
Lyn stood in the narrow "doorway" between offstage and onstage, watching in a perfectly placed rip in the black cloth that hung from the ceiling and surrounded the stage, Rebecca, Sain, and Erk with her. Onstage, Nino and Matthew stood face-to-face amid the props of her "garden".

"Save thee, friend, and thy music! dost thou live by thy tabor?" Nino asked Matthew, obviously annoyed by his constant jangling of the tambourine-like instrument.

"No, sir, I live by the church," Matthew answered off-handedly.

"Art thou a churchman?"

"No such matter, sir: I do live by the church; for I do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the church," Matthew answered with a sardonic little smile that suited him and his personality just perfectly.

"So thou mayst say, the king lies by a beggar, if a beggar dwell near him; or the church stands by thy tabor, if thy tabor stand by the church," Nino pointed out in a serious comeback.

"You have said, sir. To see this age! A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit; how quickly the wrong side may be turn'd outward!" Matthew said this with a perfectly straight face, but he hard to fight hard to keep it that way.

"Nay, that's certain; they that dally nicely with words may quickly make them wanton," Nino dismissed him rather coldly.

"Ha. Way to go Nino," Lyn whispered. Nino was younger than anyone there, but she was perfectly suited for her part.

"I would, therefore, my sister had had no name, sir."

Nino looked a little surprised at this apparent change in the subject. "Why, man?"

"Why, sir, her name's a word; and to dally with that word might make my sister wanton. But, indeed, words are very rascals since bonds disgrac'd them," Matthew said with another grin, accompanied by the groans of the people who understood his pun.

"Thy reason, man?" Nino asked.

"Troth, sir, I can yield you none without words; and words are grown so false, I am loth to prove reason with them."

"I warrant thou art a merry fellow, and car'st for nothing," Nino noted.

"Not so, sir; I do care for something; but in my conscience, sir, I do not care for you: if that be to care for nothing, sir, I would it would make you invisible."

"Art not thou the Lady Olivia's fool?" Nino looked momentarily confused, but Lyn wasn't sure if it was by the words of the play, or something else. She'd have to ask Nino later.

"No, indeed, sir; the Lady Olivia has no folly: she will keep no fool, sir, till she be married; and fools are as like husbands as pilchards are to herrings, the husband's the bigger. I am, indeed, not her fool, but her corrupter of words," Matthew said straight-faced, but with a hint of humour in his words. Nino started giggling at that moment, and it took her a few moments to get herself composed again. Lyn cast a quick glance into the "crowd" and saw Jaffar glaring dangerously at Matthew. She'd have to warn him about that.

"I saw thee late at the Count Orsino's," Nino said, as if suddenly remember the fact.

"Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere. I would be sorry, sir, but the fool should be as oft with your master as with my mistress. I think I saw your wisdom there."

"Nay, and thou pass upon me, I'll no more with thee. Hold, there's expenses for thee," Nino said, holding out her hand as if giving Matthew the "coins" from her pouch.

"Now Jove, in his next commodity of hair, send thee a beard!" Matthew grinned, making a show of putting the coins away in his "back pocket".

"By my troth, I'll tell thee, I am almost sick for one;" Nino said, then turned slightly to face the crowd. "though I would not have it grow on my chin." She turned back to Matthew. "Is thy lady within?"

"Would not a pair of these have bred, sir?" Matthew asked.

"Yes, being kept together and put to use." (Nino)

"I would play Lord Pandarus of Phrygia, sir, to bring a Cressida to this Troilus." (Matthew)

"I understand you, sir; 't is well begg'd." (Nino)

"The matter, I hope, is not great, sir, begging but a beggar. Cressida was a beggar. My lady is within, sir. I will construe to them whence you come; who you are and what you would are out of my welkin,—I might say 'element,' but the word is over-worn," Matthew smiled as he turned and walked offstage- almost right into Lyn who was "hiding" there.

"Ouch! Matthew! You stepped on my FOOT!" Lyn yelled. A little too loudly.

"What's going on back there?" Ms. Spencer yelled.

"Nothing, just Lyn having a clumsy moment. We're done. Keep going, Nino," Matthew responded as both he and Lyn moved farther back offstage into the waiting area. "What were you doing?"

"I was watching," Lyn glared at him, rubbing her aching foot. "For a thief, you sure have a heavy foot."

"Who says I didn't know you were there?" Matthew asked, grinning slyly.

"MATTHEW!"

"WOULD YOU PEOPLE KEEP IT DOWN BACK THERE?" Ms. Spencer roared.

"Yes Ms. Spencer," Lyn and Matthew chorused meekly.

"Yeah. Be quiet Matthew," Lyn said peevishly as she moved back to the curtain to watch.

"This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; And to do that well craves a kind of wit: He must observe their mood on whom he jests, The quality of persons, and the time; And, like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye. This is a practice As full of labour as a wise man's art: For folly that he wisely shows is fit; But wise men, folly-fall'n, quite taint their wit," Nino remarked, glancing uneasily offstage where Matthew had disappeared. Lyn resolved to apologize later – right after she kicked Matthew's ass. Or got Hector to kick his ass. It was all the same thing.

"Excuse me, fair lady, but my companion and I have to get by you," Lyn turned and looked at Sain's silly grin and groaned.

"Sure, sure. Don't screw up," she said, squeezing to one side.

"I could never do wrong in your presence, fair lady," Sain said as he made his way onstage. At the last minute, Lyn placed a well-aimed kick at his ass.

"Save you, gentleman!" Sain cried as he came onstage, rubbing his sore bottom.

"And you, sir," Nino responded with a slight bow.

"Dieu vous garde, monsieur," Erk said with a falsely bad accent. It had been a very good accent in the early runs of the scene, but Ms. Spencer had told him that Andrew was an idiot, and had asked him to make the accent at least SOUND phoney. He did it very well, but only under protest.

"Et vous aussi; votre serviteur," Nino responded in the same language with a much better accent. By contrast, her's hadn't been as good as Erk's, and she had practised a lot to make it work.

"I hope, sir, you are; and I am yours," Erk said.

No one quite got the meaning.

"Will you encounter the house? my niece is desirous you should enter, if your trade be to her," Sain said with a slight slurring of his words. It had taken both boys a long time to embrace the idea that they had to act drunk when neither really wanted to. And since Toby and Andrew were almost always drunk, it didn't help either's case much.

"I am bound to your niece, sir; I mean, she is the list of my voyage," Nino assumed a chagrined expression, like she didn't really want to be there.

"Taste your legs, sir; put them to motion," Sain said boldly, gesturing.

"My legs do better understand me, sir, than I understand what you mean by bidding me taste my legs," Nino said, somewhat severely.

"I mean, to go, sir, to enter," Sain said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ready to go, Lyn?" Rebecca asked, coming up behind her. Lyn grinned and nodded, and Rebecca gave her a thumbs-up.

"I will answer you with gait and entrance. But we are prevented." Nino said, before being "interrupted".

"There's our cue," Lyn said, and moved out onto the stage, Rebecca right behind her.

"Most excellent accomplish'd lady, the heavens rain odours on you!" she said with a deep bow and almost made her fall over.

"That youth's a rare courtier. 'Rain odours'; well," Erk gripped unpleasantly.

"My matter hath no voice, lady, but to your own most pregnant and vouchsafed ear," Nino said, choosing to ignore Erk.

"'Odours,' 'pregnant,' and 'vouchsafed': I'll get 'em all three all ready," Erk pushed on.

"Let the garden door be shut, and leave me to my hearing," Lyn snapped peevishly.

"Right away, milady," Rebecca whispered slyly as she headed once again offstage.

"Give me your hand, sir," Lyn said, offering her own to "Cesario".

"My duty, madam, and most humble service." (Nino)

"What is your name?" Lyn asked.

"Cesario is your servant's name, fair princess," Nino answered with another bow.

"My servant, sir! 'T was never merry world Since lowly feigning was call'd compliment; You're servant to the Count Orsino, youth."

"And he is yours, and his must needs be yours; Your servant's servant is your servant, madam," Nino said earnestly.

". For him, I think not on him; for his thoughts, Would they were blanks, rather than fill'd with me!" Lyn snapped, pretending to dwell on Orsino.

"Madam, I come to whet your gentle thoughts On his behalf," Nino said, looking slightly concerned.

"O, by your leave, I pray you, I bade you never speak again of him; But, would you undertake another suit, I had rather hear you to solicit that Than music from the spheres," Lyn said, taking on a suddenly pleading tone.

"Dear lady,—" Nino tried again.

"Give me leave, beseech you. I did send, After the last enchantment you did here, A ring in chase of you; so did I abuse Myself, my servant, and, I fear me, you. Under your hard construction must I sit, To force that on you, in a shameful cunning, Which you knew none of yours; what might you think? Have you not set mine honour at the stake, And baited it with all th' unmuzzled thoughts That tyrannous heart can think? To one of your receiving Enough is shown. A cypress, not a bosom, Hides my heart. So, let me hear you speak!" Lyn gazed into Nino's eyes, wincing slightly as she imagined how Jaffar would react to THAT little movement.

"I pity you," Nino said seriously.

"That's a degree to love," Lyn said hopefully.

"No, not a grize; for 't is a vulgar proof, That very oft we pity enemies," Nino said, moving away slightly.

"Why, then methinks 't is time to smile again. O world, how apt the poor are to be proud! If one should be a prey, how much the better To fall before the lion than the wolf!" A sudden chiming made them both jump and look out towards the back of the gym where Farina and Lucius were trying to get the small alarm clock to shut off without much success. Finally Raven came over and threw the clock against the wall, where it smashed into pieces.

"Raven!" Lucius cried out in anguish. "Now we'll have to buy another one!"

"I don't care, so long as the next one WORKS. Got it?"

Lucius stuck his lower lip out, but didn't say anything.

"Uh - The clock upbraids me with the waste of time. Be not afraid, good youth, I will not have you; And yet, when wit and youth is come to harvest, Your wife is like to reap a proper man. There lies your way, due west."

"Then westward-ho! Grace and good disposition Attend your ladyship! You'll nothing, madam, to my lord by me?" Nino asked, moving farther away from her again.

"Stay: I prithee, tell me what thou think'st of me," Lyn pleaded again.

"That you do think you are not what you are," Nino told her evasively.

"If I think so, I think the same of you."

"Then think you right; I am not what I am," Nino said earnestly.

"I would you were as I would have you be!" Lyn exclaimed.

"Would it be better, madam, than I am? I wish it might, for now I am your fool."

"O, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful In the contempt and anger of his lip! A murd'rous guilt shows not itself more soon Than love that would seem hid; love's night is noon. Cesario, by the roses of the spring, By maidhood, honour, truth, and every thing, I love thee so, that, maugre all thy pride, Nor wit nor reason can my passion hide. Do not extort thy reasons from this clause, For that I woo, thou therefore hast no cause; But rather reason thus with reason fetter, Love sought is good, but given unsought is better." Lyn wasn't pleading – not quite.

"By innocence I swear, and by my youth, I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth, And that no woman has; nor never none Shall mistress be of it, save I alone. And so adieu, good madam; never more Will I my master's tears to you deplore," Nino said.

"Yet come again; for thou perhaps mayst move That heart, which now abhors, to like his love," Lyn said, using her last tactic to "ensure that Cesario would return".

"Very good, girls!" Ms. Spencer applauded. "Very good!"

"Hey, Jaffar – Now you got some REAL competition – Lyn!"

"HEY!" Hector, Nino, and Lyn all yelled at the same time, all turning to glare at Matthew, who suddenly decided he had a pressing engagement elsewhere and fled the room. No one really noticed Jaffar slipping out the back door.

"Remind me to kill him later," Lyn frowned flopping down on her chair next to Hector.

"Better yet, let me do it for you."

"I think I can live with that," Lyn grinned.

"Good."

"Er..." Ms. Spencer checked her watch. "Ok, we have time for another scene. Erk, Sain and Kent, you're on the stage."

"Thank you GOD," Erk mumbled, almost running to the stage. He'd been sitting next to Serra, and apparently had been dreaming about escape.

Kent's POV
"No, faith, I'll not stay a jot longer!" Erk exclaimed, beginning the scene.

"Thy reason, dear venom, give thy reason," Sain said in a very annoying patronizing tone. For some reason almost everything Sain said was annoying to Kent. Unless they were talking about Lyn.

"You must needs yield your reason, Sir Andrew," Kent said with a serious look.

"Marry, I saw your niece do more favours to the count's serving-man than ever she bestow'd upon me; I saw 't i' th' orchard," Erk said with a pout.

"Did she see thee the while, old boy? tell me that," Sain challenged.

"As plain as I see you now," Erk said, still pouting.

"This was a great argument of love in her toward you," Kent said seriously. He liked this part. He could act almost normal, and everyone would think he was acting.

"'Slight, will you make an ass o' me?" Sain demanded.

"I will prove it legitimate, sir, upon the oaths of judgment and reason," Kent said with a slightly self-satisfied grin.

"And they have been grand-jurymen since before Noah was a sailor," Sain said, although no one was really sure what it meant.

"She did show favour to the youth in your sight only to exasperate you, to awake your dormouse valour, to put fire in your heart, and brimstone in your liver. You should then have accosted her; and with some excellent jests, fire-new from the mint, you should have bang'd the youth into dumbness. This was look'd for at your hand, and this was balk'd: the double gilt of this opportunity you let time wash off, and you are now sail'd into the north of my lady's opinion; where you will hang like an icicle on Dutchman's beard, unless you do redeem it by some laudable attempt either of valour or policy," Kent told Erk. In other words: Olivia (Lyn) was trying to get Andrew (Erk) angry enough to confront her, but he hadn't and now he was in disfavour. It wouldn't have mattered either way, Kent thought glumly. Not in the play with Erk, and not in real life with him. Damn unlucky luck.

"And't be any way, it must be with valour; for policy I hate: I had as lief be a Brownist as a politician." (Erk)

"Why, then, build me thy fortunes upon the basis of valour. Challenge me the count's youth to fight with him; hurt him in eleven places: my niece shall take note of it; and assure thyself, there is no love-broker in the world can more prevail in man's commendation with woman than report of valour," Sain said, doing a "SUPER-HERO!" pose as he said it.

"There is no way but this, Sir Andrew," Kent said with an inward sigh, supporting Sain's encouragement that Erk stay, and not leave.

"Will either of you bear me a challenge to him?" Erk asked, a little plaintively, Kent thought.

"Never trust me, then; and by all means stir on the youth to an answer. I think oxen and wain-ropes cannot hale them together. For Andrew, if he were open'd, and you find so much blood in his liver as will clog the foot of a flea, I'll eat the rest of th' anatomy." (Sain)

"And his opposite, the youth, bears in his visage no great presage of cruelty," Kent said seriously.

"Look where the youngest wren of nine comes," Sain said, looking behind Kent where Rebecca was emerging. Kent turned and watched her also, keeping his face impassive.

"If you desire the spleen, and will laugh yourselves into stitches, follow me. Yond gull Malvolio is turn'd heathen, a very renegado; for there is no Christian, that means to be sav'd by believing rightly, can ever believe such impossible passages of grossness. He's in yellow stockings!" Rebecca squealed, accenting the last two words.

"And cross-garter'd?" Sain demanded, eyes gleaming.

"Most villainously; like a pedant that keeps a school i' th' church. I have dogg'd him, like his murderer. He does obey every point of the letter that I dropp'd to betray him; he does smile his face into more lines than is in the new map, with the augmentation of the Indies: you have not seen such a thing as 't is. I can hardly forbear hurling things at him. I know my lady will strike him; if she do, he'll smile, and take 't for a great favour!" Rebecca's smile was threatening to explode off her face, her eyes alive with mischievous fire.

"Come, bring us, bring us where he is!" Sain said, and all three of them ran off the stage.

"Very good people! Another excellent scene!" Ms. Spencer beemed from the audience while the class applauded half-heartedly. "Alright, there might be enough time for a third scene-"

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

"...Or not. You're dismissed, but be here promptly tomorrow!"

"Yes Ms. Spencer," the class choroused as they drifted - or ran - out the door.

Heath: DO THE REVIEW RESPONSES!

Whitney: eeek! What're you doing here?

Heath: I didn't get a part in this chapter, so I get the whip.

Whitney: Who started THAT tradition?

Heath: Me.

Whitney: Oh goody.

Heath: REVIEW RESPONSES! Now!

#--Review Responses - New!--#

MiraiEvo: Thanks for the age info - that's about what we figured too, but it's still up to debate. If Serra's 25, I'd hate to think of how many time's she's flunked school in the real world.

Serra: I've never flunked! I just like school so much that I went back again! ... And again... and again...

Yeah. You get it. Also, I think that there might be a few problems if Jaffar went on a killing spree. He might end up in jail or something, and that wouldn't be good for the story!

Lady Lyndis: The costumes are up, if you want to go see them! Go! Go! :) I love Legault, since no one's sure if he's straight or gay. I meant the "ways to pay me back" to be funny, since he wasn't really serious - I think. ...O.O

Legault: #hitting on random passersby#

Maybe not...

And I swear you'll see more development of the couples... just not in this particular chapter. #sweatdrop#

elven-girl10: Same as I said to Lady Lyndis, go look at the costumes! If you liked the descriptions, I'm hoping you'll love the pictures. I could be wrong, of course... Ah well. -

And in response to Chapter 10; I know. Isn't it so great? I had so much fun with that.

Angel Dust2: I provide inspiration? Really? Wow. I didn't think that was possible. Whee! I can't say I'm a worshipper of Shakespeare either, but it was the only thing I could think of at the time. That or Macbeth, and I can't really think of a lot of funny things for Macbeth. (A lot of this story is based on my life at school. But you didn't hear it from me. #whistles#)

katelynn: And now Priscilla has a potential boyfriend. I'm leaving people in suspense until I do a Heath scene, which I think is next.

Firelien: If you haven't noticed yet, I listen to everyone's suggestions for my story... unless they suggest that I get out of writing fanfics. I'm so glad you like my Farina/Dart thing. They aren't in it very much, so I stuck them in when I could. And there are ALWAYS people who want to see the stupid movies... I guess that's why movie industires keep making them.

#--End Review Responses--#

Whitney: And that's all for today Folks!