Disclaimer: I own nothing. Enjoy guys :D

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Fortunes Fools

Chapter Six

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"Oh god." I groaned as I rolled over in bed, pulling the quilt up, sheltering my fragile eyes from the harsh sunlight.

"Morning sunshine." A voice boomed from behind me.

"God turn it down." I moaned, as I shoved a pillow over my head, burying myself under it.

"Sorry sunshine, but you've gotta face the music today." Cassie said brightly as she pulled open the blinds letting the bight, oh so annoying sunlight in.

"Why?" I groaned, "Why does this world hate me so?"

"Because you decided to get totally shit faced last night." Belle said bluntly from the corner, sunglasses covering her eyes from the evil sunlight.

Oh god. I did. And that's about the extent of what I remember.

"Please, please tell me I didn't do anything extremely embarrassing or stupid or monumentally wrong." I pleaded with Cassie and Belle, sitting up a little too quickly, making the world spin again.

"Yep." Belle said brightly, as Cassie shot her a glare, "But we'd be lying." She added, smirking at me as I groaned, disappearing under my quilt once more.

"Do I wanna know the details?" I murmured quietly, slightly peeping out of the covers.

"Should we tell her about the part where she began leading a game of strip poker…" Belle began, obviously enjoying the situation I was in.

"B no." Cassie said, anxious for something not to come out.

"What?" I asked, ever so slightly intrigued by B's knowledge of my night.

"Why not?" She asked Cassie, ignoring me completely.

"You just can't." She said, pleading with her eyes to keep whatever it was silent.

"Yes, I can."

"Yes, she can."

"There was also the part where you were calling for Romeo to take you away from the poker table…" B began as Cassie sank into my beanbag, her head in her hands.

"And?" I asked, not fully understanding the meaning of what she said.

"Which led to Ric holding your hair back while you threw up in the toilet." Belle said finally.

My head was right back under that quilt, as I silently screamed at my stupidity.

"Why, why did you let her tell me that?" I said to Cassie after I finally surfaced.

"I tried to tell you M-Girl, but you just wouldn't listen to me. Much like last night." She sighed from her position.

"Was it really bad?" I asked finally, biting my lip, something I always did when I was nervous.

"We don't know. Ric came and got you, took you into the bathroom, then came out an hour later with you passed out in his arms. He told us he was going to take you home, and that he'd meet us here. When we got here, he brought you up to your room and told us to call him in the morning so he could make sure you were okay, then he left." Cassie said, as if it were all a natural occurrence.

"So basically he acted as if he cared all night, and he'll ridicule and mock the hell out of me on Monday." I sighed dramatically, as Belle opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off, saying "And there's an hour of time in which neither of you know what happened, right? So anything could have happened then." I finished, sinking in to my bed in horror, for what seemed to be the millionth time that morning.

"Oh I don't think he'll be doing much mocking." Belle said, as if she knew something important that I had skipped over.

"Huh?" I asked, completely confused.

"Oh now really, lets not go here again." Cassie said, shaking her head at Belle who was grinning evilly.

"We're not going to do this again." I said stubbornly, "Just tell me."

"You'll regret it" Cassie said under her breath as Belle began to speak.

"We have a theory." Belle started, as Cassie corrected her.

"You have a theory." She said, stressing the you.

"I have a theory." Belle said again, poking her tongue out at Cassie.

"And that theory is…?" I asked, hoping we'd get to a point some time in the next century.

"That Ric is into you… in a very big way." Belle said, smiling broadly.

I laughed at her, as much as I could without my head aching and my body hurting.

"Yeah right." I said finally, after my laughter had subsided. "Eric Dalby actually having feelings other than utter hatred and disgust for me? As if." I stated, crossing my arms as if I wasn't going to take any more discussion.

"And how would you explain his most recent behaviour Matilda?" Belle began, obviously not willing to back down. "Is he just going with the whole 'Oh I'm sorry for being a complete and utter git since the beginning of highschool but lets forget it all and be friends' approach? He's a guy M-Girl… I highly doubt it. He's after one thing, and he's made it painfully obvious."

"And you agree?" I said, looking at Cassie angrily.

She sighed before coming over and climbing into bed next to me, a movement that B followed.

"Maddie, come on. You know he's been acting really weird lately, what else explains it?" Cassie said softly from next to me.

"He finally grew a…" I started, but Cassie covered my mouth.

"The audition scene, the almost kiss, the whole thing last night, not to mention just about any other time we've had… altercations with them, he's been completely silent, unless he's stopped Luke or Henry from saying something awful." Cassie said looking at me thoughtfully.

"Explain the fact that every moment he's spent with you this term, he hasn't been cruel or mean. The fact that he always has this look in his eyes as he watches you, that this smile always forms on his face when you do something in class." Belle said, putting an arm around me as she watched my face crumble.

"What am I going to do?" I asked softly, to no one in particular.

"Figure out how you feel about him." Cass replied gently, placing an arm around me too.

"It wasn't supposed to be this complicated…" I said softly, confused about how my whole world could be falling down around me.

"Things never are." Belle said quietly.

-

"What do I do?" I muttered nervously at the end of lunch to Cassie and Belle.

"What do you mean?" Cassie replied distractedly.

"With Ric. What do I do?" I asked, wringing my hands together, fretting about how close drama was.

"How about you just act normal?" Belle said "Cass and I called him and said you were okay, but out of it as far as Saturday night was concerned."

"That's all well and good, but how about the part I do remember, like you spilling the beans on his crush on me the DAY AFTER?"

I was beginning to get a little panicky here. Belle and Cassie were acting as if what could possibly be the weirdest, biggest news of my life was unimportant in the general scheme of things.

Which is so wasn't.

In the distance, the bell rang loudly, signaling that it was time to go to class.

Or to jump off a cliff.

"Stop being so melodramatic M-Girl" B said from beside me as I moped along.

"Everything will be just fine." Cassie agreed with her.

If only I shared their faith.

"Shut up" Ashton boomed. The entire class fell silent, intimidated by his anger.

"Thank you." He snapped, before walking up onto the stage. "Romeo and Juliet, set on a cruise ship?" He asked, looking towards Cassie, Belle, Luke and Henry.

"Don't look at us, we only agreed because there were drugs and sex involved, and none of that crappy language." Henry said as he shuddered, and Cass leant over to wack him in the arm.

"Hey" He replied as he shrank away from her.

"Sir, it's brilliant really." Cassie replied, ignoring Henry and standing up.

"We wanted a present setting, one that hadn't already been done. We could've set it in like, Sydney or something at a Debutante ball, but please, as if the audience coming to see this could relate. We've all seen Hollywood movies about Rich kids with nothing to do, and I just thought the cruise ship would keep it contained, or something." Cassie said, pausing before she dropped the bombshell.

"Besides, Ric is perfect for the messed up teenager Romeo that's into drugs and money and all the modern stuff. And M-Girl… I mean, Maddie, well, she'll be able to pull of any kind of Juliet you give her. But this one… with the sexual tension and the dancing and the love… Maddie and Ric will produce enough heat between them to…" She trailed off as I glared at her.

Way to keep everything that happened this weekend on the low Cassie.

"Well, it won't be me on stage acting this crap out so go for it." The demon spat, as he took a long drink from his 'water' bottle.

"I resent that you think its crap." Cassie said indignantly "At least this way the younger kids won't be falling asleep because they don't understand anything being said."

"No, they'll be falling off their seats when Maddie comes out in something like the was wearing on Saturday night." Luke said as he laughed.

Oh the horror… did Lucas Holden just accidentally admit to perving on me? Could this day get any worse?

"I'm in." Ric said gruffly from his position a few seats away from me.

Guh.

"Fine." I sighed, as I sank further into my seat, hoping the world would swallow me whole. "We'll do it Cassie's way. But just so everyone knows, I'm opposed to the idea of screwing around with classic Shakespeare, and also, I think we'll be laughed right off stage."

"Are you kidding?" Belle said, "With the sexual tension you and Dalby have, everyone will stick it out just to see how it ends!"

"They both die B." I said softly, knowing she wouldn't want to be embarrassed.

"Right, but how it ends between you and Ric, that's something we don't know," She said, winking at me, as I groaned and, if possible, moved further into my seat.

"Right" Ashton yelled "Extra rehearsal for you six then." He finished, turning back to whatever he'd been doing.

"Us six?" Henry cried "But why? We're not even in the stupid play."

"Because you, sunny boy are responsible for the plot. And the setting. And from now on, you and her" He said, as he pointed towards Cassie "have complete control of the play. Shared directing, and such. Get it?"

Henry knew better than to fight with Ashton, so he simply gave him the finger when he turned his back, then turned to glare at Cassie, who was sitting in a slightly shocked state.

"This afternoon. You're place." She said finally, pointing to me.

"Huh?" I replied, completely confused by her statement.

"We need to start rehearsing." She said firmly, before standing up and walking towards the boys, obviously about to tell them the same thing.

"She's gone mad." I said, looking towards B who was still looking smug.

"You and Ric are gunna do it." She said, not phased at all by how her cruel taunting might affect say, me.

"They boys are in." Cassie cut in as she sat back down.

"Yeah, like you gave them another choice." I muttered under my breath.

Everything was getting so out of hand. Romeo and Juliet wasn't about sex, or drugs, or anything that modern teenagers can relate to. Who cared whether they understood it or not, it wasn't just about the language either. There were actions and movements that could emphasise the play so much more than the words.

Maybe they were what I was going to have to rely on to make this play work.

I sighed, and resigned myself to my fate. This afternoon was going to be hell.

-

"He gets a gun, right?" Henry said as he lounged back in a chair in our den.

"What is it with your obsession with guys and guns?" Cassie said as she opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water "Are you making up for something else you might be lacking in?" she finished suggestively.

"I'm very well endowed, I'll have you know." Henry began, but was cut off by Cassie's laugh.

"I was talking about brain cells." She smirked towards him, but he was up already, striding towards her.

Pinning her against the now closed fridge door, he leant down and whispered something unintelligible in her ear. When he pulled away, her face was flushed light pink, and she couldn't look anyone in the eyes. Henry simply sauntered away before saying, "Shouldn't we get started, or something?"

Because as if Henry would tell us what he'd whispered into Cass' ear. That would mean we're actually sharing something as a group and we couldn't have that.

"Whatever" I mumbled "Which scene would you like us to start with Henry?" I snapped at him.

"I have an idea." Luke said before Henry had a chance to reply.

"Well, there is a first time for everything." Belle said aloud.

"Yeah, like people actually liking you. Oh wait, hell has to freeze over before that happens." Luke retorted angrily.

"Can we try and not get into an argument every three seconds." I said tiredly, "Luke, what's your idea?"

"Maybe we could begin at the end, and a narrator could kind of, tell the story from scene to scene?" He said, rather timidly, as if afraid of Belle's reaction.

Cassie was the first to say something.

"I like it. It's got spunk."

"But won't everyone know how it ends then?" Henry asked.

Cassie wacked his arm for the second time that day. Obviously she'd recovered from their little chat a couple of minutes ago. "Anyone who's anyone knows that Romeo and Juliet die at the end of the play. It's like the most known ending ever."

"Right." Henry quipped "So what? We start with the final narrator's part, then quickly change into the first scene?"

"Something along those lines. We need to establish the setting. And we need to cut out irrelevant parts of the script for a modern audience." Cassie began, obviously making a list in her head. "Of course, we need to change the language. But do we change it completely, or keep Maddie as being a soppy Juliet, and Ric a dark, brooding Romeo, or what?"

"Call me crazy" I said, butting in "But I think we could follow in the footsteps of the great Baz Lurhamn, and use the old language."

"But, why?" Luke asked.

"Because it poetic." I said "And it describes the feelings of Romeo and Juliet much better than any kind of modern language could."

"The girl does have a point" Belle agreed from her position next to me.

"Okay, so no change of language. That still doesn't make our task any easier. Except" Cassie said, her face lighting up "It does. You and Ric have it."

"Have what?" Ric replied, obviously as confused as I was.

"That chemistry that makes you work. No matter what setting, you two could fall in love… As Romeo and Juliet of course."

"Of course" I repeated, hoping to solidify her point.

"So you two, just go out and fix your scenes. We'll figure out everything else in here." Cassie said, before instantly being distracted by something else, shooing us outside.

-

Okay, so this is more than just a little awkward, I thought to myself as I was momentarily blinded by the bright sunshine.

I walked over to the cubby house that Henry and I have once upon a time spent so many hours playing in. I climbed a few steps up, before changing my mind and deciding that up there wouldn't be the best place for rehearsal.

But as I spun around, I found myself face to face with Ric, our bodies merely inches apart… and Saturday nights events suddenly came rushing back to me.

"Did you mean it?" I said softly, backing up so I could create as much space as possible between our bodies.

He looked past my, trying to focus on anything but my own steady gaze.

"Every word." He sighed finally, as he looked me in the eyes and moved closer to me.

"Why? Why now, when I was so close to getting out of all this crap?" I said, attempting to push him away, but failing miserably.

"Everything was nice and routine. We'd created our own bubbles. You had yours and I had mine. And they didn't mix, not any more. Why did you change everything Ric? Is this some sick final practical joke to make me believe you actually like me… then you leave me high and dry, and tell the whole school?" I began.

"No Maddie" Ric said, but I was unstoppable.

"Do you want to humiliate me even more than what you've already done during the last five years of hell? You couldn't give me one year of peace?"

"Maddie" Ric tried to stop me, but I was on a roll.

"Did Henry put you up to this? He's always wanted to ruin my life. And I just let him crush me over and over. Make me the butt of his jokes, when everyone in our entire year laughs at me because of some stupid rumour you've started." I yelled angrily at him, not caring any more.

"Do you want to give me another reason not to want to get out of bed in the morning? Do you have any idea what that's like? Wanting to sink into your bed and for it to swallow it you whole? Wishing your life was over because of the torment someone's put you through? I didn't think so. So if this is just another one of those practical…"

His hand was covering my mouth to stop my tyrannical rant. His eyes had softened, their gaze matching my own.

"I fell in love with you Matilda." He said softly.

-

Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage.

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AN: Thanks to Tess for proofing. You rock! And there it is. Squee. Gotta love Maddie and Ric. More soon.Thanks for reviewing guys :D