iluvshinjimina - No problem! My favourite expansion pack is probably university too! Glad you still enjoy the story.
Dawnstar94 - I have mentioned some characters from Hamlet, although they won't play big roles. I haven't mentioned anyone from Macbeth.
Sorry for the late update, fanfiction wouldn't let me do it yesterday for some reason.
Rosaline left school as soon as she could. The exam had finished within two hours, and so she high-tailed it out of there. The exam had gone ok. Rosaline wasn't a big fan of English, but she did well. Most of the poetry they had to study was appalling. Rosaline never liked poetry, anyway. It was silly and pretentious, and always lacked meaning for her. It was better just to say what you wanted to say. It wasn't just the ridiculous, Romeo Montague-eque, lovey dovey drivel that annoyed her, it was Seamus Heaney. Poetry about...potatoes? Really?
She took her time walking away from school. She knew her classmates would be waiting at the train station already and didn't want to bear the brunt of anymore whispers or rumours. Instead she trailed around the shops. She had some money in her purse, but not much. As usual.
If Tybalt was here, he'd pay for everything, and tell her she was worth it.
She wasn't hungry, so she bought a red nail varnish, and sat on a wall, painting her nails. Why had she taken that stupid Chastity Pledge? Why hadn't she just said no? Rosaline couldn't understand what was so bad about sex in the first place. She was above the age of consent, the law allowed it, she'd used protection and she had loved her partner. So what was bad about that? She liked her body, she was confident about herself, and she had always liked the attentions of boys. Rosaline had always been mature for her age, she had been ready. She liked being held by Tibby, she liked the way they fitted like a puzzle. So why had she pledged that away and got into this mess?
She wouldn't be in this mess if he hadn't bragged. This was his fault. Rosaline couldn't believe he'd do this to her. She thought she was different to his other girlfriends, she thought she was special. They both went way back. He'd proposed to her when they were five.
What was she to expect? She lived on the Burry Estate. No woman was ever treated with respect if you lived there. People immediately assumed you were a whore and had five kids. With a snort, Rosaline wondered why that was why she had taken the chastity pledge, as if to say that wasn't the case.
She was not a whore. Rosaline was picky, choosey, she could have slept with any of the boys she'd dated, but she hadn't. She'd waited for that special person. Sure, Tybalt wasn't nice, but she had seen something in him, something...different, and that was what made her want him. He cared about his family. That was just so sweet. Rosaline never usually went for mummy's boys, but it was just such a surprise about someone like him was so loyal and caring, that it simply endeared him to her. Underneath the rough, bad boy exterior that had attracted her, was a loving, caring, loyal partner. Tybalt may have been a manwhore, but Rosaline knew for a certain he had never cheated on any of his girlfriends.
She thought back to all those good times. When he had let her out of the bathroom with the spider in where Hermia had locked her, when he'd bought gummy snakes that Hermia hated that they threw at her in revenge, when they had both sat in the gutter of the Burry Estate, starving hungry because Rosaline had given her food to Livia and Tybalt's mum was having a manic turn and had forgotten she even had a son, when Tybalt's mum was in hospital, and Rosaline had been the only one to offer comfort, when Rosaline was the only one who believed him when the school accused him of selling drugs, when she had helped him get out of trouble for pulling the fire alarm as a prank, whenever she bandaged up his cuts and bruises after a fight even though she hated blood, when Tybalt defended her from mean ex boyfriends, when he'd been there for her after Angelo tried to make contact, when he comforted her after shoving Hermia down the stairs, making love in the back of his car for the first time, all those times, all those times...
Then he just had to brag. Typical. She should have known. Now what was she going to do?
Perhaps she'd have to go back to gold digging. She could reinvent herself. Now Rosaline wouldn't have to worry about staying at the top at school, she could throw herself into the social scene and only care about that. She didn't have to stay at school anymore. Once her exams were over, she could attend a college to get her A Levels at instead. She wouldn't get to be Head Girl, and she wouldn't be as likely to get good results, but they wouldn't care who she was seeing and what she was doing with them.
Besides, it wasn't as if she actually liked school. She liked being popular, being the best, being better than everyone else, not the school especially. She worked hard at maths because she was interested in money. She liked the feel of it in her hands, and revelled in her dream of simply being able to swim in the stuff. If she stayed at school to take A Level maths, she'd have been stuck in a room full of manky nerds who she wouldn't be caught dead talking too. People like creepy Benvolio Montague.
Her phone had gone haywire with texts, so she turned it off. There were none from Tybalt, thank goodness. Briefly, she wondered what he was doing. Probably beating someone up in frustration.
Then she wondered about the Capulets. Would they think any less of her for dumping him? But he was the one who bragged, so what would they think of him? Uncle Egues liked her, and had thought she was a good match for Tybalt. Maybe he'd help sort things out, although Rosaline didn't know what he could do. She didn't know what anyone would do, since she'd never heard of anyone making and then breaking their chastity vow, and having it made public like this.
There was only one way to find out. And that was to walk back into the shark tank. Rosaline sighed, picked up her stuff, and headed up towards the train station, where no doubt, the students from her school would be waiting