Why I Hate Romeo and Juliet

Why I Hate Romeo and Juliet - Chapter One

“Are you even listening?” she frowned at me, noticing that I was already lost in my own head. Jane was really gorgeous, and for the longest time, I wondered why she didn't date, but I guessed she just never really liked any of the guys who were interested in her, until Jordan.

I shuddered again. Jane and Jordan would probably have kids named Joanna and Joseph and Jared and Jasmine and Jacob and…

“Yeah,” I broke from my inner thoughts, remembering that she was actually talking to me.

“Excited yet…?” Her voice trailed, expecting an answer. I looked at her blankly.

Smiling sheepishly, I drawled, “For…?”

“I knew you weren’t listening to me," she groaned, but didn't stop to let me apologize. "I asked if you were excited for school,” she stated, a tad bit upset - but she would get over it. She always did.

Now, I loved her, I really did, but sometimes I couldn't stand listening to Jane.

“I’m sorry, just had a lot on my mind,” I yawned, looking down at the grass, flitting my fingers over it.

“You’re crazy, you know,” she muttered.

“Thanks,” I said back, inherently. I’d been called crazy too many times before, and now, the answer came naturally.

“So are you?”

“Am I what?”

Jane rolled her eyes, frustrated. “Are you excited for school? You know that thing we’ve been going to the past eleven years?”

A grin plastered itself on my face. School was always fun, and when your whole objective in life was to have fun, you could really go to town at school. I had a mildly bad record, and I probably wouldn’t get into a good college, but that was okay. I'd do fine regardless. Besides; college was for people with dreams and ambitions. I didn't have a lot of those.

My ambition? To have fun. And what other ambitions do you really need, other than that?

“Yes,” I flashed a grin.

“Try your best not to get expelled this year, okay? It’d be a shame to waste all of your life at school, just to get expelled as a senior and not get your diploma,” she lectured plainly.

Jane was one of those people – you know the bluntly smart ones. She'd get into a good college, get married, buy a house, and have babies who grew up to go to college, and get married, and buy a house, and have babies, and...

Well, you get it.

“I’m not making any promises,” I warned her, a silly smile still on my face.

If this was my last year, I was going to go out with a bang.

“You know I love the wickedness that is your mind, but I don’t want you to get expelled, Hazel. Please?” she continued to plead, staring at me with a hope that maybe, I'd get myself together this year. That maybe, I'd be a little bit more like her.

But we all have those moments, where we think we're right. Jane would just have to figure out that what was right for her wasn't right for me.

I stared into the tangerine sky. The sun was just setting, and it smelled like fall. “Like I said, I’m not making any promises.”

___

“You look good,” Jane told me, and naturally, I looked down at myself. I was wearing electric blue jeans and a tank top she had bought for me over the summer. It was bright purple with a white flowery design, and to form fitting for my liking.