𓈊 A Poppy By Any Other Name

Act X

Harding sighed. "We'll work on the choreo another time," he decided before nodding at Mumbo. "Citizen One, go on."

Mumbo nodded. "Clubs, bills, and partisans, strike and beat them down!" he read. "Down with the Capulets, and down with the Montagues!"

"Lord Capulet," Ms. Gold cued BigB, who cleared his throat quite vigorously, making Cleo giggle.

"What noise is this?" BigB recited. "Bring forth my long sword, quick!"

"A crutch," Cleo responded. "Why must you call for a sword?"

"My sword, I say! An old Montague is to come, and flourishes his blade in spite of me."

"Montague," Harding said, flipping the page of his booklet.

Joel stepped forward, not bothering to look at his script. "Thou villain, you Capulet," he said enthusiastically. "Hold me not and let me go."

Lizzie stepped forward as well, though only because she hated being blocked from the audience by Joel's cockiness. "Thou shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe."

"Enter the Prince," said Ms. Gold.

Joey began his long line, but Jimmy zoned out as his gaze drifted over to where Scott and Zach sat in the audience. Jimmy had told himself to forget about Scott, but the day had already proven that to be far more difficult than he imagined it would have been. Now, as he stared longingly at the cyanette, his chest ached more than it had that morning.

As Joey finished his paragraph and Grian and Joel began their scripted conversation, Jimmy found that Scott's eyes met his own, but only for a brief moment. The second blue met hazel, Scott tore his attention away to smile at Zach again.

Ouch.

Not only did that one time hurt, but it continued to be painful as Scott had looked back and forth several times, each time growing the now dull ache deep in Jimmy's chest.

"Romeo," Mr. Harding called out, startling Jimmy. "Earth to Romeo."

Jimmy blinked and shook his head, confused and almost dazed for a moment. "Right, sorry, uh-" His eyes darted over the page as Ms. Gold asked Grian to read his line again.

"Good morrow, coz," Grian recited.

Jimmy cleared his throat. "Is the day so yo-"

"Louder," Harding demanded, and Jimmy straightened his posture.

"Is the day so young?" Jimmy said again, projecting much better this time. He couldn't help but notice the amused grin on Grian's face.

"But new struck nine," Grian said, bringing his script down as he'd already memorized this set of lines. He looked thoroughly entertained while he and Jimmy went back and forth, though also a bit surprised at how familiar Jimmy was with this part now.

"Woe is me, for sad hours seem so long," Jimmy said. "Was that my father that went hence so fast?"

Grian nodded and said, "It was. What sadness lengthens dear Romeo's hours?"

"Not having which, what having, makes them shorter."

"In love?"

"Out-"

"Of love?"

Jimmy's chest tightened as he spoke his next line, "Out of her favor, where I am in love."

It would've been almost funny how similar Jimmy's situation seemed to be to Romeo's in the first scene of Act I if Jimmy didn't want to cry over the hurt and uneasiness that now began to drop into his stomach.

"Alas, that love, so gentle in his view," Grian continued, "should be so tyrannous and rough in proof."

Jimmy sighed. "Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still," he said, replicating the way he'd heard Scott read these lines before, "should, without eyes, see pathways to his will. Where shall we dine?

"O me! What fray was here? Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here's much to do with hate, but more with love. Why, then, O brawling love and O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness and serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms, feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, and sick health. In still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love that feel I, that feel no love in this." Jimmy paused, nearly out of breath. "Dost thou not laugh, my kin?"

Grian smiled a bit more before saying, "No, coz, I'd rather weep."

"Oh, good heart, at what?"

"At thy good heart's oppression."

"Why, such is love's transgression! Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my heart, which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest with more of thine. This love that thou hast shown do add more grief to too much of mine own." Though Elizabethan English was a bit more than difficult for Jimmy to understand, the bits and pieces that he could figure out seemed a little too perfectly fitting that he would play Romeo. "Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; purged in a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; vexed in a sea nourished with young lovers' tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet is a choking gall and a preserving sweet.
Farewell, my coz."

Grian's smile dropped a bit. "Soft, I will come along," he said a bit hesitantly. "And if you do leave me so, you do me wrong."

"I have lost myself," Jimmy read, gluing his eyes to the paper. It was easier to not stare at Scott that way. "I am not here, and I am not Romeo. He is some else where."

"Tell me in sadness who it is you love."

Scott, it's Scott-

Not again-

"What? Shall I groan and tell thee?" said Jimmy as he gripped his script harder than he should have. Not again, please not again-

"Groan? Why, no, of course not! But do tell who."

Jimmy steadied himself a moment by taking a bit of a deeper breath than normal. "Bid a sick man in sadness make his will," he said now. He hated how suddenly small his voice sounded. "Oh, word ill urged to one that is so ill! In sadness, cousin... I do l-love-" He cut himself off with a small choked sound somewhere between a gasp and a cry. He shook his head furiously. "S-sorry, I-"

Ms. Gold stepped forward. "Hey, it's okay," she said gently, prying the booklet from a shaking Jimmy's hands. She gave him a sympathetic smile and framed his cheek with her hand. "How about we take a little break? Relax a little."

Nodding, the blonde wrapped his arms around himself in attempt to calm down a bit. "Okay," he breathed. He wasn't quite crying (not yet, at least) but his face was red enough that it was near plausible.

Everyone seemed to disperse as soon as the word "break" left Ms. Gold's lips, but a good lot of the boys were disappointed when Harding called them back onto the stage to continue rehersing choreo while Ms. Gold led Jimmy out of the theater.

"Are you all right?" the drama teacher asked softly once in the hallway.

Jimmy almost couldn't decide between shaking or nodding his head, but shook it and responded with "I'm fine," anyway.

Ms. Gold gave him another sympathy-laced smile. "You sure?" she pressed gently. "Seems to me like you're pretty worked up about something." She paused, waiting for Jimmy to answer, but sighed and continued when he didn't respond. "Is Mr. Harding putting too much pressure on you?"

Shaking his head again, Jimmy tried to steady his staggered breathing. "No, I just-" He huffed. "I'm fine, Ms. Gold. Really. I've just been distracted."

She nodded. "Right. You know you can talk to me, right? We might just be getting used to one another, but I'm here to help you, you know. Don't be afraid to talk to me if you need to, okay?"

Jimmy nodded, and Ms. Gold's smile widened a bit.

"Alright. Let's try to get through the rest of rehersal."

Again, the boy nodded and followed Ms. Gold as she walked back into the theater.