folded | rini

📖 from ancient grudge 📖

"miss salazar-roberts, i would love to have you start us off today. can i hear your thoughts on the dream speech?"

of course she was being asked to participate right off the bat. she hadn't raised her hand, but their teacher rarely cared about that sort of thing.

so as nini flips open her copy of the play, she forces a smile, glancing over at ricky a bit curious to see what he thinks of what she has to say.

"well i thought it was really a great work of storytelling. shakespeare paints such a vivid picture through mercutio's words. they're talking about dreaming, and it's just such a beautiful thing, to dream. and yes, maybe it is foolish, to dream out loud, in the way that mercutio criticizes romeo for doing, but it's also a nice preview at just how wrapped up in his feelings romeo can get. even before juliet. she's not unique in that for him. even though we do say that their love was something special. and it absolutely was." she pauses for effect. "but... romeo's passionate about everything. all that he fancies anyway." nini's clearly done her homework. anyone in the room can tell she's read the text more than the one time they went through the passage in class yesterday. "i think it's a beautiful display of that fantasy."

"brilliant, nina. romeo's flights of fancy are very important to his character indeed. he grieves the loss of rosaline quite intently for his little he seems to have known her. does anyone else have anything to add?"

except as she thinks she's outdone herself with her analysis, she sees ricky's hand raised, and from the way he's grinning, eyes somehow capturing hers even across the room, she doubts he's about to agree with her the way their teacher had so easily.

and given the limited number of hands raised, it's no real surprise that ricky indeed is called on.

"mister bowen. i would love to hear your commentary. you were the one to share this passage after all."

"thank you sir. i was so glad to be able to share it."

nini can't help but to roll her eyes. that wasn't pointed at all.

ricky continues though. "sure- nini's right- shakespeare's fantastic with imagery. but to pretend this whole moment is about love is ridiculous. romeo doesn't love rosaline. that's not how love works. mercutio's making- pardon my bluntness mr. price but very thinly veiled sexual jokes. shakespeare was writing for the common folk as much as for the royal family. his work is chock full of innuendo and it's not a pretty, delicate thing either."

nini thinks she's imagining the way he looks at her specifically as he says those words, about being pretty and delicate. but could she have really?

"mercutio says queen mab has been with romeo- in what way do you envision? it's not some tooth fairy sprinkling magic pixie dust on your pillow."

he's so much smarter than she thought, he's certainly proving that once again. even if he evidently can't keep his fairies straight. the tooth fairy doesn't have pixie dust... idiot...

nini's surprised that their teacher doesn't stop ricky from taking the discussion in this particular direction, doesn't cut him off the second that word, sex, leaves his lips.

it's his word though that's for sure.

nini doesn't let that train of thought continue though as ricky continues his rebuttal of her argument.

"mercutio makes all of romeo's love stories into sexual ones, perverts this fairy tale he first presents into something darker and more sinister. and he becomes so wrapped up in his tale that all the others are forced to talk him down off that ledge he speaks upon. you can call romeo passionate, but i think mercutio is equally deserving of such a title. though in a different way."