Protecting Mia

Coach Cole

               

Mia's POV

"Shakespeare's language can sometimes be hard to understand, which makes reading his stories frustrating for some students. But his stories are truly great so I want you all to enjoy reading his stories. So for our next project, you will make groups of four people each. In these groups, you will take one scene of Midsummer Night's Dream and you will translate it into modern day English. But I don't want you just to copy the text from "No Fear Shakespeare", I want you to be original." Ms. Fulton says as she hands out the assignment on paper.

I lay my heads on my arms and try to make myself as invisible as possible. I hate group projects, especially when I don't really know anyone in this class.

"Can we pick our own teams?" I hear one girl ask.

"Yes, for once I am letting you pick your own groups, but please do so wisely. If you don't think you can ace this assignment with your friends than look for someone else. I trust you will make the right decision."

I see kids jumping up from their seats and running to their friends. I stay in my seat and try to stay as invisible as possible as I do not want the other students to see me as that friendless new girl, even though that is exactly what I am. All groups have been formed except for me sitting at my desk all alone.

I am thinking about going up to Ms. Fulton and asking her if I can do this project by myself when a girl whose name I am pretty sure is Mikayla, walks up to me and says, "Do you want to join our group?"

Mikayla is the definition of preppy. She is wearing a grey sweater with a dark blue vest, a pearl necklace and a golden watch on her wrist. Not necessarily the type of person I would hang out with, but she seems really nice so I really don't see a reason not to accept her offer. I look over to her group of friends that she is pointing at and they are all smiling at me.

"Yeah, thank you," I grab my backpack and walk over with Mikayla. Class is nearly over so we don't really have time to discuss what we are going to do yet. The rest of the group, one other girl and two boys, are just talking and goofing around with Snapchat. I just sit there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do.

As the bell rings one girl speaks up, "So should we meet up at lunch to get a head start on this whole thing?"

Her offer would actually solve my dreaded problem of not knowing who to sit with at lunch so I automatically agree.

"Great, so we'll meet out in the courtyard at lunch?" Mikayla asks. We all nod our heads in agreement and head in separate directions.

At the beginning of lunch, I head out into the courtyard and see the other four already sitting at one of the marble tables. I sit down in the only spot left and pull out my notebook.

"So Ms. Fulton gave us act IV scene i. Which is a lot of dialogue between Titania and Bottom which I think is something we can work with pretty well." Mikayla's friend starts saying; I think her name is Dianna.

"That's easy for you to say; you've actually read this garbage. I ,on the other hand, have no clue who Titania or Bottom are." One of the guys, Dean I believe, argues.

"It's not my fault you don't educate yourself." Dianna spits out.

"No, I educate myself. If it weren't for the fact that you have actually been in the play before you would have less of an idea about this than I would. Don't go acting all smart." Dean argues.

"Okay, okay. You guys we get it. Dianna has been in Midsummer Night's Dream before and knows the story. So how about fighting we work with this. She can help us. Dianna, how about you give us the summary of the story? Andy, my last team member intervenes.