Him And I / Ponyboy Curtis

Chapter 7

"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this. For saints have hands that pilgrims hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss" I looked at Ponyboy, who looked like he was grinning real big.

"Have saints not lips? And holy palmers too?" We continued reading, nearing the end of the scene.

"Then, good saint, let lips do what hands do"

I searched for my line,
"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake"

Ponyboy responded with, "Then move not while my prayers' effect I take. Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg'd"

I looked for my next line, and my eyes widened when I saw written in italics, 'they kiss.' I looked at Mr. Syme for guidance.

"Alright, that's enough for today," he paused to look at us, then continued to speak.

"Remember, this is the most romantic love story ever told; a bit more passion when performing would make a huge difference"

"Now that we have almost finished the first act, I will be assigning a project—" The class groaned. Our teacher paused, unfazed, and continued.

"—you and a partner will be performing part of a scene from the play. You will also write a short essay on the meaning of the scene. To make things easy, whoever is sitting next to you will be your partner" I sighed in relief, I'm glad to be with Ponyboy. He smiled which let me know the feeling is mutual.

"Y/n and Ponyboy, you can do the scene you just read, it needs some work. Remember, passion!" he announced. God, how am I supposed to be 'passionate' with Ponyboy in front of the whole class? And don't even get me started on the kissing part. I knew my cheeks were a deep shade of red by now. I looked at Ponyboy and saw his were the same.

"Wanna come over tonight to practice?" he offered, attempting to terminate the awkward silence.

"Yeah, sure"

After Mr. Syme assigned scenes to all of the partners, he continued on with the lesson.

"Was there anyone who had difficulty with the homework questions?" after no response, he continued.

"Good. Please pass your papers to the front, I'll be collecting your questions to mark" he announced as we all handed up our papers.

"You have the rest of class to practice your scenes, have your presentation ready by Friday.  Get to work!" The class began to chatter. This is gonna be difficult; of course we had to be assigned the scene where Romeo and Juliet first meet.

10:40am
Monday March 15th, 1965
Tulsa, OK

After my second period gym class, I have lunch. We have two different lunch periods, one at third period and one at fourth. I think Ponyboy has third lunch, too, but I'm not sure. After changing out of my gym clothes, I headed to my locker to grab my money for lunch. I frantically spun my combination lock, then swung open my locker door; I pulled out some change for lunch, then placed my neatly folded gym clothes on the top shelf along with my copy of Romeo and Juliet.

"Hey" I heard a voice say from the other side of my locker door, and assuming it was Ponyboy, I began to reply as I closed my locker.

"Hey Pon-" I began, but was faced with a shy looking Johnny.

"Oh, hey Johnny! I thought you were Ponyboy" I giggled, and he did too.

"Do you have lunch right now?" I asked, and smiled when he nodded.

"Cool! So do I" I announced as we walked towards the cafeteria. We encountered Pony on the way there.

Today was fish sticks, they always serve that on Monday. It almost makes Monday's just a little more bearable. After the three of us made it through the lunch line, and paid our 85 cents each, I told them I'd be right back.