If I Had the Words

I was suddenly all ears too.

"Alright, now I'm only telling you this because I believe it reinforces what I'm trying to get across to you. Mm..." It was a dramatic pause. "I was madly in love with a girl at school, and as luck would have it I was cast as Romeo to her Juliet..." There wasn't a sound from the whole class. "The more I prepared for my part, the more I realized that Shakespeare was expressing all those things I felt towards this girl and was putting those words into my mouth that would help me win her over...and then..."

This was more than just a dramatic pause. I could see that Smaley was reliving his moment of heartbreak. Somebody said, "And then..?"

"And then the school, in their ultimate wisdom, decided they wanted to whip some discipline into one of the other pupils, made him take over the part of Romeo, I was relegated to the part of Mercutio and was killed off at the beginning of the third act. Now, let's get on, shall we..?"

He turned his back to the class in order to 'assemble' his notes and I could see he was having trouble struggling with his emotions.

It was a relatively subdued period after that. I didn't take many notes, but I did write a couple of lines into a separate piece of paper.

At the end of class the students filed out, while I hung back, in spite of Pete looking at me, looking at the football in his hand and indicating I should follow him.

Smaley looked up from his notes. "Mr. Riley?"

"Yes Sir, I'm sorry I nodded off back there, it wasn't because I was bored..."

"That's alright Kevin, I know you're a bright student."

"Thank you, Sir." It was my turn for the dramatic pause.

"There's something else?"

"I wondered if you'd mind if I could hand in my General Studies assignment to you now?"

"It's not due until next week, there's no hurry."

"Well, I really would appreciate it if you could look at it now."

I handed him the folded sheet of paper. He looked at me quizzically and then unfolded the sheet and read,

IF...

If I could take you to your Juliet this very moment, would that be a good thing?

His eyes shot up. "Yes, yes it would."

I sighed. Ah, well, I guess over time I'll get used to being 'Smelly Kev'. After all, what's in a name?