Charming by Haig Moses (1st Draft)

Chapter Seven

Harriet's phone buzzed again as she flipped another page from Hamlet and like the same other fifteen text messages the foreign phone number appeared on her screen which would be followed by yet another text message she was ignoring from Alexander Prince. No matter how many times she tried to get it through his head that it would be better for the both of them if he let her work on the assignment alone, he kept offering his services.

Or demanding.

Harriet flipped another page, her eyebrows scrunching together and eyes aching from constantly having to reread sentences five times before moving onto the next.

Everything Shakespeare wrote looked like the English language Harriet and the rest of Society knew today, but what she was reading might as well have been Latin. Sitting beside her was a small cheat sheet with a few translations, Harriet frequently references while reading. It was just a couple of things such as:

art = are

dost = do

'ere = before

hast = have

whence = from where

hence = from here

aught = anything

wast = were

anon = soon

would = i wish

hark = here

yon, yonder = that one there

marry = a mild swear word

dispatch = to leave or kill

Still the entire book gave her a migraine, enough to tempt her to take some Night quill and ease herself into dreams which would taste better than this hell.

"Why don't you just answer your phone?" Tatiana questioned as she spread herself on the couch beside Harriet who quickly moved her things out of her way. Legs finding themselves spread out across Harriet's lap, book now resting against her shins. "I'm sure he means well and honestly just wants to help you with this project."

Harriet rolled her eyes, "Because I don't need his help." She looked down at her extensive notes; everything was color coded and her neat handwriting was clear and precise. "I mean he didn't even take notes in class. How much help could he possibly give me?"

"Maybe he has a photographic memory or something."

"I highly doubt that."

Harriet flipped another page in her book and sighed, mentally she cursed Harvard and Dean Vanderbilt. All she had wanted to do was take the necessary classes in order to graduate, reading the Shakespeare's writing brought her back to the terrible memories of her junior high play of Romeo and Juliet. Despite how many times she had insisted to her drama teacher that she was not equip to play Juliet and would rather be one of the people in the background, Mrs. Levingston wouldn't have and gave Harriet the part.

The last thing she remembered from that night was walking on stage and the curtains opening. She had even refused to watch the video her parents had taken of her performance in vain, but based on her mother's extensive laughter she knew the performance could not have been anywhere close to good.

Reading Hamlet now seemed to want to give her the same amount of frustration as those disturbing memories. "Hey have you heard anything back from Ana?" Tati said swiping through her phone. "It's been a couple days and I haven't heard one thing,"

Harriet's throat tightened and her eyes flickered over to the acceptance letter she had found in her room when she'd gotten back from her brunch sticking out of one of her notebooks on her desk.