Purple, grey, black and white [✔️]

third

The hammock swings softly in the breeze as Leo finishes his maths homework with a mug of Chamomile tea (which happens to be his fourth favourite) resting in the grass just in reach when he needs a sip. He completes the final sum and chucks his book, pencil and calculator over the side of the hammock and picks up his mug. The blue sky filters through the leaves above him, creating a peaceful greeny-blue scene to look at as he relaxes now done with homework for the afternoon.

Half a term into year nine and he had felt the weight of the increased workload. The shift from year seven to eight was almost unnoticeable but the jump to stage five put him under a lot of stress.

He had always been an A - B grade student effortlessly but now he was getting along scraping B's.

"Leo, can you help me with my homework?" Blake's small voice called out from the back door. Leo set his mug on the ground and sat up again.

"Sure, bring something to lean on though," He called back. Blake ran back inside and came back out with a thin hardcover story book. Blake pulls herself up onto the hammock nest to her only brother and showed him the homework. Leo smiles as he skims through it. He could barely remember when his own homework was this simple,  a short story and five questions about it. Leo read her the story, it was an exert from Cinderella. It was the scene where Cinderella arrives at the ball and meets her Prince Charming. 

"Question five," Leo points out the last question. "Do you think Cinderella found true love?" He laughed under his breath, bit deep for a year 2 homework sheet.

"Yes of course!" She squeals excitedly. "She and Prince Charming live happily ever after forever and ever," She giggles, leaning backwards almost falling off the hammock but Leo thrusts his hand out to catch her. 

* * * 

The stars glow upon Leo's ceiling. He was obsessed with astronomy and his younger years and never had the bother to take them down, they helped him sleep anyway. The mobile fan was humming softly on the other side of the room, blowing a cool breeze across his bare chest. It was a humid night, he kicked his sheets off almost immediately and ripped off his shirt five minutes later. 

He is thinking about Blake's homework for some dumb reason. His thoughts run through the fairy-tale in his head. Do you just fall in love at first sight? Cinderella just walked into that ball and the Prince's attention was immediately on her. He finds himself worrying about the girl's life. She just went to the ball to have a fun night out, she didn't go for the Prince. What if the Prince was an abusive arsehole? What if he had bad hygiene? 

Leo shakes off the the thoughts about this fictional relationship and emptied his mind as he falls asleep. 

* * * 

"Come on Lee," Mark prods Leo in the side but Leo doesn't move, his arms folded on his desk with his head rested in them. "You don't hate math this much." 

Leo rolls his head to glare at his friend, he really did hate math but he was also just tired. PE is the worst period in existence according to Leo and his friends, you would think Mark would be sympathetic but no, Mark had allegedly sprained his ankle last night but somehow only effected him while Mr Parsons, their PDHPE teacher was around. This got him out of mandatory cross country training.

"Hey," Mark whispers giving up. "You wanna come to mine this afternoon?" Leo nods. Leo has always loved the O'brien's house. Both parents had high paying jobs and their house was large and grand. Mark's bedroom was about twice the size of his own, had its own ensuite and mounted tv with a game system. 

"I'll text Mum" He looks at the teacher and waits for her to turn her back to write on the white board to pull his IPhone out of his jacket pocket. 

"I don't understand why we need to know this stuff, it's not like we are ever going to use this in life," Leo sighs, his eyes running over the notes on the board about some guy named Pythagorus.

"I agree," Mark rolls his eyes and slips his phone back in his pocket.

The time continues to pass painfully slowly in the maths classroom C2 until the bell trills loudly over the loudspeaker. The two boys lazily grab their stuff and head out for recess. After the break they had double drama which was basically a bludgey subject so they had nothing to worry about.

They arrive at their usual bench to find Tamsyn sitting alone angrily eating an apple.

"Hey Tammy, what's up?" Leo asks and he places his bag on the table to sit beside her. "And where's Nix?" Tamsyn huffs frustrate  

"That's a good question, probably with bloody boyfriend," She says with a little hurt in her voice. Leo wrapped his arm around her reassuringly. Nicola and Tamsyn had been best friends since before they could remember and Tamsyn was always very upset whenever Nicola got a new boyfriend.

"She'll come back, the last one lasted what, two months?" Mark smiles, trying to cheer her up. "Here," he hands her a squashed chocolate cupcake he just unwrapped from the glad wrap. She laughs at the pathetic mould of cake but does take a bite, then another.

Recess ends to quickly and the boys head to double drama in E1 and Tamsyn to French in D2.

When Leo and Mark get to the classroom they find it already open as usual and dump their bags on the ground against the wall and head inside. E1 is the biggest room in the block, a large open space with chairs staked up against the wall and a small stage built into the far wall. but the best thing about the room was the three wheelie desk chairs in the corner. That sounds dumb but hear me out. These chairs are the same style as those in the computer lab and are no where else in the school. Ms White, their teacher doesn't know how they got there but they just appeared one day and she had never been bothered to move them.

Leo and Mark jump on two of the chairs and start running and sliding on the wooden floor. Ms white simply looks up from reading a thick wad of paper sitting on the stage and shakes her head. Not long after more people file in and its a race for the last chair and in the end the victor is Matt Beckett, the most flamboyantly gay person anyone in the year knows and can light up a room with laughter instantly.

After a while Ms White quiets the class and open a her iconic purple folder.

"Now as you all know, bi yearly around this time we start preparations for our school play," There was an excited wave of chattering over the class. "This time the seniors wish to perform their own play this year so the leads may fall upon some of the young talent in here and of year ten."

This made everyone look at each other, pointing fingers and whispering who they think will land the lead.

"We will be performing Romeo and Juliet: a modern love story,"  She waves her hands enthusiastically. Leo inwardly groans, why did it have to be about love? Why were these things always about love? 

"You will all be prioritised for parts but if you want to go for a lead please put your name on this sheet," she waves a sheet of paper before placing in ton the stage. There is a rush of people, coming forward to place their names on the list but a few hanging back including Leo.

"Like I'm interested," Matt laughs "The only way I would be going for the lead is if it was Romeo and Julio," He flicks his hair making Leo laugh but he feels a tug on his arm.

"Come on Leo, put your name down it will be fun," Mark persuades him. Leo had always liked the idea of being centre stage and agrees with Mark, he probably won't score the lead of Romeo anyway, it will go to a year ten student most likely. But he did really hope for Mercutio, Romeo's best friend, that would be cool.

Leo walks up to the stage and writes his name in his neat handwriting. The sheet has plenty of signatures on it and beside them the characters they wanted to play. Most of course say Romeo and Juliet respectively but next to Leonardo Briggs was Mercutio, standing out against the sea of the two lead characters.