The Romeo Problem

How Romeo Met Juliet: Part One

"I have a question for you, Romeo." Eric stated. Romeo nodded, as a sign for Eric to continue. "How come Julie used to dislike you so much? What did you do to make her hate you?"

Eric had seen some of the things Romeo had done to Julie when they were younger, but he never knew how it started. The two had been rivals for most of elementary school and middle school. Eric had only moved there in fifth grade and had befriended Julie and Ivy immediately but no one had ever told him how it started.

Romeo scratched the back of his head. "Well, you know I was a jerk to her. You saw me pull her hair and tease her non stop."

"Yeah but how did it start?" Eric asked.

"Ooh I know! I was there!" Ivy exclaimed. Romeo nodded. She had been there. She didn't know every thing about it though.

~*Flashback*~

Second grade was when he first started to really notice her. Sure he'd seen her before, they had been in the same classes since kindergarten but he'd never really paid her too much attention. There were plenty of girls in his class after all. What made her so different?

What made her so different was apparently everything. As a first grader or kindergartener he never realized how different kids were from one another. He had always been too busy in his own world to notice.

She wasn't as social as the other girls were, but she wasn't completely antisocial either. Often she would sit by herself at where the grass and the pavement met and she would read a book. He noticed that she was friends with the loud girl of the class and that she would often sit only a couple of feet away from where her friend was shooting hoops.

He did not care for her friend. She was loud and kind of scary, although he would never admit that about a girl. Once his friend Connor went up to the loud girl and told her she couldn't play basketball with them. She ended up throwing the basketball at his face and giving Connor a bloody nose.

He would avoid her. He did not want to be on the loud girl's bad side.

The girl he liked though was different from her friend. She was softer, sweeter, gentler. She would always lie on the grass and read some book (it was different every week) that was a couple grades above the second grade reading level. Often when she saw her friend get into a fight she would calm the loud girl down.

She also had a fiery streak, he noticed after a few weeks of paying attention to her. She would often be dragged into her friend's disagreements and she wouldn't be so nice when it came to it. She had a way of saying things that were witty, cunning, and sly.

For some reason she just stuck out to him. His friends told him that she probably had cooties so for a while he stayed away. Eventually he got curious and decided to talk to his parents about it.

"Dad, aren't you ever afraid you're going to catch cooties? Cause mom's a girl and that means she has cooties. That's what Ian from my reading class said." Young Romeo asked while he watched his father start dinner one day. His dad laughed.

"Ro, your mom doesn't have cooties. This Ian kid doesn't know very much about girls yet. Don't worry, girls don't have cooties." Michael Cameron told his son. He wanted Romeo to have a healthy idea about girls. There was nothing wrong with wanting to befriend one.

"Oh okay thanks, Dad." Romeo trusted his father's advice over Ian's.

With this new knowledge he finally, after a couple weeks of paying attention to her, approached her.

She was lying on the grass, wearing a crown of daisies on her blond head, and reading a book. He couldn't see the cover because of the way she was laying.

"Uh hi!" He said in a oddly cheerful and slightly nervous tone.

She looked up at him and smiled sweetly. She had great big, blue eyes that seemed innocent and curious. Her smile seemed to match. She also had a couple light freckles dusted across the bridge of her nose.

"Hi," She replied back. She put a bookmark in her book and closed it, revealing the title was Once Upon a Marigold.

"Uh hi," He repeated.

She giggled. "You already said that."

"Oh right." He paused, trying to think of what to say. "I'm Romeo."

"Oh yeah! You're in my class right? 2A?" She said. He nodded. "Cool! I'm Juliet by the way, Juliet Hunter." She smiled at him again.

For some reason he was nervous. She was genuinely nice unlike some kids. When she had said her name he felt... Weird. Like his stomach was doing summersaults. He felt instinct wash over him. He bolted, running across the playground to where his friends were playing on the monkey bars.

She watched him run away with a questioning look on her face. Her blue eyes showed the confusion and hint of sadness she felt as she watched him leave. He seemed nice and honestly interested her. She shrugged it off and went back to her book.

That was the first time he really talked to her. That was the first attempt to befriend her, but it wouldn't be his last.