■ Helpless ■ Gilbert Blythe ■

Do a 'Romeo' and die

The next day, Victoria and Edward arrived early at the schoolhouse. It's wonderful how early one can arrive when they don't get lost.

Thankfully, Victoria was prepared for that and that morning, along with her school books she packed her copy of 'Romeo and Juliet'. Victoria sat in the classroom in the seat that she was assigned to the day before.

Victoria spent a good five minutes running through the very romantic and passionate words that were written down on the pages when the book was torn away from her hands. Victoria's eyes opened wide and she turned around to see who had taken the book. She turned instantly red with anger when she saw who it was.

"Romeo and Juliet, interesting," Billy Andrews smirked down at the girl who had stood up for her to grab it. "I never pegged you to be the romantic type. Well, I guess you should never judge a book by its cover."

Victoria raised onto her toes and tried to reach for her but Billy raised his hand to stop her from getting it. "Billy, stop it," Prissy told her brother but Billy didn't seem to mind. "So, tell me your Majesty, who do you picture as Romeo? Hopefully me."

Victoria rolled her eyes. "Of course, who else could it be? You'd be the perfect Romeo." Billy smirked and was going to hand Victoria her book back. "You are well aware that he dies in the end, don't you?"

Billy's smirk dropped, he took the book back tightly in his grip and quickly made his way towards the furnace in the middle of the room. Victoria quickly caught on what he was going to do. "No, NO! GIVE IT BACK!" Billy simply opened the furnace and threw the book in for it to burn.

Victoria felt the tears in her eyes as she stared at the furnace and heard Billy laugh with his friends. All the sadness turned into hatred as she turned to confront the boy. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you?"

"What did you say?" Billy remarked as he turned away from his friends. "Oh I'm sorry, did I stutter? I said, what is wrong with you?" Victoria asked as she walked closer to Billy and stared into his eyes. "Nothing is wrong. Now calm down, your Majesty."

Victoria scoffed. "Something is clearly wrong with you. Is your life that sad and pathetic that the only way in which you could be happy is by tormenting others? I'm sorry for you."

"It's a good thing that you're a girl or otherwise I would've already punched you."

"Oh no, I don't want you to hold back. You say it is because I'm a girl but that's just an excuse for your cowardice."

"I'm warning you, Edwards, if you don't shut up right now I'll-"

"You'll what, continue to bore me with your meaningless words?"

"Why don't you throw the first punch? I think that you're the one making excuses."

The two were close to one another, barely any barrier to keep the two from tearing at each other. Victoria noticed that she might have crossed the line and counted to ten silently in her mind. When she calmed down she was walked towards her desk. "All words and no action. And she calls me a coward."

Victoria forgot about counting to ten and started to make her way to punch him and quite possibly break his nose. A whole pandemonium happened as the rest of the pupils started shouting. Except Victoria couldn't get to Billy as she found herself being held back.

"Victoria, you need to calm down. Don't do anything you'll regret." Diana Barry said in a calm voice as she held tightly on the girl's arms. "The only thing I would regret is not punching him. Diana let me go!"

"If I let go will you promise me that you won't go after him?" Diana inquired which made Victoria scoff. "I can't promise you that." Diana gave Victoria a certain look. "Fine, I won't go after him." Diana smiled. "Now that's better."

"What is it with all the ruckus? Everyone take your seats." Mr Phillips stated as he entered the room to see everyone standing up. The students made their way towards their seats, thankfully none mentioned the whole ordeal to Mr Phillips.

Victoria, although she was mad was still sad about her book being burnt to a crisp and started to cry slightly. It was long until she felt a tap against her arm, she looked up away from the spot she was staring and looked at Diana who held out a handkerchief. Victoria smiled and took the handkerchief into her hand and used it to wipe her eyes.

Victoria in no way wanted to be there in the schoolhouse and for the first time, she didn't like school at all. "Miss Edwards, do you know the answer?"

Victoria's attention went onto the teacher who had cut her out of her daydream. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" The chuckles that she received made her blush.

"You would know exactly what I said if you were paying attention. I asked you to come up here and work this out for me. Now come on up, we don't have all day." Victoria did the last thing that she wanted to do and stood up and walked towards the board. She had no idea what they were even doing except that it was math.

Victoria stared at the algebraic equation on the board and stared at it, trying to figure out what they were doing. "If you don't know it then do us a favour and si-" Mr Phillips begun but stopped when he noticed Victoria grabbing the piece of chalk and started writing in a fast speed.

It only took about ten seconds until she figured out the answer. Victoria placed the chalk back down and took a step back. "Well, is it correct?" Victoria asked her teacher who was staring at the board. "It's correct, go back to your seat." Victoria smiled slightly to her teacher and herself after proving that she did know what she was doing.