Hidden Girl

19- Twelfth Night

The day before we get to leave school for Christmas break, Alex and I finally have to do our mini performance of Shakespeare.

When he calls our names for our turn, we walk up there and my face immediately goes red. I hate it when everyone is looking at me.

"First I would like a brief summary of what has happened in your play before the scene that you chose," the literature teacher tells us (I forgot his name). "Aurora and Alex. You may begin whenever you would like to."

I take a deep breath as Alex begins to summarize the play we chose.

"Twelfth Night takes place in Ilyria. There was a shipwreck that separated the twins; Sebastian, which will be played by me, and Viola. Viola believes her brother is dead so she dresses as a boy and serves in the court of Orsino since it is not safe to be a single woman with no real family back then. Lady Olivia, a countess played by Aurora, has a major crush on Viola, who is dressed as a man and calls herself Cesario. She sees me in trouble and saves me, Sebastian, thinking that I'm Cesario. In this scene, you will see Olivia mistaking Sebastian for Cesario and how she truly feels towards him."

"Beautiful," the teacher smiles. "You may begin."

I take a deep breath and look at Alex. He nods his head and smiles at me in support. He believes in me, and my chest swells with that knowledge as I say my first line. "I prithee, gentle friend, forgive my uncle for his rude and barbaric ways. Come into my house with me, and let me serve upon your soul."

I speak my lines fluently since Alex helped me to stop sounding like a robot. After he got me to stop that, I actually put emotion into it.

Alex then looks to the class as though he is speaking to himself. He speaks very well when reading Shakespeare's plays, and he speaks even better when he puts so much emotion into it, like he is doing now. "Am I mad, or do I dream? Most men, in joy, would weep! If this lady love me, then let me sleep!"

I turn to him and say,"My love, why look you so astonished? I offer you my heart, but I may offer you more. Will you to the priest with me? There I'll give you my hand, and my estate will be yours."

Alex looks at me in shock, just like we practiced. "My lady-"

"Blame not this haste of him," I tell him as I grab his hand in love and step close to him, in wanting to be his, just as we rehearsed. "If you'll be true, come with me, and we'll be married. What say you?"

"Oh happy day!" Alex smiles as he pulls me closer so that our bodies are against each other and both of my hands are now in his. I freak out a little bit because this was not practiced, but I trust Alex enough that I'm sure he knows what he's doing. "I'll go with you. And, having sworn truth, ever will be true!"

We were supposed to turn and run hand in hand, but Alex had different plans.

He bends down and kisses me right on the lips without any hesitation. He reaches up to caress me face as I put my hands on his chest, getting lost in his touch. I could've been there for seconds, minutes, or hours; I really don't know. All I really know is I never want to leave his arms, never again.

We finally release each other and I take a step back from him. What really just happen? We didn't plan that. It was all for the acting, right?

The class immediately bursts into applause and I even hear some whoops. My face goes red and the teacher walks up to the front of class. He looks almost teary-eyed.

He puts his hand on Alex's shoulder and smiles widely. "That was beautiful," he smiles as he wipes the corner of his eye. "I've always been a softie, but that was absolutely beautiful. Any comments?"

Jenny's boyfriend, Derek, raises his hand and Mr. Teacher calls on him. I know that Derek used to really be into acting, but not so much anymore. I'm kind of scared to hear what he has to say.

"I could feel the love coming out in each line," Derek tells us really honestly. "And that kiss just sealed the deal. It was so real looking. I know you guys are really close friends, I could've sworn that you both have been dying to do that for awhile. It was just beautiful to watch."

I blush deeply at that but Alex just swings his arm around my shoulders and laughs at that comment, but doesn't say anything.

"Well that was amazing," Mr. Teacher tells the class as he heads to the back of the room. "Because of that, I will have high expectations for the rest of you. Up next..."

There were numerous Romeo and Juliet scenes performed and I rubbed it in Alex's face every time since we almost did that play. At the end of class, numerous classmates that I don't even know came up and told us how well we did. Ours was mainly different since no one else kissed in theirs though...

We walk out of class and head to health. For some odd reason, a couple days ago Alex ended up in all of my classes. I swear he asked his counselor to switch them since he just wanted to watch out for me. Either way, we now go everywhere together.

"You said your lines excellently," Alex tells me as we walk to health with a grin. "Even better than at practice."

"You didn't do so bad yourself," I smile as I bump into shoulder. He bumps me back since he never lets me get away with it; he always needs revenge, no matter how tiny.

"Why do you smile so much more than you did when we didn't know each other?" Alex asks as we walk into the classroom early.

I sigh before giving him my most honest answer. "Well when I see you smile, it makes me smile. Seeing you smiling creates this idea in my head that maybe life isn't so bad and sometimes it's worth smiling about."

Alex just smiles at me and I do as I always do; I smile back, my mind though on how he kissed me.

Just for the grade I remind myself