imagine: partnered with hamlet for a group project
'All right class! It's time to partner up for group projects!' your teacher, Mr Shakespeare, announces. There's a buzz of chatter before he adds, 'I've already assigned you partners, so don't get any ideas.'
A collective groan goes round the room as Mr Shakespeare starts passing out the list of pairs. When it gets to you, you scan it anxiously, hoping to have been paired with someone you know. You've always been quite shy - bullied by the popular Kylie Jenner wannabe girls - and the prospect of having to partner with someone new is making you feel decidedly queasy. It would just be your luck if you were partnered with one of the jocks of the class - someone like Guildenstern or Laertes.
God - or perhaps Mr Shakespeare - has a different plan in mind for you, though. Because the name listed next to yours is one you know, but barely.
It takes all of your courage to approach Hamlet when the class is over, but you've always been a straight-A student and you're determined not to let that slip now. He's cramming stuff into his black backpack, at his seat at the back of the class. With his My Chemical Romance t-shirt and fingerless gloves, he's the image of rebel cool.
'Umm, Hamlet?'
He looks up, his black side fringe falling into his cerulean eyes. 'Y/N,' he says, in a flat monotone.
You're surprised he knows your name for a second, before realising he got it off the list.
'Yeah. So how are we going to do this? We could meet at my house after school - '
'No,' he says immediately, zipping up his backpack and beginning to move towards the door. You follow him.
'What do you mean, no? We have to do the assignment.'
'Yeah, and you must be kicking yourself. Stuck with Crazy Hamlet. Bet you'd give anything for a trade, huh?'
'I don't think you're crazy,' you say quietly.
Hamlet stops in his tracks. He's got a pierced eyebrow, you realise. 'You're the only person who's ever said that?'
Ignoring that statistical improbability, you take another step towards him. 'Look, why don't we just give it a go? I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not exactly popular either.'
He sighs, a definite indicator of some repressed trauma that he'll spend the first date crying about.
'Okay,' he says, 'but we're not studying at your house. I've got a better place in mind.'
You raise your eyebrows. Much like Emma Watson's Hermione Granger, they convey 80% of your emotions. 'Oh?'
'Meet me at the cemetery,' he says. 'Bring some candles.'
