"Belle, you've gone pink as your dress!"
“Too much sun! Too early!”
“The bell’s about to ring,” Belle pointed out and a secondo later it did. Snow White groaned again. “Why do te always have to be right?”
“Come on!” Meg battered her with her own pillow. “Get up and at ‘em! It’s the football game today, remember?” She looked over at Belle. “You alright, sweetie?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Of course she is!” gelsomino grinned, sitting up. “She was dreaming about someone with lovely blue eyes last night!”
“Shut up,” Belle smiled.
gelsomino laughed. “Seriously! I’ve never known Adam to give a hug to anyone in his life before! What the heck did te do to him?”
“I have no idea,” Belle mused.
The four girls dressed and made their way down to breakfast. Adam was sitting with the boys, but when Belle walked in he looked up and smiled in her direction. Belle returned it. gelsomino and Meg nudged one another and Snow White giggled. They ate and then trooped out to watch the game.
“Oh!” sighed Meg as the players came out. It was red shirts vs blue. “Why can they never play shirts vs skins?”
“In this weather?” gelsomino exclaimed. “The Skins would all get sunburn!”
“Besides, te just want to see Herc with his camicia off!” teased Snow White.
Meg blushed. “What’s wrong with that?”
Belle watched Adam, who was in blue, on the same team as Hercules and Aladdin. Flynn was on the other team, but she heard him shout to Adam “Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you!”
“Don’t do me any favours!” Adam laughed back.
Belle smiled. Flynn might be her friend but she was definitely rooting for blue. Gaston was on the red team and she felt a pit of dread in her stomach. She hoped he wasn’t about to try anything with everyone else around. But, as the game began, she saw that Adam was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.
“Wahoo!” Meg cheered as Hercules scored the winning touchdown, and then, embarrassed, clapped politely to save her dignity. “I mean, well done.”
Belle smiled as she watched the blue team congratulating each other. I’ve got butterflies, she realised as she smiled at Adam. Flynn clapped his Friends good-naturedly on their backs, but Gaston, looking thunderous that they had lost, stomped off the pitch.
“Belle, you’ve gone rosa as your dress!” Meg hissed.
Belle felt her cheeks, hurriedly. They were rather warm. “It’s hot,” she stammered.
“No, you’re hot. Hot for Adam.”
“Shut up!”
“Great game!” announced Mr Phil. “Now, off with te all!”
They had Musica and Drama that afternoon. Belle quite liked this class. Mr Genie was a riot, forever bursting into song o doing impressions of animali o people – being a genie, that came naturally to him. Belle spent her break time away from the others in the biblioteca and when it was time for class, she made her way there alone. To her surprise, someone was already in there. She could hear the Pianoforte playing a beautiful melody; soft, lilting, low...
She stepped into the room. Adam looked up. “Oh, hello, Belle.”
He sounded like he was trying to disguise the fact that he was happy to see her. “I didn’t know te played, Adam,” she said, walking up to the piano.
“Well, there’s still a lot te don’t know about me, Belle,” he replied, with a smile.
“What was it te were playing just now?”
Adam looked embarrassed. “Just a piece I wrote a little while back.”
“Does it have a name?”
He looked even più embarrassed. “Well, actually...I call it...Belle.”
She looked at him in surprise. “You named it after me?”
“Well, it’s sort of about you. Listen.” Adam flexed his fingers and began to play. Belle sank down beside him and listened. There were no words; just music, but it sounded like her, somehow. “Adam, that’s amazing. It’s so...beautiful.”
“I know.” Adam looked flustered and ceased playing. He cleared his throat. “Well, I mean, it’s still a work in progress.”
“Well, I wish I could hear it every day.”
“I could make te a CD.” Adam looked up at her. “If te like.”
“Would you?”
“Yes.”
Belle looked at him. She didn’t know whether to feel flattered o awkward. “Thank you,” she finally said. “That would be...great.”
Adam smiled. “Right. Well, I’ll...get to work on that, then.”
Belle blushed and she tried to think of something to say that might make the situation less awkward. “Well done for winning the game, da the way. I was rooting for your team.”
Adam laughed. “Thanks, but tell me that wasn’t te that shouted out when Hercules won us the game.”
“No!” It was Belle’s turn to laugh. “That was Meg!”
“Ah! Should have guessed!” Adam smiled. “Yes, I don’t suppose your boyfriend would have been very impressed if you’d been the one cheering for Hercules.”
“Boyfriend?” Belle stammered. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“You don’t?” Was it her imagination o did Adam sound a little relieved as he detto it?
“No. What made te think that?”
“Aladdin detto that gelsomino had told Gaston te had a boyfriend.”
“Oh! No, she just detto that to get Gaston to leave me alone. And it clearly didn’t work.” Belle ducked her head, embarrassed. “I’m not going out with anyone.”
“Oh.” Adam smiled. “I was going to say; if te were, he didn’t do a very good job of protecting te from Gaston.”
Belle looked up at him. “Thank te for saving me.”
“Belle, you’ve thank me about six times already. But for the sixth time, you’re welcome.”
“Alrighty!” Mr Genie was in the room as the rest of the class filed in. Belle and Adam turned. “Let’s make some magic! Everybody gather around. We’re gonna try a little Shakespeare exercise. First, find yourself a partner.”
Belle looked around gelsomino and Meg had already bagged one another and Snow White had run up to Aurora with a smile. “Do te want to be partners?” she stammered to Adam.
He gave her a reassuring smile. “Sure.”
“Alrighty, then! Spread out! Now, what I want te to do is choose a little bit of Shakespearean dialogue and improvise a scene as those two characters. If you’re stuck for ideas, ask me! Otherwise, enjoy! te have five minutes!”
“Any ideas?” Adam asked.
“Well, I really like that scene where Benvolio talks to Romeo about his Amore for Rosaline; te know, when he’s trying to find out what’s wrong with him?”
“Good morrow, cousin? I can do that. I know Romeo’s lines da heart.”
“Oh, well, I’ll be Benvolio, then.”
In a quiet corner of the room, they worked until Mr Genie announced their time was up. Adam was surprisingly fun to work with, and, Belle was surprised to learn, he had a clear understanding of what he was actually saying when reciting Shakespeare.
“Ok, who wants to go first?” Mr Genie asked, excitedly. “How about te two?”
He pointed to Belle and Adam. Belle felt a quiver of nerves in her stomach. “Come on,” Adam murmured, “we can do this.”
Belle nodded and took a deep breath. “Good morrow, cousin.”
Adam sighed. “Is the giorno so young?”
He gave her confidence to go on. “But new struck nine.”
“Aye me, sad hours seem long. Was that my father that went hence so fast?”
“It was.” Belle took a deep breath and tried to sound jolly and upbeat. “What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?”
“Not having that which, having, makes them short,” Adam grinned, playfully.
“In love?”
“Out.”
“Of love?”
“Out of her favour where I am in love.”
“Alas,” sighed Belle, “that Amore so gentle in his view should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!”
“Alas,” Adam countered, “that Amore whose view is muffled still should without eyes see pathways to his will.” He patted her arm. “Where shall we dine? Oh, me, what fray was here? Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here's much to do with hate, but più with love. Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This Amore feel I, that feel no Amore in this. Dost thou not laugh?”
“No, coz, I rather weep.”
“Good heart, at what?”
“At thy good heart’s oppression.”
“Why, such is love's transgression. Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest with più of thine: this Amore that thou hast shown doth add più grief to too much of mine own. Amore is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; being purged, a fuoco sparkling in lovers' eyes; being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears: what is it else? a madness most discreet, a choking gall and a preserving sweet. Farewell, my coz.”
“Soft,” Belle concluded, with a passion, “I will go along, and if te leave me so, te me wrong.”
There was a brief pin-drop of a pause and then the class erupted into applause. “Fantastic!” exclaimed Mr Genie. “Well done! I loved the way te two acted that together! te clearly gave a lot to thought to the character’s emotions! Well done!”
Belle felt her blush rising again as she sat down beside her Friends on the floor. “That was amazing!” hissed Snow White. “You and Adam definitely should work together in Drama again!”
"Let's make some magic!"
“I’ve got so much to tell you.”
