"Don't. You won't win."
“Yeah, she was pretty cool,” agreed Aladdin, hitching his rucksack onto his shoulder.
“Compared to Mr Frollo, anyone’s cool!” Hercules pointed out.
Belle alisema nothing; she just pressed closer to Adam as he gave her a squeeze and looked over at Flynn over the juu of his head. “What’s next; English?”
“Yep!” Flynn sighed. “Romeo and Juliet! Great!”
“Oh, yes!” Belle sighed. “I upendo Shakespeare!”
“But it doesn’t make sense!” Flynn insisted.
Belle made an indignant noise. “Shakespearean dialect is the easiest language in the world; all he’s doing is making simple dialogue sound beautiful and poetic!”
“Don’t,” Adam alisema as Flynn opened his mouth to argue. “You won’t win.” He kissed the juu of Belle’s head. “Trust me.”
“Seriously,” alisema Flynn, looking startled at the mischievous, knowing grin on Belle’s face, “good luck with her, Adam!”
“Hey!” Belle exclaimed, pretending to swat him.
“Oh, ignore him, Belle!” laughed Merrida. “We all know that Flynn Rider’s all mouth and no trousers!”
“Besides we can always drown him for wewe if he really gets on your nerves,” added Hercules, grabbing Flynn in a friendly headlock as they started to wrestle in the corridor.
“Men!” sighed Rapunzel, rolling her eyes. And then, to Adam, “No offence.”
“None taken,” he replied, brushing Belle’s hair back from her face.
“Come on, guys, stop mucking around and let’s get to class!” alisema John.
Once zaidi Belle opted to sit beside Adam. It was nice that the girls were so understanding about her feeling torn between the two. She resolved to try and sit beside them in class the inayofuata day.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry I’m late,” alisema Mr Nathaniel, hurrying into the room with about two dozen sheets of paper. “Now, Romeo and Juliet; Shakespeare’s most famous pair of tragic lovers. We shall begin with the blunt swali – who is to blame for the tragedy kwa the end of the story? The lovers themselves? Friar Lawrence? The parents?”
Adam put his hand up. “I’d say Friar Lawrence is the most to blame, Mr Nathaniel. If he hadn’t convinced Romeo and Juliet to sneak around so much behind their parents back...if he had just been the neutral party who had told the parents that their children were in love, maybe things would have turned out differently.”
“Interesting view, Adam,” alisema Mr Nathaniel.
Belle put up her hand. “I’m afraid I disagree, Adam,” she said, turning to him. “If the whole feud hadn’t started in the first place, things might have turned out differently. Romeo and Juliet might have lived.”
“But,” Adam countered, “without the feud, Romeo and his Marafiki wouldn’t have felt the need to gatecrash the Capulets’ masquerade party in the first place. Romeo and Juliet might never have met.”
“Perhaps,” she agreed, “but then if the parents hadn’t made their children so afraid to tell them about their feelings, well, I still maintain the view that they’re to blame. And Tybalt didn’t exactly help matters kwa making the feud worse.”
“True.” Adam smiled. He actually enjoyed arguing with her; even though this was zaidi of a debate than an argument. “Perhaps we should agree to disagree about this.”
“Perhaps,” she agreed, teasingly, looking at Mr Nathaniel. “I think it’s a swali with many possible answers, Mr Nathaniel.”
“Well, yes, you’ve both mad very passionate points about the play,” alisema Mr Nathaniel, turning to the blackboard and beginning to write on it. “Of course, had Romeo and Juliet found the courage to run away together when they had the chance, again, things might have worked out differently.”
“But then,” added Rapunzel, putting her hand up, “would the feud have been resolved between the families?”
Mr Nathaniel nodded. “That is the question,” he agreed, tapping the quotation he had written on the blackboard. “Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,” he said, “meaning that, in Shakespeare’s view, the story couldn’t have ended any other way because only Romeo and Juliet’s deaths could end the feud.”
“I still blame the parents,” Belle murmured to Adam in a sing-song tone.
“I still blame Friar Lawrence,” he countered, kissing her cheek.
She giggled. “As wewe said, we shall agree to disagree here.”
The rest of the lesson was spent with the class kusoma out the first act of Romeo and Juliet and then discussing what was meant kwa various phrases and terms in the script. kwa the time class was over, everyone was chattering excitedly and even Flynn seemed to have changed his opinions about the Bard’s work. “Seems wewe were right,” he alisema to Belle. “It is pretty easy once wewe get the hang of it.”
“Shakespeare wasn’t made to be read,” she told him, “it was made to be seen. Makes zaidi sense when wewe see a play.”
“I upendo the balcony scene!” sighed Rapunzel, twirling and then stumbling over her hair.
“I’ve had that,” jimmy, hunitumia replied, glanced at Aladdin, who blushed.
“Aw, that’s so romantic!” Rapunzel gushed, and then she tripped over her hair and landed flat on her face.
“Very ladylike,” laughed Flynn, bending down to pick her up. “Seriously, wewe need to get this cut, Punzy!”
“Are wewe alright?” Belle asked her.
“Oh, fine, it happens all the time,” she said, airily.
“Well,” Meg stretched. “I say we skip chajio, chakula cha jioni here and go down the tavern for a meal! I’m bushed! I think we’ve earned it!”
“Word,” agreed Hercules.
“Yeah, I’m for that,” Aladin said.
“Great!” Meg grinned. “So we’ll all get our glad rags on and meet in say half an hour?”
“Make it one hour,” alisema Rapunzel, gathering up her hair. “I want to plait this.”
“I’ll give wewe a hand,” alisema Merrida.
Everyone went their separate ways, apart from Adam and Belle. Belle hesitated. “I was kind of hoping we could do something together tonight. wewe know, without the guys; not that I don’t upendo them, but, well...”
“I know,” Adam smiled. “And I was going to ask if wewe wanted to come to chajio, chakula cha jioni with me tonight; just the two of us. I know this great restaurant; quite and cosy.”
Belle smiled. “That sounds wonderful. I’d upendo to go there with you, Adam.”
“Great.” He kissed her. “I’ll meet wewe in half an hour?”
“Half an hour; kwa the front doors?”
“I’ll be there.”
Belle leaned up and kissed him softly again. “I can’t wait,” she breathed.
“Aw, that’s so sweet!” cooed Snow White when Belle told her Marafiki about her change of plans. She gave Belle a hug. “I’m so happy for you!”
“Thanks, Snow!” Belle replied.
“What are wewe wearing?” asked Meg. “Not your yellow dress again; that’d be way too much for a first date.”
“No, I’m going to wear my pink one,” Belle replied, plucking it from the wardrobe.
“Nice,” grinned Jasmine. “Good luck.”
Half an saa later, Belle skipped merrily down the stairs to meet Adam. He was dressed in a similar outfit than he had worn to the school dance, but somehow it looked zaidi casual. He smiled at her. “You look lovely, Belle.”
“Thanks, and wewe look very...distinguished,” she replied, taking his arm. “So, what is this place called?”
“Well, it’s called Mudka's Meat Hut, but trust me, it isn’t as rough as the name makes it sound, honestly.”
“I trust you.”
She was right to. The restaurant was right at the juu of a kilima but it looked warm and inviting. Belle leaned against Adam. “It does look cosy,” she agreed.
He slipped his arm around her. “And the food’s really good too.”
The chef, a somewhat daft but kind man named Kronk, served up some wonderful chakula for them; baked camembert for starters, mchicha puffs with potatoes and siagi for the main and finally chokoleti and strawberry sundaes for dessert; all alongside some very interesting mapera, pera juisi to drink. It was lovely. It also gave Belle and Adam zaidi opportunity to talk together than they got in school; and they could touch on subjects that were nothing to do with school whatsoever.
“I think,” alisema Belle as they finally left, “that this has been the most romantic night of my whole life. Thank wewe so much, Adam.”
“You’re welcome, Belle.”
There was no one around and so beneath the starlight they kissed, passionately and romantically. Or, at least, they thought that no one was around. From the shadow of a large shady tree, Gaston glared at them. He was still lusting after Belle and now that she was with Adam, he hated the man zaidi than he already had done. As the lovers walked back to the school, he watched them with a sneer. “Enjoy it while wewe can, Adam,” he muttered, “it’s not going to last much longer for you.”
“It does look cosy.”
