Scene:
St. Gabriel Intitute of Higher Learning.
Classroom 322-A
Tuesday, 4:04 pm

The first day of school was always a highly anticipated event (or a dreaded one) depending on your veiwpoint, and this first day was no different. The current class was Survey of British Literature 101. There were several unique and special personalities attending this class, including all five of the Gundam pilots.

Relena Peacecraft was attending the institute to get her degree in Politics and Social Sciences. Dorothy was attending also, seeking her certificate as a fencing instructor (they had two of the top fencing instructors in the country teaching at their school).

Oddly enough, all five of the Gundam Pilots (for whatever reason) were attending the same institute. They all now shared a Survey of British Literature class.

The class was set with three large tables in a "U" shape, like a giant squared-off horseshoe. There was the teachers desk directly in front of the tables and a window to one side. The entrance to the class room was on the wall behind the teachers desk, slightly off to the right. Three minutes before the bell rang the class was nearly full.

Smack in the middle of the center table sat Quatre Raberba Winner. To his right sat Trowa Barton, to his left a row of four girls engaged in debate over the stance taken by President Susanna Luchenko on the Sheridan affair. Half of them felt he should have gotten a medal and the other half beleived he should have been shot.

Three seats from the end on the right side sat Chang Wufei, taking classes in his spare time because of a renewed interst in scholorly pursuits. There were two boys seated on either side of him. Beyond those two boys sat Relena Peacecraft, who was pluged into her mini-discman listening to music and busily engaged in writing out the speech for a political function she had to attend that night and wasn't paying any attention to anything else. Next to her sat Dorothy Catalonia smiling her smug, superior little smile and taking in the room with the air of a cat waiting to pounce.

Far over on the left side of the table, hidden in the shadowyest, most remote corner that could be found, sat Heero Yuy, typing away at his laptop and ignoring everybody as ususal. Duo Maxwell rushed in just ahead of the bell, breathing heavily most probably from running to keep form being late on the first day. He looked around and took the empty seat next to Heero (Heero had been scaring people away all morning with that death glare of his.)

"Oi heero!" Duo greeted with his usual cheer. "I didn't know you were taking classes here, that's kinda funny that we should all get the same English class. I knew Wufei, Quatre and Dorothy were taking classes, but I'd heard that Relena was too busy to attend. Or maybe she just followed you here again!" He said, laughing at his own cleverness. "It wouldn't be the first time!"

Heero refused to dignify that comment with a response.

"Good afternoon class," said miss Bristol, the Brit. Lit. proffesor. "I, as many of you have probably already surmised, am your professor. We are all here to better ourselves and broaden our horizons-"

At this point Wufei grumbled something about injustice and being taught by a weak woman.

"Ah, Mr Chang!" said Miss Bristol, all too cheerfully. "Thank you for being so kind as to volunteer."

"I do not recall-" he began.

"Sure you do," she said with detirmined perkiness. "You just volunteered to start off our first little activity. We're all going to get to know each other a little better. Now, I'm sure that all of you are familiar, at least in some way, with the works of William Shakespeare. All of you have heard at least one quote by him or have been exposed to his works in some form or another, be it in another class or via movies or other media. What I want you all to do is to pick a quote by Shakespeare that you feel expresses you or represents you in some way. I'm going to give you all a few moments to think it over, you can talk to your neighbor if you'd like. And Miss Dorlian, put away whatever it is your writing on and join the discussion."

"Hm?" She quiried, looking up. "Oh. Right. My apologies." She obediantly put away her preliminary speech draft.

"Smae goes for you Mr. Yuy," said Bristol. "Put away the laptop."

Heero simply ignored her in favor of continuing whatever it was he was typing on. She shrugged, oh well...he probably wouldn't make it far in this class anyways. There would be numerous papers assigned that would require some form of self-expression. He didn't strike her as the sharing sort.

"Which quote are you going to pick, Miss Relena?" asked Dorothy.

"I don't know, I always liked the quote from Macbeth that goes, 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...creeps in this petty pace from day to day unto the last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury.Signifying nothing.' I always liked that quote."

"Yes, it is beautiful but not very much like your normal personality. I was thinking of that one scene in Hamlet with Rosencrantz and Guildensren and Hamlet. There were a couple of lines that always seemed to stick in my head for some reason...they were originally done as a celebration about all things good in mankind, but I think I'll give them a different reading."

Relena nodds, this would be good.

"Aww man, I don't know no Shakespeare!" said Duo.

"You might be surprised," said Heero suddenly, not looking up from his computer screen. "I've heard you quote him before, whether you knew it or not."

"Whaddya mean?" Duo asked curiously, looking over at him.

"You said it at the end of the last war...'alls well as ends well' that's a title of one of the comedies."

"Oh. Well I'll use that one then, thanks Heero!"

Heero didn't reply. So what else was new?

"Hey, how much ya wanna bet Wuffie picks something from 'Taming of the Shrew'?" said Duo to Heero.

Heero didn't even blink. Duo waved a hand in front of his face.

"Heloo-oo, anybody home?"

Heero shot him a deathglare that cuold have melted sand into glass and continued with whatever he was working on.

"Attention class. That should be enough time to pick one. Remember, you have to stand from your chairs and recite. Mr Chang, you're on first."

"Then what's on second?" called Duo from the left corner of the table.

Wufei ignored him, stood from his chair and said

"Ay! What fools these mortals be!"

"Very good, now would you care to explain why you chose this particualr quote?" Miss Bristol asked archly.

"Wufei is justice. Justice is Wufei. All others who do not have justice are weak! Weak! And foolish, for they do not have the integrity to command justice."

Miss Bristol sighed and massaged her temple with one hand.

"There's one in every class," she muttered. "Moving on...Quatre Winner, you will go next."

"Thank you Ma'am," he said, standing up. "For my qoute I chose a sonnet called, rather unimaginatively, Sonnet Number Four.
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:
Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,
Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.'

"That was lovely, Quatre. Would you care to explain why you chose it?"

"Well," he said consideringly. "I like music alot, and this poem had music as part of its main theme, no pun intended. That and it remeinded me of someone."

And only the very quick saw his eyes flicker to Dorothy, who sat lounging in her cair looking for all the world like an amused lioness.

"Ah, an excellent recitation," said miss Bristol, beaming at him approvingly. "Next up, Trowa Barton."

Trowa stood up, hid face habitually hooded behind his unusual hairstyle. In his quiet voice he said
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil.

Those who knew him well nearly died of shock. He was usually a man of very few words.

"An interesting selection Mr. Barton...what is it about that peice that moves you so?"

"Because I think it is a question we all struggle with from time to time. Wheather or not it is easier to give up and seek the final ending or keep going and see what else we can do."

Trowa was thinking of one time in particular whan he had wanted it all to end. Only his sister had stopped him, and later it turned out for the better that she had.

"Very insightful Mr. Barton, now I think we can all afford to take a break. Class resumes in five minutes."

No one really went anywhere, most simply turned to their neighbors and started talking. Relena hauled her speech back out and Dorothy read over her shoulder and remarked

"Miss Relena, I find it most out of charactor that you have not so much as said hello to Heero, or any of the others for that matter."

"I will later, I'm busy right now," she replied.

"that's all well and good, but I think that Duo Maxwell is talking about you to that crowd of students over there in the corner."

"I am aware of the situation Dorothy. Let it be."

Duo was looking at Heero saying
"I'd be willing to bet Relena picks something from that sappy romance 'Romeo and Juliet' and aims it not-so-subtly at you."

He then began doing an outrageous parody of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet pitching his voice really high-pitched and breathy.

"Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore art thou Romeo?"

He did a wicked mimic of Relena's voice, even going to the extent of cupping his hands around his mouth. The students nearby began busting up laughing. Duo looked pleased to finally be the center of attention.

Duo continued the lines making exagerated clutches at his chest and flinging one arm out while batting his eyelashes.

Across the room, Relena's eyes narrowed in anger.

"Of course you know, this means war!" She murmured to herself. Her hands were curled into fists in anger. Abruptly, she knew what she was going to do to him for making fun of her, two could play at that game.

"Break times over folks," called the instructor. "Up next Lisa Brown."

A light brown haired girl next to Quatre stood up and recited a line from King Lear. Then the girl next to her went, and the boy next to her and so on and so forth until the only ones left who hadn't said their lines were Dorothy, Heero and Relena.

"Mr Yuy, you may go next."

Heero glanced up from his laptop. And then stood.

"To thine own self be true," he said and sat down.

"Okay, now you have to explain why you chose that qoute," said the teacher patiently.

"Self explanatory." He began typing again.

For some reason the teacher let that one slide. Something told her not to press her luck with this young man.

"Miss Dorothy," she prompted.

Dorothy stood and started her qoute in a voice the simply ooozed scorn and sarcasm. Her very demenor, irony at its best.

What a piece of work is a man!" she said sacastically.
"How noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals!" That last sentence was loaded with all the sarcasm she could muster. And she could muster quite a lot.

"That was...interesting. I've never heard it read quite that way before, may I ask why you chose that particular peice?"

"Because, man is a fighting animal."

Relena groaned. "Not this again!" Dorothy smiled.

"I read it with sarcasm because I wished to point out the irony of man's condition. That we think ourselves so much better than every other living creature on this planet, a paragon if you will. And yet we do horrible things to others of our race based on our own petty differences."

It sounded to quatre like a little of Miss Relena was rubbing off on dorothy. Perhaps there was hope for her after all.

"miss Darlian, you're the last."

At this point Duo made a smart ass remark about the Romeo and Juliet thing again and those around him snickered. (Except for Heero once again, but Duo didn't really expect any kind of reply.)

Relena rose to her feet, with ponderous dignity. But instead of remaining in one place as all the others had she walked slowly across the room, planting each foot firmly on the floor at every step, making a loud clicking noise. Each movement was deliberate, and she was smiling, but somehow the smile seemed more feral than friendly. She was headed over to the corner where Heero sat near Duo.

When she arrived at the table Duo rolled his eyes, thinking he was correct. She really was going to do the bacony scene! How blunt could this girl get?!

However, when she got down to one knee and put on her very best 'I'm soo in love' feather headed look, she was staring not at heero, but at Duo! Her eyes wide and luminous with mock-devotion were batting at him, her voice and tone were sweet enough to have spun sugar and she clasped her hands next to her face a-la Dorothy as she began her swooning proclamaition of love.

"Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy."

And here she flung one arm out to the side, her voice filled with syrupy sweetness. By now the class had caught on that she was making fun of him. They were grinning, watching the show in respectful silence.
What, wilt thou hear some music,
my sweet love?

She turned up the sickening sweetnes another notch, fluttering her eylashes against her face. Duo didn't quite know what he was supposed to do and got the strange feeling that their dear, their highly esteemed Princess Relena had a streak of sadism in her, for she appeared to be privatly enjoying watching him squirm.

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist; the female ivy so
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!

And here she pertended to fall asleep, then made a big production of waking up. As she walked back over to her seat, in the middle of the room, she dilivered the punchline.

In a soft yet carrying voice, one that had reached to backs of audience chambers around the world and space, she miled deviously and said

"what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamour'd of an ass!"

The entire class burst out laughing. Some were holding their stomachs and other were clapping while they laughed. Duo for his part, took it in stride, it was his fault after all. He should not have been making fun of her...but it had been so nice to be the center of attention for a while! he'd never actually thought she would have responded in kind, just done something pacifisty, like turn the other cheek or something.

"That was..." the teacher smothered a little smile. "*cough* Very nice, Miss Dorlian. Now, what does it say about /you/?"

"That I'm in love with a jack ass!" she blurted out without thinking.

"Oh we've all had that feeling before!" said a girl sitting to her right with dark red hair. Her friends next to her giggled.

Heero had been pretending to ignore the entire fiasco in favor of typing away at his laptop, but had actually been observing it all and was puzzled about it's meaning. It had irked him something terrible when she had been looking at Duo and saying "Oh, how I love thee!" He'd felt a flash of something very dark, and very uncomfortable when she'd been speaking words of love at Duo and not at him...he wasn't entirely sure what it meant. Jealousy? He certainly had no business being jealous. For one thing, it was a distraction. Must remember to file away for future contemplation. And what was that line about her being in love with a jack ass? She couldn't seriously be talking about him!

The teacher wrapped up class with a small speech about how she hoped they'd all learned something about each other and that they were to read pages 35 through 41 by next class period, there would be a discussion about the poem.

They all filed slowly out of class, Dorothy headed to her fencing class, Heero to his Trigonometry class, Duo was up for chemistry (A.N. Duo around dangerous, possibly explosive chemicals...there's a scary thought indeed!) Wufei was up for his study in Ancient Civilizations, Trowa had acrobatics, Quatre was headed for the business wing and Relena had to leave to go make her speech.

<As first days go, it wasn't bad...> thought Relena as Pagan drove away.

Suddenly an explosion was heard from the science wing of the school. She could just barely hear Duo's voice say

"But it wasn't my fault!"

Perhaps she had spoken too soon.

THE END

Authors Note: I own nothing. Don't sue me, I have a whopping two bucks keeping my bank account open. Actually it's not even that much, it's a doller eighty five!

This story was something I came up with on the spur of the moment and decided to write down. I think it's a stand alone peice.