"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 sinabi nothing; she just pressed closer to Adam as he gave her a squeeze and looked over at Flynn over the tuktok of his head. “What’s next; English?”
“Yep!” Flynn sighed. “Romeo and Juliet! Great!”
“Oh, yes!” Belle sighed. “I pag-ibig 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 sinabi as Flynn opened his mouth to argue. “You won’t win.” He kissed the tuktok of Belle’s head. “Trust me.”
“Seriously,” sinabi 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 you 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!” sinabi John.
Once madami 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 susunod day.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry I’m late,” sinabi 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 tanong – who is to blame for the tragedy sa pamamagitan ng the end of the story? The mga manliligaw 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,” sinabi 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 mga kaibigan wouldn’t have felt the need to gatecrash the Capulets’ pagbabalatkayo 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 sa pamamagitan ng making the feud worse.”
“True.” Adam smiled. He actually enjoyed arguing with her; even though this was madami of a pagtatalo than an argument. “Perhaps we should agree to disagree about this.”
“Perhaps,” she agreed, teasingly, looking at Mr Nathaniel. “I think it’s a tanong with many possible answers, Mr Nathaniel.”
“Well, yes, you’ve both mad very passionate points about the play,” sinabi 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, halik her cheek.
She giggled. “As you said, we shall agree to disagree here.”
The rest of the lesson was spent with the class pagbaba out the first act of Romeo and Juliet and then discussing what was meant sa pamamagitan ng various phrases and terms in the script. sa pamamagitan ng the time class was over, everyone was chattering excitedly and even Flynn seemed to have changed his opinions about the Bard’s work. “Seems you were right,” he sinabi to Belle. “It is pretty easy once you get the hang of it.”
“Shakespeare wasn’t made to be read,” she told him, “it was made to be seen. Makes madami sense when you see a play.”
“I pag-ibig the balcony scene!” sighed Rapunzel, twirling and then stumbling over her hair.
“I’ve had that,” hasmin 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, you need to get this cut, Punzy!”
“Are you alright?” Belle asked her.
“Oh, fine, it happens all the time,” she said, airily.
“Well,” Meg stretched. “I say we skip hapunan 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,” Aladdin said.
“Great!” Meg grinned. “So we’ll all get our glad rags on and meet in say half an hour?”
“Make it one hour,” sinabi Rapunzel, gathering up her hair. “I want to plait this.”
“I’ll give you a hand,” sinabi Merrida.
Everyone went their separate ways, apart from Adam and Belle. Belle hesitated. “I was kind of hoping we could do something together tonight. You know, without the guys; not that I don’t pag-ibig them, but, well...”
“I know,” Adam smiled. “And I was going to ask if you wanted to come to hapunan with me tonight; just the two of us. I know this great restaurant; quite and cosy.”
Belle smiled. “That sounds wonderful. I’d pag-ibig to go there with you, Adam.”
“Great.” He kissed her. “I’ll meet you in half an hour?”
“Half an hour; sa pamamagitan ng 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 mga kaibigan about her change of plans. She gave Belle a hug. “I’m so happy for you!”
“Thanks, Snow!” Belle replied.
“What are you 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 kulay-rosas one,” Belle replied, plucking it from the wardrobe.
“Nice,” grinned Jasmine. “Good luck.”
Half an oras 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 madami casual. He smiled at her. “You look lovely, Belle.”
“Thanks, and you 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 tuktok of a burol 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 pagkain for them; baked camembert for starters, spinach puffs with potatoes and mantikilya for the main and finally tsokolate and presa sundaes for dessert; all alongside some very interesting bayabas juice to drink. It was lovely. It also gave Belle and Adam madami 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,” sinabi Belle as they finally left, “that this has been the most romantic night of my whole life. Thank you 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 madami than he already had done. As the mga manliligaw walked back to the school, he watched them with a sneer. “Enjoy it while you can, Adam,” he muttered, “it’s not going to last much longer for you.”
“It does look cosy.”
