We manage to get to class almost uneventfully. There had been a second when Gabe had looked like he wanted to start something with Casey, but then he’d seen me and backed down
Casey enters the English classroom and takes a seat toward the back of the room.
"Morning, class." Miss Burke says as she glances up from her lesson plan book. She looks startled for a second as she sees me, then she nods coolly. "Zeke, how nice of you to rejoin the class."
I glare at her for a moment, warning her not to start anything, but back off almost immediately. She got the shitty end of this deal. Lashing out would just be mean.
Doesn’t mean I won’t do it. Just means I won’t do it yet.
"Where the fuck do I sit in this class again?" I mutter.
"Third row, third seat from the back." she says, turning back to her lesson book. "I’m trusting everyone’s read Macbeth."
She glances up at me pointedly.
"You’re way too trusting, Miss Burke." I say pointedly, then head to my seat. "Mel Gibson’s in that, right?"
"Actually, that was Hamlet, Zeke." Miss Burke says. "Right author, wrong movie."
Casey glances at me for a second, an amused smile on his face, then turns his attention back to Miss Burke, who launches into a boring recap of the plot of Macbeth.
The only reason I pay attention at all is out of respect to Miss Burke. I wonder if the other teachers have figured out I only pay attention in her class because she put out? That might get weird if other teachers copy her technique.
I decided it’s much less creepy to try to figure out why Casey was smiling like that, which tells you how creepy the idea of banging any of the other teachers is. I’ll admit, it has something to do with the fact they were all turned into aliens.
Casey is only marginally paying attention to Miss Burke. He’s writing again in his notebook. Every once and a while he glances up at me and stares at me for a few seconds. He only does it when he thinks I’m not looking and if he catches me looking, he immediately looks down at his notebook.
"Zeke, what do you think is the major theme of the play?" Miss Burke asks, eying Casey momentarily, before focusing her attention back on me.
"I don’t know. I’m still back at Lady Macbeth getting sexed by spirits." I say before I can think better of it. Shit. No fucking around in THIS class. "Uh, that was ‘unsexed’ right?"
Miss Burke clears her throat, blushing, as students snicker around me. Casey’s head is bowed and he’s again writing in his notebook, his curled up hand pressed against his mouth.
"Um, yes, Zeke, that is. . .‘unsexed’ is correct." she says. "And why did Lady Macbeth want to be unsexed?"
"Mr. Macbeth was shitty in bed?" I offer with a shrug.
Fuck, I gotta stop screwing around.
Miss Burke shakes her head, looking disappointed. "Anyone else?"
"She wants to be a man, so that she has power instead of her husband and she doesn’t have to control it through him." Casey says softly, never taking his eyes off his paper.
"Finally, someone that actually reads the assignments." Miss Burke says, nodding.
Casey blushes, squirming in his seat.
"Wait, wait wait wait, what?" I ask, looking at Casey. "She said ‘UNsex,’ not CHANGE sex!"
I make a face, halfway towards sulking.
"Shakespeare’s fucking stupid." I grumbled. "Whoops. Sorry Miss Burke. Didn’t mean to swear."
Miss Burke scowls. "Shakespeare was brilliant, Zeke." she says. "And it’s metaphorically speaking, not to mention Shakespeare spoke Elizabethan English."
"But you’re making it sound like she wanted to grow a penis or something." I insist. "That’s dumb. She probably just wanted to help Mr. Macbeth out, ‘cause he sounds like a whiney loser."
The class snickers and Miss Burke rubs her forehead. "It’s not so much that she wanted to grow a. . .penis, Zeke." she says. "It’s more that she wanted the power her husband had."
"I want you all to take out a sheet of paper and write an essay on the themes of Macbeth." she says. "What does Macbeth teach us about distrust and betrayal?"
There is a chorus of groans from most of the students.
"Welllll, this isn’t personal at all." I mutter, only loudly enough so Casey can hear. What the fuck? Since when was Macbeth about distrust and betrayal? I didn’t betray anyone. I whacked off once and thought about some cute geek while doing it. . .
Shit. I just thought of Casey as cute. Shit shit shit.
Casey glances at me, looking amused. "Does this mean the honeymoon’s over?" he asks quietly, so that only I hear.
"Huh?" I grunt, looking at him curiously. "Use small words, Casey. I’m a burnout."
He chuckles. "Honeymoon’s too big a word for you? I’d lay off the weed then."
He writes a bit in his notebook, then glances at me, blue eyes filled with curiosity. "So what’d you do to piss her off?" he asks.
"Acted like a jerk." I say, then laugh and shake my head. Whoo, if he only knew.
"Oh." Casey says. Then he nods and turns his attention back to his notebook.
Only to glance at me again a few minutes later. "So then. . .that means you two are. . .no more?"
"Done." I say with a nod. I reach over and grab Casey’s copy of Macbeth and start flipping through it, trying to figure out this ‘unsexed’ bullshit.
"Oh." he says, blinking. "Cool."
He goes back to writing, but I can feel his eyes on me every once and a while.
"Why is it cool?" I ask, shooting him a quick look. Weird response. Whoa. Witches. Cool.
He blushes, shrugging. "Oh. You know. She’s too old for you. Not to mention she’s your teacher."
He squirms and slouches down lower in his seat.
"Oh. Yeah. Yeah you’re right." I admit. "It was a stupid thing to do. I do a lot of stupid things though."
As I read through the pages, I’m surprised to discover it’s not THAT hard to understand. Flaky as shit, but not hard to understand.
"Right." Casey says softly. "So. . .you’re going, right? To the Reverb tonight? I mean, you told Stokely I was. . ."
"If it’ll make you uncomfortable, I won’t." I insist, only half paying attention. Ah HA! HERE’S the part! Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here. . .
"No, it won’t." Casey says quickly. "I mean. . .if you don’t want to go, that’s cool. I was just. . .ya know, Stokely’s gonna be there and Stan and I’ll feel awkward."
"Well, it’s not like I have anything better to do." I mutter as I read. "Fuck, Shakespeare never met Delilah if he thinks that women are naturally nice to people."
Casey snorts. "I don’t think Delilah has ever been nice a day in her life."
He glances at me, nodding at the book. "Good read?"
"Is she talking about killing babies here?" I ask, pointing out part of the passage. "Dashed the brains out? Wha? Oh, and Delilah’s a cunt."
Oops. If Miss Burke hears me using that word she’ll kick my ass. She hates it.
"Huh?" Casey says, blinking. "Oh, fuck, I dunno. I haven’t read Macbeth in four years."
He leans over to look at the passage I’ve pointed out.
"You’re shitting me." I respond, setting down the book incredulously. "You read Macbeth when you were, like, twelve?"
"Yeah." Casey says, blushing. "Technically, I was eleven. I’m not eighteen for another two weeks."
"Holy fuck. You’re smarter than I thought." I mumble, rubbing my forehead. "The rest of us must seem like total morons to you. Especially me."
. . .
It’s hopeless.
. . .
Stop thinking like that, Zeke.
Casey smiles. "Nah. You’ve got other endearing qualities."
Then he blushes brightly, clears his throat and grabs the book, burying his nose in it.
I look at him with a mix of confusion and shock, but I don’t say anything. Endearing qualities? What fucking endearing qualities? I try very hard NOT to be endearing.
Fuck, why does he have to be so weird?!
I get the fuck out of class as soon as I possibly can, and go hide in the boys’ bathroom. I’m officially hiding there now. From geeks. Weird geeks. Fuck.
Stan comes into the bathroom and stops, staring at me funny. "Zeke, man, what are you doing?" he asks, one corner of his mouth curving upward in a half-smirk. "It doesn’t have anything to do with Casey cornering my girlfriend after class? What’s going on with those two, do you know?"
"What?" I ask, my expression darkening. Stan’s right. Something’s up. Stokely KNOWS something.
"I dunno, I was hoping you could tell me." Stan says. "Casey came flying out of Miss Burke’s class, grabbed Stokely and dragged her off somewhere. I didn’t even get a chance to say hi."
"He did, huh?" I ask, starting to formulate a theory about what’s going on. I rub my face.
"Fuck, why is she messing with that kid’s head?" I grumble.
"I don’t know." Stan says, frowning. "What do you mean, messing with his head?"
"If she’s trying to do to him what she tried to do to me, she might have more success." I mutter. "She’s got this thing in her head that. . ."
I look around furtively, remembering what happened the last time I started into this at school.
"She’s playing cracked out matchmaker." I say vaguely instead. Shit. Like that’s any better.
"Well, she’s got to have a reason for it." Stan says, shrugging. "I mean, I know Stokely. She doesn’t just do things to amuse herself."
"Well I didn’t say anything to her." I insist. "But she almost convinced me. Fuck, I don’t need this kind of drama."
"If you didn’t. . .then Casey must’ve said something to her." Stan says. "I don’t know, man."
He shakes his head and moves into a stall, closing the door behind him.
"Whatever, man." I say, then leave quickly. I don’t need to hang around while Stan takes a shit.
Sure enough, as soon as I come out of the bathroom, there’s Casey and Stokely, talking like they’re plotting to overthrow some government.
Casey freezes, staring at me with big, round blue eyes. Stokely just smirks and waves.
I roll my eyes in spite of myself. Does he HAVE to look at me like he’s terrified ALL of the time? He’s giving me a complex.
"Your boyfriend’s jealous." I say to Stokely as I approach.
"Oh yeah?" she says, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why’s that?"
"You’re spending too much time with a guy who read Shakespeare when he was eleven." I say, leaning against the wall. "Hey Case."
Please stop looking terrified. Really. I don’t bite.
. . .
Unless he wants me to. . . shit.
Casey relaxes slightly and nods a little. "Hi Zeke."
Stokely glances at Casey, wide-eyed. "Jesus, you read Shakespeare when you were eleven?"
Casey blushes. "Yeah. So?"
Stokely grins. "Geek." she says. She glances at me. "Stan told you he was jealous? C’mon, he knows there’s nothing going on between me and Casey. It’s not like I’m the one he’s got the hots for."
"Stokely!" Casey hisses.
I do my damned best not to read too much into that. I’m not sure how successful I am.
"No, Stan just asked me what was going on with you two. I told him I had no fucking clue." I respond, trying to stay cool and not look at Casey. "I’m getting the feeling I should, so it’d be nice if you two either stopped acting so fucking weird, or told me what was going on. Not here though. I learned my lesson."
"Okay, so where?" Stokely says, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the row of lockers behind her.
Casey fidgets, his face turning red. He seems to be trying his best not to look at me either. "No way." he hisses at Stokely. "No fucking way."
"Theoretically the Reverb tonight might work." I say, then get the fuck out of there before Casey spazzes out any more. First rule of being a cool guy: know when to leave.
Fuck school for the rest of the day. I actually WENT to half my classes already.
