OK, this story is set back when Josie was a senior at High School, and follows events had Sam been around then, too. At the moment I'm not exactly sure where this story is going to end, but I have a number of possibilities. Also, please excuse any inaccuracies in my description of American life, I'm English!!
Please remember when reading this that this is set in 1989/90, and it's not me with bad fashion sense!
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The harsh bright light of early morning Sun streamed into Josie's room. As it hit her sleeping eyes, threatening to force them open, she rolled over to be face down in her pillows. However, as darkness was restored and she felt herself drifting back into a comfy sleep her alarm clock went off, signaling it was 6:30am.
"Argh, turn it off!" she mumbled sleepily, talking to no-one.
She allowed the shrill beeping to continue for a little while before the noise really started grating on her nerves and she had to get up.
Stumbling across her room, she tripped over her school books and chair consecutively before reaching the clock.
Yet again, another fantastic start to another fantastic day for high school senior Josie Geller.
Stretching as hard as possible, Josie struggled to stay awake, wobbling dangerously on the spot. In an attempt to keep her eyes open she hurried to the bathroom and splashed icy cold water over her face. That seemed to do the trick, at least now she could actually see properly. Josie showered and wrapped her shoulder length brown hair in a towel before padding back to her bedroom. On her way she bumped into her younger brother Rob.
"Morning Josie," he mumbled as he staggered to the bathroom.
"Good morning, Rob." Josie answered brightly as she turned back into her room to dress.
'Hmm,' she thought to herself 'how many classes do I have with Billy today?'
Billy Prince was the deciding factor when Josie decided what to wear to school. The more classes they had together the more effort she made. Today was a relatively Billy free day, so she settled on an old dark blue dungaree style knee length dress with an orange and green striped T-shirt underneath and fluorescent yellow socks.
She glanced quickly in the mirror as she towel dried her hair, to check for spots. She wasn't really an acne sufferer, but the odd one or two were sometimes known to make an appearance. Luckily today was a zit free day.
She also had something else to look forward to, today was the day she was having her braces taken off. Baring her teeth at herself in the mirror, Josie tried to envisage what she would look like with gleaming white straight teeth instead of the mouth full of metal she had then. Having her braces off was a big deal for Josie, it was the first part of her years old fantasy to come true.
In her dreams she lost her braces, the excess weight and the spots overnight and the next day at school all the boys who had cruelly tormented her for all her high school life would drop at her feet, begging for a date, but she would coolly walk past them all, her target perfectly clear. Billy Prince, the most popular guy in school and the object of Josie's undying affections.
She would saunter right up to him, he being completely speechless at her undoubted beauty, and beckon him with her index finger. He would, trance like, rise from his seat next to his sycophantic female friends and then pull her into a long passionate kiss.
Josie enjoyed this little fantasy, and despite everything against her, she was convinced it would come true one day.
Josie sighed loudly, which snapped her out of her dream world. She glanced at the clock, she only had 15 minutes to get to school! (This was not quite true, she had an hour till school, but the library opened in 15 minutes...) Josie treasured her time buried in her best companions, books. Her morning reading was always the same, she would sit in a corner of the large library buried in a copy of Shakespeare's collected works and lose herself in his world.
Josie dashed from her room. "Bye, Rob! See you later!" she cried as she ran down the stairs.
Despite the fact her brother was the one responsible for creating her horrible nickname 'Josie Grossie', they shared a close relationship. He always looked out for her, despite being two years younger. This was because, as a stark contrast to Josie, Rob was one of the most popular guys in his year, and he usually stopped the cruel tricks of the other pupils against his sister when they went too far.
However, he had not been able to protect her the day before when some nasty kid had poured Sprite into her backpack while she was walking along so it looked like she was peeing herself when she handed Billy some homework.
Rob was intensely aware of how upset his sister got by these antics but could not help but feel that in many ways she did somewhat ask for trouble. Josie was very bookish and the fact that she was pretty much a walking dictionary did not always endear her to people, as she continually corrected people on their grammar. She also chose to wear the most bizarre clothes, despite encouragement to shop in fashion stores from her mother. Josie just didn't care about stuff like that. She maintained it was her right to wear what she wanted and behave how she wanted, which her family conceded was a very admirable quality. It was just their view that it was hard to live by that motto and survive high school.
Josie was first into the library, naturally. She greeted the head librarian, Mrs. Jameson, retrieved the copy of Shakespeare's collected works and sat herself down at the table in the corner, next to the Inquiries desk.
She was completely immersed in As You Like It, her mouth moving steadily as she silently read out each line. This was quite possibly her favorite Shakespeare play. She thought the idea of Rosalind using her disguise as a means to woo Orlando was very clever. She enjoyed the contrasting veins of comedy, tragedy, and romance that ran concurrently through the different characters.
She had just reached the reading of Orlando's poem in Act III scene ii when talking at the Inquiries desk roused her.
She saw a boy, her age she imagined, standing at the desk talking to Mrs Jameson. He was, she noticed, very good looking. He wasn't overly tall, but a good bit taller than herself. He was lean and athletic looking and his short blonde hair was ruffled in a very endearing manner. She could just about see his face from where she sat and she felt a familiar tingle come over her as she took in his smiling green eyes, crooked smile and well-defined bone structure.
He was, in short, gorgeous, and Josie knew from experience that the tingle meant she was attracted to him, which in turn could only mean one thing. She was going to blush.
This was a trait about herself that Josie particularly hated. People had often told her (mainly relatives) that her constant blushing (usually for no reason) was endearing. However when it came to school, it served only to heighten her embarrassment and to let others know it. Usually at the first hint of a blush Josie would look at the floor, wishing it would swallow her up, but this time she couldn't help but stare at the boy.
Unfortunately, at that moment he turned and looked right back at her.
'Oh no! He's seen me! Oh how embarrassing!' Josie thought, inwardly cursing herself for staring too long. 'If I just keep looking down, he'll go away soon.' she continued.
However a voice next to her proved that hope wrong. "Excuse me? I'm sorry to interrupt you�" came a surprisingly deep and very sexy voice.
Josie felt like she was going to die of embarrassment. Why had he come over? To ask her not to look at him probably. Josie was not very experienced when it came to talking to boys and she was sure if she spoke to this one she would say something incredibly stupid. However, she couldn't just ignore him, he'd think she was a mute, or else just very rude.
"That's, okay..." was all she managed to say, and even that came out in a strange squeaky voice. She looked up to where he was stood next to her. He was even nicer close up. He was wearing a Chicago Blackhawks T-shirt, through which, she hated to notice, she could tell he had a well-defined but not overly muscular chest.
He was carrying several books...most were just regular text books, but Josie noticed that he also carried a copy of a biography about Shakespeare. Somehow, inexplicably, this slight link to him made her feel a little more relaxed around him. Not much, but just enough to keep her blushes under control.
"Oh good, you looked like you were in another world!" the boy said nodding toward the book she was reading and shooting her a devastating smile. Josie had to check herself before she drooled on the floor.
"I was! Shakespeare always has that effect on me. His words manage to magically transport me back in time, to fantasy worlds, to anywhere he wants me to go!" Josie gushed, only realising she was babbling after she'd finished.
The guy looked a little stunned by the outburst from what he obviously assumed was a quiet shy girl. However he was still smiling and wasted no time in concurring that Shakespeare was indeed a very gifted playwright. "That actually brings me to what I came over to talk to you about�" he said after a moment. "I hate to ask you this seeing as you are so completely wrapped up in your reading, but I was hoping I could borrow that book? Just for a day! It's just that is the only collected works the library has, and they have no other copies of As You Like It-- that's the play I'm interested in-- available." He looked at Josie hopefully.
Josie was a kind, generous girl anyway and would have even lent the book to someone like Chrissi Majors (her nemesis, you could say) if she asked. But add the fact that possibly the most gorgeous guy she'd ever seen was asking her, and so nicely, there was nothing she could do to stop herself from gushing her reply.
"Oh! Oh, of course! I'd be delighted! As You Like It happens to be a personal favorite of mine. In fact I'm going to see it next week. A local production, but the performing company does Shakespeare so well. Last time I saw them they were doing The Taming of the Shrew which was amazing! That's probably the only one of his works I'm not too familiar with, but I enjoyed every second of it�" Josie realised she was babbling, again. "But anyway...um, please take the book! I hadn't taken it out anyway." She finished in a quieter, less animated voice. She had known she'd say something stupid at some point, and her last outburst had been a prime example of something stupid. She handed the book to the guy trying not to look at him, however he caught her eye and she couldn't just look away.
"Thankyou so much..ah�I'm sorry, I don't know your name?" he asked, taking the book and adding it to his pile.
Josie couldn't believe it! He didn't know her name? He must be new, the name 'Josie Grossie' was famous around Lincoln Park High, albeit for all the wrong reasons. It was a glorious moment for Josie. At last, someone who would know her by her real name, not the cruel moniker given to her by her equally cruel classmates.
"Josie, Josie Geller."
"Oh, thanks Josie! You've saved my ass!" the boy said with a laugh, not realising what just the mention of his ass had done to Josie and her hormones. "My name is Sam by the way, Sam Coulson. I'm new around here if you hadn't guessed."
"Oh, well I did suspect. How do like it here? Are you new to Chicago, too?" Josie asked, reveling in her newfound anonymity.
"Yep, I just moved here from Racine, but I like Chicago a lot. I didn't really have to enroll here, what with it being so late in the year, but my folks wanted me to stay in the right frame of mind before going off to college, so I'm really only here for the atmosphere. Actually, I hate to keep asking you these favors, but I was hoping I could find someone, y'know, a local, to show me around. I don't supposed you'd be willing to do that, would you?" Sam asked hopefully.
Josie, for perhaps the first time in her life, was dumbfounded. What on earth was this guy doing asking her to be his tour guide? Couldn't he tell she was a geek?
"Well, I guess so� ah, but Sam, I'm not really up on all the social aspects of Chicago. I can cover all the geographical aspects and the arts, but if you need a guide for places to hang out, I'm probably not the best person to ask. You might be better off asking�"
Sam cut her off mid response "Josie! The social side isn't my main concern right now, I need someone who can show me around the city, someone who knows where I can see a good Shakespeare production�" Sam grinned at Josie again.
'I wish he'd stop smiling at me, I'm going to explode in a minute!' Josie thought silently as she smiled back, trying not to reveal her braces. "Well in that case, that's fine! Class is in a minute so we had better not arrange anything now, but if you return that book to me here tomorrow, we can sort something out." Josie said, surprisingly calmly. Her embarrassment seemed to be at an all time low. There was something about this guy that made her supremely relaxed. Normally, if this were say, Billy Prince, she'd be stuttering and stammering and making stupid jokes and generally humiliating herself.
"That would be great, I'll see you later Josie, and thanks again for the book!" Sam said, touching her arm gently before he turned and walked out of the library.
Josie fell back into her chair and gazed up to the ceiling as a stupid grin crossed her face.
The new guy in school, the new sexy boy in school had picked her to be his tour guide!
Josie closed her eyes and started her fantasy again, except now Billy Prince was replaced by Sam�
Sam walked to his first class lost in his thoughts. When he'd entered the library he'd seen Josie sitting in the corner and had just been able to make out that she was lip synching along with whatever she was reading. 'Wow!' he had thought, 'she's really into whatever that is'. And that was honestly his first thought. He hadn't noticed the mousy hair or the bad clothes. That wasn't the way Sam judged people.
Okay, so he'd noticed all those things later when he was talking to her but he hadn't held them against her as a negative aspect, because what she was saying, who she was proving herself to be, was far more intriguing.
Her obvious love for Shakespeare was an instant plus point in his book. Sam was fed up with the vacuous girls who claimed an interest in Shakespeare to get close to him only to be proven as frauds when they couldn't name the protagonists in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Josie's true admiration of the Bard's work shone from her eyes, indeed when she had been talking about As You Like It, Sam had noticed her eyes had almost glazed over, as if she had again slipped into a fantasy world.
Speaking of her eyes... They were incredible! They had sucked Sam in like a whirlpool. He was lost in their deep blue depths. If such a thing as 'soulful' eyes existed, Josie had them. By looking into her eyes he had felt an instant click with her, and this had resulted in an unfamiliar tingle running up Sam's spine. He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew it was nice.
He felt comfortable around her, and felt he'd like to get to know her better, but sensing her nervousness, he hadn't wanted to be blunt, so he'd told her he needed a tour guide. This wasn't strictly true, though. When he'd first arrived in Chicago, his parents had dragged him around every sight and he now felt like a local himself. But it was an opportunity to spend more time with Josie, and that was what he wanted.
He reached his class and re-focused his mind, he could think more about meeting Josie later on.
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