(Miley still got assigned Oliver as a partner for the Shakespeare scene but family commitments make it impossible for him to rehearse. No problem, Lilly can fill in. Liley. Not connected to my other stories. Don't own anything, blah, blah, etc.)
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"For never was a story of more woe, Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
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"All you have to do is lie there Lilly! Stop squirming around."
"I'm BORED!" announced the skateboard girl.
"Well, you're supposed to be dead after all. It's not like you can DO anything very exciting."
"I know that but after all I'm not exactly the lie around type girl. You have practiced and practiced your part. I know you believe in rehearsal but enough! Besides, why do you need someone else anyway?"
Miley looked thoughtful. "I know it seems weird but I just need someone here or the speech doesn't seem real to me. Someone being here who's important to me makes the words ring true."
"Well your words have rung true for about two dozen times now." Lilly rolled over onto her tummy, her feet waving in the air as she propped her head up in her hands. "How about some other words?"
"what did you have in mind?" inquired Miley.
Lilly swung her legs under herself and sat up in one of her fluid motions that Miley always found so graceful. "I don't know, maybe," her voice trailed off and her eyes lit up. "I got it." She scrambled to her feet. Darting to the closet she reached up, taking two hangers from the rod. Turning around she smiled broadly as she displayed the costumes Miley had got for herself and Oliver.
"Girl who hold costumes say what?"
Lilly laughed and tossed the ornate dress to her friend. She then held the ruffled doublet outfit up against herself.
"I know you've got two scripts over there, in case Oliver could ever muster his courage enough to actually say a line. So, let's do the play."
"The whole play?"
"Well I thought just the parts that are mostly Romeo and Juliet."
Miley raised an eyebrow. "You're going to play Romeo then?"
"Why not? After al, in Shakespeare's time all roles were played by men. We'll just reverse it."
"I didn't know you knew that. Oh heck, it sounds like fun."
The duo dressed and took up the scripts. For a moment they eyed each other, smiles tugging at the corners of their mouths.
"You look gorgeous."
"You look like a proper Elizabethan hunk yourself." Miley batted her eyes as Lilly assumed a rakish pose.
The pair began the play, skipping forward often as they only recited the parts that were acted together or when one character spoke about the other. At first they made sweeping grand gestures, overacting and being flamboyant. But then something happened as they started to get into their parts. The words took on new meanings to the two girls, meanings that they have to others for hundreds of years
"Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."
Lilly looked at Miley, really looked at her. Her eyes saw what she had always known; how attractive her friend was. Lilly had always been, not envious of Miley, but wistful that she wasn't that good looking herself. But now the other girl's beauty was something more to her. Something that stirred a part of Lilly that had never been touched before by the singer.
"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Miley is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she."
For an instant Miley wanted to grin at Lilly's use of her name instead of Juliet's. But the deep earnestness in her best friend's face and voice made that urge disappear faster than it had arisen. Instead it made her feel warm, a warmth that was spreading through her entire being.
"The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven Would through the airy region stream so bright That birds would sing and think it were not night."
Lilly's heart was beating faster. She could barely tear her eyes away long enough to glance at the script. The famous words were ones she wanted to say, needed to say to her friend.
"See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O that I were a glove upon that hand, That I might touch that cheek!"
Lilly's hand trembled so very slightly as she reached out. Her fingertips brushed her friend's cheek. Miley shivered but the only other motion she made was to cover Lilly's hand with her own.
"O Lilly, Lilly! wherefore art thou Lilly?"
The line she had changed held new meaning, Miley thought. For she was realizing something she had never thought of before. Juliet had lamented that the person she was falling in love with was a member of the wrong family. And she, Miley Stewart was being irresistibly drawn to someone whose name meant she was another girl.
"Whatâ–“s in a name? That which we call a Lilly By any other name would smell as sweet."
"Did it matter?" wondered Miley as she turned her head slightly and kissed the fingers she still held against her cheek. The girls moved closer, their eyes locked.
"Miley," breathed Lilly.
"Lilly."
The name didn't matter, Miley knew. It didn't matter that another girl was her best friend, her confidant, the one she trusted with her deepest secrets. Or rather it meant everything that she loved this other girl. Tears unshed sparkled in Lilly's eyes. Miley drew her friend to her and kissed her, once on each eyelid and then on the lips.
"My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite."
The kiss turned open-mouthed. Arms circled, clutching each other. The kisses were passionate now as the pair found they no longer needed another's words to tell what feelings had been growing between them for so long. The only words that needed to be said now were their own.
"I love you Lilly."
"I love you Miley."
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"For never was a story of more happy glee,
Than this of Lilly and her beloved Miley."
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(The End)
(Regardless of what sometimes we have to suffer through in English classes over the years, Shakespeare could WRITE. As for the final couplet, okay, a poet I'm not. LOL. Thanks for reading and reviewing)