Keeping a diary at age 16 almost seems juvenile, almost. But for Juliet it was essential to her everyday routine. Without it she just didn’t feel like herself. So every day after school and before Debate Club, she would sit on a bench along the path between the school and Winter House and write in her diary.

Juliet liked to keep it secret though, she didn’t want any of her friends or other students to know that this was something she took part in. It wasn’t necessary because she was embarrassed by it, but mainly because she didn’t want curious minds to go reading through it. By writing in it away from the house and at a time when most were not around she was able to keep her secret, until today.

Today just like any other day, Juliet walked from the school heading to the house. And as she did she sat on the one bench that was almost hidden by the trees along the path.It sat just off of the path enough that most people passed by, however Sophia found herself in a more observant mood than she usually is.And as Sophia walked to the house before rehearsals she noticed Juliet all alone and slightly hunched over. Thinking something was wrong with her, Sophia thought to investigate.

“Is something wrong?” Sophia asked approaching Juliet. It wasn’t until she got closer to her that she saw that Juliet was writing.

“Are you doing homework out here?”

Startled, Juliet quickly shut her diary and tried to hide it behind herself. But she wasn’t fast enough and Sophia stepped closer.

“What is that?” She said pointing to what Juliet was holding.

“Nothing.”

“Doesn’t look like nothing.”

Juliet didn’t know what to say. Although she considered Sophia to be a very close friend, she didn’t really know her well enough to trust her with this. So she didn’t answer.

“Are you alright, Juliet? You are being so quiet. And you are out here all by yourself, which doesn’t seem normal.”

“I just come out here to think, that’s all.” Juliet answered, “There is nothing to be worried about. Just a quick minute to myself before I head to my extra circular.”

Sophia tried to look around Juliet again to see if she could look at what Juliet was holding. As she tried to strain herself, she caught the golden lettering on the front, “Journal”.

“Is that a diary?” she asked,”I didn’t know you had one of those?”

Juliet sighed. She couldn’t really lie now, she would just look stupid. She decided that she would just have to trust Sophia with this. It wasn’t like it was a horrible thing to do and it would probably make them even closer.

“Yes, I keep a diary.”

“Really? I haven’t had one since I was 10. Do you write in it every day?”

“Yeah, I like to record what is going on. Especially now that everything has changed recently.”

“Can I ask why you’re hiding it? I mean do you have horrible dark secrets in there or something.”

“No, not dark just personal. But I don’t think you’re going to read it, are you?”

Sophia noticed the genuine worry in Juliet’s eyes. How could Juliet think that? Sophia would never betray her and now she knew how special it was for Juliet to tell her.

“No. If you want to keep this a secret, then I’ll take it to my grave. I pinky promise.” She said placing her left pinky out for Juliet.

Juliet hooked her right pinky with Sophia’s and smiled, “Thank you. It sounds silly but I have never told anyone about it. My diary is the most valuable thing I own.”

Sophia smiled back, “Well I’ll let you get back to it. I have to go change before rehearsal, and the worst afternoon of my life.”

Juliet laughed, “You are so dramatic, Sophie. No wonder you got the starring role.” She joked.

“I know. I’m trying to tone it down, but now I have an outlet for it. So I can only get better, right?”

“Here’s to hoping.” Juliet teased.

---

Rehearsals. They would be an essential part of Sophia’s life until December, just before winter break. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday she would spend her afternoons in this theater with Harry and Penelope. The two people she least liked; but if she were to be honest, she would much rather spend time with Harry than Penelope, the wicked witch herself.

Sophia walked through the doors and towards the front to sit with all the other students. She stopped when she saw Harry sitting next to Penelope. She couldn’t help but smile when she noticed that every time Penelope spoke to him she leaned into him, and he leaned just a little bit farther away from her. As Sophia walked past to sit in front of them, she felt a hand reach out and grab her hand. She looked down to see Harry looking up at her with pleading eyes.

“Sophia! Where are you going?”

She pulled her hand away from Harry’s, as Penelope looped her arm into his.

“To take my seat before Mr. Doris comes.” She said trying to sound polite.

Harry stood up out of his seat and practically ran over Sophia. She realized it was more than likely to get away from Penelope’s grip. Which caused him to kind of knocked her over when he sprung up so quickly, making Sophia stifle a laugh.

“We should sit together.” He said in a rush.

“We should?” Sophia teased.

“Yeah. I mean don’t you think the leads should stick together?” He said slightly pointing his head at Penelope. Come on Sophia take the hint, rescue me from Penelope.

“No.” She said.

“No?”

“Harry, she said no. Now sit back down. I wasn’t done telling you about my day.” Penelope whined. Taking Harry’s arm again and sitting him back down.

Sophia almost felt sorry for him. But as long as she let Penelope fawn all over him, the less she had to deal with her evil stares. And quite frankly that was just a sacrifice Harry was going to have to make.

She walked away from them and sat in the front row just as Mr. Doris was walking in.

“Good afternoon, my fellow actors and actresses. Are we ready to begin our journey with ‘Romeo and Juliet’?”

Silence.

“Okay. I’m going to go with yes.” He said pushing himself up onto the stage. “Today we will be doing a read through. No acting just reading the play so that we understand every part of it. On Friday we will start to block. Then by next week we will begin rehearsing the play. Any questions?”

“Yes, Penelope.” Mr. Doris said pointing to the eagerly raised hand of Penelope.

“What happens if the lead for Juliet were to be unable to perform?” She asked.

Seriously, thought Sophia.

“Well, Ms. George, her understudy would take her place.”

“Which would be me? Right Mr.Doris?”

“Yes Penelope but more than likely that will not happen…hopefully.” He said causing Penelope to pout. “Any other questions?”

“I have one.” Came Harry.

“Yes?”

“When do we need to have our lines memorized?”

“I would like all my actors to be off script by October, which is in one month. But for you and Sophia since you two have so many lines, I will allow a little extra time. But please be off script before the first performance.” He begged.

Harry raised his hand again.

“Do you have another question, Mr. Styles?”

“Just one more. When do we get to kiss?” He said pointing between himself and Sophia.

“You can’t ask that!” Said Sophia turning around to look at Harry.

“Of course I can. I just did.” He said back.

Sophia huffed and turned back around. How dare he?

“To answer your question. Not for a little while. I would like you two to work on knowing your characters before diving into the physical parts of them. Understand?”

“Absolutely. You want Sophia and me to form the bond of their love before we can truly appreciate this love story.” Harry said, sucking up to Mr. Doris.

Sophia placed her face in her hands on how dumb Harry just sounded.

“That is exactly what I want!” He proclaimed in excitement.

“I am so proud that you understand. Sophia do you understand? Because I can’t have my Juliet being indifferent to my Romeo.”

“I understand Mr. Doris.” Sophia mumbled.

“What was that Sophia? I don’t think we heard you.” Taunted Harry.

“I said I understand, Harry!”

“Okay, okay. Sophia, I need you to try to get along with Harry. I’m not asking you to marry him. I’m just asking you to pretend to like him enough to make Romeo and Juliet convincing. Okay?”

“Okay. I’m sorry. I’ll try, I promise.”

“Alright. Now if you could all take a script and sit in a circle on the stage we will begin our reading.”

All the students got up at once, except for Sophia. She decided to wait until everyone else got theirs before going up there.

“Here”

Sophia saw Harry hand a script out to her.

“Thanks, but I could have gotten my own.” She said kind of harsh and grabbed the script from him.

“I was only trying to be nice, Sophia. I apologize.” He said just as harshly.

Harry turned around and started to walk up the stairs to the stage.

“Harry?”

He stopped and looked at her. “What?”

“Sorry.”

He nodded and preceded back up the stairs.

“Sorry we can’t be friends.” She said softly to herself so no one else could hear. Then Sophia took her script and sat in the circle.

Notes

Kind of one of the shorter chapters but still an update. Please don't forget to comment, rate, vote, subscribe, etc. I would never hold an update for ransom just to get some extra votes just know I only ask because I like to know the feedback.

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