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Rowan

'I hope you're happy with yourself,' my dad raged, as I sat defiantly on the sofa, glaring up at him. My mom was sitting across from me on an armchair looking nervous while he paced around the living room in a rage. 'Are you?' he demanded suddenly, stopping to stare at me, bug-eyed.

                'No,' I said angrily. 'I'd be happy with myself if I'd put one of those Capu-retards in hospital, but I got interrupted before-'

                'Don't even start,' my dad growled.

                'Oh dear,' my mom muttered from her corner, and we both turned to see what she was "oh dear-ing" about. We followed her gaze to the mute television, which was turned into a local news station. My dad grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

                "- a violent brawl broke out here today between students from the famously rival local high schools, Capulet High and Montague High. In what police are assuming is a break in tensions building up to the annual football game between the two schools, Seniors from both appear to have run into each other outside this local fast food restaurant where animosity broke out and resulted in violence. The principal of Capulet High, Mr Preston Escalus, arrived on the scene and tried to break things up, but eventually had to call the police. Both he and the principal of Montague High, Mrs Priscilla Escabel, have threatened to expel any students caught up in further fighting, and have already suspended the students involved in today's incident.'

                My dad muted the television again with a groan of frustration. 'At least they didn't name you as the ringleader of it all,' he muttered.

                'More's the pity,' I muttered back.

                My dad turned to look at me in despair. 'You're in the last few weeks of your last year in high school. You got accepted early decision to three major universities. You're quarterback on the football team and you have a 4.0 GPA. Why can't you just sit back and enjoy these last few months before you go off to college? As soon as you get there you won't give a shit about Montague High anymore, and you wouldn't recognise a Capulet student if you bumped into one on the street!'

                I smirked. 'Sure I would, because they'd immediately start crying and calling their daddies to call their lawyers.'

                My dad stared at me. 'Not the point!' he roared after a moment of incredulity.

                After a few more minutes of nonsensical raving, he sent me to my room. I guess my hometown, Verona, is pretty much a non-entity to anyone who comes from anywhere vaguely exciting, but it's big enough to require two high schools and there's a bitter rivalry stretching back generations between the two of them. I'm not really sure how it started (but not for lack of trying to find out) but it's become almost a blood feud in recent years; generation after generation of families who've lived in Verona since the town first sprung up have been sending their kids to same school as they went to, so it's become about pride of family as much as pride of school.

                I go to Montague High and, like my dad and granddad and so forth before me, I'm kind of a big deal there. I didn't start out in Freshman year expecting everything to be handed me the way it has been, but I guess once it became clear that I was both academic and athletic (and then when I grew into my looks in Sophomore year) things came pretty easily. Our prom is coming up in a few weeks times and I'm supposedly a shoo-in for Prom King (even though I think I'd look pretty stupid in a crown).

                I guess I should also be thinking about who I'm going to take to this stupid dance, but all I can think about lately is the traditional end-of-year football game between Capulet and Montague. I have an almost perfect high school record, and I have a feeling of grave foreboding that it'll ruin the rest of my whole life if I lose this game.

                That, and the fact that the only girl I really want to take goes to freaking Capulet. Can you believe it? I met her a couple of months ago when I was picking up some stuff at the store for my mom. She was sort of wandering around the aisles looking lost and I knew she wasn't from Verona because I would have met her before (like I said, small town). Since she was pretty and I'm essentially a nice guy, I asked her if she was okay, and she just smiled sort of sadly and said, 'Yeah...' like she wasn't sure.

                So I shifted the groceries I had picked up to my left arm and extended my right to shake, and she looked at it for a couple of seconds before taking it.

                'I'm Rowan,' I said, trying to be friendly.

                'Rosaline,' she said, and then walked off, even though I'd been kind of expecting we were about to have a conversation.

                After some extensive Facebook research I managed to figure out her deal though, and I guess I can kind of understand why she was so out of it. I found her cousin's page, some Capulet Sophomore who has a picture of kittens for his profile photo, and through him I found her. Turns out both her parents just died before Christmas, and she was being shunted around from one family member's home to another until she finally settled here with the kitten guy and his parents. They enrolled her in Capulet and now she's living sadly ever after.

                I Friend Requested her, but she declined. I guess she didn't recognise me since I'm wearing my football helmet in my profile photo, but then again, how many guys in Verona are called Rowan?

                One. That's how many.

Justin

'Dude!' Nathan tackled me from behind and I nearly fell over. I swear it's like he's legally blind sometimes and forgets how physically fragile I am.

                'Gah! What?' I choked, trying to regain my balance.

                'Did you hear about what happened after school today?'

                'Did they finally arrest that perv janitor?'

                'Unfortunately, no,' Nathan said gravely, and we both took a moment to reflect unhappily on this fact. 'But, rather more excitingly, there was like a riot outside The Cube!' he continued.

                'A riot?' I asked doubtfully. Verona is a small town that operates well above the poverty line. Thirty percent of our high school graduates go on to Ivy League third level education. There isn't a lot to protest against so violently that it would lead to a riot. 'Are we talking London riots here or, like, some kids threw a rock through The Cube's front window because they wouldn't serve them beers again?'

                'Half and half. I heard the Montague football team were getting their usual after-school milkshakes and the Capulet team totally showed up and knocked those milkshakes right out of their hands. Then that Senior Rowan was like, "You Capu-retards had better buy us some more milkshakes or get the hell out of here," which I thought was pretty decent considering how expensive milkshakes are at The Cube and his personal history of hit-first-ask-questions-later, but your dipshit cousin just picked up his own milkshake and emptied it over Rowan's head. And that's when the fighting started.'

                My cousin Tyson is a dipshit, it's true. I mean I guess we get on okay most of the time, but I think he must have taken too many hits on the football field over the years because he's dumb as a post and has no problem displaying his idiocy at any given opportunity.

                'And then Escalus turned up and called the cops, and he and Escabel totally suspended everyone involved.'

                'For how long?' I asked worriedly. Our school's Senior Prom was coming up in a week and Tyson had his eye on the Prom King crown; if he wasn't allowed to attend he'd go batshit berserk.

                'Only like a couple days,' Nathan said offhandedly, like that wasn't the point. Which I guess it wasn't.

                We'd been walking towards home while were talking and I pulled my key out of my pocket once we rounded the corner. I guess I'd better explain my family situation before we go any further, because it's really fucked up and complicated – though I wouldn't really have it any other way, I guess.

                So Nathan is two years ahead of me in school and he's a foster kid. My parents took him in when I was three and despite the age difference we've been best friends since then. He visits his own parents every now and then but they're haven't really made much of an effort to stop using drugs all the time so even though he's almost eighteen, the state still won't grant them access to him and he pretty much hates them anyway.

                Then a couple of months ago my cousin Rosaline moved in because my aunt and uncle died in a road traffic accident. I'd never met any of them and Rosaline could barely remember my parents so it was a little awkward at first, but now everything seems to be settling down and we all get on really well – though sometimes we still catch her crying in the shower where she thinks we can't hear her but we can.

                Then there's my cousin Tyson, also a Senior. He doesn't live with us, he lives down the road with his own parents, but he spends all his time at ours anyway because he's got a thing for Rosaline – don't worry, they're not related. Rosaline is my dad's niece and Tyson is my mom's nephew. But it's still kinda gross and she wouldn't touch him with gloves on anyway.

                So that's it. My wonderfully fucked up family.

                'So have you decided who you're gonna ask to Prom yet?' I asked Nathan, as I rummaged in the fridge, looking for something for us to eat.

                He shrugged. 'Think I'll go stag,' he said, looking uninterested. 'Since I'll probably leave after an hour and come home anyway.'

                'It's nice to see you're getting so much out of your high school experience,' I said sweetly, setting about making us some sandwiches.

                'Dude, whatever,' he said laughing. 'Like it'll be any fun once they crown Tyson and whatever bimbo he decided to bring as a date anyway.'

                'You should have totally run for Prom King. You're just as popular as Tyson and people actually like you. It would have so put him in his place if you'd won.'

                Nathan rolled his eyes. 'Stop flirting with me Justin, it's inappropriate,' he said in a fake serious voice, and I rolled my eyes right back at him.

Nathan and my parents are the only ones who know I'm gay – though I'm pretty sure Rosaline is cluing in too, seeing as she lives here now – and even though they tease me about it sometimes they're all fine with it. I mean I guess it was a shock at first, to my parents at least (Nathan claims he knew all along), but they didn't try to send me to Bible camp or anything and they've been pretty supportive... Not that there's a whole lot to support I guess, when I haven't told anybody else and haven't even had my first guy-kiss, much less relationship.

                'I wish you could come to Prom,' Nathan continued with a sigh. 'It'll be mega boring without you.' As a Sophomore I'm not allowed to attend unless a Senior asks me as their date and you'd better believe that's not going to happen any time this century.

                'Stop flirting with me, Nathan,' I said, mocking him. 'It's inappropriate.'

                And then I had to jump off my stool and run or face death by tickles.

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A/N: So, obviously, this story is based on Romeo and Juliet. I found this thing called "Queer Theory" (I have some serious issues with the title, but that's for another day) which suggests that Romeo was actually gay. And so here we are. Lol. 

Vote and comment! :D

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