Zeral - Failed Session with Shakespeare

[Zeral]

<<Starfleet Academy, Earth, 2379>>

With the couch moved back and all of their friends banished from the room, Nora turned to Riley, a bright smile on her face as she clapped her hands. “Ready?” she asked him eagerly.

“No,” he groused, fumbling with the practically ancient book clasped in his hands. “Page?” he demanded irritably, then set to find it once Nora told him.

“It’s not the end of the world, you know,” she informed him cheerfully, sidling up to him with a cheeky grin he knew only too well. It was one she had practiced many times over the years on her brothers and parents, and she knew very well that it would work just as well here with her friend. “It’ll only take a few moments, and no one will ever know that there’s a hidden thespian behind that cold, sarcastic exterior of yours. I promise.”

“Nora,” he sighed, exasperated, though there was some humor in his eyes, “can we just get on with this?”

Nodding, she took him by the shoulders and propelled him a few feet to his right. “Stand here. I enter from stage left.”

Looking suitably bewildered, he help up his book as though he could ward off this impromptu practice he wanted nothing to do with and waited for Nora to begin. Having a favor called in had never seemed so painful.

Before Nora had a chance to start, however, into the room stepped Talia, her standard mischievous smirk firmly in place. “Just come to grab my jacket... And what have we here?” she asked suspiciously, arms folded as she surveyed the scene. “An intimate tete-a-tete while your roommate’s away, Nora?”

“If I were meeting a paramour”–Nora ignored Talia’s snort of laughter at her choice of words–“I would have met him at a far more creative place than my own living room. Give me some credit, Talia.”

Riley, meanwhile, looked like a man meeting his doom, his freckled skin gone paler than usual and his green eyes widening almost comically. “We’re going over notes. From class. Just, you know, notes. For a class.”

“Riley, you’re rambling,” Nora whispered helpfully to him, fighting a grin.

“Is that Shakespeare you’re holding there, Riley? I had no idea you were a lover of ancient theater.”

“I’m not!” was his immediate and vehement denial, but before he could argue his point, in through the door to their quarters came Doreit, brown curls bouncing as she made her way over to Talia.

“Ready to go, Talia?”

“Almost,” Talia murmured, and her mischievous look intensified, if that were ever possible. “Doreit, did you know that Riley here is a fan of Shakespeare?”

“I’m not a fan, I was just helping Nora--”

“I had no idea!” Doreit interposed, and only Nora’s abilities as a telepath revealed Doreit’s own determination for mischief. She was all ease and innocence as she joined along with Talia in embarrassing their oft overly macho friend, and Nora wondered for a moment why Doreit hadn’t involved herself in any sort of theatrical productions herself. “What’s your favorite play, Riley? You seem like an Othello man. Now there’s tragedy at its finest, don’t you think, Nora?”

“Tragic, indeed,” she agreed, trying and failing to smother a smile.

“Seriously, you guys, I’m not--”

“Oh, Riley, no need to get in a huff,” Talia placated. “So Othello’s not your favorite. Hamlet, then. Henry IV. No, wait! Twelfth Night. It’s Twelfth Night, isn’t it?”

“I’m not the one who likes Shakespeare, it’s Nora who--”

“Wait, wait, wait. We’ve got it all wrong, Talia. It’s not the plays that he loves, it’s the sonnets!” Doreit exclaimed.

“Oh, of course!” gushed Talia. “Always knew you were a romantic at heart, Riley. Which of his sonnets do you like then, huh? No, wait, let me guess–all of them. It’s probably just too hard to pick one favorite.”

“That’s it!” Riley fairly exploded, striding past Nora and shoving the book into her hands. Giving a wide berth to Talia and Doreit, he fled the room without so much as a farewell, although Nora was sure she heard him mutter something about ‘delusional females’ and their determination to trick him into doing things he hated.

Once their laughter died down, Nora approached the other two women with a wry grin. "As fun as that was, I still need to rehearse somehow. So which one of you is going to be the Benedick to my Beatrice?”