Chapter 4

AN: I just love putting notes in the beginning and end of my chapter, so… um… I hope you enjoy! Sorry this came out so late, but I had a busy week with schoolwork so I hope you'll understand. I'd like to dedicate this chapter to AudtheOdd for being such a good reviewer and friend, as well as for the story and chapter that was dedicated to me. Thanks to everyone for your wonderful support!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. The characters belong to Minami Maki and the characters/quotes from "Romeo and Juliet" belong to William Shakespeare.

Greenhouse:

The S.A. had just reached the greenhouse after their final rehearsal. Once they sat down in their usual seats, Hikari took advantage of that moment when Takishima wasn't there. She got down on her knees and bowed her head.

"Huh?" was all that the S.A. managed to think.

"Hikari, is something the matter?" Megumi scribbled on her notepad. The others had sweat drops above their foreheads and just blinked.

"I'm sorry everybody, but I have a selfish request I must ask of you." Hikari looked up pleadingly at the others.

"What is it Hikari? Just ask, you don't have to kneel on the cold hard floor," Akira said as she bent over and helped Hikari up.

Hikari explained to the others how she wanted to change the play so that Juliet would end up with Paris instead of Romeo.

"If that's it, then I'll do it. I'd do anything to make this more interesting, and besides, I still owe you for helping me on that date," Tadashi said casually, about to grab a cookie. Akira flinched at the word "date".

"I'll help too. You also helped me get the 'happiness stone' on New Years." Megumi smiled as she turned her notepad around to show Hikari.

"I'm also in. I'd still help even if you didn't help me escape (almost, until I stopped running) from Sakura during the barbeque," Jun said in turn.

Ryuu smiled at the twins, as well as to Hikari. "Okay, I'll do it. I'm really thankful that you helped out Jun and Megumi, as well as me in addition when you did your best playing the part of 'pesu' when Chitose arrived at my vacation house in Hawaii."

Hikari turned to look at Akira, who remarked, "Of course I'll help you Hikari!"

Hikari beamed at her superb friends, "Arigato mina~!" but then wondered out loud, "You all agreed to help even though you don't know why I'm even doing this?"

"Of course we all know you're doing this for Kei…" everybody silently thought.

Akira was the first to reply. "Well we all know you're doing it to make someone happy." Then she added, "And besides, I love you more than I hate Kei," when she realized that Hikari would end up with Kei in the play now.

"We know that you would help us if the situation was reversed," Ryuu added, and everyone nodded in agreement.

Hikari couldn't help but grin sheepishly. "Thanks everybody, and don't worry, you won't have to memorize the new lines. I want it to be a surprise for Takishima (lol, completely gave it away)," and then grinned slyly. "I have a plan." and with that, she left to do some "business".

Meanwhile:

Kei was walking slowly down the path leading to the greenhouse, staring at the trees that were grown along the pathway. "Hikari's happiness is the most important," he managed to convince himself, "If Hikari does choose Iori, I'll suffer alone. No matter what, I have to prioritize Hikari above anything else". However, this didn't remove his resentment towards the kiss between Iori and Hikari that was bound to happen. He opened the greenhouse door and sat down glumly in his seat. He noticed that the others were staring at them, and looked up. Then he realized, "Where is Hikari? She isn't here."

The others started to panic and sweat bullets. Even Akira was all panicky and lost her cool. "Huh! What's it to you?! Baka!" she yelled, in a completely unnatural way. Kei got the 'pissed' mark on the side of his forehead and Akira retreated two steps. "Do you have something to do with Hikari's absence? Where is she?"

"Hikari went to jog 15km as exercise," Ryuu answered Kei's question, in a much more calm and natural way than Akira. Kei sighed and gave up. He was in no mood for interrogation.

"He doesn't know it, but Hikari is working so hard for him. It's kind of like they switched roles…" the S.A. speculated from the scenario.

…

The audience was getting to their seats. Backstage, countless students were dressing up and getting their make-up done. There were many different emotions in the air: excitement, tension, anxiety, confidence… Sensei was giving some last minute reminders and tips to the students, before appearing on stage. "Before we start, I would like to thank everyone here for coming to watch our special performance of "Romeo and Juliet", as well as the diligent students of Hakusenkan for preparing for this wonderful performance. We hope you enjoy the play. Thank you." Sensei walked off-stage and then signaled for the curtains to be opened. Act 1 scene 1 had begun.

Behind the back wall, the S.A. sat in comfortable chairs, however, none of them were reviewing their lines, or anything of the sort. Kei didn't need to, as he had it memorized in his mind firmly, but it was a bit unusual for the rest to not do some final reviewing before the play.

The atmosphere wasn't tense, but eager in a way, as if something exciting was about to happen. Kei's mood was easily the worst, but it was tons better than before. Hikari was getting impatient; she twiddled her thumbs and tapped her foot. Kei gazed curiously at her, wondering what she was so keen about.

"I'm looking forward to going on stage!" Hikari clasped for face with her hands and rested her elbows on her lap.

Kei's face hardened. He thought that Hikari meant that she wanted to act as lovers with Iori. The pain was clearly visible in his eyes, though his face remained blank. He got up after a few seconds to get ready for this initial appearance in the play.

…

The play went on smoothly. When Kei finished his part, he sat back down at his seat, listening to Hikari performing the next scene with Akira. "Something's off…What Akira and Hikari are reciting aren't in their scripts (he memorized all the roles in his free time)." He listened more intently. "Instead of refusing to be engaged to me, Paris, Hikari's accepting the fact happily. Did she…" He made an abrupt realization. "Hikari changed the script…" All his anxiety flew away. Hikari changed everything, for him. "I can't believe I lost my faith in her, just because that Iori had boasted about their kiss." He was irritated by himself, yet he was relieved beyond words; his beloved Hikari would not be kissing anyone else.

Nearby, Kei could see Iori, also watching Hikari, with a face of disbelief. Iori didn't notice Kei absorbing his reactions and enjoying every second of scrutinizing his incredulity. One of Kei's worst nightmares was about to become a dream come true. His intuition told him that Hikari altered the play so that they would end up together.

Upon Hikari's first change in her lines, sensei's eyes went wide. He gawked at her from the other side of the stage. Then he fell to his knees, begging to God that Hikari would somehow find her way back to the original script.

When Hikari's scene was over, Kei was waiting at the side of the stage, with his arms open wide and a huge smile lit up his face. Once Hikari was safe behind the curtain wall, she dived into his arms, delighted that Takishima appreciated her effort to change the play.

Iori certainly wasn't pleased, he walked up to Hikari and Kei, and demanded, "What did you do?! Why did you change the play?"

Hikari looked apologetically at Iori and said, "I'm sorry Iori. I… I announced this change to the entire cast of this play, but you weren't there. They were all okay with it (some HikariXKei supporters even encouraged her on) so I just went ahead and did it. I didn't mean to upset you in any way, I'm sorry. I know it was a selfish thing to do, but I just had to."

Iori sighed heavily. He couldn't argue with her after that. "What about the new lines?"

Hikari seemed slightly more relieved that Iori was going to play along. "Don't worry, the auditorium is very high-tech. The lines are being displayed on a huge screen behind and above the audience. It's covered on the bottom so nobody except the performers can see it."

"Okay, fine." He gave off "I-won't-give-up" waves toward Kei, and then walked off, getting a drink of water.

After what seemed like barely any time at all, it was Juliet's and Paris's scene together (when Paris went to meet with Juliet).

I'm sorry, but my old-fashioned English just sucks. I'm NOWHERE close to being able to write a script like Shakespeare, so I'm just going to have to leave out the dialog and just tell you the rest of the story as a summary. Sorry D=.

Instead of rejecting Paris coldly, which was what how it was supposed to be, Juliet openly declared her love for Paris. However, she still loved Romeo, but that love had been overshadowed by her love for Paris the moment they met. Meeting secretly with Romeo, Juliet told her about her feelings toward Paris and broke up with him. Yet Romeo could not accept that fact and believed that Paris had forced her into this. So, during Juliet's and Paris's marriage, just when they kissed3, Romeo threw a javelin into Paris's back, but the javelin had pierced through him and killed Juliet as well. The couple died together, with their lips still touching at the moment of death. Realizing what he just did, Romeo suicided afterwards and the story ended there.

(I tried to stick to the ending as much as possible. I managed to get Paris, Juliet, and Romeo killed =D, just like in the actual play.)

Back to the moment when Kei and Hikari got "pretend stabbed":

"I do." The final words of fair Juliet were spoken with feeling as everyone applauded. Paris held Juliet's arms, and her hands found their way to the base of his neck, on his shoulder. Hikari was flushing madly by now, her heart threatened to jump out of her chest at the rate it was beating. Her face, flushed red, retreated back to an adorable blush as she faced up while he faced down, and kissed each other. Less than half a second after their lips touched, a holographic javelin pierced through Paris and Juliet, and they fell to the floor, still in each other's arms. The guests of the wedding gave a fake gasp of shock, and the scene ended as the curtains were drawn. Hikari and Kei hurried off the stage, so the next scene could start. Now that Juliet and Paris were dead, their scenes were over and they had the rest of the play to be together.

"You seem a lot happier, happier than I expected." Hikari was the first to speak and break the silence as they just stared into each other's eyes.

"Of course. Three wonderful things just happened: 1) my girlfriend didn't kiss some other guy, 2) the entire Japan now probably knows that we're together, and 3) I got to kiss you."

"Wow. If I knew you would be this happy, I would've-" She was cut off as Kei abruptly kissed her. She didn't draw back; instead, she just kissed him back, until she heard the sound of sensei, pacing towards them. She instantly pulled back as she realized that many eyes were watching them kiss. Some girls were giggling quietly, while some guys whistled. Hikari face flushed into a delicate pink and hid her face in Takishima's chest. Sensei walked up to them and before he could start speaking, it was the end of the play and the entire cast had to go out and bow.

As Juliet and Paris appeared once again, the audience went wild. "Paris and Juliet! Paris and Juliet!" they chanted, and more and more of them joined each time. Sensei's fuming anger disappeared as he realized that this sudden change in the play probably got the audience more intrigued than ever, so he just gave up on his lecture for them.

In the school director's building, Karino Sumire watched the performance on her T.V., and grinned. "Tadashi was right. The Special A class sure are entertaining…"

AN: Thank you for reading. This is the last chapter. I hope you liked it!

To AudtheOdd: You had better review! You promised!