There are days when I'm glad that I was working the ‘normal' teenage girl routine and then there were days, like today, when I thought how good it would feel to send a locker door into the face of the next person that shoved me in the crowd. I wasn't good with crowds; the constant shuffling, shoving and pushing drove me nuts. I needed my space and I walk fast. So being stuck like that was not good for my temper.

When I managed to find my way past the crowd in the hall, I made my way to the connecting corridor that lead to the stairs to my next class. I opened the set of double doors to the stairs. I noticed my shoelace was untied and stooped down to fix it just on the inside of the door. I was just about to get up when I heard someone running and the squeak of trainers when something heavy fell over me and landed with a thud. I shot up and went to see who I'd probably killed.

 As I looked down I saw a set of deep blue eyes looking at me. He got up as quickly as I did and brushed the dirt off his jeans. His face was familiar to me and I found myself smiling at him, something usually, I never did. I hated my smile. When I smiled my cheekbones went up into my eyes and made me look like a mutant hamster. It was a completely involuntary action that surprised me.

 He looked taken aback as he brushed a hand through his slightly messy black hair and smiled back sheepishly. I stopped smiling and returned to my usual stoic look. I made my apologies and he muttered something to me that I couldn't make out as he shifted past me to make his way to the stairs. When I thought he had gone I slapped the top of my forehead with my palm and kicked the banister. I looked up to see him looking right at me. My face felt hot as he grinned down at me, I felt like a complete idiot.

 He ran upstairs in front of me. I took longer to recover from the embarrassment. When I got to class, I realized how late I was. The lecture theatre was full and all the seats were taken. I looked to the back for my usual seat and found a group of guys sitting in my bench. The only space that was left was embarrassingly enough, beside the guy from before in the middle of the room. I groaned inwardly made my way towards him. Everybody muttered things at me as I passed my way through them to get to the seat, even the lecturer was looking at me. I eventually got to my seat and took out my notebooks, almost hitting the guy I sat next to with my elbow, with the tiny amount of space there was between us.

 I was red-faced as he continued to flick glances at me. I could swear that he was staring at me. I glanced up multiple times to see him looking right at me before quickly looking away.  When I looked up at him and held his gaze, he looked surprised.  I figured he was still laughing at me from earlier and was annoyed. It wasn't that funny, I thought. The lesson started and we got into a discussion about Hamlet. As usual, our lecturer asked the painfully obvious questions. I pretended to listen while one by one they droned on. Suddenly the guy beside me started to speak. It was a question about the female characters, I perked up. What he said bugged me.
 

"Ophelia is a weak character. She is used by Hamlet. She is basically just there to act as a comparison for Hamlet's madness and real madness. She's weak because she allows herself to be controlled by her family, and Laertes bosses her around, as does her father. And Gertrude, she's as loyal as to marry her own brother-in-law, that says a lot." He said sarcastically. The lecturer looked surprised.
"Very good" he said.

Very good! Was he kidding? I thought. I had to speak up; Ophelia was one of my favourite characters. I decided I had to defend her.

"You can't possibly call either of them weak characters" I tumbled out. "Ophelia is the one who defies her father and brother to be with Hamlet. Someone that was way above her rank. She manages to earn his love and in return, he kills her father. Gertrude, well, she was doing what was best for her kingdom. It would be better for her to keep order and marry someone who was still in the family line; it would have been expected of her. We can't put our modern views and society onto the society of the past. It was a different time and should be treated as such." I finally broke off. I suddenly found the eyes of the class staring at me, I looked to the front to the lecturer who looked at me; clearly taken aback at the fact I had spoken at all.

I looked next to me. The guy next to me had gone red. I didn't know if it was out of anger of embarrassment and I didn't care. I was well prepared to fight my corner as the lecturer started to speak.
 

"Well, that certainty is a different view on the play." He said. "let's see what the class thinks shall we?" He drew a line down the whiteboard and took down some bullet points of my argument before he took down the main points of his. For most of the class he got into a discussion and got into both sides of the argument, taking quotes from the play and using it to back up both points. At the end of class, he took a vote. I was surprised to find that most of the class backed my own theory, mostly the girls, which made me smile. As class ended he looked at me, his face was flushed. I wouldn't meet his eyes as I strolled out of class and out to the exit. I regretted making myself known. Now people might start to ask questions, to try to talk to me, try to find out more about me. I'd have to move again. I kicked myself for being so stupid.