Free Take a Chance on Me by Kate Davies

what?”
    Fallon leaned back, propping her ever-present Doc Martens on the seat in front of her. “DWEM. Dead white European male. Face it, that’s all we ever study in English classes anyway.”
    “Point taken,” Jessica countered, “and I’ll encourage you to focus on a writer from another culture when we get to the individual lit study later on this year. But Shakespeare is far more than a DWEM, as you so creatively put it. He’s the most well-known writer in the history of the English language. His plays are still performed all over the world today. He’s shaped our culture.”
    Matt picked up the argument for the students. “But if we never plan to see a Shakespeare play, why bother to study it?”
    “Hmmm.” Jessica stepped down from her stool and began walking from one end of the classroom to the other. “Anyone have an idea on that?”
    Hands rose tentatively. She chose a student at random.
    “Because we want to be well-rounded people.”
    “Helps with trivia competitions. There’s always a Shakespeare question.”
    “The school district says we have to.”
    She smiled at this last comment. “True. But I’d also be willing to bet that you can find evidence of Shakespeare’s work all around you in popular culture. In fact, I will give extra credit to anyone who can find a link between Shakespeare’s work and a song, movie, TV show or book that is popular today. And I will bring in some examples of my own on Monday.”
    An approving murmur ran around the classroom. Like all students, they were excited about the prospect of extra credit. Jessica raised her voice above the low rumble. “And you don’t have to worry about never seeing a Shakespeare play performed either, because that is what I’m going to direct for the spring show.”
     
     
    “You’re not crying again, are you?”
    Jessica’s eyes snapped open. Tom Cameron stood in the doorway of her classroom, squinting in her direction. “’Cause I can come back later.”
    Jessica brushed some imaginary lint off the sleeve of her jacket. She threw him a withering glance. “No, I am not crying. Thank you so much for dredging up a painful memory.”
    “Hey, just checking.” He flashed a lopsided grin that set her heart thumping. “I felt pretty stupid the other day barging in on you and didn’t want to repeat that mistake.”
    “Look, can we just pretend that never happened?”
    “We seem to be doing a lot of that lately,” Tom replied.
    “It works for me.” Jessica picked a pen up, dropped it on the desk again and crossed her arms over her chest. “Why are you here? Are you checking up on me? Don’t worry, I’m not planning to sneak out early.”
    Tom looked baffled. “Checking up on…what, you think I’m the attendance patrol? I could care less what time you leave.”
    “Couldn’t care less,” Jessica corrected absently.
    “What?”
    “Couldn’t care less. If you could care less, it would mean you cared at least a bit.”
    Tom rolled his eyes. “Thanks for the grammar lesson, Miss English Teacher. I stand corrected.”
    “Sorry.” Jessica blushed. “It’s a pet peeve of mine.”
    “Yeah, whatever.”
    Jessica began stuffing papers, file folders and scripts into her book bag at random. She worked quickly, staring down at the poor overloaded bag as if it held the eighth wonder of the world. For all she knew, it did—she’d just never be able to find it under all the junk she was adding.
    Even with her head down, she knew Tom was staring at her, probably with that barely disguised impatience she’d seen flash across his face during the could/couldn’t debacle. She could feel her ears heating up with embarrassment. First, she accuses him of spying on her, then treats him to an impromptu lecture on proper English usage, and she still didn’t know why he was here.
    Go away , she thought fiercely, scowling into the gaping bag. Please, please just go away .
    “Here.” Jessica jerked upright as a sheet of paper