Struts & Frets

Struts & Frets by Jon Skovron Read Free Book Online Page B

Book: Struts & Frets by Jon Skovron Read Free Book Online
Authors: Jon Skovron
the Battle of the Bands, I still wasn’t sure about it. So I found a little cubby under a staircase and quietly chewed my sandwich and worried.
    â€œHiding?”
    I looked up and saw Jen5 peeking into my cubby.
    â€œNah,” I said. “Meditating.”
    â€œGreat,” she said. “Mind if I sit with you?”
    â€œWell, it’ll delay my quest for enlightenment, but I guess that’s one of the trials I must face if I am to become the next Dalai Lama.”
    â€œOh, good,” she said and plunked down next to me. “’Cause I need help with English.”
    â€œOh, yeah?” I said.
    â€œYeah.
Macbeth
. Help me.”
    â€œWith what?”
    â€œWhat’s it about?”
    â€œDidn’t you read it?”
    â€œOf course I did. But they’re always going off on these tangents about gods and stuff. I keep losing track of the story.”
    â€œWell, you know we were only supposed to read the first act for today, but it’s actually a pretty intense story, so I just did the whole thing,” I said. “I’m kind of amazed that Ms. Jansen was allowed to assign it to us, because it’s crazy violent.”
    â€œReally?” said Jen5 as she pulled out her salami sandwich. “What did I miss?”
    â€œOkay, well, Macbeth is this thane, right? This knight-warrior dude. And he’s won all kinds of battles for his king. But then he runs into these creepy witches who can see the future, and they tell him he’ll be king someday. And that totally obsesses him. He wants all that power, right? So he tells his wife about it and she’s like, ‘Let’s not wait around for this to happen. Let’s
make
it happen. Like, tonight.’ So they kill the king and Macbeth takes over and then he just turns into this total power-hungry psycho. Just goes around killing people, even friends and little kids and stuff.”
    â€œHe kills kids?” she asked, the sandwich halfway to her mouth.
    â€œTotally. Lots of them. And the witches give him all theseweird riddles, like ‘Nobody can kill you except someone who wasn’t born from a woman.’ And he’s like, ‘Awesome. Everybody’s born from a woman, so I’m totally safe.’ But then this dude named Macduff shows up who technically wasn’t
born
from a woman. He was ripped out of her womb.”
    â€œGross!” said Jen5.
    â€œYeah, then Macduff kills Macbeth, chops his head off, and sticks it on the wall of the castle.”
    â€œAnd that’s the end of the story?”
    â€œThat’s it.”
    â€œWow,” said Jen5. Then she finally took a bite of her salami sandwich. She frowned at it and shoved it back into her bag. “You know, I think I might become a vegetarian.”
    â€œWhy’s that?” I asked. “Feel bad about killing animals, or just want to be trendy?”
    â€œI’m serious. Some days, meat just seems gross to me. Like I can’t believe we put stuff like that into our bodies. Especially right after hearing you talk about babies being ripped from their mothers’ wombs.”
    I shrugged and took a big bite of my roast beef.
    â€œI wouldn’t want to be a vegan, though,” she said. “I like cheese too much.”
    â€œAnd leather boots,” I said, nudging the cowboy boots she was wearing with her plaid pants—a look that somehow madesense on her. “Vegans don’t wear leather, I think. No animal products of any kind.”
    â€œYeah, screw that,” she said.
    We both stared at her boots for a minute. Then she said, “So why are you hiding down here?”
    â€œI’m not hiding,” I said.
    â€œYou know what I mean.”
    â€œThere’s some Battle of the Bands that KLMN is hosting,” I said, “and Joe wants us to enter.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œSo, I don’t know if we should do it.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œWell, I mean, come

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