Young Adult Revisited

The entire sixth grade has to read Romeo and Juliet for school, but to make things more interesting, they're actually going to put on a shortened version of the play. To complicate things, half the class has a massive flu that they keep passing around. Jessica and Lila war over who will win the lead role, and whoever loses will have to wear a face full of fake warts. Amy compares her relationship with Ken to the one between Romeo and Juliet, and then she decides that it perfectly describes Elizabeth and Todd. Jessica stumbles in, wearing a crown made of aluminum foil and giving some weird and random speech. She tells them that it's more important that she get into character, and they point out that she really needs to read the play. They later find her crying because it's so sad. Jessica completely throws herself into the play. She rehearses so much that even Steven and Elizabeth can recite the lines along with her. Alice and Ned are impressed that she'