Celine, who seemed primed for mischief today, broke the silence by asking if I knew Romeo and Juliet. She was standing on her left leg and pulled her right leg straight over her head by the heel. She had extraordinary flexibility; even when she was driving me to the brink of pounding her, she could transfix me by the fluid beauty of her movements.

“You mean, the civil war that makes two star-crossed lovers take their life?” I said cautiously, wondering where this was going. “Not by heart.”

Celine momentarily lost her balance. “Huh?”

“Shakespeare. It’s how he describes Romeo and Juliet.”

“Yeah, it’s like a play, Celine,” Laetisha Vettel said. “If you ever came to English class, you’d a heard about it. Shakespeare, he lived like a thousand years ago, and wrote Romeo and Juliet up in a play before there was a movie. Before they even knew how to make movies.”

Josie Dorrado repeated the line. “‘Star-crossed lovers.’ That means even the stars in heaven wouldn’t help them.”

To my astonishment, April kicked her warningly in the leg. Josie blushed and started touching her toes with a ferocious energy.

“That what ‘star-crossed lovers’ means?” Theresa Díaz said. “That’s me and Cleon, on account of my mama won’t let me see him after supper, even for a study break.”

“That’s because he in the Pentas,” Laetisha said. “Your mama is smarter than you, you listen to her. Get clear of the Pentas yourself, girl, you want to live to your next birthday.”

Celine pulled her left leg up, her long braid swaying. “You and Cleon should do like April’s daddy. I hear everyone do like Coach did on Thursday, call him Romeo. Romeo the Roamer, he got the English lady in his—”

April jumped her before she finished the sentence, but Celine had been ready for it—she swung her left leg like a weight, knocking April to the floor. Josie jumped in on April’s side, and Theresa Díaz hustled in to help Celine.

I grabbed Laetisha and Sancia as they were about to pitch in and marched them to the bench. “You sit there, you stay there.”

I ran to the equipment room and picked up a janitor’s bucket. It was full of nasty water, which suited me just fine: I rolled it out to the gym and poured it over the girls.