Erica voices her support for Macbeth.

The majority wins, and Hamlet is the play of choice. 

For now, though, Antigone. 

Antigone! 

Of course, they start with the historical context first, which bores most of the class.

Matt certainly doesn't say anything about these philistines and their pathetic failure to appreciate classics.  

His silence practically rings.

Solvei enjoys the historical context very much. And after class, she catches up with Matt and asks, "Troilus and Cressida, huh?"

"Doomed love and Greek tragedy. Have I been subtle about what I like?"

"No, I can't say that you have. I admit I haven't read that one, though. Should I? Tell me of its virtues."

"Cressida and Troilus fall in love, and when she's taken as a prisoner of war, he finds her in a tent with another man. He decides to get revenge. Meanwhile, Agammenon tries to get Achilles to fight for the Greeks, but it takes the death of Patrocles to motivate him. The play ends before the war does, when the Trojans grieve their best fighter, son of their king and queen. Best enjoyed as part of a triptych, with Hamlet and Titus Andronicus. Revenge plays were Shakespeare's favorite genre to pastiche."

"Sounds like fun."

"Hamlet will be plenty of fun, don't get me wrong, but I don't know, if you're going to be genre savvy, at least be in the right genre." 

He takes a seat near the window when they get to Econ.

Solvei sits near him. "I thought Hamlet's entire problem was that he was genre savvy for the right genre and then his author went and wrote a deconstruction on him?"

"Some people have put it that way. I think it's more complicated than that, and it really comes out if you look at his other revenge plots. In Troilus and Cressida, you have an entire war being motivated by revenge for or on their dead or adulterous lovers. And in Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare only mimics and doesn't parody or satirize the contemporary genre. It's just bloody and awful, there's not much analysis."

"Hmm, I think I see what you mean. I'll have to read those two and see for myself."

Matt attempts to focus on Econ. 

Attempt mostly succeeds. 

Solvei is very successful at focusing on Econ once she actually tries!

Well, she is kind of distracting. 

Econ ends soon enough, with no one having learned anything useful.

Off to music with her.

She is good at music. You'd have to look pretty hard to find a better cellist. The teacher will no doubt be pleased.

The teacher is impressed!
Other students are also impressed.

Combat Friend greets her at lunch. 

Good old Combat Friend.

"Hi, Allison!"

"Hey! I guess today isn't truffle-geddon?"

"Not yet. Scott volunteered to help with the truffles, so I had to delay them because my aunt requires a day's advance notice before anyone comes over."

"Oh, that makes sense. My parents can be over-protective too."

And here's their usual table. Which is empty of Lydia and Jackson.

"Yeah, there's a little of that going on. She also wants to have a cleaning service in to go over the whole house so nobody else ever catches us with a speck of visible dust."

"So how was your third day at Beacon Hills High, and when will I ever stop asking?"