"You might be wondering," Camilla said when the four of them had gathered around, "why the roles were cast in this way."
Olivia held herself back from shouting, "You bet I am!"
"If you"ll follow me, I have something to show you." She led the small group up the side steps on to the stage. She paused before taking them into the wings. "You may have heard that my production of Romeo and Juliet was going to have a "twist"," she said and the four of them nodded. "Well "
Before Camilla could continue, the theatre doors banged open and in strode their stuffy English teacher, Mr Wagenbach, closely followed by Amy Teller. Mr Wagenbach brandished a stack of papers that looked like a script and his face was the same shade of aubergine as his tie.
"H-how could you?" he spluttered as he stomped up the stage steps. "This so-called "adaptation" of Romeo and Juliet is an abomination!"
Olivia was stunned, but Camilla looked completely composed.
"How can you cast the most famous lovers in all of literature as aliens and robots?" he shouted.
Robots? Olivia thought. What is he talking about?
"If you would just calm down, sir," Camilla began.
"I will not calm down, young lady!" he ranted. "You cannot set one of Shakespeare"s most famous plays in outer s.p.a.ce! I have a mind to cancel this production with immediate effect."
It finally hit Olivia the twist Camilla had been about to reveal was that the play had a sci-fi theme. She truly was making it her own.
Does this mean I have to learn cyborg? Olivia wondered, knowing her friend was fluent in the Cyborg Beta language.
Amy Teller had been nudging closer and closer to Jackson. She straightened her green tailored jacket. "If you think that Jackson Caulfield is going to waste his time in the lead role of this nonsense, you should think again."
Camilla narrowed her eyes. "I"m pleased to inform you that Garrick Stevens will be playing the lead in my play."
Both adults turned to stare at the lanky, oddly dressed person who, up until then, had been doodling on his jeans in black pen.
He waved, accidentally dropping the pen. "That"s me." Then he reached over his shoulder to scratch his back.
Amy whipped her head back to Camilla. "You are kidding me."
"I get to play Mercutio," Jackson put in.
Amy gasped. "But he dies halfway through."
Jackson turned to Camilla. "And I have to say thank you for the opportunity. You should know that I am fully committed to this production." He looked at Amy pointedly. "And all my other engagements will be cancelled until after closing night."
Amy looked like a goldfish. Her mouth kept opening and closing, with no sound coming out.
Camilla nodded. "Thank you." Then she turned to the adults. "Look, I am aware that Shakespeare in outer s.p.a.ce isn"t how it"s usually done, but that is the best thing about his plays. They are universal, and his stories and characters are so rich they can be brought to life anywhere."
Mr Wagenbach"s purple faded to lilac.
Camilla kept going. "Changing the setting will open his message to a wider audience, who might not otherwise appreciate the quality of his writing. I want the school no, the world to see how powerful it can be."
Olivia was impressed. Her friend knew exactly what to say to win over the teacher. It was almost a call to arms, an impa.s.sioned advertis.e.m.e.nt for Mr Wagenbach"s favourite playwright.
"Perhaps ..." he began. "Perhaps you are right."
Amy Teller rolled her eyes.
"I was hasty in my judgement," he decided. "You carry on, Camilla. Our school and our drama department is lucky to have someone like you."
"Thank you," she said politely.
"I want approval over the costume," demanded Amy.
Camilla crossed her arms. "I"m willing to offer consultation, but that"s as far as it goes."
Olivia was impressed with how well Camilla could handle the fireball that was Jackson"s manager. I wouldn"t want to have to negotiate with either of them, Olivia thought.
"Consultation is for D-listers," Amy retorted. "Jackson is an A-plus-lister."
"I have faith in my director, Amy," Jackson said, stepping to Camilla"s defence. "She has the most invested in this production, and I"m sure everything will look great."
Amy narrowed her eyes. "Well, I"m not calling Inside Hollywood until I see the costumes."
As Amy and Mr Wagenbach left the theatre, Camilla turned back to her actors.
Charlotte looked like a balloon about to pop. "What were they talking about?" she demanded.
"That"s what I was trying to tell you," Camilla explained. "Come with me." She pushed aside a heavy black curtain and walked through the wings. She opened a side door into the costume room and led the small group to a rack near the back.
"This will be a Coal Knightley-inspired version of Romeo and Juliet. The words and the story are pretty much the same, but the Capulets are robots and the Montagues are aliens. It"s going to be awesome!"
Garrick looked confused. "Aliens?"
"Haven"t you guys seen that awesome 1950s movie Forbidden Planet?" she said enthusiastically. "It was sci-fi Shakespeare and a total cult phenomenon."
Olivia shook her head. "Sorry." She stared at the metallic outfits and tentacle-like arms that were hanging from the rack. Sci-fi Shakespeare was definitely going to be ... memorable.
"Garrick, your twitchy audition was even better than I could have imagined for the part of Romeo or Romezog, as you will be called," Camilla said.
"Romezog, huh?" Garrick said. "Will there still be all the kissing?"
"The script isn"t changing much from the original," Camilla confirmed.
"Oh yes!" Garrick punched the air.
"Oh no," Olivia groaned.
"Congratulations on being Juliet, Olivia," Charlotte said, smirking.
"Actually, it"s Julietron," Camilla corrected, pulling a short, plastic skirt and stiff sleeveless top off the rack and handing it to Olivia. It looked like a cheerleader"s outfit that had been dipped in liquid gold.
Cool, Olivia thought.
"Charlotte, you will be Nanny-bot and wear this." She handed her a grey wig and a padded, shapeless dress made of silver fabric with pink rose appliques ironed all over it.
"Blech." Charlotte turned up her nose.
"And, you, Jackson will be Merc-X88." She handed him a futuristic-looking knight costume where the helmet had tubes to join it to the breastplate. "As a relative of the Prince, you"re not an alien or a robot."
"I"m a cyborg," he said. "I"m both!"
"Exactly," Camilla confirmed. She turned to Garrick. "You will be required to wear this."
Romezog"s costume was green and had four arms on each side that were strung together to move whenever he moved his arms. There was also a hat with big eyes on springs, bouncing all over the place.
"I can handle that," Garrick said, leering at Olivia. He blew her a kiss.
It turned her stomach.
Today should have been the best day ever. She had actually won the role of Juliet plus she had a fabulous costume but she hadn"t even considered that Jackson wouldn"t get the role of Romeo.
Now, not only was she not going to have her first kiss with Jackson while performing the most famous love story in the world it was going to be with Garrick Stevens ... dressed as an octopus.
Life couldn"t get much worse.
Chapter Four.
"What have you got in here?" Brendan asked, pushing his long hair out of his face and hauling Ivy"s black duffel bag across the porch towards her dad"s car.
It was Sat.u.r.day morning, after a week of intense rehearsals, and she and Olivia were just about to head off to Aunt Rebecca"s farm for the night. Ivy was looking forward to spending time with her aunt but hoping to avoid the four-legged residents of the farm.
"I tried to pack light," Ivy replied. "Well, not light colours, of course."
"And yet you"ve ended up with a bag that weighs more than a solid marble tombstone," Brendan said.
"Sorry," she said and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "I didn"t know what to pack for a farm." She had eventually decided to wear her black and grey camos and a three-quarter sleeve T-shirt. At least she knew her st.u.r.dy boots would do the trick. "Plus I had to pack some Vita-Vamp bars." If Aunt Rebecca didn"t serve much meat, Ivy had to make sure she had enough iron intake. It wasn"t easy staying overnight with someone who didn"t know about the whole vampire thing.
"I still can"t believe you"re off to be a cowgirl out in the sticks," Brendan said.
"Just point me to the cows that need a-milking," Ivy joked.
"This I have got to see," he replied, and they dissolved into giggles.
"Come on, you two!" Mr Vega called, using his vampire strength to easily lift Olivia"s bag into the back of his car. "We"re leaving in five minutes."
Olivia and her pink leather overnight bag had just been dropped off by Mr Abbott, who was on his way to a weekend seminar on the discipline of ikebana, j.a.panese flower arranging.
"To calm the soul," he had intoned, just before he drove off.
Ivy needed some soul-calming. She was really excited to spend time with her aunt, but she had no idea what to do on a farm. Despite her joking, she really did not want to milk any cows.
"Where is he?" Olivia hopped from one foot to the other, as Brendan and Mr Vega heaved Ivy"s bag into the car. "Jackson said he"d come and say goodbye."
Just then, a sleek chauffeured car pulled up at the end of the driveway and Jackson jumped out and hurried up to them. He was wearing a white b.u.t.ton-down shirt and faded blue jeans with his trademark cowboy boots.
"I"m so glad I didn"t miss you," he said. "Camilla had me running my lines with Garrick until late last night and I overslept."
Olivia held up her purse. "I"ve got my script here. She"s a tough director, isn"t she?"
"But good," Jackson said. "And I"ve worked with lots of directors."
Ivy tried not to stare as Olivia and Jackson moved away to the lawn to talk privately for the last few minutes they had together this weekend.
Brendan grabbed her in a big bear hug from behind. "See you later."
"I"ll call," Ivy said.
Brendan waved and hopped on his bike.
Mr Vega took a step towards Olivia and Jackson but Ivy stopped him. "Just a couple more minutes."
"OK," he said. "I"ll programme the sat nav."
Ivy tried to avoid watching the couple, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw Olivia rise up on her tiptoes. Ivy knew her sister hadn"t had her first kiss yet and it looked like she was going for it right then and there!
In front of Dad! Ivy couldn"t believe it.
Ivy glanced over to her dad, who seemed engrossed in his route-planning on the front seat, but he could look up at any moment.
Should she try to block his view or try to stop Olivia"s kiss? Ivy looked back and forth between the lawn and the car; everything seemed in slow motion.
But then, she saw Jackson glancing sideways at the car. He doesn"t want to kiss her in front of Dad, Ivy guessed.
Jackson did a last-minute ducking to the side, by-pa.s.sing the kiss entirely and leaning all the way in for a hug.
Olivia looked like she"d just lost a winning lottery ticket.
"Have a great time," Jackson said with a goofy wave and led Olivia back to the car. "I"m jealous that you get to ride horses."
Olivia brightened. "I can"t wait!"
"Bye," Olivia called and turned to Ivy as Jackson"s chauffeur opened the car door. "Why oh why oh why won"t he kiss me?" she whispered, as Jackson was driven off.
"What"s that?" Mr Vega asked.