Star Crossed Actors

Chapter Ten: Caroline

"Ugh," I said, walking down the street to Jack's house.

I hummed to myself as I walked down the street, and saw Jack riding his bike past me.

"Oh, Jack!" I shouted, and he turned around.

"Hey! What's up, C?" Jack hopped off his bike, and kissed me on the cheek.

"Um, Reese and Augustus got in a huge fight, and they're both mad and upset....Reese knows what she did was wrong, Augustus wants her to apologize, and Reese won't because she's as stubborn as a mule."

Jack nodded, and cursed under his breath. "That wasn't supposed to happen. According to our plan, they shouldn't have had a fight."

I sighed, and crossed my arms. "Exactly! Ugh, Cupid won't be pleased."

Yes, we are cupids-in-training. We aged like normal humans, and we were friends with Reese and Augustus....but they didn't know we were Cupids. As for my mom who was in the car? That was another Professional Cupid, she was basically my mom.

"Well, we have to do something," Jack said.

I thought for a second, then gasped. "I've got it! They fought over Romeo and Juliet, maybe we can look in there for something. Library?"

"Meet you there in ten minutes."

He hopped on his bike, and started heading towards the library.

I started jogging in the same direction, and we got there at the same time.

"Alright," I said as we walked into the Public Library. "You grab an abridged version of the story, I'll grab the original."

He walked to the kids section, and I went to the front desk to ask the clerk a question.

"Afternoon, dear, how may I help you?" the lady at the desk asked.

"Hi, do you have Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?"

"Yes, it's in the Classic's section, right there, you see?"

"Thank you, ma'am!" I walked over, and scanned the shelves, looking for the story.

"Ah!" I said, my finger resting on the spine of an old book. I gently tugged it off the shelf, and saw the cover.

Romeo and Juliet.

"Wow, this is a really old book," I said, the pages looking like they would crumble any minute.

I saw down at the first vacant table I saw, and gingerly started flipping through the pages.

Jack sat down next to me with the abridged version, and said, "Find anything yet?"

"Not yet....wait! Found something.....Romeo and Juliet met at a ball, right?"

"I think so......yea, there's a picture right here." Jack pointed to the illustration of Romeo and Juliet meeting.

"We need to host a party. But, like an old fashioned party, with long dresses, and fancy music, and proper food..."

"We could call it the Capulet's ball, make it kind of fancy."

I grinned. "Does next Friday work? I'll make the invites, give them to everyone at school. We'll bring Augustus and Reese as our special guests..."

Jack snapped his fingers. "Make is a masked ball! That's what happened in the play, that's what we should do!"

"We can get them to fall in love again."

Jack and I high fived, then went to check-out to get the books.

I said, "I'm taking the bike, I'll meet you at my house?"

"Yep, see you there."

We took off, determined to help Augustus and Reese.

<________>

I sat on the couch in my living room, Jack pacing.

We were writing the invites to the ball.

"Well, we have the dress codes, the time, the place, the food......what else do we need?" I asked.

Jack said, "Well, we should include that they shouldn't say anything to Augustus and Reese. It's a surprise for them."

"Wait, what month is this?" I asked. I was NOT listening when Cupid told us the month.

"It's like October. Oh my gosh! A Renaissance Halloween party!"

I gasped, and clapped my hands together. "That'll be perfect! Like a fun halloween thing for the school!"

We high fived, and I finished writing the invites. I spell-checked, and then printed a hundred copies.

"I overheard Principal Oliver talking to the Vice Principal, and there's a parent's night gathering tonight in the auditorium," Jack said as I collected all of the invitations from the printer in the other room.

"Really? We can just give these to their parents. It'd be a heck of a lot easier to do that rather than all the kids in school."

"Exactly. Oh, it starts soon, we'd better go soon."

I tapped all the invites on the table next to the printer. "Ready. Want me to meet you there?"

Jack nodded, and replied, "Yea, I'll bike there. Check before with Cupid, but I think you can apparate there."

"Got it!" Jack headed out the door, and I said, "Cupid! I have a small question to ask!"

A crack of thunder was heard, and Cupid appeared.

"Yes? This had better not be asking for help with these two lovers, I can only help you with one of them and you used that your first time round."

"No, nothing like that. I wanted to ask if I could apparate to the school?"

Cupid thought for a minute, then sighed and said, "Fine. One time thing, alright? You know you can apparate only once during your time setting people up."

"I know, thank you, Cupid! We will NOT let you down with Augustus and Reese."

"Good." Thunder was heard, and then Cupid was gone.

Geez, who'd he think he was, Zeus? 

I closed my eyes, concentrated on where I wanted to go, and BAM.

I appeared behind the curtains on the stage.

I tiptoed my way through the backstage, and emerged in the hallway.

I sighed, and walked into the auditorium to wait for Jack.