Romeo and Juliet

c h a p t e r e l e v e n

•••

Later that day, they were all stood in slices and waiting for Carlos to tell them why they had all been called there.
"You guys, Mother is freaking out"
"It's about the Menkies, is everyone sitting down?" He asks and River immediately plants herself on a seat to make him feel better.
"We can't win"
"What?"
"Why?"
"Listen, theres math involved"
"If we don't sweep the technical achievement awards, we don't have a chance and no offence Ricky but..." he trails off.
River, who was stood next to the boy, giggled slightly knowing what Carlos was implying.
"Oh is this about the transformation cause I can throw that mask at someone other than Natalie" he says pointing to her.
"You haven't yet" she comments and River hides her smile as Ricky looks down at her.
"I hate to say this you guys, we all had a good time over spring break"
"Some of us a little more than others" Seb snaps quietly making River look over at him with a confused look on her face.
"Not today" Carlos says clearly upset and annoyed by what his boyfriend said.
"Honestly, we need to rally behind Miss Jenn, I mean our sets are made of plywood and Elmers Glue, we're humble, humble doesn't win awards" Carlos sighs and River leans her head onto Rickys side knowing the boy is probably right.
They hear Kourtney yelling orders before she comes over to see the rest of the group.
"Fresh soda, yall okay?" She asks sweetly.
"Carlos was just explaining.." Gina starts.
"I heard it all"
"While you were yelling at Howie?"
"Multitasking, look, I'm a designer, Big Reds a crew guy, between the two of us, you're looking at your answer"
"Quit school and get a job at the pizza shop?"
"Uh no, we should invent something amazing, something we can run at tech rehearsal tomorrow night, a next level transformation that out broads Broadway and out norths North High" She says finishing her speech making eye contact with River who was pretending to throw roses at her and was applauding.
"Ashlyn you have the biggest house, what if I invite myself and the girls over after school, continue this collab thing?" Nini asks.
"I mean square footage wise, my house is slightly larger" EJ comments making Gina nudge him playfully which didn't go unnoticed by her best friend who stood a few feet away.
"Uhm, I'm going to shut up" he concludes.
"A hundred percent yes" Ashlyn responds to Nini's earlier question.
"Wait should we all stick together?" Gina asks.
"Oh no way" Nini starts linking arms with Kourtney and Ashlyn.
"Boys versus girls" she finishes.
"My basements free, we have a ton of old tools, I'm sure the guys can make something cool"
"Great, may the best transformation win" Nini smiles.

•••

A few hours later River found herself sat on the couch in Ashlyn's living room and watching as the girls (and Seb) prepped material.
"One hundred percent real faux fur, thirty yards" Kourtney says as she rolls out the fabrics.
"Must've been a truly enormous faux animal" River jokes making them all laugh.
"So what are we doing?" Ashlyn asks.
"You know those sequinned tops where rubbed one way, they're purple, rubbed the other way, red?"
"Duh love it!" Gina says as if it was obvious.
"So we're going to do that with the beast cape"
The girls all nod in understanding before River heard her phone ringing in her pocket and pulled it out to see Antoine's name on the screen with a photo of the two of them from the other night. She smiled at the notification but this of course caught the attention of the other girls.
"Is that Ricky? Can you tell him this is our time with you and his sibling stuff can wait" Ashlyn laughs and River giggles a little.
"Actually it's my boyfriend so I better take this"
"Hang on boyfriend?" Nini asks excitedly.
"When you get back we expect to hear all about this!" Kourtney says and the girls nod with her.
River makes her way outside and sits on the porch as she answers the phone and puts it up to her ear.
"Hey, everything okay? I miss you"
"Hi River, I need to see you right away, it's an emergency, can you meet me at the park by your house as soon as you can?" He asks frantically making the girl confused.
"Uh yeah of course, I'll be there in twenty"
She hangs up the phone and makes her way back inside, grabbing her stuff from the door and goes to see her friends.
"Hey guys, he says there's an emergency so I have to go, I'm really sorry, text me and let me know how things go" she says as she quickly hugs Gina and makes her way out of the house.

•••

Fifteen minutes later, after she half ran, River found herself coming towards the park, slightly out of breath, where she saw Antoine waiting for her. She walked over and grabbed onto his hand as he smiled at her.
"Hey what's the emergency, is everything okay?"
"It's okay, just follow me" he says as they walk closer to some of the bushes.
Behind the greenery was a little open spot which had been set up with a picnic blanket, cake, sandwiches, drinks, candy, fruit, the whole lot.
"So what was so important?" She asks teasingly.
"I just wanted to take you on our first unofficial date" he tells her and she sighs happily before she presses a kiss to his cheek.
"Well you know, the drama geeks are in a real big pickle and it feels unfair to leave them but when you have a super sweet boyfriend who plans things like this for you, I guess it's worth it" she says as she sits down on the blanket and he sits next to her.
The pair start to eat away at the stuff that Antoine had brought which included River practically scoffing down the strawberries he had packed due to being so hungry from rehearsals. She felt like she maybe should feel bad for leaving the girls but at the same time she felt so lucky to have someone who wanted to see her this badly.
"How's the show going then, I'm excited to come see it, your parents seemed very eager for me to go with them"
"Yeah they really like you, and it's going fine, I'm just really nervous you know?"
"I completely understand that but remember if you need, just message and I'll get backstage to you, you won't be alone in all this" he tells her and she leans forward to kiss him briefly.
"Thank you"
The pair then spend the rest of their time together just talking about how rehearsals were going and the dreams they had dreamt over the past few nights. River told him how she had dreamt that they were in a fantasy realm and had been heroically fighting dragons. She told him she had the time of her life doing that.
After an hour or so, she got a message from Gina telling her that they wanted her to come see their progress. Underneath the message was one from EJ that made her eyes widen and a smile make its way onto her face as she stood up with her boyfriend.
"I've got to go, but this was everything so thank you" she says as he pulls her into a hug and kisses her cheek before she smiles and starts to walk towards the school.
When she gets in she immediately finds EJ and pulls him off to the side as Ricky and the others start to perform the scene.
"I can't believe my best friend asked my other best friend on a date, that is the cutest thing" she tells him hitting his shoulder slightly.
"Yeah I was kinda surprised she said yes but I feel really happy"
"Well I'm happy that you're happy and she's probably really happy too" she tells him as they make their way over to where Ricky is being lifted into the air via harness.
She links her arms with both Gina and EJ who stand on either side of her and watched in awe as her brother figure ascends. She was really surprised with what they had managed to pull off. She was, until the rope started to snap and Ricky went plummeting to the ground, landing harshly.
"Yeah that's gonna leave a mark" River whispers as they all stand in shock from what had just happened.