The Juliet Spell by Douglas Rees Page A

fairies.”
    He didn’t smile, and my heart hurt for him.
    “Edmund, I know this is a huge burden for you,” Mom said. “No one else on earth has had to go through what you’re going through right now. But plenty of people have come to this country from all over and learned to fit in. You will, too. You’ll learn a little every day. In a year or less, you’ll feel like you belong here, I promise. You do belong here. And Miri and I will help you every way we can.”
    “’Tis a wond’rous prison ye live in… I feel cabin’d, cribbed, confined, in spite of all your kindnesses.”
    Mom put her hand on top of his and gave him a sad smile. “You know, it’s nearly dinner time. And seventeen thirty-five is just about the price of a great pizza. Edmund, it’s time for your next lesson in Americana. Let’s go.”
     
    Chapter Eleven
    My mom should have been a doctor. She knew just what to prescribe. The Pizza Genius Giant Imperial Combo Feast cheered Edmund up, and he walked into rehearsal with me with a jaunt in his step.
    The stage had been marked off with masking tape to show where parts of the set were going to be. And somebody had had the brilliant idea of using blue masking tape to mark off the Capulets’ place and the pale yellow kind for the Mon.tagues’.
    “Get your masking tape right here,” Drew said, coming up to us. “Blue for you, Juliet, and the other stuff for this guy. Wrap it around your arm.”
    “What’s the idea?” I said.
    “Gillinger wants us all to start bonding with our own side,” Drew said.
    “Hey, smart,” I said, tearing off some blue tape and stick.ing it on my right arm.
    “Too smart for Gillinger,” Bobby said. “Drew gave him the idea.”
    “Oh, pshaw,” Drew said.
    “Well thought of, Drew,” Edmund said, and practically covered his arm from shoulder to elbow with tape.
    At seven, Gillinger called us all to order and we started the long, boring, absolutely important business of blocking the first act. Mostly this meant standing around waiting to be told to stand somewhere else. It felt a little like being back in kindergarten when you’re so young you’re still trying to learn how to line up. And it took a long time. Most of us, if we weren’t wanted, stood outside talking, waiting for Tanya Blair to drag us back to the stage.
    Not Edmund. He sat at the edge of the proscenium arch watching everything everyone did. And his big blue eyes didn’t miss a thing.
    And because I wanted to be with him, I sat there, too. At first, it was boring, except for being close enough to Ed.mund that I could feel the heat of his body and hear his slow, deep breathing. But as the night went on, I began to see the thing in front of us slowly coming to life. The life was in the changes that Gillinger made to his original ideas. They were small things, usually, but each one of them was like the twitch of a baby animal trying to stand up.
    By the end of the evening, act one, the longest act, was about half blocked. That meant everything from the Chorus scene to just before the balcony scene. It’s a huge chunk of the play and a lot of really dull work. But it was done, and it was also Friday night.
    “Party. My place. Come on,” Vivian whispered to Ed.mund and me as we were breaking up.
    And before I could think of a good excuse why we couldn’t go, Edmund was saying, “Silent as the tomb, swift as an arrow. See ye.”
    So we were going to a party. At Vivian’s.
    “I call shotgun,” I said.
    Oh, well, I thought. What could happen at a party? Know.ing that the answer to that is, everything.
    When we left the parking lot and headed toward Vivian’s place, I was glad to see Drew’s little 2CV tailing us.
    “Have you seen Drew’s car?” Vivian babbled. “It’s so weird. Perfect for him, though. Know what he did in calc today? He told Mr. Kreps that numbers aren’t reality. He said they just kind of open a window on it, like poetry. Know what’s weirder? Mr. Kreps sort of