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 appliqués 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 Saturday 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 sturdy 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, Japanese flower arranging.
‘To calm the soul,’ he had intoned, just before he drove off.