“This is bad, bad, bad, bad,” Becca said. This was so typical of Sam—he was making everything worse!
Juliet was looking at him as if he were the last piece of apple pie on earth. Seriously, what could be more awful than someone having a crush on your stepbrother? Becca tried to rub her temples, but her hand just bounced off the parrot beak.
“Hold it!” Becca shouted. She marched between Sam and Juliet. “I’m afraid he can’t dance with you, because … We are performers! And our performance is about to begin!”
She pulled Sam away from Juliet as fast as she could.
“It is?” Sam asked, following along.
“Yes!” Becca said with determination. “STEEDS, ASSEMBLE!”
Oh, I really don’t know if that’s a good—
“I SAID, ASSEMBLE!” Becca repeated.
Well trained, the actors of the Fiery-Footed Steeds came running at Becca’s call, including a very annoyed-looking Lorelei. “I said you could be in the group, not that you were now in charge of it,” the director grumped.
“I’m sorry,” Becca said, “but we have an entertainment emergency! Lord Capulet feels the evening isn’t exciting enough. He sent his daughter, Juliet, to tell us to perform something.”
Becca elbowed Sam and waved back at Juliet. She smiled and blew a kiss.
Sam turned red.
“Well, I suppose if the hosts demand it…,” Lorelei said. She quickly passed out scripts to everyone. Becca looked at the parchment. Apparently she was playing somebody named Jolly Cabinet.
“Ladies and gentlemen!” Lorelei said, her voice cutting across the hall and hushing the crowd. “This evening, the Fiery-Footed Steeds proudly present … Valona: A Tale of Two Delis. Enter Rollyo!!”
The audience took a minute from burping to politely applaud as Romeo walked across the stage.
“Er, this city is a dump!” Romeo read from his script. “You know what it needs? Low-quality sandwiches. The Marliboo family will build a mediocre deli!”
An awful thought niggled in the back of Becca’s mind as a few actors dressed in Montague/Marliboo blue entered the stage.
“We’re going to break ground for a deli,” Romeo announced to the new actors. “A deli that serves not-that-great, overpriced sandwiches to the unknowing people of Verona—er, I mean, Valona!”
Romeo’s ears turned red and Becca’s face fell. The play was a barely disguised tale of the Montague-Capulet pizza fight that made the Montagues look terrible. She hoped Romeo would be able to make it through to the end.
“Scene Two!” Lorelei called out, and two stagehands moved a table into place to be a deli counter. “You,” she whispered at Becca. “You’re Jolly Cabinet—you’re up next!”
“This BLT is like a warm fire to my cold, hungry soul!” said an actor pretending to be a deli customer.
Becca quickly stepped onto the stage. “That’s because we Cabinets are the best sandwich makers in the world,” she read. “We’re proud to help bring this city back from the brink of chaos.”
Romeo/Rollyo appeared onstage again, and the audience booed. Even with the mask blocking his face, she could tell he was terrified. Beads of sweat dripped onto his neck. “What is the meaning of this?”
“You know what it is, Marliboo!” Becca replied. “Your family has been serving stale sandwiches! The people of Valona deserve better.”
Romeo reached up quickly to adjust his mask. The sweat was making it slip and the string was loose—it was barely staying on his face! The show needed to end quickly, or else Rollyo would be exposed as the real-life Romeo Montague. From the hisses and boos of the audience, Becca knew they wouldn’t be welcoming.
“Our deli was … was here first,” Romeo read, pushing his mask up again, “and we’ll see yours fall!”
“How about we settle this here and now?” Sam said, walking onto the stage. Lorelei had stuck a fake mustache on his mask that looked exactly like Tybalt’s.
“I am Tabbert Cabinet and the best swordsman in Valona,” Sam read. “And I challenge you to a duel!”
The crowd cheered loudly! Romeo’s neck was now entirely covered in sweat. The mask suddenly slipped.…
“I have a better idea!” Becca said, ignoring Lorelei’s glare. She grabbed a tomato from a nearby banquet table. “We’ll win this fight the way we always planned—with food!”
She whipped back her arm and let the tomato fly!
It streaked through the air and hit Romeo right in the face—covering him with so much tomato juice that no one could recognize him even if the mask slipped more.
The crowd burst into uproarious applause!
Lorelei shrugged and motioned for the rest of the actors to take their bows.
The clapping went on and on.
Becca gave a shaky smile and bowed next to Sam. “Where’s Rufus?” she whispered.
“Uh…”
Woof!
Rufus streaked from under a banquet table and ran toward the stage—straight toward Romeo.
In two quick bounds, the dog was on top of Romeo. Romeo tried to push him away, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop Rufus’s massive tongue from licking the tomato juice off his face …
… and his mask along with it.
Everyone in the entire hall stopped clapping and stared at Romeo. Including one set of very narrow, very mean, very cologne-y eyes.
From across the room, Tybalt unsheathed his sword. “THOSE AREN’T MARLIBOOS—THOSE ARE REAL MONTAGUES! GET THEM!”