Part 12 (1/2)

'We are on target,' Ivy confirmed. 'Except for you and Aunt Rebecca.' She gave him a pointed look.

'My apologies ' he began.

'No time!' Ivy cut him off. By then, they had reached the opposite corner of the lobby. 'Aunt Rebecca, it is lovely to see you; you look so nice; please come this way.'

'Goodness,' Rebecca said. She'd matched knee-high boots with her red sweater dress and an embossed brown leather belt. 'You are efficient!'

'I've saved seats for you,' Ivy replied, pus.h.i.+ng open the gla.s.s doors, manoeuvring past the people taking their seats at the back of the theatre and leading them down the centre aisle of the school theatre.

'You are there,' she said to Mr Vega and he obediently moved in to sit down next to Brendan. 'And you are there.'

'There?' A flicker of awkwardness flashed across Aunt Rebecca's face.

Ivy realised what she'd done. She should have 'accidentally' saved them separate seats. Rebecca wasn't exactly long-lost friends with her dad and Brendan was probably on her least-favourite-person list at the moment. But it was too late now. The show was sold out and she didn't have time to move things around.

'Ten minutes,' came Sophia through the headset.

Ivy put on a bright face, hoping to get away as fast as she could. 'Yup, right there. Best seats in the house.'

'Uh, thanks,' Rebecca replied. She smoothed her dress and sat down next to Mr Vega. 'Good evening,' she said stiffly.

'Good evening,' he replied.

She didn't even acknowledge Brendan.

'I hope you enjoy the show!' Ivy wanted to smack her own forehead, but there wasn't even time to do that.

As she hurried up the steps, she heard Mr Vega go straight to the subject Ivy was hoping to avoid tonight.

'Any news about Lucky?' he asked.

Ivy knew there wasn't. She'd been texting all day and all week. They hadn't found any trace of Lucky.

Ivy forced all thoughts of the horse out of her mind. She had to get through the show and then she could think about it.

'Ivy, dear!' exclaimed a voice in front of her. It was Olivia's mom.

Mrs Abbott gave Ivy a hug, and Mr Abbott grinned at her.

'We're so excited about tonight,' Mrs Abbott said. She was wearing an elegant emerald dress with a silver clutch. 'Olivia has been practising so hard!'

'And she tells us you've been keeping everything running smoothly,' said Mr Abbott, in a dark grey suit with a black tie.

Ivy smiled. 'Thanks.' The Abbotts always cheered her up. 'I've got to run; curtain's up soon.'

'The obstacle is the path,' Mr Abbott said and bowed to her.

Ivy instinctively bowed back then hurried up the steps.

Olivia peeked through the wing, stage right, careful to make sure no one in the audience could see her.

Jackson was standing on a holodeck control board above Garrick and making the goggly eyes of his costume bounce wildly. 'And in this state she gallops night by night, through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love ...'

He was giving the famous Queen Mab speech. It started out teasing Romeo about being in love but then turned into a rage against the alienrobot feud and how everyone was obsessed with all the wrong things.

The audience, including Mr Vega and her parents, were watching, enthralled.

Who would have thought Mercutio as a cyborg could make so much sense? Olivia thought. Jackson was so good, exaggerating just the right phrases to make the meaning clear. No one could have done Merc-X88 better, Olivia knew, but that didn't stop her wis.h.i.+ng that he'd been cast as Romeo instead.

As he danced off stage, on his way to the robots' feast, the audience burst into applause. Olivia felt her pulse start to race. He was coming straight towards her and he had such an exhilarated smile on his face.

'I was hoping to run into you,' he whispered and pulled her away from the other actors leaving the stage, into the darkness of the curtains.

Olivia knew there was a brief scene with butler robots before she had to go on. Was it enough time to kiss him? 'You were?' she said, looking into his silver-coloured face.

'Yes, I just wanted ...' Jackson trailed off.

'Julietron!' hissed Ivy from somewhere nearby. 'Cue Julietron with the Capulets!'

Just one second, Olivia thought. Please!

But Jackson was already backing off. 'You're doing so great,' he whispered. 'Get back out there and knock 'em dead.'

Olivia wasn't sure her heart could take any more almost-kisses. She knew she was supposed to be on stage, but it was time to take matters into her own hands. She was just going to kiss him now or never.

She took a step forwards.

'Olivia!' Ivy's voice stopped her in her tracks. 'Your cue!'

'Arg!' Olivia said, peeling away from Jackson to rush on stage into a melee of metallic masks and actors jerking about like mechanical puppets.

The fates were against Romeo and Juliet, Olivia thought as she moved around to the thumping synthetic music, and they are determined not to let me kiss my boyfriend!

In every break during the rest of the performance, Olivia tried to find Jackson again, but the closest she came was a glimpse across the backstage area while she was rus.h.i.+ng for a costume change. Operation Cyborg Smooching had failed.

Now, Olivia was lying as still as she could while Garrick twitched around the cryogenic tomb she was on top of, performing his last monologue in the scene where Romezog arrives to find Julietron apparently dead, not knowing that she has been injected with an internal cryogenesis solution that gives the appearance of death.

'Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty,' he was saying. Olivia was impressed by Garrick he had only missed a line or two throughout the whole show. The audience was silent, and Olivia hoped they were feeling the building climax of the tragedy.

With each line Garrick spoke, she knew it came closer and closer to the end where she would have to kiss him and there was nothing to convince her that it would be anything but the grossest moment of her life.

She would have to make sure she didn't vomit in front of everyone.

Garrick climbed on to the tomb with her and accidentally whacked her in the face with one of his costume's arms. Olivia struggled not to react; she was supposed to be in system malfunction mode.

'Eyes, look your last!' Garrick was building up to the end. 'Arms, take your last embrace!' With that, he whacked her again with an octopus arm.