Gnomeo and Juliet (3 page)

B
ack in the safety of the Red garden, Nanette was dying for details of Juliet's night.

“So…where's this oh-so-important, life-changing orchid?” Nanette asked. It hadn't escaped her that Juliet had sneaked out of the garden for the precious flower but had come back empty-handed.

Juliet didn't answer. She was off in her own world, thinking about Gnomeo. “Um, what orchid?” she said dreamily. She walked up the steps of the grotto.

“Hmmm,” Nanette replied. The frog quickly grew suspicious. Juliet was hiding something, she was positive. But what could it be? She caught up with Juliet and grabbed her by the shoulders.

“What?” Juliet asked.

Nanette looked deep into Juliet's eyes. She knew her friend better than anyone. If Juliet had a secret, Nanette would figure it out. Then, all of a sudden, she had it!

“No way!” Nanette exclaimed. “
You
met a
boy,
” she declared, pointing a finger at Juliet.

Juliet looked flustered. “What? No!” she cried. “Well, maybe…sort of…I'm…” Juliet blushed. She couldn't hold it in any longer. “
Yes!
Yes, I did!” she shouted. It felt great to tell someone.

Nanette shook Juliet giddily. “I need details, and
go slowly.
Is he totally gorgeous?” she asked.

“
Totally
,” Juliet gushed.

“Does he have a nice round belly?” Nanette inquired.

“Well, let's just call it sturdy,” Juliet replied.

Nanette whistled. This gnome sounded too good to be true!

But Juliet knew she had to tell Nanette the whole truth about Gnomeo. He was a Blue and she was a Red. And that meant they could never be together.

Juliet tried to think of the right words to make Nanette understand. “His hat…,” she started. “You know, I suppose, in a certain light, you might say it looks sort of…blue.”

“Blue,”
Nanette repeated. It wasn't quite a question and it wasn't quite a statement. Then she became silent, which was hard for Nanette to do. Juliet
had
to be kidding. Nanette laughed nervously. “Oh, this is one of your little jokes. Ahahaha. Ha ha. Ha ha!”

Juliet gave Nanette a serious look. She wasn't joking.

“Oh, flippin', flamin' Nora! She's smooching the face off a Blue!” Nanette exclaimed. This was juicier gossip than she'd thought!

Juliet clamped her hand over Nanette's mouth.

The last thing she needed was for this news to get out. “Shhh—please shush, Nanette. Just zip it,” Juliet said, making a “zip your lips” motion across her mouth with her finger.

Nanette did the same.
“Zzzzip,”
she said. Juliet's secret was safe with her. But she was too excited about it to keep quiet. “Oh, Juliet! This is fantastic!”

Juliet looked at her friend hopefully. If Nanette really thought it was okay, maybe it was. “Is it?” she asked.

“It's doomed!” Nanette cried.
“Doomed!”

“What?” Juliet said.

“A Red and a Blue. It just can't be! It's a
doomed
love, and that's the best kind!” Nanette explained. “You'll never see him again! And then, one day, when you die, you'll be all, ‘Oh, my true love, I only saw him once! Oh! Oh, ohhhh…!'” Nanette pretended to faint in Juliet's arms.

Shocked, Juliet dropped Nanette. “I'll only see him once? What do you mean I'll only see him once?” she exclaimed.

But Nanette was lost in her own daydream now. “How romantically tragic!” she cried, swooning again.

Juliet bit her lip. She couldn't bear it if Nanette was right.

Nanette picked a flower. She began to pluck its petals off one by one, singing, “Your love is doomed.”
Pluck!
“Your love is dead.”
Pluck!
“Your love is doomed.”
Pluck!
“Your love is dead.”
Pluck! Pluck! Pluck!

Nanette wandered off, leaving Juliet alone with her thoughts.

Juliet heaved a big sigh.
Blue.
She had finally met her perfect match, and he was out of reach. But maybe—

“Doomed!” Nanette cried out in the darkness.

A
s Juliet continued to worry, Gnomeo was busy making plans to see her again. He sneaked quietly through the back gate into the Red garden. As he slipped stealthily along the fence, he overheard a conversation between two gnomes.

“I've never seen Lord Redbrick so riled up! We have to find Gnomeo,” one gnome said to the other. They moved away and joined a large group of Reds by the wishing well. They were inspecting the Blue graffiti Benny had left behind.

Gnomeo took a deep breath and continued his search for Juliet. Finally, he spotted her high on her balcony at the center of the grotto. She looked beautiful in the moonlight. It sounded as if she was talking to herself. Gnomeo listened.

“Oh, Gnomeo, Gnomeo, are we really doomed, Gnomeo, to never see each other again?” Juliet cried. “Why must you wear a blue hat? Why couldn't it be red, or green, or purple? Because you're a Blue, my father sees red. Because I'm a Red, I'm feeling blue. That shouldn't be the thing to keep us apart, should it?”

Gnomeo couldn't believe his ears. Juliet was talking about
him
! He couldn't resist letting her know he had heard her. “No! No! It shouldn't! I couldn't have said it better myself!” he called out.

Juliet jumped at the sound of another voice. She was alone, wasn't she? Then she saw Gnomeo standing below. Her cheeks flushed as red as her hat. “Oh,” she said, collecting herself. “Did you just hear all of that? What are you doing here?”

“I don't know,” Gnomeo replied, suddenly feeling shy. “I…umm…I came here to…well, I just wanted to see you again.”

Juliet's heart melted. But then she nervously looked around. She began to panic. “Are you crazy?” she asked. “If Dad finds you here, he'll bury you under the patio!”

Gnomeo waved his hand at the mention of Lord Redbrick. Juliet's father scared the paint off him, but Gnomeo didn't want Juliet to think he was a wimp. He strolled casually toward her—and tripped over a rock.
Oooff. So much for smooth,
he thought.

Unfortunately, Gnomeo's foot had landed on the switch that controlled Mr. Capulet's mechanized grotto display. Before Gnomeo and Juliet could do anything to stop it, the garden lit up with lights and blaring music—and Juliet's balcony started to spin. Her grotto now looked and sounded like a wild nightclub!

“
Ahhh!
Quick, turn…it…off!” Juliet yelled over the noise.

Gnomeo tried everything he could think of to stop the earsplitting music. Nothing worked! “The button's stuck!” he called.

Across the garden, Lord Redbrick raised his head. What was all that noise? He marched in the direction of the music.

“Juliet!” he hollered.

As Gnomeo continued to struggle with the switch and wires, Shroom suddenly appeared. Benny had sent him into the Red garden to find Gnomeo.

Juliet spotted Lord Redbrick headed right for them.

“My dad's coming!” she warned Gnomeo.

Just then, Nanette hopped over to investigate the noise. “Juliet! What's with the—” she started, but Shroom tripped over some wires and landed right in her mouth! She removed Shroom and then spotted Gnomeo. “So,” she said, turning to him. “You must be Gnomeo. Lovely to meet you in the thirty seconds before you're discovered and killed.”

Nanette sat down on a nearby rock. She wanted a good seat for all the action. She knew that Gnomeo and Juliet were doomed, but she hadn't expected their love affair to come to an end quite so soon!

Juliet waved at Gnomeo frantically. “Quick! Hide!” she cried.

Gnomeo grabbed Shroom, dove into the garden pond, and held his breath.

Lord Redbrick stomped through Juliet's grotto. He reached behind a flowerpot and pulled a plug from a socket hidden there. The lights snapped off and the music went silent.

“Juliet! I've told you before—no music in the grotto after ten o'clock. What's going on here?” her father demanded.

“It was a…I saw a…a squirrel…and he…,” Juliet said, struggling to come up with an excuse—one that wouldn't give Gnomeo away.

Luckily, Lord Redbrick was too flustered by the night's events to be very worried about Juliet's explanation. “Well, okay. But no mucking about, especially tonight,” he told her. “We've been attacked. By a Blue!”

Nanette and Juliet eyed each other.

“And if I ever get my hands on that Blue”—Lord Redbrick clenched his fists—“he'll be sleeping with the fishes!”

Just then, Gnomeo popped out of the water, gasping for breath.

At the sound of Gnomeo's splashing, Lord Redbrick turned around.

Nanette leaped in front of Lord Redbrick just in time, blocking his view of the pond—and Gnomeo. “Lord Redbrick!” she called, and started asking him silly questions to distract him.

Gnomeo saw his opportunity to get Juliet's attention. “I guess now isn't the best time to talk?” he whispered.

“It's not ideal,” Juliet whispered back. She looked nervously toward her father.

“But I—” Gnomeo started again. He wanted to tell Juliet how he felt about her, but he wasn't sure where to begin.

“Just go! Please go,” Juliet begged him. She cared too much about him to see him get caught.

“But I just came here to tell you I…um, I—” Gnomeo tried again.

“What? You what?” Juliet asked. Then she heard her father approaching again. “Sorry,” she said quickly. She pushed Gnomeo back under the pond water and turned toward her dad.

“Juliet, is there something wrong with the pond?” Lord Redbrick asked.

“The pond? No, it's fine. Just as pondy as ever—ha ha,” she said, laughing nervously. Then she pointed over her dad's shoulder. “Oh my gosh! What is that thing over there?”

Lord Redbrick turned away from the pond. “What? What is it?” he asked.

Juliet motioned to Nanette.

Nanette pulled Gnomeo and Shroom out of the pond and pushed them toward the gate. “Okay. Bye-bye, then. Good night, sweet prince. Parting is such sweet sorrow,” she said quickly.

Nanette shoved Gnomeo and Shroom out into the alley and slammed the garden gate behind them. She wiped the sweat from her brow.
That was close!

Shroom gave a consoling whimper as he followed Gnomeo down the alley. Gnomeo was feeling sorry for himself. He had been so close to telling Juliet his true feelings for her—but the timing, not to mention the whole situation, was less than perfect. He paused in front of the deserted garden where he'd first met Juliet. He looked toward the greenhouse. Then he got an idea.

Juliet ran over to Nanette. “Nanette, where's Gnomeo? Has he gone?” she asked. She clutched Nanette's arm.

“Yep. Gone forever,” Nanette informed her friend.

Juliet looked devastated. “What?” she cried. She climbed toward the top of the fence, hoping for one last glimpse of Gnomeo through the wooden slats of the trellis that extended along the fence's edge.

When she reached the top of the fence, she unexpectedly came face to face with Gnomeo, who was staring through the slats in the trellis, hoping to get one last glimpse of her! In his hand he held the white orchid that Juliet loved so much.

“I think you'll find this does actually belong to you,” Gnomeo said.

Juliet smiled shyly as she took the flower. “Thank you,” she said, blushing.

They stared into each other's eyes. But Juliet knew that they couldn't be together. She started to leave, but Gnomeo stopped her.

“I can't go,” he said.

“I know how you feel,” she replied.

“No, really…I can't go. I'm stuck,” Gnomeo admitted. His face had gotten wedged between two slats.

“So…can I see you again tomorrow?” he asked, his face slightly squished.

“Yes. But not here,” she told him.

“Noon?” he asked hopefully.

“Not soon enough,” she replied.

“I can do eleven-forty-five,” he told her.

Juliet kissed her fingertips and placed them against Gnomeo's lips. Then, with a gentle push, she unstuck his head from the trellis.

“Back in the old deserted garden, then. Eleven-forty-five a.m.,” Gnomeo called as he slipped down from the fence. “That frog was right. Parting is such sweet sorrow.”

Juliet smiled. She was in love!

Gnomeo practically skipped into the Blue garden as he returned home with Shroom. But as soon as he shut the gate, Benny raced up to him.

“Gnomeo! Gnomeo! Where on earth have you been, Gnomeo?” he cried frantically.

Gnomeo looked startled. “Well, I—”

“We thought one of those Reds must've gotten to you!” Benny exclaimed.

“A Red? Get to me? Yeah, as if,” Gnomeo replied, shrugging uncomfortably. He thought of Juliet and sighed.

If Benny only knew.