Gnomeo and Juliet (4 page)

T
he next day, Miss Montague walked out of her house bright and early. It was a beautiful day for gardening. “Ah la la la la ah,” she sang as she made her way to the back shed.

As he stood on his pedestal, Gnomeo's eyes cut toward Miss Montague. She was about to discover what had happened to her lawn mower in the race with Tybalt.

Miss Montague unlatched the shed door and pulled out the mower.
Whumph!
All four wheels fell off the battered machine.
“Ahhhh!”
she cried in shock. She looked down at her ruined mower.

Gnomeo cringed.

In the Red garden, Mr. Capulet was also recovering from an early-morning shock. He stood in front of his wishing well, which was covered with graffiti. He glared across the fence at Miss Montague. Clearly, she had to be responsible for this.

“This is an outrage!” he shouted. “The gardening gloves are off, then, are they?”

Miss Montague shook her finger at Mr. Capulet. “
You!
Wrecking my mower,” she yelled back through the fence.

The two gardening rivals shouted back and forth at each other. This was war!

Miss Montague turned her back to Mr. Capulet and stormed toward her house. “Who thinks I should order the best new lawn mower my money can buy?” she growled as she slammed her back door.

A new lawn mower!
Benny grinned.
Score!

Later on in the Red garden, Tybalt, Fawn, and the Goons were busy scrubbing the graffiti from the wishing well.

“Why would anyone do this to Tybalt?” asked Fawn.

“Because nobody likes him!” replied one of the goons. Tybalt scowled.

“So, what are we going to do?” Fawn continued.

Tybalt's eyes wandered over the fence and rested on the Blues' prized wisteria. “Find their weak spot,” he growled.

“
Then
what are we going to do?” Fawn asked. He was confused.

Tybalt laughed evilly. “Damage. Lots and lots of damage,” he replied.

At the same time, in the Blue garden, Benny crept quietly up to Miss Montague's window. He peeked in and spotted her at her desk. She was browsing the Internet for a new lawn mower.

“Ohhh! She's on the worldy-widey-web!” Benny said gleefully.

Miss Montague scrolled through the lawn mower options. Each one was bigger and flashier than the last. There were so many possibilities to choose from!

Benny could hardly contain his excitement. “Yes,” he whispered outside the window. “Pick that one! Oh, that one. I like that one, too!”

Then Miss Montague scrolled over a picture of the largest, glossiest, most high-tech lawn mower Benny had ever laid eyes on. This was the T. Rex of mowers: the Terrafirminator.

“Oh, what's this?” Miss Montague asked. She clicked on the Terrafirminator's picture.

A booming voice rang from the laptop. “Are you losing the war in your garden? Maybe it's time for a secret weapon.
Terrafirminator!
It's the most ruthless five-hundred-horsepower grass-dominating piece of hardware the world has ever seen. It's unnecessarily powerful!”

Benny's eyes grew wide with admiration. “Ohhh, that one,” he whispered. The Terrafirminator was perfect.

“Oh my!” Miss Montague exclaimed. She dragged the cursor toward the ordering box. Then she paused.

Benny watched in horror as Miss Montague moved the cursor toward a picture of a tiny pink mower instead.

“Oh, not the Kitten Clipper,” Benny groaned.

Miss Montague clicked the buy button.

Defeated, Benny slid down the wall onto the grass. Defeating the Reds with that tiny lawn mower would be next to impossible!