5. Of Crossing Stars

I couldn't resist putting this in here, since it was pretty much a no-brainer. I hope you enjoy it. See previous disclaimers and warnings, and please review! Oh, and a hint, once you figure out where I've stuck them this time, you might want to read the relevant bits of the original text just to see what I've done with it.

Danny and Tucker found themselves standing alone on a quiet street at sundown. The stone buildings were of an unfamiliar style that looked vaguely Mediterranean. A soft breeze blew down the road and carried the scents of flowers to the two boys.

"Sam? Any clue?" Danny turned to look at his friend. She wasn't there. "Sam? Oh no, do you think the Ghost Writer left her out of this one? Or forgot her in Salem?"

"Who knows? But we'd better find out where we are before anything bad happens." They started walking. Danny was finding it really uncomfortable to move. He looked down.

"What the ... now he's playing dress-up?" Danny was dressed in an elaborate black and silver tunic with rips in the sleeves that also showed a silver fabric. He had on a pair of pants that ended just above the knee and ballooned outwards, and tights. They were also black and silver, as were his shoes. Tucker took one look at him and started laughing.

"Shut up. You're not much better yourself." Tucker was dressed similarly, except that his outfit was green and yellow, and he had a red hat with a feather in it. The two friends started walking again, awkwardly, in the direction they had been facing. At the end of the street, people were getting out of carriages and heading into a large, well-lit house at the end of the street. The sound of music drifted out into the street.

"Dude, it's a party! I'm not being left out of this one!"

"But Tucker, we're not invited!"

"Think they're gonna notice us? Come on!" Tucker started running towards the house, and Danny followed. Tucker slipped through the gate, and Danny went after him to stop the trouble before it happened. He caught up with Tucker at a side door and Tucker handed him a slim silver mask.

"Put it on. Everyone's wearing one." Danny decided to humour his friend, and followed him inside. He got separated from Tucker in the crowd and found himself on the edge of the dance floor. His eyes picked out a young woman in a beautiful deep pink and gold gown and a cat mask dancing with a man about twice her age. Entranced, Danny caught the arm of a servant walking by.

"Who's that?"

"No clue." The servant continued on his way.

She's gorgeous. Way prettier than Paulina. Sam was right, there are much nicer girls out there. What was I thinking? I've gotta have a dance with her. Sam'll kill me if she finds out, though, so it's a good thing she's not here. Danny started edging over to where the girl had gone. He stationed himself behind a pillar, and when she came near enough he reached out and grabbed her. She gave a startled gasp as he pulled her towards him.

"Oh, geez, I'm sorry to have startled you. Here, um, I'll just, er..." She stopped him.

"Don't worry about it. I think it's kind of cute, actually."

"Really? You do? I mean, great! So, why were you danc-" A large woman seemed to appear out of nowhere beside him. Danny jumped and Mystery Girl laughed.

"Your mother wants a word with you." The girl glared at the woman but moved off, looking longingly back at Danny. He returned the look, and as he was craning his neck to see where she'd gone, Tucker appeared in front of him.

"Hey, dude, I just saw Dash. He headed this way and he looks pretty angry. We've gotta get out of here before he realizes we crashed the party!" He dragged Danny away. "Hey, you okay?"

Danny shook himself out of his reverie.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." I've got to find out who that girl is. I think she's important to the story, whatever it is. And there was something about those eyes... He managed to separate himself from Tucker once they got to the street again by going intangible, and headed back towards the house they'd just left. I hope I can do this.

It wasn't long until Tucker realized that Danny was missing. He started frantically searching for him and Danny caught snippets of his cries.

"Danny! Dude! Where'd you go, man! This is crazy! We've got to stick together, here. Hey! I see Paulina!"

He's getting desperate, thought Danny. Tucker must have gotten closer to where he was hiding, because the halfa caught a muttered "Oh, right, he's got ghost powers. I'm never gonna find him" and a slightly louder "I don't know what you're doing, Danny, but I'll be waiting where we got dropped when you're done."

Danny waited until Tucker had walked off before moving any further. Hate to ditch you, Tuck, but you'd understand if you saw her.

He realized that he was in a garden of some sort, and that a light was on in the room above him. He quickly ducked off to the side, and before he could move any further, he heard someone yelling above him.

"Argh! It's bad enough that he dressed me in pink for this but did he have to make my room the same colour!" Something shattered against a wall and Danny's Mystery Girl appeared at the door to the balcony.

Sam? thought Danny. The girl at the party was Sam? He opened his mouth to say something like "Psst, Sam, it's Danny. What are you doing here?" but groaned inwardly as something else entirely came out of his mouth.

"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks/ It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. / Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon/ Who is already sick and pale with grief/ That thou her maid art far more fair than she/ Be not her maid, since she is envious; / Her vestal livery is but sick and green / And none but fools do wear it; cast it off."

Romeo and Juliet. Wonderful. I hope Sam realizes that it's not really me talking. Who am I kidding? Of course she knows. Wait, does she know that was me earlier?

"Yargh." Sam walked over to the stone railing and leaned over it, sighing in exasperation. Danny could feel another monologue coming, but couldn't stop it.

"She speaks/ O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art / As glorious to this night, being o'er my head / As is a winged messenger of heaven / Unto the white-upturned wondering eyes / Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him / When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds / And sails upon the bosom of the air." Okay, so what exactly did I just say?

Sam was looking conflicted. As Danny thought, she knew where she was and that she had to play along, but she'd never been one for mushy sentiment and didn't want to start now, especially if Danny had gotten stuck as Romeo and was therefore down in the orchard somewhere listening. Eventually she gave in. He'd know she'd been forced into the lines just as much as him. And it wasn't as if she loved him or anything, right?

"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo/ Deny thy father and refuse thy name; / Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love/ And I'll no longer be a Capulet."

Oh man, her too? thought Danny. Now what? If I can say something original it might break the spell. This must be killing her.

Sam went on.

"'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; / Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. / What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot/ Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part / Belonging to a man. O, be some other name/ What's in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet."

So this is where that's from, thought Danny. Okay, I'm going to step out there and say "Sam!" That's easy, right? Danny walked out of the shadows and opened his mouth.

"I take thee at thy word/ Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized; / Henceforth I never will be Romeo." He resisted the urge to bash his head against a tree while Sam fought back a laugh at the look of consternation on Danny's face.

"What man art thou that thus bescreen'd in night / So stumblest on my counsel?" Like I don't already know...

"By a name / I know not how to tell thee who I am/ My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself/ Because it is an enemy to thee; / Had I it written, I would tear the word."

"My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words / Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound/ Art thou not Romeo and a Montague?"

"Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike."

"How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore/ The orchard walls are high and hard to climb/ And the place death, considering who thou art/ If any of my kinsmen find thee here."

I phased through them, of course. "With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls; / For stony limits cannot hold love out/ And what love can do that dares love attempt; / Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me."

"If they do see thee, they will murder thee."

"Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye / Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet/ And I am proof against their enmity." That sounds almost like one of Tucker's pickup lines.

"I would not for the world they saw thee here."

"I have night's cloak to hide me from their sight; / And but thou love me, let them find me here/ My life were better ended by their hate/ Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love."

"Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say 'Ay,' / And I will take thy word: yet if thou swear'st/ Thou mayst prove false." Juliet was really desperate, wasn't she? She's barely known this guy for an hour, and now she wants a commitment?

"Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear / That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops..." Enough of the mushy stuff already!

"O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon/ That monthly changes in her circled orb/ Lest that thy love prove likewise variable."

"What shall I swear by?"

"Do not swear at all; / Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self/ Which is the god of my idolatry/ And I'll believe thee." That has got to be the sappiest thing I've heard in a while. "Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee/ I have no joy of this contract to-night/ It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; / Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be / Ere one can say 'It lightens.' Sweet, good night!" And now she realizes she might be rushing into it a little too fast. Good for her.

"O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?" What, Romeo seriously expects a good night kiss? From Sam?

"What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?" I'm not going to kiss him. The Ghost Writer can't make me.

"The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine."

Well, it's not a kiss... "I gave thee mine before thou didst request it/ And yet I would it were to give again." Really, really desperate. I have to get out of here before we get to all the sugary good-byes. I'll never live it down. Ah yes, trust the clichés... Sam grabbed a length of ivy that fell down beside the window and swung herself off the balcony. She began to climb down, and then felt a pair of hands on her waist.

"Let go, Sam, I've got you." Danny made them both invisible and flew them back to where Tucker and he had found themselves earlier. As he'd promised, Tucker was waiting for them.

"Dude, you could have just said you were rescuing Sam."

Danny looked apologetic. I didn't know it was her when I left. I thought... I don't even want to know what I thought... Change the subject, change the subject...

"So, where do we go from here? I mean, we're a bunch of teenagers in the middle of a street at midnight. Someone's going to ask where our parents are, or why we're breaking curfew."

Dude, I doubt they even have curfew here. Oh no, not again. The Dash look-alike and a boy who looked suspiciously like Kwan were walking down the road, obviously looking for someone. Danny took one look at them and started running. If they had recognized him from the party... Tucker followed. Sam weighed her options, and decided that running in a long skirt was preferable to being locked in a pink bedroom. Once the trio had managed to lose their pursuers, they ducked into an alley. Sam spoke first.

"You thought I was someone else didn't you?"

"No! I mean, um... It was the mask, okay?" Oh, great excuse, Danny. Like she's gonna fall for that...

"Or maybe it was the pink..." Tucker was on the verge of laughing. Sam glared at him.

"Not another word. This is someone's idea of a sick joke."

"So, what were you two doing then? Tell Uncle Tucker." He swung his arms around his friends' shoulders.

"Balcony scene." Sam didn't sound pleased.

"You're kidding, right? You two k-" The reply was in stereo.

"NO! It wasn't like that. We never!"

"Okay, whatever you two lovebirds say..."

"WE'RE NOT LOVEBIRDS!" Sam and Danny both blushed furiously. Just because the other one was kind of attractive and they didn't recognize each other at the party didn't automatically mean that they like-liked each other.

Before their thoughts got any further into denial, a shadow fell at the end of the alley. The teenagers screamed, thinking it was Dash or Kwan. The shadow advanced and took on the form of a monk. It pushed back its cowl.

This is getting a little repetitive, thought Danny.

It was the Ghost Writer.

"Time to go...," he said.

There was a rush of purple smoke and then the alley was empty.