It's great to be the narrator again, but here's one thing that isn't great: Flannery. She will not shut up about Power and Amy, and she keeps talking about some girl who saved Amy and sent Power away for a while. It's not until today, the 25th, four full days after that school was set on fire by Power, that she'll finally pick a different topic of interest. I know this because
“Monday's the audition for Romeo and Juliet ~mya!” Yes, that. And she exclaims this the second she sees us at our table in the cafeteria, and we turn to face her, a shocked but pleased look visible on our faces. (Here, 'us' and 'we' refer to May and I. Neil would normally sit with us, but May and I have temporarily kicked him off our table because he's not an intiformer and we don't want to tell him about our powers—not yet, anyways.) After all, that was the first non-intiformer-related sentence she's said to us since Tuesday morning.
“I know ~nyo,” May says to Flannery, a slight smile visible on her almost-pale face. “I think I'm actually going to try out, though I'm still not trying for a big part, like one of the Montagues or Capulets ~nyo.” She pauses for a split second then adds, “I think I want to be a servant ~nyo.”
“That's, like, an 'undesirable' ~mya,” Flannery murmurs. However, upon seeing May's irritated glare, she adds, “But I guess it's fine for you, since you want to be in the Chorus and all ~mya.”
“That's right ~nyo,” May confirms, the same smile she had shown less than a minute ago taking the place of the irritated frown. “Even if I don't make it into the Chorus, at least I don't have to memorize 538,976 lines ~nyo.”
Flannery and I blink in confusion. “There aren't even that many lines in the play,” Flannery tells May, an amused expression strewn across her facial features, “but you're right in thinking that the main characters have a lot of lines ~mya. That's why I want to be Lady Capulet, who's a major character but doesn't have as many lines as the other major characters do ~mya.” She sighs dreamily and begins her daily rant. “Lady Capulet is a perfect example of medieval women ~mya. She has enough power to tell her children what to do, but she doesn't abuse that power so much to be stripped of it ~mya...”
She's off in that state between a daydream and reality, and at this point, there's not much May and I can do to return her to reality; the few things we can do will reveal the whole intiformer secret, and we're not going to abolish any possibilities we currently have of hiding this secret just because Flannery doesn't know the meaning of the word 'shut up'.
I ignore the redhead as she rants to herself. I look around the cafeteria for people I recognize. I see my sister Catharine sitting near the exit with one of her blonde friends, a girl named Emily whom I have only recently seen her hanging around with. I see Chimere sitting at the table next to them, eating her pizza as she reads To Kill a Mockingbird to herself, miraculously tuning out the many people talking around her. I see Harmony sitting at the same table as Chimere, trying to get her to talk by ways of reading the book with her. And I see Neil sitting next to Harmony, watching his sister and the silent 'communicate' as he eats a slice of cornbread, his left hand propping his chin up.
Unlike the three of us—May, Flannery, and me—, all of them are normal.
I unconsciously sigh, causing May to ask me what's wrong. “It's nothing ~myu,” I reply, noticing how Flannery has stopped ranting to stare in confusion at me. I sigh again and murmur, “I'm just wondering why we, of all people, were chosen to be intiformers ~myu.”
“In case you were wondering, fate chose you,” Misa tells me, speaking aloud for the first time since Tuesday. “The three of us have been destined to be a part of you since we became spirits. Even Natura and I, who have already been manifested into a human once, have been selected to be your spirits...for a reason that we ourselves don't quite understand.”
“We should be in Heaven by now,” Natura mutters, “but we're not because we haven't completely fulfilled our mission yet. According to my developing theory, a final battle between all real intiformers and Power—along with whoever his allies are—will be the last time our powers will be used. After that battle is over, whatever its outcome may be, we should be free to head towards Heaven.”
“Or Hell,” Raiden suggests, amusement in her voice, but she sighs in disappointment upon realizing that Flannery and I are glaring at her through May's body. “You know, even though we're technically dead, we're still alive in the sense that we're on earth. Maybe there isn't a Heaven or a Hell for the three of us...maybe earth is the only place where we can belong.” She sighs again, but this time, it's out of frustration. “After all, we voluntarily gave up our lives for this. We are three of the damned spirits of eternity: April, Stacy, and Noemi.”
I blink in confusion at her last words. “Who are they ~myu?” I ask Raiden, confusion spreading across my face as I ask the question. A split second later, May and Flannery nod at my question, obviously wanting to know the answer as well. Raiden fidgets and doesn't reply to my question. “...Are they the three of you ~myu?” Raiden sighs softly but murmurs a 'yes'. “Did you girls used to be humans ~myu?”
“Aurora,” Natura says, apparently trying to break away my 'conversation' with Raiden, “don't try at this. We're not supposed to tell you our human stories.”
“But you're allowed to tell us, aren't you ~myu?” I ask, not replying spiritually because I want all three of the spirits to hear me. Natura is silent, as are Raiden and Misa; they know I'm right, but they refuse to admit it. “You were like us maybe over ten years ago, but I can tell that all three of you were humans at some point ~myu.” They remain silent, most likely out of irritation, yet the fact that they're not denying what I'm saying means that I am, in fact, completely correct.
“What are you girls talking about?”
May and Flannery quickly look down, a slight blush forming on each of their faces; they didn't think someone would hear us talking, but unlike me, they currently don't know who that 'someone' is.
“Hello, Neil ~myu,” I say in a pleasant voice, trying to cover up for May's and Flannery's seemingly strange behavior. For a split second, I ponder a few good ways to prevent Neil from discovering our intiformer secret. I settle on this one: “We're talking about the Romeo and Juliet play ~myu.”
He tilts his head to the side a little, a slight frown forming on his face. I think he was expecting me to give him a different answer, one that probably would have given away our secret.
“The auditions for it are Monday afternoon ~nyo,” May continues, sounding relieved that I'd found a safe and normal way for us to talk to Neil, someone who doesn't know about or have intiformer powers. “Flannery was saying that she wanted to be Lady Capulet, then she asked Aurora and me who we wanted to be ~nyo.”
Flannery nods her head and adds, “May wants to be a Servant because she can't be a major part and be in the Chorus at the same time ~mya.” She then smirks mischievously, and I wait for her next words. “Aurora said she wants to be Juliet, and she wants you to be Romeo ~mya.”
My eyes widen into enormous o's and I feel my face redden in anger. How could she so bluntly state a lie like that?! I never even said I wanted to be IN that play; why would I want to be JULIET, of all characters, and why would I want NEIL to be ROMEO?! I can't believe I'm saying this, but May was right when she said Flannery is a melodramatic goth.
I open my mouth to furiously protest Flannery's hyperbole of a statement, but Neil speaks before I get the chance to.
“Is that so?” He smiles excitedly at me. “That's good, then, because I headed over here to ask about that exact same thing.” I don't like where this is heading. “If you'd like to try out for the part of Juliet, then I will try out for the part of Romeo. I'm very well aware of how many people are trying out for those two parts, especially the number of couples,—” and who else would bother with such popular parts? “—but I'd like to try even with that knowledge. What do you think, Aurora?”
I remain silent long enough for Neil to sit down next to me and ask me if I'm okay.
“I'm fine ~myu,” I tell him. Even though he can clearly see that I'm not fine, if I say I'm fine, then he'll believe me, because that's just how our relationship is. “I guess I could try ~myu.” Before he can say something about my statement, I add, “But wouldn't my 'phrase' be a bit of a problem ~myu?”
Neil raises his left thumb to his lip; he does this when he's thinking. After several seconds pass by, he says to me, “We'll find a way to get the parts, even with you saying that. I know you can't stop saying it—May and Flannery can't seem to stop, either—, so we'll just have to find a way to work around it.”
Dang, that was a good answer. I can't object to something like that. He must really want us to be Romeo and Juliet if he's being like this. I guess it couldn't hurt to try.
“Okay then ~myu,” I say, a small smile appearing on my face. “If we're going to make this work, then we'll have to start practicing right away ~myu.”
“Yes,” he agrees as he stands up again, gently pulling me up with him. I wave 'bye' to May and Flannery, who burst into quiet laughter when they think I can't hear them anymore.
This is no laughing matter...or is it?

Apparently, Neil isn't kidding: he actually wants me to try out for Juliet, and he's even practicing for Romeo... Still, the question remains: why didn't we start doing this a week ago?! Auditions are on Monday!
“We've practiced almost all of the major scenes in which Romeo and Juliet are the major characters,” Neil states, a small smile visible on his almost-tan face, “but we still haven't covered the balcony scene yet.”
“There are a lot of reasons why we haven't done that one yet ~myu,” I murmur, frowning inwardly while keeping a stoic outer expression. “Can we just skip that one and come back to it...um, never ~myu?”
Neil gives me a displeased frown. “The balcony scene is the most important scene in all of Romeo and Juliet,” he reminds me. “If we don't practice it at least once, then we have no chance of making the lead casting characters.”
I sigh in frustration; I know he's right. Act 2, Scene 2 is the foundation of Romeo and Juliet and is one of the greatest scenes in American literature. Even though I know this, why am I hesitating to work with Neil on it?
“Maybe it's because it's such a romantic scene,” Natura murmurs, speaking for the first time since lunch. “Maybe it's because you don't want to act out one of the most romantic scenes in the history of literature...Maybe it's because you don't want to act it out with Neil.”
I quietly gasp as I realize the truth in Natura's words... It would be good if I could think about them for a while.
Desiring a distraction, I slowly nod to Neil and pick up the Act 2 script, skimming through Scene 1 without paying much attention to the words, as Juliet has none in this particular scene. I stop at the first line of the scene and pretend to read Romeo's lines, secretly having a conversation with Natura in the process of doing so.
“What do you mean by that ~myu?” I reluctantly ask my intiformer spirit, not quite sure if I want to know the answer, but I guess it'd be better to know now than later, because knowing is almost always better than not knowing.
Natura sighs, an unusually quiet sigh for her. “You say 'knowing is almost always better than not knowing' out of uncertainty,” she states, and I realize that she's right again. “Do you really want to know what you're really thinking?”
I pause to think about this, then I realize that Neil is waiting for me to say something—not as me, but as Juliet. I acknowledge this by looking down at the script and saying aloud, “'Ay me' ~myu!” as that is Juliet's first line in this scene, and this is apparently what he wanted me to say. He grins and resumes speaking as Romeo.
I sigh quietly, too quiet for Neil to hear but loud enough for Natura to hear. “How do you know what I'm thinking but I don't ~myu?” I ask my spirit, frowning internally at her previous words. They intensified my curiosity and questioned my beliefs as to what I'd previously thought Natura was capable of doing.
“I can do much more than you think I can do,” Natura tells me. I believe her as an automatic and initial response, but actions speak louder than words. “That's true, but even so, you'll see what I mean eventually.” I nod slowly and wait for her to answer my question. “Do you honestly not know how you feel about him?”
I blink a few times in confusion and ask her, “Who are we talking about ~myu?”
Natura sighs and murmurs, “Just forget about it. You obviously already did that, anyways.”
I feel confused now...but I ignore my confusion for the moment, as Neil is still talking. I listen to him until it's my turn to speak as Juliet again, then I say my lines (the famous “Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?” and so on) and we practice our parts together.
It makes me wonder, though—what do I really think of Neil?