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Saturday April 10th 2010
In the late evening of Thursday 13th April, 2000, a car flew off on a sharp bend near the English market town of F-------. Susan Capulet, 34, died in the crash. Montague, the driver and owner of the car, survived with heavy bruising to his chest.
Susan Capulet's widower, a successful property developer with a portfolio centred around F-------, was left with three children, Jess, Tybalt and Juliet. In 2002 he married again.
Montague, a popular landscape painter, still lives in the area with his wife and son.
Before the accident, Capulet had several Montagues in his burgeoning art collection. None hangs in his home today.
Sunday April 11th
Capulet's new-build mansion lies outside the town centre. His youngest daughter, Juliet, is the only child still at home.
His son Tybalt can be found two hours away at a public school – he has never settled in there or any of the other boarding schools he was been sent to since the age of 7, shortly after his mother's death.
Their big sister, Jess (23) who they all still nickname “Nurse”, lives and works (trainee solicitor, commercial law) in the nearby city of J------. Nurse keeps in close touch with her father and Juliet and does her best to communicate with her brother.
Monday April 12th
Capulet is taking his second wife and his daughter Juliet to Australia, in the summer, for good.
On Nurse's advice, Juliet joined Twitter yesterday , messing about on her Dad's laptop. She tweeted away to Jess, who arrived back at the mansion after supper (grateful to have avoided their stepmother's cooking) for a few nights' stay . Later Juliet linked to the Youtube video she had made of her room, pausing on the framed photo of their dead mother.
That morning, while Jess was running the city streets in training for the London Marathon, Mercutio woke up with a hangover and a missing mobile. Merc's best friend, Romeo Montague, isn't on Twitter, but he was certainly on form at the pub last night, according to Merc.
Tuesday April 13th
Juliet tweeted away on her new netbook before and after school – only revealing late at night that she was dreading the tenth anniversary of her mother's death today. Jess had been hoping to spend more time with her little sister but went running and baked instead, thinking all the time about that bastard Montague and why wasn't he prosecuted for killing their mother. Tybalt didn't mention his mother once in a day of tweeting that went from bad (lessons, rugby) to worse (he was caught dealing skunk by the headmaster late at night).
Mercutio spent the day remembering the huge fight nearly ten years ago between Romeo's dad and “Crapulet”, who beat the crap out of his mate Romeo's dad. Merc was too young at the time to know what was going on, but he' s grown close to the Montagues since then and he knows whose side he is on.
Wednesday 14th April
Away on a residential course in social media marketing for the hospitality industry , Laurence Friar spent yesterday tweeting inspirational messages and memories of Susan Capulet, before playing Twister in an altered state.
The three Capulet kids themselves found the anniversary of their mother's death disrupted and underlined by the news that Tybalt has been expelled for drug-dealing. Juliet and Jess both found him on Twitter – he didn't apologise. Jess's deep bitterness towards Monatgue became clearer and Juliet made a video to her dead mother.
Mercutio has named it “Montague Day” because he reckons the family should stand proud. Romeo still couldn't been persuaded on to Twitter and his dad told Merc to keep a low profile. Merc still scored with a ginger girl that evening. He also twitpic'ed his friend Romeo.
Thursday 15th April
Capulet went to fetch Tybalt back from school – his expulsion and yesterday's anniversary cast dark shadows over the whole family . Juliet came home from a day at school dreaming about her party - to find her father and brother fighting on the lawn. During a tense family dinner last night, Capulet made it clear that Tybalt is not coming to Oz.
On his way home from his course, Laurence's postive thoughts were interrupted by finding out about the Capulet family troubles. He offered consoling and supportive tweets to all three kids, offering his own memories of their mother.
Mercutio spent all day in bed with his ginger girl.
Friday 16th April
Jess went round to Laurence's to talk about his memories of her mother. The Susan Capulet he described didn't match up with her image of her – particulary Laurence's version of her mother's friendship with Montague.
Jess returned home upset – to find an even more upset sister. Someone at school had written MONTAGUE IS INNOCENT on the back of Juliet's P.E. Shirt.
At the Friar's cafe, Merc finally presuaded Romeo to sign up to Twitter, with enthusiastic support from Laurence, who later went round to the Capulets to network with Capulet Senior and bond with Tybalt.
Saturday 17th April
Juliet had such a great day at school yesterday, her friends made “Capulet and Proud “ T-shirts. She came straight home to tweet to Jess and everyone else about her upcoming party. Proud to be a Capulet – dying to be 16.
Romeo and Merc had a morning of manly bonding with Montague before heading down to Friar's , Tybalt Capulet's arrival changed the tone quickly. Friar headed off a fight but the whole thing made the Montague – Capulet tension a whole lot worse.
Romeo and Merc played Upload That Load with their mobile cameras into the evening while Tybalt had a talk with Capulet. Maybe Tybalt could start working in the property business so he can look after things when the others go to Australia? Tybalt likes the idea of heading up things if he sorts himself out.
Sunday 18th April
Juliet was worried about leaking her party on The Internet, but Jess sorted her out with some party gear shopping.
After a morning of dreams about travelling the world and an afternoon of gaming, Romeo was persuaded to go to The Swan , the local pub, by Mercutio, who had been drinking since lunch.
Mercutio got into a funny Tweet-flirt with an older woman in The Swan – that would be Jess , who took Tybalt down there after another tense family dinner. Tybalt had already made a fool of himself at the Blues football match that afternoon – he was picked out by the TV coverage, ranting.
Laurence Friar was also at the Blues game, sponsoring a young player, helping with the disabled supporters – and trying to get Tybalt to calm down. Friar went home for a quiet night in, but heard something going off in the pub car park.
That was a fight between Romeo and Tybalt – Romeo knocked Tybalt down with his first punch. Jess broke it up.
this is kinda fascinating - the voices on individual twitter lines are great - Tybalt citing Bukowski - all getting very interesting
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