Every suburban neighborhood has its quiet feuds, its miniscule shows of dominance between neighbors. Over the new fence perhaps, or the stereotypical duels that occur around the holiday season as each house tries to appear more festive than the one next door. 

For the Montagues and the Capulets, however, these battles were a part of life. On the surface, everything seemed fine. They were polite to each other at neighborhood barbecues, never shouted, screamed or cursed, and yet, there was a certain tension between the two households that couldn’t quite be described. 

Neither family was all that different from the other. Their children went to the same school, swam on the same swim team, and had lived next door to each other all their lives. Their world was one of piano recitals and soccer games. Those children had mothers that stayed home to serve their families; an act of unquestioning submission to their husbands, who would come home after a long day at work to sit on the sofa and watch television. It was the kind of life that any outsider would envy.

It was the kind of life that choked the spirit from anyone who dared to speak out against the uniformity. That’s the thing about people, they never have the courage to be the ones standing against the crowd. They’re afraid of being knocked down, trampled by the opinions of the majority. They never realize that they have to be knocked down to send a message. Everything comes at a price, and the sacrificial lambs are never forgotten.

Author guidance for This story

So I'm beginning to come out of my period of sheer creative death. Which is a good thing, because I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while. It's based off of a series of "what if's" that I would lie in bed thinking about at night. I always wondered what would happen to the entire plot of a story if certain details of the characters were changed.
One day while talking to a lesbian, feminist, punk rocker, friend of mine, she suggested a feminist/lesbian version of Romeo and Juliet. As a sort of favor for her, I wrote a prologue, but got no further.
Here is Romeo and Juliet, the way me and my friends think it should be written.

updated Jul 27 '10 by WindxWater