Romiette and Julio

Romiette and Julio by is a novel Sharon Draper, published in 2001 by Simon Pulse. It is an updated version of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Many of the characters in Draper's novel closely parallel those in Shakespeare's play. The plot updates the family feud between the Capulets and Montagues to reflect modern racial tensions between African-Americans and Hispanics in the United States. They both almost die.

This story begins with Romiette awaking from a recurring nightmare in which she drowns in fire and water. At the end of each of these nightmares, a male's voice speaks to her. Though afraid, Romiette wonders if the voice belongs to her soulmate. Her best friend, Destiny Dodson, who is interested in astrology, is eager to help Romi find her soulmate. Soon, she meets Julio Montague in a chatroom. Julio has just moved from Corpus Christi, Texas to Cincinnati, Ohio, and is depressed about leaving his home and friends. Romiette and Julio soon become friends, find out that they go to the same school, meet up, and eventually fall in love. However, local gang disapproves of their interracial dating as Romiette is African-American and Julio is Hispanic.

Romiette has had another drowning dream. To relax herself, she starts to write in her diary.

The next morning is Julio's first day at Romiette's school. After having trouble with gangs in Corpus Christi, Texas, Julio follows his father's new job to Cincinnati. On his first day of school, he hits a classmate, Ben, hard enough to make his nose bleed. When Ben covers for Julio, telling the principal that he had tripped and fell, Julio and Ben become friends, after Ben calls Julio. When Julio gets home that afternoon, he logs into a chatroom with the screen name "spanishlover" and starts to chat anonymously with "afroqueen," who he later finds is Romiette Romiette invites Destiny over to her house to watch a movie. After the film is over, Romiette excitedly tells Destiny about her online chat with "spanishlover." However, Destiny warns Romiette about dangerous people on the internet.

Later at school, Julio is threatened by The Devildogs, a gang that assumes he belonged to a rival gang in Texas. Once home, Julio calls his friend Diego to groan about how much he hates Cincinnati. As soon as Diego hangs up, Ben calls and Julio asks him about The Family. Again, Julio and Romiette chat online, but this time they arrange to meet at lunch. Julio tells Ben about the lunch date. After school, Romiette writes in her journal about the lunch date, writing that the first thing she thought when she saw him was how good looking he was, that he hates Cincinnati and loves Texas, and concluding by vowing to call Destiny about it. At that moment, Destiny calls Romiette and they talk about the lunch date. For fun, Romiette only says that she had lunch with the person she chatted with, leaving Destiny to think she had lunch with a grown man. Romiette chats with Julio online, asking what sign he is for Destiny.