Confident and strong, Mercedes Jones strode into the audition room. After recently completing her role in the Lifetime made-for-TV movie Diva: Her Rise to Fame, she felt like she was ready for anything.
The audition was for a new TV pilot about a young singer who leaves her band to try a solo career. This felt familiar to Mercedes, and she was grateful to her agent, the flawless Linda Lawless, for scoring her this rare opportunity. In fact, as she prepared for the audition Mercedes tried to channel Linda's more endearing qualities: her drive, her passion for her job, and take no prisoners attitude.
When her name was finally called, Mercedes was ready. She had done her research and looked up the writers and producers of the pilot, as well as the other women she would be competing against for the part. She knew what they were looking for, and what her competition would try to do to give it to them.
The audition was fairly simple: read some of the script and then sing sixteen bars of a pop or R&B song. If the producers liked you, you would move on to the next round of auditions, which would be more intensive. Mercedes chose to use her New Directions audition piece, "Respect", because she felt it matched up with this new character from the show. She could tell this choice paid off from the faces of the writers, and lo and behold, within a few hours she was called in for another audition two days later.
This cycle continued for four months. Mercedes would go in, read new material, sing a song or two, and blow away the producers, writers, and even the director. They would tell her how nobody is interpreting the writing quite like she was, and once the director even pulled her aside to whisper in her ear that he was really hoping she would get the part. Then, she would get a call to come in for another audition, perhaps with some other actors to work with.
All of this work lead up to the network test. A truly daunting affair, the network test was the final step to claiming the part in the pilot. Not only would Mercedes be auditioning for the creators of the show, she would also have to perform for the representatives from the network as well. When her name was called, she once again channeled Linda, and walked into the room ready to impress everyone in it.
Sitting at the table were some friendly faces: the writers, the producers, and the director, all of them smiling at her. With them, however, were men and women in their best power suits, studying Mercedes as she walked across the room. Mercedes surveyed these new faces. One man was buried in his laptop, not even pausing to look at her once. Another woman had a stack of magazines and was furiously flipping through them, ripping out pages and holding them in the air as if she was trying to imagine Mercedes on the page. The third woman had huge crystal blue eyes that did not leave Mercedes for one second. She could feel them judging her, and though she started to feel some nerves, Mercedes realized she had come to far to let three people she did not know stop her from winning this part.
Luckily for her, the creative team behind the show helped her through the audition, laughing at the right times and of course complimenting Mercedes' amazing singing. The whole experience left her in a daze, but she could not help feeling that she won the part. She nervously awaited Linda's call.
The hours passed slowly, as they always do when waiting for something important to happen. Mercedes occupied her time as best she could, though she made sure to check her phone every minute (if not more frequently.) Her phone did ring once, though she was dismayed to see Kurt's name on the phone instead of Linda's. Kurt was no doubt wondering about the audition, but he would have to wait until she found out the results herself before she would call him back.
Finally the call from Linda came…nobody got the part. Mercedes was crushed as Linda explained that the network simply was not thrilled with any of the women that auditioned and we asking the writers to change the character so a new group could try to win the part. What followed was a dark time for Mercedes, involving a lot of carbohydrates and sad music.
About a week into her depression, Mercedes got another call from Linda about an upcoming audition for a different TV pilot, this one about a family from New York who has to move to North Dakota after distant relatives leave them farmland in their will. While she understood that she was truly lucky to get another opportunity, Mercedes was not sure she could handle another audition just to get rejected at the last second. Linda urged her to think about going and to call her back with the decision.
Mercedes thought about all of the solos she lost to Rachel back at McKinley. She thought about New Directions' loss at nationals when she was a junior. She even thought about how she lost to New Directions as part of the Troubletones. Thinking of all this made her realize that she bounced back from these losses by focusing on the good in her life. She realized that everything Mr. Schuester and the Glee Club taught her in high school would be for nothing if she got caught up in the fact that she did not win the part. Though she did not win the part, she had impressed writers, producers, and directors who would no doubt remember her when they create new shows and movies. She was Mercedes Jones, and she was not going to let this stop her from sharing her talent with the world.
A week later, confident and strong, Mercedes Jones walked into the audition room. She felt like she was ready for anything.