Hatter's Hobby
A/N:
Okay, this story idea came to me the other night during the final dress rehearsal of my school's musical Camelot. It suddenly stuck me that Hatter probably would be actually rather good in the theatre with his amazing con man abilities and façade. Then it struck me that he would be PERFECT as one of the characters in Camelot, which inspired this story. I don't know yet if it will be a oneshot or multiple chapters…it'll depend on the reviews. It'll also depend on how well Outlaws of Alaria is going on fictionpress and such. So if you wanna read more don't forget to review!
Enough jibber-jabber….on with the show!
Disclaimer: I do take out exact quotes from the musical Camelot. I am either sitting here reading what I am writing from the script itself or am going by my own memory of certain scenes they do not belong to me. Camelot was written by Alan Jay Lerner and Fredrick Lowe.
Hatter could feel his stomach turn inside out, as the shadows on the other side of the partially lit curtain began to move around. As they did, the shaking lights of each movement they made forced the light that shone through the little sliver of curtain to dance across Hatter's black boots as he stood behind it. He shifted from side to side nervously as he heard the two occupant on the opposite side of the curtain begin their well-practiced dialogue.
He wished that he had a hat, or anything to occupy his hands while he waited, instead he messed with the collar of his black tunic and made sure his red vest was straight. Hatter's heart was practically beating out of his chest. He wasn't ready for this. He didn't remember anything he had practiced for the last three months! Hatter was about to go out there and make a complete and total fool of himself in front of hundreds of people and…Alice. He shuddered. After all of her encouragement, all of her support and all of her help, what would she think when he walked up there and stood in the bright lights, mouth agape like a complete idiot? She just assumed that he would be good at this with his conman skills and ability to put up a front. What she didn't seem to realize was that he developed those skills to survive. Sure, he used them in his tea shop as well…but this was entirely different. This time, Hatter was going to recite lines and sing in front of all those people. This was much different from survival or giving his customers a rememberable experience. How did he get himself into this mess?
Three months earlier…
The knock came as a surprise to Hatter, who had been on his computer in his office. He was doing the days finances because it was about an hour before closing. The small teashop he owned was doing quite well if Hatter said so himself. He bought it from the owner shortly after taking manager position and with his guidance and amazing talent with tea, turned it into a very successful business.
Usually, an hour before closing was a quiet time in the teashop. Hatter liked to use that time to do bills and other paperwork so he could help clean up quickly by the time closing rolled around. Because of this, Hatter told him employees who took the evening shift he would rather not be disturbed unless it was absolutely necessary.
That was why Hatter was so surprised to get a knock on his door. The two employees working that evening's shift often never disturbed him when asked; they were usually the ones who never disturbed him—trying to handle situations themselves. They sympathized with how hard Hatter worked. Besides, they wanted to go home at a reasonable hour instead of having to stay later to clean up while Hatter did paperwork instead of helping them.
"Yeah?" Hatter called as the door creaked open slightly, revealing his newest employee, Jill behind it.
"I'm sorry to disturb you, David." Jill began as he waved her in. "But there's a woman out front who wants to hang something up in the shop."
Hatter raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean hang something up in the shop?"
Jill shrugged as Hatter leaned back against his chair, eyebrow still raised. "I dunno." She said, "I think it's some type of advertisement or something."
Hatter felt a twinge of annoyance. Jill—even though she hadn't been working at the tea shop long should have learned at that point his policy on advertisements in his shop. It wasn't that he minded advertisements, he just didn't want them littering his shop. He had instructed all of his employees to hear what the advertisement was but politely decline and suggest another shop on the block because he didn't want to hear the sales pitch. His thoughts must have been clearly written upon his face, for Jill shot her hands up, as if in surrender.
"Hey," she said, "I told her to try the shop next door but she won't listen. Actually, she wouldn't even tell me what it is she wants us to advertise. She wants to talk to you personally."
Hatter sighed deeply. "Well then, send her in." There was no going around this one sadly.
Moments later a very…interesting looking woman stepped into his office. She was a shorter woman, dressed in a dark purple suit and carried a black briefcase. Her mousy brown hair was a mess and stood out in random places, as if she had taken her hand and rubbed viciously around her scalp. Her hazel eyes shown in a mischievous yet on a mission-like way underneath her 60's style glasses. For a split moment, Hatter thought it was Owl until she stepped forward confidently with her hand outstretched for him to shake.
"You're the owner of this establishment I presume."
Hatter nodded. Slightly perplexed by both her appearance and her confidence, he took her hand. "I'm David Hatter."
"Katherine Matthews." The woman replied. She had a very strong grip for a woman of her size.
"Now what can I do for you Ms. Matthews?" Hatter asked letter go of her hand and gesturing her towards the couch facing his desk. As she sat down, she opened her briefcase.
"Call me Katherine if you please. I'm a director for Loener Community Theatre," Katherine began pulling out a piece of paper. "We're doing a production of the musical Camelot and auditions are this weekend. I'm going from shop to shop asking them to hang up these pamphlets promoting auditions." She thrust the paper towards Hatter, who took it with a doubtful expression.
"Camelot?" He asked taking the pamphlet. It was made on a computer in black and white. The words Camelot Auditions were written in big bold letters with what he assumed was the address with that weekends dates under it. At the very bottom of the paper, was a well drawn picture of a sword.
Katherine nodded. "It's a musical that tells the Arthurian Legend."
Hatter looked at her blankly, he had no idea what she was talking about. So, Katherine began to spin the tale of timid King Arthur, the new king of Camelot and his wife Guenevere as they prepared for their peaceful rule and the Round Table, where knights were to "fight for right" in a civilized manner. How Lancelot, Prince of France came to fight with the table, but ended up falling in love with Guenevere, and she with him. By the time Mordred—Arthur's bastard son, vowed on revenge against his father, showed up, the two were in a full-fledged affair that the villainous son would use to his advantage to take down Camelot.
Hatter found himself quite intrigued by the story. The very few books and pleasures that made their way into Wonderland were nothing like that and the depth of the story was truly amazing. "Well?" she asked when she was finished. "Will you put the pamphlets up in your shop?"
He cleared his throat. "I would love to help you." Hatter said still looking at the pamphlet. "However, I do have a policy here that won't allow me to put these up in my shop."
Katherine's bright face grew dark in disappointment. She sighed heavily and reached for the pamphlet in Hatter's hand. "I see. Well I'm sorry to have disturbed you Mr. Hatter." She said in a tone that told Hatter that she had to have said that sentence had been repeated many times before. He did actually want to help her, it sounded like it could be a good show and it wasn't an advertisement for something stupid. In Hatter's words it was an advertisement to invite people to come and try to be apart of something that could be quite fun. If he couldn't help her…maybe Alice could!
"But," Hatter said flashing his dimples, standing up and walking to the front of his desk. "My fiancée works at a dojo nearby. I'll show this to her and get back to you on it, yeah?"
He watched as the woman's face lit up. It was obvious to him that while she had heard the I'm sorry we can't help you, spiel she had yet to hear something along the lines of I'm sorry we can't help you but let me ask someone who may be able to.
"That would be great!" She smiled brightly. He watched in amusement as she fumbled with her briefcase excitedly. "And," Katherine said as she stood up and shook Hatter's hand. "Your more than welcome to come to auditions, if not to actually audition but to come and watch."
Hatter raised an eyebrow, unaware that his interest in the story had been caught by the very excited woman in front of him. Katherine smiled knowingly as she turned away from him and out of his office.
Throughout the rest of the day, Hatter found himself staring at the little piece of paper as he worked. What was it that interested him so much about it? Plenty of Oyster stories and plays had found their way into Wonderland, he had soaked it all in like a sponge in the Great Library but why, was this particular story, fixating him so?
That Saturday, Hatter found himself walking into the brick theater with a sigh. It wasn't that he wanted to come and watch, or at least that was what he was stubbornly telling himself. It wasn't that he was all that interested in the play. The reason he was there at all was because he was invited to come and watch and it would have been quite rude to pass up in the invitation. Besides, Alice had told him too.
He smiled as he leaned back into the theater seat and remembered the conversation. Hatter had come home from the long day to find Alice already waiting for him, as usual. Their evening continued as it usually did, talking about their days while Hatter made them dinner—because he would only let Alice cook if hell was freezing over—it wasn't until Hatter mentioned Katherine Matthews and what she wanted did things change over the course of that evening. Hatter had pulled out the already well looked at pamphlet and handed it to her. Alice took it, asked why this was different from every other advertisement that floated into his shop. Hatter told her what he thought, and as he did he watched as a small smile floated across her lips. She said she would take it to the dojo the next day. When Hatter brought up—simply in passing, that Katherine had invited him to come and watch auditions, Alice urged him to go. She told him it was obvious he was interested in the story, despite his denials and she thought it would be good for him to do something different for a change. When he began to protest about needing to be at the shop, she had cut him off quickly, stating that she herself would manage until he got back, even though the next day she had a tournament at the dojo and could use that time for practice.
For the rest of the evening, as well as the week, Hatter spent much of his free time looking up Arthurian Legends. Alice did some research with him, always with a smirk on her face when he claimed he wasn't that interested, he simply wanted to know what it was about. Throughout their research Hatter learned one thing, there were many versions and most of them were very messed up, crawling with incest, in some versions intentional and in some versions not. Other versions were completely clean of incest and simply filled with detailed measures of who in the story they were related to without knowing they were. Hatter wondered which one the musical Camelot was based on.
Hatter was surprised to find as many people in the theater as he did. The room was about half full, people sitting in their seats looking over pieces of paper, Hatter assumed was something Camelot related. He took off his hat absentmindedly as he walked down the isle, not sure what to do. Katherine, who was writing things down at the end of the stage had looked up when he had walked through the door. She smiled and waved him in.
"I'm glad you came David!" Katherine called as he approached. She was wearing an outfit quite like the one he had first met her in, only this time, she had a plastic sword at her hilt.
"Yeah," Hatter said, flashing his dimples at her. "Well you invited me to come watch and I thought it would be rude to pass on the invitation."
Katherine's smile deepened as she tapped on the piece of paper she was holding with her pencil. "Thanks to you and your fiancée it seems more people decided to show up today. Some I've never seen before!" Hatter honestly doubted that this many people visited the dojo but he wasn't going to say anything, Katherine looked too excited and happy. He smiled at her.
"Are you sure you don't want to audition?" She asked hopefully. "It can't hurt."
"Nah, you don't want an inexperienced sod like me mucking up your performance." Hatter said.
"I've been into your shop before and have seen the way you work with your customers." Katherine said, her eyebrow arching. "You wouldn't muck up the performance."
Hatter shrugged. Muttering something about that he should be sitting down he walked over to the seats. Taking off his brown leather jacket, he draped it along the back of one and sat down. A few moments later he felt a tap on his shoulder. A young man had sat next to him. He looked fresh out of college and his green eyes shone excitedly as he held his hand out.
He and Hatter exchanged greetings, which Hatter still found to be a strange Oyster custom. Hatter learned that the man was named Adam White and he was a former student of the University of Michigan as a Theater Major. Adam claimed that he was trying to get to Broadway but as of now he would have to just deal with Community Theater, which he didn't mind at all. Adam loved the musical Camelot and was planning to audition for King Arthur.
"Who are you auditioning for?" Adam asked.
Hatter shook his head. "No one. I've never done anything like this before and just came to watch."
Adam smiled at him. "Well, there is no time like the present right? Why not go for it? It wouldn't hurt?"
Hatter shook his head again, before he could reply however, Katherine stood up on the stage and the entire theater grew silent.
"First off," Katherine said as she scanned the room. "I want to thank everyone for coming out today. We're going to get started here soon but I want to explain a few things first. Today we're auditioning for four of the main characters and only those main characters. Tomorrow we will be holding auditions for the others and any other minor part. I have a list here of what people are going to audition for and when I call your name I want you to read the dialogue, and I'll either help out or get someone else to help out if the scene requires more than one character. If I think you've done well on the first reading, as well as the song assigned I may ask you to read another scene. Sound good everyone?"
The room murmured in agreement, as Katherine called the first name on the list. As Hatter watched, he discovered that they were doing King Arthur first. The dialogue that Katherine had assigned for the character was a monologue about Arthur, who had just discovered Lancelot and Guenevere's affair, and his battle with the decision wheatear to convict them of adultery, as a proper King should or to simply ignore the situation and let them be happy, because he loved them and even though he was a king, he was also a man and loved both Guenevere and Lancelot dearly. Some were rather good, others not so much. The song Arthur had to sing, I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight? Was quite funny and made Hatter laugh, especially when whoever was audition for Arthur would attempt to make a terrified expression. A few people got to read on with a few volunteers, usually someone who wanted Lancelot or Guenevere.
When it was Adam's turn, Hatter was amazed. While he read, Hatter noticed that Adam didn't remain in one place. He actually became Arthur, or as close enough to it as he could, and moved around as if he was in great distress until Arthur came to the decision of ignoring the situation. As Arthur came to this realization, Adam remained in the middle of the stage, looking straight ahead, only looking down a moment to get the next line and seemed completely engrossed in it. He had become King Arthur.
When Adam began the singing portion of his audition, Hatter was not as amused as he had been before but rather fearful for Arthur. He had not realized it, but the song basically said that Arthur was terrified of being King and getting to meet his new bride Guenevere and wondered if his subjects realized it. When Adam finished, Hatter joined the entire theater in a massive round of applause. It wasn't very surprising when Katherine announced that she was going to have him read another scene, only it wasn't going to be with Lancelot or Guenevere but rather, Mordred.
"I want to see you banter with a character that is completely different from the others." She said. A few people, who Hatter assumed were auditioning for the part, raised their hands. To Hatter's, and everyone's surprise. Katherine ignored them and called out a name.
"David Hatter. Do you think you could read Mordred for me?"
In surprise, Hatter almost fell out of his seat, as everyone in the theater turned to look at him. "Why me?" Hatter asked his stomach in a knot. "Why not use someone actually auditioning? Or you could read it yourself, yeah?"
To his surprise, Katherine smiled, "Because I want to use you right now and the scene requires three people, I can't play both of them. Besides, I don't want you to get bored just sitting there watching. Come on, it'll be fun."
"Yeah, David." Adam called to him waving him down. "It'll really be helping me out!"
Hatter sighed and slowly got up. His ears grew red as he walked down the isle, all eyes on him. He didn't like the attention. When he got up on the stage, he could see everyone's, especially those who he assumed were auditioning for Mordred, stony glares.
"Here is the scene." Katherine said handing him a piece of paper. "It's the scene where Mordred—Arthur's bastard son—is introduced. He was just spying on Lancelot and Guenevere together and is fixated on revenge. Arthur will come in and I want you to read the lines as you would if you were auditioning, you know, to allow Adam to get fully into character. I will read Pelly's lines for now. Just have fun with it David." She smiled as she and Adam walked off the stage, leaving Hatter alone.
Hatter shrugged. Looking down at the piece of paper he noticed that he was the first to speak. He cleared his throat. He wasn't auditioning anyway, he was just helping them out, why not have fun with it?
"Camelot," He read, thickening his accent and arching an eyebrow, looking around the empty stage in disgust. "Ah me, the chain of wedlock that is so heavy it takes two to carry it." His Cupid's bow mouth arched into a wicked smile as he looked over his shoulder, where Hatter imagined that Lancelot and Guenevere had just walked off together. "Sometimes three. You poor things. Perhaps, we can arrange a little rondaveau for you."
Hatter backed up as Adam and Katherine walked on stage, pretending to hide, as he smiled even more devilishly. "Lance! Lance! I have it solved!" Adam read before stopping and looking around a quite a perplexed manner. "Oh," He said turning around to face Katherine. "I thought Lance was here Pelly?"
Hatter stepped forward waving his hand in a flourish. This, was the part where he could hone his skills of years in Wonderland playing both sides of the court and using his conman abilities. He was going to lay it on quite thick, just for fun of course. "He just left your Majesty," Hatter read, taking a step toward them. "He was here with the Queen." It felt odd for him to say 'Queen', when not referring to the Queen of Hearts.
He was quite perplexed for a moment, as Katherine stepped forward. "You are not a member of this court!" She snapped, her voice had gone an octave lower than usual and she was using an accent shrilly, quite different from her usual voice. "How dare you enter these courts unannounced!"
"But I was announced Milord." Hatter said taking a step toward Katherine slyly. "Did the Chamberlin not say that there was a young man from Scotland who wished to bring you greetings?" Mordred was from Scotland? Hatter wondered to himself where that actually was. He was still learning the places in the United States, and England of course just in case he ran into someone who thought his Wonderlandian Accent was a Yorkshire one as many people seemed to do. He wondered for a moment, if Scotland used a different accent and if he should do it for this. What was he thinking? It wasn't like he was actually auditioning. This was just for fun, and to help Adam out.
Katherine glared at him. Reaching back to pull out the plastic sword that was at her hilt. "By Jove, what impertinence! He shall be taught a lesson!" Pulling out the sword she lunged herself at Hatter.
Usually, in an actual situation like this, Hatter would have taken her down easily. He may not have been much in a fight with only his sledgehammer fist to help him out, but he could have easily taken down a tiny woman with a plastic sword, and really hurt her. He almost reacted on instinct but stopped himself before he could. What would Mordred do in this situation? From what he had read on Arthurian Legend, this character was all talk and no action, a coward. The type of people Hatter despised. His next line seemed to agree with the statements on the internet however, so he backed up as if he were terrified. "Keep away! Don't touch me! I'm unarmed!"
"Call the guard Pelly." Adam said calmly. "And have this young ass thrown out."
Hatter collected himself, as he believed Mordred would. Standing up straight, while avoiding the tip of the plastic sword, he took a step toward Adam. "That's not a very kind way to treat the son of Queen Morgause."
He smiled devilishly again, as Adam's face grew white and he looked at him with wide eyes. Waving his hand in a flourish again, Hatter bowed low. "Yes, your Majesty. I am Mordred."
Adam grabbed Katherine's shoulder, who stepped back perplexed. "Wait Pelly. Mordred?"
Hatter's dimpled devilish smile, grew bigger. Bowing lower he said, "Your Majesty." Hatter hated bowing. Back in Wonderland, it had reminded him of his undermining authority and when he had an audience with the Queen of Hearts, it reminded him what he had been doing. He would bow now of course, he was just reading this part to help Adam out. And for fun.
"Leave us Pelly." Adam whispered. As he stared at Hatter awestruck.
He watched as Katherine glared at him. Hatter didn't move. "I will be nearby if you need me Arthur." Katherine growled before turning on her heel and walking off the stage back to her seat.
For a moment, Hatter thought they were done. The past auditions that he had seen that day usually contained only a few minutes of people talking to one another and then that was it. This seemed to be dragging on forever. They had to be done soon. He watched as Katherine pulled out her notebook and began writing furiously. She arched her eyebrow and stared at Hatter, waiting for him to continue.
He looked down at the paper, before rising from his bowing position. "I bring you greetings your Majesty, from Queen Morgause, and King Lot." Hatter watched as Adam took a hesitant step toward him, as if he were toxic but intriguing at the same time. Hatter couldn't help but think to himself that it was a expression that he had seen many times, on his former partner, Dormie.
"I trust your mother is well Mordred?"
"The queen is splendid thank you." Hatter replied. "As witchy as ever. Still beautiful, which of course she would be with all her magic and sorcery. I've been wandering about the castle, I hope you don't mind." He paused a moment, looking around the empty stage, the grim look of disgust on his face apparent, before turning to face Adam again, his expression of disgust gone and a dimpled smile in it's place. Hatter knew this smile looked fake, but he didn't care. He thought Mordred, would have this expression on his face. "It's quite grand really." He lied. "I love the way you've mixed English with French. Very tasteful."
"And King Lot?"
Hatter could feel his heart sink. He had no idea who this King Lot was from what he read. He assumed he was the husband of Morgause and step father of Mordred, but other than that, he knew nothing. Hatter's own father came into his mind. He hated the man. His father had been a Tea Addict from the very start of Hatter's birth, which was saying a lot for when Hatter had been born, the Casino had just opened. Hatter's father had always been quite violent with him and his mother and when Hatter was only ten, he had left them to assist the Queen, in what way Hatter didn't know, but it cost him dear. The loss of her husband drew Hatter's mother to the brink of insanity, and she poisoned herself less than a year later, leaving Hatter homeless and motherless. Hatter had spent the next five years of his life searching for his useless father, only to find out he had been beheaded for trying to steal Tea from the Casino a week after he had abandoned them.
"The king?" Hatter read off of the paper, quite surprised to hear his voice sounding so gravelly and dark. "Never happier. He was so, delighted I left." Hatter paused for a moment. He was letting his own resentment and anger to his father show, couldn't let that happen. It would ruin Adam's audition. Composing himself, Hatter continued in a much more normal voice. "He's always hated me you know, do you know what he did to me once? Mother had a youth potion, that took off ten years. When I was nine, he gave it to me to make me minus one. I kept asking Mother why he despised me so and she said that—"
"—What brings you to Camelot, Mordred?"
"A desire of, blood,your Majesty." Hatter read. "I have quite a family here you know, my dear Aunt, Morgan Le Fay whom I never seen."
"Nor has anyone else, the castle where she and her court reside is quite invisible. It seems a poor reason to make such a long journey."
"Then there's, you, your Majesty." Hatter read, stepping toward Adam, his eyebrow arching ever so slightly. "As I was saying, I kept asking Mother why King Lot despised me so and one day not long ago she told me the marvelous news. He's not my father." He watched as Adam turned to him in total shock mouth agape, Hatter's smirk grew into another devilish grin as he continued, laying the theatrics on thick. "How once, when she was visiting England she met an attractive young man named, Arthur, invited him into her room and bewitched him for the night. Is that not the way the story goes, your Majesty?"
"Yes, that's the way the story goes Mordred."
Hatter paused. His eyebrows cocked, he smirked towards the audience opening his mouth to speak again as he did. Before he could, Katherine shot her hand up in the air.
"Thank you, David." She smiled as the theater thundered in applause. A wave of relief washed over him. Hatter hadn't realized how nervous he had been until it was over—even if it was only for fun. He felt a strong hand clasp his shoulder.
"That was amazing!" Adam whispered into his ear as they stepped off the stage and resumed their seats. "You're a natural! Are you sure you have never done anything like this?"
Hatter shook his head as they watched the next Arthur stand up to audition. They watched as Katherine finished her notes and gave him the signal to start. To say that he had never done anything like this was an obvious lie. In order to survive back in Wonderland, he had to do something quite similar to this, but it hadn't been fun. In fact, before he had gotten good at it, it had been quite scary. He'd rather not go into detail if could help it and was rather relieved as Adam turned his attention to the person auditioning.
The new Arthur auditioning finished quickly. Up on the stage, he seemed intimidated and stuttered over the lines. Katherine stopped him before he even had begun to sing and it was quite obvious that he wasn't going to get to practice banter as Adam had done.
As the poor soul slinked off the stage sadly, Katherine stood up and announced that was everyone who was auditioning for Arthur that had signed up. They were going to move on to Guenevere, then Lancelot and then Mordred.
The rest of auditions ran quickly. Hatter found most of the Gueneveres to be rather talented. They were quite convincing and had beautiful singing voices. However, only six of them seemed to impress Katherine enough to continue the audition with someone else. Lancelot was about the same. When the Mordred auditions began to start, Hatter was quite surprised when he realized that his reading with Adam was exactly the same as the Mordred audition. Adam helped with some of the auditions as did a few of the others who auditioned for Arthur. The only thing different was that Katherine would tell them to stop right after the bit about King Lot hating Mordred. Then they would sing the song The Seven Deadly Virtues.
Hatter was glad he hadn't actually auditioned. Singing was his not his forte because although he thoroughly enjoyed music, Hatter had never been able to sing much. He had been worried about more important things, like surviving. Hatter also noticed, as the auditions drew to a close, that only one of the auditioning Mordreds was asked to read another scene with someone who offered to be a character named Morgan Le Fay.
When it was over, Katherine stood up again and thanked everyone for coming but that was it for the day. Sunday, they would be holding auditions for Pelly, Morgan Le Fay and Dinaden as well as the chorus and the minor roles would be cast based on those in the chorus. "If you would like to redo your audition," Katherine said as people began to flutter about "I suggest you come tomorrow for last minute auditions which will take place at the very end."
As the theater began to disperse, Hatter picked up his leather jacket and pulled it on. A few people approached him as they passed and told him that they enjoyed his reading very much. Hatter could only smile and thank them and then when asked why he wasn't auditioning himself explained that he had been invited to come watch by Katherine and felt it would have been rude not to accept.
"Are you planning on coming tomorrow?" Adam asked as they walked up the isle.
Hatter shrugged. "Probably not. My shop isn't open at all tomorrow but my fiancée has a competition at her dojo and I think she wants me to go." He didn't even have to think about it, if Alice wanted him to go watch her compete, without question he would go. If she didn't care, he would go. He enjoyed watching her compete, and besides, he owed her for forcing him to come and watch. "What about you?" Hatter asked as they stepped out of the theater and into the afternoon sun.
"I'll probably show up. I don't have to work tomorrow and It wouldn't hurt to audition again, show the director I'm serious y'know?" Adam flashed Hatter a toothy grin and clasped him on the back. "You and your fiancée better come to the performance if you don't show up tomorrow."
"Wouldn't miss it." Hatter answered as he shook Adam's hand in farewell and headed towards the sidewalk. He would most defiantly have to convince Alice to come see the show, especially if Adam ended up getting Arthur, which Hatter assumed he would. Out of everyone who auditioned, it was Adam who got to do an extra read though with a completely different character and who Hatter believed did the best.
He had enjoyed watching the auditions. It had been fun for him to watch the people hoping for a part step up and take the chance. Some of them were horrible and that wasn't fun to watch, almost painful. Most of them however, like Adam were very good. Hatter wondered what Katherine has thought about it all and how was she going to make a decision.
The next day, Hatter's suspicions of not being able to attend auditions were proven true. Alice wanted him to be a cheering section at the dojo and Hatter agreed to it instantly. The day was long and his ass hurt from sitting on the cold bleachers that had been set out for spectators but Hatter was glad he went.
It was too late by the time the tournament was over for Hatter to stop by the theater and see how things had gone. He wondered if anyone had redone their audition from the previous day. How Katherine was going to be able to cast this show, Hatter had no idea whatsoever. He was glad he wasn't involved and could just go see the show.
Hatter was so busy the next few days he barley had time to think. By Wednesday, Camelot and the auditions seemed to be a distant memory in his mind. He thought he wasn't going to hear anything more until the show was ready for opening night, which was why he was rather surprised when he got the phone call.
It was just as the afternoon rush ended. Hatter was cleaning off one of the tables where one of the regular customers had eaten lunch when he heard his office phone ring. Quickening his pace, he finished wiping off the table, yelling to Jill—who was on shift with home that he would be back and rushed into his office.
"David!" The other end of the line exclaimed the moment Hatter picked up the phone. "It's Katherine Matthews. Sorry for calling at work but I don't have your home number."
"Hi?" Hatter said as he sank into his desk chair. He was rather surprised to hear her voice.
"I've figured out the casting for Camelot!" Katherine said, her voice shaking with excitement.
"Oh?" Why she was telling him this, Hatter had no idea. He wasn't involved. All he had done was help out a little. It was no reason for her to be calling him at work, there were plenty of people who were involved, why couldn't she call them?
"We have a really talented cast." Katherine said. By the sound of her voice, Hatter could tell her excitement was growing. "I've decided to cast Adam White as Arthur, you remember him, he's the guy you read with?"
Hatter smiled to himself. Good for Adam! Although Hatter wouldn't deny that he had a feeling Adam had the part. The man was very talented and used the knowledge he had gained while at college well. Hatter had been so busy thinking about Adam and how he had deserved the part of Arthur, he almost missed the next thing Katherine had to say.
"I want to give you the part of Mordred."
Hatter was silent for a moment, waiting for her to continue. To hear her say something along the lines of but you didn't audition so I had to give it to this person. It was only fair. When she didn't, Hatter felt his heartbeat increase, his palms grew sweaty as he gripped the phone tighter but he couldn't feel anything, he was in total shock. "But I didn't audition!"
"I know you didn't." Katherine said, now sheepishly. "But you were the only who read and acted Mordred's part exactly the way I pictured him."
"Why not give the part to someone who actually auditioned? Someone who was interested in it?" Hatter asked again his shock turning into annoyance as Jill knocked on his office door and poked her head in. "I mean, obviously I would have auditioned meself if I was." He said as he impatiently waved Jill away.
"You're interested." Katherine said knowingly. "Why else would you have given the pamphlet to your fiancée? Or shown up to auditions? Or helped Adam out? You really have talent David!"
Hatter remained silent. She was wrong of course. How could she not be? Besides, he couldn't be involved. It was too much work, it would have to be the story seemed so involved and he didn't have the time. Between his and Alice's jobs their time together was very precious and he wanted to spend time with her. How could Katherine not see that?
"Look," Katherine said after a few moments of silence. "You don't have to take the part, but I really hope you decide to. We'll be having our first practice Sunday afternoon. Just do me a favor think about it, and if you still don't want to do it, I'll give the part to someone else. But really think about it. It seems like you work way to hard. You need some sort of a hobby."
She hung up.
A/N:
There you have it! If I end up adding more chapters to this fanfiction they will contain Hatter's experiences with the play and such…with perhaps a few twists. However, it depends on you! I have a few other fanfiction ideas as well as my original story; Outlaws Of Alaria on fictionpress so I feel that I shouldn't continue on this fanfiction unless people want to read more, so review!
