So who thought I abandoned this story? *everyone raises hands*
Well, yeah. I... finally finished this. Only took me about two weeks right? XD But life happened again, and writing was suddenly pushed back on my list of priorities :'( I also got myself Internet-grounded for two weeks starting last Friday, and I'm only supposed to be on for homework or writing purposes. And, really, updating this is a writing purpose! :D
Props to SaphireBlue78 (Guest) and Flabbergasted Mess for reviewing.
*frowns* I have nothing else to say? Nothing at all? Hm. Then I guess that's that.
Jason Grace showed up to auditions for Les Miserables at nine o'clock on the dot. A few people were already there, milling around or eating a quick breakfast that they hadn't had time for before they left home.
Jason went up to Mr. Brunner and said, "Good morning, sir. Is there anything you'd like me to do?"
"No," he replied. "Just sit down and wait for me to give instructions, please. Oh, and take this." He handed Jason a note card that said #11. "Keep this with you, when your number gets called it's your turn to audition."
"Thank you," Jason said, putting the card in the pocket of his sweatshirt and making his way over to the other students. A few of them gave him a smile or a wave, which he returned. He sat down next to the Stoll twins, who were busy shoving each other to try and steal each other's note cards.
"Hey there, Grace," one of the twins, Travis, said to him. "Nice job last night, by the way."
Jason smiled. "Thanks, you did pretty well yourself." Travis was referring to the football game the night before. Jason was a runningback, and he'd scored two out of the team's four touchdowns. It had been a pretty fun night, especially because Reyna had been there.
Reyna was Jason's best friend. It had been that way for as long as he could remember. They'd gone to the same preschool, and Reyna had stolen his apple juice at snack time, because she'd drank all her own, and Jason's cup was still completely full. The two of them had gotten into a really big fight about it, and eventually the teacher forced Reyna to apologize to Jason, which she'd been furious about. At snack time the next day, Jason had given her his apple juice to try and make up for it - or something like that. Jason wasn't sure how his mental processes worked when he was four.
Reyna had gotten mad at him. But eventually he got her to tolerate him, and by the time they started second grade, they were the best of friends.
Jason and Reyna had done everything together. They'd somehow been stuck in the same class every year in elementary school, they played all the same sports, and they were even on the student council together this year - although it had taken quite a bit of persuading on Jason's part to convince Reyna that it was a good idea to run for it.
His mom especially liked Reyna. He could recall how, when he was in junior high, she'd liked to tease him about it, asking him "When are you going to ask Reyna out? The two of you would be so cute together!" Of course, Jason, like any other thirteen-year-old boy, had said that was way too weird. Who dated their best friend?
He still felt that way. Well, mostly. Reyna was very pretty, there was no way around it, but he liked to think of himself as her loyal, goofy, awesome brother. Anyway, having her at the football game had just made it that much better. Reyna had that effect on him. He'd tried to get her to come to auditions for the play, too, but he knew it was a lost cause. She was much more comfortable on the softball field or the basketball court than on the stage.
Jason had had his doubts about trying out for the play, too. He had a lot going on this year, between student council, and the football team, and keeping his grades up so he was eligible to stay on both. But the play had intrigued him, and he'd committed to at least trying out for a part.
He was in high school, after all. Everyone said these were supposed to be the greatest years of your life. Jason was going to try and fit as much in as possible, and still manage to live it up along the way.
Grover Underwood's note card read #1. Yeah, he'd been the first one to show up to auditions that morning. Dorky of him, huh? Then again, Grover's entire existence could be summed up in the word "dork."
He sat in the back of the room, the brim of his baseball cap pulled low, shielding his eyes from being seen by anyone else. But, when he thought about it, it was a pointless effort. No one here would be interested in talking to him. Grover wasn't going to deny it, and he wasn't going to complain about it, either. He was about as good with people as a troglodyte.
Besides, as he scanned the room, he was pretty sure that almost everyone here was younger than he was, most of them appearing to be sophomores and juniors. Some people might find it embarrassing to be the only senior at play tryouts, but Grover was pretty cool with it. He was kind of sure that he'd broken the embarrassment barrier in fifth grade, when he'd invited the entire class to his birthday party and none of them had showed.
They hadn't been cruel about it. They all had their excuses, a dentist appointment here, a parent's birthday there. Grover got the point.
He wasn't good enough. He wasn't outgoing, funny, or smart. What was there to like about him? Eventually, he'd gotten used to fading into the background, which he did through all of middle school and most of high school.
Then he'd made a mistake. That stupid community play. It had been a favor for his cousin, who hadn't wanted to try out alone, and he'd known that Grover liked to act and wasn't bad at it, either. So, at the end of May, the two of them had gone and auditioned for the community stage's production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Grover had ended up playing the youngest brother, Gideon, and his cousin an extra.
All in all, it was a fun experience, and it was nice to hang out with his cousin at rehearsals every other night.
But the first performance was towards the end of July, and how was Grover supposed to have known that the headmaster of a prestigious theater school in New York City, about an hour's drive away, was going to be there?
That's right… he wasn't.
So after curtain calls, when he'd been standing next to his parents, because like all parents they wanted an infinite number of pictures taken, he'd been approached by the aforementioned headmaster.
And offered a place at the prestigious theater school for college once he got his high school diploma next May.
Which he'd accepted.
The headmaster's name was Professor Leneus, and he said Grover had potential. He had big potential, and that was why Grover had gotten an offer to attend his school. He used words like 'stage presence' and 'natural talent', which sounded almost foreign when applied to Grover. The only thing was, when he'd admitted to Professor Leneus that that had been the first play he'd ever exactly been in, he'd been encouraged to try out for his school's play.
So Grover was sitting here, saying the lyrics in his mind to "Go the Distance" from Disney's Hercules, which was the song he'd chosen to use for his audition. He hoped his voice wouldn't crack like it tended to do when he was nervous or excited about something.
Grover felt so out of place, so uncomfortable here. Not like he hadn't expected it, or anything, but still, a change would have been nice.
Piper McLean was sitting in the corner, softly humming scales to warm up her voice. She had really hoped that no one who knew her very well would be here, but of course life couldn't be that good to her.
"Hey, Pipes," Drew Tanaka said, walking over with a bright smile plastered on her face. "Didn't know you were into this acting stuff."
I'm sure you didn't, Piper thought bitterly. Because once you found out my family was rich, you didn't care to find out much else about me. "Well, you learn something new every day."
"True, so true!" Drew said, giving a small, fake laugh. "You're so funny, Pipes, you know that, right?"
Piper hadn't even been trying to be funny. In fact, there was nothing remotely funny about that statement. She understood that Drew was trying to humor her, trying to get on her good side, but quite frankly, Piper was sick of it. She wanted a friend who would actually listen to her, a friend she could have fun with and tell secrets to and who wouldn't care that her parents were in movies.
Before she could reply to Drew's comment, Mr. Brunner stepped up onto the stage and motioned for everyone to quiet down so he could talk.
When there was relative silence in the room, he started to explain some things about the audition process, and Piper found herself kind of zoning out.
She'd hoped this school would be different. All her previous schools had been the same story: everyone wanted to be her friend once they found out about her family, and they'd taken advantage of her in every way they could, until Piper went to her parents and told them that she needed to switch schools, that the one she was in wasn't a "good fit" for her.
Piper hated herself for relying on her parents to get her out of these situations. She knew she'd have to start solving her problems for herself someday. Every time she switched schools, she told herself this would be the one, the one where she would finally start taking control of her own life.
She hated it here. She'd give it another week, she decided. One more week, and then she'd tell her dad that she wanted to switch again.
Piper knew how weak she was, and she almost couldn't stand herself for it.
Frank Zhang was one of the last ones on the audition list, because he'd shown up late.
Mr. Brunner had said in class that lateness was not acceptable, but Frank had found an excuse, like always. Frank was very accustomed to excuses. He'd told Mr. Brunner, after he ran into the room, red-faced, panting, and looking rather disheveled, that there was construction work going on in the route he usually took to get to school, and he hadn't known about it until he hit the detour sign.
It was true that there had been construction work, but Frank had known about it since Thursday. What had really happened was Frank had slept through his alarm clock and been woken up by his mother vacuuming in his room. When he'd sat up suddenly, she'd looked at him in alarm and said she thought he'd already left for auditions.
That was about when Frank remembered about auditions. He'd jumped out of bed as quickly as possible, grabbed his backpack and cell phone, and dashed out to his car, forgetting about trivial-but-really-not-so-trivial things like breakfast and changing out of his sweatpants into something that actually looked decent.
He ended up being three minutes late. Not that bad, but he still came in the middle of Mr. Brunner's introductory audition speech. It was more than a little awkward. After the speech was done and everyone went to go wait, Brunner pulled him aside and put him through the third degree, asking him exactly why he'd been late, which caused Frank to rack his brains to come up with another clever, believable excuse - the construction.
Once he was excused to go wait his turn upstairs in the gym with the others, he made a quick stop to the library, sitting down at a computer desk and making a quick search on AZLyrics for 'If I Were a Rich Man' from the musical Fiddler on the Roof. He printed off the page, grabbed it, and scanned it, mumbling the words with an expression of extreme concentration on his face as he made his way to the gym.
Yeah, he still kind of needed to learn the lyrics for his audition song. He'd honestly tried to learn them the night before, he'd listened to it on loop on his iTunes while he'd lazily flipped through the channels on the TV in the basement, but there's only so much that can do.
When Frank got to the gym, he ran into the door frame. He looked up, scowling at the frame and rubbing his head, then walking in, rolling up the lyrics sheet and sticking it in his sweatshirt pocket. He'd read through them later. After all, he did have plenty of time, being the last one to audition, right?
A few of the more athletic guys, like Jason Grace, the Stoll twins, Will Solace, and a couple others, were playing basketball in the back of the gym, Annabeth Chase and her brother Malcolm were doing some kind of homework assignment, and a bunch of people Frank didn't know were milling about, talking to each other or practicing their songs. Then there were some people sitting over by the bleachers, and they didn't really look like they were doing much of anything, so Frank went over by them and pulled out his lyrics sheet again.
Frank Zhang was a self-proclaimed slacker, but at least he managed to keep on top of things most of the time. And now that he thought about it, he probably should've brought his laptop so he could work on that big English character analysis essay that was due on Monday, but for now, that would have to get put off a while longer.
