Chapter 4: Auditions (Annabeth)
I showed up after school in the auditorium for auditions three days later, on Friday.
"Everyone have a seat," Mr. Brunner told us and I found a seat next to Thalia.
"What are you doing here?" I asked her.
She rolled her eyes. "What? You thought I would leave you to be in a play with Valdez, the Stolls, and my cousin without backup? Besides... It's not like I had anything else to do."
I grinned, but didn't say anything.
Mr. Brunner grinned at us from up on stage where somebody had pushed his wheelchair. He was probably in his late thirties with brown hair and a well trimmed beard with streaks of gray. He wore a tweed jacket, slacks, loafers, and a dress shirt every day. He was a pretty cool teacher. He taught mythology and Latin.
"Thank you all for coming to auditions. I wish you each the best of luck. Everyone, even back stage workers, are required to audition for a part so I know I have my best actors on stage, not off. This may be a shock to some of you, but you are not required to remember the script just yet. On that happy note, lets begin."
My eyes widened and I was starting to freak out. I had to audition? No way. No, nononono. No. I could not perform in front of an audience. There was no way...
Thalia gripped my arm. "Annabeth? Are you okay? You're white as a ghost and I think you're hyperventilating. Do you want to go?"
I shook my head. "I'm fine." Not really, but if I didn't do the play,... I was out of options.
Mr. Brunner gave us each a number so we would know in which order we were going. "You can read any part you want," he told us, "and any line you want. I will say the lines of the character yours it talking to. First up, is Leo Valdez."
Leo walked up to the stage and grinned at us. "S'up." He fumbled through his booklet until he found a line and started reciting. I was so nervous though that I couldn't tell you what he even said or even what part he auditioned for. People kept auditioning until Mr. Brunner called out, "Number 13." There was no response. "Number 13."
Suddenly, a boy with dark hair and sea green eyes ran out onto the stage. "Sorry Mr. Brunner," he said. "I was trying to calm myself down."
Mr. Brunner smiled. "It's alright. And which part will you be auditioning for?"
"Mercutio."
Mr. Brunner nodded and scribbled something down on a piece of paper. "Go ahead and start when you're ready."
The boy nodded, took a deep breath, and began to recite:
" Nay, I'll conjure too.
Romeo! Humors! Madman! Passion! Lover!
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh;
Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied!
Cry but "Ay me!" pronounce but "love" and "dove";
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
One nickname for her purblind son and heir,
Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim
When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid!
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.
I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us!"
Mr. Brunner was expressionless, and I didn't know if that was good or bad. I thought the boy did okay though. "Thank you," was all he had to say.
Percy nodded, solemn faced and walked off stage.
Next was a few guys trying out for Romeo, then a couple girls trying for Juliet. Everyone seemed to be trying out for the leads. Very few of them actually tried for other parts. There was only one audition that seemed to really stand out to me.
"Number 22," Mr. Brunner called.
A tall, pretty Asian girl came out on stage. She had warm brown eyes accented with pink mascara and dark brown hair done in ringlets. "I'm auditioning for the part of Juliet," she said and smiled.
Mr. Brunner smiled and wrote down who she was auditioning for. "Whenever you're ready, Drew."
Drew took on a sad expression.
"What's here? A cup, closed in my true love's hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.
O churl! Drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips.
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them
To make me die with a restorative."
She bent over and pretended to kiss somebody.
"Thy lips are warm!"
Then Mr. Brunner read:
"Lead, boy. Which way?"
Drew looked towards the curtain, then back.
"Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger."
She pretended to snatch a dagger from Romeo.
"This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die."
Drew stabbed herself with her imaginary knife and collapsed on the floor in the middle of the stage.
We all couldn't help but clap. Her performance had been amazing. She would definitely get Juliet. She didn't even get up until the clapping died down, not breaking character.
"That was excellent, Drew," Mr. Brunner said and smiled at her.
Drew beamed and walked off stage, looking smug. We weren't the only ones who were sure she had gotten the part.
"Next, is Number 23."
I looked around. Nobody was moving towards the stage. "Number 23," Mr. Brunner read again.
Thalia nudged me. "Annabeth, that's you."
"What?" I looked at the piece of paper in my hand. 23 was scrawled on it in Mr. Brunner's handwriting. I had to follow Drew? Why? I just sat there, my eyes wide.
"Annabeth," Thalia hissed as Mr. Brunner called for Number 23 again. "Get up on stage!"
Slowly, my legs feeling like jelly, I got out of my seat and climbed the steps up to the stage. "Hi," I managed. "Um, I don't know what part I'm trying for."
"Why don't you try Juliet's?" Mr. Brunner suggested. "You'll have a wide variety to choose from."
I nodded. I adjusted my glasses and flipped through my booklet to a random page. It was scene 5, when Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time. "G-Good pil-pilgrim," I stammered and in the crowd, somebody snickered.
Suddenly, there was a dark haired boy next to me. "You could use some help," he whispered and looked at my booklet.
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
I swallowed. Now it was my turn. Just pretend nobody's here, I thought. Right. You're thirty or so peers sitting in the audience? They're not there. I did a mental eye roll. That was not going to happen.
"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."
The boy's lips curled into a small smile.
"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?"
My nervousness was starting to melt away.
"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer."
"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do!
They pray;grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."
"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."
"Then move not while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by thine my sin is purged."
And that was where we were supposed to kiss. I looked up into the eyes of the boy who had came on stage to help me. They were a beautiful sea green and had a sparkle in them. Wow, I thought.
He smiled. "You did good."
"Thank you," I said. "And thank you for helping me."
We both turned toward Mr. Brunner, who was looking at us strangely. Once again, his expression was unreadable. "Thank you, Percy and Annabeth."
I blinked. Percy? I started to walk off stage. That boy was Percy Jackson? How could I not know? I never would have guessed though, that the boy who came to same me from complete embarrassment, was Percy Jackson, school prankster.
I was in a daze when I sat down next to Thalia. "You did good," she said.
"Thanks," I replied, and got lost in thought. I didn't snap out of it until Thalia's audition which was last. It was okay, but it was Thalia, and she definitely wouldn't try hard for a play. She wanted to work backstage.
"Thank you all for auditioning," Chiron said. "The cast and crew will be posted Monday outside the office."
"Why are you so quiet?" Thalia asked me five minutes after we left the school.
I was staring out the window, thinking. I shrugged, looking at her. "Just thinking."
"You did good," she said. "You'll probably get a part if that's what you're worried about."
I shook my head. "I'm not worried."
She raised an eyebrow. "So you're thinking about Percy?"
"What? No!"
"Annabeth. I saw the way you two looked at each other on stage."
I shook my head. "It was nothing. We weren't being Annabeth and Percy. We were Romeo and Juliet. It was nothing."
Yet, in my mind, I knew it was definitely something.
