Chapter 3

The weekend seemed to fly by fast, it wasn't long before Monday rolled around and it was time to head back to school. It was also the day when they will be announcing the results for the auditions. Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, and Schroeder were walking together to the school building. Charlie Brown's stomach was killing him from the embarrassing audition he gave on Friday.

"Fremdscham."

"What?" Lucy turned to Charlie Brown.

"Fremdscham." Charlie Brown repeated, "that's what everyone was probably feeling during Friday's audition."

"What does that supposed to mean?" Lucy narrowed her eyes at Charlie Brown in confusion.

"It's German." Charlie Brown explained as he held the door for his friends, "It means the feeling of embarrassment, or humiliation of another person. In other words, what everyone was feeling during Friday's audition when I got up and sang."

Lucy took her hat off, "I don't think that would be the right word to describe what everyone was feeling on Friday." She turned down the hallway for her locker, "The word you're thinking of, would be schadenfreude."

Charlie Brown looked at Lucy as she disappeared down the hallway, he turned to Schroeder with a perplexed look, Schroeder shook his head giving him the, "You probably don't want to know what that means" look.

"Attention all incoming students, the casting for the spring musical is posted outside of the cafeteria. If you auditioned for the spring play, go look at that list. Also, whoever is the owner of the white zamboni, you are blocking the buses."

"Come on, let's go check the list." Schroeder tied his purple hoodie with black sleeves around his waist and hurried down the hallway for the cafeteria. Charlie Brown sighed and reluctantly followed Schroeder to the cafeteria. He dreaded having to look at that list.

"Come on Charlie Brown, it won't be that bad," Linus guided his trembling friend down the hallway, "Even if you don't make the cast, we could say that you at least tried and gave it your best shot. That's all that matters, if you try your best, you'll succeed even though you didn't quite succeed."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Charlie Brown stated, weaving through the wave of oncoming students bumping into almost every single one of them, "I'm worried about making the cast."

The bulletin board was surrounded by students eagerly searching their names on the printed list. Some squealed in delight upon finding out that they landed the part that they wanted, there were a few who let out a heavy sigh upon finding out that they only got the part of extras. Charlie Brown went up to the list and read it down.

Mary Poppins - Marcie

Bert - Franklin

Jane - Tapioca Pudding

Michael - Patricia "Peppermint Patty" Reichardt

Mr. Banks - Charles Brown

Mrs Banks - Heather

Bird Lady (Man) - Pig Pen

Maid 1 (Ellen) - Lucille van Pelt

Charlie Brown didn't read down the complete list, the rest of it was just the extras, he reread the casting list again to make sure he was reading it correctly. Him? Mr. Banks? That must be a mistake! Mr. Banks is a strict, no nonsense, proper, and very serious Edwardian man. It even says in his song! Mr. Banks is everything Charlie Brown is not. It must be a mistake!

Charlie Brown wasn't the only one who thought there was a casting mistake.

"Can you believe it Marcie? I'm going to be Mary Popovers!" Peppermint smiled proudly to herself without even bothering to read the cast list, "Just think of it! I'll be beautiful on stage! My big nose, mousy blah hair, and blotchy freckles will be covered with good quality stage makeup! For once a girl like me has an opportunity to be truly beautiful!"

"Sir, they listed me for the role of Mary Poppins." Marcie read over the casting list, "you got the role of Michael."

"What!?" Peppermint Patty spun around and read the list, in her disbelief, she was wrong.

Marcie placed her hand on Peppermint Patty's shoulder, "I'm sorry sir, but I think you fit the role of Michael perfectly. It's actually a great role for you."

"But- I- MARY POPPINS DIDN'T WEAR GLASSES!"

The first drama club meeting was after school that day. Both cast and set crew had to report to the auditorium for the first meeting. Charlie Brown could barely pay attention in any of his classes. Surely it was a miscasting, right? There's no way he could make a good Mr. Banks. He could see someone like Linus being able to pull it off without a hitch, Shermy might also have been a good Mr. Banks, but he was cast as both one of the bankers and a chimney sweeper, Roy maybe, but that's a bit of a stretch. Honestly, anyone besides Charlie Brown could be a better Mr. Banks! Heck! Even Snoopy would be a great Mr. Banks!

Finally, the school day ended and it was time to report to the auditorium. Charlie Brown's knees wobble and almost buckled underneath him. When he finally got to the auditorium, he stood outside watching everyone inside. He ducked away trembling, this was a mistake, this was all a big mistake! He shouldn't be here!

He exhaled, well, he should at least go up to the teacher and ask. Hopefully no one will see him, he'll be stealthy about it, slip in, slip out, and if it's all a mistake, he'll hang out at his dad's barber shop, maybe he'll need someone to remove the hair from the sink drain.

He slowly opened the heavy auditorium doors, even though he was trying to be quiet, the doors had other ideas.

CLACK!

Every single head in the auditorium swiveled to face Charlie Brown standing in the doorway in all his wishy-washy glory.

"Uh…. I was… told there was…. Suppose to be…"

"Oh come in Charlie Brown, we were waiting for you." Miss Othmar read from her clipboard.

Charlie Brown gulped, it wasn't a mistake. He stiffly walked into the auditorium and sat down next to Schroeder and Linus.

"Thank you for coming." Schroeder whispered to Charlie Brown.

"Now that everyone's here, let's get started," Miss Othmar took a sip of her coffee, "who here has done high school musicals?" A few hands went up including Schroeder's, "Okay, good, I am Miss. Othmar, I will be the director of the play. All members of the cast will be with me. The set crew will be meeting with Mr. Peterson." She pointed to the shop class teacher, "you will be meeting with him during this time."

All of the hair stuck up on Linus's head, Miss. Othmar isn't even going to be with the set crew?! He shot his hand up in the air, "Wait, so you're saying that you are only doing cast, and not the set?!"

"Yes Linus, if you are on the set crew, you will be meeting with Mr. Peterson."

"But I'm on set crew!"

"Then you'll be with Mr. Peterson."

Linus slumped down in his seat, what a let down! The only reason why he even joined the set crew is so he could be with his favorite teacher, now he won't even get to see his favorite teacher!

Miss. Othmar continued, "since a lot of you haven't done school musicals, we will give you a tour of the auditorium. Follow me." Everyone got up and followed Miss Othmar onto the stage, "The stage is hollow, so when you walk, try not to stomp around."

One of the Seniors explained the stage layout. The left side of the stage is the left side of the actor when they're facing the audience, stage right is the right side of the actor. They went backstage and toured the wings and were shown where all of the props were kept. They also went upstairs to where all of the costumes were stored. There was also a small room that was dubbed "the hot room".

"During the play when an actor has to make a quick costume change, they'll go up here to change. We call it the hot room because it tends to get really hot in there."

Charlie Brown wasn't really paying attention, this is supposed to be fun! Why does he have an overwhelming feeling of dread?

After the tour, the group regrouped on the stage.

"All set crew will now go with Mr. Peterson. All of those who are part of the music Crew, go with Schroeder. Cast will stay here." Miss. Othmar stated. The group split up, Schroeder and Linus got up and left the auditorium leaving Charlie Brown alone.

"Goodbye Miss Othmar!" Linus waved to his favorite teacher.

"Bye." Miss Othmar replied without even looking up from her clipboard.

Schroeder directed his small group of musicians to the band room, (there were only seven of them), and Linus followed Mr. Peterson and the rest of the group out into the hallway, they all took a seat.

"Alright, First thing is to brainstorm set ideas." He pulled out a clipboard and started jotting notes, one girl raised her hand, "yes Amy?"

"We still have the set pieces from last year's The Sound of Music right? I was wondering if we could recycle those for the set pieces here?"

"We'll get to that when we start building. Any other ideas?"

"We need chimneys, and a bank set up with a desk."

"Oh! We also need a nursery set, we could build beds and have a toy chest."

"We also need a way for Mary Poppins to pull a full lamp out of her bag."

Linus raised his hand, "Mr. Peterson? I was wondering since the original author, P.L Travers insisted that the color red should not be used for the Disney movie adaptation of her book, we should probably do the same and admit the use of the color red for the set and costumes. Also, P.L Travers didn't like how Mary Poppins was made to be a pretty girl, we would need to have an outfit that doesn't make Mary Poppins too pretty. We might also need to omit sequences like "Jolly Holiday" because it was from the animated sequence in the movie which Travers hated, she didn't want her book to be turned into a cartoon. She also thought that the movie adaptation was missing a great deal of meaning. I say we should stay as true to P.L Travers vision and demands as possible when putting on this musical and-"

"Linus?"

"Yes Sir?"

"This is a high school play production. Not a Hollywood film adaptation."

Meanwhile, Charlie Brown was having his own struggles.

"Alright, you all brought the script, we'll do a read through of them." Miss Othmar pulled out her copy of the script, "The scene starts with Bert, Franklin, you're Bert. Start us off."

While Franklin was reading his lines off, Charlie Brown looked across at the other students, his eyes widened when he saw her, The little red haired girl! Charlie Brown's palms sweated. He covered his face with the script. She's here and on the same cast as he was!

"Heather, you're Mrs. Banks, after Bert leaves the stage, the curtains open and your in visible distress about the children disappearing."

All the blood rushed to Charlie Brown's head in alarm.

The Little Red Haired girl is playing his wife!