AUTHORS NOTE: *Used lines from shakespeare in this chapter that do not belong to me :) Enjoy.
TESSA POV:
"You'll be fine, Tessa. It's just an audition, the worst that could happen is you don't get the part." Clary said, trying to reassure her. It didn't help.
"No, the worst thing that could happen is that I make a complete fool of myself!"
"Well, there is that." Clary agreed sympathetically. Tessa loved Clary and her honesty, but she was only making Tessa panic more than she already was: Which was a lot.
The group had convinced Tessa to audition for the role of Juliet and had practically forced her to the school auditorium where the auditions were held after school.
"We will be in the audience… Or we could not watch if you prefer," Maia offered as they entered the auditorium.
"No, it's okay. You can tell me how bad I was later."
"Everyone auditioning needs to sign their names on the board by the door and make their way backstage! Everyone not auditioning needs to take his or her seats and remain quiet or leave. Now let's get this audition underway!" Mr. Starkweather boomed and clapped his hands together, the sound cutting through the noise of chatter in the semi-crowded room. Clary signed Tessa's name down for auditioning before Tessa could protest. The group quickly wished her good luck before Tessa was whisked away backstage and handed the script for Juliet.
How did I get into this? Tessa wondered as she sat backstage, looking around the room at her competition. There were about thirty other girls auditioning for Juliet, there was no way she would get the part, but did Tessa really care? What was she doing here after all? She didn't audition for plays!
It was a long and boring wait to be called, which Tessa spent doing what she did best; panicking. She had spent the last week studying Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, trying to better understand Juliet's character and the storyline in general. Tessa had prepared herself in case her friends forced her into auditioning – if she had to audition, she had to be prepared.
A while later, Kaelie and Tessa were the only ones yet to audition and alone in the room. Kaelie was reapplying bright red lipstick when she was called, and left with a flick of blond hair and an "I'm so much better than you" look. That's what Clary called it anyway, and Tessa couldn't help but laugh every time Kaelie did it.
Tessa was left alone with her script and an abundance of nerves, but before Tessa could panic some more, a surge of confidence washed over her. Tessa knew Romeo and Juliet well; she'd read it at least ten times and had memorized many of the quotes. She bet none of the other girls had. Sure, Tessa probably wasn't the strongest actor, but she felt a connection to the characters and the old-fashioned-ness of it felt almost natural to her. The thought of Kaelie playing Juliet made Tessa shudder and she realized why she was there.
"Tessa? It's your turn. Make your way onstage, Romeo is ready." Mrs. Penhallow called and guided her to the stage.
Romeo? Tessa panicked suddenly and stopped smoothening her ruffled script. She had completely forgotten that people were auditioning for Romeo. No, forget about who is playing Romeo, it doesn't matter. Concentrate, Tessa! She thought and staggered onto the middle of the stage, blinded by the brightness of the stage lights.
Tessa blinked, trying to regain her vision. The outline of a boy, who Tessa assumed was Romeo, stood next to her centre stage. Tessa could make out his confident stance, a mess of dark hair and bright blue eyes. Suddenly Tessa's vision swam in to focus and Will Herondale stood before her with a smug expression on his face.
"My beauty really is blinding, isn't it?" Will smirked. What was it with Herondale boys and smirking? How was Tessa supposed to concentrate on playing Juliet now? Focus, Tessa thought. Standing before you is Romeo Montague, not Will Herondale.
"I'm going to get you to read from the top," Starkweather called from behind his clipboard. "Remember, this is set in the 14th century and you are madly in love."
Ha, not hard to pretend. Tessa glanced at Will who was looking at her with an amused glint in his eyes and the corner of his mouth twitched upwards.
"Action!"
Tessa stood straighter as Will began to read.
"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."
Tessa was surprised. Will wasn't reading from the script, meaning he had it memorized. As he spoke, he kept his eyes locked on Tessa's, and stubbornly she didn't look away. His words held feeling and had a depth behind them that drew Tessa into his every word. The world around her faded until it was just she and Will, and then Tessa spoke.
"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."
"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?"
"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 yours, my sin is purged."
"Then have my lips the sin that they have took."
"Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again."
"You kiss by the book." Tessa finished and broke eye contact with Will, blushing as she tucked the stay locks of hair behind her ears that she had only just noticed were tickling her face.
"Bravo!" Starkweather clapped from behind his clipboard. "You two have great chemistry!"
Chemistry? Tessa was giddy. She couldn't deny the connection she had shared with Will. It was like the world had faded around them and they had slipped into a parallel universe - a trance even.
"Well done. The cast lists will be out tomorrow," Starkweather said, dismissing them.
Tessa glanced a look at Will. He grinned at Tessa mischievously.
"Well done, Juliet."
"So you don't like Dickens' but you're into Shakespeare?" Tessa asked, confused; she didn't know anyone apart from herself that read Shakespeare, let alone memorized it.
"Ah, yes, I find Shakespeare's works more entertaining than Dickens'. Glad I'll be playing Romeo and not a boring character like Sydney Carton."
"How do you know you're playing Romeo? The cast lists aren't out until tomorrow."
"Because I'm the best Romeo here, why wouldn't I get the part?" Will asked with a "duh" tone as if it was obvious and quirked an eyebrow.
How sure of himself he is!
Tessa was good at reading different materials; she read almost everything, books, poems, plays and even people. She was used to being able to read people but she couldn't read Will Herondale. He confused Tessa.
She must have been making a funny face because Will started laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"You're trying to read me, aren't you?" He grinned.
How did he know?
"Now you're wondering how I know, right?" Ohmygod could he read her mind?! Did he know she liked him?!
At her startled expression he added: "Believe it or not, Tess, but we're pretty similar you and I."
He doesn't know me, how could he be so sure? Tessa thought.
As she gawped at him, he slung his black bag over his shoulder and yet again, walked away from her, strolling out of the auditorium without a backwards glance.
CLARY POV:
"Hey Clary, wanna come over after school? We can work on our art board together and I have this new print I wanna show you." Maia asked enthusiastically as Clary opened up her locker and put her books away for lunch.
"Wish I could, but I'm working at Luke's bookstore tonight."
That wasn't entirely true – Clary didn't start work until five. It wasn't because Clary didn't want Maia's company, she did, but it was the art project that was the problem. Clary had been putting off working on her art, something she had never done before. It was only the second week of the school year and the art board was due a few months away, but it would take a long time to fill up the board and Clary's drawings were always time consuming. Clary needed to make it perfect, her future depended on it and there was nothing more she wanted than to get into the Shadowhunter Academy of Art.
When Maia, Jordan or her mother asked how it was going, Clary told them she had just about finished drafting. But that wasn't true; Clary still had no idea what she was going to do and had no inspiration at all.
"I'll ask Jordan, maybe he's free," Maia pondered, running her fingers through her gorgeous dark curly hair that went with her caramel complexion. Clary's phone buzzed from her pocket.
Izzy: Come to the cafeteria NOW. We have a problem.
"Izzy wants us at the cafeteria, apparently there's a problem," Clary repeated to Maia who frowned and led the way through the corridor.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Clary heard Tessa shriek as they rounded the corner to the school's cafeteria.
Standing in the middle of the crowd was a soda-soaked, red-faced Tessa glaring at a smirking Kaelie.
"You want to know what's wrong with me? Well, It's you!" Kaelie snarled back at Tessa, "I warned your little friends not to cross me, and you stole my part in the play!"
"Your part in the play?!" Tessa repeated, outraged.
Oh no. She had forgotten about her and Izzy's run in with Kaelie at the cafe, and now that Tessa had gotten the role of Juliet… This was bound to be ugly.
Clary rushed over to the two girls before things escalated any more. It was extremely rare to see Tessa get angry, which was a good thing considering how explosive her anger was.
"I earned the position I got, don't be mad at me because everyone else thought I was better than you!"
Safe to say, things escalated.
The next thing Clary knew, Kaelie lunged for Tessa, Clary tried to break it up, and lunch ended with Mr. Starkweather handing out three detention slips. Typical.
"Have fun at detention!" Simon called after Clary and Tessa as they parted ways, Simon headed towards anime club, and Clary with an uptight Tessa towards detention for their "inappropriate behaviour" in the cafeteria.
"Will do," Clary called back sarcastically. "Have fun at anime club, I'll hopefully be there next week!"
"You do realise this is my first detention ever," Tessa stated and Clary had to run-walk to to keep up with Tessa's long-legged strides as she marched them down the hallway.
"Slow down, Tessa. I've got short legs, remember." Clary huffed.
Tessa slowed down a fraction. "Sorry, but I don't want a second detention for being late!"
They ended up being the first ones there.
Clary compared Tessa's watch to the time on her phone and realised they were late on Tessa time, meaning they were still ten minutes early. Tessa buried her nose in a ginormous book so Clary decided to spend the the time doodling, hoping her creative juices would flow onto the paper and all her problems would be solved. Wishful thinking.
Clary jumped when Tessa nudged her and she looked up from her sketch, blinking the world into focus. And there he was; Jace Herondale. Even in detention, he still had loyal henchmen trailing after him. Jace, Kaelie and Will flaunted into the classroom and took seats in the back row. Of course Jace would also have detention! Jace was known by the practically the whole universe as the school "bad-boy" and probably had weekly dates with detention.
Mr. Starkweather cleared his throat: "Glad you could join us, Mr. Herondale."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world, Sir." Jace called back.
TESSA POV:
Would Will think badly of her or be impressed that Tessa was in detention? It was twenty minutes into the hour when Tessa felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Glancing to check Mr. Starkweather was still busy with his crossword, Tessa slipped her phone out and almost dropped it when she saw the notification: Will Herondale liked your photo 17 seconds ago. That was the first time he had ever liked any of Tessa's Instagram posts. She had nervously followed him months ago and had danced around her room when he had requested to follow her back. Although she had stalked him on facebook, she didn't even think they were facebook friends. That's when she got another notification, this time on facebook: Will Herondale sent you a friend request.
Tessa could feel his presence at the back of the room but didn't dear look back at him. Tessa couldn't help the smile that escaped her lips and the jittery feeling that filled her.
He was finally noticing her. And that was more than anyone could really wish for.
AUTHORS NOTE: Fav, follow and review please beautiful readers :)