I slip into the auditorium, pulling my striped flat cap down over my face a little, strangely thinking this will help me go unnoticed. Ms. Darbus immediately spots me, and calls me over with Sharpay, before clearing her throat to address the room.
"Everybody," she smiles. "This is our first meeting for this semester's musical. Thank you all for signing up. As some of you know, Sharpay and Ryan Evans are the co-presidents of the drama club, so they'll be having a say in the production. If you have any questions, go to them. Sharpay?" she smiles at my sister and I resist the urge to mimic her like a five-year-old.
"Some of you have heard rumours about what we're doing for the musical, and myself and Ms. Darbus have selected Disco Inferno, which makes for a change from what we've done before. What you need to remember is that this is set in the 1970's, which you will see from the portion of the script that is being distributed now," Sharpay speaks clearly and confidently to everybody in the room. "So, all we need to do now is to partner up, and read the part of the script. It's difficult to act when you're reading directly from the script, so this will help me - and Ryan - to see who has the best potential for the lead parts. You can choose your own partners, but it must be a girl with a boy. So, let's start. I pick Troy to partner up with me." Sharpay grins smugly, and turns to her left. "Fabienne, who are you choosing to work with this time? We'll be changing partners a bit later, too, just to see who has chemistry."
"Fab," the girl next to Sharpay corrects her before scanning the room. "Him." She points toward a blond-haired boy sitting with his friends, cut off from the rest of the group. Sharpay notes it down, and looks expectantly at the next girl...Sophie, I believe her name is.
"Ryan," she says almost instantly, and my eyes widen at her. Why would she pick me? I'm almost always the last person to be picked for anything. If I hadn't been picked, I would have been the last to pick. So usually, I'm just the cast-off, or I'm stuck with somebody else that nobody wants to work with.
"Thanks," I blush slightly, purely because I was not expecting to be picked.
The rest of the group take their picks, and read aloud on the stage, the scene that Sharpay chose. I'll admit, some people are great, and some are just...awful. There's this one boy, Dan, and he can't act with the script in his hand. I don't mean to be rude but he sounds like he's forcing every word out. I can see that he desperately wants to be a part of this production. Maybe it's nerves that's stopping him, I don't know.
And of course, Sharpay is delivering all of her lines perfectly, putting in just the right amount of emotion. Troy's not that bad, either. They make my audition look awful. Well, my side of it. Sophie's a brilliant actress. I'll definitely put in a good word for her. She didn't even seem nervous about acting in front of a bunch of people she's probably never spoken to before. Sharpay saunters onto the stage once more.
"It's time to change partners now, so all of you can have a chance to feel a natural chemistry with the person you're acting alongside of. It's important, so think carefully about who you choose. Troy, why don't you pick first?" she shows off a sickly sweet smile, even though she knows full well that Troy will choose his girlfriend, Gabriella. She smiles and wraps her arms around him after hearing her name called out by him. Her last partner wasn't that brilliant. He's a good actor, but he thinks he's a lot better than he really is, and if anything goes wrong, it's never his fault. I hope he gets paired with Sharpay - they'd get on well.
Tom, the blond guy Fab worked with, chooses next, and after eyeing up all the girls, and having a conference with his mates about it, he chooses Sophie, who seems quite pleased about his selection. Who knows, maybe she likes guys with blond hair? I smile to myself, trying not to laugh.
"Ryan!" Sharpay snaps, watching me holding in my laughter. "Pay attention! Who just chose you? God knows why." She mutters under her breath, and I look around the room vaguely, trying to pick up any clues that could lead me to the answer.
"Her?" I flail my arm in any direction, not actually seeing who I'm supposedly pointing at. Sharpay rolls her eyes to the heavens.
"No," she says curtly, not even looking up from her list. "The new girl picked you."
"New girl?"