Hey guys! Sorry it took so long for this! I'm still rehearsing everyday for the play that opens the weekend (without me, I might add, since I'm currently in Colorado at the Junior Olympics). So anywho, here it is. Hope you enjoy. This was by the every wonderful LilyAlice! This is also were we start to get to have some creative fun. This also skips a few days too from the last chapter, just so you know.
The auditions were today and I was shaking like a leaf. Angela was beside me, murmuring her lines softly to herself. Mrs. Darbus opened the gym doors and ushered all the people auditioning inside.
I followed Angela slowly in and looked around to see how many girls were trying out. There was Angela and I, plus six other girls and ten boys in line, all trying out for the parts of Romeo and Juliet, except Angela who was still determined she wanted to play the nurse..
"Welcome everyone, and thank you for audition. When I call you up you will read a monologue you have prepared and if I keep you then you must read a piece of the character you are trying out for." We all nodded and Mrs. Darbus started calling out names.
"Samantha Addis." She called and a short mousy haired girl stepped up, her hands shaking as she walked in front of us all. She proceeded to mumble her lines so quietly I couldn't even hear her.
"Thank you Samantha. It was very expressive, but you're just not what we're looking for this year. Next!" Mrs. Darbus said before scribbling in her notepad. Four more girls went ahead of me before Mrs. Darbus called out my name.
I had prepared my monologue with Angela earlier on in the week. I was going to recite Mr. Darcy's first proposal. I stepped up in front of the seventeen people and looked over their heads, trying my hardest not to blush in embarrassment.
As I recited my lines perfectly I silently cursed Angela for making me try out. I was looking towards the door when it suddenly opened. Edward Cullen move gracefully into the gym, it looked almost like he was floating across the gym floor to the few seats Mrs. Darbus had set up. I could feel my cheeks starting to heat up as I finished the last two lines hurriedly.
"Thank you Isabella. That was splendid, simply splendid." Mrs. Darbus said placing a check on her note pad.
"It's Bella." I told her before I took an empty seat beside Angela and in front of Edward. I became hyper aware of his presence behind me, and I could hear his soft breathing that sounded almost erratic. The rest of the girls went but I couldn't focus on their monologues since my mind was elsewhere, but mostly on the gorgeous bronze haired boy behind me.
"Thank you ladies, I would like Bella, Angela, Jessica and Heather to stay for another scene to see who will play our Juliet. To our other four brave adventures into the theater, your parts will be posted tomorrow," Mrs. Darbus said.
The other four girls all stood up and walked out with slumped shoulders.
"As for you gentlemen, I would like all of you to go up and read your monologues, starting with Tyler Crowley." Tyler pushed his brown hair from his eyes before standing up and walking to the front of the class. I watched as Tyler did a very theatrical version of a Robert Frost poem.
"Thank you Tyler. That was…interesting. I've never seen someone use a Frost poem like that," Mrs. Darbus said raising her hand signaling Tyler to stop. He went back to the chairs and took a seat. Edward was next and I kept a close eye on him as he gracefully walked to the front.
"The odor from the flower is gone, which like thy kisses breathed on me." Edward's voice was beautiful, like a soft mixture of velvet and silk.
The color from the flower is flown, which glowed of thee and only thee! A shriveled, lifeless, vacant form, it lies on my abandoned breast; and mocks the heart, which yet is warm." I could feel his piercing topaz eyes on me and I looked up at him foolishly only to be caught in their depths.
"With cold and silent rest. I weep my tears revive it not; I sigh it, breathes no more on me: Its mute and uncomplaining lot is such as mine should be." I felt as though Edward was speaking directly to me, the poem was so beautiful and his voice was irresistible. When he was done talking all of the students and Mrs. Darbus sat stunned at the pure, raw talent he possessed.
"Well, I do believe we've found our Romeo, unless any of you talented young men think you can beat that. The rest of you finish up your monologues and I'll see what part you will be assigned." I looked over to see Mike Newton looking thoroughly depressed that he did not get the part of Romeo.
I watched Edward as he went to sit back down, pausing only to glare at the gym door. I followed his gaze and saw his bigger, older brother standing their chuckling silently at Edward. Edward turned his head sharply and his gaze met mine. Quickly I adverted my eyes and looked down at the ground.
"I would Like Jessica to come up with Edward and act out Act One, Scene Five." Mrs. Darbus said and Jessica stood up happily, moving quickly to the front.
Edward stood back up and walked to the front picking up a script that Mrs. Darbus handed to them. Edward read his lines perfectly, so much so that Shakespeare himself would have been proud.
Jessica on the other hand had trouble pronouncing some of the words and stumbled over some of her lines when she looked at Edward.
"Thank Ms. Stanley, Angela please go up." Mrs. Darbus said directing Angela to the front.
"Mrs. Darbus?" Angela said shyly. "I never wanted to be Juliet; I wanted to be the nurse."
Mrs. Darbus looked at Angela, scrutinizing her before nodding her head and looking back at her notepad.
"Heather you may go up and see how you fair with Mr. Cullen."
Heather stood up looking more confident then the situation needed. I watched as Heather tried to say the lines with an overly flirtatious voice. Let's just say it didn't come across the way she wanted it to.
"Thank you, Heather, I'm just not quite sure that was the way Shakespeare intended that to be read. Bella please read the script so we can how well you fair."
I stood up and felt my legs become shaky as Edward watched me. I moved to the front of the group, thankful that I didn't fall flat on my face. I turned to face Edward holding the script clutched tightly in my hands. My heart beating faster than I thought was healthy.
"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" Edward's voice and face mesmerized me and suddenly the lines came to me, as if they were the most natural words for me to say.
"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' handsouch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss." Edward looked at me with slightly shocked eyes but kept reading his lines.
"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?" He asked, his voice floating over my skin.
"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer."
"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what handshey 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." My heart beat nearly stopped; I knew what was coming next.
"Then have my lips the sin that they have took." I took a deep breath and broke my gaze away from Edward so I could look at Mrs. Darbus.
She had stopped every other person before this part in the play, and I hoped she would stop us now since Edward and I had barely met. Plus, I didn't quite know how he would react to that since he had acted like he hated me since we had first meet. Mrs. Darbus had a look of pure bliss on her face.
"Magnificent. Absolutely magnificent," Mrs. Darbus said clapping her chubby hands together. I looked back at Edward and we both turned to look at Mrs. Darbus in shock.
"Bella you are our Juliet and Edward you are out Romeo."
Out of all the possible outcomes this could have come to that I had half expected, this was certainly not one of them.
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