Auditions occur! I couldn't wait to post this because I feel attached to Claire in this moment of what she/I went through in auditions.

Thank you for reading AND REVIEWING my story.

I do not own the Phantom of the Opera

Auditions I

Claire looked up at the dark ceiling then the clock. The neon green lights told her it was 5:30, three hours and thirty minutes after she went to sleep, but it felt like a blink of an eye (She hated that feeling of time passing by quickly). She fell asleep hearing that captivating voice, but woke up to the busy streets of New York, typical in her life. She got out of bed sluggishly and to the ice cold shower. The freezing water helped her wake up and relax.

After turning on the coffee machine in only a wet towel, she walked to her room to get dressed. When she stepped into the room her mom was there with a bag labeled 'Macy's'. Inside was a stunning purple silk top in a plaid pattern with ruffles at the front that came with the same color purple fuzzy jacket to cover the shortness of the sleeves. Claire has been keeping her eye on it at the store, and couldn't believe that her single mother would buy her such an expensive gift.

"Paige and Erin invited you to see 'The Phantom of the Opera' on Broadway after all of your auditions, and I thought this would be a perfect outfit for you to wear to both places. So, do you want to go?"

How could Claire say no? Paige and Erin were her best friends and told her nothing but good things about the show. Over endless sleepovers all they would listen to was "Point of No Return" and kept on talking about the seductive song. Plus this would be the first thing they did together since two months, besides sitting with each other at lunch, seeing how busy they were preparing for the auditions.

After her cry of joy and a million yeses to her mother, She took the new shirt and put it on with her only pair of black dress pants. She then noticed the letter on her dresser, its blood red ink stood out from the tea stained color envelope marking to whom it was addressed to. She opened the letter with confusion on how it appeared on the dresser, but also excitement from knowing who intended on her to read it.

It read: My pupil,

I now see how you have artistically grown and I'm overly proud of you. You need to know that I will be watching you and you have no need to be anxious for this challenge of your life. I intend on hearing your point of view in this part of your life.

You are powerful when speaking with your art. Use the medium to guide your voice through the audition. Come what may, I believe that you can reach the stars and above with your creativity. No matter what happens I will love how much you have improved since that first day you have heard me.

With much encouragement,

Your Angel

Through the Taxi window, Claire could see the world that she has been trapped in for her entire life. She couldn't stand that she was always cooped up in either her school or apartment. She dreamed of leaving the city after graduation, get married to a man who she would love forever, and stay away from places that would never let her go.

She longed for adventure in her life, besides the fact that any moment she could be shot in a subway by a maniac who wants "world peace". She could remember times when she had chances to see the world through school programs, but regrettably couldn't attend due to the fact that her mom could barely keep up with the bills. The only time were she left the town was to see her grandparents in New Jersey, but only to find that they hated their daughter-in-law to a point after that unforgiving Thanksgiving the only time she heard from them was from Christmas, and it was an unpersonalized card that the sent everyone they knew.

She knew with getting into PA, she would be open to scholarships to many famous art schools that she would love to be accepted into. She could see the the world if she got in, and leave New York forever.

When she arrived to the school portfolio and a basket of 3D art, she stepped toward her future. The hallways were filled with hopeful students heading to their assigned room numbers. She came to the sign up desk and picked up her room number.

While walking in the crowded hallway she could hear powerful vocal warm-ups from the music students, the precise emotion in the practicing of the theater students, and was almost knocked over by a group of dancers that galloped in the hall. Music flowed from every room of the building and she felt as if she would drown in the creativity.

Then without a warning, her eyes were covered by cold, sweaty hands. A familiar, "Guess who" came from Paige's mouth and Claire felt relief that it was only her and Erin. They exchanged 'good luck' hugs then separated, Claire to the visual art center and Paige and Erin to the theater center.

Once she reached room 203, she sat down and put her portfolio out in a way that would look appealing to who ever was judging the works. Next to her was a boy her age that seemed to flirt with her in a way that made her uncomfortable. ' I know he said he would be watching me, but that couldn't be him'

Her thoughts were interrupted by a woman that struck fear into the eyes of some of the people around her. She wasn't tall, but wasn't too short. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a bun, and she was dressed in all black, giving her a look that made her stand out among the other teachers that would dress in full colors. A strict look was placed upon her face; a face that looked often used to make the students stay attentive. Her voice came up, sounding as strict as her face, but with a heavy French accent, "Welcome to PA, My name is Madame Blanc, the head if the visual art department, and your guide through your audition process. As you all know only a portion of the people auditioning today will be accepted to this school. You must have a score over 75 on your audition before even being considered to be accepted, and of the group with the high scores only 57 students will be accepted into the school, the rest will be on a waiting list."

Claire wasn't thinking positively after that statement. Breath wouldn't enter her body for three seconds because of the stress pressed down on her. There must be at least 60 students there and that was on only one of the three audition dates. 'Will I make it, or fall to a million bits? Yikes!'

After separating into groups of about fifteen they were directed by the senior upperclassmen of PA to four different art rooms. Claire was in the group that went to the still life room to draw the complicated still life the teachers set out for them. It consisted of woven baskets, shiny jars, rope, and corn husks. She remembered what her Angel told her, pick an interesting angle, crop it, then blank out your mind and draw.

She picked her cropping including the corn, woven basket and a shiny jar. The teacher in the room was a man, tall, and had a nice personality in his voice as he announced, "You have 30 minutes to draw after Donella hands out the pencils. I will start the clock and you will draw what you see in front of you. Don't forget to add shading and texture. Okay, now that all the pencils are all passed out, your time starts NOW! Good luck!"

Claire instantly started to draw the shapes, her mind went blank and before she knew it the teacher in the room broke the silence saying, "15 more minutes!"

'Only 15 minutes,' Claire looked at her drawing so far and saw only shapes. No shades. No texture. How blank did her mind go? She looked around, everyone else deep in thought, even the boy flirting with her was too into his drawing to notice that he was being watched. She then felt her hand start to draw the texture of the basket and her eyes look toward the still life again. Then after she finished the texture for the small basket the mentor gave another warning, "Five more minutes, if you haven't added value, start adding it now."

'Value, value... that what I forgot damn it! Crap, only five minutes to do it too,' her hand started to add value while she was panicking on the inside. 'Okay, well it could be worse. I could be in only my underwear... No wait thats stupid. This is art, what does my underwear have to do with it? Ummm... Well my hand seems to know what it wants to do. It keeps on drawing and drawing.'

Before she could finish it she heard the forbidden,"Times up! Drop your pencils and take the paper off your stand. Put them on the table by Donella and line up by the hallway. You will be directed to your next station after all of you leave the room."

Claire dripped off her paper looking at it one last time. It looked partially finished with the three jars on top of a basket with rope intertwining them. She looked at the others, and they looked almost the same, partially finished with the obvious look of jars and rope. Donella stood in the front of the door and opened it and lead the group to the hallway. They could see other groups moving out of their rooms, ready to see what else there was to do. Donella caught their attention as she started to speak.

"Okay now we need to head to the design room. It seems they aren't done yet so we will have to wait."

About five minutes passed and the boy wouldn't stop looking at her in a strange flirtatious way. It made Claire even more nervous than she felt before. Maybe he was doing that so that she wouldn't make it? Who knew.

As soon as other auditioners left the design room, Claire's group filed into the design room. The tables were covered with construction paper, glue, scissors, and hole punchers. A woman who seemed to be older that all the other teachers Claire had seen the whole day, was in the room, ready to give instructions as soon as they sat down. "You will all receive a piece of card stock and you will be cutting out and gluing construction paper to it. You have 30 minutes to design a piece with your topic; anything that begins with the letter B. That is all I can give you for the topic. B as in boy, not P as in pool, or D as in dog. During your 30 minutes you will have to write one to two sentences explaining your design. To get the highest score possible try not to put glue on your fingers, as it will leave fingerprints."

It sounded simple at first to Claire, but as she started to think, it became harder than anything else. She couldn't think. Before they started the teacher raised her voice again,"Oh before I forget, you must use negative space on the design. I will be walking around observing you, maybe asking questions. Is everybody ready? Nervous? Okay, your time will start now."

'Okay, B? B? What starts with B that will pop out to the teachers who will judge? Bubblegum, Nah! Battles, Hmmm... Wait no! Bubbles! Who doesn't like bubbles? What type of bubbles? Like from soap? NO, WAIT! Bubbles from carbonation! That will pop out. Okay I need Light and dark brown paper. But there's none here. But there is light and regular orange! Orange Soda! Yes!' The thoughts poured into Claire's mind like water poured into a glass. Claire took the orange paper, some hole punchers, and glue. She cut out ten of the tiny spots and glued them down( Ten down, about 500 more to go!). She kept on cutting and gluing those tiny circles until she heard, "Well what is the idea behind this work?" The teacher was behind looking over her shoulder. While keeping on pace, she told her, "Well I wanted to stand out and did bubbles. The big orange ovals behind represents orange soda as well as provides a stable background, Wile the smaller circles represent the small carbonated bubbles."

"Well keep up the good job," Claire sighed as the instructor gave her such a motivating comment. She then in a louder voice, "You have five more minutes! Don't forget that you need a sentence or two of an explanation on the back! Donella will pass out pencils for everyone that will need to start writing!"

She took a pencil from Donella and started to write the explanation she just gave the mentor. After the explanation she sat still, breathing in and out.

"Thank you for coming in, I hope the rest of your audition turns out well!"

'So do I.'

Well I hope you enjoyed that long due chapter, remember to review ( PLEASE!) and you will hear the rest of the auditions later in Auditions II