July 1, 2000

Los Angeles, California

11:00 AM

Long and boring days had become par for the course for Henry over the course of the summer, but today felt like one of the longest and boringest yet. Part of him wished he could just use the time to relax. He was off from school, he was off from work, and there wasn't anywhere he had to be for a good month or so. All of his friends were probably at the beach, or relaxing in a pool, or shopping in a mall somewhere. But another part of him knew that he couldn't just relax, because he wasn't just some schmuck, like the rest of the kids at his school. He was an actor. And not just any actor—he was the co-host of KaBlam! He was the face of 1998's 4th biggest show aimed at children aged 2–11! He was a star! And stars don't slack off. Being a star requires a lot of long, hard work, and he would have to work his butt off if he wanted to keep being a star.

Henry loved KaBlam, he really did, but after four years as co-host, it was time to start looking for other places to act. KaBlam was a steady gig, and there wasn't anything wrong with it, but if he really wanted to be a respected actor, not just a flash in the pan child star who flamed out quickly, he had to branch out. He couldn't do the same thing forever.

This wasn't his first time branching out. About a year after KaBlam debuted, he was offered the lead spot in Rex, a sitcom about a dog who is turned into a boy and has to survive middle school without anyone catching on to his secret. Henry put his all into the role, but the show didn't get past the pilot episode.

From the start of the summer, Henry had been auditioning for as many roles as he could, as much as he could. It didn't matter what the role was for—movie roles, TV show roles, heck, he auditioned for a voiceover role in a video game. If it was available, he would audition for it.

And yet, despite all the auditioning that he did—all of the scenes he had to memorize, all of the lines he had to stand in, all of the fake smiles he had to give, all of the producers and agents he had to impress—he hadn't gotten any roles. Not a single call back. What gives?

Of course, if he were a regular child actor or a newbie to acting, this would be understandable. A lot of people audition, and only one can be accepted for a role. If you go into acting expecting anything other than a lot of failed auditions, you're being too optimistic. But he wasn't a regular child actor—he was Henry! From KaBlam! He was a sensation! There were dolls with his face on them at ToysRUs, and yet he couldn't land a single audition.

There were roles being offered to him, from network executives and other higher-ups at the network KaBlam aired on. But they had a certain vision for Henry, one that he heavily disagreed with. They wanted him to host a game show about contestants running through an obstacle course, with every episode starting and ending with him getting hit by one of the obstacles. He declined the offer. They wanted him to star in a series of shorts they'd air in between shows where he demonstrates how not to do common activities, and gets himself hurt in the process. He declined the offer. They wanted him to host the network's New Year's Eve 2000 show with June, but only if they could do a gag where he was crushed by their New Year's Eve ball at the turn of the year. He considered the offer, for June's sake, but she was busy, so he declined.

It always seemed to go back to the same gimmick—him getting hurt. Sure, it was funny, and it made people laugh, but...well, it hurt. He didn't like doing it, plain and simple. Even if he had a higher pain tolerance than most, he still couldn't just walk off all of the situations the network wanted to get him in. And besides, it wasn't like he was getting himself hurt for great art. It was just a stupid gimmick. Does he really want to be known for a gimmick? People don't win Oscars for gimmicks.

And so here he was, starting another day by auditioning and hoping for the best.

He and his mother had a routine for days like this: they woke up early in the morning, about three hours before the audition line opened, had breakfast together (today his mother made scrambled eggs and toast), and got dressed. When he started auditioning that summer, Henry's mother had forced him to wear a dorky tie and suit combo, but after a few weeks, he successfully convinced her that the outfit wasn't doing him any favors. Now, he just wore a casual t-shirt and shorts.

After that, they drove to wherever they had to go. Today, it had been an office building just across the street from a shopping district.

By now, it had been about an hour and a half since Henry and his mother entered the audition line, and Henry was bored out of his mind.

Henry loved much acting; he really did. There was the anxious excitement of nailing a performance, the satisfaction of a job well done, the fans recognizing him at the supermarket and asking him for an autograph (which definitely went straight to his head)—but auditioning? He could skip it. It might've been a little fun the first time he did it, but after hundreds of auditions, it felt like the dullest thing on the planet.

It was always the same thing. You enter the line, you get handed a script with the lines you're supposed to memorize on them, you stand in line, you wait, someone's name gets called out, you slightly move forward, and then you wait again...

Now sure, the audition process wasn't much to write home about, but it was a necessary evil. Even if he was bored out of his mind, memorizing the lines he rehearsed for what felt like the millionth time, standing uncomfortably in the seventh room he had entered since he first entered the audition line, if he landed the part, it could mean a lot for him. And, hey, at the very least, at this point, he was only a room away from the audition room.

"Henry, are you alright?" Lois asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he quickly responded with. Henry told himself to feel alright, at least. "I'm ready for this. Don't worry, mom." He put on a smile. His confidence, while not completely fake, was a bit of a facade. In reality, he was as nervous as could be.

Lois smiled back and wrapped him in a hug. "That's the spirit. I know you'll do great!"

Henry cringed. He was thirteen, and his mother still hugged him in public. Despite the nice gesture, it did nothing to help his nerves.

Why was he so nervous anyway? This was just how it worked. You win some, you lose some. It's not like anyone had it in for him; he just got unlucky. And yet, while he knew all of that, every rejection he felt still hurt. They all felt like reminders that, yes, he might've been a hot young actor with superstar aspirations, but that doesn't mean he'd stay hot.

"Next!" He saw a young man open the door to the audition room. A shaggy-haired boy in front of him, a few years younger than Henry, stepped forward into the room. All of the people in the audition line were a few years younger than Henry. Truthfully, at 12-going-on-13, he was a bit old for the role he was auditioning for.

That role? A 10-year-old boy, part of a family who is stuck in the middle of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The movie it was attached to? The creatively titled San Francisco, the first drama from action director Garth Rowland. Henry loved many of his movies—it wasn't the main reason he was auditioning, but it didn't hurt. In fact, Garth Rowland might have directed one of Henry's favorite movies ever...Live, a movie about a group of terrorists who hijack a live taping of a game show, and an audience member, who is also an off-duty security guard, who sneaks backstage and has to figure out a way to outsmart them.

He remembered the day he watched it in theaters like it was yesterday. It was only a few months after KaBlam! started airing, and he invited June to come see it with him. His mother dropped him off, and as he and June got concessions, a fan ran up to them and asked for their autographs. It was the first time someone had recognized them from the show. It felt great. The movie was great, too. Henry thought it was the greatest movie he had ever seen. June thought it was stupid.

"Next!"

Here it was. It was finally time for him to go on and prove himself.

He walked into the audition room, concerned mostly with trying to conceal his obvious anxiety under a mask of confidence. The room was plain, and almost completely empty aside from a plastic, foldable table that a man and a woman—both middle-aged—sat behind. His mother walked to the opposite side of the room, and Henry nervously walked in front of the two producers.

"Hey, welcome," the man on the right of the table said, too busy writing something down on a notepad to make eye contact with Henry. He was balding and had a noticeable five o'clock shadow. "Nice to meet you, how are you, yada yada yada, What's your name?"

Henry was about to speak when the woman next to him interrupted. "Wait a minute, I've seen you before..."

Yeah, Henry thought, Not the first time I've heard that...

Henry smirked. "Henry Sullivan, at your service." He said, bowing in a show-offy motion.

"Henry….Sullivan?" the woman questioned. "Oh!" She snapped. "You're on that cartoon show my daughter likes... Kerplunk!"

"Yeah, close. It's called KaBlam, actually. I've acted on that show for four years now. I've gotten a lot of experience from it, but hopefully I can show you here that I'm a lot more than what I show on-"

"Zip it!" The balding man said. "Jeez, we don't need your whole life story."

"Hey, that's no way to talk to my son!" Henry's mom yelled out from behind.

"Mom!" Henry held her back. "Mom, don't worry. You don't need to get in the middle of this. I've got it."

He cleared his throat. She went back to the side of the room.

"So, what's the part?"

"Ok," the woman said. "So I'll set the scene: Your character is hiding within a small general store, hiding from the earthquake with other customers. In this scene, he realizes that his family may be in danger, and he makes the decision to leave the store."

"Ok, got it." Henry nodded his head.

"I'll start with the shopkeeper's line."

She cleared her throat.

"Hey, boy, you need to take cover!" She said, deepening her voice.

"Sir!" Henry cried out. "My family is in danger! They might die if I don't help out!"

"It's not safe out there!" The woman said, playing the role of a customer in the general store. "Buildings are being toppled! People are being crushed! It's madness!"

"I don't care if I get crushed," Henry began. "I don't care what happens to me. Because if my family is in trouble and I do nothing to help them, that guilt would sit with me for the rest of my life...I love my family! I love my family! And I might disagree with my sister from time to time, and I might hate my parents, but that doesn't mean I don't love my family for who they are. They're the people I live with, and whether I like it or not, that's-"

"I think that's all the time we have for today." The man said, writing in a notebook. "Thank you. Next!"

It almost took a second for what he said to resonate with Henry. His grin slowly faded as Henry realized what the man said. Or rather, what he meant.

"...But-"

"Sorry, kid." The man started. "We've only got so much time here. We'll keep in touch."

He wouldn't keep in touch. He wouldn't say it, but he didn't like Henry's audition. For some reason, he wasn't good enough.

Henry was a bit unsure why rejection like this hit him as hard as it did. At least in his eyes, he had been rejected so many times in the past few months that something like this shouldn't have surprised him. Still, he was saddened by it. And so what if he didn't get the role? The script sucked anyway. It was a bunch of sellout, fake-dramatic garbage. Still, even when he tried to spin the rejection into a positive thing, it still hurt.

He had to try his best to not let it show, though. He was too professional to pout about it.

So, he took a deep breath, thanked the two producers, and walked out of the room.

Even if he didn't get the role, there were always more auditions to go to and more opportunities to find. After all, at least he was where he was. At least he had gotten as far as he did. At least he still had the platform that he did, working with the people he did, on the show he did.

At least there was still KaBlam.

Hey, thanks for reading this far :)

The next chapter will be focused on June, and that'll be where the story REALLY kicks off...stay tuned for that one.

As always, please leave a review if you could be so kind, and see you all next update!