"Nice job."
"You'll definitely get the part."
"You didn't look nervous at all!"
"You know, you even kind of look like Mandy Moore a little bit!" I smiled as people congratulated me on my audition and thanked them. Peter walked next to me, smiling slightly. He had auditioned shortly after me, and I couldn't believe how well he had done. He had done the same scene as me, but playing Landon instead of Jamie. He did better than Quinton had. As I had watched him, it had been as if I had just accidently walked into the conversation, and was witnessing a boy's heart break right in front of me as he found out about his girlfriend's cancer. I envied him for the fact that he hadn't had to sing. Now I was really worried. What if he got in, but I didn't? What would I do with myself?
As Peter sat with me later and we quickly did our homework so that we could write, I stopped every once in a while to stare at the wall, but not in my usual way, getting distracted with all my stories. No, now I was pausing out of worried thoughts. Peter looked up at me and scrunched his eyebrows, as if to ask, "What's wrong?" I shook my head in response, as if to say, "Nothing, nothing." But as Peter eyed me as we finished our homework, I knew that we were both well aware that it wasn't nothing.
The following day was the day when things really took a turn, for better or worse I would not yet find out. We walked into the school and I lagged behing Peter as he walked through the hallways to the casting list. I almost wished the teachers at this school would take as long to choose their cast as some other teachers do. Our school, however, tries to put on three plays or musicals each year, so the whole process is hurried along faster than at other schools, including the casting. Peter walks up to the door and and I look over his shoulder at the cast list.
High School Spring Play- A Walk To Remember
Jamie Sullivan- Victoria Stephens
Understudy- Lilly Jean
Landon Carter- Peter Holland
Understudy- Tom Phillips
Reverend Sullivan- Jake Matthews
Understudy- Phil Geoffrey
Cynthia Carter- Katherine Ginger
Understudy- Kelly Maya
Belinda- Seraphina Collins
Understudy- Lauren Vincent
Dean- George Stewart
Understudy- Jeff Lewis
Eric- Jonathan Lucas
Tracie- Patricia Mia
Walker- Billy Kenneth
Clay Gephardt- Henry Lucas
Understudy- Weston Falker
Mr. Kelly- Luke Jacobs
Dr. Carter- Heath White
Understudy-
I stopped reading after that. Reading the entire cast list wasn't really going to
make a difference in the fact that I had been cast as the lead. I took a deep
breath and looked at the bottom of the paper-
First Practice
Today after school in the Theater Arts Room-312
"Wow, Peter, Victoria, good job, you guys! You guys are gonna be awesome in
those parts," a red head girl named Seraphina, who had been cast as Belinda, said
to us with a wide smile. "Especially since you guys are so compatible. The love
between you guys is gonna be unbelievably realistic. I can't wait to work with you
guys!" She smiled widely and waved to us as the bell rang, hurrying off to her first
period. I walked next to Peter to our first class, shocked and horrified.
The school day passed slowly as I worried about play practice. When we finally
walked into the theater classroom after sixth period, it was filled with the cast.
Mrs. Kimple had to stand up on a desk to announce to the group that understudy
practice and discussion would happen in an hour and a half, after cast practice. The
grumbling understudies exited the room, wondering what to do for an hour and a
half as we practiced. The room was still crowded with people once all the
understudies were gone, but at least now there was a little more room to maneuver.
Mrs. Kimple asked everyone to please find a seat, and Peter and I ended up with a
lot of other kids on the floor. Mrs. Kimple handed a pile of scripts to Jake Matthews
and he passed them on. Eventually, everyone in the room had a script. We listened
quietly as Mrs. Kimple explained the legist of what was going to happen within the
time between now and the actual putting on of the production. After she finished
over the basics, she said to us, "Now, as I suspect you all now, we like to get things
done quickly in this department, so that we can have time for more amazing
productions in every year. So, official practice will start tomorrow. I would like to
ask that only characters labeled as "main characters" on the script come tomorrow,
but I expect everyone to be working on their scripts on their own. It will not be
acceptable for the smaller parts to come to their practices next week not knowing
any of their lines and not having practiced. Is that clear?" Everyone mumbled their
agreement and Mrs. Kimple nodded. "Good. Then I'll see all of you at your next
practice." She excused us to leave and called in the understudies. Peter and I
walked home and got straight to our homework. We finished quickly and I felt
like maybe we should start going over our lines, but Peter pulled out his notebook
and started writing, so I imitated him. I guess our first practice would be tomorrow.
At practice the next day, Mrs. Kimple did what she was best at doing- got straight to
the point. She had us spend the entire session memorizing our lines, because she
said she "didn't trust us to do it on our own time." She vowed that we would all
have our scripts memorized by the end of the week, which scared me deeply. Peter
and I sat in silence that night, reading the entire script over and over. When we
finally went to sleep that night, I already had a vague remembrance of all the main
scenes.
© 2010
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