Just Friends (7 page)

May 26
th

M
adeline shouted me this morning, saying there was a lady on the phone for me. I rushed over and grabbed the phone in case it was Dr. Angela calling me regarding Ethan. “Hello?” I said, expecting to hear the doctor’s voice.

“Good morning, August. It’s Ms Andrews, your performing arts teacher.”

I let out a huge sigh of relief and slumped against the fridge. “Hello?”

“Yes, sorry, hi Miss. Are you feeling better?” I asked.

“Better? Oh yes I was off ill, I do apologise! Yes I’m much better! Your little sister is so adorable, she’s very well spoken for a seven year old.”

Madeline was sat at the kitchen table watching me on the phone. I stuck my tongue out at her to which she returned. At that moment she grabbed a kitchen chair and placed it beside the fridge, standing on top of it and opening the freezer at the top. Madeline is addicted to ice cream; it’s her favourite thing in the entire world. Bubblegum is strangely her favourite flavour, but it always has to be Ron’s ice cream, that’s her favourite brand. It also contains the least sugar so she doesn’t turn into a hyperactive lunatic. She eats so much of it that my parents have had to limit her to how much she can eat.

“She’s a little angel isn’t she, so what can I do for you, Miss?” I asked as stretched over and closed the freezer, trapping in her ice cream. She sulked at me and vanished into the living room. “Well, if you could come to my office this morning instead of going to your first period that would be marvellous. I’ve spoken to your teacher already so they know you will be running a bit late. I just have something to discuss with you if that’s ok?” I hope she didn’t need to see me for a bad reason. That wouldn’t be the best start to the day. I thought I was doing well in Performing Arts, very well in fact. “Ok, I’ll see you soon,” I said as if a million things weren’t running through my mind. “Perfect, Bye!”

I walked to college, alone, worrying about my best friend, and what horrible news waited for me in Ms. Andrews’s office. Ms. Andrews is a no questions asked, smoking hot. I have no idea why she isn’t married or even in a relationship. She is forty-four or forty-five, I can never remember. But she looks ten or fifteen years younger than her age. If I look even half as good as her at her age, I will be one very happy lady. My hand hovered over the handle to her office as I reassured myself outside. I took a deep breath and squeezed the handle but paused. I knocked, then twisted the handle to open the door.

“August!” Ms. Andrews said with delight. “Please take a seat.” She added.

She returned to the paperwork she was reading as I shut the door behind me and sat. I watched her eyes flick along the final lines of the pages. My heartbeat began to thud. I really hope it wasn’t bad news. Bad news is the last thing I need.

“So, I have some good news for you, August.”

I dropped my shoulders and grinned.

“You look surprised?” She said with a frown.

“I was expecting bad news that’s all, Miss,” I replied, fixing my posture.

“Oh no! I feel I should begin with a small lie I may have told. I wasn’t ill Friday. I was having a meeting with a friend about a new job offer.”

I felt like this was confidential information that I shouldn’t be informed of. I didn’t want her to leave the college, why is she leaving? She’s my favourite teacher! “Ok,” I said, waiting for more detail.

“You’ve heard of Stanley Tennant, haven’t you?” She asked, interlocking her hands and twiddling her thumbs.

“Of course I have, you mean the director, right?” I raised my eyebrows incase I had made a collosal error.

She laughed, “Yes, him. Well, Stanley and I have been very good friends since we were, oh, fourteen maybe fifteen years old… he’s asked me to be the casting director on his new film because I was on a previous one of his over a decade ago before I went into teaching.”

My eyes lit up when I heard such news. “I never knew that Miss, I’m surprised you haven’t told me before.”

She wafted her hands, “I try and keep it a secret, you know, don’t want people nagging me to get his autograph and things.”

I acknowledged her with a sincere nod.

“Right, this is the important part. After our final assessment at the end of this week, my new job will be Stanley’s casting director. It took him a long time to persuade me, but as always, he persuaded me. I’m heading into London tonight to cast the lead role, Rachel. He’s given me strict instructions to find him a star. Someone who takes the world by storm and everyone will know Stanley Tennant gave that person her opportunity to be known. And that is when I mentioned you.”

She extended her hand towards me. I laughed, a lot. Her brightened face dropped into a dark stare. “Oh, you’re not kidding,” I said, tucking my hair behind my ears and looking down.

“It’s not really a subject to kid about, August.”

I sat upright and opened my mouth to speak, but couldn’t find any words. She raised an eyebrow at me, expecting a reply. “I have fifteen girls from top college’s and university’s coming to London tonight to audition for the role. If we can get your parents to sign a document, allowing you to join me, I would very much like it if you would be my number sixteen.”

I almost began to laugh again, but then I realised I had to take her seriously. This is something I’ve been dreaming to achieve since being a little girl, and now was my chance to prove myself.

“Sixteen is my bestfriends lucky number so I think it’s a sign, Miss.”

“Excellent. Listen, I don’t want you to get intimidated or worry about all these other girls auditioning because you kick ass in my class. And you have just as much potential, if not more as everyone else auditioning. So, if you want to call one of your parents and ask them to sign a letter of consent, we can arrange you to join me on a train to London later.”

I nodded, and without another word being said, I exited to call my parents. I rested my head against the wall as I shut her office door. I felt like sprinting down the corridor and sliding on my knees and cheering as loudly as I physically could. Instead, I told myself
this is my time to shine
, and walked outside of college and called my Mum. It seemed before I hung up the phone she was already stepping out of the car to rush into college.

“I came as quick as I could!” She shouted, jogging past in her high heels and up the college stairs. Leaving me stood on the path outside questioning if she was actually a superhero. It seemed before I could even open the college door to discuss things with her she was already sprinting back towards her car to go back to work. “I gotta go sweetie otherwise they’ll fire me for leaving without telling them where I was going! I love you so much! I’ll see you at home later before you leave!” My Mum is the best, that’s all I can say about that matter.

Ms. Andrews and I are on a train to London. After a very flustered day at college and rushing home to make myself presentable, and millions of kisses and best wishes from my parents and Madeline. I made it to the train station in time. We’re only going to be on the train for an hour, so I need to absorb as much advice as possible. “Here’s the script you’re going to need,” Ms. Andrews said, passing me a few pages from her satchel. On the front it had the title
TABLES OF TURNING
printed on it.

“I know your performance capability, but Stanley doesn’t. So, just be yourself, don’t be nervous, and you will be fine.”

“Wait, Stanley is going to be there?” I asked.

She flicked her eyes up from the paperwork she was reading. “Yes, now be looking over the script if you don’t mind.”

The thought had never even crossed my mind.
I
’
m going to be auditioning in front of Stanley Tennant tonight
. I gazed upon the script Ms. Andrews had given me and turned the first page. A girl called Rachel is sat in an interrogation room after she has witnessed a murder. She ran straight to the police station and she’s sat at her chair, shaken, in shock, and very upset. This shouldn’t be a problem for me to reproduce since they have being my exact emotions over the past few days. The only difference between her and me is that I haven’t witnessed a murder. A policeman begins to interview her, asking her about what she saw, who she saw, where she saw it take place. As the scene continues Rachel becomes more and more upset. It finished with the policeman stepping out of the room to answer a phone call. The scene shouldn’t last any longer than two or three minutes. I’m excellent at remembering my lines. If someone asked me what my strongest attribute was, I would say it’s my capability to remember my lines. Sometimes I can’t remember the name of someone I met five minutes ago, but if you gave me a ten paged script and five minutes, I could recite it to you backwards. It’s a gift I suppose. Mum’s superpower is to appear out of nowhere all of a sudden. Mine, is the capability to remember scripts.

It’s 6:14pm; we still have another twenty minutes to go until we arrive in London. I think Ms. Andrews and I must be the only ones on the train because I haven’t seen anyone since we got on. Not even a ticket officer.

“Shall we run through your lines a couple of times?” Ms. Andrews asked.

“Yes please, if you don’t mind.” I replied.

I’m glad I didn’t wear mascara otherwise my face would look a mess after all the fake crying I’ll need to do.

After the third time of running through the script, Ms. Andrews smirked at me. “Perfect, just perfect, I have no doubt that Stanley will adore you, August.”

It was rather humbling to hear, and I think a real tear began to run down my cheek. “What’s Stanley like in person, Miss?” I asked, avoiding sounding like an emphatic fan. “Oh, he’s lovely. He may come across as mean and rude, but I assure you, he’s really a gentle sweetheart.”

The auditions are being held in a small theatre in the centre of London. I don’t know its name because we came through the back entrance. Ms. Andrews has explained my audition will be the last to take place, since mine was the last to be arranged. I can also watch all the auditions take place and make mental notes of the approach each actress makes towards the character. Her and a few other members of the casting team are all sat in the third row of the theatre. Stanley will soon be on stage, acting as the role of the interviewing policeman. I’m sat in the eighth row minding my own business. Preparing myself for my audition, sweating and panicking. Ms. Andrews advice of not to be nervous only increased my nerves. My body is shaking and I can’t do anything to stop it. Ms. Andrews and the other casting members sitting beside her, dropped into silence. Stanley Tennant had walked onto the stage. He was wearing a very smart tweed suit. Stanley is bald, and wears glasses. He’s very tall and well built. When I searched him online it said he was forty-five, but like Ms. Andrews, Stanley appeared ten or fifteen years younger than his actual age.

“Good evening. How are we all?” Stanley asked, centre stage.

“Very well thank you,” Ms. Andrews replied on behalf of the casting crew.

“Good.” Stanley replied, wandering around the stage.

This man is worth millions and millions, and I’m sat watching him dawdle along a stage in London. Today has been weird. Two men appeared from stage right. One holding a table, the other holding two chairs. The table was positioned front and center, and the chairs placed either side of the table. I’m guessing this is the interrogation room set up. Stanley sat down at one of the chairs. “Don’t judge my performance, ok? I’m a director, not an actor!” He laughed as he finished his sentenced. Ms. Andrews and the other members laughed, too.

“Right, let’s do this!” Stanley said, wafting his hand.

A girl walked on from stage left, holding a rolled up script. Her audition was short and snappy. She was good, but she made it too obvious that she was acting, it didn’t seem to come naturally to her. Maybe it’s because she was nervous. Which is understandable. Before they began they asked about her. Her hobbies, things like that. I suppose they were trying to get a better perspective of who they had auditioning for them. After each audition Stanley said one or two words about the girl he had just ran through the scene with.

“Too tall.” Or “Too scary.” At the end of one audition he just said, “No.” That was after the tenth audition. This wasn’t helping my nerves at all. Stanley hasn’t said one positive thing about any of the girls yet, which is good for me, but also bad for me. My chances are increasing, but he may hate me the most. What would he say about me? Stanley’s phone went off in his pocket as the eleventh girl sat down to audition. Stanley barked down the phone and said to get it rearranged, then hung up.

“I’m terribly sorry about that. Shall we begin?” He said as he returned to his seat with the eleventh girl.

It’s 8:30pm, and my time is edging closer and closer. The eleventh girl walked off the stage after shaking hands with Stanley. “Perfect,” Stanley said, brushing his glasses back and rubbing his eyes. “Perfect,” he said again.

This made me angry. She wasn’t even that good. You couldn’t even hear her, she was almost whispering. I almost booed her off the stage. The only mental note I have made for myself is that Stanley doesn’t seem to like when the girls over cry, a moaning cry, like a child who has been denied something at the supermarket. And he doesn’t seem to like it when they don’t cry and just read the script in a sad voice. So I have prepared myself to cry, but only tears running down my cheeks, cry. Nothing over the top. It’s easy to turn on and off, I do it to my Dad sometimes when he won’t give me the TV remote. Ms. Andrews walked to my row and sat beside me as the fifteenth audition took place.

“If you perform exactly as you did on the train, you will be splendid.”

As the fifteenth girl left the stage Stanley shouted, “Not bad.”

Ms. Andrews patted my knee, my cue to take my place on stage.

“You really think I can do it?” I asked.

She gave me a sincere nod and a smile.

I stood, rushed down to the front of the stage, jogged up the stairs and slowly sat into my seat facing Stanley. The beaming stage lights almost blinded me, and the heat they produced was overwhelming. I thought I might pass out as I sat in the chair. Stanley’s very intimidating up close. This man could make or break my dream and career within a matter of minutes.