You Act Like It

“So I got the role.”

I was sitting at the kitchen table, last minute homework in front of me and cordless house phone in hand. I was half excited and half worried. I hadn’t done anything like this before and I was going to have to lessen my hours working at my parent’s coffee shop in order to make it to rehearsals.

“THE role?”

“Yup.” The part to which he was referring was Prince Charming in the musical Cinderella. The South Shore Musical Theater was twenty miles from my house had held auditions all day Saturday for all of the roles. They’d said they would call within a week, but a week passed with no phone call. It wasn’t like I was surprised since there were so many people there, but Sunday night, the director called to tell me that I was none other than the Prince himself. Hooray.

I didn’t know a lot about South Shore. I’d never really acted in musicals or anything like that before. My best friend Mark really deserved the credit for me trying out. He was the only one who’d really heard me sing before and didn’t tell me about the auditions until we pulled into the parking lot of South Shore, pulling away from the curb and telling me he’d pick me up later. A lady standing outside asked me if I was there for the audition, and when I just stared at her, she ushered me inside.

“So Prince Handsome…”

“Prince Charming.”

“So Prince Charming, you’re in!” he said.

“No thanks to you,” I retorted, trying to hide my semi-excitement.

“Oh, come on. Tons of guys would kill to be you right now. Embrace the part!” he was starting to go on a ‘be thankful for what you have’ rant, and so I cut him off.

“I don’t even know if I can accept the part, Mark. What are my parents supposed to do for my work shift? And how am I even going to get to rehearsals?”

Whether I liked it or not, those were the two big issues staring me in the face. My work shift was weekdays from two thirty to six thirty and Saturdays from eight to two. No one ever noticed me at school because I went, did my work, and then booked it over to the coffee shop for my shift there. We weren’t a rich family. We got by with the coffee shop profits. A single car, a one story house, an education at a public school. But it would be a lie to say that we weren’t content.

“Okay, one, your parents will understand. They always do. And two, I’ll drive you myself. It’s only a twenty minute drive over.”

After arguing with him for several minutes about how he couldn’t possibly drive me every single time I needed to be at South Shore and then losing the argument, I hung up. As I smacked the phone down on to the table and picked up my pencil to finish my last three math problems, I heard the front door open.

“Drew. We’re back!” I heard my mom call.

“Yeah, Drew! We’re back! Aren’t you so thrilled to see us?” My ten-year-old sister Addison waltzed into the kitchen carrying a grocery bag in each hand and setting them down on the table in front of me. My mom followed behind her with more bags, and Riley, Addie’s twin came in with her.

“You girls go right now and get ready for bed. It’s late.” My mom looked tired as she started putting things into the cabinets and the refrigerator.

“It’s not that late!” Addie whined, but she headed down the hallway with Riley in toe. My mom and I were alone in the kitchen.

“Hi, Drew,” she said. “Did anyone call while we were out?”

“Um, yeah.”

“For me?”

“Well, um, you know how Mark drove me to auditions at the South Shore Theater last weekend? I got a part in the play. No, I actually kind of got THE part. You know, like the prince?” She turned and faced me.

“Oh, hon, congratulations!” I knew she was trying to show her enthusiasm, but she really just looked beat. I really didn’t want to have to tell her about the rehearsals.

“Mom, this is big time… I’m not going to be able to work at the shop until it’s over. It’s too much time.”

It looked like it took her a minute to process that, but once she did, she developed a small crease in her forehead, quickly smoothing it over. “Oh, we’ll work something out. We’ve denied you too many opportunities up to now.” She leaned over and kissed my forehead. I was really starting to look forward to this.

********

Mark picked me up at quarter ‘til eight Monday morning and I slid into my seat in homeroom just as the second bell rang. He was somewhat known for being late frequently, but I couldn’t complain, as he’d be doing me a huge favor for the next five months.

My first period class was my English elective, Irish Literature. I sat in the back corner of the room next to the window. The class was a pretty full one, so it the rare occasion when the teacher called on me, but I always did the homework and the readings, and so it wasn’t like it was a problem.

I’d barely sat down when Anisa walked in and slammed her books down on her usual desk next to me. I glanced up at her quickly. “Hey, what’s up?” She was a typically upbeat person, and it wasn’t like her to go slamming things around.

“Cody broke up with me,” she wailed. I raised my eyebrows.

Anisa and I had been friends since we were six, but in high school she’d become very popular and I hadn’t. She tried to drag me into the circle of popularity with her, but I was having none of it. I was perfectly content with my life and she hadn’t argued, but it hadn’t impacted our friendship.

“He broke up with you?” I repeated. Cody and Anisa had been going out for seven months now. She had dark skin and dark hair and I thought they were perfect for each other. To be honest, there wasn’t a guy in the school who didn’t want Anisa. Even I’d confess to admiring her from time to time.

“Yes… well Elena said she heard he was caught in the janitor’s closet with Lyndsy this morning and they were, you know, making out, so isn’t that practically the same thing as breaking up with me?” She sat down and pouted.

“Maybe you’d better check your sources before you go thinking that,” I said. Who really knew with Cody?

“No! We’re over!” She buried her head on the desk as the bell rang. Best leave her alone for now. Anything I said was just going to make her feel worse. I didn’t have a romantic bone in my body.

I didn’t see Anisa after that period and went through the rest of the day in sort of a daze. When the final bell rang, I dashed to my locker, grabbed everything for a night full of homework, and headed to Mark’s locker at the other end of the hall. He was talking to a girl I didn’t recognize, so I leaned against the wall opposite his locker and waited. I wasn’t the kind of person who liked to interfere or make myself noticed. Come to think of it, what was I doing in this play in the first place. I had a mini metal anxiety attack just thinking about it.

When five minutes passed and Mark and the mystery girl were still carrying on a friendly conversation, I decided to intervene. I walked over to them.

“Sorry to interrupt, but we have somewhere really, really important we need to be… like now,” I said giving Mark a look and then smiling at the girl. She gave me a little smile back, said goodbye to Mark, and walked away towards the main doors of the building. Mark turned on me.

“Drew! Come on, really?”

“I believe you made me a promise, and I am NOT going to be late for my first rehearsal. It’s already two-thirty,” I told him pointing at my watch.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Let’s go.”

I decided not to mention the girl he’d been talking to and instead asked him if he’d talked to Anisa. “Yeah, she wasn’t happy. Something about Cody and Lyndsy…?” I told him what she’d told me earlier in the morning.

“I don’t think he’d do that,” he said, flipping on his blinker and turning onto the highway. “That’s really low, and if he did, she doesn’t deserve it.”

When we pulled into the South Shore parking lot, it was five minutes ‘til three.

“See, we’re early!” he said, jabbing his finger at the digital clock on the radio.

I sighed. “Mark, being on time doesn’t mean that you get there exactly at three. It means that it starts at three.”

“Damn it all, if they wanted you to be here before three, then they should have said for you to be here early! Stop wasting time and just get in there already. I’ll be back in two hours.” I’d barely closed the passenger door when he sped away.

South Shore was amazing inside. It was actually a legit theater. I wandered around the lobby looking in doors and down hallways. No one backstage. No one on the stage. Where was I even supposed to be?

“Andrew?” I turned around to see a young woman, probably in her late twenties or early thirties behind me.

“I go by Drew,” I told her. “But that’s me.”

“I’m Amanda, the director. We’re upstairs today, actually,” she said. Minor detail. I followed her up the stairs to a room similar to an office conference room where about twenty-five people, mostly men and women with a few smaller kids, were sitting around a long table. Amanda handed me a script and pointed me to my seat. Everyone else was already here.

The chair to my right hand an older man sitting in it, and in the chair to my right was a girl probably about my age or around there. She was small, with long brown hair. She was pretty cute, but looked like she belonged with those popular girls who often hung out with Anisa, and I didn’t know if I liked that or not. I glanced at her name tag in front of her. Chelsie Holland: Cinderella. I guess I was going to have to like it.

“Can we get started everyone?” Amanda clapped her hands together. That mini anxiety attack came back.