Status: not sure if I'll ever finish. I don't have much time anymore, but, never say never.
Because She Would Ask Me Why I Loved Her
Good Times, Bad Times
I then made my way to the auditorium to go to Drama class and surprisingly everyone else was there. The teacher, Ms. Rosendale-Watkins said,
“Why thank you Mr. Lutz for joining us, please take your seat next to Ms. Collins.”
Ms. Collins? No, she couldn’t mean her.
“It’s ok Kellan, how many people do you know with the last name Collins?”
I told myself,
“Maybe it’s another Ms. Collins.”
But then I saw the boots and red skirt and knew it was real, Kadence was in my drama class and I was screwed.
I slowly made my way to my seat. Once I sat down, Ms. Rosendale-Watkins said,
“Now that Mr. Lutz has joined us, we can begin.”
She began by handing out our syllabus and once everyone had one, she started to go over it because apparently she didn’t trust us enough to read it on our own. To be honest, I probably would have not looked at it until I needed to know when an assignment was due. I zoned out for a little while until I heard the words,
“for half of your grade you must participate in our winter musical.”
What the heck? Was she serious? I haven’t acted in a play since we were required to be in our church plays in elementary school and I certainly don’t think I am a good singer. To my dismay, Ms. Rosendale-Watkins continued,
“This year’s winter musical is ‘The Sound of Music’, so we will have to have some children from East Franklin Elementary join us in this production. We will be having auditions almost immediately after finishing up the important things in class. Every one of you will be required to audition and don’t think you can ‘pull a fast one’ on me. I will know if you are intentionally doing badly so you get a smaller part, so do your best.”
Needless to say, I was not excited about this, since she said she would know if I was doing badly. That made me nervous but what could I do, this was 50% of my grade I was talking about, and this is my senior year of high school, so I need to make a good grade in this class. I just hope I do ok in the auditions.
August 31, 2007
Well, I don’t think I did that badly in my audition, but I won’t find out how I did until class today. I wasn’t too nervous but I couldn’t help but wonder what part I got. I told my parents about the class and they told me they would try and make it whenever I performed. I felt confident in my Superman shirt and jeans. Kadence had a black skirt with a “Jesus s me” shirt.
When we finally got to Drama, Ms. Rosendale-Watkins was smiling brightly and I knew she had finally decided our parts. We all sat down and she started to rattle off names of characters with the names of the people in my class, starting with the boys. I started to get nervous because my name hadn’t been called yet but when I heard,
“Kellan Lutz”,
I nervously said,
“Yes?”
“You will be playing the part of the Captain, Georg von Trapp.”
I knew my jaw hit the floor because that was the lead male role! I couldn’t believe it, but I grabbed my script/musical score and sat back down. Kadence seemed to notice my shocked state and said,
“Congratulations Kellan, you will be an excellent Georg, I can feel it.”
“Thanks.”
Then, Ms. Rosendale-Watkins started the female roles. Once again, for some strange reason though, I started to get nervous because Kadence’s name wasn’t being said. I knew she was an excellent actress but maybe that was just my opinion. Finally I heard it,
“Kadence Collins will be playing the part of Maria Rainer.”
Great, just great! Kadence will be playing my “love interest” and I will have to sing, oh joy.
Once we all had our parts, Ms. Rosendale-Watkins told us we were starting rehearsal that day right after class. Of course, I should have realized this because an elective at the end of the day doesn’t make sense, but when that elective is Drama and you have to perform something, why not start practice in class and continue it after school?
I found out the names of the children from East Franklin who would be playing “my children” and to my surprise, I knew a couple of them from church. They of course, knew Kadence as well and couldn’t contain themselves when they found out who she was playing.
I was shocked that I was the only one apparently that had never seen “The Sound of Music”, but Ms. Rosendale-Watkins told us we would be watching it as our rehearsal today.
After watching the almost 3 hour long movie, I had a somewhat better understanding of Georg von Trapp, aka “the Captain”.
I was still worried that my lack of acting/singing experience would hinder me in the long run so I did something that I hoped that I wouldn’t regret. I went outside and drove my car right next to Kadence’s and waited for her to come out of the auditorium. Once she did, I got out of my car to talk to her.
“Kadence, can I talk to you?”
“You are talking to me now Kellan,”
She told me with a smile.
"Right, sorry, what I meant was can I ask you something?”
“Sure, Kellan, what do you want?”
“Well, it’s about ‘The Sound of Music’”
“Ok, what do you need to talk to me about that for?”
“I was hoping you could help me, you know, like extra practice? Since I am not as experienced in the singing and acting department and you are, I thought ‘why not ask Kadence?’”
“Well Kellan, I guess I could help you, on one condition.”
I said a silent prayer, asking God to let her please not make me go and help her with the Humane Society or anything stupid.
“Ok, sure, what is it?”
“You have to promise you won’t fall in love with me.”
I knew she was joking, Kadence had a way of making people feel at ease, even by saying
stuff that didn’t make any sense. I smiled and told her,
“Ok, you have my word.”
“Good, I will see you at my house tomorrow at 11 A.M. I would meet with you earlier but I will be volunteering at the Humane Society from 8-10. Don’t worry about lunch; I will make some for us.”
“Ok, I will see you there.”
I got into my car and drove off to my house, thankful for Kadence, for once in my life.
September 1, 2007
It took me 20 minutes to get from my house to Kadence’s house. I was afraid that I was going to be late but my mother, being the sweet person that she is, woke me up at 9:00 A.M. and made sure that I was up before leaving me to get dressed. I decided on a pair of jeans and a Led Zepplin t-shirt. I also put on my black converse shoes. I made it downstairs where my mom already had grits and eggs waiting for me.
I ate my breakfast and made me way to Kadence’s house. I had been there before but it was not a place I frequented, so I had to MapQuest it. Thankfully, I have a pretty good sense of direction and didn’t get lost. Once I got there, I saw Rev. Collins’ car and Kadence’s car out near the car port.
I parked my car behind Kadence’s and then made my way to the front door. Once I rang the doorbell, it didn’t take long for me to hear footsteps coming closer. Rev. Collins answered the door, which made me nervous, but he tried to calm me down by saying,
“Kellan, so nice to see you son.”
“Nice to see you too Rev. Collins.”
“Now, I understand you and Kadence will be practicing for your play is that right?”
“Yes, sir, that is correct.”
“Well, that’s nice, I will be finishing up my sermon for tomorrow, so I will be in my office, but if you need anything just come and get me, Mrs. Collins is out visiting Mrs. Gary today, so it’s just the three of us.”
“I will, sir.”
I walked into their living room and sat down and took in my surroundings, two simple couches, two pretty big windows, an entertainment system that looked to be old and a piano that had “The Sound of Music” sheet music on it.
I guessed that the TV was in the entertainment center and I didn’t know Kadence played the piano, but I guess it shouldn’t have shocked me, I remember my mom telling me that Mrs. Collins taught piano to Ashley starting when she was six, but I also remember telling my mom that I had absolutely no interest in playing it whatsoever, so she better not have any ideas about me playing.
I didn’t want to sit on the couches because I had no idea how long Kadence would be or where we would be practicing, so I didn’t want to sit down only to get up a short time later.
I didn’t have to wait long though; I heard footsteps and then heard Kadence say,
“Kellan, I hope you haven’t been here long.”
I turned around to see her, with her white skirt, black shirt and converses and her hair up in a ponytail and then said,
“Oh no, I was just noticing your piano, I didn’t know you played.”
“Oh yeah, I have been playing since my mom saw me banging on it at age 3.”
That image made me laugh because I still had an image of Kadence as the “good girl, preacher’s daughter, who could do no wrong.” I guess even the preacher’s daughter has some bad days in her life, but it was still hard to imagine Kadence in the dresses her mom used to make her wear banging on the piano.
She continued,
“Well, do you want to practice in the living room or the sun room?”
“I think we should stick with the living room, I mean, we are already here.”
“Ok,”
She said, a little nervous,
“Let’s get started, did you want to start with the singing or acting?”
“To tell you the truth I have no idea. I am not very experienced at them both like you are but I am willing to learn.”
“Ok,
She said.
She then walked around the room, pacing, as though she were deep in thought about how she wanted to approach our own personal rehearsals. After about 2 minutes, she finally stopped pacing and then said,
“How about we alternate days, like on Monday and Friday we practice singing and Tuesday and Thursday we practice acting. On Saturdays, we will practice both. Does that sound good to you?”
“Sure, but what times will we practice?”
“Well, during the week, we can practice for about an hour after rehearsal lets out. So that means that we get out of school at 2:50, have rehearsal till 5 and then we could come to my house until 6. On Saturdays we would practice from 11 A.M.-1 P.M., is that ok?”
I had to think about it, because I usually went out on the weekends, but I knew I needed the extra help and hopefully Jackson, Ashley, Nikki and Dean would understand.
“That sounds perfect,”
I said.
“Great, so let’s get started.”
She finally sat down on the couch in front of the window. When she sat down, I swear the sun made her look radiant like an angel but brushed off that thought. I sat down on the other couch and opened my book. I knew this was only the beginning and I hoped that I would not disappoint anyone when this was all over.
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Sorry for the delay, I thought I would get more comments :( Don't forget to recommend this to those you think would like it, if you don't mind :). I have also made sure that the calculations(well, MapQuesting to see how far it would take to get from point A and Point B) and dates are correct, so that is why I mention it, I don't want to lie.First Practice
Kadence's house
Kadence's living room
Kellan and Kadence outfit