The Balcony Scene

The next day there’s a substantial crowd gathered outside of the auditorium doors. Everyone crams in together, for once not abhorring human contact as they strain to see the standard-sized print on the piece of paper taped to the theater’s heavy wooden door. More and more people join the crowd as the seconds after the final bell sounded tick by. Some of the onlookers aren’t even theater kids, but it’s still fun to see who has what part, even if they don’t understand the plot of the show. It’s common knowledge that the names at the top of the list are the winners.

Vic watches from the outside, chewing his thumbnail. What if I made a huge mistake? Oh, god, maybe I fucked up so bad . . .

“Yes!” Hayley cries, extracting herself from the crowd and pumping her fists in the air. Her non-theater friend runs up, “What did you get, Hayley?!”

“The lead part, of course! Darla!”

“Congratulations!”

Sandra, the girl appointed to play Luanne, joins the girls, and they’re all squeals and grins and jumping up and down excitedly. Vic can’t help but smile as he watches their hair bounce. Even after all his experiences, after all the roles he’s played and the scenes he’s choreographed and the sets pieces he’s moved, he’s never been able to provide this much joy for the community as a whole before. It’s liberating, watching his creation make people happy.

Craig Owens appears from within the chaos next, striding out of the throng victoriously, accompanied by Andy Biersack and another black-haired kid that Vic doesn’t know by name, but has seen backstage before. The three of them are laughing about something and fist-bumping, obviously as pumped as the girls about their roles.

Jesse Lawson and Justin Hills leave the crowd not long after, smiling but not celebrating. Vic is on edge, waiting for one of them to shoot him a dirty look for not giving them leads, but it never happens. They walk down the hall together, looking perfectly content, and disappear around a corner.
Vic breathes a sigh. Maybe people aren’t going to hate him, after all.

Then Kyle Even walks past—a junior who has been casted as Waiter/Soloist #1. Not the most glamorous part by far, but still better than most of the cast, who are stuck in the ensemble. Kyle shoots Vic a murderous glance as he goes by, uncharacteristic and plain wrong-looking on Kyle’s usually gentle face. Vic actually shrinks back a little, afraid that Kyle, who is much bigger than him, could come after him.

Kyle doesn’t, just pushes open the front doors of the school and stalks out to where his boyfriend is waiting. Vic groans and slumps back against the wall. Well, that’s going to be fun to deal with in rehearsal.

Another near-heart attack occurs when Vic notices Tony exiting the crowd slowly. Vic bites his lip. He casted Tony as the character Bobby, Carter’s best friend. He has almost as many lines as Luanne, but only appears in the first act due to being killed off. Vic really did want Tony to have a bigger part, but it just didn’t work out that way, and besides, Tony would make a killer Bobby. It’s obvious Tony isn’t exactly thrilled with the part as he walks off by himself, but he doesn’t even seem to notice Vic before he disappears around the corner. The director sincerely hopes that his friend isn’t mad at him, but his increasingly anxious thought process is cut off when Jaime appears by his side.

“So-o-o,” drawls his friend, a twinkle in his eye. “How’s it going? Everyone reacting to the cast list okay?”

Vic shrugs, not taking his eye off the slowly diminishing crowd. “I guess. I haven’t seen anyone cry yet, which is a good sign. Kyle Even gave me a dirty look, though.”

Jaime waves his hand dismissively. “Pshh, he’ll get over it. You gave him lines, right? And solos. That’s better than most people got. Besides, this way he can spend more time with his boyfriend and less time rehearsing. Speaking of which, do you know if David is doing lights and sound again this year? Now that I’m co-directing with you, I won’t be able to be in the booth as much.”

“Yeah, I think he is.” But suddenly all thoughts of Kyle and David and even Tony are obliterated from Vic’s train of thought. A short dark-haired student has only just arrived on the scene, and is now carefully maneuvering to the front of the mob toward the cast list.

Jaime is still talking, but Vic’s eyes and mind are trained on Kellin’s form as it reaches the theater door. Oh, god. Many of the kids are staring at Kellin, some enviously, some disbelievingly, some whispering to their friends behind their hands.

Even from here, Vic can see as Kellin claps a hand over his mouth when he reads the cast list. Someone gives him a congratulatory clap on the back, but the freshman doesn’t seem to respond, just gazes at the list incredulously. He doesn’t move for another moment, just stands with his fingers still pressed to his lips, then turns and exits the crowd quickly. Vic’s heart leaps in his chest as Kellin makes eye contact with him; the kid’s face is split into a beautiful grin.

“Hey, look, here comes Kellin Quinn,” notes Jaime.

For some ridiculous reason, Vic’s breathing is a little quick when Kellin approaches. “Hey, man,” he says, then winces internally at his sudden lack of eloquence.

“Hey,” answers Kellin, his eyes sparkling. “I just—wow. You gave me the lead.”

“I know,” says Vic. He can’t help but smile at the pure elation shining through in Kellin’s features; for the first time the Mexican notices how brilliantly blue Kellin’s eyes are. He has the sudden urge to throw his arms the freshman and hug him as tightly as he can, but he restrains himself and says, “You earned it. I’ve never seen—well, heard anyone like you.”

“Thank you, thanks, I—oh my gosh.”

Vic can feel Jaime’s smirk drilling into his head, but he doesn’t care. “You’ll be at rehearsal tomorrow, right?”

“Yep. In the theater, right?”

“Yeah. It’s gonna be great, I’m really excited about getting started.”

“Me too.” A slightly awkward pause as Kellin makes uneasy eye contact with Jaime, then turns back to Vic and stammers, “W-Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“All right, see you then, sweetie.”

Kellin turns and begins down the hallway, then stops and gets his sense of direction, and heads out the front doors of the school, blushing a little but still looking too happy to care. Another student congratulates him on his way out, and Vic watches him accept it modestly and then make his way out the door. He climbs into the car next to a woman that must be his mother.

“Way to be inconspicuous, dude,” laughs Jaime, clapping Vic in the shoulder.

“Huh?”

“You’re totally staring at him.”

“Can you blame me?” Vic is still smiling faintly, looking down at the ground.

The crowd has at this point shrunk to only two people still reading the cast list, so Vic and Jaime approach them and let themselves into the theater using Vic’s key. They have a planning session until three fifteen, and they know they need to figure out a few details before tomorrow’s rehearsal. They walk around the back row of seats and discuss whether or not it would work for everyone to sit in a circle onstage to do the first read-through of the script, and then when the best time would be for them to start blocking, and how it would be good to have a rehearsal with just the five leads early on.

“We also need to have a few rehearsals with just Kellin, you know? Work on some of his numbers like ‘Bulletproof Love’ and ‘Let’s Cheers to This’.” says Jaime, glancing at his friend. “But that shouldn’t be an issue, right?”

Vic sighs, deciding to just give up resisting. “Right. I’ll lure him in with false promises of ‘rehearsal’ and then bend him over the piano and have my way with him.”

Jaime makes a half-amused half-disgusted sound that echoes through the room. “Too far, dude! Too far!”

Vic joins in his laughter. This is why he picked Jaime to be his co-director—besides the fact that they’re best friends and work well together, it’s practically impossible to be too stressed out around the guy. Jaime never seems to be affected by deadlines or a busy schedule or big projects, the kinds of things that keep Vic up at night. They balance each other out nicely.

Also, Jaime has always been supportive of Vic’s passion for the stage and music. He was the second one to read Vic’s script after Mike, and Vic was almost more anxious about receiving his friend’s approval than his brother’s. But, just like everyone else, Jaime had returned the script with genuine compliments and encouragements. When he told Vic that it was one of the best things he’d ever read, it was one of the only times Vic has seen him be completely serious.

When it’s time to go home after forty-five minutes of intense planning, Vic is feeling pumped up and confident that this show will turn out even better than he ever imagined.