“Oh dear.” Flora paused. “I don’t think I can choose just one.”
“You’re the one who came up with these questions,” Sophie said, looking up from her phone.
“That I did.” Flora nodded. “I offer my sincerest apologies. How about if I tell you my favorite literary genre? That’s a bit easier. I love Regency romance. Jane Austen, in particular.”
Most of the girls weren’t listening. Kara tried to revive the group by going next. Anna Grace, however, had already informed the others that Kara was a “brownnose,” so they barely acknowledged what she said. As the group got louder, all involved in their own conversations, Flora put two fingers in her mouth and let out an earsplitting whistle.
“Girls, I would prefer not to resort to such base vociferations. However, I expect you to behave with decorum.”
“What did you just say?” Anna Grace peered at Flora.
“She said shut up or she’ll let out another whistle,” Sophie interpreted.
“Not exactly,” Flora said. “But I do want you to remain silent when others are talking.”
“Look, lady.” Anna Grace stood. “You are the housemother. To me, that’s just a slight step up from house help. You’re not telling me what to do or how to act or making me sit in a circle and talk about myself. I’m out of here, y’all.”
Flora stood with her. “I didn’t want to have to resort to this, but I will call your mother if I have to.”
Anna Grace walked away, her cell phone raised in the air. “Go ahead. She’s the one who told me I don’t have to listen to you.”
Flora sat down. Most of the other girls followed Anna Grace’s lead and walked out of the room. Only Haley, Jillian, and Kara stayed behind.
“I’m sorry, Flora,” Kara said.
“I appreciate you three staying,” Flora said with a sad smile. “Why don’t you tell me about yourselves?”
Jillian leaned forward. “I’m Jillian Lane and I’m from San Diego. My favorite book is
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
.”
“A C. S. Lewis fan.” Flora clapped. “Even though I do prefer nineteenth-century British literature to the more modern writers, Lewis is one of my favorites. Have you read his Space Trilogy?”
“No, ma’am, I haven’t,” Jillian said.
“Oh, you should. They are just wonderful. A man named Ransom is sent to another planet to . . . well, I don’t want to give it away. I think I have it with me if you’d like to borrow it.”
“Thank you, Flora, but I have summer reading for school to finish.”
“All right, then.” Flora sighed. “And you? Haley, right? ”
“Haley Maxwell.” She was French-braiding her long hair. “I’m from Chicago. I don’t really like reading. No offense.”
“I appreciate your honesty. What do you like to do?”
“I like to act.” Haley looked at Flora as if that were the dumbest question ever. “I’ve been doing commercials since I was two. Last year I played a lead role in a big professional theater downtown.”
Jillian leaned forward. “I’ve been in small roles on some television shows.”
Kara felt her stomach drop.
All I’ve done is school plays and community theater. How can I compete with these girls?
“That’s wonderful,” Flora said. “But you really should read. It will help broaden your horizons. As actresses, you have to portray many emotions and many characters. Reading helps you get inside people’s minds and live experiences you might not have on your own.”
“That’s a great point, Flora,” Jillian said. “If I finish my summer reading, do you think I could maybe borrow one of those C. S. Lewis books?”
“I would love that.” Flora smiled.
“It’s late.” Haley stood, finally finished with her hair. “Tomorrow we have our first cold reading. Well, the first for
this
show. I’d better get some sleep.”
“Splendid idea.” Flora stood and straightened her floor-length, quilted skirt.
Kara sat in the living room as the others filed out.
Do I really have a shot at this show? It’s not just agents these girls all have. It’s experience. I am way out of my league. Is it too late to ask to be on the show in New York?
“Kara, are you all right?” Flora poked her head around the living room wall.
Kara stood. “Yes, I’m just a little nervous about tomorrow.”
“Do you know what I do when I’m nervous?”
“Meditate?”
“Close.” Flora looked up at Kara. “I pray.”
“You sound like my friend Addy. She prays about everything.”
“She’s a wise young woman.” Flora walked to the lamp on the end table to turn it off. “Martin Luther once said, ‘Pray, and let God worry.’”
Kara closed the venetian blinds. “I don’t really believe in God.”
“That’s all right.” Flora smiled, walking out.
“It’s nice to hear someone say that.”
Flora turned to her. “God believes in you.”
Unsure how to respond to that, Kara watched Flora walk to her room at the end of the hallway.
God believes in me?
Kara spent the rest of the night trying to get that thought out of her mind.
I
’m on an actual set. A real, live set with lights and cameras and props and people everywhere
. Kara tried her best not to scream. She didn’t want to appear unprofessional. Not when the other girls walked on the set for their first screen test like they had been to a million of these before.
“When I was in an episode of
Dark Forces
last year”—Haley referred to a popular crime drama on network television—“we were shooting in the tiniest space you’ve ever seen. But when I watched the show back, it looked huge. It’s amazing what camera angles can do, you know?”
When you were on
Dark Forces, Kara thought, trying not to make a sour face.
Yes, well, when I starred in my high school’s production of
Our Town
. . . no, not so much. How about when I played Tiger Lily in the community theater’s
Peter Pan
? No. All right. Just keep your mouth shut, Kara, and maybe they’ll think you know what they’re talking about
.
Anna Grace walked up to the couch on the set and lay down. “This is all mine, ladies. I am going to
own
this audition.”
“Don’t get too comfortable.” Ava pushed Anna Grace’s legs off the couch and sat down. “I think I see my name right here.”
“All right, girls.” Ashley Win entered through the fake front door on the set and motioned for them to have a seat. “In the chairs back there. No sitting on the actual set until the auditions begin.”
The girls did as they were told and Ashley pulled up a director’s chair and sat, her small legs not even reaching the footrest. Her formidable demeanor, however, prevented the girls from any sort of laughter at Ashley’s expense.
“You’ll be given scripts and numbers,” Ashley said. “The scripts are all the same, the numbers are different. You may not switch your numbers, you may not complain about your numbers, and you may not have your agents call me with their complaints about your numbers. Got it?”
The girls nodded and Ashley went on. “You must have your script completely memorized when you perform. You should make sure you also note the blocking in the script. If the script says to stand by a chair for a line, you stand by that chair.”
Anna Grace raised her hand. “But what if that doesn’t feel right?”
“Then go home and do school plays where you can ‘feel’ your blocking.” Ashley glared at Anna Grace. “Here we have cameras set up. Those cameramen have the same script you do. So if you’re supposed to stand by a chair and deliver your line, then that’s what you do.”
“I-I’m sorry, Miss Win,” Anna Grace stammered. “I wasn’t trying to argue.”
“Moving on.” Ashley waved her hand. “You will be joined in this scene by Devlin Tyne.”
The girls all began talking at once. Ashley folded her arms and stared at them until they were silent. “Do not think of him as a teen star. He is another actor playing a role.”
Kara looked at the other girls. They were squirming with excitement. She thought back to her time with Chad Beacon. She had already spent a day with a celebrity.
I was tongue-tied at first, but then I saw he was just a regular guy. Well, as regular as a Greek god on earth can be. Devlin Tyne is cute, but he looks like a skinny little kid next to Chad. Come to think of it, no guy looks good next to Chad Beacon. That boy has seriously ruined me for all other guys
.
“Anna Grace,” Ashley called out. “You’re first.”
“Me?” Anna Grace pouted. “That’s not fair.”
“Are you complaining about your number?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Good.” Ashley handed her the script. “You have thirty minutes.”
“Ava, you’re next.” Ashley handed the script to Ava. “We are going in alphabetical order. Gina, Haley, and Jennifer, you’re numbers three, four, and five.”
As those girls walked up to receive their scripts, Ashley kept talking. “You will all perform before lunch.”
Yes
.
I’ve got at least four hours to work on this. Thank you, God. Or Universe. Or luck. Whatever. Just thank you!
“Jillian, Kara, Kylie, Sophie, and Zoey.” Ashley waved them forward. “You’ve got more time, so I’ll expect better work.”
“Of course,” Jillian said. “Thank you, Miss Win.”
Kara ran outside but found that the Florida humidity was not her friend. And unlike Haley, her hair was not naturally perfect. Walking back into the building, she overheard Jillian on the phone.
“Yes, I’m working on the lines . . . I know it is . . . Not yet, but I will . . . Okay, bye.”
“Hi, Jillian.” Kara smiled. “We really lucked out, huh? Getting to go after lunch?”
“I don’t believe in luck.” Jillian returned her smile. “I believe in God.”
“Wow, you too, huh?”
“You don’t?”
“Not really.” Kara shrugged. “But I’m open to spirituality.”
“Good for you.” Jillian opened her script.
“Really?”
“Sure.” Jillian’s eyes stayed on her script. “We should all be free to believe whatever we want, right?”
“Right. I guess.”
Jillian glanced up at Kara. “Christianity works for me, but maybe it won’t work for you.”
“My friend Addy doesn’t think that.”
“Some Christians are very narrow-minded.” Jillian rolled her eyes. “They mean well, but they just don’t get it. God loves everybody, right? No matter what.”
“Addy isn’t narrow-minded.” Kara was upset that her friend was being painted negatively by this girl who claimed to share Addy’s faith. “She’s very sincere. She says that God just gives one way, and his love is what allows us to choose that one way.”
“I wouldn’t buy into that if I were you.” Jillian turned to walk away. “You need to be true to yourself. Don’t forget that.”
Kara didn’t have time to dwell on the thought too much. She wanted to memorize the script and find a way to add her own personal spin on the character.
I need to be memorable. I need to say the right lines and move to the right spots, but be me
. Exhilarated at the prospect, Kara found a quiet spot in the corner of the building and skimmed the sketch.
All right
. Kara began to pace.
Airheaded girl. Everybody is going to play her like a dumb blonde. I need to bring something different. Something that will make my audition stand out. But what? An accent?
Kara read through the script again, trying first a southern, then a British, and finally a surfer girl accent.
No
. She rolled up the script and tapped it with her hand.
Too cheesy for this one. I don’t want to go over the top. The other girls will be doing that. This would be funnier if the character was more believable. But she’s totally out of it. How do I make her out of it without acting like a complete ditz?
Kara’s phone vibrated, and she pulled it from her back pocket. A text from her brother.
“That’s it!” The concrete walls made Kara’s exclamation echo in the large soundstage.
“Shhh,” Kylie hissed. Kylie was a consummate actress, and she hated being interrupted when she was preparing for a role.
“Sorry.” Kara put her hands up in surrender.
Sorry I just came up with a great idea
. Kara unrolled her script and read through it again, her characterization coming to life as she read.
I can be texting through the whole skit. That’s why I don’t really pay attention to Devlin’s character. I’ll look up just enough to catch the gist of what he’s saying. I’m not an airhead; I’m just shallow. Yes. It’s perfect! Now to memorize
.
Kara rehearsed her lines and her blocking, adding in her phone as a prop. In the middle of her seventh run-through, she heard Ashley calling the girls to lunch. Kara followed them to a small cafeteria on the other side of the soundstage. Devlin Tyne had already gone through the buffet. Kara, too nervous to eat much, just grabbed a salad and made her way to the long table in the center of the room.
“You can sit by me.” Devlin motioned Kara toward his end of the table. His little arms reminded Kara of sticks that fell off the oak tree in her backyard.
“I’m fine over here.”