Three Girls And A Leading Man (5 page)

Jackson directed us all to sit in
the front row while he called groups up one at a time to participate. I was a
little bummed when I wasn’t called first. That’s when it hit me—I was
barely nervous anymore! I had, once again, lost myself in the act of
performing. It was a good feeling. It made me think that maybe I belonged here.

“I can’t believe he’s here!” the
blond girl whispered to me as the first group took the stage. “I mean, I knew
he might show up, but to actually see him back there, not even fifteen feet
away!”

“What are you talking about?” I
whispered back, wishing she would shut up so I could concentrate on the scene
on stage.

“Jenner Collins!” the blond girl
hissed quietly in my ear. “He walked in while we were reading. Did you see
him?”

I had actually forgotten all about
Jenner Collins. He must have been the figure that I thought I saw enter during
my reading. I was determined not to think about it at all.

“I’d rather focus on the exercise,”
I told her, my voice flat. I hoped that she would take the hint that I wasn’t
in the mood to talk to her about this.

Unfortunately, she didn’t. For the
entire first exercise she kept up a running commentary about how much she loved
Collins, what a great actor he was, how inspiring it was to be in the same room
with him, let alone perform for him.

Her constant gushing did nothing to
change my frame of mind. In fact, it made me feel so irritated that I was soon
projecting that on Jenner himself. Who the hell did he think he was anyhow?
Some useless Hollywood pretty boy. Whatever. Why would I let myself get worked
up over him?

Looking back on it, I should
probably thank blond girl for annoying me so much. When they finally called my
name to participate in an exercise, I was feeling completely
confident—cocky almost—and not at all star struck.

There were a few who couldn’t say
the same. The same younger woman I had noticed in the first reading was placed
in my group. Throughout the exercise she kept looking nervously out into the
audience. She missed a few opportunities to add an obvious line.
Oh well
, I thought to myself. Her
problem. If she wanted to be all star struck by Collins, she could go right
ahead. I had more important things to do.

The improv exercise felt great.
They asked us to play a game called Dinner Party. One participant played the
party host, while the rest of us were assigned silly mystery characters. The
host then had to guess who we were based on our lines and behavior. I was given
a piece of paper with the name Monica Lewinsky on it. I quickly decided to let
go and have fun with it. I was highly gratified to hear some laughter in the
darkness as I continually tried to rub an imaginary stain off the leg of my
jeans.
 

After everyone had a chance to
participate in an exercise, they finally called us up in pairs to read our
prepared lines. This time I was called first. I was paired with a handsome
older guy with slightly graying hair. In the scene, he was playing my father
while I played Jillian, a young woman struggling to overcome the abuse she had
faced in her childhood.

From my preparations with Jen the
night before, I had already fallen in love with this character. She was a lot
like me, to be honest. A little bit sarcastic, a little on the dry side. But
underneath her tough exterior you could tell she was very passionate, very
loyal. Jen too had told me that the character reminded her of me. I took it as
a compliment.

I felt good during the reading. The
guy I was reading with was clearly talented, and we fell into a rhythm with
each other quickly. When Jackson called time on us, I actually felt
disappointed. I would have liked to keep going.

I didn’t have to wait long. I was
called back up several more times. I read with two more older men, both reading
the role of Jillian’s father. I was then asked to read with two different young
guys. One, a tall, thin guy about my age, was really cute. I could feel a
chemistry bouncing between us from the first few lines. It’s such a funny
thing, how strong that indefinable force can be. But I could tell he felt it
too, and it made my own reading stronger.

After that, Jackson asked us to
hold tight for a minute. We could hear muffled conversation from behind us. I
assumed he was talking to his partner and to Jenner Collins. For the first time
since I had started reading, I began to feel nervous.

“Okay, we want to thank you all for
coming in,” Jackson said, moving up the aisle to stand before us. “We’re going
to send most of you home now, but there are a few of you that we need to see a
little more from.”

My heart started pounding at a
rapid pace. What did that mean? Was this a nice way of saying that they were
making a cut right now? If you were asked to stay, was that a good thing? Or
were they sending home the ones they were already sure about?

Jackson started rattling off a list
of names. Mine wasn’t on it. I felt my palms start sweating. “If I called your
name, you can go now. Thank you very much for coming in and we’ll be in contact
with you early next week.”

Oh my God. So that meant they
wanted me to stay. I still didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, but I
hoped it meant they liked me.

Blond girl was
not
asked to stay. She was looking at the ground with a blank
expression on her face, and I had a feeling she was fighting tears. She must
think being asked to go was a bad sign. In her case, I had to agree. Though she
was beautiful, I hadn’t felt very much talent in her readings. Maybe she was
too worked up about Jenner.

Once the theater had cleared out,
Jackson passed out more packets. He told us we would have a few minutes to look
over the new material before we started again. When he handed me mine he asked
me to look at the part of Kate .

Hmm, so they weren’t asking me to
continue reading for Jillian. Again, I had no idea how to take this.

When I was called up, I did my best
with the new material. It was much harder than it had been reading the lines I
had prepared with Jen, but I think I got through it okay. I was again asked to
read with the dark haired guy who I had felt such a connection with. This time
I managed to catch his name, Tyler, and I think our second reading was as good
as our first.

When we had exhausted every possible
pairing, Jackson once again asked us to sit while the three of them conferred
in the back. This time, I sat next to Tyler. He seemed not at all concerned
with the events taking place behind us. Instead of making small talk, he pulled
out a phone and began texting. I had to admit, it was a relief over blond
girl’s incessant chattering.

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so
much for coming,” an unfamiliar voice said. I looked around to see a taller man
walking down the aisle toward us, Jackson scurrying behind in his wake.

Oh
my God
, I thought. It was him.

All of my swagger about not caring
about Jenner Collins left my body faster than you could say Golden Globe. I had
always thought that he was good-looking in his films and appearances, but up
close and in person, Jenner Collins was gorgeous. There was no other word for
it.

“We’re going to end this for
tonight. You’ve made our decision very difficult,” Jenner said, smiling kindly
at us. “I would expect to be in contact with all of you early next week,” he
continued. “Thank you again for participating tonight. I really do appreciate
it.”

There was a finality in Jenner’s
words and everyone began to rise from their seats, gathering their things. It
all felt very anti-climatic to me. Of course, I hadn’t expected to find out my
fate tonight, but I didn’t much like the idea of having to wait until next week
to hear who had succeeded. Why would it take them so long to make their
decision? Were they seeing other actors besides us?

Feeling unsettled, I gathered up my
things and followed the group out of the theater. No one spoke to me at all as
I passed through the lobby. I got to my car, feeling strangely lonely and very
scared. No sooner had I started the engine than my phone began to buzz in my
pocket. I had turned off the sound while in the audition. Looking at the
display I noticed that I had four missed calls. Two from Jen, two from Ginny.

Smiling slightly, I called the
house. Jen picked up on the second ring. “We’re dying!” she shouted into the
phone. “That was the longest audition ever! How did it go?”

I sighed, then put my car in gear,
eager to get home to my friends. “To be honest with you,” I said, “I have no
idea.”

Chapter Six

“This is amazing,” I said, staring
out the window of the limo.

“Yup, pretty much,” Ginny agreed,
though without the same level of enthusiasm.

I guess I couldn’t blame
her—I’d been saying basically the same thing all afternoon. But how could
you blame me? So far that day I’d been chauffeured to the airport in a limo,
flown on a private jet to Las Vegas, where we were picked up at the airport by
another
limo, and now we were zipping
down the strip in total luxury while we drank champagne.

I could get used to this kind of
life.

“You’re totally right, Annie,” Kiki
said happily, peering out the window at the bright lights. “This is going to
be, like, the best weekend ever.”

I didn’t even roll my eyes at
Kiki’s words. After a few hours with her, I barely noticed her excessive
language. Besides, today my excitement might actually match hers for once.

I looked out the window at the
sights of the strip. I had thought downtown Detroit was pretty bright with
everything all lit up, but we had
nothing
on Vegas. It was flashing neon as far as the eye could see.

“It looks like our hotel is pretty
close to a lot of cool sites,” Jen said, looking down at her Vegas guidebook.
“We should really make a list of everything we want to see and do, so that we
don’t miss anything. I mean, we only have three days!”

While Jen’s eyes were glued to her
guidebook, I rolled my eyes at Ginny. It was so typical of Jen to spend her
time researching and planning while the bright lights of Vegas passed her by.

“Oh my God!” Kiki squealed
suddenly, and everyone quickly turned to face her.

“What’s wrong?” Ginny asked.

“I think we’re almost there!” Kiki
cried.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw
Matt roll his eyes and turn his attention back to the newspaper he was reading.
I caught Jen’s eye and we broke out into grins. As an old friend and her
current brother-in-law, Matt had a lot of experience dealing with the
overwhelming force that was Kiki.

“Oooh, we are, we are!” Kiki cried,
and I turned my attention back to the window to get a glimpse of our hotel.

“Wow,” I whispered, staring up at
the massive building in front of us. “It’s huge.”

“It is,” Ginny said next to me,
sounding pretty awestruck herself. “And look at all the lights…all the people
walking around.”

I turned and met her gaze, and saw
my own excitement mirrored there. “I think you were right,” she said, smiling.
“This
is
going to be awesome.”

“Come on,” Kiki said, literally
clapping her hands. “Let’s get inside!”

It felt unnatural to me to jump out
of the car and leave our luggage behind for someone else to take care of, but I
tried to follow Kiki’s lead and play it cool.

Once we reached the lobby, however,
all pretense of cool went out the window. I couldn’t help but gaze around the
opulent room with my mouth open. I had never seen anything like it.

“Holy shit,” I muttered.

“You said it,” Ginny agreed.

Tasteful colored lights reflected
off the dark floors and marble columns. Beyond the check-in area I could see
giant crystal columns flanking an escalator, all bathed in a soft purple glow.
None of it was quite what I expected—definitely not flashy or gaudy.
Instead, it struck me as very chic, very cool.

“This says there’s a mall in here
somewhere,” Jen said, turning her attention back to her guidebook as Kiki and
Eric headed over to the desk to check us in. “It’s supposed to have awesome
shopping. And I guess the casino is that way. Oooh, and it says there’s a
really good club over there…”

“Sweetie,” Matt said, taking her
hand. “You’re on vacation. Let’s put the book away and relax, okay?”

“Yeah,” Ginny agreed, snatching the
book out of her hand. “No planning on this trip. We’re all just gonna go with
the flow and have fun.”

I laughed at the crestfallen
expression on Jen’s face. For her, planning
was
fun. But letting go a little definitely wouldn’t hurt.

“We’re all set!” Kiki said,
hurrying over to us. “They have us in three different rooms, but they’re all
really close to each other. And they’re supposed to have amazing views.”

“Let’s go check it out!” I said,
feeling like I might soon join Kiki in bouncing around.

As we headed to the elevators, I
put my arm through Ginny’s. “So,” I said. “Are you totally bummed you’re stuck
rooming with me?”

Gin snorted. “Yeah, right. We’re
gonna have a blast. It will be like old times.”

“Yeah, but won’t you miss Josh?”

“Sure. But I’m not going to let it
ruin my trip.”

“This is why I love you,” I told
her, as we followed the rest of the group onto the elevator. “You might be an
old married fart but you can still have fun without your hubs.”

“I’m actually looking forward to
it,” she said, squeezing my arm a little. “I don’t get to see you as often as I
want these days.”

“We’re all gonna have so much fun!”
Kiki said, peering around Eric to look at us. “Just you guys wait!”

The elevator pinged as we reached
our floor, and I felt another little jolt of excitement. I wondered what the
rooms would be like in a place this nice.