Kingston's Academy

18

Tryouts came to soon afterwards. Dan was a nervous wreck as he stood pacing back and forth on the now finished stage. He had already had his two lines memorized from the day he read them, he just hoped that Phil remembers his.

He sees Phil enter the doors and he waves at him to come over. Phil limps as fast as he can and hefts himself up the steps. "Hey."

"Don't 'hey' me when tryouts are today!" Dan says wringing his hands nervously.

Phil chuckles. "Breath, stop worrying, what number are you?"

Everyone had gotten numbers for when they had to step up on stage and say their part. The rule was you could only mess up twice, any more and you were automatically disqualified.

"29." Dan sighs looking at the small crumpled piece of paper, "that's next to last!"

Phil grins, "Well that's okay because I'm number 30!"

Dan starts shaking with nervousness. "No Phil you don't understand! You have to get a good score on your audition."

Phil pats his shoulder. "Don't worry Daniel, I rehearsed this morning before I came here."

"You did?" Dan fills up with hope.
"No, but I'll try my best."

Dan pulls his hair in frustration. "Phil don't try your best,actually remember the lines and do it right!"

Phil pinches his cheek. "You're frustrated, cute."

"Phil!"

"Hey you two! Get down from my stage this isn't a playground, we're starting tryouts now!" Ashelmet yells at them.

"Oh god!" Dan shrieks as he walks hurriedly down the steps and goes to sit down.

"Dan why are you freaking out so much?" Phil was fighting to keep a smile off his face.
Dan looks at him with wild eyes, "Phil if you don't pass off with his approval you can't recommend me a good part!"

He sits beside him and lies on his back, his script laying useless on his stomach. Dan was tempted to yell at him, make him read it and go over his lines but the director called for silence and everyone turns to watch the first person who had stepped up on stage. It was a girl who was shaking like a leaf.

"Phil." Dan spoke in a pleading whisper as the girl started speaking, "please, look over your lines."

Phil had closed his eyes. "Dan stop worrying I know my lines, if I look at them too much I might forget them."

That was fair but Dan had brought his fingers up to his mouth and had proceeded to bite the nail off them. Phil cracks his eye open and looks at him.

"That's a bad habit, you should stop doing that."

"I wasn't doing it until you came around!" Dan mutters.

"Oh he's sassy today." Phil chuckles.

Before Dan could speak another word, Chris comes over and sits beside him. "I'm number 18, what about you guys?"

They tell him their numbers and Chris smiles, "You guys are lucky, usually judges get bored at the end of tryouts so they pass you off without thinking."

"But that's not good evaluation!" Dan says from around his chewed fingernails.

Chris shrugs and watches as Ashelmet calls the next person up. "That's usually how it goes."

Dan's thigh is pinched and he slaps Phil's hand away. "What do you want?"

"I'm just saying, if I do a bad job, I'll still convince him to give you a good part."