Jacob Black and Me

Sweet Surprise

I was leaving Drama class with Ms. Faraday at the end of the day, my books in hand and Sasha at my side. She had told me all about the school; which teachers you should not cross, and which were more relaxed; the school hotties and the creeps.

"Tom Foster, never go near him. He'll do absolutely anything to get some." Sasha remarked, giving me a knowing look as we opened the door to leave class.

I was about to tell her that I knew all to well to stay away from Foster, when Ms. Faraday called me back. She was shuffling some papers on her desk, and looked up at me kindly as I waved goodbye to Sasha. Mrs. Faraday waited until everyone had left, and then quietly stepped over to me, holding out a heavy blue folder.

"Here is audition script for this year's musical. I thought you might be interested - you have real dramatic potential."

I took the folder, unable to find the words to thank her.

"What's the musical?" I breathed finally, sprinkles of excitement dotting my tone.

Mrs. Faraday smiled again, showing pearly white, perfectly straight teeth. "Why don't you take a look?"

I passed my hands lovingly over the soft, matte blue surface of the folder before flicking it open almost impatiently. The title at the top read:

The Sound of Music

Main female audition roles: Maria, Leisel, Mother Abbess, The Baroness and Louisa.

I closed the folder carefully, looking back up at Mrs. Faraday to see her grinning back at me.

"You'd make a wonderful Leisel,"she commented. "Is it true you had singing lessons at your old school?"

I nodded yes. "My mom used to be a backup singer for Celine Dion. She made my dad promise to engage a singing teacher for me... before she died." I paused, avoiding Mrs. Faraday's sympathetic gaze, which seemed oddly to be making my eyes sting. I took a breath, swallowed, before continuing: "I really like acting though. I think... that I'd like to audition." I held the folder against my chest, looking down at the red carpet. 

"Well." Mrs. Faraday's tone had turned business-like. "Well, the auditions are next week. You'll be required to learn the page-long piece in there -" she tapped the folder "depending on which character you're auditioning for. you will also have to perform the correlating song." she glanced at her watch. "It's ten past four - you should probably get going. You probably have lots of work to catch up on!"

I understood a dismissal when I heard one. I almost skipped out of the classroom - elation was filling me like a bubble that seemed likely never to pop. Maybe this place would do some good for me after all.