Better Nate Than Ever by Federle Tim

Author:Federle, Tim [Federle, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2013-02-05T00:00:00+00:00

Learning Lines

Back in the hallway, I run from person to person, asking if anyone has a Nokia charger. It doesn’t go well. I guess in New York everyone’s got an iPhone, like it’s a birthright.

“Does anyone at least,” I say, lugging my bookbag around, the packet of sides in my hand, “know the time?” And when another little boy looks up from his set of sides and says, “It’s a quarter past three,” my heart basically jumps out of my throat and beats him up. Or at least that’s the look of horror he’s giving me, probably in reaction to my own.

Well, it’s official.

Mom and Dad are probably leaving the resort now, arguing over who’s going to drive home (Mom is the more aggressive driver—we’ve had to replace the mailbox three times in as many years—but Dad has been known to drive so slowly, you’d think he were double his age.)

God, I hope Dad’s driving them home tonight, wheeling into the side yard sometime between now and the next school year.

I look down at the script. Sides are, according to Libby, selections given to actors at an audition so they don’t have to read the whole script.

The little boy with the time, number forty-five, gets called to the audition room, and I watch him take in a library’s worth of sheet music, and a hula hoop and a DVD. I must be staring, because his mother leans over to me and says, “That’s a video of the duet he sang with Audra McDonald at Carnegie Hall last fall.”

“Wow, did he win a contest or something?”

You’d think this lady’d be smiling, but she looks angry or out to prove something, like when Mom comes to me with a broken cereal bowl, or my report card. “No,” number forty-five’s mother says, “he’s just exceptionally talented.”

From behind the walls, a tremendous glissando trumps forth from Sammy’s piano, and I turn to number forty-five’s mom and say, “Wow, what a dramatic audition song. What’s he singing?”

“This is how he starts every audition. He’s not singing yet. He’s playing his recital piece on the piano.”

Whoa.

Back to the sides. Stapled, as a cover page, is something called a cast breakdown, with the following:

ELLIOTT – Seeking an ethereal, emotionally intelligent child with an uncommonly clear and beautiful boy soprano voice. Must be comfortable with heights for flying-bike sequence. STARRING ROLE

MICHAEL – ROLE CAST/U.S. ONLY – Elliott’s older brother, 16, the quintessential jock. Looking for athletic young adult to play teen. Must be comfortable with heights and driving. Ability to keep close doo-wop harmonies essential. Rock tenor.

GERTIE – Elliott’s younger sister, 6 years old. Must stop show cold with “OK, But Where Does This Leave Me?” her plaintive ballad about being stuck as the youngest child in a new household that now includes an alien. Girl soprano.

MARY – Seeking star names (think: country music/Trisha Yearwood era), late 30s to late 40s, Elliott’s mother; world weary but a fighter; must exude an Every-mother quality; seeking a thrilling, roaring belt. High alto.

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