Invisible by Marni Bates

Author:Marni Bates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2013-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Chelsea was the first to perform.

It made sense: She’s the first at everything else at our school. And her performance only solidified her reputation for perfection, leaving little incentive for everyone else to audition. The best role even the most dedicated theater kids could hope for was probably Lady Capulet, since the drama teacher Mrs. Snider nearly declared Chelsea the new Juliet on the spot.

Something that didn’t go over real well with a lot of the other girls.

Not that it should’ve come as a surprise. In fact, I thought it was obvious that Chelsea owned the role midway through her scene reading with Miles Kent. And anyone slow on the uptake should have figured it out when she busted out her rendition of “You Don’t Own Me.”

Complete with choreography.

Nobody in the auditorium could upstage her, although a number of girls certainly tried their best. One after another, they handed in the paperwork, ran through a scene, burst into song, and exited the stage shaking with adrenaline. I observed the entire process, cringing sympathetically every time a singer’s voice wobbled. The number of people who had yet to audition shrank down to a very small pool of students—primarily freshman.

And then there was just me.

Only I had no intention of stepping forward. I was so much safer hiding next to Scott.

Mrs. Snider began to rise from her chair. “Thanks, everyone; we appreciate—”

“Wait, where’s Jane Smith?” Ms. Helsenberg demanded. “Has anyone seen Jane Smith?”

“She’s right here!”

I should have known better than to expect Scott to help me keep a low profile. I glared at him but was powerless to do anything more since all eyes were on me.

“Oh good! Jane hasn’t left yet. Come on up here.”

I couldn’t disobey a direct order in front of everyone, so I stiffly forced myself to approach the stage. My mind jumped wildly to the time I suggested Kenzie find her inner vampire slayer before confronting the Notables. I thought if she had a less whiny Buffy-type persona shielding her that Chelsea Halloway wouldn’t seem nearly as intimidating.

That plan wasn’t the most effective.

In fact, it wasn’t working at all.

When I finally stood onstage, my hands were shaking worse than the camera of a homemade biking video. Miles grabbed a copy of the script off the floor and began thumbing through the pages in search of our scene, while I tried to find my voice.

Surely there was something I could say that would get me off the hook.

Unfortunately, all the attention had me too scared to even think properly. I flinched when Scott snapped yet another picture from the audience before I focused exclusively on my scene partner. That actually kind of helped, since I knew Miles had the skill to make me look halfway decent. As one of the few legitimately talented guys auditioning, his job was fairly simple. He provided the potential Juliets with a real, live Romeo that they could essentially take for a test-drive.

Then Ms. Helsenberg and Mrs. Snider would know if the pair had any onstage chemistry.

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