by Holly Webb
“Very nice,” was all Simon said, but she could feel the warmth in his voice. “Thank you, Sara.” He made a few more notes and then looked round at all the girls. “Thanks so much, everybody. We’ll be in touch with a callback list, hopefully tomorrow, and we’ll aim for callbacks this time next week.”
He gave Sara one last grin and she followed the others out of the classroom, feeling as though she were floating. She’d done it – her first show audition!
Sara and the others streamed out into the corridor on a wave of excitement. Everyone felt they’d done reasonably well but it was obvious to the others that Sara had really shone. Sara was torn between wanting to jump up and down and being desperate not to gloat! So she wandered happily along to the changing room, surrounded by the chattering group.
Suddenly an angry voice stopped them in their tracks. “There you are!” Of course, it was Lizabeth. Sara, who’d been daydreaming that she was already on the Theatre Royal stage, gaped as Lizabeth thrust a finger in her face. “Just what did you think you were doing in there?” she snapped. “That audition was for our year. You lot were just there to fill up the numbers. You shouldn’t have been showing off like that. You’ve totally embarrassed yourself and the school! You should be really ashamed.”
Sara stared back at her in horror. Was Lizabeth right? She’d really thought that her singing went well, but what if the casting team were just being nice and not wanting to upset her? Stricken, she glanced round at Bethany, Lily and Chloe. Did they think she’d just made a massive fool of herself?
Bethany folded her arms and glared at the older girl. She had been watching Lizabeth’s calculated effort to ruin Sara’s emotional high. She was quite a bit shorter than Lizabeth but she was still squaring up to her. “Didn’t like the competition, huh? I notice you only got to sing two lines solo. Was that because Simon could see how perfect your voice was after the first note? Or perhaps he just couldn’t stand any more?”
“Yeah, right!” Lizabeth looked stunned that a Year Seven was daring to stand up to her. It seemed to have robbed her of any good comebacks. She was about to get an even bigger shock – Lily was wading in.
“How dare you say that to Sara? She was fantastic and you know it! You’re just jealous!” Lily spat angrily.
If Lizabeth was shocked, it was nothing to how Sara and the others felt. Lizabeth scared Lily so much that normally she turned into jelly whenever she saw her Year Eight gang. What on earth had come over their friend? Lily looked surprised at herself as well, but quietly pleased at the same time. Lizabeth looked like she was either going to explode or faint.
Chloe decided that enough was enough. She shoved the others on down the corridor, turning back to wave and call, “Bye, Lizabeth! I’d shut your mouth if I were you. You look like a goldfish and you wouldn’t want the casting team to see you like that!” Then she ran.
Back in the changing room, Sara was sitting on one of the benches, looking dazed. “I can’t believe you lot just stuck up for me like that,” she muttered at last.
“She had it coming,” said Bethany firmly.
“Yeah, but it’s Lizabeth! We’re dead. And you, Lily. What came over you? When she was a having a go at you at lunch last week, you looked like you were going to pass out! And then you go and yell at her!”
Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess she just went too far this time. I mean, you were fantastic. You do know that, don’t you? I couldn’t bear watching her trying to spoil it for you. It was just … wrong.”
Sara flushed pink. “We all did well,” she said firmly. “We don’t know what’ll happen or what they were really looking for. And the girl and the boy will have to look right together, so that might change who they go for. Any of us might get a callback.”
The others exchanged glances. OK, so Sara didn’t want them going on about it, but they were all certain the casting team had loved her.
All the next morning, the school’s main corridor seemed to be full of Year Sevens and Eights. They were haunting the notice boards, just in case the callback list went up. Every time a member of staff walked past and looked as though they might have a piece of paper in their hand, the whole group held its breath.
At the beginning of break, Sara, Lily, Bethany and Chloe sped down to the corridor to join them.
“How did everyone get here so quickly?” Chloe asked, looking at the heaving mass. “I mean, we ran as quickly as we could.”
“No idea.” Bethany shook her head. “Oh, look! There’s Mr Lessing!”
The drama teacher was walking past, smiling to himself. Everyone tensed up, especially when Mr Lessing pulled a piece of paper out of the folder he was carrying. He seemed to be reading it as he walked along. Everyone craned their necks to see, and when he sidestepped a few Year Eights to get closer to the notice boards, a huge gasp went up. This was it!
Then he walked straight past! He happened to catch Sara’s eye as he went and winked at her. Sara exchanged a long-suffering look with the others. “I bet he did that on purpose,” she said, shaking her head. “He was teasing us all! Well, I think it’s stupid waiting around here. We’re not exactly not going to know if the list goes up. The news will be round the school in seconds! Let’s go and get a drink.” She marched off, determined not to let the suspense get to her.
Bethany, Lily and Chloe nodded. Chloe felt like staying, but not on her own. She gave one last hopeful look around for approaching teachers, then followed her friends.
It was a cold day and the cafeteria was deliciously warm – and nearly empty. Sara and the others gathered round one of the prime window tables and sipped their tea. Sam from their year was there with a couple of his mates and they crowded round the table, too.
“Thought you lot would be hovering by the notice boards,” Sam said curiously.
“Couldn’t be bothered.” Sara grinned at him. “You don’t fancy yourself in Mary Poppins, then?”
“Nah.” Tom and Jake snorted disbelievingly and Sam looked a bit sheepish. “Well, OK, I wouldn’t say no, exactly… But there didn’t seem much point hanging around looking desperate.”
“Exactly.” Bethany nodded.
“Hear you got on the wrong side of Lizabeth at the audition,” Jake said slyly.
Sara shook her head in amazement. “Nothing happens in this place without everyone else knowing about it in minutes.”
“Who isn’t on the wrong side of Lizabeth, any—”
Chloe was suddenly cut off by a double whirlwind appearing next to the table and grabbing Sara. “Come on! Come and see!” The twins were practically dragging her out of her seat, but Sara sat like a statue. “Come on, you muppet! You have to come and read the list. It’s up!” Carmen said impatiently.
Surely Carmen and Ella wouldn’t be doing this if she wasn’t on the list, Sara thought. They wouldn’t be so mean. She stood up slowly, feeling as though her stomach had dropped to her toes. The others were dashing off, even the boys, but Bethany came back to link arms with her. “Hey! Aren’t you excited?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Sara admitted. “Course I am. I’m just a bit – I just feel a bit funny. I don’t know why.”
“Well, I’d be over the moon,” Bethany said, “but it’s a big thing. I can see why you might feel weird. Don’t you want to look at the list?”
Suddenly Sara found that she did, very much. “Of course I do!” she yelped and grabbed Bethany’s hand, racing her down the stairs. They elbowed their way to the front of the crowd and found Carmen, Ella, Lily and Chloe right by the list.
“Look!” Chloe squeaked, jabbing her finger at the piece of paper headed with the Theatre Royal logo. “That’s you!” She hugged Sara tightly. “You did it!” Chloe was right. Sara peered over her shoulder and the list definitely did say Sara Sinclair. There were five girls’ names, and five boys’ underneath.
“Who are the others?” Sara murmured, trying to see. Lily, Chloe and the twins exchanged glances.
“Well, they’re all Year
Eights. You’re the only Year Seven who got a callback, girls and boys. That’s really impressive,” said Lily reassuringly.
“OK. What aren’t you telling me?” Sara folded her arms. “Oh, no! She didn’t, did she?”
Lily nodded, looking almost apologetic. “And one of the others is her mate Nadia. I don’t know how they did it, the casting team must have had a moment of madness or something.”
Yes, right underneath Sara Sinclair was Lizabeth Mackenzie. Sara was up against Lizabeth for a part that she had a feeling the Year Eight girl would do anything to get.
Sara had to really force herself to concentrate for the rest of the morning. All she wanted to think about was the audition – how excited she was and how much she wished Lizabeth wasn’t doing it, too. Still, she was determined that Lizabeth wasn’t going to spoil it for her. She deserved this and no one could take that away.
Doodling happily in her book during maths, she happened to look up and see Chloe, sitting on the other side of their table. Chloe had her chin on her hand and was gazing miserably down at her textbook. She was too far away for Sara to whisper to her and it didn’t seem fair to pass a “What’s up?” message all the way round the table. What if Chloe didn’t want everyone fussing?
Suddenly a horrible thought struck Sara. Was Chloe miserable because she hadn’t got a callback? Sara hadn’t really considered how her friends must be feeling right now. They’d all been so lovely, almost more excited than she was about her triumph, but what if deep down they were disappointed or even jealous? Chloe certainly didn’t look happy.
Sara did a quick scan round the rest of the table. None of the others seemed down. Carmen and Ella were giggling over something together, Bethany was working and Lily was looking at the whiteboard.
Sara suddenly remembered that their homework was to do the maths problems they didn’t finish in class and gave one last look at Chloe. There was nothing she could do right now, so she went back to her worksheet. It didn’t seem to be making much sense… She sighed. She’d have to ask Will to explain to her at home. Right now she was more worried about Chloe than she was about triangles. She was going to try and grab her friend after the lesson and find out what was the matter.
Chloe still didn’t seem her usual self at lunch, Sara thought. She was definitely quiet – and that just wasn’t Chloe. Sara nudged herself into a seat next to Chloe’s at the lunch table and hoped that the others would find some juicy gossip so she could have a quiet word. Unfortunately the juicy gossip was her and the callback audition.
“Has anyone said what you need to do for Monday, Sara?” Carmen asked eagerly.
“Carmen! When exactly has Sara not been in the same room as you since break?” Bethany asked, shaking her head. “How could anyone have told her? Or do you reckon that now she’s up for a part she’s got some sort of radio link-up with Ms Purcell?”
Carmen and the others laughed at the thought of their deeply scary principal sending Sara secret messages.
“You will be at the drama studio wearing a frog costume…” intoned Lily, doing a worryingly good impression of Ms Purcell’s perfect diction.
Sara couldn’t help laughing, too, but she was super-sensitive right now and worried that Bethany’s silly comment was hiding something. She just couldn’t hold it back any longer. “Do you mind about it?” she blurted out.
Everyone looked at her, confused. “Mind about what?” Bethany asked eventually.
“A-about the callback…” Sara explained, stammering a little.
Carmen leaned towards her. “You mean, are we jealous?”
Sara nodded unhappily, but Carmen’s response was totally unexpected. She burst out laughing and Ella answered for her. “Of course we are!”
Chloe said, in a very serious voice, “We’re all considering poisoning you and going in your place on Monday.” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be stupid, Sara, we’re as jealous as anything! But it doesn’t mean we’re upset with you.”
“Just the stupid, bad-taste casting team,” said Bethany, grinning. “I reckon Lizabeth got my place and I’m never forgiving them. But seriously, Sara, I knew I wouldn’t get a callback. I totally messed up in the dance audition.”
“It didn’t look like it to me,” Sara said, surprised.
“That’s because you were on a high after yours went so well!” Bethany grinned at her.
“OK,” Sara said slowly. Then she added, “But I was watching you in maths, Chloe, and you looked really unhappy.”
“Er, yes, Sara.” Chloe eyed her disbelievingly. “You really were totally out of it for the first part of the lesson, weren’t you? You had a pretty good excuse but I’d have thought Miss James could get through to anyone, no problem. Wow. She was really having a go at me.”
“What are you talking about?” Sara frowned. Had she missed something?
“You remember what Miss James said about your maths homework a couple of weeks ago?”
Sara nodded and shuddered. She wasn’t likely to forget.
“Mmm, exactly. Well, try doubling it and adding extra sarcasm. She was not a happy bunny.”
“What did you do?” asked Sara in horror.
“The wrong exercises. And she said she wouldn’t have minded so much if I’d got any of them right. I have to do both now and finish all that worksheet. So I think I’m allowed to look a bit down.”
Sara looked embarrassed. “Sorry,” she muttered.
Chloe smiled. “Don’t worry. It’s nice to know one less person heard me being yelled at. And you’re allowed to be on cloud nine today!”
Sara didn’t know quite what to say to her parents. She dawdled home from the bus stop, trying to work out the best way of putting it. It was so unfair! Any of her friends’ parents would have been delighted with her news. Why did hers have to be so serious? Luckily, as she opened the front door, she heard her gran’s voice in the kitchen and raced to find her. Here was one person who’d take the news properly!
“Gran! You’ll never guess what!”
“What, love?” Her gran eyed her hopefully. She knew all about the audition, of course, and she knew that Sara had been expecting the callback list to go up today. She’d popped in on purpose.
“I got it! There were only five of us girls and I’m the only Year Seven. Isn’t that brilliant?”
“Sara, what are you talking about?” Her mother was gazing worriedly at her over a mug of tea.
Sara turned a carefully blank face to her. She knew she was only at Shine because her gran had fought for her, and she’d pretty much given up trying to get her mother to take any interest in what happened at school, but it was really difficult not to mind. “The big audition I told you about was yesterday. I got a callback. For a second audition,” she added, as her mother looked confused.
“Oh.” Her mum’s voice was thoughtful. “And you knew about this?” she asked Sara’s gran.
“Of course I did!” Gran looked indignant and it was obvious that she was holding herself back from giving her daughter a talking to. “I thought Sara had told you about it, too,” she added pointedly.
“I did,” Sara agreed. “Last week. You and Dad.” At least her mum had the grace to look slightly embarrassed, she thought.
“This is for the musical,” her mum murmured slowly.
“Mary Poppins,” Gran said in an irritated voice. “And it’s a lead role. You’ve done so well, Sara, just getting this far. I’m really proud of you.”
“So,” her mother was using a ‘getting my head round this’ voice, “you’ve got a second audition for a large part in a musical…”
“Yes!” Sara was trying hard not to sound irritated now as well. “I told you about all of this!”
“Mmm. Yes, sorry, Sara. I don’t think I took it in.”
Gran sniffed, as though she wasn’t surprised, and she and Sara exchanged a meaningful glance. Then Sara looked back at her mother expectantly. Finally she was going to get some kind of praise – maybe even some excitement
.
Her mum leaned across the table. “So how will this affect your school work?”
Sara gaped at her, absolutely speechless. Then she got up and raced upstairs to her room, not even hearing Gran start to tell Mum exactly what she thought of her.
Luckily at school the next day none of the others asked how her parents had taken the news, as Sara didn’t think she could have told them without either bursting into tears or throwing something. (Preferably at her mother, but Lizabeth would have done as a substitute.) Her mum hadn’t even said anything when she called her down for tea, although Sara did think she might have been crying, which wasn’t like her at all.
Everyone doing the callback had extra lunchtime classes with Mr Lessing and Mr Harvey. Sara realized with horror that this meant she would have to be in the same room as Lizabeth. She might even be forced to talk to her. When it got to Wednesday lunchtime, she hung around with the others for as long as she possibly could.
“Aren’t you meant to be at the studio in a minute?” Lily asked, checking her watch.
“Mmm,” Sara replied gloomily.
“What’s the matter?” said Chloe. “I’d have thought you’d have been desperate to get started.”
“I would be, if it weren’t for Lizabeth being there, too,” Sara said crossly.
Lily stared at her. “But you’re not scared of Lizabeth!” she said in surprise.
Sara shook her head. “No. But I’m going to be the only Year Seven there. I just get this feeling that she’s not going to make it easy for me. I’m putting it off as long as I can, that’s all. I had better go, though.”