by Holly Webb
“Oh, yeah, I forgot. Yours looks fab down!”
Izzy’s chestnut-brown hair was in a great cloud all around her shoulders. She grimaced. “It looks nice but it was a nightmare doing the dancing. I had to keep shaking it back and it put my timing off. You’d better watch that. But yours is nice and straight, so it won’t be as much of a problem.” She grabbed a brush and started to fight the wavy mass back into its plait.
“So go on then, what happened?” Sara prompted Izzy.
“It was pretty much like last time, except they gave me a scene from the musical to do. One of the casting team read in Michael and I was Jane. I had to do it about three times. It was just like Mr Lessing said – trying to do what they ask each time. It was tricky though. You can’t help feeling like you did it wrong the last time when they ask you to change something.”
Sara chewed her lip thoughtfully. That did sound hard but then they did that sort of thing with Mr Lessing all the time. Perhaps she could just try and think of it like a class, instead of an audition. At least talking to Izzy had made her feel a bit more normal. She glanced at her watch.
“Eeeek! I’d better go. Thanks, Izzy. See you later!”
“Break a leg!” Izzy called after her as she dashed out of the door. “Hey, I didn’t mean it! Slow down!” Izzy was right – falling down the stairs on the way to the audition would just be totally stupid, so Sara forced herself to walk sensibly.
She was coming along the corridor that led to the small studio when she met Lizabeth coming the other way. The older girl gave her a relieved smile.
“Oh, Sara!” Lizabeth squeaked. “Oh, I’m so glad I caught you. I’ve just had my audition – I was so nervous! And it was really awful, the piano was out of tune. Simon – you know, the one who did the singing audition last time? He said it had been getting worse all morning. So in the middle of my audition we had to move studios! I completely lost the mood, it was really unfair. But anyway, they’re doing Amy’s audition now and they sent me to tell you to go and wait outside the south studio instead, OK? Then when Amy comes out she’ll tell you if they want you to go straight in or if someone’s going to come and fetch you.”
Sara nodded, a little bewildered by Lizabeth rattling on. She seemed to be nervous, too. It was obviously the stress from her nightmare audition. Thank goodness it hadn’t been her slot when the piano went wrong!
“It must have been awful,” she said sympathetically, feeling really sorry for Lizabeth.
“It was,” Lizabeth shuddered dramatically. She seemed to have calmed down a bit now. “I could tell something was wrong, but it was only just slightly off, you know? I thought it was me. And even when we started again I just couldn’t get back on track. Oh well.” She sighed. “You know where the south studio is, don’t you?”
“I think so…” Sara said slowly. She wasn’t quite sure which one it was. Because the school was an old building, it had practice rooms and studios scattered all over the place.
Lizabeth pointed. “You go back up the corridor, past the cafeteria and down that little flight of stairs and then you just keep turning left – it says south studio on the door. Anyway, I’d better go and change. Hope yours goes well! You were really good in the coaching session on Friday. Don’t forget to centre yourself before you start the scene!” And she smiled and raced off, leaving Sara still gazing after her.
Sara wished Lizabeth had stopped long enough to show her exactly where the new studio was, but she was already gone. Still, if it had the name on the door it couldn’t be too hard to find.
She checked her watch – still only twenty past twelve. She had plenty of time really, but she wanted to find the studio and have time to gather herself together a bit. She was feeling all over the place.
She turned back and trotted off, following Lizabeth’s directions. After what seemed like an age, she turned a corner and saw the big soundproofed door, with the sign on it – South Studio.
There were a couple of chairs outside and Sara sank on to one gratefully. She’d do some warm-up exercises in a minute but now she just needed to calm down.
Sara dug her nails into the palms of her hands, trying desperately to focus. The unexpected encounter with Lizabeth had thrown her. She’d visualized the audition happening in the small studio (a tip from Mr Lessing), and the change of venue was a shock. Sara tried to take deep, slow breaths, but her nerves had come back full force and she found herself gulping great mouthfuls of air. “In – one, two, three. Out – one, two, three,” she muttered to herself crossly. It was stupid to be so nervous!
Sara forced herself to think about what Gran had said yesterday, “If they’ve called you back for a second audition, it means they like you! Don’t think of it as a test or something horrible that you’ve got to get through. It’s a good thing – they’ve done you a favour and you want them to like you even more. So be yourself and be nice!” Then she’d smiled a funny little smile and added, “Though if you need to be horrible, dear, don’t hesitate…”
Sara had given her a surprised look and Gran laughed. “There were a lot of girls going after not a lot of parts when I was starting out, Sara. I’m not saying I resorted to any dirty tricks, but I saw a lot done and I suffered a couple of times. It makes you a lot less sympathetic, I can tell you. Sometimes you have to be ruthless…” She went on to tell Sara all sorts of stories about understudies doing awful things like greasing stairs to knock out the principal and get a chance to go on stage.
Sara was still feeling horribly hollow inside but thinking of Gran helped a bit. She checked her watch. It was twelve twenty-nine! She looked worriedly at the studio door. Shouldn’t Amy have come out by now? Mr Lessing had said they’d probably want five minutes’ discussion time between each audition. Sara guessed they were running late, probably because they’d had to swap studios.
Thinking about it, it was weird about that piano going out of tune. The school was really careful about that kind of thing. They had to be…
Sara wandered up and down the corridor, trying to breathe calmly and think of the song lyrics and all the advice anyone had ever given her, but she just kept coming back to Lizabeth. She’d been really jumpy and nervous at first – quite strange. Not like herself at all. She hadn’t even been like that after the first audition, when she’d said the adrenaline made her so angry with Sara. So what was it that had made her act so oddly?
Was it that she’d been pulling a trick, like the ones Gran had described? She’d suddenly seemed much calmer when Sara had been sympathetic. When Sara had believed her… Sara looked back at the studio door. She didn’t dare open it. If Lizabeth had been telling the truth, she’d interrupt Amy’s audition. But what if Amy’s audition had actually just finished – on the other side of the school?
Suddenly Sara heard footsteps pounding towards her and she tensed up. What was going on? Was it Lizabeth coming back? Then Nathan raced round the corner and dashed up to her. He grabbed her hand and dragged her along as she protested, “Hey! What’s going on?!”
“You’ve been stitched up, Sara!” he panted. “Lizabeth! Come on! I’ll explain on the way but we haven’t got much time. Amy’ll be done any minute.” Sara pelted after him, furious with herself. The others had been right all along – Lizabeth’s niceness had all been a trick. She had let herself be taken in, even after all those stories from Gran!
“I can’t believe I was so stupid!” she moaned as she followed Nathan down the corridor. “She told me the piano had gone out of tune and they’d changed studios! I’m going to miss my audition!”
“Not if we really run.” Nathan picked up speed, weaving around everyone else in the corridors. “They were way behind time. Amy hadn’t even gone in when I got there. And don’t feel bad about it. Lizabeth’s really sneaky. We’ve all had a year to get to know how low she can go and I was still shocked. I was just starting to wonder where you’d got to when I saw her pop her head back round the corner with this evil smirk on her face. She was checking if
you were there, in case you hadn’t believed her. Nadia was with her as well. Toby and me heard them whispering. Lizabeth was going on about how clever she was, and how they’d think you’d got stage fright and you weren’t professional.”
“So you came to get me!” Sara panted.
“There was no way I was letting her get away with it. Here we are.” They screeched to a stop outside the small studio. Toby was waiting for them anxiously.
“You found her! Well done, mate! I reckon you’re just in time, Sara. You’re so lucky they’re overrunning. Amy’s still in there. You’ve not got long though – it’s twelve forty! I was worried they might be going really fast so I came along as soon as lunch started.” He looked a bit embarrassed admitting to this. “Then we saw that little monster Lizabeth plotting and Nathan raced off for you. I was going to try and stall them if Amy finished.” He sounded very relieved that he wasn’t going to have to. “Here, do you want some water?” He tugged a bottle out of his bag and offered it to Sara, who gulped it down gratefully. Then she went over to the window and peered at her reflection in the glass.
“Oh no! I look like a beetroot!” She ran her fingers through her hair desperately. How could she audition when she was out of breath, bright red, sweaty and her hair looked like a bird’s nest?
Looking even more embarrassed, Toby produced a comb and Sara quickly raked it through her hair. “I don’t suppose you’ve got some powder as well?” she asked, giggling a bit hysterically.
“Stop talking and just breathe,” Nathan said. “Amy’ll be done any minute, and they’re bound to do the singing first, that would be just our luck.”
Sara nodded, perched herself on the windowsill and tried to slow down her racing heartbeat. And then the door opened.
Amy came out looking exhausted and gave her a small grin. “Hiya. They want you to go straight in because they’re so behind time. Hope it goes well!”
Sara nodded and got up. She went to open the door, then suddenly turned back and gave Nathan a massive hug, ignoring Amy’s shocked face. “Thank you!” she squeaked, turning bright red again. Then she took a deep breath and pulled the door open.
Sara was so relieved to actually be at the audition, and not in the wrong place entirely, that she couldn’t really feel nervous. Not as badly nervous as she had been waiting outside the south studio, anyway. She smiled brightly at everyone as she closed the door, then felt a bit silly. Maybe she should have been a bit more formal? But luckily, the three people in the room were smiling back.
“So you must be Sara,” said the tall dark-haired man, looking down at his notes. “I’m Jasper, I’m the director. And you’ve already met Tamara and Simon.” He grinned at her. “Are you nervous?”
It was such an unexpected question that Sara answered without even thinking about it. “A little…” she agreed shyly. Then she was horrified. Surely she wasn’t supposed to say yes! She was supposed to be totally calm and professional and—
“Don’t panic!” He was still grinning. “Anyone who isn’t nervous at an audition is an idiot as far as I’m concerned. A good dose of nerves really helps, anyway.”
Sara nodded, feeling relieved, but she was still a bit overawed. She hadn’t really taken it in when Izzy said that the director was here – the director of the whole show, just to watch her! But then the children were on stage almost all the time in Mary Poppins – and Mary Poppins was their nanny, so she wouldn’t even be there if the children weren’t. So they were pretty important parts really… It was the nerves making the thoughts whirl round her head. Sara gulped and wished they could just get on with it.
“So.” Jasper was walking round her now, looking her up and down, and Sara couldn’t help turning her head to follow him round. What was he doing? Were her ankles actually that important? “Simon was very impressed with your voice last time, Sara. I have to say, I’ve heard ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ rather too many times this morning—”
“I know what you mean,” Sara put in helpfully. “It gets a bit much, doesn’t it?” Then she went scarlet. Shut up, shut up, shut up! She was so nervous it was making her ditzy. Simon was laughing at her. She was so messing this up!
“Glad you agree,” Jasper said, his grin even wider. “So let’s have something else. Do you know any other songs from the show?”
Sara nodded, her mouth firmly closed. She was determined not to say anything else stupid.
“Such as?” Simon prompted hopefully, and Sara felt like sinking into the floor.
“I really like ‘Feed the Birds’,” she admitted in an embarrassed whisper. “But the children don’t sing that, do they?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Simon sat down at the piano and riffled through the music. “Do you need the music to read from or are you better without?”
“Better without,” said Sara firmly, pulling herself together. She just hoped that what he was going to play was like the film version because she’d never been properly taught the song. She only knew it from singing along with Julie Andrews!
Luckily the introduction seemed pretty familiar. Sara couldn’t help thinking what Mr Harvey would say if he knew what she was about to do. He’d probably have a heart attack. All at once, the funny side of all this struck her and she couldn’t help breaking into a huge smile. Simon was one of those impressive people who could play the piano without sheet music and without looking at what he was doing. He smiled back.
“Don’t worry if you get lost, I’ll help you out. And you come in after three. One, two, three…”
Sara loved this song. It always made her cry, however often she watched the film. Julie Andrews’s voice was so beautiful and the words were so sad. She forgot about how stupid she’d been and just enjoyed herself.
Simon was such a good accompanist, she could tell he was following her rather than the other way around and it made it so easy. She felt like hugging him when she finished but had just enough sense to realize she probably wasn’t supposed to hug people in an audition. But she couldn’t not say thank you.
“You played it perfectly,” she breathed. “I’ve never sung it like that before.”
Jasper was scribbling furiously in his notes. “That was great. I’d ask you to dance to it but it isn’t really a dancing sort of song. It’s one of the few pieces in the show that’s quite still. Let’s see how we do with a scene and we’ll move on to dancing at the end.”
The scene was an argument between Jane and Michael Banks and it was really funny. Though it was funnier still trying to pretend Jasper was her little brother! After what Izzy had said earlier, Sara was prepared to be told to change things around and she did her best to follow the directions without being fazed. After all, it was what actors had to do, even the most famous ones. At least Jasper seemed to be fairly happy, getting her to try the scene a few times in different ways.
Eventually, he said, “Lovely. Right. What’s the time? Oh, wow, we’re so behind. Tamara, you were happy with Sara’s dancing, weren’t you? Do you need to see any more?”
Tamara looked thoughtful. “No, I think we’re fine. We really do need to get on with the boys.” She smiled at Sara. “You were very capable last week.”
Sara wasn’t sure whether to feel pleased or not. Was it good that they didn’t need to see her dance? Or did it mean that they definitely didn’t want her and just didn’t want to waste time?
“Thank you very much, Sara.” Jasper had his head buried in his notes again. “Can you ask, umm, Nathan, to come in please?”
Sara nodded. Now the audition was over, she could see why Amy had looked so exhausted. It felt like she’d done a ten-mile run and she hadn’t even had to dance! She just about remembered that she was still on show as she thanked them and went to the door – she felt like keeling over.
Outside, she managed to grin at Nathan and tell him to go in. Then she flopped on to the windowsill and made a ‘thank goodness that’s over’ face at Toby, who was sitting in the corner of the window looking terrified.
Sara nodded thoughtfully, trying to think back over the audition. “They were nice. I think the singing was OK. The director said he was sick of ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ and he got me to sing ‘Feed the Birds’ instead.”
Toby looked horrified. “Whaaat? Oh no, I’m toast then!”
“It’s all right, he’ll have had a rest from it by the time you go in. Anyway, you must know loads of other songs. I bet that Simon could play anything. I wouldn’t worry about it.” Sara patted him on the back encouragingly. “Have you been sitting here all this time? You’d better get up and move around or you’ll be all stiff.”
Although she was still shattered, Sara was starting to relax, the tension of the audition easing out of her. Suddenly she desperately wanted to go and find her friends. She needed Chloe to tell her a stupid joke or something.
“I’d better go and get something to eat before I collapse,” she told Toby. “Best of luck – and thanks for the comb and the water. You and Nathan saved my life! See you later!”
The cafeteria was full, and Sara couldn’t see Bethany, Chloe and Lily until they bounced up next to her and dragged her to a table.
“What was it like? Tell us everything!” Chloe commanded.
Sara looked around at them all. “You were right,” she admitted. “Lizabeth was plotting. You’ll never believe what she did.” She explained about Lizabeth’s sneaky trick and how Nathan had rescued her. The others listened in horror.
“Anyway,” Sara finished. “I’m really, really sorry. I should have listened to you more. I can’t believe she nearly got away with it.”
“Are you going to tell someone?” Lily asked.