Everyone, including Olivia and Jackson, scurried to do her bidding. Olivia nearly sprinted through the wings, stage right, and down the side steps to plop into a seat in the third row. Jackson had gone straight through the gap in the main curtain and ended up on the opposite side of the auditorium. There was no way she could talk to him again before the auditions started.
Probably just as well, Olivia thought. She was nervous enough as it was, and having him nearby might completely distract her.
The back doors to the auditorium burst open and in strode Camilla, dressed in a black beret, dark sunglasses and red braces holding up her camouflage trousers. She looked half French director, half army sergeant. She marched down the centre aisle to the edge of the stage. ‘OK, people,’ Camilla said to the crowd. ‘Thank you for coming. Good luck to you all. You have one chance. There will not be callbacks.’
One of the guys behind Olivia muttered, ‘She looks tough.’ Olivia was proud of her friend. Usually Camilla had her nose buried in a science-fiction novel, but today she was taking charge.
‘I am not your average director and this is not your average production of Romeo and Juliet,’ she went on. ‘We only have three weeks to pull it together, so I want passion; I want originality – I want that something special.’ Camilla turned to the stage, settled in the front row, middle seat, took out a clipboard and barked, ‘Who’s first?’
Ivy was stage left and motioned for the first auditionee to come up on stage. It was Charlotte, smiling demurely, and looking every inch a Juliet in her period dress. It had a frilly-sleeved white top under an embroidered blue dress that flared out at the waist. Charlotte flashed Jackson a huge eyelash-fluttering smile.
Olivia squeezed her eyes shut, willing the spirit of Shakespeare to write a happy scene and not the tragedy of Charlotte getting to play Jackson’s Juliet.
Chapter Three
Ivy looked down at her clipboard. The first three auditions were complete and the next one, Toby Decker, wearing a full tuxedo, was taking his place to read a monologue for Mercutio, the second most important male part.
Her eye fell on a name near the bottom of her list: Garrick Stevens.
Her leg twitched and she had to scratch it, even though the irritation from half an hour ago had pretty much faded. She wondered if her legs would ever forget.
She had secured the little brown bag of evidence under the metal clip of her clipboard and was planning to show it to Camilla to get Garrick disqualified.
Unless … Ivy thought, there’s a better way to punish him …
An idea started forming in her mind.
Olivia was in the wings, stage right, waiting for her turn and watching Camilla as she scribbled notes on the current auditionee. Her face was like a halfway line – dead straight. Olivia didn’t have any clue what she was thinking.
‘Next!’ called out Ivy and Olivia knew that meant her.
She stood up, adjusted her light-blue maxi dress and strode up on to the stage. She winked at her sister, who gave a little thumbs up back, and went to stand on her mark.
The stage lights were bright, so she couldn’t see much of the auditorium. But that only helped her imagine the scene: standing on a balcony above an orchard filled with apple trees and sunshine, longing for the person she loved.
‘I’m performing Juliet’s monologue from Act Three, Scene Two,’ she said, peering out into the spotlights. Then she forced her mind to clear and began:
‘Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, towards Phoebus’ lodging …’
Olivia had been determined not to let the old-sounding English intimidate her, and she spoke each line carefully and clearly.
‘… Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night.’
She’d studied the passage carefully to figure out what each line was trying to say and, now, all she had to do was think of Jackson to feel the romance of Shakespeare’s poetry. It felt so natural that she could get lost in the words.
‘Give me my Jackson; and, when he shall die …’
She heard a couple of giggles and at least one snort from the audience.
Oh no! Olivia thought. I just said ‘Jackson’ instead of ‘Romeo’!
She tried to stay in character. Oh no, oh no, this is bad – don’t blush. Don’t blush!
Olivia was sure her face was at least a little rosy – but she forced herself to deliver the rest of the monologue. The spotlights were sending out loads of heat and she could feel her body getting warmer and warmer, but she tried to blank that from her mind and concentrate on the rest of the monologue.
‘Take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun …’
When she reached the end of her piece she gave a small curtsey and the audience clapped enthusiastically.
I think that’s more than they did for Charlotte, Olivia hoped. But is that enough for me to get the part?
She walked off the stage, trying to read Camilla’s face, but she was bent over her clipboard, busy writing something. It almost looked like she was frowning until her friend looked up and gave her a little wink. Olivia’s heart leaped.
That has to be good, Olivia thought. Oh please, oh please, oh please! Getting this role meant everything to Olivia.
As she made her way back to her seat, she caught sight of Jackson, who was grinning like a Mister Smoothie server. Olivia blushed to herself. The perfect boyfriend, the perfect Romeo. It all just had to add up to the perfect first kiss.
Olivia decided she would go over and sit with him until his audition, but then Ivy called out his name.
She sat down in the nearest seat to watch him at work.
He climbed on to the stage and stood on his mark, looking up towards the top tier of the audience. ‘But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun …’
Jackson spoke softly, but he held everyone’s attention. Camilla was leaning forward in her seat and the muttering audience had fallen utterly silent.
‘… It is my lady, O, it is my love! O, that she knew she were!’
In front of Olivia two eighth-grade girls were swooning over him. ‘I wish he was my Romeo,’ said the one that had a red ponytail.
She smiled with the knowledge that he was hers. A few weeks ago, she’d been a bit paranoid about how he felt about her. Now, since his visit to Transylvania, she was sure of Jackson’s commitment to her, even if he was an A-list Hollywood dreamboat.
Olivia bit her bottom lip and wished again that she would be cast as Juliet, to play opposite her Romeo.
As Jackson said his last line, Ivy unclipped the itching powder. Garrick was up next and she had to be ready to make her move.
I’m going to make sure Garrick’s audition is the highlight of the day, she thought. Not because he was a good actor, but because he was going to be doing a very good impression of … a person with itching powder down their shirt.
Jackson bowed to thunderous applause, with a few shrieks as well.
Ivy squinted against the glare of the stage lights and saw that there were definitely more girls in the audience than were auditioning. Some of the girls from school must have snuck in to watch Jackson’s audition.
When the noise quietened down, Ivy called out Garrick’s name. She unfolded the top corner of the bag, ready to spring when he came close enough.
Garrick leaped out of his seat and his three Beastly friends, Dylan Soyle, Kyle Glass and Ricky Slitherman, started whooping. He looked a little out of place wearing a skull-and-crossbones T-shirt and scruffy black jeans. He hadn’t exactly made an effort to be presentable for his audition.
‘Garrick is the man!’ shouted Dylan.
Garrick leered at the crowd, waving like he had a hundred fans screaming his name, and sauntered up on stage.
Ivy knew she was going to have approximately one millisecond to accomplish her mission – and she had to be subtle, t
oo. If he spotted the bag, he’d know what she was trying to do.
Garrick was approaching fast.
‘Hey, babe,’ he said when he was about three steps away. ‘Make sure you mark down that I’ve been on TV before. Jackson’s not the only one with on-screen experience.’
Ivy forced herself not to roll her eyes. Garrick had been on TV during a lame stunt where he’d crawled out of a coffin at a funeral – it had been a complete mess that Ivy had had to clean up.
‘Why don’t you mark it yourself?’ she said slyly, holding out her clipboard. ‘Right here on my list.’
As Garrick craned over to scrawl ‘TV star’ beside his name, the back of his T-shirt gaped open. Perfect. Ivy didn’t waste a second. She tipped the beastly powder right down his collar.
‘Thanks, babe,’ he said, handing the pen back to her.
‘My pleasure,’ she said, grinning.
Then he strolled out on to the stage, confidence oozing from his every pore.
Three, two, one.
Garrick froze. His shoulders twitched. His right arm waggled. Ivy smiled.
‘Uh, can I do my audition later?’ Garrick blurted, doing a little wiggly dance.
‘No time outs, no do-overs. It’s now or never, Garrick,’ said Camilla firmly.
Ivy remembered the agony of itching all over her legs – and she had been able to abandon all dignity and scratch herself. Garrick couldn’t melt into a frenzy because he was on stage in front of half the school.
Thought you could cheat and sabotage Jackson? Ivy wanted to say. Not on my watch.
Garrick glanced over at her, eyes watering, and she waved the bag at him, so he knew exactly what had happened to him.
He started doing a strange little dance, like a four-year-old desperate for the bathroom.
He spluttered out his first line, ‘But, but, but, soft?’ It sounded more like a plea than a declaration of love.
Ivy hid her face behind her clipboard so that no one could see her giggling.
‘Was that you?’ came Sophia’s voice through her headphones.
‘Yup,’ she whispered back.
Garrick was doing the same monologue as Jackson. With a slightly different interpretation, she thought. Garrick’s head jerked from side to side.
‘W-w-what light …’ Twitch. ‘Through yonDER.’ Hop. ‘Window-oh-oh.’ Jump. ‘Breaks.’
He gave in to the urge to scratch and was lurching about as he said the lines: ‘It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!’
Ivy was impressed that he could still remember his lines. He threw himself to the ground and started writhing like a beetle on its back, shouting the lines louder and louder.
‘Arise, fair sun, and KILL the envious mooooon …’
Ivy caught sight of Olivia sitting in the audience, twitching herself, trying not to laugh out loud.
By now, several people in the audience were sniggering, while Camilla looked utterly shocked.
When Garrick had finally finished his monologue, he fled the stage. He rushed right past Ivy into the wings and she heard the backstage bathroom door slam open. His three cronies ran backstage after him to find out what had happened.
Serves you right, Ivy thought.
‘Next!’ she shouted.
Half an hour later, Olivia was sitting in the sixth row of the theatre, holding hands with Jackson, waiting to hear the big news.
‘It’s so going to be me,’ Charlotte declared over the excited hubbub of the theatre. She was two rows in front, sitting between Allison and Katie. ‘No one else even came close.’
Jackson squeezed Olivia’s hand and said quietly, ‘Don’t listen to her. Your audition was really good.’
Olivia smiled, but her heart fluttered. There was a real possibility that Charlotte would get the part.
Camilla was up in the sound booth, the little room above the back row of the audience, making her decisions in private.
Jackson chuckled. ‘I especially liked the part where you were talking about me.’
Olivia’s entire body tingled with embarrassment and she hoped she wasn’t going redder than a tomato dunked in ketchup. ‘I couldn’t help it,’ she admitted. ‘I was thinking of you to try to get the romance across.’
He smiled at her and leaned closer. ‘Well, it worked.’
Olivia breathed in. Is he going to kiss me right now?
Just then, Ivy plopped down in a seat in front of them, facing backwards.
Jackson straightened up and Olivia let out her breath.
‘It won’t be long now,’ Ivy said, still wearing her headphones. ‘I just went up to check with her.’
Olivia gasped. ‘Did you see anything?’
Ivy shook her head. ‘Not a sausage. And I wouldn’t tell you anyway. That would compromise my professional integrity.’
‘Speaking of professional integrity,’ Jackson said, ‘I think some of the itching powder evidence might have gone astray.’
Ivy put on an innocent face. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
The three of them glanced over at Garrick, who was sitting several seats behind them, looking grumpy and hilarious in a red-and-yellow polka-dotted shirt that he’d had to borrow from the costume department.
‘I’m surprised he hasn’t made a fuss about you, Ivy,’ said Olivia.
‘If he did,’ Ivy replied, ‘he would have to admit that he was the person who first brought itching powder into the theatre.’
Olivia heard something crackle in Ivy’s headphones.
‘She’s ready!’ Ivy said and hurried up the centre aisle to the back of the auditorium. She held open one of the doors and Camilla appeared, a dark silhouette against the lights in the lobby. The theatre fell completely silent as she came down the steps to the front of the stage, a thumb hooked into one of her red braces.
‘In my hand,’ she said in an ominous tone, ‘I have the final cast list.’
Being a director really suits Camilla, thought Olivia.
She glanced at Jackson, who looked as relaxed as if he was waiting to hear what was in the cafeteria for lunch tomorrow. Olivia felt more like she was about to hear whether or not she was going to be lunch tomorrow.
‘Thank you all for taking the time to audition,’ Camilla continued, ‘and please remember: if you don’t get a part, we need lots of support backstage with props and painting sets.’
Olivia glanced around at everyone else in the seats. The girl with the ponytail looked stony-faced and pale, and the boy with the Robin Hood cap looked like he’d won his role already. It was very tense.
Camilla cleared her throat. ‘For the female leads, in the role of Juliet, will be …’
Olivia squeezed Jackson’s hand so hard she made him yelp.
‘Olivia Abbott!’
Over the polite applause, Charlotte glared at Olivia. ‘No way!’
But Olivia refused to let that dampen her spirits. She squealed and clapped and grabbed Jackson in a huge hug, which was awkward with the arm of the chair between them.
I did it! she thought. I’m going to play Juliet… with Jackson playing Romeo! We will finally have our first kiss.
The babble died down and Camilla made her next announcement. ‘The second female lead, the part of the nurse, will be played by Charlotte Brown.’
‘The nurse?’ Charlotte whined. ‘Isn’t she old?’
Camilla ignored her. ‘For the male leads, in the role of Mercutio will be … Jackson Caulfield.’
‘What!’ Olivia said. Jackson didn’t even audition for that role, she thought.
The whole audience murmured their surprise.
‘That’s great,’ Jackson said, without a trace of confusion. ‘He’s such a complex character.’
Olivia couldn’t believe it. Jackson seemed genuinely pleased.
But wait, she thought. This is ridiculous – he’s the most famous young movie star in the whole world! How can he not have gotten the lead?
Camilla called for quiet, but the audience ke
pt muttering about who could possibly have the lead role if Jackson didn’t.
But Jackson is a professional! Who at this school could possibly have out-acted him? Olivia wondered.
Suddenly, a shrill whistle pierced the air, making everyone shut up. ‘I said: quiet, please.’ Camilla took her two fingers out of her mouth. ‘Thank you. In the role of Romeo, will be … Garrick Stephens.’
‘Yessss!’ shouted Garrick, leaping out of his seat.
‘Double what!’ Olivia said. ‘Garrick is Romeo?’
‘The supporting roles will be posted outside momentarily.’ Camilla had to shout over the noise of the auditionees – some disappointed at not getting lead roles but most chattering about Garrick. ‘Will the four leads please stay behind for a briefing? The rest of you may go.’
Olivia was stunned. Garrick had spent his entire audition twitching and hopping all over the place … He was awful! At one point, he was actually lying down on the stage! She couldn’t make sense of it, but made her way up to the front, following Jackson through the dispersing crowd.
‘You might be wondering,’ Camilla said when the four of them had gathered around, ‘why the roles were cast in this way.’
Olivia held herself back from shouting, ‘You bet I am!’
‘If you’ll follow me, I have something to show you.’ She led the small group up the side steps on to the stage. She paused before taking them into the wings. ‘You may have heard that my production of Romeo and Juliet was going to have a “twist”,’ she said and the four of them nodded. ‘Well –’
Before Camilla could continue, the theatre doors banged open and in strode their stuffy English teacher, Mr Wagenbach, closely followed by Amy Teller. Mr Wagenbach brandished a stack of papers that looked like a script and his face was the same shade of aubergine as his tie.
‘H-how could you?’ he spluttered as he stomped up the stage steps. ‘This so-called “adaptation” of Romeo and Juliet is an abomination!’
Olivia was stunned, but Camilla looked completely composed.
‘How can you cast the most famous lovers in all of literature as aliens and robots?’ he shouted.
Lucky Break Page 3