Now and Always (Rierra)

Chapter Five

Today was the day, the very first class. Sierra had many classes in her work load, but this class was probably the one she was most excited for, the one class that would combine her singing and acting skills and put them to use as she would in her future career. 

Musical Theatre Dynamics 1010 taught by Professor Hunt. 

The class was her first of the day, at ten in the morning. Sierra was an early bird, so she had already been up for a couple hours, doing some yoga and preparing for her classes. She felt refreshed and nothing could diminish just how happy she was feeling at the moment. 

Sierra knew that since Barline only accepted twelve students, all of her classes would be with the same twelve people; this unfortunately included Valerie, and Ramin. But she would survive, and just spend most of her time around, well, not them.

When she arrived to the rehearsal space in which the class took place, she saw Haleigh and Hadley talking together, with Ramin sitting to the side of them. Sierra decided she would rather be by her two friends than be alone, and decided to deal with being near Ramin, but still chose to sit on the other side of Haleigh and Hadley. Both greeted her, but Sierra couldn't help but notice Ramin continually trying to catch her eye. 

The rest of the class filled into the empty chairs, all filled but one, when Professor Hunt entered the room. "Okay, shall we take attendance and be on our way with the class?" The students all eagerly nodded and waited patiently while Hunt marked down who was there and who was not. "Has anyone seen Valerie Callaway?" He was answered with shakes of a few heads.

"I'm here, don't worry!" Sierra heard the grating voice call out, and watched as Valerie strode into the room with a Starbucks cup in her hand. 

Hunt narrowed his eyes, "You're late." He told her, watching along with everyone else as she dragged the one empty chair to the front of the class. 

"It's only five minutes past." She retorted, scoffing as though offended that he had the nerve to tell her she was late. 

He stood straighter and spoke the whole class, "Everyone take note of Miss Callaway's initial mistake, even one minute late is too late when it comes to auditions and callbacks. You can lose the role you were meant to play by failing to show up on time, or even five minutes early. Professionals in this business have little patience, if any at all for tardiness. Miss Callaway, make sure this tardy is your last or I will make your next tardy, the very last one you receive here at Barline." Sierra gasped slightly, this guy meant serious business. 

"Now, where was I? Ah, yes, today I will go over the basics of what we will be learning. I have split the lessons up into groups of ten classes. We meet twice a week, do the math. Each group of classes, we will cover a different dynamic that is oh so important when telling a story into musical theatre, these lists are all in your syllabus which you received in your admission packet. I had previously stated that I had not decided on what order we will be doing this, but I have since made the choice." 

Hunt sat down by the piano and began to play what seemed to be a mix of love songs from popular musicals: All I Ask of You, As Long As You're Mine, Tonight, If I Loved You, Sun and Moon, and In My Life. 

"I assume you all recognize those melodies as love songs from popular musicals. Nearly every single musical has the plot of romance laced into it, in fact, musicals to most are love stories. If you recall the Golden Age of musical theatre, nearly every musical focuses on love. So I'm sure it is to none of your surprises that we will be focusing on romance. How to act being in love, how to portray the many different feelings of love through your vocals, and so on and so forth. I will pick partners and assign them a romantic musical to focus on learning love songs and different dialogue pieces from. In the end of our lesson, each partnership will perform the pieces I feel they perform the strongest at the very first freshman showcase." 

Sierra was excited, beyond excited actually, she couldn't resist a good love story, who could? Some of her favorite musicals revolved around romance. She looked around at all of her options to be with and grew more excited, until her eyes landed on Ramin who was watching her curiously. What were the odds she would be paired with him? There were five other guys in the class. She hoped she would end up with Hadley, they already learned that they work extremely well together. 

"I already have the pairs chosen based on what I think you will be able to learn from each other from watching you all in your auditions and talking to you in your interviews. Would you like to learn who your partners are today and receive your musical, or wait for another time?" Hunt asked, everyone immediately voted on receiving their assignments and partners today. 

Hunt began to read off his list, assigning musicals to pairs. "Haleigh and Josh, you two will be working together. Haleigh you can learn Josh's comedic timing and lighthearted way of life, and Josh you can learn to take things seriously within this field and pick up on Haleigh's professional mannerisms. You two will be working together on Funny Girl. Haleigh, you must be able to become the quirky Fanny Brice and Josh, you have to become the suave gambler, Nick." 

"Valerie and Hadley. Valerie you must learn from Hadley to be friendlier with others and work on varying your character type. Hadley," Hunt paused, trying to think of what Valerie could show Hadley, "be the best teacher you can." Valerie's jaw drop, obviously offended. Sierra stifled a laugh. "You two will be doing Grease, a musical I detest, but I think you two can learn from. Valerie you must be able to portray a sweet character and not seem falsely kind. Hadley, I think you'll be a fine Danny Zuko." 

Hunt continued down his list as Sierra listened thoughtfully to the pairs and why he put them together, she wondered what he would want her to show someone and vice versa. 

"Sierra and Ramin." Her eyes widened as Hunt spoke, but did her best to hide her emotions, not wanting to anger Hunt the way Valerie had. But she still wanted jump up and tell Hunt absolutely not. This was too soon, her crush too new, her heart too unaccustomed to feeling so strange around someone. 

"Sierra, you can learn from Ramin how to draw passion into your work, the kind which doesn't take thinking beforehand, learn to live in the moment of a number. Ramin, you can learn just how important it is to know the business and be as incredibly invested into this work as she is." So, Hunt was right, Sierra did refuse to live in the moment most of the time, but it made complete and total sense, her future is what needed the most thought. "You two will be performing the Phantom of the Opera. Sierra, you'll have to learn to truly portray Christine's dark and conflicted feelings of love towards the Phantom, and Ramin, you'll have to work on being able to show off both the redeeming and ill qualities of both men in Christine's life."

He finished going through the rest of the list and looked up, "Now, get with your partner and I'll call you up to collect your scripts one at a time." 

Ramin slid into the seat next to Sierra and she looked into his big, brown eyes, nearly losing herself. "So, uh, look, I know you're not my biggest fan but this musical means a lot to me and I don't want whatever I did to ruin our chance at doing this well." Sierra heart seemed to melt, but at the same time she was frustrated. Not falling in love with Ramin would have been much easier if he was just a jerk. Was that too much to ask? 

"Right, me too. I'm excited to work together on this, as peers." Sierra replied, distinguishing where the line was going to be drawn throughout this entire project. 

Ramin nodded, "Right, peers."