Following Her Heart (CURRENTLY EDITING)

Chapter 7

"FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO GOT A C OR EVEN A D, DON'T FEEL SORRY FOR YOURSELF. You did to yourself by not trying hard enough, and will have to make do and make up for it."

"Wow," I voiced silently. This world history teacher was strict. "What did you get?" whispered Ana.

"An A, surprisingly." I laughed quietly. Ana and I were in our World History class, being told our grades for the last graded history assignment. "What about you?" I asked, quietly as possible. "The same," she whispered back cautiously, glancing cautiously at our teacher in her desk behind me.

"Now, we have a couple students who actually listened to what I had to say the first day of school. They are Ana Hart, Hannah Alysnworth, and Danny Parker," the teacher announced. The class all turned to look at us three students, and I felt like I wanted to disappear seeing some of the glares from the other World History I students.

"Ana Hart even managed to get an A+," she continued, oblivious to the fact that us three might have something really bad happen to us due to all this bragging, which would be inflicted by our jealous classmates. But she just continued with it. "That's impressive, and Hannah and Danny both got an A. The rest of you got a C+ or lower. Some of you even a D. You better work hard, because you won't be able to make it up if you continue like this in my class. I expect good students. Not good, actually. Great students. There will be no extra credit assignments available, so you better start working hard now and doing what I say if you want an A in this course. If our model students continue like this, maybe they will volunteer to tutor the rest of you."

Wow. This history teacher of ours was crazy strict, I thought. Oh, and great. We are going to get in trouble if there is some angry and jealous students. Which there surely will be, I thought, my stomach starting to get upset. Why had Mrs. Sylvester been so inconsiderate of us? I thought. And why had I done so well on the assignment? Maybe I should of just opted out for a C. Then I caught myself in those thoughts of mine. Why would I want a C if I could do better? I asked myself, surprised at what I had been thinking.

After class ended, we realized Mr. Slyvester had given us a whole 3 chapters to read over the weekend- and a mini-report, all to be completed by Monday. As Ana and I made it to our next class, we exchanged worried glances. "That Mrs. Slyvester is one strict, disciplinary teacher. I hope we don't become any targets for the students in our class for any initation or anything like that," I said nervously. "I surely hope not too," voiced Ana quietly.

But let's not think about that right now Ana! We have auditions after school!"

Ana's face brightened. "How could I forget? I am excited, especially after what we planned last night."

"Me too," I replied. "It's going to be great, but I am nervous."

"But who wouldn't be?" I added, trying to calm down my nervousness.

Ana laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. She was clearly as nervous and scared as I was.

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Last night, we had practiced and planned. I was going to sing Beautiful Day by Jamie Grace, one of our favorite artists. Ana was going to play the guitar in accompaniment and sing at parts. We both had wore our favorite outfits, dressing up just like her, since we both love her style. I wore leggings, a short skirt, and a leather jacket, and big earrings. Ana had jeans, a side braid, and a beautiful elbow-length top, lacy and pink. Just like a ballerina, I thought with a smile. Ana definitely was a girly-girl in her choice of clothes. And it suited her well.

At 3:30, after our last class bell rang, we knew it was time. Among the throng of students getting out of Thomas Edison, we made our way to the school auditorium, where the auditions would be held. On our way, a boy followed us. It was Danny from World History class. "Hi Danny," I said, somewhat quietly, but trying to be polite. I always felt rather shy around teen boys, but my parents told me that just because of that didn't give me any reason to be impolite to them.

"Hey. Are you guys auditioning for the school play today?" he asked.

"Yeah. Are you?" I said in reply.

"Yes. You guys were the ones from World History with the A's right?" he asked.

"Yeah, like you. What do you think of Mr. Ganders?"

He chuckled quietly. "He's definitely a weird sort of guy. But he's our teacher, so we should respect him and try to do what he tells us."

Wow, what a nice guy, I thought. I know most of the guys I know would of been smart-alecks and have a bad attitude towards a teacher like that. Guess Danny wasn't one of them. And I told myself I would try to respect Mr. Ganders, as Danny reminded me. After all, he is our teacher. Even though he isn't perfect, who is? I questioned myself.

"What are you doing for your audition?" I asked Danny. "I am going to act out a part from the play, Hamlet," he replied. "Cool! We will be doing a re-make of a song."

"That's awesome. What song?" he asked.

"The Beautiful Day song. It's by Jamie Grace, and is one of our favorites," replied Ana, rather shyly.

His eyes widened quite a bit. "Are you two Christians?" Yes, we are. Are you? I asked cautiously, wondering what would come next.

"Yes! It's nice to meet two nice girls like you, and to find out you're both Christian too! Although I should of known, anyway, he responded happily.

I blushed a little at the compliment, and Ana turned quite red. "Thank you," I said quietly, forgetting to say "same with you" or anything in return.

As we reached the auditorium entrance, Danny opened the door for us. "Good luck," he winked.

We entered the auditorium, where about 50 other students where there already.

Danny's audition was great, and I was sure he would be cast. His portrayal of Hamlet was great. I studied Danny closely. He had wavy dark brown hair that almost reached his eyebrows, brown, fine ones, which went above his deep blue eyes. He had black jeans on, with a hoodie and blue t-shirt. He was definitely a great actor, too.

And before I knew it, Ana and I were called on. My heart started to pump really hard, and I had a hard time trying to keep my knees from knocking together.

We settled ourselves on the stage, sitting on high stools. I breathed slowly, trying to keep my nervousness down. Lord, help me to do my best, I prayed.

"The heart is a bloom, I begin to sing. Shoots up through the stony ground,

There's no room, No space to rent in this town

You're out of luck, And the reason that you had to care

The traffic is stuck, And you're not moving anywhere....

Ana joined in:

It's a beautiful day

Sky falls, you feel like

It's a beautiful day

Don't let it get away..."

We finally ended, breathing probably much more than usual to slow our heartbeats. "Thank you Lord for this, no matter how everything turns out," I said softly.

Thank you Ana and Hannah. You'll both know if you have been cast or not on Monday by meeting in the arts room after school," said the arts director, Mrs. Gilbert.

"Thank you," we both murmured, moving off the stage with Ana's guitar and our excitement bubbling over.

We waved to Danny and walked towards the front exit doors of the school to my mom's car who was taking us home.