Newsies One Shots

Joey Barreiro { Auditions }

"Next!" I heard the crew of Newsies call from outside of the audition room.
Straightening my skirt, I took a deep breath, and walked in.

At the front of the room was a table of 5 men with hundreds of resumes scattered all over the place, and at the back was a guy about my age; the Jack Kelly, I'm guessing, because they already had him picked out and hired.

The man sitting at the right of the table put his glasses on, "What's your name?"

"Scarlett Olson."

They rummaged through the stacks of paper and pulled out my resume, filling some stuff out. The silence in the room enclosed around my throat, making it dry out.

I swallowed nervously, waiting for them to continue.

"Miss Olson, what is the song you have prepared?" The same man as before asked.

"Good Morning Baltimore," I said, handing the sheet music to the piano player, "from Hairspray."

He nodded to the piano player, and seconds later, the beginning chords of the song filled the room. I took a deep breath and sang my heart out.

~ ~ ~

Cleaning up the dance room after teaching my last class of the day, I heard my phone ring from my purse.

"Hello?" I answered, sitting down in the chair behind the front desk of my best friend's dance studio.

"Hi, is this Scarlett Olson?"

Confused, I said, "Yes, this is she."

I heard papers rummaging on the other end of the line, "Miss Olson, my name is Jeff Calhoun, the director of Newsies on Broadway. I'm excited to inform you that we would like you to play Katherine, in the first national tour of the show."

My heart stopped. My breath hitched in my throat, and I gasped.

"Would you like to accept the role?"

I nodded, unable to speak, but realized Mr. Calhoun couldn't hear me through the phone, "Y-yes, of cou-course!" I said barely audible.

"Perfect!" He said; I could hear him smiling, "Congratulations! We will send your agent all the information."

"Thank you so much!" I whispered, tears coming out of my eyes at an alarming rate.

"No, Katherine, thank you." He said before hanging up.

I sat there in shock for a moment, hardly noticing my tears, or that my best friend, Penny had come into the room.

Her eyes darted to the phone in my hand, then to my tear stained, puffy eyes, and knew right away, "You got the part?"

I nodded, running up to her and hugging her, letting the tears fall all over the back of her t-shirt.

~ ~ ~

A couple of days later, 2 weeks before the first script reading as a whole cast, I got a text from an unknown number.

?? : Hi, Scarlett, it's Joey Barreiro
       (Jack in newsies)! I was       
        wondering if you wanted to meet
        up sometime and get dinner
        before the reading?

I answers anyways, even though I was confused on how he got my phone number.

Scarlett : Sure, that sounds great!
              How about tomorrow at
              McNally's Pub, 6:30?

He answered fairly quickly.

Joey : Sounds great! See you then!

The next day, I got ready to meet up with Joey. I decided on a simple, black and white chevron dress with a pair of black converse.

When I got to the restaurant, Joey was already there; he smiled when I walked in and gave me a hug. This guy was kind of weird. Who hugs someone the first time they meet them?

"Hey, Joey," I said, smiling, sitting down across from him.

He smiled back, "Before I do anything stupid or embarrassing, because I do that a lot, I just want to say that you are an amazing singer and extremely talented."

"Thank you so much!" I said, fixing my dress nervously; he really is super cute, "I wish I could say the same about you, but I don't think I've ever heard you sing."

The rest of the night continued, a little awkward at first, but we were really good friends by the end of the night. After dinner he surprised me with tickets to see The Book of Mormon, which I had never seen before, and was absolutely hilarious.

I insisted we met the cast after the show, even though it was probably 40 degrees out, and I was in nothing but a dress. Joey agreed reluctantly, even though I began to second guess myself after meeting only 2 cast members.

"Here you go," Joey said, placing his jacket around my shoulders, "You look freezing.

Mentally thanking him for his warm, cologne-scented jacket, I nervously but my lip, "Thanks Joey," I trailed off, trying to distract myself from how good he looked in that t-shirt.

After meeting the amazing cast, we walked back to my apartment.

"Thank you so much, Joey, I had a really good time." I smiled, leaning against the door to my building.

His cheeks turned red, "I did too." We stood there for a bit, "You really are amazing. Never forget that."

Shocked from his statement, I was speechless. He kissed my cheek, then started to walk down the street, "See you tomorrow."