In The Wings

Act I Scene III

Christine was in her first real rehearsal where she would play Cinderella the entire time. The last one had gone by in such a blur that she had hardly comprehended all that had occurred then. Something about this one felt different. Now Christine had gotten enough time to have all of the butterflies make their new home inside of her stomach.

If there was one thing that made Christine more nervous than anything else related to the rehearsal, it wasn't standing in front of everyone and singing her heart out. It wasn't worry over her lines or her staging that were all new to her.

It was none other than Bridget Hadley.

Bridget Hadley was a junior who was like a legend, an idol to Christine. When Christine had been in middle school, she had watched Bridget play the lead role in the musical and had been stunned by how amazing she was. A good part of her aspired to be like Bridget, and now she was getting to work closely with her.

Bridget was playing the fairy godmother in the musical this year around. In the previous year, even though Bridget had only been a sophmore, she had managed to land one of the biggest roles in the musical. She was like a legend to Christine.

But, all in all, Christine didn't know very much about Bridget. She hadn't known anyone who had been close to her and had gotten to know her. For all Christine knew, she could be just as cruel as Carly and just not be as loud about it.

Christine found herself mortified that she was going to be working with her hero. She had no idea what to expect from what she had seen in previous rehearsals. She was wondering what Bridget would think of her voice, her acting, everything. Suddenly Christine found her mind spinning.

"Welcome to yet another day of rehearsal for Cinderella!" Mrs. Richard announced. At least for the moment, Christine was sticking over towards Meg. "We'll be beginning the actual practice in a few minutes, we've decided to give you a few more minutes after the adjustments from earlier this week," she continued, looking towards Christine.

Almost instantly, the group of students ended up chattering and building into a buzz of speech. Christine turned to her best friend, a flush starting to spread across her face. "I don't know if I can do this," she said.

"Christy, you just walked up and stunned everyone in this room as well as took a role from Carly. Carly. Carly Gill. If you were bad, you could have never done that. That makes you amazing."

Christine sighed. "You are too good to me."

Meg didn't respond, but a smile did stretch across her face. What struck Christine as strange about it was that her eyes tracked over Christine's shoulder and up. Afraid of what might be behind her, she turned around and found that Bridget Hadley was standing behind her, ready to talk.

Christine practically leapt out of her seat in order to face Bridget. The pink hue on her face deepened and spread without any control from her. She felt herself just staring at Bridget, with her brownish hair tipped with blonde at the ends. Bridget's light seafoam colored eyes glittered under the lights as she waited for Christine to do anything.

"Oh my goodness," Christine said, starstruck even though this was only a high school and they were only a year apart. "You're Bridget Hadley!"

"And you're Christine Daae, the new Cinderella. I just came over here to welcome you to the main cast and all," Bridget replied with a smile. "When I saw you sing for the first time, I was floored. You have some real talent there!"

"But what about you?" Christine said, breathless. She was all over the place. Bridget Hadley had just complimented her, the Bridget Hadley. "You're amazing, I've seen you performing ever since middle school, oh my goodness!"