Make My Way

Chapter Twenty-Six

Stella's POV

Auditions were in ten minutes. I was already at the school and practically jumping in my seat. I was extremely nervous and excited at the same time. Somehow, the butterflies in my stomach helped drive me to be the best I could.

Five minutes later, the room was almost completely full of preteens and teens from 7th to 12th grade. The instructor moved us around so that Aria and I were sitting with the other juniors and seniors who had had lead roles before along with one or two sophomores. Then there was a section of a few juniors, most of the sophomores, and freshmen. The third section was the junior high students.

We were about to start when someone I would have never in a million years expected to show up, walked in the door. My heart stopped. The butterflies got worse. Neil. The director told him to sit in the second section.  I realized I was staring and looked away quickly.

I realized this meant that I had to sing. Alone. In front of him. The auditions started and we warmed up. They started with the seventh and eighth graders. The broke up into groups of four to sing, so that the directors could hear their individual voices a little better. When all of them had had a chance to sing, she dismissed all but one seventh grader and two eighth graders. I saw Aria almost visibly relax when her eighth grade sister wasn't one of them. She obviously didn't want her sister hanging around her twenty-four seven.

Then it was the second group's turn. Since there was a few less of them, they went in groups of three. I saw Aura and Vivian go up together with Quinn. They went trough the girls first. When it came to the guys, there weren't many. Neil went up to the front to sing with a few other boys I didn't know as well. I couldn't hear him very well, but from what I could hear, he wasn't a terrible singer. He wasn't great, but he wasn't terrible.

They dismissed another of the junior high kids along with a good chunk of the second group. Neil left. Now it was my turn to sigh in relief. I wouldn't have to sing alone in front of him. Aria and I went up with Cora. She was a good musical theatre actress and would most likely be the baker's wife. Easton, Adrian, and Xavier went up together and the Blake, Merrick, and another guy sang. They dismissed a few seniors and juniors from our group until there was around thirty of us in the room.

One of the directors passed out copies of a small section of the script and assigned parts to read for. I read for Rapunzel. The whole first section was a song so we skipped over a few parts. After the read through, we all sang a small section by ourselves. Now that Neil was gone, it wasn't a problem for me to sing a solo.

I went home shaking. I was just so excited for the results. I wanted practice to start already. I laid in bed, thinking about all the possibilities.

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Two days later, at lunch, I saw the director post two sheets of paper outside the cafeteria door.

Into the Woods Cast
Narrator: Laine
Witch: Grace
(Rapunzel/Baker's) Father: David
Baker: Xavier
Baker's wife: Cora
Cinderella: Stella
Cinderella's Mother: Willow
Cinderella's Father: Merrick
Step-Mother: Aria
Step-Sisters: Aurora and Rori
Jack: Nathaniel
Jack's Mother: Lila
Little Red Riding Hood: Paisley
Grandmother: Vivian
Big Bad Wolf: Adrian
Rapunzel: Quinn
Prince Charming: Blake
Rapunzel's Prince: John
Servant: Easton
Extras.......

It went on to list a few other extremely minor parts and then extras that would really only be in the opening and closing. I smiled in delight. Not only had I gotten a good roll. I had gotten one of the biggest lead rolls.

I walked away to go find my friends. As I walked I thought about Blake and Aria how they were such a cute couple. I was rounding the corner of the second flight of stairs when I bumped into someone. In two seconds flat I had gracefully fell to the ground. When I looked up to see who it was, there was no one there. "Wow, what great students we have here. So helpful," I muttered under my breath.

Suddenly a pair of gray Nike sneakers were under my eyes. I scanned up to see no other than Neil holding my chemistry book. "You ok?" He questioned. Something was different, his hair. He got a haircut, one of the worst things a guy could do.

"Yeah I'm fine," I lied. Not only was I sitting on a dirty floor. I had rolled my ankle when I fell because of my stupid heels, but being a dancer I decided not to be a baby about it and just walk it off. "Thanks," I grabbed my chemistry book from his hands along with some of the other things he had grabbed.

"No problem. Do you want me to walk you to your class."

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I got it." For some reason I just wasn't feeling the sparks with him that I did before. I started walking away leaving Neil standing perfectly still like a deer in the head lights. I looked back and smiled he blinked out of his trance and smiled back. I looked back to where I was going knowing I would most likely fall down the steps I was walking up. When I got to the third floor I saw my friends sitting on some couches but they were soon blocked by Luca. He was six foot, four which made him tower over me, I am only 5'6".

"Hey I know you like Neil and everything but I just wanted to tell you that I like you, Stella. I have since 3rd grade." My heart dropped. I was not expecting that. I was expecting something like, Hey what did you get for number 13 on the English assignment.

I had gotten a really bad headache all of a sudden. I looked up at him looking down at me. I pulled on his shirt so he would get on my level and whispered in his ear. I walked away leaving him with a sheepish grip on his face.