young, scrappy and hungry | a hamilton story | √

Chapter 49

Kasey forgot about the results that were supposed to come in the mail. Preparing for a matinee show on a weird schedule was messing up her normal routine.

"Kasey, the mail's here," Carleigh said, setting their mail on the table. "You have a letter from the US government."

Kasey poked her head out of her bedroom. "Crap, I forgot again." She quickly set her fuzzy slippers on her bed and hurried to open the letter.

To Kasey Elizabeth Winslow,

We are pleased to notify you that you have made the qualifications to apply for dual citizenship. Your test scores landed you in the upper ranges of our scoring system and you received 157/175 points.

Your test score, combined with the recommendations from your peers, will permit you to become a dual citizen of the United States of America and the United Kingdom. It takes about two weeks for the formal papers to be processed.

Following the two weeks, we will be contacting you with a date for your dual citizenship ceremony. You are expected to be able to answer a few questions about the expectations of the United States. Policy states that you will be asked to renounce Queen Elizabeth II, but this does not mean that you are no longer a citizen. It is merely a formal statement in order to receive dual citizenship.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely, 

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

"Well?" Carleigh asked. Kasey looked up from the letter. She'd had to reread it multiple times to take in what was written.

"They approved me. My score was high enough," Kasey said.

"That's wonderful!" Carleigh exclaimed, coming around the table to hug Kasey. "I knew you could do it."

"I'm so relieved," Kasey admitted. "So much of the stress in my life was because of this citizenship test and the results."

"But now the stress is over!" Carleigh told her. "You're going to be a citizen, and you were nominated! It's so exciting!"

"Yeah," Kasey laughed. 

"Are you happy?"

"Yeah, I am," Kasey said. "It's weird to think that I'm going to be a citizen, but it will be good. I'm excited."

"But you don't have to give up your British citizenship, right?" Carleigh asked.

"No, I applied for dual citizenship. I'm not ready to give that part of me up yet," Kasey told Carleigh. "It was where I was born, and it still is where I spent most of my life."

"That makes sense. No one is asking you to give that up," Carleigh reassured her. "Now, we're going to go to the bakery and get pie for tonight. We need to celebrate."

"Alright," Kasey said. "You're crazy, you know that, right?"

"That's why we're friends," Carleigh shot back.

~~~~~~

It was weird doing a show in the middle of the afternoon, when ordinarily none of them would be at the theatre for the performance. 

That could have been the reason why the show seemed to have more onstage mishaps than usual. The turntables went the wrong way in 'Schuyler Sisters' and 'Ten Duel Commandments', Daveed's mic cut out in 'Guns and Ships', and perhaps worst of all, the lights went out in 'Yorktown' onstage.

The ensemble kept going- they had to, since the management didn't signal for them to stop. At least their mics were still on. It was extremely dark in the theatre, and they could barely see each other onstage. All Kasey could really see was the glow-in-the-dark tape backstage and the lights that were planted in the floor. She could hear her fellow cast members, but that was it. 

Luckily, they all knew their tracks well enough not to bump into each other, for the most part. Thayne accidentally pushed past Kasey, so he had to reach out and stabilize her before continuing on his way. 

By the next song, the lights had turned back on, thankfully.

When they finally got to the end of the show, Kasey was relieved. It had been a strange day. 

Lin called a meeting after everyone left the theatre.

"I know that it's weird to perform in the afternoon, but what went on today? It was mainly a tech standpoint, but I could see a lot of actor mistakes, too," Lin asked. He sounded a little upset. "I expected so much more from all of you. We've never had a show that bad in a while."

"It might be because we're trying to remember the new choreography and our current choreography," Megan said a little snottily. "You can't expect perfection when you've crammed twice as much information in our heads."

"But you were messing up choreography that we've been doing for months!"

"I hate to say it, Lin, but keeping everything straight is difficult for everyone," Lac said. "It's hard to differentiate the different calls and moves from one another when we performed our normal show today but went over the new stuff yesterday."

"Tech wise, a lot of it was because we have a lot of notes and such in our mind from yesterday. I hate to say it, but that's why. The organization stuff won't be a problem in the future. That was our last show with the old choreography," the stage manager said. 

"Good. First of all, congratulations to all of our nominees for the Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards. I know it's not the Tony's, but keep in mind that it's a huge honor to receive awards from the fans themselves," Lin said. 

"We'll begin rehearsal for the new material in a half-hour. I expect you all to be back onstage by then."

Everyone stood up to get ready for rehearsal. Kasey followed Carleigh to the girls' dressing room to go eat the pie that Carleigh had bought.