The WRA Draft

Chapter Thirty: The Video

(The following Friday; Olivia's POV)

"So you leave in how many days?" Brian asked as we walked to the Gray Room.

"A week," Taylor replied. "Seven days."

"And you perform when?"

"On the seventeenth. Three days before you guys come out to New York."

"So, we have to go six days without you three?"

"You'll survive, I promise," I assured him.

"Well, I don't know," Toby said with a grin. "It is pretty hard to get by without yours truly."

I rolled my eyes. "More like easier." Brian looked like he was about to hurl. "You alright there, bud?"

"Six days," he repeated. "...without a director. Six days...without the composers. What are we gonna do?"

"Clayton's the president of our class," I reminded as I held the door open for everyone. "Listen to what he says and you'll do great. Besides," I placed a hand on his shoulder. "you'll have them." I gestured to the teachers that sat in the back of the room. I caught the eye of Mrs. Fay. She smiled and waved; I returned the gesture. She must have seen Brian because her smile turned to a frown and she got up from her seat and walked over to us.

"Are you alright, Brian?" she asked. Brian gulped.

"Six days," he said quietly. She raised an eyebrow.

"Excuse me?"

"He thinks he's gonna die because I have to leave early for New York," I explained and squeezed his shoulder. "But he won't and all will go well."

The bell rang and I took my place at the front of the room. Before I even opened my mouth, Kasey walked in with his familiar camera. "I'm sure you know what I'm going to ask."

"Go ahead." I smiled.

"I brought some friends too if you don't mind." Two students—a boy and girl—entered the room.

"We don't mind at all. Knock yourselves out."

"Sweet, thanks!"

The three dispersed around the room while I started in. "Hey, guys!"

Nothing.

"I get it. Okay, so today is what I think will be the best day yet because it's a day in which you guys—from what I've heard—will be finishing up your portion of the Challenge and I'll be going around making sure everything is going smoothly. I've finished with calls, so I don't really have much to do. A great day, if you ask me." The class cheered excitedly. "Oh look! I found my class! Oh, and did I mention that the script is finished?" The cheers got louder. I smiled brightly. I heard a click of Kasey's camera. "That's about as much as I need to say. Let's get to work!"

The class broke into their groups. I watched as they all worked hard on their tasks. It felt weird not having anything to do. I just stood at the podium awkwardly.

"Hey, Olivia!" I looked over to see Claudia waving me over. I walked over to her, thankful to have something to do.

"Yeah?"

"I want your help with something."

"What is it?"

She held up her iPad. "Can you say something for our audition fliers?"

"Huh?"

"Well," she smiled at her design partner, Conner. "we thought that instead of creating some flimsy flier that people just share on that old Facebook app, we could create a video of our director announcing the auditions. Everything for the auditions is planned out, right?"