Reason

Chapter 1

BRRRING! The harsh tones of the school bell make me jump. I hate that thing. It's always so loud! I make a grab for my stuff and race out of the math classroom, trying to avoid being trampled by all the other students. Two hundred fifty-five, to be exact.

I know the high school of my hometown, Alexander, New York like the back of my hand because, duh, it's where I grew up. Why am I in such a rush? Well, I'm about to audition for the part that could make or break my acting career. Since acting is like, my life, I can't miss it, that just can't happen.

Even though we're not usually supposed to, I cut through the library, shaving five extra minutes and two flights of stairs off my route.

I get to the gym and find that I don't really even need to worry. I'm the second person there. My drama club teacher/leader is Ms. Livingston, a perky, thirty-year-old blonde with blue eyes and pink streaks.

"Hello, Megan. Go ahead and take a seat, I'm sure the others will be here soon," she says cheerfully, waving me to one of several of the brown plastic chairs we usually use for assemblies. As I wait, I mentally go over the scene in my head. I'm going out for the part of Juliet in, you guessed it, Romeo and Juliet.

Slowly, people start filtering in. I see Mean-Girl Marnie flanked, as always, by her cronies Becca and Gretchen , a couple other Theater Geeks like me, a curly black-haired boy I've never noticed before, and to my surprise my best, and really only, friend Anthony.

"What are you doing here?" I hiss happily when he takes the spot behind me. "What, can't a guy watch his girl rock an audition?" he whispers back. I laugh, and then am silent as Ms. Livingston claps her hands for quiet. "Okay, people! Now, I think we all know why we're here today. We are going to honor William Shakespeare with a performance that would blow him away! You know, if he was still alive."

Slight chuckles from the group. "When I call your name, you will come up to the stage, and I will give you a script and the scene you will be reading. If there is any laughing from those still waiting, and here I thought she looked straight at the Mean Bee Queen, "that person or persons will be o-u-t, out. Now to begin."

She peers down at her clipboard, then up through her fashionable purple plastic frame glasses. "First up is Megan Schmidt, trying out for the part of Juliet," she calls. I breathe deeply and climb onstage.

"You will be doing the Balcony scene. Here's your script," she instructs. I take it, scan the lines, then hand it back. She looks at me strangely but takes it. I close my eyes, drowning out everything else. I am Juliet.