5th Generation

Episode 5: Auditions

Sandy stared at the sheet before finally signing her name. That was a mistake.. She thought as she walked to the school cafeteria. As a self proclaimed Theater Geek, Sandy loved acting. She could sing too, though she would never believe it. Either way, as someone who makes it clear that she loves being on stage, shouldn't she feel more than regret when she signed her name to audition for the school musical? She should be excited, ready to blow the director away and be on the stage and in the spotlight. Instead, she felt like she had made a mistake and was going to throw up. Blegh. What was wrong with her? Maybe she just wasn't feeling the production. No, it was probably just jitters. It's fine. She shrugged it off and entered the cafeteria. As usual, her three best friends were sitting on the end of the third table from the door. A blonde, looking at something on her phone, a half purple half black haired girl staring at the clock and a brunette with very short hair drawing something on her binder. Sandy forced a smile and plopped down across from the brunette. "Heeeey!" she greeted happily, adjusting her ever present hair wreath. The three girls all responded in unison with smiles. "What'ch'a drawing this time?" she asked the girl across from her, Paz. Paz looked up and showed her a drawing of a person. They had their hands behind their back and their hair in their face. "Cool!" she said. And meant it. Paz was an amazing artist. At least, she was in Sandy's humble opinion. Next to her, the blonde, whose name was Hazel, looked up as well. 

"Nice. Hey, you should draw me and Phil next!" Paz nodded and Sandy rolled her eyes. Hazel was completely obsessed with the cartoon Gravity Slides. Now Sandy had seen it before. It was good and she occasionally talked about it with Hazel, but her friend took it to another level. Hazel knew practically everything there was to know about the little cartoon and never shut up about it. Phil Decipher was her favorite character. Sandy did not quite understand how her friend could be so attracted to a floating purple triangle, but to each their own I guess. Hazel was so obsessed in fact, that Sandy would bet her flower wreath that she was currently wearing (like everyday) that she was looking at humanized fanart of Phil this very second. As Sandy was thinking these very thoughts, Hazel grinned and turned her phone to Sandy, "Look!" Just as Sandy had suspected, on Hazel's screen was indeed a human Phil Decipher. Typical Hazel. Then the the third girl rolled her eyes. 

"No one cares about your weird thing for fictional triangles, Hazel." Hazel frowned. 

"Call me Phil!" Recently, Hazel had asked all her friends to call her by the name of the very triangle she loved so. No one had obliged. The girl who had called Hazel out was named Jacqueline. The fourth in their quartet. Which reminded her. 

"Hey Jackie? Do you have the Tome?" Months ago, Sandy had a found a magical journal. It could make anything happen but was also sort of evil-ish. And everyone saw it as a different color. Sandy always thought it was a bright fuchsia/pink, but her friends could argue over that for quite a while. After deciding it was too special to just call "a book", everyone had agreed to refer to it as "The Tome". Because The Tome seems to mysteriously bring out the worst in whoever wields it, the girls took turns with it. This week was Jacqueline's turn to take care of it. She frowned at Sandy now. She had always hated nicknames. 

"It's Jacqueline." she corrected. "But yes, I have it." and pulled out the rosey journal. The quartet quieted and looked at the still extremely mysterious book sitting in front of them. Then, conversations picked back up again. But Sandy's mind had wandered back to the school musical. Why wasn't she excited? Usually, she would want to jump for joy at this, but she only wanted to curl into a ball in the corner. It's so strange. She couldn't seem to focus. Everything seemed to echo around her. The clock seemed to be the only thing in focus. Then, she shook her head. This was ridiculous; yet somehow, something was off. Something Sandy could not just brush off. Her three friends noticed fast. It was very odd for the outgoing, chatty thespian to shut up for ten minutes, much less stare at the clock cryptically for a lunch period. Sandy could feel their gazes. They suspected something. At this point, so did she. What was wrong with her? On any other day, she would be irritating her besties with unending show tunes and jazz hands. But not today. Today, it was nauseous silence and pressing overcast darkness. It must have something to do with the musical. How could she go through with those auditions? It would be her first time with open auditions. Open auditions were when you got up in front of everyone else auditioning. Scary. Maybe she should drop out. Then she jumped. A voice had pierced the muddled gloom of her thoughts. It was Paz's voice. The shy artist was wondering if she was alright. She yelped in surprise.