Leading Lady

CHAPTER 7

"Woman calm down!" Stanley shouted as Lucille angrily tossed fabrics off a tabletop in his shop.

"It's not fair Stanley, I'm the maid!" She cried angrily, "They cast me as the maid! I was supposed to play Aunt Prudence, I wanted that role!"

"I thought you wanted Katherine's role?" Stanley said stupidly. Lucille threw a pen his way. "Hey watch it psychopath!"

Lucille turned away from Stanley and leaned against the tabletop she'd disorganized. "They did it because I slapped her," her upper lip quivered with anger. "Jackson was angry that I slapped her back."

"At least you got a part," Stanley said to her quietly, a little afraid to upset her any more than she already was; mostly out of fear of what she might throw at him next.

"You're right," she said, turning towards him so abruptly it made Stanley jump and let out a little squeal of fear. "This is only the beginning anyway. I'll impress him. I'll be so good I'll probably outshine Katherine Morgan during our scenes."

"That's the spirit," Stanley said with a little doubt in his voice.

* * *

Rehearsals started a few days later. Lucille didn't expect Jackson Baez to tell her anything about the incident with the slap, but she thought William would. Much to her relief, however, neither mentioned a word of it. Katherine, however, smiled sweetly when she saw Lucille, "Great audition", and never said another word to her again. Lucille bit her lip.

That a passive aggressive bitch.

Lucille attempted several times to get as much attention as she could from Jackson. Asking him questions about her scenes, her characters backstory, motives ...

"What motives?" Jackson answered with a small smile. "She's the maid, Lucille. I'm sure you can come up with something interesting if you feel the need to. We all know you have no problems following your instincts."

Lucille's mouth gaped. Jackson turned from her and walked across the stage to speak with Katherine and the director.

After rehearsal Lucille stormed out of the stage area and nearly bumped into Cliff. Surprisingly enough she felt relief when she saw him smile at her.

"Hey, we finally run into each other."

"Seems to be a forming habit, doesn't it?" Lucille forced a smile.

"I feel like we haven't seen each other since I helped you get into the company," Cliff said with a little disappointment in his voice. Lucille felt her cheeks blush because it was obvious Cliff was interested in her.

"I know I'm sorry," Lucille pretended to wince with embarrassment. "You must think the worst of me."

"No, of course not," Cliff grinned. "You've been busy. Congratulations on getting cast in Sunrise Love Affair. You're going to be amazing."

"Yeah, I'm definitely mastering the techniques of dusting furniture," Lucille muttered as she shot a look at Katherine walking out of the theater laughing with Jackson Baez and the director.

Cliff chuckled and rubbed her arm, "Hey, you're lucky to have been cast. New people normally aren't cast until their third or fourth audition."

Lucille looked back at Cliff, suddenly feeling a little better. "How about we get something to eat? I'm starved. That is ... if you're not busy."

"I was just leaving for the day, but that sounds great," Cliff replied, a gleam of happiness shining in his brown eyes.

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