21st Century Life

Chapter Six

'I wasn't ready!' she cried with her face planted into the pillow.

About three hours had passed since I finally began writing and just as I was about to complete my first masterpiece, Kaashi decide to show up after what looked like a terrible audition. She sprung into my room about five minutes ago and without any word, flopped onto the bed and hid her face in the pillow. Meanwhile, I was adding finishing touches to my story, or at least that what I think I was doing.

'What happened?' I asked calmly while I continued to edit my work.

'Everything went terribly wrong,' she said, her face was still planted into the pillow. However, from the tone of her voice, I could make out that she was really sobbing. I immediately turned towards. 'Are you crying?' I asked.

'No,' still refusing to look up.

'Yeah? Then get up.' She followed by request and sat up straight. Her eyes had turned red, her cheek blushed pink and of course, she was a sobbing mess.

'Are you actually crying?' I asked, just to confirm.

'No...' she said trying to wipe away her tears

'Okay okay, come on it couldn't have gone that wrong,' I said trying to console her, in the only way I knew how.

'But it did!' she cried, yet again, 'it was a disaster!'

'Okay!' I quickly took a look around my surrounding to find a tissue but instead found an unused hand towel. 'Here,' I passed on the towel. She took it and began to clean up. 'Why don't you tell me what happened? Maybe it wasn't as bad as you thought.'

'Okay, but promise me that you won't make fun of me,' she said wiping away her tears.

'I won't,' I promised.

*****

This whole train wreck began at home. It was like around ten and I had an hour to prepare and make my way to the place. I was at the table, having my breakfast, preparing myself and my mom went ahead and decided to make her first move.

'When he said he would talk to you, I hoped he would convince you to take a job.'

'He kind of did. But he decided to give us a chance to do what we like. You trust him right.'

'Honestly, I want you to take up that job. No matter what.'

I didn't have the time to argue with her. I needed to be in that place in an hour and I was still having breakfast. So I kept silent and concentrated on my script. It took me hours to find a good script and honestly, I wish now that I had spent some more time. It was not that it was difficult, but I didn't realize the pressure I would be under during audition.

I had hoped she would not speak anything and luck for me, she didn't. I rushed through breakfast and by the time I got out of the house, I had only forty minutes left. It was stupid of me to do the practice run two hours before the actual audition. Thankfully, there was no traffic and I ended up at that place ten minutes early.

I didn't really know what to expect but when I first looked at that building, I was kind of disappointed. It looked, ordinary. I mean when I think of a place where they perform arts, I think of a theater, a little pizzazz to it. However, this looked like a place where ordinary people went to work, like an office building. It turned out to be a good thing though, it helped me calm my nerves and I needed it. I almost panicked that I wouldn't make it in time.

I didn't have much trouble navigating the place, the security gave clear instructions on how to enter and get to the audition place. But, as I began to get closer and closer to the place of the audition, the whole place transformed in literally something from my dream. It wore an ordinary building outfit on the outside but had the personality of an artist on the inside. I assumed that I was entering through a back door, probably where most of them enter. It lead down a narrow hallway that went on for quite a while. Along the path, there were several rooms on either side and each one was wide open for the people, whoever walked that path, to see. It became apparent to me that this was all for a show, but man! They knew how to put on a show. The hallway itself was decorated, murals on each side making you feel like you walking through a timeline, a history of culture and influence and all of it proudly displayed on those walls. There were several paintings on those walls and I couldn't recognize any of them, I felt a bit disgraced not knowing who they were. And then there were the rooms themselves. I wasn't sure what every room was meant for, but I could kind of guess with the props in each room. One room was filled with cameras point at a single point, probably where they would record and review solo performances, or at least that is what I think. There was another with what looked like a hospital setting, no people were in there though. There was one with plenty of computers and people working on what looked like camera footage. Finally, the last one looked like a classroom. It was the only room that had closed doors, but doors had big windows fitted on them. Through them, I saw what looked like students seated in rows, listening to a person on the podium. I wasn't quite sure what that place was exactly but my first assumption would be that it was class. I heard that this place gave drama classes but couldn't find any means of applying to them. After seeing all of that. I felt like I was in heaven and I was charged up.

I took a hard left and walked through a short yet dark path that lead to what looked like theater doors. And I was right, I cautiously opened them and found myself in miniature theater, the size of a small presentation hall, but much grander. They seemed to have taken the cost and effort to decorate the place like an actual theater, with the red velvet like carpeting, to the stage lights that flooded the room from the extremely high ceiling. The stage itself looked quite fancy. Even though it was much lower than I expected, it still was large enough for an entire encore to fit in easily. The whole place exuded a sense of wonder and I was wonderstruck.

By the time I reached there, several people already occupied the seats. I was sure all of them were actors and there was a handful of them. I looked at the stage, where there was already an artist performing, but I really wanted a look at the judges, who were not on the stage, probably on the front row. I didn't bother to take the effort to see them.

A young man stood near the door with a clipboard in his hand, he approached me and asked for my name. I told him.

'You are twelfth. Three more performers, after the one on the stage, is done. Please take a seat and relax,' he said politely.

How nice, I thought to myself as I took a seat in the back. I took one right next to another young girl, who seemed lost in her notes. From the looks of it, she was about five or so inches shorter than me and with her braided hair, she looked very homely. She didn't pay heed to me as I took the seat and so I didn't bother to disturb her. I had my own work to focus on. I really wanted to see other performances, but I felt like I was running out of time, so didn't try to.

'Hello there,' a voice spoke after a while. I looked up to see the girl, who was beside me, looking at me with a broad smile. 'Hi,' I said politely.

'My name is Archana,' she said offering her hand.

'I am Kaashi,' I replied, gracefully shaking her hand.

'Your first time?' she asked.

'Yeah...' I answered a little nervously, 'yours?'

'Been to a few, but not much luck.'

'Oh wow!' I really wanted to ask her more information but the one before me was already entering the stage, 'Any tips I could borrow?'

She thought for a few seconds. 'I am really not that experienced,' she said frankly.

'Oh come on, you have been to a few, must have some things to say.'

'Well, I don't really know what to say. I mean I have been to a few but most of them never give you any feedback. I come, I act and I leave. Days later they tell me if I am selected or not. But I never got any feedback. I must try and figure that out myself.'

This was new. I thought the judges would put out at least a word or two. 'Are all your auditions for the theater?'

'Most of them are. I tried to audition for a few movies, mostly as a background actor, but even then, they demanded quite a lot. Not just act, some even expect you to sing. So I felt much more comfortable on the theater side.'

'And you still haven't got a chance to act?'

'No. I haven't tried that many. My friends suggested that I try a local club before getting into the big stuff. I am considering that.'

I fell silent, didn't know what to say next. It is a tough competitive world out there.

'I can give you one advice,' she said suddenly. I almost jumped at that, 'try not to perform too badly...'

'Come again,' I asked her, a little confused.

'Don't quote me on this but I have heard rumors. They say your performance will be judged and your remark will not stay within the four walls of this room.'