Two weeks after we got home a letter came in the mail for Nick and me. The envelope had the logo of the O2 arena and the address was from London.
“I’m kind of nervous to open mine,” I say over the phone to Nick as I’m staring at my envelope. I’m in my room on my bed on a Tuesday after school.
“Why don’t we open them together then?” he says.
“Okay but you read yours first,” I say.
He agrees and we count to three.
“Okay on three we open the letters.” He says.
“One.” I say.
“Two.” He says.
“Three.” We say at the same time and I hear him ripping open his letter. I tear my envelope open and take out my letter but I don’t read it yet. He’s silent on the other end of the phone as he reads his letter.
“So what does it say?” I ask after a moment.
“Not much,” he says, “it just says, ‘Thank you for your audition for Les Miserablés 25th Anniversary concert. We enjoyed listening to you. Thank you for your time and for flying all the way to London on such short notice. We are pleased to say that you got the role you auditioned for (Marius) and would invite you to come to rehearsals starting on the last week of August, and to inform you that the performances will be in October. Any questions, please feel free to contact the number below.” He says and pauses for a moment. When he finished I had opened my letter and read it.
I wasn’t expecting to get the part. But I was trying very hard to hold back tears when I read that sentence: “We are sorry to say that the role that you auditioned for has been filled by somebody else but we would like you to be the understudy of Eponine in the 25th Anniversary of Les Miserables.”
“Linds, did you hear what I said?” Nick’s voice brings me back to our phone conversation.
“I…um…” I say, “No, sorry. Could you repeat that?”
“I said what does your letter say?” He asks.
“Oh, um.” I glance at the letter in my hand and saw that I had wrinkled the paper by gripping it too hard.” I quickly smooth it out and say, “I didn’t get the part. But I’m the understudy of Eponine.”
“Oh, that’s great! Well, not great that you didn’t get the part, but great that you’ll still be in the performance. You’ll do great, Linds. You have an excellent voice that millions of people would kill to have and you will do a wonderful job.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I say. “I’m glad you got the part, though.”
We hang up shortly after we catch up on what we’ve been up to lately. He’s been busy in the studio and doing some things with his brothers. I just tell him what happened at school (not much) and then say I should do homework.
When I’m almost finished, I hear a knock on my door. “Come in,” I say and look up to see Laura, who has tear streaked eyes come in.
I give a small gasp when I see her. “What happened?” I say and stand up as she gives me a tear-stained hug.
“It’s over.” She says through sobs. “We broke up. Me and Joe.” She wipes her eyes and her make up smears a little.
