Beyond the Stars

Scene Six

I start clapping to join the crowd as I watch Ryan. He moves his gaze away from me and the crowd to look at the ground, seemingly uncomfortable with all eyes on him. If he is uneasy with all the attention, how did he make it through the audition yesterday so calmly and professionally?

"Alright, everyone," Robin begins, "we're going to start our first rehearsal today with... well, scene one makes sense. Those of you playing Sampson, Gregory, Abraham, Balthasar, Benvolio, Tybalt—" she stops to take a breath, "—Capulet, Montague, Escalus, and Romeo, read through the scene a few times and then we'll start. We'll have one read through together and then we'll start work on the staging aspects. Everyone else, start highlighting and memorizing the lines in your earliest scene, because I'm hoping to get through scene three by the end of class."

The crowd disperses into various groups, and I step up to the bulletin board to get another look at the castings. I run my finger down the list as a masculine voice from behind me gets my attention. I turn around to hear the conversation.

"...don't know why everyone thinks Capulet is such a great part," Nate says with a scowl to his friend. "Sure, he gets some lines, but he's no Romeo."

Myra, who was sitting down nearby in one of the aisle seats, snaps her head up when she hears what Nate says. She slowly stands up and moves to be in front of him.

"Hold on... You said you're playing Capulet?" He nods, arching an eyebrow. "I'm playing Lady Capulet, so that means..." she wrinkles her nose, "we're married."

"How wonderful," he replies with the same level of enthusiasm.

I laugh, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning against the wall as I spectate their little scene with Kat at my side. Then, the two lovebirds turn to me.

"What are you laughing at?" Myra questions me.

I raise my hands in surrender, holding back another laugh. "Nothing. You guys are just already acting like an old married couple and fighting while you've only been married for a few seconds."

"Oh, be quiet." Myra glowers at me before a strange look passes over her face. "Wait, the Capulets' daughter is Juliet. I'm your mother?"

I wave at her. "Hi, Mommy."

"Great. First, I don't get the part of Juliet, and now I have to play the mother? Just great." She sighs, and then turns to Nate with a wicked smile on her face after she glances at me. "How did we give birth to such an ugly child? Is it too late to drop her off at the orphanage?"

I suck in a breath as a wave of pure shock passes over Nate's eyes. He covers it up quickly, though, with a look of indifference, and simply shrugs.

"I have to go practice now," he announces before walking away.

"Yeah, we should, too," Kat exclaims, glaring at Myra before dragging me to the back of the room.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asks worriedly, standing above me as I lower myself onto a chair.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine," I reassure her, pulling my script and an orange highlighter out of my backpack. "I know better than to listen to people like her."

She stares me down for a few seconds, evaluating the truth in my words, before sighing and sitting down next to me and closing her eyes tiredly. "Well, good, because you shouldn't."

I nod and absentmindedly begin to mark my lines in the script as I think about what Myra said.

Usually, I get all of the average put downs online from the haters hiding behind their screens. I've never actually had someone come up to me and in person say something like Myra did just now. I wonder if things are going to be like this from now on.