Wonderland (t.h)

chapter: 03

Alice's pov:
I woke to the familiar sound of milo ,my dog, scratching at my door.
I try so hard to train him not to sleep on my bed but it's useless. Now I have to lock him outside my room every night.

I get up to let him in and feel the fresh morning air hit my bare thighs. I always just slept in an over sized tee. Milo immediately leapt onto my bed and proceeded to rub his dirty paws all over the sheets. Great. Yet another job for me to do today.

I have a big day ahead of me. First I have to go to a meeting with my producers for my new album, I have to drop off my dry cleaning,then finally drop into the Spider-Man auditions with my dad. I'm just popping in to help out. Grab coffees, run for food, that sort of thing.

It can be boring sometimes. Seeing different versions of the same person, saying the same lines, over and over again. When they find that one though. It makes it all worth it. There's always one person that just sticks out and everyone knows they're the one for the job.

After giving milo a quick cuddle, I jump in the shower and start getting ready for the day. It's fall and pretty cold so I put on a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, and a big knit cardigan.  I attempt to tame my hair a bit and throw on some light make up.
I grabbed my bag and headed out the door.

It's 3pm by the time I get to the lot they're holding auditions on. I haven't gotten a chance to eat all day so I'm starving. I guess I'll just grab something from Starbucks when I'm eventually sent on a coffee run.

As soon as I walk through the door, I'm greeted by my fathers assistant Julie she tells me which door to go through.
I can see all the actors in the waiting room. They look terrified. They're all wearing pretty much different versions of the same outfit and they all look pretty similar. They all have brown hair, muscular, and are wearing pretty basic clothes, just jeans and T-shirts. On closer inspection I can see that almost all of their T-shirts have a nerdy science joke on them.

I quickly turn around to head into the audition room when I bump straight into someone. I look up and meet a pair of chestnut eyes looking at me apologetically. "I'm so so sorry" he says putting his hands on my arms to steady me. He has the most gorgeous British accent. "Oh no it's fine don't worry. I should look where I'm going next time!" I replied with a giggle. A giggle? Really? Am I 12? I thought to myself. " Um... soo.. are you auditioning?" I asked.
" Yeah, I'm pretty nervous." He said. I could tell. He was shaking. I reach my hand out and place it reassuringly on his arm.
" I'm sure you'll do great!"
"Thank you, I hope so, this has all felt like a weird dream that I'm gonna wake up from any minute now."
" I know how you feel, but I can tell you now, this is definitely real!"
"I don't know if that's better or worse!" He laughed nervously. "If it's real it means that when I mess up there's nothing I can do about it. I can't just wake up and forget that I was almost Spider-Man!"
"Look on the bright inside, even if you don't get the role you'll at least get to meet my dad ahaha!"
"You're dad? Who's you're dad?"
"Wait, you really don't know? I thought that's the only reason you were still talking to me!"
"I really don't, is he one of the producers?"
"Hah! No."
"Who then? Come on, you have to tell me! What's you're name?"
"I guess you'll just have to find out!" I turn to walk into the audition room." See ya in there almost Spider-Man!"
He gives a small wave before I walk in. He still looks confused but I guess he'll find out soon enough.

"Hey Dad!" I say and he turns to greet me with a big hug.
"Hey kid, you took your time. I was getting worried. You should have called if you were gonna be late."
"Sorry dad I got caught talking to someone outside and I lost track of time. I'm here now though! Have you started auditions yet?"
"Not yet" said Kevin behind him. "This is our third round of auditions so this shouldn't take too long. We already have a good idea of who the actors are, we just want to see how they interact with Rob and Chris."

"Chris is here?" I say excitedly. I haven't seen uncle Chris since our Fourth of July party.
"I was summoned?" Chris said walking towards us. I ran over and went in my tipi toes to give him a big hug. I'm not exactly what you'd call tall. Coming in at a solid 5ft I've gotten used to always stretching for stuff. Including hugs!

"Hey Ali!" Chris says hugging me back and lifting me off the ground a little bit. "How are you?"
"Pretty good"I say, "I can't wait to get these auditions started!"
"Yes! Shall we?" Says Kevin.
"Go ahead" my dad said going to sit down at the desk at the front of the room.
Chris places me down again and follows my dad.
"Okay, bring them in" says Kevin and the door opens letting one of the actors in.

Hours pass. I've been watching wanna be Peter Parker's saying the same lines for so long and none of them have stood out. That's not saying they're bad actors. It's just that no one has stood out yet.

After what felt like the hundredth hopeful left the room I decided to go for a coffee run. "Hey who wants coffee?"
"Oh yes kid that would be great!" Said my dad
"Please, that'd be awesome ali" said Chris.

After I took everyone's orders I rushed out the door, eager to get some fresh air. As I passed the waiting room I could see there were only 5 or 6 people left. Thank God! I don't think I could handle much more of this. I spot my brown eyed mystery man sitting with some other blonde guy. They're laughing and chatting. He seems to have calmed his nerves a bit. I wave to him as I pass.He looks up at me and smiles. I see his friends eyes go wide. Well I guess there goes my secret identity.

When I get back there are only 2 people left in the waiting room. I spot the blonde boy from earlier but mr brown eyes is no where to be found. He must be in his audition!
I walk back into the audition room as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the scene in progress. I was right! Mr brown eyes is in the middle of a scene with my dad. I hand out the coffees but hold on to my dads until he's finished the scene.

I sit down to watch and wow! This kid is amazing! He's like a real life Spider-Man he's flipping and and cartwheeling like nobody's business.
He has great chemistry with my dad as well. They're bouncing off each other and you can feel the energy lift in the room. They finish the scene with Spider-Man flipping out of scene. Everyone claps. That was the one.

I walk over to my dad and hand him his coffee. "Here ya go dad, just how you like it!"
"Thanks kid, I'm exhausted"
My dad turns back to the boy he was just acting with and gives him a smile.
"Nice job! That was really good!"
The boy looks flabbergasted. He beams and thanks my dad.

"Wait, dad?" He says, looking at me now.
"Oh, yeah! Um... I'm Alice. Alice Downey."
"Hi wow it's so nice to meet you" he says putting his hand out for me to shake.
"I'm Tom."
"Tom..????"
"Oh right, uh Tom Holland."
His gorgeous British voice shaking a little.
"Lovely to meet you Tom. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of each other."
With that I grab my bag wave goodbye to everyone and head out the door.

I have a weird feeling about Tom. Just thinking about him gives me butterflies. Oh God. What am I getting myself into.