Dear Ocean Sky

Chapter 6.1 | Alex

It was the day of auditions and Alex was petrified. She had been practicing, rehearsing like crazy the past two weeks but she still felt every nerve in her body going into hyperspeed. She bounced her foot nervously in every class in addition to biting her lip. By the time lunch hit you would have thought Alex had seriously injured her bottom lip, it was swollen so badly.

The last three class periods of the day were unbearable. Alex couldn't even handle yearbook, which was a class she normally liked seeing as she could pretty much avoid all people, and just take pictures. But she made it through the end of the day. She almost forgot to go back to her locker and get her backpack as she was rushing off to the stage.

She arrived just as Mr. Benj was walking in to give everyone a quick pep talk. He beamed at Alex as she walked in and set her stuff in a corner of the stage.

"Ok everyone," he said, clasping his hands together. "I want you all to shake all those nerves away. Today is going to be fun and you're going to give us all you have. I'm sure you've all worked hard, and if you have no need to be nervous. If you haven't then you might want to start shaking. It will show if you're not prepared, but we can tell if you've put in the work." Mr. Benj paused. "Now here's how this is going to work. Zoe and Carmen over there," he pointed to the two girls sitting behind a table who waved when he said their names, "have the time slots you all signed up for, along with your cold reads, and cold read partners. I want you to be quiet for them so everyone can hear when they call your name. We will be doing singing auditions first and then monologues. Sound good? You may practice out in the cafe, but be sure to come back when there's about ten minutes before the time you signed up for." There were nods and people started to leave for the cafeteria, but Mr. Benj held his hand up for them to stop.

"I want you all to do a vocal warmup together once I leave, but before that, we're going to do the Hokey Pokey to shake away all those nerves." He smiled goofily and multiple kids around the room looked at each other, perplexed. Alex however, almost expected this coming from Mr. Benj so she wasn't too surprised when he started singing.

"Youuuuu put your right arm in. You put your right arm out..." he went on and kids began joining in. More and more people joined as they went on, and Alex could slowly feel her nerves slipping away. The song began speeding up and getting louder.

"You put your full self in! You put your full self out! You put your full self in and you shake it all about! You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around, that's what it's all about!" Everyone started laughing, including Alex.

"Alright then everyone! I'll see you in there! Break a leg!" Mr. Benj called over the laughter as he exited.

After Mr. Benj left, Alex was feeling better than she had all day. She realized everyone else was just as nervous as she was, and all these people were in the same place. Somehow knowing that made it a lot easier for her to calm her churning stomach.

After the laughter died down, Zoe had everyone start a vocal warmup. Then she told everyone they had about five minutes before she called the first person to go sing. Alex pulled up her karaoke track, knowing she had chosen the first slot because apparently, she thought getting the torture over with before anyone else would be a good idea. She was starting to think differently.

Alex started singing her song under her breath. She had practiced endlessly, perfecting every switch from chest voice to head voice so that you couldn't hear her break. She spent hours finding her mixed voice. She spent ten minutes each day before practicing just doing scales, yet, even with all of that work she put in, Alex felt as though the minute she walked into that room she would forget everything she had worked on.

"Alex! Alex you're up first!" Zoe yelled.

Alex went over to the table where Carmen and Zoe were so they could mark her off. Carmen gave her a sweet smile. "Break a leg!" she said. Alex just nodded in reply, too much in her own head to do much else.