Wish: A Hamilton Fanfiction

Chapter 6: Carson

The sound of a door opening and closing came from the back of the theater. We all paused what we were doing for a moment to question what was going on. A few of the cast members started heading towards that door; a few people followed them but they motioned for us to stay where we were. Nervousness filled my chest. What? 

"Man, I'm so sorry. The subway broke down and it took forever to get here. I hope I didn't miss anything." came a voice. 

"Today was not a good day to be late," someone said sternly. "Come inside and introduce yourself."

The people who had left rounded the corner and for a minute I couldn't see who was behind them. And then I did. For a minute I couldn't see anything but this person. 

"Hey I'm Carson, he/him/his and I'm Lin's shadow." he said. Mariah jabbed me hard with her elbow. I just rolled my eyes. Sure, he was attractive, but I didn't even know him. No way was I already having a crush. Noelle leaned over, and reading our expressions, whispered in our ears.

"Don't- seriously, he looks like trouble and it's better to keep your feelings away from your career." Mariah glared at her, hard. 

"Mariah there has to be a story, calm down, we can talk to her later." I attempted. She seemed to relax a little. To her dismay, and definitely not mine, he was placed in a different group. Lin clapped his hands to get our attention.

"My group, you're free to go hang out in the dressing rooms or wherever. We'll do more things once the other groups are done." Mariah practically dragged me over to Noelle, who held up her hand as soon as Mariah opened her mouth.

"I know what you're going to say, but trust me I have been here before. It's better to keep your feelings out of your career. When I was fourteen I met a really nice guy while I was in a student film. We had so much in common and pretty soon we were going out. Turns out he just wanted to use me to make another girl on set jealous and that definitely ruined our chemistry on camera and messed with my head. He just looks like trouble and I don't want the same thing to happen to you."

I understood where Noelle was coming from. Obviously she had experience, but wasn't she jumping to conclusions too soon? Carson seemed nice enough and we'd barely known him for all of an hour. And Mariah knew how to be careful. It wasn't like anything bad could happen. 

Just then Carson walked up. "Uh...hey. You play Eliza right?" he asked, looking at me. His dark eyes caught me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered at that moment. It took me a second to come to my senses. Mariah elbowed me hard, looking a little annoyed. 

"Oh, yeah, I'm shadowing Phillipa. Carson, right? I'm Zoeyla but you can call me Zoey." I said with a smile. He held out his hand and I shook it. 

"I'm excited to work with you. You look like I'd want to, I mean, you look like a great actor," he mumbled nervously. Mariah shot me a harder glare. Noelle just looked done with our drama for the day. 

Mariah's mood flipped like a switch and she seemed to glitter beside me. "I'm Mariah and I'm shadowing Jasmine. I can't wait to work with you as well." 

For a minute Carson was enchanted by her and I didn't blame him. She cleared her throat softly and he came back to life. "Uh, cool. That's great." he said. A slight frown appeared on her face but she shook it away. 

"Carson!" Brian yelled from down the hall. "Get in here!" Carson offered a lopsided smile before dashing off down the hall. 

"See ya Zoey!" he called over his shoulder. Mariah glanced at me harshly, stalking out the door to a different dressing room. 

"Sorry Zo but I should probably go see if she's okay," Noelle murmured apologetically. Fine, be that way. I glanced across the space to where a few of the ensemble shadows were gathered. One of them, Claire, caught my eye and motioned me over. 

"Where're your sisters?" Amelie asked. A dark haired girl (who I was pretty sure was named Skylar) nudged her sharply. "Oh, sorry!" I just shook my head.

"No it's fine, um they went to a different dressing room," I attempted. This trio of girls was actually pretty nice and I ended up sitting with them while we ate. We talked about all kinds of things. Claire was probably the most positive person I've ever met even though her life hadn't been the greatest. Amelie had gotten into acting after a knee injury meant she wouldn't be able to play basketball again. "It was too bad." she said. She'd been planning on a professional ball career; a few months after her injury, scouts arrived at her school and picked a few girls to give careers to. 

"It sucked watching some of them, especially the ones who weren't projected to be picked up, getting an opportunity instead of me. It killed me, when you're sixteen-seventeen you have your entire life planned out in front of you." Amelie's mom signed her up for acting classes in an attempt to get her out of the house and she'd fallen in love. Skylar had immigrated from Columbia at four and was doing her best to live her American Dream, for her parents. They wanted the best for her and did their best to support her through her newfound acting career. She found it admirable and attempted to prove herself worthy of her parents' support. 

Mariah avoided me for the rest of the day with Noelle shooting me apologetic looks from next to her. Claire did her best to distract me, and the other girls joined in. I felt only slightly better at the end of rehearsal because I'd actually succeeded. Even though I'd never taken singing lessons it seemed people thought I was a "natural", whatever that meant. I was feeling upbeat for once until I realized one key issue.

"Um...do any of you know somewhere I could stay?" I blurted out to a room full of about 3 cast members and 7 shadows. It was true that Ellie's family had offered to let me stay at their house, but they weren't very close to the theatre and I didn't want to keep inconveniencing them. But I'd probably have to go back there anyway and pretend me staying there was fine.

a/n

editing done

why did my author's notes used to be so bad, anyways, i hope you are enjoying reading/re-reading wish so far!

see you next chapter! 

also, it means so much to me to read your comments, and even if you aren't commenting i know you're there and thank you for reading <3