A Castle of Sand(103)

One of his entourage had her hand on his back, a tall wiry redhead who looked young enough to be a student herself, pushing him gently through the crowd. Liam was holding a newspaper up to his face, shielding his face from view. However, standing on the other side, I could see he looked tense, paler than this morning, his jaw tightly clenched. And then he was gone, inside the auditorium, and I found myself standing outside the doors.
“Right this way,” someone said, and I looked up. She was a 6th grade student, I recognized her from the hallways, and the few times I sat in during her classes. She was shoving a paper into my hand, and hurrying me inside. “Move along please. Only students, no one else.”
“What?” I asked my heart in my chest. Did she know my secret? After all these years, was it going to be a preteen girl who called me out? But she seemed already to be speaking to someone else, a mother standing at the front of the line with her arms around someone who was obviously her daughter. I ducked into the room before anyone else had spotted me, heading to the second row to take a seat. Only then did I look down at what was in my hand.
Auditions—Leopard Academy Scholarship Fund—Girls’ Day.
Below it was a script; an excerpt from what I quickly read was Beauty and the Beast. But it was the headline that got me. I must have gotten my dates mixed up—today was not the dress rehearsal. Today was the auditions for the scholarship that everyone always buzzed about. Every two years, Leopard Academy held auditions for one talented student to win a full scholarship to the school, for as long as they needed to attend before graduating. This was an old tradition that Liam’s grandfather had started, although I imagine it was even more popular now that Liam was the headmaster. The spots were coveted; people came from other countries just to be here today. And here I was, sitting in the second row, technically in line.
Before I could even get to my feet, or pull out my phone to text Sarah, another girl sat beside me, putting her feet up on the chair in front of us.
“Hi. I’m Alicia.”
“Uh … Amy,” I said, reaching out to shake hands.
“Did you bring a hardcopy of your headshot and résumé?” Alicia asked, rummaging through her bag frantically. “I mean, of course, I sent it online, but I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to bring a hard copy too?”
“Uh ... no,” I replied, with a shrug. After all, it was the truth, I wasn’t carrying a hardcopy of my headshot and resume with me. Never mind that I didn’t actually have either.
“Oh. Well, I’m sure it’s fine then.” She settled back into her seat, relaxing. “How long have you been acting?”
“Uh…not long,” I managed, looking at my watch. This place was packed and it was starting to look like even if I wanted to leave, I couldn’t. Not without attracting a lot of attention to myself. “You?”
“Since I was a fetus,” she replied, with a smile. “My mom did an ultrasound commercial when she was pregnant with me. And I did some diaper commercials, and it’s been go go go ever since.”
“Oh,” I said, impressed. She really did mean she had been acting forever.
“And I spent five years as a minor character on Lazy Workers,” she said, looking me up and down to see if I recognized her. I didn’t, but I nodded enthusiastically anyway.
“So…if you have all this experience…why do you want to audition here?” I asked. “I mean…if you’re already a fulltime actress, isn’t that a dream come true?”
“Well…” she bit her lip. “It was. But things have been hard since my dad left…and I haven’t been able to get much work lately. So my mom thought this would be a good opportunity for me. Plus, hello, Liam Swift is the headmaster here.” She nodded toward the stage, where we had seen Liam disappear. “He can teach me anything, anytime.” She winked at me.
“Sure,” I replied. I wanted to ask her more, about what it was actually like to be an actor; how it felt when it was your job and not just something you did because you were so in love with it. What was it like, to act every single day and get paid for it? I was about to open my mouth when the curtain rose. It seemed nothing official was starting quite yet, but Liam and his cronies were on the stage now. The redhead I had seen earlier was standing at the edge of the stage, scanning the crowd. Finally, she turned to him, and nodded.
He stepped forward, clearing his throat. Before he even got to say a word, the lights dimmed and a wave of applause broke out, followed by cheering. Liam glared out into the crowd, waiting for it to settle before he spoke.