Beautiful Monster(11)

              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 resume?” 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 full time 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 head master here,” she nodded towards 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.
              “Welcome to the Auditions for the scholarship fund. Students the academy have funded over the years have gone on to do great things including TV, movies, and Broadway. Every second year, we accept one person, gender and age not being a factor, and fund them for as long as they need to be at this school - Kindergarten through graduation, if need be. This student will have the same rights and privileges of any student here at the Academy. It’s quite the opportunity.” He paused for applause. “So hopefully, it’s in one of you. You’ll each get two minutes to read the script, and then you’ll be asked to move on. If the panel likes you, you’ll be asked for your contact details outside when you exit. So, let’s get started,” he said, indicating that the rest of his entourage should head down to where the panel normally sat, in front of the first row, facing the stage. “Rows one and two, come line up. And please, two minutes, and then exit. Nothing more,” he said, and then walked away from the microphone, oblivious to the applause.