Beautiful Monster(66)

"Right," I muttered and Shannon sighed, sitting back down.
"Continue."
It seemed everything I did was wrong. I was taught to never have my back to the audience, yet Shannon screamed at me when I didn't turn properly to leave. I thought I was supposed to be Gatsby's biggest fan, but we never even crossed each other’s paths.
By the end of the rehearsal, I wanted nothing more than to collapse into a ball and cry. Everyone was glancing at me, yet no one said a word to me as I gathered my stuff. I turned to see if Porsche wanted to walk home with me, but she was deep in conversation with the other dancers.
Zipping up my coat, I headed out the door alone. My phone was blinking with several messages from Sarah, wanting to know how it went. Ignoring them, I shoved my hands into my pocket, ducking my head against the wind. The weather seemed a lot more miserable this afternoon, but perhaps that was just my attitude. I felt so lost and confused. No one else needed to be corrected in their actions. I thought I knew what I was doing, but it was clear I was well out of my depth.#p#分页标题#e#
I grabbed some lunch in the canteen quickly, a quick sandwich that I unwrapped and ate in the hallway. I didn't even want to talk to my Dad.
I was grateful to slip into the familiar theater, at school, and clamored on the stage where I knew my place. Liam and Deon were already there, with the rest of the cast. They had started half an hour earlier, allowing me time for lunch. One of the stage assistants was reading my lines, and I tapped her on the shoulder. She smiled and nodded, and I turned my attention to the scene.
“The soup is delicious."
"Only the best for you." They said in unison, and I burst into laughter, the first time I had laughed all morning. With Liam doing only one show, and directing the rest, I knew he wasn't as strong on the lines yet. Clearly, they had decided to do a run through. Sitting on the stage, as they weren't going through formal blocking, I fed them lines and let them reply together; each one helping the other when they got stuck. They sounded like a two headed dragon, and the rest of the theater was soon giggling along with me.
"I love you ... Beasts," I said, with a grin on my face as I closed the scene. The rest of the cast burst into applause. Even Liam met my eyes and smiled. It was the nicest we had been to each other in weeks, but I couldn't help it. I felt so relieved to be here and not screamed at every four minutes.
"Thank you, Deon," Liam said. "That helped, a lot."
"It got a pretty good reaction. Let's do the shows like that." Deon replied as he wandered over to me. "Hey Amy, how would you like to be double-teamed?"
"Whaaa?" My jaw fell open and he grinned, offering me a hand up.
"How was rehearsal with the pros?"
"I don't really want to talk about it," I said, and Liam looked over. The concern in his eyes was prominent, and it was a look I hadn't seen in a long while.
"What happened?" he asked softly. I was tempted for a moment not to tell him, but it all came tumbling out.
"Everything I did was wrong. Shannon did a full run through and told us to do what 'feels right'. But apparently everything I did felt wrong to her. She called me out every second."
"Shannon has some strange ways," Liam said. "No one else I know has ever done that. Don't worry about it, Amy, doing something like that will come with time."
"But I..."
"She cast you and she doesn't even cast the Chorus unless they are amazing," he assured me.
"Thanks," I replied, quietly. We met each other's eyes for a moment and I couldn’t help but feel the urge to reach out and touch him again. Then the moment was broken by the flickering of the stage lights.
"So today is going to be a bit different," Liam said, as the rest of the cast gathered around. "We're running out of time, and I admit part of that is my fault. So we’re just going to do a run through, scene by scene, once with Deon and then once with me. It'll help all of you, because you get two chances to work on things. Now, I know Deon and I play very different Beasts. So I want you to react differently to each of us. Just do what feels right, and I'm positive it'll be just fine." His eyes met mine again and I smiled, softly.
"How late are we going to go tonight, with two run throughs?" Someone asked, and Liam answered without ever taking his eyes off mine.
"I guarantee you'll be done by sunset," he said, and I couldn't help but smirk. We met eyes, sharing a private secret, and just for a moment, I moved my mouth, baring fake fangs at him with a hiss. He struggled to contain his laughter.
"Alright, Deon, let's have you go first so that I can have a bit more time to frantically memorize." He said, and everyone laughed as he shooed us off stage to our respective places.