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“When everything is falling apart, focus on the plan, Brody. Nothing else matters.”

This was actually a time when my father’s cold advice could help. The plan was unchanged. Help my father see that Marjory wasn’t the one for him. Push them to divorce before too much time passed and everything got harder.

If I had my way, Selena wouldn’t be my stepsister much longer… and it was becoming more than clear to me that that needed to happen, as soon as possible.

Selena

It was finally here.The day of the second auditions, and I couldn’t be more nervous. My fingers were shaking as I stuffed my bus pass into my bag and got off at the HHU campus.

Aisha had been texting me nonstop to remind me to come. Honestly, if she hadn’t, I might have chickened out a few times. But I was here, and I could see her waving from outside the drama building, so there was no escape.

I trudged up the path toward her, quiet and tense with nerves.

“Yay, you’re early. We can run lines again,” Aisha said.

“Run lines?” I repeated, distracted.

“Yeah, run lines, remember? That’s what the pros call it. You need to get with the lingo. I made you a flash card.” Aisha reached into her bag and removed a small purple index card with neat blue writing filling one side.

“You didn’t make this, seriously?”

“Oh, I made a lot more than that. Flash cards are my thing,” Aisha said with a smile as she opened the door to the building.

I laughed. She had managed to distract me from my nerves, that much was true.

“I love it.”

We walked down the hallway, following the signs leading us toward the second auditions. It was a whole lot quieter today than it had been the first day. The nerves came roaring back when we stepped into the waiting room. After signing in, we sat to wait, and Aisha took the play from her bag.

“Did you read it yet?”

“I started it, but I bet you’re already done.”

She smiled. “You know it. Which female role do you like?”

“Tell me which one you like…”

“Are you trying to copy my homework?” Aisha teased.

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Okay, so out of the female characters, there are some really good ones. Beatrice. She’s the feisty one. She doesn’t want to get married, ever. She fights for her cousin… Hero. Hero is the victim of the story, kind of. She’s a good girl, she does everything society asks of her, but she’s still accused of infidelity and scorned. Then there’s Margaret and Ursula, who are Hero’s ladies-in-waiting and have a hand in all the drama.”

“Those all sound like way-too-big roles. Maybe I could be Margaret.”

“She’s a flirt, she likes the boys, and unintentionally is part of something bad happening to Hero. I think you should go for Hero,” Aisha continued.

I snorted. “I’m no good girl. Sweet and innocent and all of that isn’t me. I’m definitely not a good enough actress to pull that off.”

Aisha laughed. “That’s why it’s called acting, duh. Anyway, the director will decide who she wants for which parts, so I guess we don’t really have a say anyway.”

“Yeah, probably not. I still might be able to snag housemaiden number six or something,” I sighed.

An hour later, Aisha was gone from the waiting room, and I was the last person called in. The nerves had grown so much as I’d sat there waiting, that I’d nearly gotten up and left a million times. Just when I’d been considering going again, they called me.

The second audition room was smaller, and that was the first thing that tightened my stomach.

Before, there had at least been space between me and the panel, enough distance that I could pretend they weren’t really seeing me, not properly, not in a way that mattered. Now, there was nowhere to hide. The table felt closer, the room more enclosed, and every pair of eyes that lifted toward me as I stepped inside seemed sharper somehow, more deliberate.