In the Spotlight

Call Me Back

Chapter 11:

I looked up to the man behind Carson. The first thing I saw was the material of a navy blue suit. I strained my neck upwards, past a red tie, and my eyes landed on the strictest face I had ever seen. His face was sort of round, but his smile was small and not at all friendly. This man must have been at least six feet, considering he towered over everyone else in the room.

"Hello Jenny." Even his voice had a sense of finality to it that made me want to cringe.

"Hi Mr. Wellington. It's nice to meet you." I replied after a few seconds. Hoping my smile would pass as confident, I took his outstretched hand.

"Nice to finally meet you too." My hand was released from his firm grip and he looked around. "I'm just going to talk to Harald, he's an old friend of mine." And he was gone, just like that.

"Can that man get any scarier?" I mumbled under my breath, and Carson grinned at my facial expression.

"Yes, he can, he's thankfully in a good mood today. Now, why don't you practice the bridge of your song for me? You were struggling with that, right?"

"Uh, yeah." I opened my mouth and took a deep breath, making sure my stomach inflated. Then, I opened up my voice and sang, making sure to make my sound open and pretty.

"Don't be offended by my frank analysis. Think of it as personality dialysis. Now that I've chosen to become your pal your sister and... Darn it! I messed up, did you hear that? I totally just forgot to breathe after 'dialysis' and messed up my song!"

"It's OK, I think it sounded fine!" Carson said.

"Uh, no, you wouldn't even know since you're not a singer. First the Casting Directors frown at my acting audition, and now they're all going to hate my singing audition!"

"Jenny, why don't you calm down and find a quiet section of the auditorium to practice? I'll call you over here when you have 5 minutes left before the audition to see what you've done." I glared at him and walked to the back of the theater.

"Hi. Do you mind hearing me sing? Carson doesn't understand singing, and I was hoping you could give me an honest opinion on how I sounded." Jack stopped humming and smiled.

"Uh, sure! If you'll do the same for me." I nodded. "OK, I'm ready. Sing to me!"

I checked my breathing, positioning, and memory before starting the song.

"Wait, right there. What are the words?"

"You'll be good at sports."

"You didn't support your voice right there. It sounded breathy. Try it again, but remember to breathe before hand so you can support the word 'sports'. Got it?"

"Yeah. Where did you get so good with singing?"

"Ah, I take voice lessons all year. Sorry, I probably sound stupid." Jack blushed.

"No, it's great. I think that's kind of cool actually." I said. "OK, how does this sound?"

I sung again, and when I closed my mouth Jack smiled. "That's much better. I think that you still need to support your sound a bit more, but if you do that you'll be golden."

"Thanks!"

"No problem."

We sat awkwardly while I wrote down a few things I need to remember before I start singing. "So, have you had any experience with all of this?"

"Yeah." Jack looked back down at his song lyrics.

"Like..." I bumped him with my shoulder, and he laughed.