From Here On Out

16

Daveed was sitting in the student center, his face staring blankly at the illuminated screen in front of him. His pencil was forming an unintentional melody from the nervous beating he was doing. He was running out of time and trying to do some schoolwork but his mind was far too occupied.

He couldn't seem to stop thinking about her. It had been a week since they'd gotten coffee and in between he had pulled out all the stops on flirting. He even felt like she had as well. It put him at a conundrum, well kind of, because now there was no doubt in his mind that he had a crush on her. The only thing puzzling him was when did it begin and did she feel it too?

Ask him three months ago, and he'd say he never once thought of Emmy in a romantic way. Now, he didn't know if that was as true as it once was. He really liked her now, but maybe Rafa was right, maybe he had liked her all along. Daveed couldn't come to a clear answer to that.

He also had zero idea of how she felt. It was obvious she liked what they'd been doing, but she had given no signs of where her deeper emotions were. He really believed that she was back to considering him a friend, but beyond that was hazy.

He had to get his mind right. He couldn't get his hopes up and start falling for her. She might not feel the same way, and besides, they didn't need another thing to mess up the friendship they were just now building back.

His eyes glanced up at the large clock that sat on the walls. He knew that he hadn't hardly studied enough or accomplished half the things he wanted when he took a seat 2 hours ago, but it was time for rehearsal.

It was Rehearsal block but really today it could be called Audition block. Lora had finally made up her mind and they were indeed doing Into the Woods. Today was their first round of auditions.

He packed up his stuff and headed out towards the auditorium. They could sing any song they wanted for auditions, and he figured most people would just do a song off the soundtrack. That's why he was doing 'For Forever' from Dear Evan Hansen. He didn't think anyone else would do it, so it'd make him unique.

Daveed stepped through the doors and spotted all his friends down stage warming up. He held on to the backpack that he still had and galloped down the stairs. Sitting in a circle were Jasmine, Emmy, Anthony, and Mary.

When Daveed walked up to join them, they were doing some kind of vocal warm up. They were doing rounds and rounds of s sounds increasing and decreasing the scales as they went on. Daveed sat down and found a place to join in, although he wasn't really one for warming up.

Everyone was so focused they hardly noticed he'd even walked up, but he did catch Emmy winking at him after the first round he had joined in. She was doing 'Stay With Me' from the soundtrack. He'd heard her practicing the last few days, and god, her voice was absolutely breathtaking.

Around the group, Jasmine, Anthony, and Mary had the same idea as him. They all chose outside songs in attempts to be different, but in doing that, they had become very similar. Jasmine was doing her own version of 'What's Love Got to do With It' and Mary was doing 'Pray You Catch Me'. Anthony, well... Anthony was doing some Cats song. Everyone had tried to talk him out of it, but he was persistent.

Lora moved to the head of the stage and captured everyone's attention. She explained that they would be starting soon.

In the back of the auditorium was a hall of dressing rooms. Their teacher said that this is where they would be waiting while auditions were happening. She would call them out one by one, and once they were done with their individual auditions they would be done with the class for the day.

All of the students were excited about this prospect because it meant they could be done with class early. They all stood up and headed towards the back. Jasmine, Emmy, Mary, Daveed, and Anthony all gathered in one room.