Realize Your Potential (H.S)

Chapter Thirty-One

"Welcome to the callbacks for Heathers!" he continues.

We all cheer and clap for a moment, which helps my nerves for a moment as they're mixed in with excitement.

"I'm so glad that you could all make it today. You all had an awesome audition process, which is why we have invited you all back today to complete the next step in our process," Daniel continues.

As Daniel talks, I take a moment to study the stage. Our set from The Glass Menagerie has now been taken down, which makes my heart a little heavy. However, I know that only in a matter of weeks a new set will be built just for Heathers and a new world will be born.

Until then though, the stage is completely empty aside from a piano and drum set that are a bit off to the side. The vacant space will soon be used for us to run our scenes for Daniel, allowing us to give him all we've got to hopefully land a role.

My attention now shifts back to Daniel who is wrapping up his little speech.

"In just a moment we will be splitting you off into groups to do some harmonizing with our musical director, and some of you who we're interested in playing some of our leads will also have the chance to do some solos. Then we'll move onto the acting portion."

I take a deep breath.

Okay. At least we're getting the singing out of the way first.

"However, I'm going to need some help from our musical department to help us get the ball rolling, so..."

Daniel walks towards the theatre door and opens it, sticking his head out as he calls down the hallway.

"Gideon, you guys can come in now."

Daniel then holds the door open wide so that our new guests can join us. The first one through the door is Gideon Burke, who is all smiles as he offers us a wave. Then four familiar faces follow behind him, carrying their instruments along with them.

"Hello! For those of you who don't really know me, I'm Gideon Burke. I'm the head of the music department here, and I'll also be our musical director for Heathers. With me, I have some students from our music program who will be hopefully helping us out as well. Boys, why don't you introduce yourselves."

The boys go down the line as they each say their names and I can see girls all in the rows in front of me squirming in their chairs. One of them even bumps her friend's shoulder as I see her point towards Liam. The whole thing makes me laugh to myself.

"Shall we get started?" Gideon asks, directing his attention towards Daniel.

"Definitely," Daniel says, not producing a list from his table of papers. "Our first group up for harmonizing will be Jennifer Loehr, Nicole Dewitt, and Anika Cooper. Then we'll have a solo from Nat Grimmond following that."

At the mention of Nat, the boys all begin to hoot and holler until Gideon silences them with a look.

"Well, time to shine," Nat says to Evan and myself as she makes her way down to the stage. We both offer her a "break a leg" as she goes, but I can already tell that she doesn't need it.

The theatre grows silent as the boys take their places on stage, dropping their amps and plugging in as they strum a little to get warm. Louis even plays his drumsticks in the air a little, but doesn't dare actually hit his snare.

"Alright, ladies. We're going to start from the top and you each sing the part assigned to you. Don't be nervous. I'm sure you're all wonderful," Gideon says, taking a seat at the piano.

Counting off, Gideon begins playing and the boys instantly come alive as they play lightly along with him. They sound amazing, but unfortunately the girls do not. They're either too quiet due to nerves or slightly off pitch. I can tell I'm not the only one who notices as Niall shoots Liam a look, never missing a note of his own music.