The Shadows and The Spotlight

Hey guys! This is my new story! I really hope you like it! Remember to comment, vote and fan. :D

PROLOGUE

The weekend had gone by agonizingly slowly. She had sat at her laptop all day, trying hard not to think about the week’s events and more trying to focus on what was to come. She was excited and nervous all at the same time for what Monday held. It might hold her future in acting and singing or it might give her a huge blow and cause her to never use her voice again.

            Talissa lies on her bed. It’s ten o’clock at night and she can’t sleep. She really should be trying but it’s so hard, what with the pounding fear in her veins. Rolling onto her side, she gropes into the darkness for her iPod. Maybe some music will calm her nerves and help her get to sleep. Slipping the purple and black headphones over her damp hair, she finds her playlist and begins to listen intently.

            She shuts her eyes as the steady beat of her music infiltrates her senses. She has to listen and it’ll be all okay tomorrow. Talissa steadies her breathing and begins to think. Remembering the visualization exercise her drama teacher used, she begins to delve into a different place.

            This place has the quiet buzz of the fluorescent lights above. There are motivational posters tacked on the single corkboard that sits outside the band room. Talissa starts down the hall, up the very slightest of slopes and past the door that leads outside. The hall is complete white; a shining white tiled floor glaring up at her and a much scratched, much worn ivory wall. She pauses after turning a corner, taking time to look up at all the framed posters of previously performed plays at her school. There was the play last year, then the poster for the One Acts, performed by the grade eleven’s and twelve’s. Grinning slightly at the memory, she continues on.

            After turning one more corner, she finds it. Just past the board with the black and white photos of the Dance Academy girls, there it is. The light brown wooden door, with a purple office door just to its left, stands there. Beside the office door is pictures from the play last year. There was her older brother’s best friend, dressed as a Spaniard, pointing a gun at the grey-suited boy she knew to be Thomas Burke.

            Tearing herself away from the old memories, she faces the light brown door that leads into the theatre. There taped to the door, is what she’s been waiting for. The cast list for this year’s musical, Footloose. Her eyes scan the paper. She finds the girls section, but before she can find her name, or any names for that matter, the song on her iPod changes and pulls her out of her reverie.

            Her eyes snapping open, she shoved the headphones of her ears and sits up. She shuts her iPod off after realizing that it’s beginning to near eleven o’clock. She pulls her covers over her shoulders and lies back down. She should really get to sleep.

            Tedious minute after tedious minute passes and still, Talissa can’t find sleep. She rolls onto her other side and lets her doubts come over her, letting her defenses of lies down. What if she didn’t make the cut? She remembered very clearly how her audition had gone. There had been so many people there. A boy from her past and the three directors of the play had all been present. Not only that, but there were workmen bringing mirror in to replace the worn out corkboard at the back of the theatre. She had been unable to sing the song she had chosen, groaning and complaining about not being able to do it. All the while, her friend had sat in the seats, the friend she had brought in for moral support. Her friend, watching her.

            She remembered her drama teacher, asking her if she could sing the national anthem. And so, she did. Interrupted by many nervous giggles and a shaking voice, she sang it. After this, she returned to her things, nearly in tears by how terribly that had gone and cried for the entire weekend. Shame welled in her stomach at the thought.