Since the start of the school year, Ellie has been preparing for the first school play of the year. Ellie is a fairly quite student, preferring to stay in the shadows. She doesn't like drawing attention to herself. But when it comes to actings, that's the one thing she's comfortable doing.
She doesn't mind the attention while she's on stage, but outside, she goes back to how she usually is.
Aaron and Anthony often encourage her to audition for roles and are always supporting her. They often help with rehearse the lines and calm her nerves whenever she's on the verge of having a breakdown.
"Are you nervous?" Anthony asked.
"Little," she admitted while she was waiting for her name to be called.
"You're prepared for the role," Aaron said. "You'll do great."
His confidence in Ellie made her feel better.
Abigail Adams High School is planning on doing Beauty and the Beast. Ellie planned on auditioning for the lead role, Belle.
"You're the perfect Belle," Anthony smiled.
"I hope Mr. Smith thinks the same," Ellie said.
"He will," Aaron said, confidently.
Ellie opened her mouth to respond but right at that moment Mr. Smith called, "Ellie Turner!"
She bit her lip and glanced at her friends. They nudged her go to up on stage and audition.
"You're auditioning for the role of..."
"Belle," Ellie said.
"Alright," he said.
Mr. Smith had Ellie perform a song and right after that, he chose a random scene from Beauty and the Beast and he would read out all the lines except for Belle and Ellie would have to recite Belle's line and act.
"Well done, Miss. Turner," Mr. Smith said, impressed. "Thank you."
Ellie smiled.
"You will find out if you made into the play and the role next week," Mr. Smith informed her.
"Thank you, Mr. Smith," she said before walking off the stage.
"Farkle Minkus!" he called as Ellie walked off the stage.
"You did great!" Aaron said, happily.
He held up his hand for a high five.
Ellie laughed happily at her friends reaction. She high fived Aaron.
"Did you hear that?" Anthony said, excitedly. "He said you did great. He might have you in the play."
"I really hope so," she said.
Farkle Minkus was auditioning on stage.
Aaron looked over at the stage.
"He doesn't seem to have given up on being in a school play, has he?" Aaron asked.
"Who?" Anthony said, looking around.
"Farkle Minkus," he said.
"He's been auditioning since his ban from the drama has been lifted," Ellie said. "I think it's great that he hasn't given up. He's not the best, but it's cute, I guess."
"You like him?" Anthony asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, I don't," she said. "I just think it's cute that he hasn't given up on acting."
Ellie glanced behind her to see Farkle perform. He had finished and was walking off stage.
"If he gets into the play, I'd be really surprised," Anthony said.
"Yeah, me too," Aaron agreed.
"I'm going to head home now," Anthony said. "My mom's making spaghetti tonight."
"Ooh, can I come over?" Aaron asked. "I love your moms spaghetti."
"Yeah, sure," Anthony said. "Come on, let's go."
Aaron smiled, happily.
"I'll see you two tomorrow," Ellie said.
"Yeah," Aaron said.
Ellie hugged both of her best friends before they left.
"Hi, Ellie," Farkle Minkus said.
Ellie turned around to face Farkle.
"Hi, Farkle," Ellie greeted him.
"You did great up there," Farkle complimented. "I'm sure you'll get the lead."
"I really hope so," she said. "And you did..." Ellie tried to find a way to tell Farkle that he did great, but the truth is, he did terrible.
"Tell me the truth," Farkle said. "You've been acting for years."
"Are you sure you want me to tell you the truth?" Ellie asked.
Farkle nodded.
"You did terrible," she said.
"I can't be that bad," Farkle said.
"You are," Ellie said, honestly. "You're gonna need acting lessons. Lots of them."
"Will you teach me?" Farkle asked.
"You want me to teach you?" Ellie asked, surprised.
Farkle nodded, hopefully.
"I really want to be a star of a play," Farkle said. "You're always the lead role, if not, you at least had an important role in the play. I wanna know how you do it."
"I don't know, Farkle," she said. "I'm quite busy with school and my brothers..."
"Oh," Farkle said, disappointedly.
"I'm sorry," she said. "You have my number, right?"
"Yeah," he nodded.
"If you're really serious about acting, text me and I'll direct you to an acting class," she said. "I took a few acting classes there and I really benefited from it and I'm sure you'll learn lots there."
"Thank you," Farkle said. "In the next play, do you want to prepare for the auditions together?"
"Uh," she hesitated, "yeah, sure."
"Great," Farkle said, smiling.
"I've got to go," Ellie said. "I'll see you tomorrow in class."
"Yeah," Farkle said.
"Bye," she smiled at him before leaving.
"See ya," he said, waving at her as she walked away.
Ellie could sense Farkle's eyes on her as she walked away.
***
The following week came around and Ellie greeted her friend when she got to school.
"Hey, guys," Ellie greeted Anthony and Aaron.
"Hey."
"Did you see the cast list yet?" Aaron asked.
"Not yet," she said.
"Let's go check," Anthony said.
Ellie led the way to the bulletin board outside of Mr. Smith's classroom to see the cast list. She held onto Aaron's arm. She bit her lip as she looked at the list. Her jaw dropped slightly opened.
"I made it," she said. "I did it! I'm going to be Belle!"
A few of her peers gave Ellie weird and confused looks as they passed.
"You did?" Anthony said, his eyes widening in excitement.
"That's great!" Aaron said, happily.
Aaron and Anthony both hugged Ellie tightly.
"We'll be in the front row on the first day of performances," Aaron promised.
"Yeah," Anthony said. "We're going to celebrate when the performances are over."
Aaron nodded in agreement.
"Thanks, guys," Ellie said, looking at her friends. "Class is starting soon. We better get to class."