“How was auditions?” Scott asked at Lunch. We were in an adorable little cafe thing that existed just outside the school gates. Because we were seniors, we were allowed out during lunch – something that was totally banned in my old school. Loads of guys came here at lunch, but Scott had bagged us the best table in the corner of the room.
“Oh my God,” I said, rolling my eyes. “It was awful. I mean, come on. I can’t, like, dance.”
Realizing how very gay I sounded, I tried to cover it up.
“You know,” I said, in a gruff manly voice. That was still kind of British. “Because I have such big feet.” Was that something guys said? It was sure as hell not something girls said.
Scott laughed.
“Er, yeah. I have the same problem.”
I blushed. God, I sound stupid.
“You know, they’re putting up the results of the auditions tonight, and they’re finally telling us what musical we’re doing.”
“Thank god,” I sighed, “I did badly. I would die if I knew I had a major part in the musical. I can’t dance. At all. My audition was just me shimmying along to some ballet music.”
Finished my egg muffin thing and coffee, and went back to school. Only two more lessons until they set up free! (And find out what crappy, nameless part I got in the audition.)
It was Art and History…Which was okayish. Thank God it didn’t involve pirouettes and linear graphs. I was okay at drawing…sort of. And History was fine, apart from they were in the middle of the English history, and I was utterly lost. The only thing I have to say is, homework was OTT. I’ve forgotten how annoying homework was, and how much I hated it.
On my way back to my room, I walked past a massive crowd of (HOT!) guys, and I stopped. What the hell were they surrounding? I tried to push through the crowd, getting grinded on and squashed as I tried. Finally, I reached the front. It was the results for the auditions.
The first thing I saw was the massive 80-point title.
ROMEO AND JULIET, THE HALLOWEEN MUSICAL! Adapted and edited by Scott Jacobs.
So Scott did know what the play would be on. Why didn’t he tell me? It was kinda obvious it would be him doing the editing since he was a musical genius. Oh God, the all-guy version of Romeo and Juliet (with one girl. Me.). It was going to be EPIC!
Then came the list of the names.
Montague: Jack Johnson
Lady Montague: Anthony Williams
Romeo: Daniel Smith (Why? That bloody bastard didn’t even audition!)
Benvolio: …
I couldn't be bothered to look at the rest. I scanned down the page, being jostled by thirty angry guys, all of them crying about a part they didn’t get. The one part I wanted to see was Juliet. What poor, sad bastard is going to have to play alongside Daniel?
My eyes finally fell on the words.
…
Lady Capulet: Adam Thomas
Paris: Unknown
And there it was printed, black and white.
Juliet: Eric Miller
OH MY EFFING GOD.
***
I ran back to my room, slamming the door open. Daniel was there (topless!!!), lounging on the bed, flicking through a US Weekly that had his own face on his front page.
“I’m sorry, Daniel!” I yelled, and tears came to my eyes. “I’m sorry for kicking you, okay? I’m really, really sorry!”
He didn’t even look up.
“I forgive you.”
I stumbled and fell on his bed, next to him.
“Really…?” I asked, suspicious.
“Sure,” he said, flicking to the next page (and I watched as the muscles in his arm moved. God, he was hot). This was weird. It felt way too easy. Isn’t he meant to yell and demand I kiss him or something (though that wouldn’t really be a punishment then, would it)?
“Really?”
“Yes!”
“Why would you?”
He glared at me.
“You apologized well enough, and you seem sincere. There’s no reason for me to still want to hold it against you, right?”
“So you’re going to let it go? Just like that?”
He nodded.
Wow. He was actually way more mature than I thought. Maybe that’s why I’m not used to that. Ben was the kind of guy you have to kneel down in front of and beg, before he accepted your apology. Now I think about it, that’s not very normal, is it?
“Then can you…tell them that I don’t want to be Juliet?”
This got his attention.
“You’re Juliet?” he asked, incredulous. Kind of offensive, but I knew where he was coming from. After all, he did see my audition.
“Didn't you know? Wasn’t it you who made me Juliet? You know, as revenge?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head, annoyed. “I’m Romeo, aren’t I?”
I nodded.
He let out a bunch of swear words. Nice.
“Damn it!” he said, leaning back and shoving a pillow over his own head. “Fuck!”
I left him at the suffocating-himself thing, grabbed my PJs and a toothbrush. He was annoyed, which scared me. I guess I would just have to find somewhere else to stay tonight.
Room 11 was empty, so I slid in.
***Next Morning - Day 3***
“But why?”
The dance teacher was busy positioning a guy into a very flexible one-legged position, and didn’t answer me until he was done.
“It’s you face, mainly,” he said, fixing the next guy’s position by running a hand under his stomach. “You have the most feminine face in the whole school.”
True. This morning, I went into a toilet (forgetting I’m a boy’s school. Ew. Urinals) and was shoved out by a dozen screams of, “It’s a girl!”. Either I’m the world’s crappiest actor, or yes, I do have a very feminine face. Being an actor, guess which one I’m leaning towards?
“But I’m an awful dancer! You saw my audition yesterday, I was utterly terrible!”
“Well,” he said, moving on again, reaching the next guy. “You can always learn. It’ll be pretty easy, just some footwork and a few arms. You can twirl, right?”
“No!”
“Well, someone can teach you, I’m sure,” he said, slapping the butt of another guy.
And I left. It was utterly useless talking to him.
I flipped open my phone, dialed Cris’ number.
“Cris?” I hissed, as he picked up immediately. He’d left me a couple missed calls already. “Help me! I have to play Juliet in the school play, and I can’t do it –”
“Your school is doing Romeo and Juliet?” he asked, excited suddenly. “The All Boys School?”
“What other school could I be talking about?!” I yelled. Then I lowered my voice, as a group of fit guys passed me (are all the guys here unbelievably cute?!). “Please get me out of here, I have to play Juliet, and Romeo is Daniel Smith, who is like, the biggest Jerk in the world! And he’s my roommate! He hates me so bad, I had to sleep somewhere else last night!”
Not technically true, but if it gets me out of here before my acting/dancing/singing skills are mocked any more by Daniel Smith, I’m willing to make any sacrifice. Including committing a sin.
At first I thought it was a bad patch of no-service, when I realized it was in fact Cris screaming down the phone.
“OH MY GOD DANIEL SMITH IS YOUR ROOMMATE?!”
I sighed.
“Cris, he’s not playing for your team.”
“How do you know?” he sounded offended.
“Trust me,” I said. “I know.” Because if he does play for Cris’ team I will kill myself.
“Oh Ricky, did I tell you? You have a job on Saturday!”
I spluttered.
“What?! I’m in a boarding school, how the hell am I meant to do a job?”
“You’re allowed out on weekends, right? And just because you’re in a Boy’s School does not mean you get to relax and do no jobs. As your manager, that would be irresponsible of me.”
“And letting a pretty young girl into a horde of horny teenage boys is responsible?” I asked, incredulous.
“Well,” he said, faltering. “That’s different.”
“How?”
“Because you enjoy being in a horde of horny teenage boys.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
“It’s the best way to get over Ben,” he added. Now that, I could argue against.
“Cris, any guy who falls for me while I’m pretending to be a boy, if definitely not the guy I’m looking for.”
“I wish I were you right now,” Cris said, sighing wistfully. “Anyway, your job. It’s just in LA, and it’s a simple modeling job for ELLE. Just some of this season’s dresses and you're the centre-spread – you get six whole pages! Oh, and you also get to take home a couple dresses you like.”
“Great, Cris. I’ll be there.”
“Awesome!” he said, and not even his gay sense could pick up my well-hidden angst. Maybe I can act. “I’ll text you the details later.”
I snapped my phone shut. Damn it. Not even Cris cared. I’m faced with two choice; play Juliet, or run away.
Guess what I’m doing?
***
Author's Note: I wish I was in a horde of horny teenage boys. LOL, Horn.
Ok, trying to find good pick of Erica being Eric, but it's actually pretty hard. I mean, I could just be boring and give you guys a picture of Amanda thingy from shes the man, or I could be nice and spend hours trying to find a girl-guy pic.