Finding June (2 page)

“Tomorrow at noon I’ve got an audition in
L.A. for a certain crime drama on TV . . . you might say it’s the
best crime drama . . . actually . . . I’m pretty sure everyone
would say it’s the best one. But maybe that’s just me jumping on
the bandwagon,” I said with a grin, hardly able to contain my
excitement.

“Maybe you should just tell me, because I’m
afraid I’ll shoot for the moon here, and then you’ll get mad when
it’s something not nearly as cool as I’m thinking,” he replied. I
could hear the playful tone in his voice, but he was probably
right. If he guessed something better than what I was thinking, I’d
probably get upset. Luckily, he knew me well enough to figure out
how to make me feel better if that happened.

“Smart thinking. All right so the show is . .
. are you ready?”

“Yes, just tell me already!” he practically
shouted.

“
Forensic Faculty
,” I said proudly.
His end of the phone was silent for a minute, making me wonder if
he had heard. “Joseph?”

“Are you kidding me? You’re not joking right
now, right? Because I’ll be so mad if you’re making that up.”

“No, I swear I’m not! The casting director
saw my headshot and asked for me specifically!” I squealed, happy
to be telling someone I knew would be excited for me.

“So basically what you’re telling me is that
when you walk down the red carpet, you want me to be your escort,
right?”

“Naturally,” I answered with a laugh. “But
seriously, this could be a really big deal for me. You’d better be
praying all day tomorrow that I get this part,” I threatened.

“Like I wouldn’t already June,” Joseph
answered. I smiled up at my ceiling.

“All right, well, I just wanted to let you
know so you can send some good thoughts my way.”

“Will do, kid,” he said softly. “Does this
mean you won’t be auditioning for
Romeo and Juliet
with
me?"

“Yeah, unfortunately I think my schedule will
be pretty full. But hey, maybe Xani will play your Juliet. I’m sure
that would make her life complete.”

“Don’t even joke about stuff like that,” he
said. I could almost hear his uncomfortable shudder at that
unpleasant suggestion.

“You still picking me up for seminary
tomorrow?” I asked as an afterthought.

“Dark and early.”

CHAPTER 2

My alarm went off at four o'clock in the
morning, making me seriously question why I had decided to take
zero period theatre. I had even talked Joseph into taking it with
me at six a.m., bumping seminary back to an unhealthy five a.m. As
I lay in bed with a pillow over my face to drown out the sounds of
Edith Piaf singing, “Non, je ne regretted rien,” on my alarm clock,
I contemplated "accidentally" turning the alarm off. I knew, of
course, that Joseph would kill me, since he would soon be waiting
outside in his car in the pitch-black night. Besides that, Gran was
adamant about my going to school and seminary every day, even
though she wasn’t active in church anymore and most days she pulled
me out of school for auditions.

“Thank you Edith,” I mumbled in agitation at
my alarm as I shut it off and rolled out of bed. You’d think that
being an actress I’d be all high maintenance and take two hours to
get ready for the day. But when I heard Joseph pull up outside the
house forty minutes later, I had already showered, dressed, and
done my hair and make-up. Not bad.

Before dashing down the stairs to meet
Joseph, I gave myself a once-over in the mirror. For my audition, I
had chosen a mauve and beige polka-dotted top with a big floppy bow
attached to the neck, a high-waist beige A-line skirt, and some
short close-toed heels. My makeup made my eyes look smoky and
mysterious in contrast to my porcelain skin. I let my hair stay
exactly how it was when I didn’t touch it: long, dark, and curly.
If 1920s was what they wanted, that’s exactly what they were
getting.

Gran was still asleep, so the house was dark
and quiet as I grabbed a pear and headed out the front door into
the cool, dark world. Joseph was standing in front of his old green
Volkswagen Beetle, wearing a grin on his face and looking every bit
as old-fashioned as me. Pretty much everyone said we’d get married
one day because we fit together perfectly. In my opinion, though,
it would be really weird to marry Joseph because we just didn’t
think of each other like that.

Joseph was a bit taller than me, with
chocolate brown eyes and wavy brown hair that always fell right
above his eyebrows. Today he wore fitted khaki pants, a white
collared shirt with a brown skinny tie, and a gray button-up
sweater. Honestly, he was a pretty gorgeous guy and if it weren’t
Joseph—who I’d known all my life—I’d probably be madly in love with
him. But as it was, he was just Joseph, and that was just the way I
liked him.

As I approached the car Joseph spread his
arms wide to give me a congratulations hug, which I gratefully
accepted, burying my head in his neck. “This could be big,” I said,
though my words were muffled on his shoulder.

“I know! This is honestly so exciting,” he
replied, pulling away to get a good look at me. “Nice choice for
the audition,” he said with a smile, indicating to my outfit.

“Yeah, I thought it would keep the look
they’re going for, but also look modern just in case I’m completely
wrong and they aren’t going in the old-fashioned direction at all,”
I said nervously.

“I think it’s perfect,” he reassured me.

The LDS Church building where we held
seminary wasn’t far away from where I lived, sitting right behind
the high school. It only took us about ten minutes to get there,
but Joseph and I liked to get hot chocolate at the gas station on
the way, so he always showed up to my house early.

We drove in silence for a few minutes,
blowing on the too hot and much too rich hot chocolate. It wasn’t
really all that great and it kind of hurt my stomach most mornings,
but it was warm and it was tradition, so we got it every morning
without fail.

“So, you might actually meet Will Trofeos,”
Joseph said suddenly. “I mean . . . meet him meet him. Not just
say, ‘Oh I saw Will Trofeos one day on Rodeo Drive,’ but actually
hang out with him.” He sounded very surprised by this sudden
revelation, which made me laugh.

“Forget Will Trofeos, I might meet Lukas
Leighton if I get on the show,” I replied, my voice sounding much
higher and giddier than I had intended. Joseph just rolled his
eyes.

It was a well-known fact that Will Trofeos
was a huge star. Everyone loved him on
Forensic Faculty.
But
it was an even better known fact that Lukas Leighton was completely
and utterly breath taking . . . and probably the only reason every
girl at my high school watched the show. Will Trofeos was way too
old for anyone at school. Lukas, on the other hand, was only
twenty, making him a perfect candidate for the "teen heartthrob"
status he had so gracefully obtained.

“I don’t like that guy,” Joseph said simply,
using his "I know more than you because I’m a month older" tone and
annoying me to no end.

“Everybody likes him, Joseph,” I replied
matter-of-factly.

“Like that’s a good reason for me to like
him.”

I just shook my head and smiled. Joseph said
he didn’t like Lukas Leighton now, but if he ever met him he’d be
just as big of a dork as anyone else who watched the show. Taking
great satisfaction in this fact, I simply said, “Good point
Joseph,” and continued to sip at my hot chocolate until we got to
church. There were already a handful of cars parked outside of the
building as we made our way inside through the dark chill.

A lot of our friends at school weren’t
members of our religion and couldn’t understand why on earth we’d
get up every morning at four a.m. to talk about "church stuff" for
an hour. When they asked, I'd ask them why they’d get up at five to
go to school and do "theatre stuff" for an hour. Their answer was:
because they loved it. That helped them understand a bit where we
were coming from, but secretly I think they still thought we were
crazy.

I always loved going to seminary right before
school. It was just so nice to get that uplift in your spirit
before heading into the battleground that was Simi Valley High
School. Walking out of the building after seminary, Joseph and I
were much happier and had almost completely forgotten about our
little disagreement from that morning. The sun was just starting to
peek over the mountains, though pretty much everything was still
shrouded in the darkness of the fading night. By the time we got
out of our zero period theatre class it would be light out and the
rest of the students would be getting to school. When we got to
school in the mornings it was just the band kids, the unnaturally
smart AP science kids, and us. It did, after all, take a special
brand of student to take a zero period class. You either had to be
really, really smart, or creative and a little crazy.

Sitting on the stage next to Joseph and
listening to Mr. Carroll, our theatre teacher, felt like the most
natural thing in the world. Joseph and I were lucky enough to have
almost all of our classes together . . . although luck didn’t
really play a part in it, since we’d purposely arranged our
schedules to match. History and math were the only two subjects we
couldn’t take together because Joseph was in AP calculus while I
was stuck back in Algebra 2. Math was definitely not my strong
suit.

While Mr. Carroll talked about the importance
of stage presence, I daydreamed about my audition that day. I
always hated having to do a cold read. Most of the time they’d send
the script over the night before so you could get familiar with
your lines, but it looked like I’d be going in blind today. My
stomach turned at the thought, emitting a low, loud grumble. Joseph
looked over at me with his eyebrows raised, a smile playing across
his lips.

“Hot chocolate and nerves do not mix,” I
informed him under my breath. He just shrugged his shoulders and
gave me a mock sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

As nervous as I was and as much as I tried
not to get my hopes up, I couldn’t help but wonder what my life
would be like if I got the part. I’d get to be on a really popular
TV show that pretty much everyone watched. People would actually
see me and say "Hey aren’t you that girl from
Forensic
Faculty
?" How cool would that be? Not to mention the fact that
I’d be working with Lukas Leighton, who was probably the hottest
guy on TV.

“Do you think I’ll get to do any scenes with
Lukas?” I asked Joseph quietly. I could see the same annoyance
return to his eyes. He really didn’t like that guy.

“Maybe,” he said simply, not bothering to
elaborate. I shrugged off his odd behavior and continued to
daydream about a scenario where Lukas fell madly in love with me
and I became the famous girlfriend of Lukas Leighton . . . until
the bell rang, bursting my perfect fantasy.

After theatre, Joseph and I had some time
before we actually had to be to our first class, so we headed to
the northeast side of the school where a little grassy area and
some planters served as our usual hangout spot with a few other
people from theatre.

“Joseph, I really enjoyed the scene you did
on Friday,” said Xani Tucker, tossing her short blonde hair and
emphasizing her cute southern accent. While I liked Xani well
enough, she was always throwing herself at Joseph, which I think
made him pretty uncomfortable. I could tell she wasn’t his type,
but he was way too nice to ever say that to her, and so he just
endured her endless praise and constant attempts to win his
heart.

“Thanks. It really wasn’t that great . . . I
actually forgot my lines about halfway through and had to make the
rest of the monologue up,” he said modestly. Xani wasn’t having
it.

“No, you were fantastic! I think that just
shows what a great actor you really are,” she cooed, leaning closer
to him with a lovesick smile plastered to her face. Joseph simply
stared straight ahead, his mouth pursed into a line, and looking
more uncomfortable than I’d ever seen him.

“So, June has an audition today,” he finally
managed, his voice sounding a bit squeaky. I tried to hide my smile
at his obvious discomfort, knowing it would only embarrass him
more.

At the mention of my name Xani seemed to
remember that she was, in fact, in public and not in one of her
fantasies where she and Joseph were married with fifteen
children.

“Oh,” she said with a polite smile in my
direction. Xani didn’t really like me much. I’m pretty sure she
thought I was trying to steal Joseph away from her, which couldn’t
be farther from the truth. But for whatever reason, she’d cemented
this idea firmly in place and always made it known to me that she
was after him.

“Tell her what it’s for, June,” he said in a
pained voice, still staring straight ahead and trying not to look
like his personal space bubble was being infiltrated.

“It’s an audition for
Forensic
Faculty
,” I said, trying to sound like it was no big deal even
though I was bursting with excitement. This actually pulled Xani’s
attention away from Joseph for a second.

“Seriously?” she said, staring at me
suspiciously, as if I were trying to distract her so that I could
lunge at Joseph and shower him with kisses.

“Yeah, she’s got an audition at noon,” Joseph
answered for me, sounding much more like himself now that he didn’t
have Xani practically chewing on his ear.

“Do you think Lukas Leighton will be at the
audition?” she asked, her voice suddenly rising a few decibels.

“I don’t think he’ll be at the audition, but
I’m sure if I got the part I’d meet him,” I said, now matching her
tone and making Joseph look like he wanted to throw up. I think he
would actually prefer fending off a thousand Xani clones rather
than talking about Lukas Leighton anymore today.