Passion and Pain (Dancers and Divas) (15 page)

“Sure.”

“I feel pretty good about dancing but I need to keep up my rehearsal schedule for that
,
to be confident. And Leon and I are really connecting for Shakespeare, so I think it’s going to be
all right
. How is your play going?”

“I think I’m going to kill them both.”

“Who
,
Letitia and Frankie?”

Sebastien nodded. “Frankie has lost the plot! At one stage, she even suggested that Letitia take her part. She’s lost all her confidence and personality and she won’t listen to me.”

“What does Ms Worthington say?”

“Even she can’t seem to control Letitia. Letitia seems to insist on expressing her opinion on everyone’s scenes and she has taken her role of temptress too literally.”

Elena pursed her lips into a soft whistle. “She wants you bad!”

“It’s not going to be a
comedy,
it’s going to be a laughing stock!”

Elena had never seen Sebastien so stressed. “What are you going to do?”

“Can you talk to Frankie? Try and convince her to help me contain Letitia?”

“I can try, but she’s not really listening to me these days.”

Sebastien shook his head. “Leon doesn’t want to
trade,
does he?”

Elena patted his arm.

“It’s making it hard for me to concentrate on other things.”

“What other things?”

“I have an audition for a film.”

“Get out of here!” Elena grabbed his arm and looked at him. “That’s amazing. What’s the movie? When’s the audition? Where is it being filmed?”

“Whoa, easy tiger, it’s just an audition. It’s here in New York, next week. The role is the love interest of a teenage girl, set in Italy.”

“That’s so exciting!” Elena clapped her hands. “Does that mean you will film in Italy?”

“I suppose so. But I have to get the part first.”

“I know you will. You play such a great romantic nice guy,” Elena said. “I’ve seen how the girls look at you.”

“You think? What about you?”

“I have to get an agent first.
Maybe after the Shakespeare production.”

“No
,
I mean what do you think about me as a love interest?” Sebastien said.

“Perfect. You’re sweet and considerate, funny, smart and cute in that boyish way. I think you’ll get cast in those
sort
of roles a lot.”

He shook his head and sighed.

“What?”

“Never mind.”

“Only three weeks to go to the Short Play competition,” Veronika announced to the cast.
“Our application is in and your names are on the program, so let’s really polish these scenes up!”

“Hey everyone!
Sorry I’m late,” Elena said, panting.

Letitia walked in straight after her.

“What are
you
doing here?” Elena said. “This isn’t your rehearsal.”

Letitia went and stood beside Frankie.

“I’m not doing this play it unless Letitia has a part,” Frankie said.” She’s a brilliant actress and shouldn’t be left out.”

Letitia smirked, obviously pleased with herself.

Every single cast member stared
,
gaping at Frankie.

“What?” Veronika said.

”Frankie and I agreed, I would be much better in the role. It’s her role, I don’t see why anyone else would care,” Letitia said.

Veronika slammed her clipboard against the table. “The programs have been printed! The competition is in three weeks! We don’t have time for this!”

Leon rubbed his eyes in frustration. “Come on Frankie. Is this really the time?”

“So, let’s see. What was your role again?” Letitia said as she flicked through the script.  “Was it this girl, Rebecca?” Letitia said pointing at one of the character names.

“This is my play and you’re not in it, so leave,” Veronika hissed.

Letitia ignored her and continued to flick through the script.

“Letitia, you can’t just come in and demand a part because you feel like it. We based the play on certain cast who were part of our improvisation team,” Sebastien said.

“Don’t patronize me, lover boy,” she retorted. “If I’m not in it, then Frankie walks too
—
and then how will you perform?”

“We’ll manage,” Veronika said. The other cast members were starting to whisper to each other.

“Frankie, this is insane!” Elena said. “You know what Letitia wants is unreasonable. We’re three weeks away from performance. What has gotten into you?”

Frankie folded her arms across her chest.  “She can have my part. I couldn’t give her my part in the school production, so she can have my part here.

“Honey, I don’t really think that’s for you to decide,” Leon said gently.

“And Leon walks, too.” She glowered at him, her eyes daring him to defy her.

Veronika put her head in her hands and grabbed her hair.

“Sorry, Letitia,” Sebastien said. “I’m sure you would be great, but I don’t think it’s fair that you should blackmail us into giving you a part. Frankie has rehearsed this part for four months.”
Letitia and Frankie didn’t budge. “Maybe in the next play, if we know you’re interested, we can write a part specifically for you.”

“Do I look that gullible
,
Sebbie
? Now, are we making these changes or not?” Letitia said, arching her eyebrows and rolling her tongue gleefully.

“No!” Veronika yelled back.

“Fine.
I’m going,” she said, flicking her hair and prancing out of the room. At the door she stopped and turned around to look at Frankie. “Coming?”

Frankie looked long and hard at Elena. “Yes I am and so is Leon,” she said, grabbing Leon’s arm and dragging him out. Why did Frankie suddenly hate her so much?

Veronika looked at Leon, horrified. “You can’t be serious, Leon. We
’
ve worked so hard on this!”

Leon looked at Veronika and back at Frankie. He looked at the disappointed faces of his cast members and hung his head as he followed Frankie out. “I have to
,
Veronika. I’m so sorry.”

It felt like there had been a death in the room. No one spoke. Veronika grabbed the script and flung it across the room.
“Un-
fucken
-believable!
Letitia is one thing, but Frankie and Leon!”

“Now what?”
Elena asked.

“Come on everyone,
”
Sebastien said. “We’re at a performing arts school. Frankie and Leon didn’t even have main parts. Surely there would be two actors willing to step in.”

“Now?
With three weeks to go?” one of the cast members said. “Maybe we should just postpone it till early next year or something?”

“We’ll miss the competition,” Veronika said.

“Look, you guys keep rehearsing the scenes not involving those two. I’ll see what I can do,” Sebastien said.

“Great idea!
Let’s work on the first couple of scenes,” Elena said. She grabbed two of the cast members. If Letitia didn’t have it in for her, this would never have happened. She had to make it work!

Sebastien grinned gratefully at her while he left to weave his magic. Elena knew that Sebastien was popular because he was cute and charming.  But even with his talents, she had doubts
that
he could convince any student to perfect a renegade play in three weeks, just before showcase.

Twenty

It was a Sunday and Elena was pacing restlessly in her room. Her mind was working as frantically as her body. She was stressed about Veronika’s play. Sebastien hadn’t yet found anyone to help out yet. She was worried about Frankie, who was becoming a Letitia clone. She was still
do
ing extra rehearsals for both contemporary and hip hop while studying for her finals. She needed a break or she would go crazy!

She didn’t know what to do. If she called Sebastien, she would get frustrated with his calmness. Veronika would be frantically studying. She sat on her bed and tapped her foot impatiently. Then it came to her! She knew what to do!

She jumped onto her computer and logged into the school’s website, booking a studio. She downloaded some tracks onto her iPod and raced out. She was going to sing! There would be no Letitia and no one to criticize her or compete against. She was going to sing for the fun of it.

When Elena arrived at the school, she found a bit more equipment than she expected in the studio. She hadn’t dealt with any of it before but she inspected it briefly. How hard could it be? She cautiously pressed a few buttons and music blared from the sound system. The only problem was
,
the music wasn’t hers.

She was about to keep pressing more buttons when something about the music caused her to hesitate. She listened for a few more seconds before bringing her hands to her mouth. It was Jay’s! She looked around guiltily, but of course there was no one else there and the studio was soundproof. So she found the rewind button and played the song again. By the second chorus, she was singing along, a microphone in her hand. There was still some humming in places where Jay obviously hadn’t finished the lyrics, but it was an empowering song and Elena was enjoying herself. 

By the last chorus, she was belting out the song with all her heart, performing to her invisible but appreciative audience. She thought she was imagining it when she heard applause
. B
ut no, it was real. What
the
? These studios were sealed. A voice was heard through the speaker. “Um, I’m guessing you didn’t realize that you turned on the outside speakers.” Elena shook her head. Oh God, half the school could have heard.

Jay walked in, smiling. “You didn’t lock the door.”

Elena was blushing furiously and stumbled back, crashing into all the equipment behind her. She dropped the microphone causing an unpleasant
high pitch ringing
sound and picked it up nervously.

“Not bad at all,” Jay said. “You have a lot of passion. I wish I could have seen it. Don’t
worry,
there was no one else around.”

“Ah, um.
Oh my God, I am so embarrassed,” Elena said. At least the blinds were drawn.

“Don’t be. I’ve done it myself in my freshman year
,
and there was half a school listening without me knowing.”

“Yeah but you sound good!”

“You were fine.”

She froze in her spot.

“So you like my song?”

“I love it! It’s beautiful,” Elena said
,
biting
her lips.

“Thank you. I’m struggling with the lyrics though.”

“I noticed.” Elena said.  Shut up woman.

He chuckled, making a delightful sound.

Elena didn’t know where to look and fiddled with her skirt hem. “Um, sorry, I thought I had this room booked. I didn’t mean to interrupt your work.” 

“You did have it booked. I just came for my recording,” Jay said, staying where he was.

“Right,” Elena said, nodding. A tense silence enshrouded the room.

“Do you want to sing with me?” he asked, brushing past her towards the piano. “Maybe you could help me with some of the lyrics?”

Oh God, she couldn’t even speak right around him, let alone sing.

“I’m Jay, by the way,” he said and offered his hand.

“I know,” she answered. He raised an eyebrow. “I’m Elena. I’m in the show choir with your sister. Well, the show choir broader group anyway.”

“I thought you looked familiar,” he said and looked down at the keyboard. “Ah, yes, you’re the one my sister keeps picking on.”
Great.
Could this afternoon get any more humiliating? “I hope you’re ignoring her. I doubt you are tone deaf. She just gets like that with people she feels threatened by.”

“Why would she be threatened by me? I can barely sing.”

“I don’t know. You’re probably smarter than her or more talented, or prettier or are dating someone she wants. Those are usually the main reasons. There’s always something.”

“But your sister is gorgeous and due for a record deal at fifteen
—
there is nothing that I have that she could want.”

“You’d be surprised,” he said as he gave her one of his dazzling smiles. Her stomach did a somersault. “Tell me what you think about this?”

He played her a verse and chorus of a song he was working on.

“Very nice.
What’s it about?” Elena asked as she slid onto the piano stool next to him.

“Loving someone special,” he said and looked her in the eyes.
Elena stopped breathing.
“I wrote this when I met my girlfriend, Caroline. I can always write the music but the words are much harder for me.”  Elena
snapped out of it and
did the quick mental revision.
Girlfriend.
Of course.