Passion and Pain (Dancers and Divas) (26 page)

“Don’t worry
,
Elena. This one is ours,” Sebastien said giving her a shoulder hug. “We’ve rehearsed, we’re ready.”

The first production they were auditioning for was
Jane Eyre
. Unlike last year, auditions would be performed in front of everyone. Sebastien and Elena
were up first to audition
together as the main lovers of the play
-
Jane
Eyre
and Edward Rochester.

The scene being used was towards the beginning of the play when they were first meet and they could each feel the attraction to each other
but held back
.

“Why Mr. Rochester, I am enjoying this afternoon walk,” Jane Eyre said.

“The pleasure is mine
,
Ms
.
Eyre. You do find a way of expressing things mo
st
interestingly,” Edward Rochester replied.

Jane look
ed
away
,
embarrassed by the compliment as they continue
d
on professionally within the house, she as the governess and he as the master.
And so they continued the cat and mouse game throughout the rest of the scene.

“Wonderful!
”
Mr. Harding called out when they finished.
“A great connection between you.”

Letitia scowled. “Mr. Harding, I would like to audition with Sebastien as well.”

“Um, yeah well, OK. Sebastien, can you stay up there please?”

He looked at Elena apologetically as she left for Letitia to audition.

They went through the scene as required, Sebastien performing at his best as always.

Naturally, Letitia took the opportunity to caress Sebastien as she talked, obviously not understanding the relationship between the couple.

“Letitia and Sebastien, that was very good. But I’m not quite feeling the passion,” Mr. Harding said.

“You want to see passion? How’s this?” Letitia said as she grabbed Sebastien and thrust her tongue down his throat. Many of the students cheered and whistled. Elena was livid. Couldn’t that girl keep her hands to herself?

Sebastien wiped his mouth as if he had tasted bitter lemon.

“How was that
,
Mr. Harding?” she said as she walked off.

Mr. Harding had no response.

“Um, next
couple please
,” he said.

When
Sebastien came back to Elena, she hit him in the chest with the script. “What was that?”

“Um, she kissed me. It’s not my fault. What do you care anyway?”

“Anything or anyone important to me that Letitia touches turns to poison.”

“
Relax,
I’m sure she didn’t get the part. Anyway, Letitia
and I
are like water and oi
l -
they just never mix.”

The Shakespeare play was
Macbeth
. Elena didn’t want to be part of that production, preferring to be part of Veronika’s play instead. Sebastien again was forced to audition with Letitia for the key roles. This time, Elena noted, Letitia’s acting strength was clear. It was obvious that she was perfect as the manipulative, evil Lady Macbeth. Leon was strong as the cowardly, misguided Macbeth.  But there were a few other strong actors auditioning as well and Elena was curious to see how it would pan out.

The casting for Veronika’s play was happening separately, with those previously in it having preference. Frankie and Letitia didn’t audition for that play, much to everyone’s relief. All the rest of the original cast auditioned plus at least ten
o
ther
students. It was really going to happen.

“Glad that’s over,” Elena said.

“I’m sure we have the
Jane Eyre
leads,” Sebastien said. “I don’t know about
Macbeth
though. I’m pretty confident about
Love in the Cafeteria
-
it’s hard for anyone to compete against us when he had rehearsed it for months. ”

“We’ll have to wait till the cast list goes up tomorrow.”
He nodded.

The next day, Elena checked the website in the school computer room for the final castings. She clicked on
the
Jane Eyre
production
link
.
Jane Eyre will be played by Elena Martinez
. Yes!
Edward Rochester played by Sebastien Duval
. Perfect! She scanned through the other cast in the play and Frankie and Letitia were nowhere to be seen. She breathed a sigh of relief.

As she scanned the
Macbeth
cast, she saw Leon was Macbeth, Letitia was Lady Macbeth and Frankie was one of the witches. She was pleased that Sebastien was cast as
Banquo
, one of the good guys in the play. 

As she confirmed the roles in Veronika’s play, Sebastien came and looked over her shoulder.

“P
r
etty awesome
huh
?
All the
original cast in Veronika’s play except for Frankie. Leon’s in though!
”

“Yeah that surprised me a bit, but hey, everyone deserves a second chance.”

“But look at
Jane Eyre
! At last, we’re going to be
in the leads in the same play!” Elena said leaning back against him.

“What will Jay say to you playing my lover?”

“Nothing.
Jay is not insecure and he knows it’s just a play. I would be more worried about disenfranchising
your
fans.
”

“It’s a shame Frankie didn’t get a bigger part in
MacBeth
.”

“She only has herself to blame. She wants to worship Letitia, what does she expect? She could
have
easily outshone Letitia.”

“Her choice, I guess.”

“I have to tell Jay!” Elena rose and went to find
him.
She opened the door to the studio quietly, trying not to disturb him
.
But he had been looking up at the time anyway and was pleased to see her.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he called out and beckoned her over, “I needed some inspiration.” 

She came and sat between his legs on the piano stool. He put his arms around her and continued to play, singing the words softly in her ear. Elena could feel the chills racing up and down her spine, especially as he started to
kiss her lightly along her neck
before turning her round and kissing her.

They continued making out on the piano stool
until Jay eventually pulled away. “I suppose we should get going,” he sighed. She rose reluctantly and let him gather his stuff.

“So how is the writing going?”

“Not bad at all. I’m always struggling with the lyrics as you know. Maybe you could give me hand later?”

“Sure.” She was more than happy to sit right back onto the piano stool, wrapped in his embrace in front of the piano.

“So what happened with the auditions?”

“It all worked out perfectly! Seb
and I
are the main characters in
Jane Eyre
and Frankie, Leon
and
Letitia are
n’t
in it! They
’
re all in
Macbeth
, which is fine by me
as I never liked that play.”

“Too much evil for you?”

“I guess. I am in Veronika’s play,
Love in the Cafeteria
.
”

“You’re taking a lot on. Don’t kill yourself.”

“We don’t have to do much rehearsal for Veronika’s, as we were pretty close to performance when Letitia killed it.”

“Hey, don’t blame it all on Letitia. Your friend Frankie and Leon were the ones that walked out. They had a choice.”

“Frankie is Letitia’s puppet. Letitia knew Frankie would do whatever she wanted.”

Jay’s body tensed. “I know Letitia isn’t perfect but you can’t blame her for everything that goes wrong in your life.”

Elena’s face crumbled. How could he defend her?

“I suppose the way she humiliated me in choir was okay, too, then?” she said tapping her foot to stop herself from crying.

“No. I never said it was. What she did was awful and I am sorry you were hurt,” he whispered coming back to hold her. “But she’s not responsible for other people’s actions.”

Elena snuggled into his chest, frustrated but restraining her anger. He had a point. Frankie did have her own mind.

He started kissing her again, moving his hands down her back and caressing her butt to relax her. Elena felt her body react instantly.

“You are divine,” he whispered into her hair. He pulled away and went back to packing his gear.  “Who else is in Veronika’s play?”

“Me, Seb and would you believe, Leon?
I don’t know how Frankie untied the leash for that.”

“You and Sebastien seem to spend a lot of time together.”

“We were rehearsing for the same auditions and we are in the same play. No big deal. Plus, he’s my best friend.”

“I don’t know about my girlfriend having a male best friend.”

“Oh don’t worry about him,” she said as she pulled him over for another kiss
,
which continued until they were interrupted by the coughing sound of the teacher waiting patiently outside for her class to go in.

Thirty-three

“T
hanks for inviting me
, El
. Seniors’ parties at last!” Veronika said, excited.

“The privilege of dating a senior,” Elena said. “Shame Anya didn’t come.”

“I think she would rather eat chalk.”

“There’s Seb
,” Elena said before looking twice.

“Oh yeah.
There he is, halfway down some girl
’
s throat.”

“I hate it when he does that.”

“Hey, he’s a teenage boy with girls throwing themselves at him and his best friend is dating a hot senior. What do you expect him to do?”

“But he’s better than that.”

“As long as you’re not dating him, you have no say,” Veronika said. “Now let’s have some fun!”

Elena looked about her. The room was dimly lit, covers were thrown over the furniture for protection
,
and people were in various states of disarray.

“
Roni
, I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t really feel like my scene. All everyone does here is drink and make out with people.  There’s hardly any dancing.
Boring.”

“Well, then drink, make out with Jay and dance a bit.” Elena slumped. She needed to learn to have fun. “Look, consider it networking. These will be the people you will be working with in the future.”

Looking around her at the state of some of these people, that thought didn’t give Elena a thrill. She left Veronika to mingle while she went to look for Jay. Instead, she spotted Frankie and Leon making out in a corner. It seemed silly to come to a party like this to make out with your own boyfriend, but at least they were getting along. She watched as someone interrupted them to offer them a small bag of something.
Drugs?
Elena gasped. Surely Frankie wouldn’t. Leon was pushing the bag away, but Frankie pulled some money out of her bra and paid him.

Elena shook her head. What was Frankie thinking? It probably explained a lot about her dramatic weight loss. Frankie and Leon then had a whispered argument before he grabbed her in an effort to leave.

As she moved to the other room, Elena spotted Veronika flirting with one of the seniors. She approached them slowly not wanting to interrupt.

“Hey Elena, this is José,” Veronika said, beaming proudly.

“Hi José.”
The guy looked like bad news. He was obviously drunk and flirting outrageously with Veronika, an easy target.

“José is an actor like you,” Veronika said and giggled. “But he performs plays and I write…plays.” Elena laughed at Veronika’s dramatic flourish. She had obviously had a bit to drink.
José
was a little too enthusiastic for Elena’s liking.

“You want a drink? You look like you could use one,” he asked Elena.

“Thanks, I’ll pass,” she replied. She really wanted to get out of there.

Elena was relieved to see Jay approaching at exactly that moment.

“There you are, gorgeous,” he said to her, lifting her up and giving her a big kiss. 

“You go girl,” José cheered from the couch.

“He’s my boyfriend.”