Auditions Chapter 2

Chapter Two: AUDITIONS1

Once the car was straightened, and back on the road, Amanda asked Defon what had happened. "I had my mind on other things." Stacie playfully swatted him again, and Amanda groaned. "Well, will you please focus on the road, now? I want to get there all in one piece!" Defon sighed and agreed. Soon, they arrived at the hotel they would be staying at, and the car was parked. They all jumped out, and walked into the lobby. At the front desk, Defon checked them in, and the girls wandered around the front lobby. It was full of Christmas decorations, and a huge tree, covered in lights and ornaments, stood in the middle of the room. As Amanda looked closer, she saw that one of the tree decorations had some words on it. She gasped as she read, "Believe in yourself; otherwise no one else will believe in you." Maybe that was true, she thought. If she got some confidence, maybe other people would like her more. From now on, she decided, she would like herself. She wouldn't care what other people might possibly be thinking about her-no more. Amanda glanced at Stacie, and then looked farther behind her. There were two impossibly skinny girls whispering to each other.2

Amanda walked up to Stacie and said, "Let's go. Defon is waiting for us." They turned and headed toward the front counter, where they saw Defon looking at them. Before the girls reached the counter, though, the two whispering girls swished passed them and into the elevators. Both Stacie and Amanda heard what they were saying. "Eeww. That fat girl shouldn't be out in public! It makes me sick just looking at her!!" That was the end of Amanda's positive thinking, even though Stacie told her not to listen to them-they were just jealous. Jealous about what? Her ugliness? 3

They headed up to their room, and Defon graciously said he would sleep on the floor when they saw that there was only one queen sized bed. He dropped to the floor near the television, after taking off his shirts and pants-leaving only his boxers on. This alarmed Amanda, and Defon only replied with, "Hey. Look now, because you'll probably never get another chance!"Amanda shook her head disgustingly, but saw that Stacie was looking him over discreetly, out of the corner of her eye. Defon noticed this, too, and pulled a blanket over him in response. "Will one of ya grab me a pillow?" He asked. Defon had forgotten about Stacie, and only remembered when she looked him over and thought he didn't know about. He did want her to look him over, especially with just boxers on, but now wasn't the time.4

Stacie took a pillow and threw it at his head. He caught it and settled down for the night. She, on the other hand, laid in bed, confused about how he was acting. Stacie thought Defon liked her; so why did he all tense up like that when he knew she was looking at him? He wasn't shy about showing his nice, tan, good looking body off-he did at school all the time at band practice. Stacie couldn't blame him, or the other guys. Sometimes she wished she could take HER shirt off on extremely hot days. But now, Defon was acting like he never had his shirt off in front of people before. What changed? Amanda climbed in and said good-night, turning off the light after making sure her phone was on vibrate. She didn't want to disrupt others during the night if her phone started blasting her ringtone, but she wanted it on if there was an emergency. 5

Amanda could hear Defon snoring, and it seemed like Stacie was asleep, so she took the time to think about what happened in the hotel lobby. A couple of tears slid down her face before she finally went to sleep. On the other hand, Stacie was staring at the wall-not even close to being sleepy. She had heard Amanda stifle a sob, and knew that that evening had bothered her. She couldn't figure out why, though. How could she care about what two stupid strangers thought? But then again, if they had said that about her, she probably would be pissed off enough to start a fight between them. Nobody would dare say that about her! Her eyes closed soon after Amanda's, and she would dream of Defon saying what the girls in lobby had said to Amanda-only this time, he said them to her. She should have realized that if you think bad things before you go to sleep, you will dream worse things.6

The three all woke up at six the next morning. Stacie had to shake Amanda several times before she even stirred. "Come on! Do you want to be late?" Defon had been waiting for about an hour, before both the girls were ready-Amanda only really waking up in the last fifteen minutes to get dressed. Stacie, of course, took the full hour to get ready. Defon laughed as he saw the two emerge; Stacie looking like an angel, and Amanda looking like she was still half asleep with her hair not even brushed. They all got in the car, and Defon put the heat on full blast-it was a chilly morning. "Here." Amanda was handed a hairbrush and looked at it in confusion. "Use this to brush your hair. You know...a hairbrush?" Amanda groaned and started to use the brush.7

On the road, with the heater still on full blast, Defon was trying to figure out where Mission High was. Stacie was trying to direct him by using Mapquest on her cell phone, but that made Defon even more confused. Right when he was going to give up, he spotted a familiar car. It was the car he had almost hit yesterday. He did a U-turn and started to follow them. Defon figured they were going to the same place, so he might as well. Stacie protested until he pointed out the car. "Aren't they going to Mission?" he asked. She nodded and shut up. 8

Jeremy, in the car the three were following, was trying to put socks on his sister. "My foots are cold!" Marie exclaimed and tried to wiggle out of his grasp. "If you don't want them to be cold, then let me put these on!" He said in a stern voice. Finally, after what seemed like hours of her struggling, the socks were on. "Dey feel weird..." Jeremy smile at her. "Well, if you don't want to be cold, then-" He stopped talking in mid-sentence. Marie wasn't really listening, and he had just spotted Stacie in a car behind them. It was the same car from yesterday, and he hoped Amanda would be in there, too. He could see the snare guy driving, and a figure in the back seat, but he couldn't figure out who it was. He laughed to himself, and thought, "Who else would it be?"9

The two cars reached the parking entrance right at the same time, and Jeremy's mother waved the other car through. After searching for a good spot, they both parked near to the side, a bit ways off from where people were gathering. Jeremy picked up all his stuff easily, but Marie wanted to carry something. He gave her his music to hold, and the two walked towards the huge mass of people. His parents stayed inside the car because of the cold, but he knew one of them would have tagged along if they didn't trust him with Marie. Defon, Amanda, and Stacie joined him a couple feet from everyone else. "Awww...she's so cute." Defon exclaimed. He was carrying his stuff, but also seemed to have some other "girly" stuff with him. Seeing from how Stacie's arms were bursting with things, he figured that stuff was hers. He glanced at Amanda, and gasped. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen-even though she only had sweats on for the long day ahead of her. "What?" Amanda said, hearing his gasp. Jeremy turned a bright red, mumbling something about how he never had seen one girl carry so much stuff to an audition.10

He offered to take some stuff from Amanda, but she declined in a cold manner. She didn't have as much stuff as Stacie, but did have a lot of things. Defon looked at Jeremy strangely, and then focused all of his attention on holding Stacie's things. Stacie was excited that he even offered to carry something of hers-that meant that he was just fine. Nothing was going on-maybe the night before he was just in a weird mood. Amanda, was not excited. She was grumpy...she was tired, fat, and a guy she just met hated her. Nothing in her life was going the way she wanted it, too. She wished she could just call her mom to come pick her up. She wished that wish even more as she saw people around them staring at the group of friends-she could almost hear their thoughts. They were the same as the whispering girls back at the hotel. 11

Someone offered to take them to the check-in area, and they made their way to the school's gym, with a tall, thin girl heading the way. She had blonde hair, just like Stacie, but her's was stringy-Stacie's was full rounded. This girl also had braces, thus she talked in a funny way. "My name isth Carry. Like asth in the word to carry." Carry led them inside, and went back out to the mob of people waiting outside. In the gym, people's things were thrown everywhere, and off to the far side, there was a table set up, and a woman reading a book. As they approached, she put the book down and smiled. "Why, hello there." she said. Then the lady turned to the little girl. "Are you coming to audition, too?" Marie's answer was to hold out Jeremy's music. Jeremy grabbed it and said, "Okay Marie. Time to leave." The three woman and Defon watched him struggle to take his sister back to the car, and then got busy. "Do you have the forms?" They had almost finished when Jeremy came back. "Sorry," he told the lady in charge. "No problem! Do you have everything you need?" The other three had already left the gym to go join the mob when he was done. "Just leave your stuff over there." The woman pointed. "That's the boy's side, and the other side will be the girls.12

Jeremy had been to an audition camp before, so he knew how everything worked. He just hoped that this year he would make it. Jeremy plopped all his stuff down among the other stuff, and walked outside. The mob had just broken up into two groups-one a lot smaller than the other. Defon waved him over into the bigger group, and told him, "The other group is the front ensemble." They both looked over at the front ensemble, and Jeremy gasped again. She looked more beautiful every time he saw her-if that was possible. Amanda was the most pretty thing in the world, and there was no way to get any prettier. But somehow she managed to do. Defon grinned at Jeremy and said, "You can have her, but Stacie's all mine!"13

The front ensemble group had gathered over near a tree. Stacie elbowed Amanda in the ribs right as the instructor started talking. "Look alive!" she hissed. Amanda definitely looked alive as she saw the instructor glance over at them. "Is there a problem girls?" They both shook their heads, and the instructor looked them over. Amanda saw the instructor give Stacie a big smile, and her a frown. What's wrong, she thought, as the instructor started talking again.14

The whole day went horrible for Amanda. The only thing that was any good at all, was her playing-and that was only slightly good. After dinner, their instructor talked to them before they were let off for free time. "You have all made it, but don't start slacking. I can always cut you. Oh, and if you know of any more front ensemble players, bring them next time-we have one spot still open." She was about to say something more, when a loud police siren came on. They all saw an ambulance enter the parking lot, and then speed off to where the marchers were. "Uh, oh." someone mumbled as the lady who checked everyone in came running over. Amanda and Stacie had learned that she was the corps director over the course of the day. "You just filled up your one spot left, Mary." she said, trying to gasp her breath. "A battery person just stumbled over his drum and broke his leg. I saw him in action earlier, and want him on this corps."15

When Jeremy learned that she wanted to keep him on, he wondered what had changed. The time he auditioned before, he was kicked off after the first couple of minutes into practice. But, he thought, I was just learning then. Now I'm more experienced-but experienced enough to be so wanted that he got a spot in the front ensemble, in which he didn't try out for? The next time he thought about it, he was in a hospital bed with his leg in a blue cast. His parents were on the way; most likely to try and convince him to leave early, but he couldn't. Jeremy had to go back. He needed to see her again-she would be his pain medication for the horrible pain in his left foot.16