SIXTH GRADE SUPERSTAR Chapter 8

The big audition.

Perpetually shy sixth grader Ty Bogart is about to audition for the Middle School Musical.

CHAPTER EIGHT

I had to follow the greatest middle school audition of all time.   I could run, I figured, or maybe Astra’s was so good I will receive some residual goodwill going in right after her.   I jumped up, only to realize the 45 minutes I had spent on the floor with my legs crossed left both feet asleep.  Pins and needles shot through my legs and I  nearly fell back on the floor.  Sixth, seventh and eighth graders alike stopped their rehearsing to watch.   I struggled to stay upright as I wobbled down the hall, looking like a newborn baby giraffe taking his first steps.

Eventually I made it to the classroom.   Astra smiled, looked me in my undeserving eyes and said, “Best of luck.”  This threw me for eighteen loops. I shot back a very cool “you too” even though she had just finished her audition, and headed into the room.

The desks had been moved to the sides of the room to make a big space in the center.  There was a piano on the far end, facing me.   Behind the piano was Miss Havet, who was in charge of music for the play.   She was all excited smiles.  Her hair was adorned with many bows and ribbons, her perfume very strong, even from across the room.  Sitting next to the piano was Coach Toth, the gym teacher who also directs (double threat).   She seemed unimpressed with me almost immediately. 

Lisa, meanwhile, paced behind me like a hungry tiger.

“Ty Bogart,” Coach Toth said, reading my name from the list.  “Oh and it says here you like music, um, musicals.  That’s good, because we are in the musical business!”  I laughed and wiped sweat from my brow.  Miss Havet asked what my favorite class was. I responded, “This one so far.”  An odd answer as this was most definitely not a class.  Small-talk over, it was time to audition. 

I read the scene, trying my best to be cool.  Unless stammering and apologizing after every line was cool, I’m not sure I pulled it off.    Coach Toth told me I was very good, but asked me to do it with more confidence.  I nodded, took a breath, and read it the exact same way. As soon as that was over, it was time to sing.   Miss Havet began playing the opening chords of “Happy Birthday.”   I closed my eyes, jumped in at the appropriate time, and I gave it my all.    

Now, in my head it was pretty good.  So I was surprised when I opened my eyes and saw Coach Toth and Miss Havet staring at me with extremely perplexed expressions.

Lisa was also confused.  But also still enraged.

Why was everyone so befuddled by my audition?  Maybe, I figured, they had never seen this much raw talent on a first audition.   Right before the big finish, moments before I was about to reveal to the world (and myself) who I was singing the song to,  Coach Toth stopped me.    She asked Miss Havet to start over.  And she did.  So then I did.  I got two lines in, when I was stopped again.

“Honey,”  Coach Toth said, “are you okay?”

I nodded.

Lisa couldn’t take it anymore.  “You’re not SINGING ANYTHING!”

That was crazy.  Lisa was shouting angry nonsense. 

Except. 

I replayed the last couple of minutes in my head and realized I had heard no sound was coming out.  I had been miming my musical audition.   

I started to feel warm as thick beads of sweat accumulated on my forehead. 

“Oh, you wanted sound?”  I said, hoping a joke could salvage this.  I acted like I was turning up the volume on my chest.   “Boop boop boop, heh.”

They laughed politely.  Except for Lisa, she was not at all amused.  Miss Havet began playing, and I started a third time, to the same results.  There was nothing.  My voice…was hiding deep down in my body.  Coach Toth leaned in, Miss Havet tried to play softer, and Lisa just stood there, stewing.  I knew I was blowing it, and I tried to force sound out, but I just could NOT. I tried to compensate by going big with my body movements.  Flailing, stomping, fists in the air. 

I must have looked like a mute who was trying to tell his family of a terrible fire down the road.

Eventually it was over.   They thanked me, for whatever reason.

Ten minutes after I had entered the room, I left.  I walked back into the hallway, grabbed my backpack and skulked down the hall.   When Mom picked me up, she asked how it went, and I said, “Good!”  She believed it. It was the best acting I had done all day.

That’s the end of CHAPTER EIGHT. But wait until you see what happens next…