SIXTH GRADE SUPERSTAR Chapters 6 and 7

Things are starting to get dramatic.

Welcome back, everyone. Let’s continue the story of SIXTH GRADE SUPERSTAR. When last we left sixth grader Ty Bogart, he had made a new friend in Bowen Tu (which was good!) and was being bullied in school by Craig Stern and his cronies (which is terrible!). This had led to a crisis of confidence. But then, Ty saw an ad in the school hallway to try out for the school musical. Ty signed up. Let’s go!

CHAPTER SIX

By the time I got home, the self-doubt was really creeping in.  So that night, when I told my family that I was thinking about auditioning, part of me was hoping that my parents wouldn’t allow it.  If they say no, I don’t embarrass myself.  I could tell myself I tried without having to actually try, which is the easiest form of trying.

 But when I told her the news, Mom just smiled. 

“I’m not sure I should do it,” I said. “If I get a part, you’re going to have to pick me up from school almost every day.”

“That’s fine,” Mom shot back instantly.

“I heard the play has nudity,”  I countered.  I had not heard that.

“Is it tasteful?” my Mom asked.

I shook my head, “Not at all, it’s gross.  And it’s a lot.  Like the whole play.” 

“Well, then you’d better start working out,” Mom said.

I turned to my dad, who was unusually quiet.    

My dad and I used to hang out every weekend, when he would coach my Little League team.   Once I decided to stop playing, we never found something new to do together.  I suspected he was disappointed in me for quitting.  At this moment, I was really hoping he’d be equally disappointed that I was going to audition, to the point of where he wouldn’t let me.

“Dad, do you think I should do it?” I asked, shaking my head “no” to subtly influence his decision.

He thought about it for what seemed like ten minutes.

Oh this is good, I thought.  He’s really not into the idea of me auditioning.  He’s going to nix this plan for sure. 

He took a deep breath. 

He’s about to forbid it.  Act surprised, Ty.  Act disappointed. 

Finally, he leaned back in his chair and said, simply, “I mean, why not?”

It looked like I would be trying out.  I thanked my parents for absolutely nothing, and went to my room to rehearse my song.  I shut the door, closed my eyes and sang “Happy Birthday.”  With no one listening, and more importantly, no one judging, it sounded okay.  If I could do that tomorrow, it wouldn’t be the worst.   When I came to the end of the song, I couldn’t figure out which name to put in.  Who was I singing this to?  Perhaps this was the real test all along. 

I came up with a list of possibilities for names at the end:

It was a tough choice, so I figured I’d just go with whatever felt right in the moment.   

When it was time for bed, I could barely sleep.   Tomorrow, I thought, my life could very well change forever. 

In retrospect, what a dramatic thing to think. 

But, I had no idea how right I was.

____________________________

CHAPTER SEVEN

The day of auditions was the longest, slowest day of my life.  The classes seemed to be running at half-speed.   I was nervous, horribly so, but also, surprisingly excited to try something new.  The feeling of looking forward to something, especially at O’Thomas Middle School, was very disorienting.

Eventually the final school bell rang.  I grabbed my stuff, tore out of the classroom, and dashed down the hallway.

I turned a corner and almost collided with Bowen Tu.  He asked where I was headed, and l told him.  He thought about it for a moment and said, “I’ll go, too.”

I explained to him that he needed to sign up in advance, and most importantly, he would have needed to rehearse.  I had practiced Happy Birthday in my room for hours.  Bowen couldn’t just show up and get a part.  He stared at me for roughly an eternity, and then said:

By the time I made it to the classroom where auditions would be held, the other students had congregated in the hallway outside.   This was my first exposure to theater kids.  I could tell, almost immediately, that they had a different energy to them.  Everything about them, from their gestures to their emotions was just BIGGER.  Almost everyone was talking five times louder than I was accustomed to.  One kid said something fairly amusing, and it didn’t get a laugh but the biggest, most thunderous round of laughter you had ever heard. 

There was high-fiving.

There was all sorts of awkward arm-locking.

And oh, the hugging. 

Everyone. 

Was. 

Hugging.

Every student hugging every other student.  There was so much hugging that the hugs overlapped, two kids wouldn’t be done with their hug before a third kid jumped in to start a new hug.  One of the original two huggees would break off and find another hug, while the third kid and one of the original two would keep the hug going.

I knew absolutely no one else there, so I was not part of the hug chain.   I had to find something to do, and fast, so I wasn’t just standing there like a lonely little outcast.  A few of the kids were holding sheet music rehearsing their song, so I figured that would be an easy thing to mimic.   The problem was, I had no sheet music.   But that meant I could waste a few minutes writing down the lyrics of my song.  I sat on the floor, leaned against a locker, took out a piece of lined paper from my backpack and started scribbling down the lyrics to the most famous and easily memorized song of all time.

I was two lines in when the audition door flew open.  Out charged a very harried eighth grader with a stack of paper.   In a frantic voice she introduced herself as Lisa, the stage manager.    She was…intense.  Lisa said everything like you should already know what she was about to say, and the fact that you didn’t meant the town was going to explode.    

“I have two scenes.  TWO SCENES,” Lisa boomed. “One for boys, and one for girls.   You will read these for the directors before you sing.  Not AFTER, you will do it BEFORE.”

She flung the papers at us before rushing back into the audition classroom.   The door slammed behind her even though she didn’t appear to touch it.  Her powerful energy could manipulate matter and move inanimate objects.

The scene was a corker.   I would be playing a character named Sky Masterson.  Sky seemed like a bit of a scoundrel, and he was trying to convince someone named Sarah to run away with him.  I wondered if Sky was going to hug Sarah.  If it were up to any of the kids in the hallway with me, I thought, you can bet he will.

For forty-minutes I sat there, absolutely no idea how I was going to perform the scene.   Sky Masterson was cool.  I tried to think of other people I considered cool.   Bill Murray?  Harrison Ford?  My grandma?  I didn’t know why they were cool, they just were, with their Ghostbusting, or aiding in the blowing-up of Death Stars, or getting Grandpa to drive them everywhere. 

The door flew open, and Lisa yelled, “Astra Drakos is next!”  A hush fell over the hallway as a vibrant seventh grader turned the corner.  It seemed like she had been waiting just out of sight until her name was called, so she could make a dramatic entrance.  And dramatic it was. 

Treating the long hallway like her own personal runway, Astra strutted down the hall and into the room for her audition.   Her curly black hair bouncing with each step.   Her skin glowed, her eyes an otherworldly bright green.  She smiled as she passed,  it made my heart jump.  Every student stopped what they were doing and watched in awe.  There were whispers. 

I swear I saw paparazzi try to sneak some shots of her.

Astra entered the audition room, the door closed.  I could hear applause in the room before she had even said hello.   We were all poorer for no longer being in her presence.

Astra had chosen not to sing Happy Birthday and wanted the entire school to know.  The song must have been called I Enjoy Being a Girl because I could hear those words sung, over and over, through the closed door.  Astra sang it so loudly, it made everyone in the hallway, nay the school, shut up and take notice.  It was powerful and it was beautiful.  Birds outside heard the song and vowed to never make another noise again, they had been bested.  Angels were jealous.  Astra’s song was, quite frankly, perfect, and I pitied the poor student who had to follow her.

As Astra left the classroom, Lisa poked her head out and yelled, “TY BOGART, YOU’RE NEXT!”

Wow, that happens next? CLICK THE LINK FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!