"Do I look all right?" Victoria asked for the third time.
Mari made an exasparated noise. "You look just like you did five minutes ago. Give it a rest, Vic."
Victoria squirmed on her chair. "I'm just really nervous, that's all." All the girls in the Circle Youth Theartre Company were sitting outside the studio that was their main rehearsal space. It was part of the Alexander Arts Centre, a large complex of danc estudios and gym halls, and the corridor was long, painted cream, and smelled of socks. Victoria, Fliss and Mari were sitting close to the door, waiting for Candy to come out and call them in one by one. Victoria squirmed again. "Aren't you nervous?"
"We all are." Mari glanced to her left "You all right Fliss?"
Fliss was staring into space, her lips moving inaudibly.
"Fliss?"
"Hmm? Oh - yeah, I'm OK. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Aren't you nervous?"
Fliss consisdered. "A bit, I suppose. Not properly. Not like nervous before a performance. I mean, it's only Candy in there, isn't it?"
Mari shook her head in wonderment. "I wish I could be so calm. I know I won't get Juliet, but there's always Lady Capulet, or the Nurse"
"I won't even be good enough for one of them," said Victoria gloomily " I just hope I don't have to play a boy again."
Fliss, momentarily diverted, turned to look at her. "The boys get swords."
"Ooh," said Victoria, brightening up. " That would be fun."
"You with a sword?" said Mari in horror. " That wouldn't be fun, it would be a disaster waiting to happen."
Victoria was about to reply when the door to the studio opened and Candy came out. She looked around at the assembled girls. "Great at see so many of you," she said. "I'll try not to keep you waiting too long, but I have to make sure everyone gets a fair shot, OK?" She frowned. "Isn't Samantha here?"
Fliss glanced around in suprise. "Maybe she's not coming," whispered Mari hopefully.
"I'm sure she'll be along soon," said Candy. "I can't imagine she'd want to miss the auditions."
Mari snorted and then tried to turn it into a cough.
"Mari," said Candy, "why don't you come in first? You got a speech sorted?"
"Yum-hum." mumbled Mari.
"Excellent." Candy stood aside and held the door open. "In you come."
Mari shot a terryfied look at Fliss before getting to her feet and shuffling into the studio as though she were walking to her execution.
The door of the studio wasn't soundproof, so before long they could hear Mari's voice rising and falling as she performed her speech, although it wasn't loud enough to her the words. At one point, she faltered, and Fliss held her breath. After a moment, however, Mari resumed, and Fliss and Victoria both blew a sigh of relief.
"That was the line she always forgets, bet you anything." whispered Victoria. All three girls had heard each other's speeches so often, they knew how it should go. Mari finished her speech and Victoria wriggled on her seat again. "I hope I'm next," she said. "I mean, I don't really because I'm terrified and actually don't want to go in there at all, but it would be better to get it over and done with, don't you think? Or maybe it'd be better to perform last, when there's no one listening in the corridor. Oh- thought the boys might be here by then, I guess. That would be even worse. Doing my speech and knowing..."
Fliss let Victoria's voice wash over her. Gazing at the polished linoleum floor, she ran through her speech in her mind again. She had done it so many times now she could have performed it in her sleep. Indeed, only the night before Jeanette had paused outside her daughter's room, puzzled by the l, ow murmuring. Putting her ear to the door, she heard Fliss say "In half an hour she promised..."

Notes

The chapter isn't finished off yet!