Beautiful Monster (Beautiful Monster #1)(7)
Author: Bella Forrest

I stopped short before I almost ran into somebody. This had happened before, when I was trying to watch a show. They sometimes invited neighbouring schools to watch dress rehearsals, various young drama classes and such. These girls must be from the girls’ school on the south side of town. All of them were perfect; tall, thin and beautiful; the type that a private school usually attracts. I immediately felt inadequate, with my thrift store clothes, and hair a mess, not wearing a scrap of makeup.

Self consciously, I attempted to pull my hair back into a bun, and prayed it would stay that way. I moved past the girls, who were standing in single file. I figured if they were all from one school, they had to stay together, and I could slip past them and get a good seat before they were all gone.

There was a commotion up front and I knew who it was before I even looked up. Liam. Escorted as usual by his entourage, I was surprised to also find a crowd of media. That hadn’t happened here in awhile and I assumed they had given up on him. But here they were, squawking, cameras flashing, as if he hadn’t ever been away from Hollywood at all.

One of his entourage had her hand on his back, a tall wiry redhead who looked young enough to be a student herself, pushing him gently through the crowd. Liam was holding a newspaper up to his face, shielding it from view. However, standing on the other side, I could see he looked tense, paler than this morning, his jaw tightly clenched. And then he was gone, inside the auditorium, and I found myself standing outside the doors.

“Right this way,” someone said, and I looked up. She was a 6th year student, I recognized her from the hallways, and the few times I sat in on her classes. She was shoving a paper into my hand, and hurrying me inside. “Move along please. Only students, no one else.”

“What?” I asked my heart in my chest. Did she know my secret? After all these years, was it going to be a preteen girl who called me out? But she seemed already to be speaking to someone else, a mother standing at the front of the line with her arms around someone who was obviously her daughter. I ducked into the room before anyone else spotted me, heading to the second row to take a seat. Only then did I look down at what was in my hand.

Auditions – Leopard Academy Scholarship Fund – Girls Day.

Below it was a script; an excerpt from what I quickly read was Beauty and the Beast. But it was the headline that got me. I must have gotten my dates mixed up – today was not the dress rehearsal. Today was the auditions for the scholarship that everyone always buzzed about. Every two years, Leopard Academy held auditions for one talented student to win a full scholarship to the school, for as long as they needed to attend before graduating. This was an old tradition that Liam’s Grandfather had started, although I imagine it was even more popular now that Liam was the headmaster. The spots were coveted, people came from other countries just to be here today. And here I was, sitting in the second row, technically in line.

Before I could even get to my feet, or pull out my phone to text Sarah, another girl sat beside me, putting her feet up on the chair in front of us.

“Hi. I’m Alicia.”

“Uh … Amy,” I said, reaching out to shake hands.

“Did you bring a hardcopy of your headshot and resume?” Alicia asked, rummaging through her bag frantically. “I mean, of course I sent it online, but I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to bring a hard copy too?”

“Uh … no.” I replied, with a shrug. After all, it was the truth, I wasn’t carrying a hardcopy of my headshot and resume with me. Never mind that I didn’t actually have either.

“Oh. Well, I’m sure it’s fine then.” She settled back into her seat, relaxing. “How long have you been acting?”

“Uh…not long,” I managed, looking at my watch. This place was packed and it was starting to look like even if I wanted to leave, I couldn’t. Not without attracting a lot of attention to myself. “You?”

“Since I was a fetus,” she replied, with a smile. “My mom did an ultrasound commercial when she was pregnant with me. And I did some diaper commercials, and it’s been go go go ever since.”

“Oh,” I said, impressed. She really did mean she had been acting forever.

“And I spent five years as a minor character on Lazy Workers,” she said, looking me up and down to see if I recognized her. I didn’t, but I nodded enthusiastically anyway.

“So…if you have all this experience…why do you want to audition here?” I asked. “I mean…if you’re already a full time actress, isn’t that a dream come true?”

“Well…” she bit her lip. “It was. But things have been hard since my Dad left…and I haven’t been able to get much work lately. So my mom thought this would be a good opportunity for me. Plus, hello, Liam Swift is the head master here,” she nodded towards the stage, where we had seen Liam disappear. “He can teach me anything, anytime,” she winked at me.

“Sure,” I replied. I wanted to ask her more, about what it was actually like to be an actor; how it felt when it was your job and not just something you did because you were so in love with it. What was it like, to act every single day and get paid for it? I was about to open my mouth when the curtain rose. It seemed nothing official was starting quite yet, but Liam and his cronies were on the stage now. The redhead I had seen earlier was standing at the edge of the stage, scanning the crowd. Finally, she turned to him, and nodded.

He stepped forward, clearing his throat. Before he even got to say a word, the lights dimmed and a wave of applause broke out, followed by cheering. Liam glared out into the crowd, waiting for it to settle before he spoke.

“Welcome to the Auditions for the scholarship fund. Students the academy have funded over the years have gone on to do great things including TV, movies, and Broadway. Every second year, we accept one person, gender and age not being a factor, and fund them for as long as they need to be at this school – Kindergarten through graduation, if need be. This student will have the same rights and privileges of any student here at the Academy. It’s quite the opportunity.” He paused for applause. “So hopefully, it’s in one of you. You’ll each get two minutes to read the script, and then you’ll be asked to move on. If the panel likes you, you’ll be asked for your contact details outside when you exit. So, let’s get started,” he said, indicating that the rest of his entourage should head down to where the panel normally sat, in front of the first row, facing the stage. “Rows one and two, come line up. And please, two minutes, and then exit. Nothing more,” he said, and then walked away from the microphone, oblivious to the applause.