Chapter Four

After a weekend filled with deliberation, second guessing, and tireless input from Enrique, Jeff had the final cast list typed out and printed. Now all that was left to do was post it.

He headed to campus an entire hour earlier than he normally did, but there were still a few diehards camped out in front of his door.

“I’m not hanging this up until you disappear from sight for at least a few minutes,” he told Kendra while he was pulling out his room key.

Kendra scrunched up her nose in distaste, but led her posse down the hall and around a corner. Once she was gone, Jeff went into his room and grabbed a roll of tape. He placed one thin strip on each corner of the cast list and stuck it up in the middle of the door with care. He allowed himself to look over it one final time.

Maria...Danielle Hanson

Nathan...Cameron Davis

Reed...Eddie Nesbo

Mrs. Phillips...Kendra Park

Ashley Worthington...Leslie Vandermeer

Casey...Tariq Johnson

Liam...Jackson O’Leary

Mack...Rin Yamamoto

Mia…Jessica Villaseñor

Carolina…Ruby Kaltenecker 

Annabel...Sophia Patel

Chorus...Leanne Rice, Valerie Shusterman, Kenneth Jones

Understudies...Gavin Shoemaker, Shannon Riley, Karen Smith

They were all great choices, but he had to laugh at one of them. Poor Ken Jones was just one of the poor saps who auditioned because he was on the cusp of failing and couldn’t say no to the extra credit. Alas, he was the best sounding of said saps and Jeff needed another boy to round out the ensemble, so he got to actually be in the musical. The fate of his extra credit depended on it.

It hadn’t been easy, but he truly felt like he’d outdone himself this time. He felt like he had given all of his regulars roles that they would embrace and knock out of the park, plus he’d managed to cull some new talent who might stick around after everything was said and done. He went back inside and sat down at his desk with the biggest smile on his face.

All day long Jeff was rushing through his lessons, having to stop for clarification dozens of times. He couldn’t help it. He was just so damn giddy about this musical and eager to get the regular school day over with so that he could get started on the very first rehearsal. When the last bell rang, he rushed out of his classroom almost as fast as his students.

The drama room was still a little bit trashed from the audition traffic on Friday, so Jeff did his best to tidy it up a little bit before the kids started arriving. He stacked a bunch of extra chairs on top of each other in one of the corners and assembled all the tables into a blob at the center of the room. This would make it much easier for them to get through their first read-through of the script.

He was just gathering up some scattered trash when he heard footsteps in the hall. A few seconds later, Danielle barged in and nearly tackled him into a hug. Jeff laughed and awkwardly patted her on the back until she released her vice grip.

“Thank you, Mr. Martin,” she said, eyes wild with excitement.

Jeff smiled.

“Don’t thank me. You earned that part all on your own.”

“I thought you were going to give it to Kendra,” she admitted. “Or Leslie.”

“Kendra and Leslie will have other chances,” he said, and left it at that. “Now go finish highlighting your lines while you wait.”

Slowly the rest of the students started trickling in. First, Jackson and Leslie, then Jessica and a slightly bummed looking Kendra. She was followed closely behind by the newcomers Sophia and Ruby, who were clinging to each other for comfort. Jeff welcomed them in and introduced them to everyone before having them sit down and highlight their scripts as well.

As 3:30 drew near Jeff started taking roll call in his head. A couple of the understudies hadn’t bothered to show up, which was slightly upsetting, but not unexpected. Valerie and Leanne had other club meetings to go to, so they were excused. Ken Jones was also missing, but it was probably just because he didn’t realize he was actually in the play. Jeff would have to have a very persuasive talk with him about it later. The only other person who was missing was Cameron.

“Where’s the new guy?” Enrique asked, echoing Jeff’s thoughts.

Jeff shrugged helplessly.

“Does anybody know him? Cam Davis?”

“He’s a football guy,” said Danielle. “I don’t know him personally or anything, but he seems pretty popular.”

That momentarily threw him off. Jeff hadn’t pegged Cameron for a jock, but it made sense. Especially the awkwardness. Nevertheless, football season was over. He should have been there by now.

“Let’s just get started without him,” Jeff said, trying to hide his nerves.

He took a seat at one end of the table blob and looked over his cast.

“Hello everyone. Congrats on your parts and welcome to our newbies.” There was a brief round of applause for Ruby and Sophia.

“So, this is the first of many rehearsals. We’re going to meet here every day at 3:30 until opening night. You don’t have to come to every single one of them, but I do expect you to tell me in advance if you need to skip rehearsal for any reason. If any of you miss three days without letting me know, you will be replaced. Understood?” 

There were nods all the way around.

“Good. Now we’re not going to do anything extensive today. We’re just going to read through the script and get a feel for our characters. You can skip over the songs for now. I’ll read Nathan’s parts.”

With that, they all got to work. They all got so sucked into reading their lines and unanimously flipping pages, that when the door creaked open, it gave them all a start. Rin finished reading the last line quietly and monotonously.

“Sorry,” Cam said closing the door behind him. He was clearly uncomfortable under this level of scrutiny. “I was uh...I lost track of time.”

Jeff nodded as if that weren’t very vague and annoying.

“Everyone, this is Cam. Take five while I get him caught up to speed okay?”

Jeff pulled Cameron aside and asked, “Do you still have the script I gave you?”

Cam nodded.

“And have you gotten the chance to read over it yet?”

Cam looked down at his feet.

“No, not yet.”

Jeff inhaled through his nose and tried not to show his disappointment.

“That’s okay. Pull out your script and start highlighting all of Nathan’s lines. When you’re done with that we’re going to continue our read through starting with act two, scene four.”

Cameron nodded and did as he was told. Jeff didn’t bother to comment on his lateness. At least, not yet.

The rest of rehearsal went off without a hitch. Everyone seemed to understand their characters and relate well with each other. Cam and Danielle had even better chemistry then he had hoped. All of Cam’s words came out thin and questioning, where Danielle’s were firm and assertive. It made for a fun and romantically charged atmosphere that everyone else seemed to feed off.

Sure, there were still issues that needed to be resolved, like Jackson laughing when he was supposed to sneer and Ruby’s slight lack of confidence, but as far as building blocks went, Jeff felt blessed. By the time they finished the first official read-through, he had a satisfied feeling of accomplishment brewing deep inside his belly.

Still, there was one thing left that he had to resolve.

“Cam, can I talk to you for a second?” he asked softly after releasing everyone for the day.

Cam slung his gray backpack over one shoulder and gave a stern nod. It was such a “bro-like” gesture that Jeff was inclined to laugh, but he managed to keep it together.

“How was your first rehearsal?” he asked.

“It was fun,” Cam said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“All right,” Jeff dragged out the word. “Well I just wanted to check in and make sure. Also, I’ll excuse it today since it was your first time, but in the future, I expect you to be on time, or to at least let me know beforehand if you’re going to be late.”

“Well that’s gonna be a problem,” Cam said under his breath.

Jeff arched an eyebrow.

“Excuse me?”

Cam sighed and let go of his backpack straps. They fell flush against his shoulders, weighing him down like a Dali painting.

“Look, I really don’t think this is going to work out,” Cam began, causing Jeff’s heart to deeply sink. “It was super nice of you and I really appreciate it and everything, but I didn’t expect you to cast me as anything important. I thought I could just have a small part, show up every once and a while, learn a few songs and be good to go. I just don’t really have room for such a big, time commitment.”

“Why? Is it because of another club or sport? Because we can work around that, if that’s the case.”

Cam shook his head.

“No. I play football in the fall, but we didn’t make playoffs, so that’s done now. And I’m not part of any clubs. I’m not even technically allowed to be part of the drama club, not officially anyway.”

Things started clicking together in Jeff’s mind.

“You’re failing classes aren’t you?” he asked. Students weren’t allowed to participate in clubs or activities if they had more than one failing grade, although most teachers were encouraged to let this rule slide when it came to football players—which was a suggestion Jeff hated and by which had never abided. Plus, Cam had hinted during his audition that he wasn’t doing well in English.

“Yeah. A few of them. That’s why I was late. I was staying after to talk with Ms. Abeille about a bad test grade, and I already have tutoring with Mr. Rodriguez three times a week, and math tutoring on Wednesdays. I’m on the cusp of failing Spanish too.”

Jeff chewed his lip. It seemed like a lot to repair, but he was desperate. He’d made great strides in the last couple of weeks, but his life was still a huge mess. This show was pretty much all he had going at the moment. He’d do anything to keep it from falling apart at the seams.

“How about this,” he said calmly. “What if I talk to all your teachers and convince them to let me take over your tutoring. That way you can come to rehearsals and we can work privately afterwards and on weekends to get your grades back up. Does that sound good?”

Cam looked excited, but wary.

“That sounds amazing. Are you sure you can do that?”

Jeff was not, in fact, sure he could do it. It was probably against some kind of school code to visit students at their houses, and it would require an inordinate amount of schmoozing toward at least three other faculty members, but he was desperate enough to make it happen.

“Of course I can,” Jeff said with mock confidence.

His students weren’t the only ones with great acting chops.