Page 14 of Rebel Romeo

“You got her back.” McCay’s voice behind me caused me to whip around, nearly spilling my to-go cup of black coffee. All the way at the back of the theater, no one in the class seemed to notice either of us there.

“What?”

“You got her to come back to class. I got her email Monday right after you ran out of rehearsal.”

Oh. Right. “I guess I did. But I was also the reason she tried to quit in the first place.”

“I figured.” McCay raked her fingers into the massive pile of dark curls and flipped her hair part to the other side.

“It’s that obvious?” She didn’t answer me with anything other than a raised eyebrow. “Why the hell did you cast me as Romeo? Any number of the guys in this class would kill for the opportunity to play him. Why me?”

Her shrewd gaze darkened as she assessed me. “Because a good Romeo should never want to be Romeo.”

With a scoff, I swiped my hand down my face. What the actual fuck was she talking about? Before I could pose the question, though, she kept talking. “And I’ve seen more raw talent in your acting these last few weeks than I’ve seen in years of training the next generations of actors. You’re wasting it on the football field, Holden.”

We stood there in silence as the door opened and four of my classmates walked in the theater. They spared us a quick look, then scurried down to the first few rows, thankfully leaving us to talk. “Katherine has raw talent, too,” I whispered.

“I never said she didn’t. But Kate’s been acting for a long time. Since she was just a kid. And there’s some unlearning that girl needs to do before she can achieve greatness. You? You’re a blank canvas.”

My face screwed into a frown. Somehow, that didn’t feel like the compliment that she meant it as. “But Katherine?—”

“Holden,” McCay spun to face me straight on. “Trust me. I’ve been doing this a long time. And I know when an actor is faking their vulnerability. Kate fakes it. Or rather…” McCay tilted her head. “She fakes it with everyone but you.”

I started to object again, but McCay cut me off. “Fine. Don’t believe me? Watch.” She turned away from me crossing down the center aisle of the theater clapping her hands together. “Okay, everyone, take your seat. We’re doing something slightly different today.”

I followed her down the center aisle, taking a seat in the front row across from Kate. I could feel her angry gaze boring into me, but I ignored it. Ignored her eye contact. I had a feeling that whatever pissing match I’d accidentally started with McCay this morning was about to come down as a rainstorm onto Katherine and I was already regretting the part I played in initiating it.

McCay hopped up on stage as Keith came in the side door near stage right. “We’re going to push today’s rehearsal to next week,” McCay announced, “And instead, we’re going to do some scene work away from Remy and Julie. I think it will help you all grow to find something new. And give those of you in the ensemble scenes to work with, too.”

McCay opened a binder, quickly flipping through some pages before pulling two stapled packets out from within it. “Everyone in class is going to get a chance to do a scene today that you’ve not seen and have very little time to prepare for. In auditions, you’ll find directors will do this a lot. Sometimes to see if they can intentionally throw you off, sometimes because they’re unprepared. Sometimes because they want to test and see if you can take direction. In today’s class, everyone will come up in pairs to do random scenes of my choosing. To start, Kate, why don’t you come up here and read Eliza. And for Higgins, let’s see…”

McCay’s voice trailed off and her eyes scanned the theater, pausing briefly on me as she said, “Nate. Come on up and read the part of Higgins in Pygmalion.”

My spine bristled hearing his name. Of course, I knew she wouldn’t choose me. The whole point was that she was trying to prove something to me about Katherine. Something I needed to see from the audience.

She handed each of them the script, then descended the stairs and sat down… right next to me in the front row.

Keith gave us a curious look from the opposite row, probably wondering why his secret girlfriend chose to sit next to me instead of him. “Now,” McCay called out to them from beside me. “Go ahead and give it a try. The scene begins after Eliza just won the bet for Higgins and she’s gotten no recognition for it. Now that she speaks like royalty, Eliza has no place in her old world. But she still doesn’t fit in this new world and can’t stay among the upper class. She’s fallen in love with Higgins, but he refuses to let himself love her back.”

After a couple breaths, Katherine and Nate begin the scene and it seemed fine to me. A little boring, if I was being honest, but that seemed more like an issue with Nate. He played Higgins like a comically older man even though he himself was only twenty-one.

As the scene ramped up, a few tears spilled down Katherine’s face. She didn’t bother wiping them away as she yelled back at Nate, standing tall and ramrod straight as Higgins. “I sold flowers!” she cried. “I didn’t sell myself. Now you’ve made a lady of me, I’m not fit to sell anything else. I wish you’d left me where you found me?—”

“Stop!” McCay shouted, holding up her hand and standing.

Katherine and Nate both shifted uncomfortably on the stage as McCay perched herself against the proscenium, turning out to face the rest of the class in the audience. “Who believed Nate’s performance as a fifty-something man?”

I snorted to myself, folding my arms across my chest. A couple of students in class raised their hands.

McCay looked back at Nate from over her shoulder. “Now granted, you’d never be asked to read Higgins at your age. But for the sake of this class, don’t be a caricature of an older man. Be the older man, Nate. A man in his early fifties isn’t hobbling with a cane. This is a wealthy, aristocratic man. He hasn’t worked a day of manual labor in his life. If anything, he has an old polo injury. Maybe slight back pain from sitting too much. Maybe he’s too proud to wear his glasses so he squints a little. Make a choice and commit to it. And don’t underestimate the sex drive of an older man.”

Ew. My face twisted into a frown. It wasn’t anything I didn't already know, thanks to my father’s insatiable sex drive that led him to have multiple affairs. But still… gross.

Pausing, McCay looked back out to the class once more, her eyes locking onto me. Panic gripped my throat. “Holden. Did you believe Kate’s tears?”

My body went hot. Why the fuck was she calling me out like that? Just as Katherine and I were going to have to get back up on stage together at the next rehearsal. “Yeah,” I said. “I did.”

McCay’s eyes went to slits and her glare intensified onto me. “You believed those were real tears?” she repeated, emphasizing the question by pointing at Katherine. “That the performance Kate just gave was open and honest and how a real woman in that scenario would act?”

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