Page 17 of Sawyer

“Now! Reeve, I’m going to have you pass out the audition scenes and rehearsal schedule. McKenna, you go take a seat in the sixth row with your notebook and pencil. I’ll be right there. And Aaron, can you be a lamb and turn up the house lights? Thank you, crew.”

Reeve hops off the stage to distribute scripts, her expression all sassy when she gets to me.

“I didn’t realize you were so interested in the theater.”

“I didn’t realize Aaron was so interested in you.”

“Shut up, Sawyer,” she snaps, turning away to give out more scripts with noticeably rosier cheeks.

“Be nice,” says McKenna, passing me as she heads back to the sixth row. “She almost backed out of helping when she found out that Aaron would be here.”

“Really?”

McKenna nods. “Really. She doesnotlike him.”

“Curiouser and curiouser.”

“I didn’t take you for anAlice in Wonderlandfan!” she exclaims.

“I’m not. But Parker loved the Disney movie when we were little. I’ve seen it about a hundred thousand times.”

McKenna chuckles. “Break a leg up there.”

“Thanks.”

As she steps away, I’m nailed by Ivy’s emerald green eyes. She’s been staring at us. Caught, she gives me half-wince/half- smile before facing forward again.Yeah. I’m here, princess. And you can’t do anything about it.

I take a peek at the scene on the printed handout I’m holding. There are three audition scenes: one is between Catherine and Heathcliff, another includes Edgar, his sister Isabella, Catherine, her brother Hindley, and Heathcliff, and a final scene includes Nelly, the maid at Wuthering Heights, and Joseph, a servant. In Bruce’s version of the story reads a note at the bottom, we begin the story when Heathcliff and Catherine are in their late teens.

“First,” calls Bruce from where he sits between Reeve and McKenna, “let’s have Ivy Caswell read for Catherine, and…hm…Sawyer Stewart read for Heathcliff.”

I stand up right away, but it’s not lost on me that it takes Ivy a second or two to do the same. I wait for her on stage, watching her slow progress to join me. Finally, we’re facing each other.

“Hi, Sawyer,” she says, her lips unsmiling, and her eyes sharp.

“Hey, Ivy.”

“I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“It’s a free country.”

“Yeah. But—”

“Does it matter?” I ask her, my eyes sliding to her engagement ring, then back to her face. “It shouldn’t.”

“It doesn’t!” she insists, looking down at her feet in bright white tennis shoes. “It’s just a surprise.”

“Alright, then!” calls Bruce. “Now, Ivy, we’re at the part of the story when Catherine has met Edgar Linton and is breaking away from Heathcliff. She feels superior to him. She thinks she wants more than he can offer her, and it’s making her mean.” He turns to me. “Heathcliff is still devoted to Catherine. He loves her utterly. He notices that she’s spending more and more time with the Lintons, and it’s hurting him. He’s frightened of losing her.” He looks back and forth between us. “Got it?”

Ivy nods. “Got it.”

“Yep,” I answer.

I turn to Ivy, watching as she closes her eyes, clearing her face of emotion before opening her eyes and lifting her chin all haughty. She narrows her eyes, staring at me for a long moment with a disgust bordering on contempt, then looks away from me, at the audience. Arrogant. Irritated. Like I am well beneath her notice, and she can’t imagine why she has to stand across from me on this stage. I’m about to nudge her and ask what the hell is going on when—

“Excellent, Ivy!” cries Bruce. “That’s exactly what I’m looking for! Now, Sawyer, take it away!”

Oh! Oh. We’re doing it. She’s…acting.

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