Page 14 of He's The Reason Why

Piper launched into her lines, focused on being thedetermined princess in the forest trying to follow a magic map that wasn’t cooperating.

Blake stiffened next to her as if he found the way she read physically painful.

She was berating her magic map when she heard Blake whisper, “Relax.”

She stumbled over the next word and had to repeat it, twice, before she got it right. “Sorry. Throat’s dry.”

“That’s all right,” Tamar said in a kind voice. “This is just a read-through. No need to be perfect.”

“No chance of that,” Rachel said under her breath loud enough for Piper to hear, but not loud enough to catch Tamar’s attention.

“Just let yourself sink into the character,” Tamar said. “Have fun with it.”

“There’s no pressure,” Jeremy said in his soothing baritone. “Not today, at any rate.”

“No, pressure happens when you face the dragon.” Gina rolled therin dragon.

“Nah,” Paul said. The pink flamingos on his shirt glowed under the studio lights. “Pressure’s when we put the voice with the art and realize they don’t mesh and I have to tell you all to come back in to do it over and over and over.That’spressure.”

Several people groaned their agreement.

“The point is, there isnopressure here today,” Tamar said firmly.

“That’s right. We’re all dedicated to this project,” Rachel said in a voice that would have easily carried to the back row in a theater. She smiled and turned to Piper. “I’m sure we areallgiving it ourbesteffort.”

Everyone turned their attention back to Piper. The air thickened with anticipation, or maybe that was just her own insecurity making her chest feel tight.

“No pressure. Right.” Piper opened a bottle of water and took several long gulps.

She could tell something was wrong with the way she was approaching her part, but she had no idea what. When she read the lines straight, Blake stiffened and several people around the room looked bored.

When she put feeling into the words, she saw Rachel roll her eyes.

Getting ready for a concert in front of hundreds of thousands of people had never been this exasperating.

Three sentences later, when she was pleading with her map to stop giving her bad directions, she felt Blake actually flinch.

She stopped and stared at him.

He might as well be holding a sign that said, “Stop torturing me.”

“What?” she whispered. “Did I miss a line or something?”

“Or something,” he muttered.

Rachel cleared her throat. “Will we break for lunch soon?”

Tamar gave her a patient smile. “After we finish this scene. Please continue, Ms. Bellamy.”

Piper read the next lines faster.

By the time Blake’s character showed up on the page, she’d resorted to a short, clipped, irritated approach to the read. Princess Jewel was, after all, supposed to be frustrated by the time Jesse offered to help.

Tamar clapped her hands twice. “Okay, okay, time for lunch. Bathroom’s down the hall to the left, food is to the right. Out the front door to the picnic tables to smoke.”

Tamar already had a cigarette in her hand.

Everyone sprang from their chairs as if suddenly liberated from a boring lecture.

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