Centre Stage: A Novel

five minutes for the first person on the list.’
    She left. I got the speech I was going to do out of my bag. Justine had started to talk to a few of the other girls. I guessed they must be people from her school. But I didn’t mind being left on my own. I wanted a chance to go through my speech.
    After ten minutes I heard Velda calling my name. I jumped up.
    ‘It’s your turn, Sophie,’ Velda said.
    ‘Good luck,’ Justine smiled as I passed.
    I walked out on to the stage, my heart banging like a drum in my chest. Claire was sitting in the middle of the auditorium with Sheila, the casting director, and another couple of people who I didn’t know. They all looked at me and I felt myself beginning to blush. The stage suddenly seemed much bigger than it had done earlier.
    ‘When you’re ready,’ Claire called.
    I crouched down on the floor. OK , I told myself, concentrate .
    Shutting my eyes, I imagined that I was Sara. I took a deep breath. The theatre smelt of dust and paint and people. It was strange but also somehow comforting. I opened my eyes and looked at the floor. The words surged up inside me. My nerves vanished. I could do this.
    ‘Oh, Melchisedec,’ I began wistfully, imagining my pet rat was there in front of me. ‘It’s been a long day — a very long, hard day…’
    As I spoke, the magic I’d felt when I’d been acting in the film seemed to take over again. Suddenly I could see the walls of the attic room Sara was in. I could see the bare wooden floorboards, the tiny hard bed…
    At the end of the speech I blinked as the theatre came flooding back. There was the sound of applause. I stood up. All the adults in the auditorium were clapping.
    ‘Thanks, Sophie. That was really great,’ Claire called, standing up. ‘Go and take a break and I’ll see you for the improvisations and script readings in about an hour.’
    I smiled. ‘Thank you.’
    Waiting for everyone to have their audition seemed to take ages. After Justine had been for her audition she came and sat with me. She seemed pleased with how her audition had gone.
    ‘Just the dancing and singing to do now,’ I said. ‘I’m not looking forward to the dancing.’
    ‘Really?’ Justine said, looking just the tiniest bit pleased. ‘I’ve been going to ballet, tap and modern dance lessons after school at Clawson’s since I was four.’
    ‘So what’s it like — going to school there properly?’ I asked curiously.
    ‘Brilliant,’ Justine replied. ‘I mean, there’s all the normal boring lessons but you get to do loads of acting and dance and music. I love it!’
    She told me about the lessons they did — improvisation, character development, lots of singing and dancing, and then we talked about Charles Hope. Justine wanted to know all the gossip about people we’d been to primary school with. We only stopped talking when Velda came into the green room with some scenes from the play for us to prepare.
    She put us into pairs. I was with an older girl called Samantha. She read Susan and I read Lucy.
    Samantha was quite bossy but our scene seemed to go well. After all the pairs had been, everyone had to go on stage and Claire split us into two groups. She asked us first to improvise exploring an old house and then to improvise being lost in some woods. It was great fun. It was also interesting watching the other girls who were auditioning for Lucy. They all seemed very good at acting. I wondered which of us would be chosen. Me, I prayed. Please, let it be me .
    When we had all finished, Claire announced that it was lunchtime. ‘There’s food set out in the green room for you. You will have an hour’s break now and then you’ll be going with Dizzy and Stefan to do the dancing and singing auditions. OK?’
    We all nodded.
    ‘Come on,’ Justine said. ‘I’m starving!’
    I followed her back down to the green room. The acting audition had seemed to go well but would the dancing and singing go as smoothly?
    The music from the CD player blasted out. ‘OK, guys!’ Dizzy called above it. ‘One last practice and then I’ll watch you. Here we go!’ Her voice echoed around the large rehearsal room with its wooden floor. ‘Five, six, seven, eight!’
    Standing in front of us, she began the dance she had spent the last half hour teaching us.
    And spin, step forward and to the side and cut … The instructions raced through my head as I tried to keep up with her.
    It wasn’t too bad. The steps were all quite easy.
    Arms