Grim Reaper 01 - Embrace the Grim Reaper

over your blocking. Learn your lines, for God’s sake. Do some thing.” He stood, shoved his notebook into a bag, and before Casey had a chance to react he was striding down the aisle toward her seat. There was nowhere to hide, and the director stopped by her chair, lifting his hands toward the ceiling.
    “It’s about time,” he said. “I thought you’d never get here.”

Chapter Five
    Casey blinked. “Excuse me?”
    The director frowned. “I spoke with you ages ago. You’d think you could show up before we all grew old.”
    Casey placed her feet flat on the floor and eased herself up out of her seat to stand in front of the director, aware of her personal space and how close he was to violating it. “I’m not here for you.”
    His eyebrows lifted. “Oh, really? Then who, exactly, are you here for? Those people?” He jerked a thumb backward toward the stage. “When I get a commitment from an actress, no matter how good she thinks she is, I expect her to be here for me. I don’t tolerate prima donnas.”
    Movement behind the man distracted Casey, and Eric peered around the man’s shoulder, his face flooding with red.
    “Thomas,” he said. “She’s not the one.”
    The director stared at her for a few more seconds before acknowledging Eric. “Well, then, who is she?”
    The rest of the cast was there now, too, and they all watched her, expressions much more animated than five minutes before on the stage. Eric grinned. “Her name’s Casey Smith. She helped out at dinner tonight.”
    Thomas looked her up and down. “I should’ve known. I bet you couldn’t act your way out of a paper bag, could you, sweetheart?”
    A roar filled Casey’s head. She glanced at Eric’s face, now white, and gave a grim smile. She forced herself to look back at the director. “You don’t think so?” She held out her hand.
    He sneered at her outstretched palm. “What?”
    “A script, please.”
    “But—”
    “Or a paper bag.”
    The director’s eyes narrowed at the snickers from the cast. “Eric?”
    “Yes.” Eric’s face was rigid with suppressed laughter.
    “Get the lady a script. And read something with her.”
    “Sure thing.” He turned to the woman he’d been acting with and smiled. “Care to share your script, Becca?”
    Becca’s face tightened, and she glanced at Casey. “Eric…”
    “Come on, Becca. What can it hurt?”
    Becca took a deep breath, looked at the ceiling, and reached into her purse. “Here.”
    “Thanks. Come on, Casey.”
    Casey eased around the director and accompanied Eric down the aisle to the stage.
    “You know this play?” Eric asked.
    “Intimately.”
    He glanced at her with surprise. “Any choice, then, on what scene we do?”
    Her lips formed a tight line. “How about the conflict scene with Sir Andrew and Viola?”
    “I guess that would be—”
    “How are you with fighting?”
    He gave a soft chuckle. “You mean in real life or on the stage? I’ve got experience with both. Although off-stage it’s been much less violent.” He grinned. “But as you can see, we haven’t graduated to using practice swords yet. He—” He jerked a thumb toward the director “—says he’s waiting till he’s convinced we’re ready for the weapons. I think he just doesn’t know any fight choreographers.”
    Casey laughed. “We don’t need swords. If I say two left jabs and a half roundhouse before a contact stomach punch, uppercut, and a sit fall, would that mean anything to you?”
    They’d reached the stage, and Eric held back to let her climb the stairs ahead of him. “I’d know what you mean, but without practice I’m afraid I could hurt you.”
    She waited for him at the top of the stairs. “Oh, I’m not afraid of you hurting me . You ready?”
    He hesitated, then stepped forward. “I guess. Although you’ve got me a little scared now.”
    “No worries. Let’s show this blowhard a thing or two.”
    Eric shook his head. “All right. Hey, Jack. Aaron. Come on up and do this scene with us. Jack, you be Toby. I’ll read Sir Andrew—”
    Aaron, the older of the two kids, jumped onto the stage. “But that’s my part.”
    “Just for now, you play Fabian. Please?”
    Aaron shrugged, and grinned. “Fine with me.”
    “All right. Casey and Aaron, enter from over there. Jack and I will do our lines from here.”
    Casey followed Aaron to the wings on stage left. Her blood tingled in her veins, and she opened and closed her hands, bouncing on her feet