The auditionee shook her head and the woman came over, put her arm around her and led her outside.
Philippe had no sympathy. ‘Next!’ he shouted, clearly making a big line through the poor girl’s name on his list.
An older blonde girl wearing a green woolly hat and big hoop earrings stood up, looking more confident.
‘Now we will see into your soul,’ Philippe pronounced. ‘The soul of the actress!’
He began firing questions at the girl. ‘When did you last laugh? What do you think of frogs? What if the earth was flat?’
The girl did her best to come up with answers, while Philippe scribbled furiously, but some of the questions were totally bizarre. When she’d finished, Philippe nodded, seemingly satisfied.
One by one, girls stood in front of the camera, having to impersonate the president, talk about their pet hamster or describe how they would make a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. Charlotte got a question about her hobbies and she didn’t hesitate to tell everyone about being the captain of the cheerleading squad. She happily demonstrated a cheer – the one Olivia wrote last semester.
When they were more than halfway through the people waiting, Philippe called for Olivia.
‘I know I’m not supposed to say “good luck”,’ Camilla said. ‘So break a tentacle.’
‘Thanks,’ Olivia replied and stepped in front of the camera. There were lights rigged up on big metal frames and the man with the huge headphones was dangling a microphone over her head.
She felt everyone watching her, waiting to see what she would say. The big black camera was pointing right at her and she wished Ivy could have been here for support. But this was her chance and she was going to give it her best.
‘What is your favourite colour and why?’
That was easy. Olivia gave a big smile. ‘My favourite colour is pink. And I think it’s because when I was four, my mom gave me a frilly pink parasol with my name embroidered on it.’
‘What is your darkest secret?’
That I know vampires are real, Olivia thought. She paused for a second and then said, ‘I’m adopted. Not that it’s a dark secret, or anything. But I haven’t met most of my biological family.’ She didn’t want anyone to get suspicious that there was anything unusual about her family. ‘But I’d like my biological dad to introduce me to them some day.’
‘Sing me a song,’ Philippe demanded.
Olivia resisted the urge to break into ‘The Right One’ and decided to go with ‘Double Trouble'. She knew her voice wasn’t too bad, and it made it even better when she saw Jackson nodding along.
‘Tell us a joke.’
She tried not to let any panic show on her face . . . a joke, a joke. It was so hard to just come up with one on demand. ‘Got one!’ she said. It wasn’t outrageous, just one that always made her chuckle. ‘Why don’t seagulls fly over the bay?’
She paused and waited for Philippe to respond.
He tapped his pencil on his pad, clearly thinking.
‘I don’t know. Why not?’
‘Because then, they’d be bagels.’
Olivia heard a little snort from behind the camera and saw that the cameraman had laughed at her joke. She stole a quick glance around and everyone watching seemed to be enjoying themselves. That must be good! she thought.
‘One last question, please,’ Philippe said, narrowing his eyes. She sensed he was going to ask a tough one to try to test her.
‘What is the best thing that has ever happened to you?’
Olivia didn’t hesitate. ‘My sister. Even though we’re really different from each other, she’s my best friend.’
‘Thank you very much –’ Philippe checked his notes – ‘Olivia.’
She stepped out from the glare of the lights and felt a rush of adrenaline, like she’d just landed a triple handspring. She definitely wanted to do that again, make people laugh and smile. Maybe she had a chance?
Camilla gave her a huge hug and she sat back down in her seat, in a happy daze. ‘I think Jackson is smiling at you,’ Camilla said.
Olivia snapped her head up to see Jackson was smiling at her.
Charlotte was sitting just behind her. ‘I think he’s smiling at me,’ she said.
But when he made a thumbs-up sign, Olivia knew he was telling her she’d done well.
Charlotte humphed and snapped at Katie to help fluff her hair again.
Olivia watched the next audition, daring to hope that she had done enough to get through to the read-through. When the screen tests were finally over, Philippe consulted his clipboard.
‘We have six candidates going through to the reading later this afternoon. If I read your name, please see Lillian, our second assistant director, for the scripts you will need to learn.’
The frizzy-haired woman held up a stack of folders.
Olivia took a deep breath and Camilla squeezed her hand.
‘Evie Dawson, Jane Noble, Rachel Bowden, Lauren Kaler –’ Each name was punctuated by a little squeal from the lucky girl and a thud in Olivia’s heart. There were only two names left. ‘Olivia Abbott and Charlotte Brown.’
Olivia clapped and Camilla did a little happy dance, but Charlotte tossed her hair. ‘Obviously, I made it through,’ she said and immediately started pushing through the crowd of disappointed girls that didn’t get called, to get her folder.
‘I just want to say,’ Jackson stood next to Philippe and addressed the unsuccessful hopefuls, ‘that you all did a fantastic job. I especially liked hearing about Harry the Hamster and how to plant sunflowers.’ The girls who’d given those answers beamed at the recognition. ‘And just because you didn’t get through doesn’t mean you should give up. If you want to be an actor, keep trying. That’s how I got to be where I am.’