NO ONE MAY STEAL MY WRITING, THAT IS CALLED PLAGIARIZING.!!!! The Phantom of the Stage Chapter One The bell rang, kids were dashing out of classrooms to get to their lockers and inside of their homerooms. Taylor’s class had all been emptied out, and new kids were walking inside of Mrs. Kiche’s room with their coats and backpacks. Taylor just stayed where she was. She didn’t need to go anywhere, she didn’t need to get her stuff from her locker, because she wasn’t going home for another hour or two. “Hey, new kid, move it.” A tall, bulky boy, with dirty blond hair told her, with his enormous backpack slung on one shoulder. “Why?” Taylor answered back. “That’s my seat.” “No, I sit here. I was strictly told that this was my seat.” “Look, punk. Just because you’re new doesn’t mean that you get to just sit wherever you want. Or that you get to boss me around. Because believe me, you do not want to mess with me.” “Well I have a rule of not letting bullies or guys like you boss me around.” “ Oh yeah? Why you little-” “Is there a problem here, Mr. Barrett?” Mrs. Kiche asked, walking over to where Taylor and the boy were. “No, Mrs. Kiche,” the boy answered, looking down at his feet. Then the teacher turned to Taylor and asked her a question. “Ms. Salminen, it has come to my attention that Mr. Barrett has been telling you that you are sitting in his seat, which is not his seat. Am I correct?” Taylor glanced at the boy, his eyes narrow, warning her to not say yes to Mrs. Kiche’s question. But she didn’t care; she knew he couldn’t do anything about it, even if she did answer yes. So she went and she said, “Yes, Mrs. Kiche, you are correct.” “I see,” she answered back, and looked at the bully with suspicious eyes. “Well then, if that is the case, Mr. Barrett, you shall go back to your original seat, and leave Ms. Salminen alone. And if you do anything, I will know about it sooner than later. Then, detention.” “Yes, Mrs. Kiche, ” he answered, and went back to his regular seat. But not until he gave Taylor a very grim look, as if to say, “I’ll get payback for this, when you least expect it. Just. you. watch.” She just scoffed. Dealing with bullies came naturally to her; she had dealt with so many of them in her life, that at this point, she knew that they were just bluffing when they threatened her. So, she wasn’t really that worried. When the afternoon announcements came on, everyone who had been chattering became suddenly silent. “Good Afternoon Wildcats! Here are your Monday afternoon announcements! Detention is in room 257 with Mrs. Kiche. Auditions for the Matilda Jr. Musical are after school in the auditorium until 5:00, see you there! Do you like creating things with clay? Then, come join the Ceramics Club every Tuesday, starting tomorrow! No experience needed! And we need Julia Nema, Pete Lutze, and Hadley Johansson to please come to the office when the bell rings. Thank you and have a great afternoon.” All the kids waited for a few seconds until the bell rang for dismissal. Students were darting out classroom doors and into the hallway, trying to get out of the building as quickly as possible. But as usual, Taylor just stayed back, taking her time to walk to the auditorium. She went down the stairway, made a sharp right, then turned to the left through the auditorium doors. As soon as she stepped into the auditorium, she noticed that there were about 15-20 kids all practicing their lines and sitting scattered around in the seats. Taylor knew that she had a fifty/fifty chance at making the play, as she barely knew the lines, but knew a full song, memorized. She thought, How hard could one audition possibly be? With that, she walked around and sat in a chair near the very back. She didn’t have any friends yet, so why should she have sat where everyone else was? After all, she was just the new kid and apparently, in her school, new kids were subject to being bullied and rumors. Taylor couldn’t blame them, she wasn’t very social or outgoing. And besides, she had a heavy Finnish accent, and most of the time, kids couldn’t understand what she had been saying. So she had mostly just kept to herself. Taylor would give anything in the world to go back to Finland, she loved all the snowy days there, the short school day, little to no homework, and classes would almost always be outside. But most of all, she missed her friends Helena and Aino. Soon, Mrs. Lopez’s voice boomed through her microphone, startling Taylor out of her thoughts. “OK, CHILDREN, ANYONE AUDITIONING FOR THE ROLE OF MATILDA, PLEASE COME UP TO THE STAGE.” Mrs. Lopez’s voice had a nice Spanish accent, telling Taylor that she was from Argentina. She took a deep breath and walked up to the stage where about 7 kids were. When finally all the people who were trying out for the role of Matilda were on the stage, Mrs. Lopez called each kid by alphabetical order.
Taylor had enough time to (try) to run through her lines, and remind herself of the song, called “school song”. She had heard the song enough times to know even all the speaking parts. When it was finally her turn, Mrs. Lopez gave the signal for the music to start, and that was her cue to sing. When the song started, Taylor waited a few seconds and then, with all her might, started to sing. Taylor just kept on singing, all and all until the song was finally finished. When she finished the last pose, she got back to standing position and waited to hear what Mrs. López said. “Ms. Salminen, you have such amazing talent! I can tell you had fun while performing, and you have a beautiful singing voice. Great job. You may go now.” Taylor muttered thanks, and went off the stage to get her stuff. She didn’t know if she would get the part of Matilda, but then again, she thought, did it really matter? She had just been doing this for fun, and all that, but a small part of her wanted to get that part, not only wanted, needed to get that part. Taylor had just turned onto Maple Boulevard, walking to her house when she heard a scream from behind her, saying her name. “Eee! Taylor! Wait up!” The screamer yelled, running from behind, trying to catch up to her. “Hey Susie.” Taylor answered, when the screamer finally caught up to her. “I’ve been dying to know if you made the play yet! Well? Did you find out?” Susie’s voice sounded excited, her light blue eyes wide. “I’m not sure yet, I don't even know when the cast list comes out.” She shook her head a little, her wavy, long dark brown hair swaying from side to side as she did. “Besides, why are you so interested in whether I make the play or not?” “Well, I heard that if you make the play this year, and get the lead role, then….” “Then what?” “Then you may become a real actress!” Now Taylor was taken aback. She could barely get the word she had wanted to say, out. When she finally took a breath, she answered; “What?” “Yeah! I heard that the top acting scouts will be there! They scout for the biggest movie productions in all of England!” “Wow, that’s… that’s a lot. I mean, a lot of pressure.” She answered, looking down at her shoes, wondering how it would feel to be in an actual movie. “That’s why Mrs. López was so serious, she just said her comment, then told me to leave, right after.” “She probably didn’t want anyone to see the other people’s auditions after them.” “Why though?” Taylor scrunched up her face a little, wondering why in the world Mrs. López would do that. “Who knows. Maybe there was already a talent scout there. During auditions, that is.” “Could be…” ‘‘Anyway, I gotta get back home. I’m heating up leftovers for dinner. My mom is still at work, and I can’t leave my little sister at home with Iris.” Iris was Susie’s and Amy’s, (her little sister) dog. She could be rough, especially when no one was at home to take her out to walk. So Taylor understood, and said bye to her 7th grade friend. And started to walk to her house as Susie darted off in the opposite direction. Taylor kept on walking up until she reached the front door of her old, cracked grey house. She took out the key and put it into the keyhole, and turned. Usually, her house was quiet, so she was surprised that when she opened the door, a loud barking welcomed her. But it was moving around, and she didn’t hear it in just one spot, like usual. Then she heard shouting, and finally saw her 8 year old sister running around the house, chasing their dog, Idy. “What in the heck are you doing, Margo?” Taylor asked her sister, who was still chasing Idy around. *pant* *pant* “I’m trying to get Idy to stop being so energetic. She saw just one, ONE squirrel, and now she’s all riled up.” Margo answered, out of breath, putting her hands on her knees and bending over. “I’ve been chasing her, trying to get her to stop running around the whole darn house, but for some reason it isn’t working.” “Well, of course it’s not working. You chase Idy, trying to get her to stop, but that just makes her run even more, and even faster.” “Oh, really? Wow, I never knew that.” Margo answered, sarcastically. Her face in a pouty look. “Well, smarty pants, for your information, I was trying to tire her out. Not catch her.” “Sure you were.” Taylor replied, rolling her eyes very dramatically. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go change out of my school uniform. I expect you to NOT try to tire Idy out, otherwise I’ll tell father.” To be continued…..
