Hey guys so I was bored so decided to start writing a book. I’ll try to post chapters as they come. And I didn’t put this in writers space cus it’s theatre related! :3
Here are the first three chapters!
Chapter 1
I made 20 different alarms, yet I still woke up late. “NO! NO! NO!” I scream, scrambling around my room to find my shoes, “QUICK CHANGES ARE EASIER THAN THIS!” I finally found my bedazzled Converse just in time to eat two bites of my breakfast. “You know El, maybe you should’ve woken up earlier.” My moody brother Nick joked. “Well, it’s not my fault that Broadway music soothes me!” I reply. “THEN DON’T MAKE IT YOUR ALARM!” Nick says, which makes me wanna hug him… around the neck. We both sprint to the bus stop just in time and I sink into a seat right next to my best friend Katy, “Nick is on my nerves!” I exclaim, “Isn’t he always?” Katy snickers. At this point, I am thinking about what my audition song will be, because I have no idea. “I still don’t know what to do Katy. Because I don’t know what I am auditioning for, let alone what to sing!” Katy replies, “You’ll figure it out! Plus Mrs. Grace is telling us the musical today!” I think of all the possibilities of shows I have wished to be in. “Yeah, but I just feel like there is no hope for me because Stacy is probably going to get the lead and I am going to be stuck in the ensemble anyway!” I exclaim, making a few students in front of us jump. “OH MY GOD DON’T SAY THAT!!!” Katy says, louder than necessary. We get off the bus, and I indulge in the ruckus that is high school students, and I then suffer through many periods of teachers introducing themselves. I finally suffered my agony long enough to survive to the auditorium for drama. I enter and I check to make sure that no one is in the seats, then I start performing “Watch What Happens” with one AirPod in so I can have the background. I get through the whole song and nail the last note, out of breath. “You sound amazing,” a boy says behind me, causing me to jump, and fall off the stage.
“Are you okay?” I hear someone ask, worry in their voice. “I think so,” I reply, rubbing my head. “Let’s get you off the floor shall we?” He says, pulling me up, That’s when I felt a terrible pain in my leg. “My LEG! It hurts so bad! I think it’s broken!” I cry, falling back down on the floor. “Oh that’s not good… we need to get you to a hospital.” He responds, scooping me up into his arms. I proceed to cry and rant about how I am going to miss the announcement of the school musical and how I’m not going to be able to audition, all while the boy is on the phone with 911. “Well you won’t be alone in missing the announcement because I will have to bring this amazingly talented young lady and her broken leg to the hospital,” He says, trying to ease my stress. I don’t hear the rest of what he said because that’s when I glance at my leg, which causes me to faint at the sight.
I wake up and I see my leg, now in a cast, and a figure sitting next to me. “Hey! You’re awake!” He says to me, standing up to grab something. “You were knocked out cold!” He said, handing me a bouquet. “Okay, I have a few questions,” I start, staring at this guy who I’ve never seen before, awestruck because this guy was so cute and he was being nice to me, “1. Who are you? 2. What am I doing here? 3. How long was I knocked out?” He looks at me with the most genuine smile I’ve seen, and I prevent myself from staring too much. “I’m Johnathan but you can call me Johnny! I kind of snuck up on you while you were singing, which you sounded amazing by the way, and you fell off the stage. And you were knocked out for about a day.” He told me apologetically, “So since I caused your horrid accident, I appointed myself your assistant. Oh! And the school musical is Newsies. I signed you up to audition for Kathrine because you have the pipes.” He says with a goofy grin. “This is a disaster! I have no time to prepare!” I reply, looking around for my binder, “Have you seen my binder? I need to start prepping! Do you have a copy of the script? What scene do I need to do?” He looks at me awe struck by my personality change, “Okay first, I need to know your name. Second, I have already put a copy in it. And you need to do the rooftop scene, you as Kathrine, I as Jack. Don’t worry, I will be here drilling with you 24/7 if need be.” He replies smiling at my enthusiasm. “Gotcha. Wait, you’re a theatre kid? I thought you were a jockey. Well, let’s get to work. And my name is Eleanor, El for short.” I reply, opening my binder to the rooftop scene.
After that, we work tirelessly on the scene in my hospital room and eventually, I evolve to crutches, and I am allowed to go home. “Welcome back sweetheart!” My mom says, trying to hold it together for me, “Mom I was gone for two days, not a decade!” I joke. “Hey is it okay if my friend comes over?” I ask. “Sure Katy can come over!” My mom replies, “Actually, I mean Johnathan. We need to work on our audition before Monday.” My mom looks at me, shocked at my response. “Okay, but no funny business!” She replies with a wink, “MOM!” I reply, feeling my face get hotter at the thought. I decided to decorate my crutches so that they aren’t depressing, which took me all of Sunday night to finish.
Chapter 2
On Monday, I decided to dress up nicely, with a cute skirt that goes down to a little above my ankles with a Wicked t-shirt. And of course, one of my bedazzled Converse. I woke up earlier today and had time to eat breakfast when I heard my doorbell ring. Grabbing my now bedazzled crutches, I hop to answer the door. “Good morning beautiful!” Johnathan says cheerfully, handing me a miniature bouquet of roses with a little note saying ‘break a leg!’ which is a silly joke we’ve had since Friday. WAIT DID HE JUST CALL ME BEAUTIFUL? DON’T PANIC. “Morning! Thanks for the roses.” I reply, blushing at his greeting, “Let me grab my bag, then we can head to the bus stop.” I turn to grab my bag, “Wait! Let me get that for you. Also who said we were going to ride the bus?” He says with a wink, grabbing my bag and leading me to his car.
He helps me into the passenger seat and jogs over to the driver’s side. Right as the car turns on Broadway music starts playing leading me to sing along, Johnathan just listening while he drives. “God, you better get Kathrine. Or I will explode.” He states while parking,” I mean it’s okay if I don’t. Someone older might get it.” I reply, unbuckling my seatbelt and slowly exiting the car. “Still I mean you’re perfect for the role!” He continues, “you’re smart, cute, witty, smart, cute” which makes me laugh, “you sure know how to flirt!” I joke as he walks beside me. “I know right? Well, I need to go to class but first I will escort you to AP science.” He says holding my free hand. “You don’t have to do that.” I reply, “Well you would be doing a favor El! I get to be with you longer, and I can meet the infamous best friend Katy.” He insists. After that, he just walks me to my class. I enter the science lab and everyone goes silent when we walk in. I walk over to Katy and introduce her to Johnathan. “Nice to meet you, Katy!” Johnathan says before heading out.
“What are you doing with Johnathan White?!” Katy asks me very shocked. “He is auditioning with me for Newsies. He was also responsible for this.” I motion to my leg, “Why do you ask?” I start taking out my notebook. “Because he is the most popular guy in school and drama! You have a guy crushing on you who is a junior!” She says, “Also how did he hurt your leg?” This shocks me but I tell her what happened. “OMG EL! THAT’S SO CUTE!” She says way too loudly. She starts saying something but is stopped by the bell. Then after a few classes, lunch came around. I get into line and get my food, feeling everyone staring at me, but I just ignore it and Katy helps me with my tray. We start the system of trying to find a table. That’s when I see Johnathan motioning me to come over to his table, and Katy follows me. “Hey! I missed you!” He says with a goofy grin, taking my bag and introducing Katy and me to the other kids at the table, who I saw the first day, and it’s obvious that they are all popular. “El and I are auditioning together. And she is going to get Kathrine!” Which makes me blush. We eat lunch together and he tells me about his classes, and then lunch is over. Sadly PE was next, but I was thankfully excused due to my broken leg. We have a few more classes then it was time for auditions.
“You ready?” Johnathan asks me enthusiastically. I decide to nod, so I can save my voice. We go onstage and perform the scene, but we high-five instead of kissing. Then it was time for me to sing, so I closed my eyes and performed, and Johnathan gave me a standing ovation. Now for the moment I was waiting for, Johnathan was going to sing Santa Fe, and I was amazed. He was really good. Like, a Broadway actor good. So once he hit that last note, I gave him a standing ovation and hopped over to hug him and he picked me up and spun me around. “You’re so good!” I tell him with a smile. “I’m glad you think so!” He replied with a chuckle. “Good job you two! I was wondering if you could perform Something To Believe In.” Mrs. Grace asks with a smile. This shocked me, but we performed the song, it did help that we watched Newsies over the weekend. “Thank you! The cast list will be released at 2!” Mrs. Grace tells us, and we head out to wait near the board.
It’s noon so we decide to rewatch Newsies, and Johnathan decides to try to do the choreography, which makes me laugh. He stops once the other theatre kids start crowding into the empty hall. “Why isn’t it up yet?” I said, “She said it would be up at 2!” I start fidgeting with my skirt while Johnathan tries to calm me down. “Hey, it’s going to be fine! She just might be running late!” He tells me, “There she is!” He announces, causing a lot of theatre kids to start buzzing around the board. “Okay, everyone! Let me put it on the board and walk away! The leads surprised me with their audition and were an easy choice, Rehearsals will start tomorrow!” Mrs. Grace tells everyone while Johnathan helps me get up. He runs ahead of me to look and he turns to me with the biggest smile ever. “WE GOT THE LEADS!” Jonathan screams as he picks me up and spins me around again, making me squeal and laugh. “We need to celebrate! Let me take you to dinner!” He says to me. “I’ll have to check with my mom, but yes please,” I say smiling at his enthusiasm. I texted my mom about how the audition went and dinner with Johnathan. She responds with “Sure you can! But on one condition, you let me help you get ready ;]” I told Johnathan the good news in the car. “Okay! It’s a date! I’ll pick you up at 6!” he responds as he drops me off at my house.
Chapter 3
I head up to my room and look in my closet, trying to find something suitable for a date. Listening to Newsies as I get ready with my mom. “Your first date.” she says as she curls my hair. I settled on this cute sundress with flowers and spaghetti straps. I head downstairs to wait for Johnathan. Clearly, my mom told my dad about the date because he was sitting in the kitchen, waiting to drill my date. A few minutes later, I hear the doorbell and my parents come with me to answer it.
I open the door and Johnathan is standing in front of me with two bouquets in hand. “Wow,” he says with a smile, “you look amazing.” He hands my mother one of the bouquets and gives me the other, this time they are daisies. “Hello sir,” Johnathan says to my dad, “I am very thrilled to be taking your daughter to dinner.” My dad whispers something to Johnathan that makes his eyes go wide, but he nods. “Bring her back before 11.” my dad tells Johnathan, who responds with another nod. And at that, we are on our way.
“Where are you taking me?” I ask him. “It’s a surprise!” he says with a grin. We start driving towards the city. He puts on King of New York and starts singing in a New York accent that makes me smile. We go into an empty parking lot of a theatre. “What are we doing?” I ask as he helps me out of the car. “It’s still a surprise! Close your eyes!” He responds as he guides me to a door. We enter a door, and he guides me through a room. “Okay open them.” He tells me. I open my eyes and see I am on a stage in a huge, empty theatre. He leads me to a picnic set up on the stage. “This is amazing. How did you manage this?” I ask with a smile. “Well my dad is friends with the owner, and I wanted to sweep you off your feet. And this time, not break your leg.” he responds with a grin as he helps me down on the blanket. He starts unpacking the food and I notice that they are all foods that I love. “How did you know I love these foods?” I ask, taking a bite of a strawberry. “Well, I kind of found Katy and asked her.” He said with a sly grin.
We finish the array of foods and suddenly music starts playing through the speakers and I recognize it immediatly. It’s “I Never Planned on You.” I realize whats happening and it makes me giggle. Johnathan stands up and starts singing, helping me get up on my feet. He starts twirling me around, a huge grin on his face. I can’t believe I am dancing with a guy, who actually likes me, who loves theatre as much as me, and he is so cute. He manages to dance with me, with one foot off the ground. The end of the song starts, he dips me, and kisses me on the forehead. “I definitely didn’t plan on you.” He says, kissing me on the forehead again. I can feel myself blushing as he picks me up, taking me back to the blanket.
“There’s one more thing.” He says looking in the basket, pulling out some old timey newspapers out and his copy of the script. “I thought you might want me to bedazzle your cast, and we could run through our lines.” He says, already unfolding the newspaper and taking out some gems from the basket. God this guy is too perfect. We spent the next hour talking, half of it we talked about lines, the rest was about our favorite musicals. After that, he gathered up all the picnic items, and took me out to the car. We drove back to my house, belting broadway duets together. After I head inside, he twirls me one more time. “See you tomorrow beautiful.” He whispers to me as I head inside.
