Read Online All the Way by Megan Stine - Free Book Online Page B

move on. Are you ready to sing?”
    I nodded, barely able to speak.
    â€œAll right, then.” He handed the music for “Take Back Your Mink” to Tanya. It’s a song about a girl who gives back all these gifts, because she knows the man who gave them to her expected her to sleep with him in exchange.
    I had sort of learned this song, since it was one of Miss Adelaide’s, but it wasn’t the song I really wanted to do. I mean, I knew people would snicker.
    â€œCan I do ‘Bushel and a Peck’ instead?” I asked.
    â€œNo.” Mr. Richards didn’t look very happy with me right then.
    â€œOkay,” I said in a meek voice.
    I cleared my throat, Tanya started playing, and I tried to sing. Usually I have a fairly decent voice, sort of throaty like Carly Simon’s, but it was scratchy now, and I forgot some of the words at the beginning. And as soon as I came to the line, “What made you think that I was one of those girls?” everyone laughed again.
    Laughed.
    I mean, I was standing on a stage, trying to sing, and I was being laughed at.
    That was it. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. Tears streamed down my face, and I ran off the stage with Tanya still pounding away at the piano, before the song was even over.

Chapter 7
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    â€œCan you see? Are our names up there?” I asked Ariel.
    We were standing in the hall outside the auditorium the next afternoon, trying to get a look at the casting list that Mr. Richards had just put up. But there were about twenty people in front of us, all standing there reading the whole casting list and discussing it in detail, instead of moving over when they found out whether they got a part or not.
    Finally a few people straggled away, and Ariel and I moved up next to Tyler.
    â€œOh, hi,” Tyler said, noticing me. He gave me a warm smile, not condescending or leering or anything. Just a normal smile. Wow. It felt like forever since someone had looked at me that way. “Uh . . . did you get a part?”
    I peered at the list and ran down the names as fast as I could. Twice. Tyler and Natalie had gotten the two romantic leads, Sky Masterson and Sergeant Sarah Brown. My name was nowhere. Damn.
    â€œNo,” I said. “I totally blew the audition, so I guess I’m not surprised.”
    â€œYeah, it was rough,” he said sympathetically.
    â€œDamn,” Ariel said. Her name wasn’t up there either.
    â€œYou can both still be in the chorus,” Tyler said encouragingly. “There’s a note at the bottom . . .”
    His voice trailed off because he could see that I was already reading it. It basically said if you didn’t get a major role, you should come to rehearsal after school today, and you’d either be assigned to the chorus or the stage crew.
    Stage crew? What, hauling around pieces of the set so that Natalie Anschell could make me feel like a toad again?
    No thanks.
    â€œOh, come on, Carmen,” Ariel pleaded, seeing the reluctant look on my face. “It’s better than nothing! I mean, I’m disappointed, too—I really thought I’d get one of the leads. But if I’m willing to settle for chorus . . .”
    She pulled me aside, away from the crowd so that Tyler wouldn’t hear.
    â€œAnd if you want to hang out with him , can you think of a better way?” she whispered.
    I couldn’t argue with that.
    â€œBut if I’m in the chorus, I’ll have to watch him rehearsing with Natalie every day. I’ll feel like a voyeur or something.”
    â€œSo lure him away!” Ariel said. “Be, like, the most amazing chorus girl, and maybe he’ll fall in love with you instead of her.”
    Yeah, maybe. It was worth a shot, anyway. And besides, I’d always wanted to be in the high school musical. How was I going to make the last few weeks of high school spectacular if I didn’t at least try?
    â€œWe’ll be chorus