Read Online Center Stage! (Center Stage! #1) by Caitlyn Duffy - Free Book Online
Authors: Caitlyn Duffy
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start building fan bases early. There was no sense in putting my big news off any longer. “I can’t try out for Fiddler on the Roof because I already have a part in something else.”
Now all eyes were on me. Nicole lifted one eyebrow, a little trick that she thought made her look irresistibly sexy. Kaela stirred her Greek yogurt and commanded, “Spill it!”
“Well,” I said, lowering my voice because I wasn’t sure I wanted the entire student body of Pacific Valley to hear me, “Do you guys know that show Center Stage! ?”
“Uh, yeah . Danny Fuego is like, hot,” Nicole said, taking a monster-sized bite out of her sandwich now that it had been relieved of the offending mayonnaise.
“Ew, not even,” Michelle disagreed. “He looks like he has major B.O.”
“How can someone look like they have body odor?” Nicole challenged.
“Guys,” Lee urged them both to be quiet. “Allison’s talking.”
“So, I ditched school on Wednesday to try out for the show, and I made it. I’m going to be one of the contestants,” I announced, trying to sound casual about it.
Lee exclaimed, “Holy crap. That’s major!”
Nicole was confused. “Wait a minute. On Wednesday? You said you were in the nurse’s office on Wednesday.”
“God, Nicole! I lied, okay?” Sometimes I wondered if Taylor was right about Nicole, and she really was just dumb even though she was in advanced classes. “I didn’t want anyone to know I’d cut school to try out for a TV show until I knew whether or not I’d made it.”
“Wait—so you’re, like, really going to be on the show?” Colton asked me.
“I’m really going to be on the show.”
Lee pushed his lunch tray aside and leaned forward across the table toward me. “Allison, do you know how awesome this is?”
“I didn’t even know you liked to sing that much,” Kaela muttered, licking yogurt off her plastic spoon.
“Like, this is the biggest thing ever to happen at our high school,” Lee continued, as if in a trance.
“It’s not that big of a deal, Lee,” I corrected him. For starters, a girl named Megan Humboldt, who’d been four years ahead of us in classes, had been cast in an adventure movie about Egyptian mummies when we were in ninth grade. She’d become a gossip magazine regular and was engaged to marry a famous action movie director thirty years older than her. One of the kids in the seventh grade, Brendan Lopez, played an autistic child genius on a sitcom and had already been nominated for an Emmy. My little victory seemed very insignificant compared to some of our classmates’ who were practically celebrities. “I could get kicked off in the first Expulsion Series.”
“No way,” Lee argued. “That can’t happen if you get a ton of at-home votes, not even if you epically screw up.”
“How am I going to get a ton of at-home votes?” I wondered aloud. “No one in the world knows who I am.”
“Yet,” Lee said. “We can fix that.”
“Well, you’ve only got about a week and a half to fix that because the show starts taping the Monday after next,” I informed my friends. “And I basically can’t come to school anymore until the last episode of the show airs. It’s in their terms and conditions. So, I might not be here again for… a while.” I didn’t dare suggest to my friends that I might be kept out of classes until after Christmas break. It seemed like even voicing the possibility might jinx it.
“This is crazy,” Kaela marveled.
“Crazy amazing,” Michelle clarified.
“And next Thursday, I won’t be in school because the production company is taping a segment at my house for my introduction on the first show. They’re, like, interviewing my parents and stuff,” I said, a little embarrassed.
“Can we be there?” Nicole asked, swinging her hair over one shoulder. “Like, to talk about how we always knew you were going to get famous?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask if friends could be
Now all eyes were on me. Nicole lifted one eyebrow, a little trick that she thought made her look irresistibly sexy. Kaela stirred her Greek yogurt and commanded, “Spill it!”
“Well,” I said, lowering my voice because I wasn’t sure I wanted the entire student body of Pacific Valley to hear me, “Do you guys know that show Center Stage! ?”
“Uh, yeah . Danny Fuego is like, hot,” Nicole said, taking a monster-sized bite out of her sandwich now that it had been relieved of the offending mayonnaise.
“Ew, not even,” Michelle disagreed. “He looks like he has major B.O.”
“How can someone look like they have body odor?” Nicole challenged.
“Guys,” Lee urged them both to be quiet. “Allison’s talking.”
“So, I ditched school on Wednesday to try out for the show, and I made it. I’m going to be one of the contestants,” I announced, trying to sound casual about it.
Lee exclaimed, “Holy crap. That’s major!”
Nicole was confused. “Wait a minute. On Wednesday? You said you were in the nurse’s office on Wednesday.”
“God, Nicole! I lied, okay?” Sometimes I wondered if Taylor was right about Nicole, and she really was just dumb even though she was in advanced classes. “I didn’t want anyone to know I’d cut school to try out for a TV show until I knew whether or not I’d made it.”
“Wait—so you’re, like, really going to be on the show?” Colton asked me.
“I’m really going to be on the show.”
Lee pushed his lunch tray aside and leaned forward across the table toward me. “Allison, do you know how awesome this is?”
“I didn’t even know you liked to sing that much,” Kaela muttered, licking yogurt off her plastic spoon.
“Like, this is the biggest thing ever to happen at our high school,” Lee continued, as if in a trance.
“It’s not that big of a deal, Lee,” I corrected him. For starters, a girl named Megan Humboldt, who’d been four years ahead of us in classes, had been cast in an adventure movie about Egyptian mummies when we were in ninth grade. She’d become a gossip magazine regular and was engaged to marry a famous action movie director thirty years older than her. One of the kids in the seventh grade, Brendan Lopez, played an autistic child genius on a sitcom and had already been nominated for an Emmy. My little victory seemed very insignificant compared to some of our classmates’ who were practically celebrities. “I could get kicked off in the first Expulsion Series.”
“No way,” Lee argued. “That can’t happen if you get a ton of at-home votes, not even if you epically screw up.”
“How am I going to get a ton of at-home votes?” I wondered aloud. “No one in the world knows who I am.”
“Yet,” Lee said. “We can fix that.”
“Well, you’ve only got about a week and a half to fix that because the show starts taping the Monday after next,” I informed my friends. “And I basically can’t come to school anymore until the last episode of the show airs. It’s in their terms and conditions. So, I might not be here again for… a while.” I didn’t dare suggest to my friends that I might be kept out of classes until after Christmas break. It seemed like even voicing the possibility might jinx it.
“This is crazy,” Kaela marveled.
“Crazy amazing,” Michelle clarified.
“And next Thursday, I won’t be in school because the production company is taping a segment at my house for my introduction on the first show. They’re, like, interviewing my parents and stuff,” I said, a little embarrassed.
“Can we be there?” Nicole asked, swinging her hair over one shoulder. “Like, to talk about how we always knew you were going to get famous?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask if friends could be
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