Hi guysss.
Here's part 2 of the double update.
Enjoy❤

~~~~~~~
"Here's to the ones who dream,
Foolish as they may seem,"
~~~~~~~
- Emma Stone
(Audition {Fools Who Dream})

KHALID

"How long is she going to be in there for?" I asked, growing worried.

Osato popped her gum and shrugged. "For as long as she needs to be," she answered. "Just go and sit down."

I left the door I was standing by and sat on a chair a few meters away.

After postponing the auditions time and time again after the announcement, Sheraton finally decided to hold them today, just a week before Friendlies.

She claimed that this way, we'd know those who were serious about playing the lead role.

Due to the competition next week, classes were cut short for practice.

In actuality, only the team players were to be excused from classes, but when all sorts of students started disappearing in the name of practice, the Principal allowed for all classes to run for a short period of time a week before the competition.

Sheraton took advantage of this free time and placed the auditions today, since the turnout would be good.

Paulus stormed angrily into the hallway and walked straight to Osato.

"Why isn't she out yet? There's a huge line outside the door and we're losing precious time."

"Look, you know how she gets, I-"

"I told her that she shouldn't bother herself with an audition and just cast herself or one of the existing club members as the lead, but no. It's Sheraton's way or the highway," he ranted.

"Come on, Paulus. That's not fa-"

Before Osato could finish speaking, the door opened and Sheraton came out.

She looked at the two of them, and then at me as she adjusted her tracksuit.

"Shall we go?" she asked simply.

I nodded and she walked off, the rest of us following her.

Over the last couple weeks, I've spent a bit of time with the exco of the Drama Team and gotten to know them.

There's Osato, the Treasurer, with her skin like toasted coffee beans and her dramatic eyes that always looked on the verge of tears. It was no wonder she always got the roles that needed lots of crying.

Millicent, the Head of PR, who is exceptionally good at doing impressions of people. She's like a parrot the way she can mimic literally anyone.

Testimony, the Head of Welfare, and the main script writer and director asides Sheraton.

Paulus, the Secretary, who despite his fiery temper and penchant for tantrums, is actually an acting prodigy.

And then Sheraton, the Overall Head.

We walked to the table that had been set up in the space between the stage and the auditorium chairs.

Sheraton sat in the centre chair and began arranging her things; a big notebook and a couple pens. She motioned for me to sit beside her and I did just that.

"Testimony," Paulus called to the boy standing by the door with another Drama Team member. "Open the doors."

The doors were opened and a gaggle of female students poured in noisily.

Testimony let them all in before shutting the doors again.

After taking a few calming breaths, Sheraton got up and turned to face the crowd.

"Good morning, everyone," she said, her loud voice echoing through the Theatre. "Thank you for showing up today. I have the list of those who wrote their names down, but if you didn't do that and still want to audition today, there's no issue, I only suggest you meet one of the Drama Team members for the instructions that were included on the list we put up. With that being said, let's begin!"

.......

"First up, we have Suzan Balogun," Paulus announced.

"That's me! I'm the one!" the girl shrieked excitedly from where she sat in the crowd.

Paulus rolled his eyes. "Come up to the stage."

She ran from her seat and up the stairs to the stage.

"Do you have the lines or do you need to read from a script?" Millicent asked, offering her a sheet a paper with the audition lines typed on it.

"Um...I know some of the lines...but um-"

"-Just take the script," Paulus mumbled.

Blushing in embarrassment, she collected the script from Millicent and shuffled back to her position on stage.

"Ready?" Sheraton asked and she nodded, glancing at the script in her hand.

Sheraton read out her own lines calmly. "Why? Why would you that to your own family?"

"I DID IT BECAUSE I HAD NO CHOICE!" Suzan boomed, taking us all by surprise. "THERE'S NO POINT EVEN EXPLAINING IT TO YOU!"

It was bad enough that she was practically screaming the lines from a tense yet very fragile scene, but her voice carried not a hint of emotion.

Sheraton balked and didn't complete the rest of her dialogue.

"Okay, um...that's enough for now. Thank you," Millicent said with a polite smile.

"What about the song I was supposed to sing?"

The excos looked at each other nervously.

"We're good with this performance for now," Paulus cleverly intervened.

Suzan nodded slowly, looking rather pleased with herself.

"Okay, thank you," she said smugly, bending one knee in an attempt at a curtsy.

She walked off the stage with a faint smile stuck on her face.

"Pitiful," Paulus murmured, before announcing the next person. "Favour Osimhen?"

There was no response to the call and Paulus frowned.

"Favour Osimhen, you're up," he called again.

I looked round, only to see a tall girl walking silently from her seat to the stage.

"Fav-!" Paulus began to growl till Millicent stopped him.

"She's climbing the stage," she pointed at the girl as Paulus grunted.

"You're Favour, right?" Testimony asked as she came to stand in front of the table.

The girl nodded, her lips folded.

Her slim hands were clasped behind her and she stood straight and stiff, but I could clearly see that she was shaking badly.

Sheraton noticed it too.

"Hey, you don't have to be scared, okay? None of us here are going to bite you," she said gently.

"Speak for yourself," Paulus mumbled under his breath.

Favour gulped and opened her mouth but nothing came out, instead she started vibrating more rapidly.

"Are you good?" Osato asked, concern in her voice.

"This one is obviously not ready," came Paulus as he sipped out of his water bottle.

Sheraton ignored him. "Do you have your lines?"

Favour nodded, unclasping her hands so they lay limp at her side.

"I'm going to start the scene, okay?"

Another nod from Favour, this time accompanied with a slight mouth movement.

"Why? Why would you do that to your own family?" Sheraton recited.

"I-"

That was the only thing we heard from Favour.

Her lips were moving, but no sounds came out.

Eventually, she stopped 'talking' and simply walked off stage.

Osato wrote down something in her notepad, her free hand rubbing her forehead in exasperation.

"Call on the next girl, Paulus," Sheraton said sharply.

"Oh with pleasure," he replied, smirking in satisfaction.

I'm sure he'll be more than happy if this audition falls to pieces, just so he can rub it in Sheraton's face.

Asshole.

"Njideka Okechi."

She stepped with an attractive confident smile that reeled all the excos in, but before she could utter one word, she threw up on the stage.

I'm not joking; one minute she was smiling like a Miss World contestant, the next she was hurling her guts on the hardwood floor.

The excos didn't seem fazed by it at all.

They all sat expressionless as Millicent got up to find a mop.

I wonder how many audition vomit sessions they've witnessed?

"Next!"

The next girl came up and rendered her lines perfectly, but her singing voice left very much to be desired.

"We'll let you know our decision later; next!"

The girl after that was the total opposite; a gorgeous singing voice, but no coherence in her dialogue.

"The school choir needs a new soprano singer, if you're interested. Next!"

There was a girl that came and started asking what we were doing here.

"You're joking, bah? You wrote your name down for the musical auditions," Millicent said incredulously, eyeing the girl up and down.

She simply shrugged. "I like writing my name for things. But since it's a musical, I could rap some Mohbad for you an-"

"-Next!"

It continued like this for the next two hours, and most of the girls that came up were actually good, but none of them quite captured the essence of the character.

By Lunchtime,when we took a break, Sheraton looked like she was the one who wanted to vomit.

Paulus, on the other hand, was rather enjoying himself.

"Well, I'm going to get myself some food. And, maybe, when I'm back, Sheraton here would have come to her senses and realise that we're her only hope." He looked round at the others. "Any takers?"

Millicent gave Sheraton a pitiful glance and picked up her phone. "Yeah, I'm starving."

Testimony pushed his chair back and stood up. "Me too."

They left the table and started heading towards the door.

"Osato, aren't you coming? I heard you complaining earlier this morning that you didn't eat breakfast," Paulus said as he held the door open.

Osato, who was trying to comfort Sheraton, shot him a sharp look.

"It's okay. Go and eat," Sheraton told her. "I'm fine."

"I'll call Sebastian for you," Osato said as she stood up and Sheraton nodded.

As soon as she left, Sheraton folded her arms on the table and rested her head on them, sighing loudly.

"It's over," she said, her voice muffled.

"There are still some other names on the list," I replied, picking up the piece of paper, then hastily putting it back down, knowing I wouldn't be able to decipher the names at a glance.

"I know, but..."

Her statement trailed off as the door burst open and Sebastian Soyinka walked in, dressed in a black tanktop under a loose yellow cardigan and a black pair of the school's official tracksuit bottoms.

Sheraton raised her head as he approached her, sniffing and blinking away the tears that had begun to form in her eyes.

"Seb," she said, her usually loud, confident voice sounding so small and dejected.

"Come here," Sebastian said, bending down to hug her. "Osato told me what happened and how that numskull Paulus kept acting. I'm going to write a very juicy article about him and publish it on Monday."

Sheraton, who had melted into the hug, frowned and smacked him on his back. "Don't do that," she scolded him.

"Well, why not?" Sebastian questioned as they broke the hug.

"Because he's not wrong, this whole idea of holding auditions for the lead actress was stupid. In fact, this whole
musical idea was stupid; I should have just stuck with his play idea."

"What the actual fuck, Sheraton!" Sebastian said, staring at her in horror. "Might I remind you that this whole musical thing was supposed to be your ticket back into G.I.F.T.T.S, and if you don't do it, you can kiss your career goodbye."

Sheraton licked her lips, leaning back and resting her head on the back of her chair. "I'm aware of all that, but, this isn't working out. We auditioned almost over 20 girls today and none of them fit the character of the lead girl the way I envisioned. And none of the Drama Team girls we have currently do either. And I know how technical the teachers from G.I.F.T.T.S are. They can sniff out ingenuity from a mile away, and putting on a play without the right actors for the role screams ingenuity. Oh, and we haven't even begun the auditions for the male lead."

She sighed again and covered her face with her hands. "It's all my fault. I wouldn't even need to be doing all this if I'd just been sensible and behaved myself."

"Sweetie, we've been over this a billion times before," Sebastian said, his gaze softening as he pulled one of her hands from her face and held it. "You're young and you made a mistake. People make mistakes all the time. In fact, some of our set mates here are living, breathing mistake, but they're doing just fine, aren't they?"

Sheraton narrowed her eyes at him and hissed, a smile playing at her lips.

"All I'm saying is you shouldn't give up everything just because of something you did years ago. If you want, I can go to one of my dad's radio stations and announce the auditions so you can still look for your perfect actress. This play is going to happen, and G.I.F.T.T.S. is going to realise that it let go of a rare gem and accept you back in again."

Sheraton gave Sebastian a full, grateful smile. "Thank you, Sebby."

"Anything for you," he said, pecking her head softly.

Sebastian and Sheraton's friendship was well known throughout the school; the Drama King and Queen, everyone called them.

But watching them now, there wasn't anything overly dramatic about their interactions; they were just too misunderstood people who chose to understand each other.

I adjusted my position on my seat and that drew Sebastian's attention from Sheraton to me.

"Well, if it isn't Mustapha junior," he said, crossing his arms as he stood up straight. "I hear you're working on the music."

Sebastian was the kind of guy would describe as pretty or beautiful rather handsome. His features were too well formed; placed in a smooth, aesthetic manner lacking any gruffness or hardness.

His skin was dark, but glossy and shined and gleamed like he had the best skin care routine in the world, which he probably did. He had an almost heart shaped face, with high cheekbones and a tiny chin, complete with full pink lips that always seemed perfectly moisturised. His eyes were a rich, dark brown that accentuated his piercing, eagle-like gaze.

I nodded, smiling a little as his eyes scanned me over like a security wand.

"Yeah, I am," I managed to say and he quirked a perfect brow satisfactorily.

The door opened and a few girls who had auditioned before came in, giggling as they back down.

"These were auditionees? Okay, girl, now I see why you were in tears," Sebastian said.

Sheraton groaned and gathered up her papers.

"Who's even left sef?" she mummered, eyeing the audition sheet.

"Seems there's only one more name," Sebastian noted, looking over her shoulder.

"Tsemaye Omagbe? Is Tsemaye Omagbe here?" Sheraton called out, pumping some volume back into her voice.

That's Tsema from my class!

"Welp, she's not here." Sheraton slammed the sheet back on the table.

Sebastian hissed, picking it back up. "Is anyone named Tsemaye Omagbe here for the auditions?" he hollered.

Suddenly, the doors burst open.

"I'm here!"

Everyone turned as Tsema sprinted from the door down the steps and all the way to Sheraton's table, a black and purple guitar case strapped across her shoulder.

"Interesting," Sebastian muttered, making himself comfortable on Paulus' seat.

"You're Tsemaye?" Sheraton asked and Tsema nodded.

"I'm so sorry I'm late," she said as she opened up the guitar case and broughtout the instrument. "My teacher wouldn't let me keep my guitar in the classroom so I had to drop it in the Music room and then I had to pick it up. I figured I had a bit of time since I was the last one the list, so I stayed there to practice and completely forgot myself."

"It's fine. You can go on stage," Sheraton said with a soft smile.

She likes her...that's a good sign.

Tsema climed up the stage with such grace it was as if she floated, and soon she was standing in front of us at the table.

She clutched her pretty purple guitar, which complemented her neat, Green House sports wear and her stylish, Joker-esque green and purple sneakers.

Her hair was in long, thin, black and brown goddess braids with wooden beads on the ends, and held back in a half up, half down style that showed off her very pretty, pixie like features.

"Do you need a script?" Sheraton asked.

"No, thank you."

"Okay. We'll do the scene and then you can do the song, okay?"

Tsema nodded, dropping her guitar beside her feet carefully, and Sheraton took in a breath.

"Why? Why would you do that to your own family?"

"I did it because I had no choice," came Tsema's voice. "There's no use explaining it to you."

Sheraton paused for a beat, blinking with joy at Tsema.

"I didn't mean to hurt any of you," Tsema continued, completely in character, breathing life into the script I'd listened to severally before today.

It was a short scene, over before any of us knew it.

I was tempted to tell Sheraton to give her more lines, just to watch her captivating acting , but it was time to hear her sing.

She picked up her guitar and nestled it in her arms, strumming a few chords.

I've heard severally of how good a singer Tsema is, and she's always humming in class, but I've never actually hear her sing before.

Nothing and no one could have prepared me for when she opened her mouth to sing the very first note.

Even without a microphone, her voice hit loud and clear, enchanting and melodic.

Her voice was a juxtaposition of different qualities, but in the best way possible; soft, yet possessing a surprising, gripping strength; gentle, yet overwhelmingly powerful; sweet but with slight raspy cracks that gave it a fullness and depth that was addictive to the ears.

She was like a siren  singing in a way designed to leave us all defenseless, and with how ethereal she looked under the bright stage lights, her bright brown skin and pretty eyes glowing, she might as well have been one.

Just like her dialogue with Sheraton, when she eventually ended the song, I wanted her to start all over again.

I looked around desperately find someone who could've possibly captured the moment on camera, but all the girls at the back were staring at Tsema like she wasn't human.

The door was open again and I saw that Paulus, Testimony, Millicent and Osato were standing there, all holding plastic bags from the Cafeteria and also staring at Tsema on stage.

One of the girls started clapping suddenly, never once taking her eyes off Tsema. Another girl joined her, and another and soon the whole Theatre was clapping and cheering for Tsema.

I turned around again and saw Sebastian tapping away at his phone.

In seconds, all the phones in the Theatre pinged with notifications.

I glanced at my screen and saw it was an IG post notification from the school's official page.

Osato ran down excitedly to meet Sheraton who was on the verge of tears once more.

Meanwhile, Tsema held on to her guitar, pushing away a few errant braids, like she wasn't aware of what she'd just done.

Sheraton left her seat and ran to meet her on stage, wrapping Tsema in a big hug.

"Thank you," I heard her say as Tsema returned the hug, looking confused but happy nonetheless.

By the time, Sheraton had released Tsema from the hug, the other excos had made their way down to the table.

Paulus sighed when he saw Sebastian in his seat and Sebastian barely cast him a glance, simply murmuring; "Eat shit, hoe."

"Pass me those papers, Khalid," Sheraton told me, still up on stage.

I got up to hand them to her just as Tsema climbed down.

Sheraton arranged the papers and cleared her throat.

"We've come to the end of today's auditions. I'm truly grateful for everyone who put their names down and  showed up today. Though you all came with the aim to get the lead role, there are still more slots in this play, and furthermore, if I mention your name you are now an interim member of the Hillsong High Drama Team and will have the opportunity to be trained and star in many other plays that we will put on, as an official member."

She called out the names of the new Drama Team members and each of the girls were clapped for and welcomed.

"As for the rest of you, I just want to say that the Drama Team has other department apart from acting that you could be a part of such as light and sound, set design and art direction, wardrobe, makeup and styling, and many others. So, if you're interested, you can meet anyone of us later so we can put your names down. But if not, we'll be happy to see what else you apply yourself here at school."

Sheraton looked round the room with a growing smile.

"And now I want to announce the female lead for our End of Session musical, City of Stars." She paused for effect, even though I'm pretty sure we all knew who she was going to call. "That person is none other than; Tsemaye Omagbe."

Tsema looked surprised, her eyes going wide and a smile spreading across her face as the applause started up for her again.

People gathered round to congratulate her before they left the Theatre, and soon the only people there were me, her, Sebastian and the Drama Team excos.

I walked up to meet her.

"Hey," she said in her usual sing-song voice when she saw me.

"Hi," I said, returning her smile. "You were amazing up there."

Tsema blushed ever so slightly. "Thank you."

There was a bit of silence before she spoke up again.

"I didn't know you were on the Drama Team."

"Well, technically I'm not. I was asked to help with the music, so that's what I'm doing."

Her eyes lit up. "You're working on the music? That's so cool!"

"Thank you," I told her.

"Just the two kids I wanted to see."

We turned to see Sheraton walking towards us.

She beamed excitedly when she reached us, rubbing her hands together in satisfaction.

"We're still going to scout for the male lead and fill up all the other slots, but now that Tsema is here, you guys can start practicing some of the songs that Khalid has written," she said.

"I didn't know you were writing original songs," Tsema said, looking at me with such admiration I had to briefly avoid her gaze.

"Oh yes he is," Sheraton said proudly. "I want you two to work closely together so we can perfect everything as soon as possible; you know the way time flies. So, introduce yourselves if you haven't already and make friends, because you'll be spending a lot of time together over the next few months."

With that, Sheraton left us and went back to meet the other excos.

"So, uh, do you hear one of the songs I'm working on? We can head to the Music Room and I'll play it for you," I said quickly, before my confidence went away.

"I'd love to," Tsema replied.

She got her case and placed the guitar back in it, then we both left the Theatre.

Maybe this won't be such a bad year after all.

Ah yes, the joy of Theatre😹.

Omorr, this chapter was fun to write, I can't lie.

What do you guys think of the Drama Team excos? Sheraton? Sebastian? Tsema?

Don't worry, you'll be seeing more of them as time goes by✨.

And what about the previous chapter with Noelle, Janice and her aunt? Lemme know your thoughts PLEASE😭😭😭.

I'm working on the other chapters already, so expect them soon.

I'm going to try and be more efficient with writing this year so I don't keep y'all hanging for months and months again.

I love you guys sooo much.

Don't forget to vote, share and comment if you haven't already.

Till next time❤❤❤.