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“LISTEN TO THEM, THE children of the night. What music they make!”
Bram Stoker, Dracula
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GRACE PORTER GLANCED down at the clipboard in her lap and was horrified to see she had doodled all over her notes. She was supposed to be focussing on the auditions taking place on the stage in front of her, but her concentration had gone from the moment Ben had walked on to the makeshift set.
Ah, Ben. Lovely, gorgeous, sweet Ben. Her expression had become dreamy as she allowed herself to indulge in watching him. This was one situation where it was okay to stare at him for as long as she liked without fear of him noticing, or one of her friends catching her doing it.
She looked back down at her clipboard with a frown. The page was covered with drawings of mountains, big mountains with snowy ice caps; some of the mountains even had little mountaineers climbing up them. It was what she always drew without thinking when her mind was on a certain boy, specifically: Ben Everest.
She tore off the page and screwed it up into a ball. Starting a fresh sheet she wrote across the top “Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Cast List”.
Raising her focus once more to the stage she watched Ben kiss the hand of her best friend, Sophie, and tried not to feel jealous; they were only acting. On stage Sophie giggled and flirted back, just as her character was supposed to. Grace took a deep calming breath. After all, she was used to seeing Ben with someone else. He wasn’t hers. Unofficially he belonged to Rose, her other best friend, which made him as “off-limits” as a boy could be. Rose now had a new boyfriend, Leo, but it was an unwritten rule that you never ever date your friend’s ex-boyfriend.
Barely looking down she began to rewrite her cast list. It was depressing how few of the roles had been cast yet; she hoped they wouldn’t have to do much more auditioning.
Grace had a team of four others to help her. Her assistant, Felicity; the Producer, Owen; his assistant, Pam; and the Stage Manager, Bradley. The five of them had spent the best part of the morning on auditions now, and this was the fifth time they were watching the same scene being enacted, each time with a different set of people trying out.
Glancing around she saw that Owen was playing on his phone, that Pam was twiddling her hair and that Felicity was looking at Bradley, and not watching the auditions.
“Felicity!” she whispered none too subtly, “Whilst I appreciate that Bradley is clearly fascinating, do you think you could make some notes?”
Felicity went a bit pink but just stuck her tongue out at Grace. Bradley, however, grinned and gave Felicity an appraising look in return.
Grace sighed; this was par for the course, she supposed. She had read often enough in magazines about relationships that happened on the set of movies. There was something about the close proximity of a production that threw people together and invariably sparked new attractions. She just hoped none of it got in the way of the play.
Speaking of which, it was her turn to blush as Jerry Doury put his head round the door of the fire exit nearest to them. Only a couple of months earlier she and Jerry had indulged in a bit of a make-out session at a Christmas party, and she had been avoiding him ever since.
Jerry held up his phone to indicate he was answering a summons. “Did you want something, Owen?” he whispered, trying not to disrupt the auditions.
“Yeah, water.” Owen glanced at Pam, who nodded. “Two bottles of water. Cheers.” He flicked his fingers at Jerry, clearly dismissing him.
Jerry looked a tiny bit annoyed. Grace felt bad for him. Owen was supposed to be Jerry’s best friend but he didn’t treat him that way – more like his lackey. She wanted to smile at Jerry to soften the blow, but she fixed her eyes firmly on the stage instead until she heard the door shut quietly behind him.
Grace slumped as she watched two boys hamming it up on the stage; they were ruining the chances of the others. She realised yet again what a huge task she had taken on.
The role of Director had been the very first one handed out, and Grace was extremely flattered that the majority of Year Twelve had picked her for the position. She was trying very hard to do a good job but it was difficult when half the people auditioning were clearly just there to fool about. She had to keep reminding herself that the play was supposed to be fun and she shouldn’t take it so seriously.
But casting the main roles was a priority so that the actors would have plenty of time to learn their lines. It was already mid-February and the play was due to be performed on the last day of school in July. Everyone who was interested in a role had put their name down and was given a section of the script to read.
Gabriel Brenner was an obvious choice for Dracula. He was by far the most experienced, as he had been doing private acting lessons for years, and his haughty arrogant good looks absolutely sealed the deal. He was tall and lean and his face was all carved cheekbones with a firm pointed jaw. The only issue was his white-blond hair, but a wig could be found to give him black hair.
Mina was harder to cast; it seemed loads of girls liked the idea of taking the lead role, but balked at the rehearsal schedule, which would eat into most of their free time. In the end the part went to a girl called Beatrice Greene, who did a very good reading opposite Gabriel. As she was naturally quite shy she did justice to the prim personality of Mina, but she was a large girl and Grace and the other casting team exchanged looks, wondering if she would look right in the fitted Victorian costumes. They had a meeting after her reading and Grace voiced what she knew the others were thinking.
“Okay, let’s be honest about this. Beatrice is the only girl to read for Mina who was remotely good, right?” There was a series of reluctant nods and she continued “But she looks wrong for the part.”
Owen was more brutal. “Mina is supposed to be beautiful. Beatrice is fat and ugly! She can’t possibly play the part. She looks ridiculous next to Gabriel.”
“I agree,” Grace said placidly “but Gabriel acted everyone else right off the stage. Beatrice was the only one who remotely matched up to him in talent. We don’t want this to be a one-man show. I’m sure the make-up team will do wonders, and the clothes can be gotten in any size.”
There were five of them in the casting group and Grace was concerned that if it came to a vote the others wouldn’t give Beatrice a fair chance.
“She’ll need tons of foundation on those spots and an extra large corset!” Pam McBride, Owen’s Assistant Producer, said nastily.
“Good idea, Pam.” Grace said cheerfully. “So we’re agreed that with plenty of make-up and a tight corset Beatrice can do it?”
She began to smile as the others murmured their assent. She moved quickly onto the other roles before the discussion could continue on Beatrice.
“Now what about the part of Mina’s best friend Lucy?” Grace personally thought that the best candidate had been Sophie, but as Sophie was one of her best friends she didn’t feel she could put the suggestion forward herself.
“I think Sophie should play Lucy,” Owen said, and Grace decided that perhaps he wasn’t as putrid as she had previously thought.
“She’s certainly slutty enough for the part,” Pam said maliciously. Grace narrowed her eyes on Pam but remained silent.
“If you mean that she’s pretty, with a good body, and the audience could believe that she has three men in love with her, then yes, she’s right for the part,” Owen said crushingly to Pam. Grace warmed to him even more.
“So are we all in agreement about Sophie?” Grace said. Everyone nodded except Pam, who crossed her arms and looked out of the window. Grace tried not to smile. The majority vote was cast and she put Sophie’s name down to play Lucy Westenra.
After what seemed like hours of auditioning and deliberation the other major characters were cast. All the other people who had signed up to act would be given minor or non-speaking roles and be part of the crowd scenes.
Grace yawned and stretched. She would post a list of names in the main hall in the morning, but first she’d have the pleasure of being able to tell her friends that they had been successful.
Sophie screamed and jumped up and down. Then she alarmed Grace by saying how much fun they would have. Next Grace sought out Alex. She liked Alex a lot and was thrilled to be able to tell him that he had gotten the role of Jonathan Harker. It was a major part and she had been surprised that Alex had auditioned. He was generally quite reserved and she wouldn’t have thought he had any desire to be on stage. But he had impressed them with his reading. He had learnt the lines given and had not needed to hold a script on stage, and he didn’t overact.
Grace found him in the library.
“Oh. Are you sure?” he asked when she told him he had the part. Grace smiled and nodded.
“You were good, Alex.” She didn’t mention that there had been an awful lot of debate over the choice between him and two others.
He pushed his glasses up on his nose and blushed. Grace remembered how she used to have a serious crush on him a few years ago. He was definitely good-looking in a non-obvious way. Quite similar looking to his older brother Jack, who was without doubt handsome. Jack was sporty and broad-shouldered with a square jaw, whereas Alex was kind of a science nerd. If Jack was Superman, Alex was the Clark Kent version. She’d always liked Alex better. He was genuinely nice. Grace had totally gone off Jack since he had kissed Sophie and then not called her for six months. Guys who messed around your best friend were lower than pond scum.
“Who is playing Mina?” Alex asked.
“Beatrice Greene.” Grace waited for his reaction. His eyebrows raised but he only said “Oh, okay.”
Grace had intended to go straight up to their dormitory and start typing up the cast list next but she found her feet were making their way over to East Tower instead. She wasn’t good friends with Beatrice but she was curious about her now.
She climbed the stairs to the East Tower Common Room and stuck her head in.
“Is Beatrice around?” she asked the two younger girls she found inside.
“She’s in her dorm. First on the left.” One of the girls jerked her head towards a set of stairs. So Grace went on up. Coming to a corridor on the floor above, she knocked on the first door.
“Come in,” she heard Beatrice call. She went in and found herself in a room just like her own. Beatrice was there alone, sitting at a desk by a neatly made bed.
Beatrice turned and saw it was Grace. She gave a shaky smile.
“It’s okay, I didn’t expect to get the part. You didn’t need to come and tell me yourself.”
Grace looked at Beatrice, wondering why the girl had such little confidence. She wasn’t that unattractive. Overweight maybe, but not massively. Her skin was pasty white and blotchy, but surely a bit more sunshine could improve that? The important thing, as far as Grace was concerned, was that Beatrice could actually act.
“Actually I came to tell you that you got the part. You can be Mina – if you want it?” Grace enjoyed the look of dumbstruck joy on Beatrice’s face for a moment before Beatrice suddenly began to cry. Grace rushed over and began patting her shoulder, feeling alarmed.
“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want.”
“Oh, I do. Thank you. Thank you so much.” Beatrice blew her nose and turned to Grace. “I won’t let you down, I’ll work really really hard.”
“I know you will.” Grace smiled. “But don’t take it too seriously, it’s just a school play.”
“It’s a lot more to me.” Beatrice sniffed into her hankie. “I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, but I’ve been dreaming about it since I came to Compass.” She dried her eyes and smiled at Grace. “What must you think of me? Sorry, slight overreaction, I’m just really pleased. Thank you for letting me know.”
Grace stood up. “No worries, I’m glad you’re pleased. It will be good to work with people who are actually committed to it rather than just seeing it as a good way to get out of lessons and waste some time.”
“I’m definitely committed. It’s just the incentive I need.” Beatrice looked very serious.
“Well, great.” Grace wondered what kind of incentive she meant but didn’t like to ask. “I’ll see you at rehearsals then.” She went back down the stairs into the East Tower Common Room.
Seated alone at the far end was Ben Everest. He was watching a movie on his laptop but looked up and smiled when he spotted her. She hadn’t intended to tell Ben herself that he too had achieved the part he tried out for, but now they were both here it seemed that she might as well.
She wished she had taken the time to stop and check herself in a mirror first, though. In nearly six years at Compass Court she had hardly spoken with Ben.
She knew she was the girl out of her group that didn’t get noticed. Ben had generally always focussed his attention on Rose when he was around them, and both Sophie and Rose had such big personalities compared to hers. She was also shorter than both of them and her looks were understated in comparison. She sometimes felt like the duckling between two swans. Not that she resented it, she didn’t try that hard to be noticed; but now she had been thrust into the limelight a little, she realised that she should have thought a bit more about her appearance before doing “Director” duties all over the school.
She surreptitiously ran her tongue over her teeth to check they were clean then wound her way between the sofas over to Ben.