And what the hell was all that beeping????
For the first time since she’d said goodbye to the audition panel, she rejoined the world and glanced around her and that’s when she saw…
No, it couldn’t be. Yet it was.
Directly across the road, was a bright red minibus with the words ‘Weirbridge Community Centre’ written in gold on the side, and the unmistakable sound of Abba’s ‘Waterloo’ blaring from the open windows. And in the driving seat was her sister and… She squinted against the sun to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. Nope, she wasn’t imagining it. In the two rows of seats behind Alyssa were the waving hands and smiling faces of Moira Chiles, and Jessie and Georgie from the salon.
If the Glasgow City Council’s CCTV camera operators were watching her now, they were probably wondering why she was howling with laughter as she raced across the road, dodging the city-centre traffic as she went. She jumped into the empty passenger seat and was greeted with four smiley, expectant faces.
She rearranged her grin to an expression of feigned cynicism, as she went for dramatic suspicion. ‘Are you lot stalking me?’
‘If only,’ Alyssa said, with a roll of the eyes. ‘My van finally clapped out and combusted when I dropped off the caramel shortcakes at the community centre. The manager felt so sorry for me that he let me borrow this van, because they won’t need it again until the senior citizens bingo night on Monday.’
Ginny wasn’t in the least surprised at this random act of generosity because Weirbridge was that kind of village. Also, her sister had been giving them a heavy discount on their buns for years, so they were well aware that they owed her a favour.
‘And then when I got back to the café, this lot were trying to get a taxi to the Academy…’
‘I didn’t want to bring my car, because I thought I might enjoy a small tipple if the documentary is good,’ Moira Chiles piped up, ‘and a bloody great big tipple if it makes us all look like pretentious tits.’
‘I pride myself on being a pretentious tit,’ Ginny deadpanned right back at her, making them laugh, before Alyssa carried on with her explanation.
‘You’re not wrong. So, anyway, I offered to bring them myself. If café profits plummet this month, I can always take on shifts as a taxi driver since I seem to be you lot’s personal chauffeur this week. That aside, we all wanted to hear how you got on, so we decided to swing by and get you on the way.’
Ginny felt genuinely touched. She’d heard all about Taylor Swift’s ‘girl squad’, but as far as Ginny was concerned, this lot were even better because they all loved big, looked out for each other and they came with the knowledge of the entire back catalogues of the Proclaimers, Deacon Blue and Simple Minds. Besides, they had a cumulative age of about 250, so they had all the demographics covered in a pub quiz too.
Alyssa indicated, then pulled away from the kerb.
‘Right then, give us the lowdown,’ Moira demanded, ‘because if they didn’t treat you well, there’s still time to circle back so I can give them a piece of my mind.’
Ginny took a deep breath, and then started at the beginning, omitting the fact that Caden was late, which had put Jeremy on edge and sent Ginny’s nerves just a tad higher than they needed to be. ‘It went great, I think. Your prep was brilliant, Moira, and I answered all their questions. And then the performances went really well. They’re going to let me know in the next twenty-four hours, so I just need to cross my fingers and wait.’
It wasn’t the complete, unredacted truth. The first number had been flawless – in some ways given even greater gravitas by the very real friction between the male actors, but Ginny had managed to keep her performance on track, delivering every note, every emotion, every nuance, just the way she’d been rehearsing it.
The two guys had then left the stage, so that she could deliver a solo performance of ‘The Broken Piece Of My Heart’, which was a haunting, soul-baring power ballad, and if she did say so herself, she had knocked that one out the park too.
And that’s when it had all gone a bit WrestleMania. She’d been about to leave the centre-stage spotlight, when there was a rumbling stage left, and she looked over to see Caden and Jeremy in a pushing match that was more Hugh Grant and Colin Firth inBridget JonesthanCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She’d kept a smile on her face as she’d walked over to them, thankfully shielded by the stage curtains from the eyeline of the panel.
‘I have no idea what this is about,’ she’d hissed, getting between them. ‘But if you fuck this up for me, you’ll have to sleep with one eye open for the rest of your lives.’ She’d then plastered her smile back on, and exited the stage, stopping to hear the panel’s thoughts on the way. Not that they’d given much feedback, other than letting her know they’d be in touch. Caden was asked to stay behind for some new choreography, so Ginny had, gratefully, left on her own.
She had no idea what way it was going to go. Purely on performance, she hoped she was good enough, but then there was the politics of it all. Would they really want two cast members who were in a relationship? Especially when there were already tensions brewing? Would they want to take on someone with no consistent track record in theatre? Would they take a chance on someone with her level of experience? Urgh, too many questions.
‘Okay, so do you want to analyse it further, or put it out of your mind until you hear back from them?’ Moira asked her.
Ginny didn’t need time to think about that. ‘I’m going with avoidance and denial.’
Moira nodded with conviction. ‘Excellent. Right, Alyssa, turn that Abba up, and, Jessie, you can be the blonde one.’
‘Brilliant,’ Georgie said, with obvious sarcasm. ‘I get to be the one with the beard as usual.’
The next fifteen minutes of singing at the top of her lungs were exactly what Ginny needed to get rid of any lingering tension.
As they pulled up in front of the Academy, she spotted four security blokes on the door, and none of them looked even nearly as intimidating as Sandra from the office who was standing next to them. Once upon a time, Sandra had run a taxi control centre with military precision, and Ginny had zero doubt she could organise a military coup of a corrupt, renegade junta in her tea break.
They all said goodbye to Alyssa, and then made their way down the red carpet that was already in place for tonight’s premiere.
Okay, things to do. Track down Ollie, and text Stevie to find out when she’d be here, so that she could recount the full audition experience to them both.
Grab a quick shower in the staffroom.
