"I'm Mona!" I said, conveying the message to Luna.
She wiggled excitedly and said, "Yes!" in response.
"Mona? Is that one of the girls in jail?" I said to James.
"Yes!" he said.
I sort of knew already, but I wanted to be sure. I had been steeped in the show all day yesterday. There were about forty of us who had been called back for different roles, and we spent the afternoon together. I overheard and learned enough to know that there was a jail scene with five named characters. I had thought about those roles for myself, but I dared not wish that I would actually get one. There were far better performers than me at the audition.
"James, are you serious right now?" I asked, glancing back at Luna with wide eyes.
"Yes. I'm serious. You're Mona!"
My mind raced as I pulled up to the school drop-off area.
"Hang on, James, can you hold for one minute or not?"
"Yeah, I'm driving."
"Okay, hang on." I muted the phone and set it down in my lap. "Okay, it's almost our turn to get out, my precious girl. I put some watermelon in your lunch. I want you to have a great day, okay?"
"Okay. I will. You made the play?"
"Yes, I did," I said excitedly.
We were pulling up to the head of the line, and one of the teachers was already approaching our car.
"I think I got somebody named Mona," I said. "I'll learn more about it and tell you more when I pick you up, okay?" She nodded just as the lady opened our door.
"Good morning!" the lady said.
"Good morning," Luna repeated to her.
"I love you, Lu!" I called at her back.
"Love you!" she said, waving at me as she walked away.
The teacher closed my back door, and I slowly merged back onto the street while picking up my phone. I knew I'd be drivingat a normal speed, so I pushed the button to put James on speakerphone.
"Can you hear me, James?"
"Yeah," he said.
"Okay, thank you for calling me. I'm going to stop and look at the Facebook page in a minute. But I need to know what you got. Did you get Billy?" We both knew he wanted to play Billy Flynn, and I didn't even have to say the last name.
"Yes," he said, with a smile in his voice.
"You got it?"
"Yesss!"
"Oh, James, congratulations!"
"Congratulations to you, too, Miss Mona! I can't wait to see you at rehearsal."
I let out a tiny shriek of excitement, and he laughed.
"Who got Roxie?"
