It was finally Friday, two days since I had tried out for the musical. The cast list was usually posted on the Friday after the tryouts after school, just in case someone got mad and tried to ask Mrs. Cunningham why they didn't get the part they thought they deserved.

This way, they had the whole weekend to get over the fact that they didn't get a certain part, or that they got a part with no singing time.

I was sitting in lunch, trying to ignore the pounding sense of dread that was consuming me. What if I didn't get the lead? It wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would certainly break my heart a little. It would mean that after all my hard work, I still wasn't good enough.

Then a thought came to me.

What if she just put me in the chorus and nothing else?

Usually Mrs. Cunningham was known to give most of the seniors at least a couple of lines in the shows, seeing as it was their last year at the school, but sometimes she didn't give the seniors any lines at all. What if I had done so bad that she thought I didn't get to receive any lines at all? What if-

"Arabella!" I was interrupted from my little moment of doubt by Lacey practically screaming at me. Heads turned towards us, but quickly turned back away when they noticed that nothing special was going on.

"Yes, I was totally listening to everything you just said." I say, hoping that she might believe me.

"Right," she dragged on, "Of course you were."

"I'm sorry," I said, "I've just had a lot on my mind today."

"If I was stupid, I would think you were thinking about the cast list being posted today, but I'm not stupid, so you shouldn't be thinking about that."

"But, what if-" she cut me off.

"No. You're going to be Belle and you're going to kiss the Beast, and I will make fun of you for the rest of your life because of it. It's happening and no amount of worrying about getting the roll or not is going to make the universe bend to your will. So just stop thinking about it and start telling me more about how pretty The Marvel's eye's were." She finishes her little soliloquy.

"Well - Wait. I was never telling you about that. Are you trying to get me to tell you more about your favorite super just so you can fangirl over him more?" I ask suspiciously.

"Maybe," she says quietly, "But on the bright side, the more you talk about him, the more you'll forget about the cast list!" She smiles.

"Maybe, but I've already told you everything. Just because I happened to be saved by The Marvel at the mall the other day, doesn't mean I all of a sudden have extensive knowledge on the guy. For all we know, that could have been a copycat who saved me." I say and try to bring the topic off of The Marvel.

"No, it couldn't have been. He used telekinesis, something usually associated with supers, not their copycats." Lacey says obviously.

It actually wasn't uncommon back in the day for some supers to have copycats. These stupid people would dress up like their heroes and try to save the day, but their lack of any powers kind of made that hard to do.

One time there was a guy who tried to pretend that he was Clark, a super who could make time slow down and speed up. He did end up saving an old woman from being robbed, but when Clark's arch enemy, Phantom, showed up and tried to challenge the man he thought was his enemy, it didn't turn out so pretty. The copycat got killed before Phantom was able to figure out that this guy was not his arch enemy. It took a couple minutes for the real Clark to show up, but by then it was too late. Phantom had disappeared and left two dead and five injured civilians in his wake.

All in all, most weren't stupid enough these days to try and pretend to be their favorite supers. It was almost a suicide mission.

"Fair, but you still can't expect me to have extensive knowledge on a super who, coincidently, wouldn't have had to save me in the first place if someone hadn't dragged me to a stupid autograph signing with the stupid Marvel in the first place." I hinted.

Lacey gave me a pout and muttered something about how a super signing wasn't stupid.

The bell signaling the end of lunch rang and we parted ways yet again.

*

*

*

"Come on! Let's go see the list!" Lacey dragged me through the hallway, straight towards the theater room.

"No, I've . . . umm. . . decided that I should look at it on Monday, you know, after I get a good night's sleep and stuff." I stumble on my words.

"Arabella Rose Jones! Don't tell me that you've chickened out after all the trouble you went through practicing for this play, and don't get me started on how you dragged me to do this musical in the first place! You are going to go over there right now with me and we are going to see that cast list!" She screamed in my face, still dragging me unwillingly towards the performing arts hallway.

She dropped me on the ground when we got to the crowd of students checking the list for their name. Not many students stared at the girl who was dropped on the ground, they were all too busy staring at the brightly colored list on the wall.

In the corner of the hall I saw a girl who was being comforted by her friends, no doubt she hadn't gotten anything besides chorus. I saw another group of guys and girls who were chatting excitedly about their parts in the musical and what they were going to do during practice next week.

I got up off the floor and dusted myself off, no need to be sitting there all day.

"I made chorus!" Lacey elbowed her way past the crowd of students that had hoarded around the Beauty and the Beast cast list to reach me. "If I made chorus, then you definitely got the lead!"

"You didn't see my name?" I eyed the crowd that had swarmed the infamous cast list with dread. If Lacey didn't see my name, did that mean that I didn't even make it? I didn't want to spend the next few months working stage and makeup with the costume moms.

"It's not that you weren't up there, I was just too busy looking for my own name to notice yours." She starts to drag me through the crowd to the list.

Lacey and I came to a halt before the bulletin board. It was decorated with yellow and pink music notes and mini theater masks, as if they thought the happy colors would somehow make the list that will claim a part of my soul for the next few months any less daunting and terrifying.

I looked and saw Meredith Hamilton jumping up and down in happiness next to me. Did Mrs. Cunningham give her the lead? Her audition had been just as good as mine by what I heard. Not to mention that her feet fit a pair of extra character shoes sitting backstage where as mine were too big. Surely she got the female lead.

All because of her small feet.

But Meredith didn't get it. Her name jumped out to me instantly, she was three names below the lead, Mrs. Potts. Which meant . . .

Arabella Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Belle

I couldn't' believe it. I actually got the lead in the musical.

Lacey screamed and jumped in joy, because that's what Lacey does best. I stood there in shock. For once in my life I actually achieved something great. I couldn't help but think that my mother would've been proud of me. She had always wanted me to be a good daughter.

"See! You did it!" Lacey screamed at me in pure joy.

"Yeah, I guess I did." I mutter to myself.

My fellow students around me congratulated me on getting the lead, slapping me on the back and hugging me. They told me how they all knew that I would get the lead, and how they wished me luck.

"Wait, whose the Beast and Gaston?" Lacey questioned.

I looked below my name, and right there were the two names I had not expected to be up there.

Conner Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beast

Archer Waters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gaston

"My brother got Gaston?" Lacey questioned.

"Well, he has been involved in every musical since freshman year." I say.

I know what you must be thinking now. Archer is a popular kid, so what's he doing in the musical? The answer, most of the popular kids actually try out for the musical. Most years, someone popular gets the lead, so it made sense that Archer grabbed himself a leading role.

But who was the guy playing the Beast to my Beauty?

"Well, then whose the guy playing the Beast?" Lacey asked exactly what I was thinking.

"Umm . . . Me." A voice interrupts us from behind. We both turn and I can see the guy who sits behind me in AP Physics. He made the lead? I'd never even seen him in the past musicals, or had I? I didn't have the best of memories, especially when it came yo people or places.

"Oh, hello. I'm Lacey," Lacey introduces herself to Connor.

"I know," He says, "And you are Arabella Jones, I sit behind you in Physics." He says to me.

"Oh, so you must be Connor. I guess we'll be working together on this." I bring out my hand for him to shake. He eyes my hand like he's making a life changing decision and then takes it.

"I guess we will."