When I entered the room, it looked almost the same as it had for callbacks with just one small change. It was now filled with people sitting in chairs that had been set up, all of who were staring at me. They were obviously waiting for me to start.

I could feel the color rushing to my cheeks and quickly sat down before I embarassed myself even more. I hated being late, even it was only a few minutes. I looked at who I had sat next to and immediately wished I chose a different seast. Next to me was a much older girl with an intense look on her face. I don't like to judge people by their looks, but she had black hair with a burgundy streak and wore heels so high they could be used as a murder weapon. In all honesty, she kind of scared me.

But switching seats would draw more unwanted attention to me, so I just stayed put.

The two directors I had previously met were at the front of the chairs, and after all the pandemonium I caused died down, they began the meeting.

They talked about what kind of behavior they expected from us, and what we should expect from them, yadda yadda: The usual stuff. I zoned out, which probably wasn't a good idea.

Because the next thing I knew, the room was staring at me again. Luckily for me, my mom (who was on my left and came in while I was dozing off) whispered in my ear that I was supposed to say my name and what part I was playing.

"Um...hi. My name is Sarah, and I'm playing Jo."

After that near disaster, I payed perfect attention as the rest of the cast introduced themselves. That intense girl who sat next to me was the assisstant director. I sat up even more attentively when the next people introduced them selves when she said that. If she was assisstant director, that meant she had power over me, and I didn't want to get on her bad side.

The cast only consisted of 10 kids, including myself. They were as follows: Samantha-Marmee, Jordyn-Amy, Keyanna-Hannah, Ian-Mr. Brooke, Denise-Meg, Elizabeth-Beth, Lindsie-Aunt March, Shaun-Mr. March, and Michael-Laurie.

My heart stopped as Michael introduced himself. He was the boy from auditions! And his character was in love with MY character! This play couldn't get any better!

I smiled joyfully as one of the directors, Katie, said that she would be taking the cast to a corner in the room to read through the script. Peter, the other director, would stay with the parents and conduct the meeting.

I followed the crowd to the far corner of the room. I sat down quietly, and ended up next to Siobhan, the girl from callbacks. Instead of being cast as Beth, she got to be a stage manager. I gave her a smile to let her know I was friendly, and she returned it.

Katie passed out the scripts, explaining that since Little Women was such a long book, we wouldn't be doing the whole thing, so a lot of scenes were missing.

As soon as my script was in my hands, I ravenously flipped through the pages, eager to see which scenes were in the play. I looked up, and all the other cast members were doing the same thing. Katie was waiting patiently to begin, so I turned to the first page of the play.

When she saw that everyone was ready to begin, she told us to begin.

I looked more closely at my script, then I couldn't help but smile. I had the first line of the play. It was kind of poetic. In my very first play, I had the first line. Of course the first line was only "G!", but it still counted. Anyway, now I had my first lead, and I had the first line. Granted it was a lot longer than my previous first line, but it still gave me joy.

Katie smiled at me, a forced smile, and said, "Sarah. you have the first line. We're waiting for you to start."

I blushed again, and spoke. This was not starting out very well. I was completely out of it. I promised myself that until the end of practice, I would be 100% focused.

"My mind drifts back to that Christmas Eve so long ago..."

The read through lasted until 7:30, the end of practice. We had only gotten through Act 1, so we were given the "homework" to read through Act 2.

My only thoughts after hearing the cast read through the play were, "Wow."

The entire cast was amazing! There was a lot of talent among the 10 kids. This was going to be a great experience, for everyone.

My mom and I met up outside the door. She handed me a yellow folder she had been given during the parent meeting. Knowing me all to well, she told me to wait to look at it until we got to the car. I smile sheepishly, becasuse we both knew if she hadn't said that I would've read it while walking and crashed into a wall. I'd done it plenty of times before.

So to fill the silence of walking down six levels of stairs, I talked about what happened duting the read through, what I thought of all the people in it (including my fear of the assisstant director, at which, my mom just laughed), how excited I was, the poetry of having the first line again, EVERYTHING. I'm closer with my mom than most teenage girls, so there are no secrets between us.

When we got to the car, I still wasn't done talking so I just kept right on. I didn't run out of things to say until we were ten mintues fron home. We have a forty-five minute drive, mind you, so that gives you an idea of just how much I had to say.

After catching up on my breathing ( I swear, I only took five breaths during my whole shpiel) I decided to take a look at my folder that my mom had given to me at play practice.

In it, there was a plethora of papers of all colors. There was a cast list, a schedule of rehearsals, ticket pre-order forms, a contract, fliers for advertising, a permission slip for missing school (!), and order forms for businesses to place ads in the program.

I was curious about the permission slip, so I took a closer look. It turns out, we would be doing two performances for schools, meaning I would miss two days of school! This was just getting cooler and cooler.

I put the permission slip in my backpack when we got home to get it signed by my principal. Then I went straight upstairs to my bedroom.

I was completely worn out. It had been an extremely tiring day. I fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow.