The football team's weight room smelled like B.O. and stale cologne. Unfortunately, I had my marching orders from Tunstelle, so breathing in through my mouth, I walked inside to locate Parker.

He'd run off when we let out, so I hadn't had time to catch him and tell him that I was supposed to be helping him prepare for auditions. Dr. Tunstelle said, according to his coach, he'd be working weights after lunch, so that was how I found myself walking around dumbbells and past some two-hundred-and-fifty-pound junior giving me the side-eye looking for Parker.

I'd spent a lot of time in physical therapy a few months ago trying to get back in shape after spraining my ankle taking a tumble on the hurdles in fall training. I'd barely gotten back in shape in time for the winter track season.

Lifting weights had helped me recover quicker. My upper body was stronger, and I was determined to be even stronger this season.

I found Parker in the back on a treadmill. He had headphones and didn't seem to see me approach, so I turned on the machine next to him and started running.

A moment later, he turned to look at me. He did a double-take and turned off his machine. He slung his headphones around his ears and frowned.

"What are you doing in the men's weight room?" He asked. "The school does have a recreation center for non-athletic students."

"I am an athletic student," I said. "I'm a member of the track team."

He frowned again. "You're a runner?"

"Yes," I said. "And a theater major. I'm also Tunstelle's teaching assistant, and she got permission from your coach to have me tutor you. You do have to audition in less than forty-eight hours, and I feel like you have a little more ambition than playing a character with just a few lines."

"So, you're going to help me," he said. "By running next to me on a treadmill?"

"I'm not a big classroom person, and I prefer a track, but yes," I said. "If you can, please read The Tempest tonight, and I can have you memorizing a monologue by dinner tonight."

"I'm not a fast reader," he said. "Just so you know."

"Then get an audiobook or watch a version online," I said. "It'll help if you at least know the material. Some of the people you're auditioning with have been practicing since Emma Kate, and I announced the play."

"So, how much of a chance do I have to play a character of any note?" He asked.

I smiled. "There aren't too many minor characters in The Tempest and Emma Kate, and I have been fan casting for a while. Tunstelle is letting us do most of the leg work, but she does have the final say."

He reached over and turned off my treadmill. I took one look at him, and this time I really looked. He was handsome. His shoulders were broad, and I guessed that he could bench well. He'd been running at a decent pace on the treadmill, and he must have just started because he wasn't sweating yet. His long curly hair was held back in a ponytail, and his eyes were a soft chestnut brown.

"Why'd you turn off my machine?" I asked.

He smiled. "You said you'd rather run on a track. Come on."

I followed him out of the weight room and past the athletic offices. He led us out to the track, and I breathed in the smell of the rubber that padded the ground.

Running was easy. Running was life. Keeping pace and staying ahead was one of the easiest parts of my life. All I had to do was let loose.

"So, tell me about yourself," he said. "Since you're my tutor."

"My name is Lexi Thaxton, and I'm a junior theater major," I said. "That's really all you need to know."

He chucked and started jogging. I kept pace easily beside him. We weren't running fast. Just a light jog.

"Well, I'm staying with my father this summer, and I haven't lived with him in eight years," he said. "He cheated on my mother and started a new family. My sister and I haven't exactly had a stellar relationship with him, but we are trying to make it work with him."

"So, you're close with your sister," I rolled my eyes. "Must be nice."

"You have siblings?" He asked.

"Four brothers," I said.

That was saying too much. If I wanted to think about my family, I needed to run faster. Running was my stress relief, and nothing was more stressful in my life than my family.

Everyone had promised that college would be an escape. They said that once I had some distance from my family, I could make a new life.

Everyone was wrong. I couldn't just leave my family. Sure, my older brother Cory had done it by joining the military, but I wasn't that cruel.

"Woah," Parker was struggling to catch up with me. "You're speeding up, Thaxton."

Taking a deep breath, I tried to focus on calming down. My family wasn't here. There was control in my life. My feet slowed, and Parker caught up with me.

"Okay, I believe you're on the track team now," he said. "What was that?"

"I don't like to talk about my family," I said. "I probably won't even see them this summer, and that's fine."

I filled my lungs with oxygen slowly as I jogged. I needed to breathe. I needed to focus. I let the words of the monologue I'd been memorizing fill my head.

"Now my charms are all o'erthrown," I whispered. "And what strength I have's mine own..."

"Is that from the Tempest?" Parker asked.

"Yes," I said. "It's a Prospero monologue at the end of the play."

"And you already memorized it," Parker looked impressed.

"Think of it like mantras," I said. "It helps me focus. I have a dozen Shakespeare monologues memorized. It's a good way to keep pace."

Parker nodded. I wasn't sure he got it. I didn't even try explaining it to the other girls on the track team. The rhythm of the poetry just kept me focused.

"So, you're obviously a serious runner and very serious about Shakespeare," Parker said. "That's an odd combination."

"The stage is a great place to lose yourself and find yourself over and over again," I repeated the words my junior high teacher had shared with me.

I'd been a lost and directionless girl on free lunches and lashing out. I never had much, and my family never made it easy. Sometimes that school's free lunch was all I had.

Signing up for cross country when I was twelve got me away from home just a little. I'd found athletics harnessed my aggression, but theater brought me the peace and control I needed.

My high school theater teacher Mrs. Flores was the first person to really understand that I was smart. She made sure that I had at least a granola bar each morning, and she sent me home with snacks on the weekend. She helped me succeed, and without that belief, I might have never believed I could get into college.

"So, I can find a way to study the Tempest tonight," Parker said. "What should I be trying to memorize for an audition?"

"You don't have to have it memorized," I said. "But most everyone will have theirs memorized."

"I have a friend of a friend who puts the occasional monologue to music," Parker said. "I'll see what I can do. It's easier for me to memorize things I can hear. I'm not a big fan of reading, especially out loud."

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

My little brother Calvin was diagnosed with dyslexia when he was seven. He had extra help in school and sometimes checked out audiobooks from the public library.

"I sometimes skip words when I read," Parker sounded sheepish. "It can be a pain. I read quickly in my head because my eyes skip over the little words. I just get frustrated and nervous when I try to read out loud. I'm always afraid I'll skip something. Sometimes I skip whole lines. I always hated oral reading in high school."

"So, you're going to want to listen to the play," I said. "I can't do much more with you until you've done that. I can send you the monologue passage to start memorizing via text."

We paused on a bench beside the track. Parker keyed his number on my phone. He paused at a notification that popped up on the screen.

"Some dude named Noah is texting you," Parker said, and I took my phone back. "That your boyfriend?"

"Sure," I lied and glanced at my phone. 

I took a deep breath. I'd call my brother as soon as I was done with Parker. I texted him an online link with Prospero's epilogue monologue. I didn't expect him to do well enough to be one of the leads, but it was a good monologue and not too long.

Parker opened the link on his phone. "This is the one you were reciting earlier."

"Do you best," I said. "I'll meet you after tomorrow's read-through, and we'll see what you can do. This production is important to me, and I want you to do well."

"I'll see you tomorrow then," Parker said. "Have fun running."

Parker put his headphones on and jogged back the way we'd come. I hoped he'd at least take some of what I said to heart. Emma Kate mentioned she'd hate to have to hide him in a backstage role, and for some reason, I wanted to see him on stage.

I turned my attention back to my phone. Noah needing me to call usually didn't involve good news. At best, he would tell me the family income was short for some reason or another, and something couldn't be paid. At worst... I didn't want to think about the worst right now.

Dialing out, I put the phone up to my ear. I waited as the dial connected me with my fifteen-year-old brother, who sadly was the closest thing my family had to a responsible adult at home.

"Lexi," Noah's voice came through as soon as the phone connected. "Lexi, Mom's been gone for three days this week, and Dad didn't come home last night either."

I took a deep breath. This had happened before. Mom was gone regularly, lost in a line and daze of self-medication and booze. On the other hand, Dad sometimes needed space or was too tired to come home to three needy boys.

"Did you call the school?" I asked.

"Dad said that he fell asleep grading papers," Noah said. "But Mom came home when he was gone. She said something about a new job, and she made a bunch of promises about getting clean. She was showing Calvin and me some fancy brochures about a facility where she wants us to send her."

"How much money does she want?" I asked.

She'd pulled this scam before when I was twelve and Noah was five. Dad, ever the optimist, scraped every penny together and sent her off to the facility. Mom took the money and gambled a week straight in Vegas until she'd spent everything. Then she called us, said she was sorry, and wept until we paid her bus fare home.

It was never about getting clean. Mom had trashed her life long ago. She didn't care about us. Dad loved her, and he said Mom would come home when her wild days were over. He'd been saying that my whole life.

"This place is pricier than the last one, and the brochure looks like a spa," Noah said. "I don't know what to do. She's spiraling again. I know Dad will support her the moment she brings this up to him, but I know we can't afford this. I'm not stupid. I can only mow so many lawns to pay the electric bill."

"I'll call later, and I'll talk to Mom," I said. "Call Cory and get his opinion. Have all of last month's bills been taken care of?"

"I think Dad paid the last one yesterday," Noah said. "I hear Mom. I have to go."

My little brother hung up, and I melted into the park bench. I couldn't help my family much. I was in college and sending them every dime I could spare.

I wished some days I was my older brother Cory. He'd joined the military at eighteen, and he was free of our family. College should have been my way out, except unlike Cory, I was still trapped. 

Hey everyone!!! Some of Lexi's issues are now coming to light even if she is hiding them from everyone. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Let me know what you think! I love hearing from you.

--Eliana