The Greatest Show

Chapter 6: Are You Okay?

Annabeth POV

Because of Luke, I was sitting in a coffee shop on a Sunday evening. Usually, I would be reading a book and rehearsing my lines or songs for the musical. However, when Luke asked me out for coffee, I had to accept for multiple reasons. First, I didn't want to say no to someone that I worked pretty close with as he was also in the musical with a minor role. But, more importantly, I always liked Luke ever since the Frozen musical we worked on during my freshman year.

"Here you go, Annabeth," Luke said as he handed me my caramel iced tea.

"Thanks, Luke."

"So, I cannot believe that you didn't get the role of Jenny Lind"

"Yeah, I was upset about it. But, you must also be upset about not getting a lead." Luke got cast in a minor role who interacts twice with PT Barnum, who Percy was selected to play. I couldn't even believe that Percy got cast. He didn't care for the musical at all. Sure, he was unexpectedly good during auditions, but he didn't even want the role. I was pretty sure he would reject the role and Luke would take over.

"Yeah, it's a bummer."

We entered into silence, an awkward silence. I didn't really know what to say, especially as Luke just stared at me with an expression I couldn't quite decipher. However, I did know that I didn't completely like that expression.

Luckily, a phone call interrupted the situation. As Luke talked on the phone, I watched his face change as he looked out the window. I've never interacted with Luke outside of school, so I didn't know much about his interests or friends.

"Hey, Annabeth. I know we just started talking, but is it okay if we take a raincheck. Something has come up at home."

"Yeah. Of course. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, but I gotta go as soon as possible," replied Luke before kissing my cheek, lingering, and then rushing out of the cafe. I was caught off-guard by the kiss but easily got over it. He didn't really look concerned but seemed to be in a hurry. As an actress, I knew how to decipher emotions and facial expressions, and he wasn't holding worry on his face.

Through the window, I noticed Luke with a group of boys. They seemed to be talking aggressively before rushing off together. The baseball bats some of the boys were holding didn't go unnoticed.

I just shrugged before getting ready to leave the cafe and head home.

***

I was so excited for the first day of rehearsal. I had accepted my role as Charity and moved on to figuring out how to give my best performance. This goal involved learning my many lines as well as perfecting my voice for A Million Dreams and Tightrope. Currently, I was sitting on stage where a circle of chairs was set up for all the cast members involved with the soundtrack. This involved all the main singers of the songs on stage while the ensemble and background singers were sitting in the first three rows of the auditorium. One stage chair was still empty.

"All right, everyone. Thank you all for accepting your roles and coming to the first day of rehearsal for this year's production of The Greatest Showman."

Cheers erupted through everyone's mouths as we clapped. Everyone was excited about this musical as it was such a popular movie in our community. It was rare to find someone in this small city who hasn't seen or at least heard of the film. Plus, it wasn't a Disney musical like it had been for the last four years of Goode High's production history.

"Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Bruner, Ms. Artemis, and I are very excited as well. So, we're going to jump right into it. The next two weeks of rehearsal will be working through the songs, specifically the songs with multiple crew members involved. We will go through the single-person songs as well, but that's later next week."