Adopted by The Prom

Life's No Dress Rehearsal

Olive's POV

It was the day of the audition. I'm in my bedroom at Izzy's apartment. Pretending to be sick. 

"Honey are you sure you're too sick to go to the audition?" Izzy came in with juice.

I nodded. I pointed to my throat, then made an x with my hands.

"Oh you have a sore throat. I'll be back with the thermometer."

She closed the door and I panicked and plugged in the heat pad she'd gotten me for my "cramps" which were just my starvation.

I quickly put it on top of my head and let me heat up to a stay at home temperature.

"Livvy. I know you're nervous, it's your first audition. But you have to go. Get ready, and we'll leave in like two hours. Take some deep breaths." Izzy stood in the doorway. She walked in and removed the heat pack from my head. "It'll be okay."

So a couple hours later I'm clutching my bag close to my chest and slowly walked into the building. Izzy sat on a bench outside and promised that she'd wait so we could ride the subway together.

"Hi everybody! I'm the director for New York Junior Theatre Arts' second production of The 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee! You can call me Miss Amy and I cannot wait to get into this production. Along with me is my assistant director and head choreographer Ophelia." Miss Any pointed to another young woman. Ophelia waved. 

"Hi everyone. So our audition process used to involve all of the kids audition to audition for everyone, but we've decided to change it up for our second production of Spelling Bee just to change it up."

Thank god. 

"So we're going to ask everybody to exit the room and go into our lobby. And we're starting with auditioning all of the Olives."

How many more are there of me?

"So if you are auditioning for the character Olive you can line up outside the door and come in one at a time when we call you." Oh that makes more sense.

I waited anxiously before they called me.

"Hi, oh what a coincidence your name is Olive. Hi Olive, so we're going to ask you to sing My Friend, The Dictionary for us, and then we can read some lines."

Okay. I started singing, so far so good.

The song is finished and the huge pain in my chest is reduced to half. 

"Okay good job Olive! Let's do the lines and then your dismissed and we'll email the cast list out later tonight."

They let me take a couple minutes to semi-memorize the lines and then we did the scene twice.

"Good job Olive. Have a nice day!" Ophelia and Amy waved and called for the next person.

Two hours later...

"Olive honey, you have to eat something." Izzy nudged the plate close to me. "The cast list when come soon."

"I'm to nervous to eat." That's another lie. I haven't eaten in two days. 

"You have to eat something." Izzy insisted.

I slowly picked up the fork, which took all of my energy. My body ached and I felt faint. As I raised it towards my mouth, Izzy's phone buzzed.

"Oh it's the cast list!" 

A couple seconds later...

"Olive you got the part!"

I remember hitting the floor, then it all went black.

Beep. Beeep. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

"Ma'am, I have something to tell you. I'm afraid it isn't good."

"Is there anything we can do?"

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

After what seemed like a few seconds I opened my eyes and all I saw was white.

"My baby girl!" Izzy leapt out of her chair and opened a nearby door. "She's awake!"

A nurse came in holding a thick blue binder and a tray of food. "Hi Olive. I'm Nurse Jackie. It's good you're awake. You really had us worried honey. You were out for a long time. Here's something for you to eat and drink, as well as some meds. And here is your binder."

"Binder for what?" I inched away from the tray, hopefully unnoticeably. 

"Oh dear. Have you not explained. Well, I'll let your mom tell you honey." Nurse Jackie quickly hurries away.

"Momma what's happening?"

"Livvy, you've been diagnosed with a serious case of anorexia nervosa. It's an eating disorder where you purposely avoid food to not gain weight. This binder is all about your treatments and special diet the doctors want you on so you can get better." Izzy said gently.

"But that's not it!" I burst into tears. 

"Livvy what do you mean?"

"It's not just that I don't want to gain weight. I don't deserve food. My dad would always say that a son wouldn't need to worry about his weight because he watched what he ate. My mom used to say that unless I controlled myself I didn't deserve food. I don't deserve to eat anything!" I sobbed.

Izzy got up and hugged me. "I know it's hard. But you do deserve to eat. And I'm going to help you through this okay. We're in this together."

The next couple of days were easier. We stayed in the hospital, and the cast came and went. Angie even FaceTimed from London. I never thought the end of the week would come.

They didn't make me eat as much as I thought they would. They let me go to the children's area too. I made a friend. Her name is Tessa and she's a couple years older than me. She has been recovering from appendicitis. She is a sculptor. She once sold a vase on Etsy for almost a thousand dollars. 

"So are you entering the New York Arts Showcase for Children?" She moved her bishop. "Check."

I slid my castle over. "Check denied. And no, I never heard of it."

"Oh well artists 17 and under enter this showcase to support the arts in New York. It's a fundraiser as well, raising money to keep art programs alive in schools. And there's a competition, if you enter the showcase you have the option to enter a competition, where the winner gets to bring arts supplies to schools." She examined the board, then moved her pawn.

I snagged her queen. "That sounds interesting. I probably won't be able to. My moms are making me do Spelling Bee remember." 

"Oh yeah. If you have stage fright just tell them." Tessa sighed as she calculated her next move.

"It's not that simple. I'm afraid of letting them down. They're all performers, so I have to be a performer too." 

"Well, think about it. Ooo check!"

In one move I placed my knight and stood up. "I'm get to leave today. Checkmate." I waved to her and left the room.

Izzy was waiting for me with the papers. 

"I'm all ready to go." I said. I grabbed my backpack and got ready to leave.

"You forgot something Livvy."

"What Momma?"

"Your binder." She pointed to the thick blue binder left laying on the bed.

"I didn't think I'd need that." 

"Honey you're going to need that for a long time. It's your dietary plans and everything else you're going to need to know." 

"It's not over."

"I'm afraid not Livvy. There's going to be a lot of work in your future."

Please please no.