Glee: A Brand New Direction (first book of Glee series)

Chapter 24: Callbacks

After Sam and I got off the stage, I thought we would be the last ones. I had missed Unique, Brittany, and the rest of the guys audition but I thought for sure we were done. But to everyone's surprise, John went up on stage and sang "Bet On It." Even more surprising was the fact that he seemed to actually mean everything. I looked over at Kitty, who seemed shock but did not budge one bit. The judges didn't say much after his performance. They told him he did a great job and then we all went home.

It hadn't even been one day when they came back to us with news. We had been called for an emergency rehearsal after school the next day.

"We have decided who will make it down to the callbacks," said Finn. "And not everyone will be fighting for the roles they originally auditioned for."

"We would like to see some of you as different characters," Artie continued. "But we won't be telling you which. None of the roles have been decided yet-"

"-but we will only callback for Gabriella and Troy," Mr. Schue said as he walked into the choir room to join us. "And Sharpay and Ryan. If I read your name, you will be going on to callbacks: Marley, Julie, Tina, Kitty, and Brittany for the girls and Jake, Sam, Blaine, Ryder, and John for the guys. Your callback song will be 'Bop to the Top' and you have one hour to memorize as much of it as you can."

We all waited until they had left the room and immediately pulled out our phones, laptops, tablets, etc. to watch the performance over and over again. I went over to Sam, Ryder, and Kitty and we decided to help each other out, since we weren't in the running for the same roles. Marley and Jake kept to themselves, as did Blaine and Tina, so I watched as John and Brittany offered each other assistance.

"I'm not much of a singer," Brittany told John as he corrected her on one of the notes. I don't think anyone had ever heard her admit to this before. She usually stated the opposite. 

"And I can't dance very much," said John. I noticed a look of relief on Jake's face when John said this.

"I auditioned for Sharpay," Brittany went on, "and I really hope I get it."

At this, Kitty turned to me and hissed, "I think they want you to give Sharpay a try."

"Why?" I asked. Sam was showing Ryder his "signature white-chocolate move."

"Brittany and I are the only ones here who auditioned for Sharpay," she reminded me. "We would make terrible Gabriellas. So some of the Gabriellas are probably expected to give a little bit of Sharpay at the auditions. Marley and Tina would make terrible Sharpays. You're the only one who they could possible think of as capable of doing both. You've got the whole nice girl, voice of an angel thing, but you're also a killer dancer."

"What are you talking about?" Ryder asked as the guys joined us.

"Politics," Kitty responded. She shook her head at me and we went back to rehearsing. For the rest of the hour, I couldn't stop thinking about that. I did not want to be Sharpay to begin with, and especially not if I'd be fighting my best friend for the role. Wait, did I just..? Kitty, my best friend? Weird.

"Alright, your time is up!" Finn announced from the doorway while I was in the middle of the hustle.

"Let's head over to the auditorium and see what you guys came up with," said Artie. We followed them across the school to the auditorium and noticed how incredibly nervous we all were. Marley looked like she was going to pass out, Brittany was mumbling who-knows-what to herself and Tina was about ready to start crying. Kitty tapped her foot impatiently as we settled in.

"Alright, everybody up on stage," said Finn. "We're doing this Born to Hand Jive style."

I had no idea what that meant but I followed everyone up to the stage regardless. 

"The band is going to play the song," said Artie through the microphone on the observer table. "And you're all going to show us what you have."