Real and not Pretend : Book 2 - The Reality

IV. White Lie

Every casts of the play finally had gathered in the conference hall of one of the director's own company building, circling the long table with the pages of the scripts in their hands. They're also now given their own roles. Lisa was chosen to get the roles of an attendant and a fortune teller in which were the roles played by Kathryn Allison who won an award of New York Musical Theatre Festival's Next Big Broadway Sensation contest in 2014 in her debut year. She may not be the Jasmine of the story but it's already a pressure for her to play the roles of now a broadway sensation.

They're all in the middle of their reenactment for the very first page of the script when the other crews from different teams are slowly getting inside the room to have a brief introduction of themselves to the actors and actresses - which includes the production team, video and photography team, make up and costume artists.

Lisa's eyes widen upon seeing the guy he'd seen days ago, her heart starts pumping really fast and it made her a bit dizzy, her throat dries and her stomach churns for some unknown reasons she couldn't understand. It even intensifies when their eyes met, the shock in the man's face is very noticeable too.

Lisa's gaze lingers onto him so did his until the director talks again. Staying focus is slowly getting really hard for her as her eyes would somehow swing to where he is and everytime she does that, she'd caught him staring at her as well. It's getting really suffocating in a way she couldn't describe. Her heart is pounding, her throat is getting really dry, her brain is having a hay wire - she's losing her focus.

She grabs her untouched water bottle to give herself a break and take huge gulps of fluid, closed her eyes and does her usual routine whenever she needs to focus herself. Although it's only just script reading, if she screws it up, it will definitely makes an impression to everyone in the room.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Once she had remove all the questions out of her mind and let her focus be just in the script, her co-casts and the directors - Lisa opens her eyes and the untouchable concentration of Lalisa Manoban appears, totoally had become unaware of the gaze from the smiling Julio. She never fails to amaze him.

The rest of the script reading ended smoothly with casual laughs once one of the actors intentionally had a slight mess up. Definitely one of the best script reading gathering Lisa had ever took part with because of how light and very professional the other casts are. The directors bid their goodbyes to them with of course a little note that two weeks after then, the rehearsal will finally start.

Lisa stacks up her script and shoulders her bag, ready to get herself out of the place because things had been very awkward for her.

"That's.. Julio, right?" Jackson asks in a low tone, both of them are sitting beside each other.

"Yes that's him." Lisa says in the same tone but somehow very calm which contradicts the commotion inside her.

"That's strange. You guys seemed very shock upon seeing each other." he says as he too grabs his wallet and phone along with the script.

Lisa shrugs her shoulders as she bids her own goodbyes and take care speeches towards the other people in the room. "It's my first time seeing him for years and the fact that we're gonna be working together..." she trails.

Jackson on the other hand follows Lisa. "Oh dear oh dear but it's in the past anyway and you've said it yourself before that you got a nice and proper closure."

Lisa smiles and slightly bows at the people they're seeing on their way out. "Yes of course but doesn't mean I can't be awkward. Dang it was so awkward."

Jackson and Lisa are finally in the hallway with their managers trailing behind them. "I bet it was. Yikes." Jackson says. He was about to say something when he heard a voice calling Lisa's name behind them - it echoed against the corners of the hallway.