Silently Falling in Love: Race (THE EDITED VERSION)

Chapter 3 - Auditions

Anjali

I stretched out waiting for the tryouts to begin. There was way more people than I expected competing to be on the team, including several non-Indians. I'd never seen non-Indians dance to Bollywood music. I looked around the crowd for Arjun, but I didn't see him. For all I knew he would not show up. For all I knew he didn't even know how to dance.

I smiled at a few of the women from my floor. It was already twenty minutes past the starting time, and nothing had started. Why was it that even the younger generation of Indians couldn't be on time? It was so annoying that even twenty minutes past the starting time there were still students arriving at the check-in desk.

I looked up at the check-in desk to see who was holding up the tryouts. I did a double take when I noticed Arjun trying to check in with a very pissed off looking woman holding a clipboard. Wasn't his mom English? He must have gotten the Indian gene on timing.

I moved closer to the check-in desk; the curtains hid me so Arjun couldn't see me.

"Are you here for the tryouts?" a woman with a clipboard asked Arjun.

"Yes, I am. I signed up so my name should be on the list," he said defensively.

"You're late."

"I got lost," Arjun said, although it sounded like a lie.

She arched her perfectly threaded eyebrow at Arjun. She knew he was lying. I covered my mouth so I wouldn't laugh and give myself away.

"You're lucky you're a guy and we're short on guys trying out, I'll let you in."

"Thanks," he said sarcastically.

Ignoring Arjun's attitude, the lady with the clipboard gave instructions in a stern voice, "Here's how the tryouts work, we'll send you in during a song and you'll dance with a partner and when we motion for you to get out you move out and the next dancer comes in. We may call you back to see how you dance to different songs. Got it?"

"We have to improvise?"

"Didn't I just say that?" the annoyed woman asked rhetorically.

"Stand over there and we'll call you when we want you," the annoyed woman continued.

I quickly moved away so Arjun wouldn't see me. There were several women on the other side standing apart from the men. Once on the other side, I looked over to where the men were waiting expecting to see Arjun, but he turned around and looked like he was leaving. I was so disappointed. I watched as he almost bumped into the woman with the clipboard. Before he bumped into her, he turned back around and joined the men. He seemed to look for someone; I hid behind two women. Unsure why, I didn't want him to see me.

After another fifteen minutes, we finally started. The DJ didn't give us a warm-up song and jumped in with Mera Mehoobaba from Sholay, I guess he had to make up for starting late. The first one woman called in to dance looked slutty, just like Helen. Most of the men cheered. She danced longer than her allotted time and the judges were enamored with her too. The next woman wasn't as slutty as the first dancer, so she didn't last long. The third woman came in and danced the tail-end of the song before it changed to the song Ek Do Teen Char from Tezaab. You had to have a Madhuri Dixit song if you were having tryouts for a Bollywood dance troupe.

After her okay performance, they brought in the next dancer. The next one wasn't as good, so she barely lasted 90 seconds. It was no easy task to dance to a Madhuri Dixit song. Doing one of her songs well, was well, a testament to how good of a dancer you were. I watched so intently; it took me by surprise that they called me in to finish out the song.