THEN YOU LOOK AT ME
Chapter One

Spokane, Washington
June 1, 2000

Rose DeWitt-Bukater, eighteen, stepped out of her silver Honda Accord and stared at the building in front of her. She smiled when she thought what would happen the moment she walked inside. Tryouts for "Romeo and Juliet" were today, and Rose was all set to become the star of the famous play. Since she had found out that her drama school was going to be holding auditions for the play they were going to perform at the end of the summer, Rose had been busy learning and perfecting every single line of Juliet’s in the play. Most of her friends thought she was crazy for getting so excited over Shakespeare, but Rose didn’t care. She was glad school had let out the week before and that she now had the entire summer to focus on acting. Rose had been one of the forty-two students who had graduated from Gonzaga Prep, a very private (and expensive) high school located in Spokane. She and her mother, Ruth, had lived in Spokane ever since Rose’s father had died back in 1994. For those past six years, Rose had been a student not only at private schools, but also at the Warehouse Theater, a very highly recommended drama school. Sighing happily, Rose grabbed her purse and shut the driver’s side door. She felt like she was in heaven as she walked through the big glass doors and into the entryway of school. Practically skipping, Rose found her way into the theater, where about three dozen other people were already seated in the plush deep-purple seats. She sat down in the back of theater and looked at the stage. The curtains were up, but other than that, the stage was bare. Rose watched as a few other people, mostly teens and young adults, filtered into the theater and took their sets. A few minutes later, two of the acting coaches walked in and stood on the stage.

"I would like to have everyone’s attention!" Mr. Lawrence, one of the best male acting coaches around, shouted, getting everyone’s attention immediately. "Thank you," he said, after all the talking had stopped. "Now, I assume all of you are here to try out for Romeo and Juliet. Now, this is how this audition is going to work. Mrs. Lewis and I will give you a script and you will read a section for us. We will start with the least famous parts, working our way up to those people trying out for Juliet and Romeo. Now, would the people trying out for the following please stay. Extra Capulets and Montagues, Arba, the watchmen…" Mr. Lawrence went on to read the other parts, calling people for about seven parts in all. "Would all those not trying out for these parts please wait in the cast room below the stage until we are ready for you to audition."

About half the people got up and left, all filing down into the cast room. The cast room was a place where the actors could get dressed, put on their make-up, fix their hair, do whatever before their turn to go on. Set up in one corner of the room was an intercom, where the actors and actresses could hear what was going on out on stage so they wouldn’t miss their cue. That, of course, was not on right now. Rose sat down at one of the many vanities and looked in the mirror, making sure her hair was all in place.

"Hey, Rose!" a voice behind her said suddenly. Rose turned and saw a girl from her old drama class coming up and sitting next to her.

"Hi, Linda," Rose said, happily, as she looked at the short girl. Linda was the only person she knew here besides Mr. Lawrence and Mrs. Lewis. "What are you trying out for?" she asked.

Linda smiled. "Only the nurse. Let me guess, you wanna be Juliet?"

Rose laughed. "Yep. Why don’t you try out for the part, too? You’re very good at reciting Shakespeare."

This time, Linda laughed. "Are you kidding? Me play the most famous girl of all time, from the most famous couple, of the most famous play of all time? Ha, that’s funny. Besides, with people like you and Mary Anne Whitmore trying out, I don’t have a chance in hell."

Rose winced when she heard Mary Anne was trying out. She hadn’t seen her here yet, and was hoping she wouldn’t be here at all. Mary Anne Whitmore was one of the best actresses in Spokane. She had starred in Hamlet, Chicago, West Side Story, and about ten different other plays that the Warehouse Theater had put on in the past five years. Mary Anne had this long brownish-blond hair with these fabulous brown eyes. The only thing that most people didn’t know about Miss Whitmore, though, was the fact that she was snob. A mean, non-caring, selfish little snob that people only liked for her acting. In fact, most people didn’t see the nasty side of Mary Anne. When she was out on stage she was as sweet and caring as an angel was, but when you really got to know Mary Anne, you learned to stay away from her quick.

"Is Mary Anne here?" Rose asked worriedly.

Linda nodded gravely. "Sorry, babe. I say her walk in at the last minute."

Rose sighed. "Great. There goes my chance at Juliet."

Linda laughed. "Rose! Geez, you’re a wonderful actress! You can beat Mary Anne. Just believe you can and you will."

Rose looked at Linda, and smiled. "Maybe you’re right," she said, sighing.

Rose and Linda chatted for a little while longer, until the people trying out for the nurse were called up. Linda said good-bye and then left, with Rose calling ‘good luck’ after her. It was not a minute after Linda left when someone sat down next to Rose.

"Hello, Rose," a syrupy voice said. Rose mentally groaned, as she looked Mary Anne in the face.

"Hi, Mary Anne," she said in the nicest voice she could muster right now.

"So, who are you trying out for? Lady Capulet?" Mary Anne asked, laughing at what she had thought was a joke.

"Ah, no. I am gonna try out for Juliet," Rose said, getting madder and madder at Mary Anne by the second.

Mary Anne sighed. "Oh, come on, Rose. Why are you even trying out when you know they’ll pick me?"

Rose gave Mary Anne an evil look. Her patience was getting very thin. "Because I want to, Mary Anne."

Mary Anne laughed. "Okay. Yeah. Whatever. I’m going to go talk to the boys trying out for Romeo now. I’ll be sure to wave to you from stage when you’re sitting out in the audience on performance night."

"Gee, thanks," Rose called.

Mary Anne turned and gave Rose a nasty look before she joined a group of boys. Rose shook her head and sighed. She really hated Mary Anne. She closed her eyes and tried to think of other things. Mentally, Rose went over all of her lines that she was saying for the audition. She had decided to do the scene where Juliet finds out Romeo is dead. It was dramatic, there were some wonderful lines, and it was short and sweet basically. Plus, Rose could do this scene really well. Even her friend Sara, who didn’t like Shakespeare that much, had tears in her eyes when she watched Rose perform the scene yesterday. Finally, it was time for the Juliet girls to try out. Rose, Mary Anne, and two other girls filed onto the stage and stood in front of Mr. Lawrence and Mrs. Lewis.

"Okay," Mrs. Lewis said from her seat in the audience. "I would like the brunette. What’s your name?"

A tall girl stepped forward. "My name is Summer Jacobs."

Mrs. Lewis smiled. "Okay, Summer. You go first, you…what is your name?"

"Windy Carlyle," a petite girl with honey blond hair said.

"Okay, Summer first, Windy second, and Rose, I know you." Mrs. Lewis paused. "Ah, go third. And Mary Anne will go last. Now, will everyone but Summer please wait off stage."

Rose, Mary Anne, and Windy all walked backstage, watching Summer introduce herself and then start performing. She was okay, but she sounded like she was just reading the words, not actually acting them. Finally, she was finished, and Windy went on. Windy was no better than Summer, although she did move around a lot more. Rose nervously bit her lips while she waited for Windy to finish. She took several deep breaths to calm herself and closed her eyes again, focusing on the words she had memorized.

"Gee, you’re not…nervous, are you Rose?"

Mary Anne’s teasing voice came through her thoughts, and Rose sighed. This was just what she needed. She turned around and looked at Mary Anne. "No," Rose lied. "I am not. I just want everything to be perfect, that’s all."

Mary Anne laughed. "That’s a good one, Rose. Perfect? Your acting? Ha, that’s funny."

Rose gave Mary Anne a nasty look, and then turned back around. Before she knew it, Windy was finished and Rose was called out. She took another deep breath and then walked out on stage.

"Hello, Rose," Mrs. Lewis said politely.

"Hello," Rose said back. She had Mrs. Lewis for an acting coach a few years ago and she was one of her favorites.

"Now, would you like us to give you a scene, or do you have one prepared?" Mr. Lawrence asked, smiling at her.

"I have one prepared," Rose answered.

"Okay, then. Go ahead and start when you're ready," Mrs. Lewis said, flipping to a new page in her notebook.

Rose stepped forward, and with a stage voice said, "Hello. My name is Rose DeWitt-Bukater. I am eighteen years old, and I am going to recite Juliet’s, ah, death scene."

Mrs. Lewis and Mr. Lawrence both nodded, and Mrs. Lewis wrote something down on her paper. Rose took a deep breath, and then started her lines.

"What’s here? A cup closed in my true love's hand?" After those sentences were spoken, all of Rose’s worries went away. She remembered why she loved to act and forgot about everything around her. "Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end," she spoke emotionally, real tears glistening in her eyes. Visions from this scene in the movie came back to her and she almost started crying. She finished her speech by holding an imaginary dagger to her chest and pretending to force it into her body. Rose fell to the stage in a dramatic heap and lay still for a moment. She wasn’t ready for the clapping that suddenly came from the audience, and brought herself up.

"Wonderful!" Mr. Lawrence exclaimed. Rose smiled and stood all the way up.

"Beautiful job, Rose," Mrs. Lewis said, smiling at her.

"Thank you," Rose said, happily. She knew she couldn’t have done better and was happy with her performance.

"Thank you," Mr. Lawrence said. "Will you please have Mary Anne come out when you leave?"

Rose nodded and smiled one last smile at her audience before walking off stage. "You can go now, Mary Anne," she said politely, as sat down backstage.

Mary Anne shot Rose a dirty look and then tramped out onto the stage. Rose watched as Mary Anne started her lines. The way she started acting shocked Rose. She was not doing as well as she usually did. In fact, Mary Anne was doing horrible. Rose stood there, shocked, as she watched Mary Anne. Maybe she did have a chance at this part. After a minute, Mary Anne was finished and walked off stage. Rose watched, shocked, as Mary Anne left the room. She actually did badly on her audition. Rose felt like laughing as she walked back down to the cast room. Mary Anne Whitmore, miss high and mighty, miss lead in all the plays, had actually acted like a slob. Rose sat down dreamily in a free chair downstairs and watched the people talk. A minute later, the last set of people trying out, the guys trying out for Romeo, went up to audition. Rose watched as the three hopeful boys went upstairs. Except for one, none of them were cute. The only one that was cute, and that was from the back, was a blond boy who looked a little taller then herself. That was the only thing she could tell about him. Rose sighed and turned her attention to Mary Anne, who was now standing in a corner. She had a look of satisfaction on her face that Rose couldn’t believe she was seeing. She mentally laughed. Today was turning out better then she had hoped. Rose suddenly heard her cell phone ring, causing her to draw her attention away from Mary Anne for a moment. She picked it up out of her bag and pressed the ‘yes’ button.

"Hello?" she asked, holding the phone to her ear.

"Rose?"

Rose sighed. She instantly knew who it was. Cal Hockley from school. He had been bugging Rose to go out on a date since the tenth grade, and now Rose was sorry she had ever given him her cell phone number. At least at home she could see who was calling on the caller ID.

"Yeah, Cal, what do you want?" she asked.

"Where are you? It sounds noisy," Cal asked over the phone.

"I’m at an audition, Cal," Rose answered dryly. She heard Cal sigh.

"Rose, why do you waste your time at those when you could be doing more important things? Like going out with me."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Because it's more fun then going anywhere with you, Cal," she answered, before pressing the ‘no’ button, cutting off Cal.

She had just put her phone back away, when Mr. Lawrence and Mrs. Lewis came down the stairs. Rose hadn’t even noticed that the Romeos had already come back down and were sitting on counter tops, talking to girls.

"Okay, everyone!" Mr. Lawrence shouted above the noise. People quieted down real fast when they saw who was there. "Thank you," Mr. Lawrence said. "Now, Mrs. Lewis and I have already chosen who we want to be our actors and actresses. To all of you who didn’t make it, you did a wonderful job. And please come back and try out for another play because you all have talent. Now, there is going to be an understudy for each main person. Understudies, please know all of your character's lines! This is very important. I have had understudies go on before that didn’t think they would need to know the lines and they screwed up the whole play. Now, I am going to turn the floor over to Mrs. Lewis, who will read off names."

Rose listened intently as Mrs. Lewis began to read off the names of people who had made the play. With each name, Rose grew more and more anxious. When Linda got the part of the nurse, it made Rose want the part even more. It would be fun to have Linda be her nurse. Suddenly, before Rose knew it, there were only two more parts to be announced, Romeo and Juliet. She listened as some guy named Jack got the part of Romeo, with some guy named Tommy getting the understudy role. Finally, it was time for the part of Juliet to be announced. Rose felt her heart start to race, and she took a deep breath. This was it. In a minute she would find out if she would have the role of her dreams.

"And the part of Juliet goes to…" Mrs. Lewis said, drawing out the answer. In the second before the name was announced, Rose saw Mary Anne give her a look and then start to walk up as if she were going to give a speech. "…Rose DeWitt-Bukater. Her understudy will be Windy Carlyle."

Rose felt tears come her eyes. She had gotten the part! She had beat Mary Anne! Mary Anne wasn’t even the understudy! Rose suddenly felt weak and sat down in a nearby chair, in total shock. She had gotten the part! Rose saw Mary Anne run up to Mrs. Lewis and then was aware of Windy coming up to talk to her. But she barely listened. All Rose could think about was the fact that she had actually gotten the part!

Chapter Two
Stories