Teen Idol by Meg Cabot Read Free Book Online Page A

was pretty tall, over six feet—and practically melted into a puddle right in front of him.
    "Why," she said, in a voice I’d never heard her use before. "Yes. That’s me."
    "Nice to meet you," Luke said. "So what’s the theater department like here? Is it any good?"
    I wanted to elbow Luke and be all,
Cool it on the theater stuff
, because I was afraid Trina would make the connection—Lucas Smith . . . theater . . .
Luke Striker
.
    But I guess I overestimated Trina’s obsession with the guy, since she just started going off about how it was a shame he’d transferred too late to audition for the spring musical and how the local paper had called her portrayal of Auntie Mame "inspired" and how lucky Lucas was that Mr. Hall had let him into Troubadours at all, that the audition process had been really arduous. . . .
    Which made me wonder how Dr. Lewis had worked that—talked Mr. Hall into letting a guy who hadn’t even auditioned into his precious show choir, I mean—and if Mr. Hall had maybe been let in on the truth. Although it’s true that Mr. Hall is pretty exasperated with the tenors. Kind of like he is with my dancing.
    It was at this point that Steve—the baritone who is so in love with Trina that he willingly sits through whole romantic comedies at the mall’s cineplex just so he can be close to her for ninety minutes—came up to us.
    "Hey," he said. Steve is kind of on the skinny side, with a sticky-outy Adam’s apple. When he gets nervous, that Adam’s apple bobs up and down. It was bobbing like crazy as he came up to Trina and Luke. "What’s up?"
    "Oh, hi, Steve," Trina said in an offhand way "This is Lucas "
    "Hi," Steve said to Luke.
    "Hey, man," Luke said back, outcooling Steve with just two words and a nod. Poor Steve!
    "All right, people!" Mr. Hall came out of his office, which was attached to the choir room, and clapped his hands. "Seats, please. Take your seats!" Then his gaze fell on Luke. "You. Who are you?"
    It was kind of funny to see him meet Luke Striker. It was obvious now that Mr. Hall had no idea who he was being introduced to.
    But I mean, here was this guy who was a real actor—had made millions at it—and then here was Mr. Hall, who had told us that he used to work on Broadway, but who now directed a high school choir in southern Indiana.
    And yet the choir director was acting way snottier than the actor. Mr. Hall immediately started going off about how he’d gotten the memo about Luke and all, but that he really resented the assumption on the part of the administration that just anybody could be a Troubadour, and that Luke (Lucas) should have had to audition like everybody else, and that Mr. Hall didn’t see why he should let him in without one, just because it was so late in the school year.
    Luke didn’t so much as blink an eye. Probably because he’s used to directors and their absurd demands and all. He just went, "Oh, don’t worry, sir, I’ll just observe until I catch on."
    I think it was the
sir
that really did the trick. Just like Trina, Mr. Hall was instantly charmed. He even let Luke sit by the accompanist and turn pages.
    I have to admit, I was pretty impressed at how Luke had buttered up Mr. Hall.
    But I didn’t have a whole lot of time during fourth period to think about Luke. That’s because Mr. Hall made us run through our Luers program three whole times. I mean, we had to stand up and do the arm movements and everything. It bummed me out that I couldn’t hide behind Karen Sue Walters’s hair and read anymore. It bummed me out even more that the arm motions were really complicated and hard to remember, and that I kept messing up and Mr. Hall kept yelling at me.
    "You’re behind, Miss Greenley!" and "Stop sloughing off, Jenny!" was all I heard all class period.
    Trina was really making me sweat it for those extracurricular points, let me tell you.
    We altos don’t have it as bad as the sopranos, though. They actually have to DANCE. With HATS. Seriously.