Tompkin's School (For The Extraordinarily Talented Book 1) by Tabi Slick Read Free Book Online Page A

resentfully glared at me from the pages of his book.
    “Yeah,” he said, looking away from me and pointedly setting aside his book as he took a single bite of food.
    He was getting on my last nerve. I felt a headache coming on and I rolled my eyes. Thankfully I had brought some pain-killers with me because I didn’t want some migraine ruining my audition. No one else seemed to notice Kain’s reaction, or my own for that matter, and so the conversation continued.
    What was going on with Kain? It was weird to see him around actual jocks, although he was reading a book. But for some reason he seemed to fit in with Lee and the rest of them, despite his odd quirks.
    Just then Leslie and a few other girls walked up to our table.
    “Hey, you girls better get ready,” Leslie said, “auditions will be starting soon. We’ll be meeting in the auditorium.”
    “See you there!” Kia replied, excitedly turning to me, “Come on, let’s go to the dorm and practice a bit beforehand. See you guys later! Oh, let me know about that party.”
    “What party?” I asked.
    “Our parents have a cabin at the Arbuckle Lake,” Laurent explained, “we always throw a party, usually a few weeks into the school year.”
    “You should come with us,” Lee suggested.
    “Sure,” I smiled.
    “We’ll be there,” Kia said, taking my arm, “but we’re going to be late if we don’t go now.”
    We said our goodbyes and ran back to the dorms just in time to practice our monologues a bit and then head to auditions.
    We entered the auditorium about ten minutes early only to find the room crowded with other students. I had no idea that the drama club here was so popular, but then again it was a pretty big school. Ms. Morgan took the stage and, after welcoming us, introduced the judging panel which included herself, the president Leslie Cabrera, a guy named Addison who was the treasurer, as well as a few others. Then the endless auditions began as we watched act after act. Some were pretty good, but others were just awful. Soon I was up and I felt the butterflies kick in. Why was I nervous? I had done this act so many times before. It was my best one!
    As soon as I got to the stage I got into character. I took myself to a place of emotion and got swept up into everything. I was completely mesmerized, a feeling of security and chaos took over and I was no longer Izara from New York. I was Serena from Gossip Girl or even Viola from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. I could be anyone I wanted to be without a care in the world.
    All too soon it was over and day one of auditions was over and we were notified that we would find out who would be returning for the second day of auditions in the morning.
    “How do you think day one went?” I asked Kia on our way back.
    “I’m pretty sure we’ll both be at the second tryout,” she said, confidently, "I’m exhausted now!”
    “Me too,” I laughed.
     
    ‡‡‡
     
    Thursday and Friday went by without much happening. Tryouts were soon over and now we were just waiting for the final results to be posted the following Monday morning. Kain had officially decided to join the basketball team, figuring it was his best option. It was also our first official weekend at school and Lee suggested that we spend it by going to the town and seeing the sights. I had no idea what kind of fun could be had around here, but I had nothing better to do so I figured why not? Kia and I were just about to leave our room when my phone started ringing.
    “It’s Lee," I said, answering the call.
    ⎼ “ Hey, you might want to bring a suit ,” Lee said over phone, “ we might go swimming. ”
    ⎼“Sounds great,” I replied, “we’ll meet you at the cars.”
    ⎼ “ See ya, ” he said, hanging up the phone.
    “What’d he say?” Kia asked, standing by the door.
    “We need to bring swimwear,” I shrugged.
    We grabbed our things, put them into a beach bag and rushed out to meet the group. When we arrived, the