Madison's Secrets?

"My sister..." Brandon trailed off as he realized that Madison wasn't in the small room.

Instead, Mary Moreau, his Literature teacher and one of the top faculty crushes for many students, stared at him with her sparkling blue eyes. Her brain went through several options relatively fast before she settled on the most likely one.

"That's so sweet of you to come and support your sister, Brandon," Mary remarked with a pleased smile while tucking her auburn hair behind one ear. "For a moment, I almost thought you were here to audition. Silly me!"

"I think only a dare or lost bet would get Brandon to do an act like that," another voice commented from inside the room. "But he does like to keep an eye out for his twin," the voice added in a knowing tone.

"Mrs. O'Dell?" Brandon asked as he saw Delilah's look-alike mother sitting on a chair. "What are you doing here?"

"I might not always have the time, but when I do, I like to help out with productions. It reminds me of my high school days on stage," Shayla O'Dell replied. "Surely, you've heard Maddie talk with me about that, Bran."

"I-I don't understand," a befuddled Brandon responded. What's going on here? I thought Mads was fooling around with a guy. Why are these adults here?

"It's great to see you here to support your sister, but you can't do it backstage, Brandon," Ms. Moreau informed him. "You can go out into the auditorium and watch. But please keep quiet until the end of each person's audition. Oh, and you'll need to enter from the other doors out in the hallway."

"Audition?"

"You can sit with Lilah, Bran," Mrs. O'Dell suggested. "She should be out in the upper section of seats."

"Yes, the lower section is for the drama club and any others trying out," Ms. Moreau added. "Now, if you will excuse us, we need to go over some last-minute details."

"Uh, okay," the teenager nodded, still clueless. He reluctantly left the doorway and made his way around the backstage.

Drama club? Auditions? My head hurts.

Making his way back to the side door that he entered, Brandon's confusion caused him to run right into another person. They bounced off each other, and Brandon fell to the floor. Looking up, he saw that it was his friend and teammate.

"Howie?"

"Oh, no!" Howard "Howie" Cline moaned as he saw Brandon. An athletic, muscular football player with short, blond hair and blue eyes, Howie's appearance fit with what people expected an All-American quarterback to look like. Unfortunately, despite his appearance, Howie was quite meek. Not a take-charge type, he was selfless and interested in helping others succeed. A trait that Brandon greatly appreciated and admired.

"What the hell is going on here?" Brandon demanded as he got to his feet.

"Crappity crap! How did you find out?" Howie questioned, his face looking horrified.

"I saw you and my sister! That's how I found out," Brandon snapped.

"Darn it! Does anyone else on the team know? Please, tell me they don't know!" Howie pleaded.

"Not yet, but when they hear—"

"Oh, thank you! I'm already scared enough about humiliating myself out there, and if the guys saw it, I'd be mortified."

"Wait, what?" Brandon questioned. He was talking about Howie and his sister secretly dating, and his friend seemed to be talking about something else.

"I knew this was a horrible idea, but your sister talked me into it."

"Madison talked you into it?"

"We were in class, and she convinced me to give it a try. I don't know why I said yes, but your sister be scary when she wants something," Howie explained. "I thought it might be worth a shot to find a new interest. I might not be playing football next year."

"What?! Why would you not play? It'll be your senior year!" Brandon exclaimed.

"The kid told me it's his team now, and that I wouldn't be welcomed. Said I'm a failure, and he's going to have a new backup," Howie revealed. "If he or Coach doesn't want me around, then I won't cause a problem."

"The kid? Dawson Fox?" Brandon saw his friend nod. That woke him up from his befuddled funk. "Fuck that! You're not getting pushed off the team by that little shit. I'm going to talk to him. It's time he learns that he's not getting handed anything, Fox needs to earn QB1 and respect from his teammates!"

"Um, okay," Howie replied, looking awkward over the fuss.

"Hey, you! You better get out there," a young girl, likely a sophomore, ordered Howie.

"Yeah, okay. I gotta go, Bran!"

"Uh, good luck," Brandon said, but more as a question.

"Following Maddie again?" Delilah questioned after sighing as Brandon slid down the row of seats to reach her.

"Which guy is she secretly running around with?" Brandon asked, dropping into the seat next to her.

The dark-skinned teen stared in minor disbelief at her good friend's brother, before planting her face in her palm. She muttered a few words into her hand, then removed it.

"Brandon, get your head out of your ass," Delilah ordered calmly.

"So, he is here!"

"Br-I...look around for one second! What's going on here?" she asked in exasperation.

"Some acting crap. Why?" Brandon replied, studying each guy on the stage or in the lower section of seats with suspicion. He caught sight of one of his suspects. "What's he doing here?!"

"He's here for the same reason as everyone else, and it's not a grand conspiracy to hide Madison's boyfriend from you and your dad."

"Aha! So there is a secret boyfriend!" Brandon exclaimed, having his triumphant detective moment. "And I bet she met him when you two claimed to be studying on Sunday."

"Brandon, everyone is here because these are the auditions for the new school play," Delilah informed the dense quarterback, waving her hand at the scattered people.

"Auditions?"

"You know, like tryouts."

"I know that the word means, Delilah! But this doesn't make any sense. Mads has been sneaking around with a guy," Brandon insisted. "She's been talking about impressing him with how she looked and acted. I heard her and Ashley talking about it!"

"I'm not saying there isn't a guy that Maddie is interested in, but she's a teenager. We're all interested or have crushes on each other. Hell, I'm interested in a good five guys right now—"

"You are?!" Brandon looked at the teenage girl in shock.

"Interested as in I think they're cute or worth getting to know more but not screwing around with them. You got that?" Delilah explained, with a hard edge to her voice. "I'm sure that even though you're dating Ashley, there are other girls that you find attractive."

"I'm dating Ashley. No one else matters," he asserted with a lying shake of his head.

"Sure, be that way," she replied with a roll of her eyes. Glancing around to make sure that no one near them could hear, Delilah continued. "Look, Maddie's acting secretive because she's planning something for these auditions. After the last play, she finally decided that enough was enough."

"Huh?"

"Brandon, do you ever pay any attention to your sister's life?"

"You know I damn well do! I have to protect her—"

"I don't mean your paranoia about men," Delilah cut him off. "I mean about her interests. Like all this." She waved her hand again toward the growing number of people.

Over on the stage, her mom and Ms. Moreau had appeared and issued orders to several students to rearrange a few pieces of furniture. Next, Ms. Moreau led Mrs. O'Dell over to large painting, where a short, artistic-looking girl stood. Brandon knew the girl, who wouldn't as she was one of a kind with her asymmetrical black pixie hair with green highlights, but he couldn't recall her name off hand. It's something weird!

"Do you remember the play they put for the fall? Of course, you don't. You never even went to see Maddie in it," Delilah answered her own question with a distasteful look on her face.

"I was busy! I don't have time for anything else during football season," Brandon protested. However, he felt increasingly guilty over skipping his sister's last play. I seem to be having this conversation a lot lately. It's not my fault that these plays are boring.

"Keep telling yourself that. The last play they did was The Crucible. So, Maddie wanted a juicier part—wait, you know it's about the Salem witch trials, right?"

"I know that stuff!" Brandon defended himself. Still, the other teenager looked dubious. "Ms. Moreau made us read it this fall in class too."

"Just making sure. So, Maddie wanted to go after one of the lead roles, but the same old shit happened."

"Wait, what happened?"

"Maddie was denied again. That's what happened. She's always forced to settle for minor roles," Delilah reminded him, but Brandon looked surprised.

"I thought that Mads always played the big parts. Doesn't she?"

"Oh, god...don't you ever say that to your sister. You got that? She'll kill you for not knowing," Delilah stated, incredulous at how little he knew about his sister's life. "Those roles are unofficially reserved for the drama club clique."

"She's in the drama club," Madison's brother pointed out.

"Yeah, but Maddie isn't part of the theatre clique. Those are the kids that take this stuff way, way serious, and it's all they do. They look at Madison as if she doesn't take it seriously enough because she played volleyball and joined the cheerleaders."

"That's dumb," Brandon snorted.

"Really? Imagine if one of your starters on the football team also played another sport or acted in a play during the football season. Wouldn't he be accused of not taking football seriously? What if he blew a tackle or fumbled in a game? I bet he would be accused of that," Delilah explained a scenario that might click with the football-obsessed quarterback.

"Yeah, I guess so," Brandon shrugged, but he knew it would be true.

"And I know you have families where fathers expect their sons to be football stars just like they were or wanted to be," Delilah added, knowing one such family was the Coles. "Well, it's the same with school plays and the drama club. The kids in there are multi-generation members. There's a reason why the term stage parent is popular to use."

"But it's just a dumb school play," Brandon chuckled. A swift elbow to his ribs stopped him.

"Not to these people. They'd say the same about a dumb game of football," Delilah explained. "You need to understand that there's a whole different world from yours in this school. Many worlds, in fact."

"Um, okay." Brandon didn't want to show it, but her sharp elbow hurt. "How do you know so much? You're not in the drama club."

"No, but one of my best friends is in it." Delilah couldn't believe the dumbfounded look he gave her. "Your sister, you dummy!"

"Oh, right, right."

"And my mom used to perform in them. I never had an interest, but Maddie's experiences are similar to what my mom went through. She was a cheerleader too, and the kids back then had the same opinions about her not taking the plays seriously enough," Delilah revealed. "It was bullshit then, and it's bullshit now. Mom and Maddie never, ever take acting and their roles in plays lightly."

"Yeah, I thought I remember your mom talking about movies and actors with Mads a few times," Brandon recalled.

"And I know she's helped influence what Maddie hopes will happen this afternoon and tomorrow."

"That's for my sister to get the lead role?"

"Brandon, it's so much more than that. She's hoping to cause chaos," Delilah's commented intrigued him. "Ever since last year when Ms. Moreau took over the drama club and overseeing school plays, she's worked to encourage more students to try acting. She wants to diversify the lead roles by bringing in new faces. It's made her very unpopular, but your sister has embraced it."

"Wait a minute! Everyone loves Ms. Moreau, and it's not just because she's hot. She's smart and sweet," Brandon argued.

"Yes, she is one of the best teachers. But when it comes to this stuff, Ms. Moreau is rocking the boat. A number of drama club members resent her for it, and even more of their parents. There are a small number of theatre families that exert influence on school plays around here. Think of them like your football boosters. She's dealt with waves of complaints, and has found it increasingly difficult to get help with the plays from those families."

"But, Ms. Moreau is pretty awesome," Brandon defended his teacher. "And what help do they need for plays?"

"A lot more than you would think, even for a small school play. They sometimes need furniture or other stuff for sets. Then they need costumes. Those can get pricey when you add up all the cast. That's why the school often does the same plays every other year or two. The longtime theatre families want their relatives or friends' relatives to have all the starring roles. Because of Ms. Moreau's efforts to bring in new blood, they've cut off donations, and basically blackballed the last fundraiser. My mom is one of the few ex-drama club members who's supported Ms. Moreau. She helped bring Madison into the idea."

"What's my sister up to?"

"She's been recruiting people who have never tried acting before. Some might have been interested but were turned off by the politics of the drama club. Or they've never even considered it before. Maddie has been amazing. Look at everyone. This is at least double the number of students that usually audition. It might end up triple the number. And they've brought friends that might be interested. Those curious friends might end up playing extras. That's something the plays are usually hard-pressed to find. And Ms. Moreu purposely picked a play that would require more speaking roles."

"That's why Howie is here, and what he meant when he said that Madison talked him into it," Brandon said, the light bulb going off in his brain.

"Yeah, Maddie's brought people in from every corner of the school. Your sister might know more people in the school than anyone. You're going to be surprised with some of the faces you'll see very soon," Delilah teased.

"I doubt any guys I know will be here," Brandon blew off her tease.

"Oh, really? You don't think hanging out with a bunch of hot girls can entice guys to give it a try?" Delilah raised her eyebrows at him.

"Hot girls? I doubt that."

"Sure, Lux and Jessalyn alone tend to bring out the male audience. And The Crucible back in October turned out to have some of the largest crowds for a school play in years. That was partly based on how the director encouraged the actresses to vamp it up. Lux played a sultry enough Abigail Williams that even the Hester Goodley complained that the play was tempting innocent children with its sinful ways."

"Really?" Brandon's interest in the tryouts grew considerably. "Where are they?" he asked, scanning the group.

"Backstage. All the people going for the lead roles are back there prepping. Tristan Ritt is probably a lock for the main male role, as always. And Alfie Fewings will pick out the villain or more complicated male role, and demand it. Usually, Lux Chaumont and Jessalyn Granmeyer fight over the lead actress spot with the other handling the second lead. That's where Maddie is hoping to shake it up."

"Wha—who...who are these people?" Brandon questioned in utter confusion. There were so many strange faces near the front of the auditorium that he felt like he walked into a different school.

"Oh, Bran, welcome to another side of Azure Rocks High," Delilah teased as his Ms. Moreau walked back out onto the stage with a microphone in her hand.