Rise To Stardom - Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Impromptu Audition
“Ayy~, ayy~, ayy~, ayy~…”

Hearing the sound of his alarm ringing, Kyle tossed and turned around on his bed, using his pillow to block out the phone’s sound.

“Ooh~, ooh~, ooh~, ooh~…”

Once again, Kyle ignored it, pretending as if he didn’t hear it.

“Eyy~, Eyy~…”

Groaning as the phone kept ringing, the young man eventually threw his blanket and pillow aside, opting to finally get out of bed with a woozy expression.

Picking up the phone and seeing the time, his eyes widened in disbelief and his fuzziness cleared up in an instant.

‘8:12am! My cardio!’

Swiftly, Kyle sprung out of bed and made his way over to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, changed outfits and then headed out in the span of a few minutes.

About an hour later, he came back home, a bit tired from the workout.

This time though, he took his sweet time taking his bath, dressing up casually and cooking a delectable meal of fluffy, honey-covered pancakes along with an orange drink.

Today was his cheat day.

Sitting down on his bed, completely free from any jobs today, Kyle was planning to binge-watch a few of his favorite series he’d been unable to catch up on.

‘How about [The Curator]? Hmmm… I did hear that the last few seasons have been terrible’ he thought to himself.

Notwithstanding, Kyle didn’t think too much about it and simply proceeded to watch the show anyway.

It was one of his favorite sci-fi series after all and despite how terribly-written the show and the past few actors playing the titular role of ‘The Curator’ had been, most would still want to jump into the shoes of the character solely due to how much money the actors were paid per episode.

Sighing as he watched the first episode of the ninth season, annoyed at how both the new actor playing the role along with the recent writers and showrunners, seemed to have no real understanding of what made the character and the show so special, Kyle had a groan of dissatisfaction leave his mouth.

Just as he was trudging through the second episode, a frown settling on his visage, a phone call came in.

Seeing that it was Oliver, Kyle quickly picked it up.

“Hey Oliver. What’s up?”

The next few seconds after that, upon hearing what Oliver had to say, the young man promptly got off his bed, changed into a more fitting choice of clothes and then rushed out the door.

* * *

–

Princess Peach: Yeaaa baby! Let’s go!

Alice_In_Wonderland_88: C’mon calendar. Hurry on along already! I’m looking forward to this!

Grove-Street Guy: February 13. I’mma be there fo’ sure!

Ana_MZ_47: Oh I have a good feeling about this one.

N0c: Finally! A new song from Kyle! And there’s going to be a music video too on the same day?! Chef’s kiss man!

WeDoABitOfTrolling: Already waited long enough for this announcement. Now I just need to wait for a week and a half. Should be easy.

Trix Or Treat: My day is made~

The Impostor: Called it, didn’t I?

Mamma Mia: I have such high hopes for this song! I’m sure Kyle will knock it out of the park again!

–

On Kyle’s MediaGram post, one that he had made immediately after the music video shoot at the bar yesterday, there was a simple picture of him singing by the microphone with a caption that wrote; ‘Been working on this for a while now…’, along with the date of the song’s release and its music video.

The post itself had already garnered 2K likes, 40+ comments and a few bookmarks here and there.

Many in his fan group had of course been the first to get top comments while others who commented were mostly casual listeners who followed him after hearing his songs and people who had followed him after the whole meme fiasco.

Regardless of that though, it was obvious that a fairly reasonable number of people were looking forward to his new song and they couldn’t wait for the D-day to finally come around.

* * *

Alighting from the Porsche and dressed in a loosely-fitting navy-blue shirt with the sleeves neatly rolled up, a wristwatch on his hands, along with slim-fitted black jeans and sleek shoes, Kyle stared at the large building before him.

“BlackBox Films…” he couldn’t help but mutter as he stared in awe at the modernly-built forty-feet tall, three-story building which had a 51,700 square feet length, almost the width of a football field.

Walking from the other end of the driver’s side, Oliver, dressed in his pristine three-piece black suit as usual, motioned to Kyle and promptly, they both entered the building.

Meeting up with the receptionist and showing them all the necessary details, both were then directed over to the screening hall where the auditions would be taking place.

On their way over, Oliver had filled Kyle in on everything he needed to know.

Apparently, BlackBox Films were working on a romantic psychological drama, an unusual departure from their action and action-adventure ventures.

The movie was set to tell the story of several individuals struggling with the humdrum, monotony of the urban life, along with the sacrifices and pitfalls that came with the never-ending pursuit of success.

When Kyle had asked why the audition was so impromptu, Oliver had explained to him that most of the cast members had been previously selected without any auditions since the director and the producer helming the project wanted to use as many A-listers as possible.

This of course, came with a bit of an issue when some of the actors they requested for to get cast into certain roles, either weren’t available or just wanted bogus amounts of money, especially for side character roles no less.

As a result, they had resorted to casting new faces for said roles and just like that, spread the news yesterday to as many talent agencies and well-known agents as they possibly could within the short span of time they had.

And although Oliver had gotten the information while scrolling through his emails yesterday evening in the car, he had decided to hold back on burdening Kyle because he wanted him to focus solely on the music video at the time.

That being said, Oliver had still registered him down for the auditions and had opted to give him all that information today after he picked him up from his apartment.

Walking into the hall, where there were already quite a few number of other people here for the auditions, Oliver and Kyle split up as the agents took their seats in the hall while those auditioning were filtered over into the male and female waiting rooms.

The Director and Producer were also currently watching two young aspiring actors, one a male and the other a female performing a scene together.

However, they didn’t seem to be doing a good job of it.

As Kyle walked into the waiting room though, a staff member handed him a very thin script composed of only two pages.

In fact, the second page had only a line or two on it, indicating that it simply spilled over from the very first.

“This is a draft of the scene you’ll be tasked with acting out. Please proceed over to your assigned seat. Don’t forget the number on the seat as it’ll be used to call you up.” the lady bluntly said in a cold tone with no further explanation.

Not that Kyle minded though. She did look very stressed after all.

Moving over to his assigned seat, his [Recollection] skill already in effect, Kyle quickly memorized all the lines in the script.

‘A make-up scene huh…’ he pondered to himself.

“It’s a pretty messy one that eventually devolves into an understanding between both parties though…” he mumbled to himself.

Having gotten a good feel for what he needed to do, Kyle then took the time to focus on understanding the character he was tasked with playing even if there wasn’t anything much to go on about him really.

About twenty minutes passed by and a few more contestants were randomly called up, both male and female each time. It was a scene that required two actors.

Usually, the way auditions went, a staff member in the company would be the one tasked with playing the role or reading the lines of the character the actor who was going to audition, would be acting with.

But, because the Director and Producer seemed to be short on time and just wanted to find actors they could quickly fill in the roles with, they had decided to use this format instead;

Having two of the auditioning actors pair up with themselves.

‘Alright. I think I’ve got this…’

No sooner had Kyle thought of that, he heard his seat number being called.

“No. 27. I repeat, No. 27. Head out to the stage for your auditions!”

Quickly, Kyle stood up from his seat and made his way onstage.

However, upon reaching said stage, his eyes widened in surprise as he watched the other person whom he would be tasked with acting out the scene with, coming out from the other end of the stage.

As the lady also spotted him, her eyes similarly had the same reaction.

‘Lily/Kyle?!’

However, before they could even so much as think of anything else, they heard the sharp, slightly irritated tone of the director, piercing through their ears.

“Quickly. Don’t waste my time. Introduce yourselves.”