Page 13 of Directing You
Chapter 6
Hazel
Being Professor Bradley’sstudent for the past week wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be. I’d only seen him a few more times since that initial class, and I was damn sure not to be late again. If making the professor pay for a party at the end of the semester was the only way I could stick it to him, then by hell, I was going to get to every class early.
I called Noah for the fourth time this week, balancing the coffee tray in my hand and pressing the phone between my ear and shoulder. It went straight to voicemail. Again. I sighed as the message beeped in my ear. “Noah Tripp, you cannot avoid me forever, you pussy. Face the music. Explain yourself. Youhadto know your friend was going to be teaching me. Or, at the very least, working at my university. Call me back.”
I hung up and slipped into Professor Dercy’s office quietly, where she was seated, staring at her computer screen. Silently, I set her Frappuccino on her desk with a glance at the clock on the wall. Eight forty. Plenty of time to get to the auditions for Professor Bradley.
“Thank you, Ms. Stone,” she said, lifting the straw to her mouth and taking a slow, long sip. “How are you enjoying Professor Bradley’s class so far?”
I shrugged. “It’s only the second week, but I like it. It’s cool to get to workshop a show that’s never been done before.” Actors dreamed of getting the chance to create a role like this. It might even be the chance of a lifetime.
“Mm,” she said. “You’re right about that. Don’t waste this opportunity, Hazel.”
She held my gaze with her cold stare and the wordsLike you did last time, hung unspoken between us. “I won’t,” I managed to say despite my dry throat.
Dercy’s mauve-painted lips thinned, pressing into a line as she studied me. “You know I think you’re very talented, right?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. There was a time that Dercy advocated for me at every turn. I auditioned for her when entering the program, and she set me up with student housing and this job to help me finance the classes. When I missed the cutoff to sign up for Professor Lewis’s class, she pulled some strings and got me into it so that I wouldn’t fall behind on my credits. So, yes. I knew that she thought I was talented. But she was also harder on me than any other student I’d seen in the program.
I nodded, finally answering her, although the question itself seemed fairly rhetorical. “I think you see a lot of unused potential in me.” Her exact words from the day Professor Lewis failed me. Even repeating them out loud hurt like slicing a fresh wound on top of an old scar.
She nodded at my words. Not denying them or trying to sugar coat them. In a way, I admired that about her… even if it hurt. “I don’t know why you always seem to get in your own way, Hazel. I’ve never seen someone with so much raw talent succeed in self-sabotage quite like you do.”
“Sometimes it’s notself-sabotage,” I said pointedly. Because if she had just texted me back in the morning, I wouldn’t have been late to my first class with Professor Bradley.
“Careful, Hazel. Scapegoating isn’t a good look on you.”
“And self-sabotageis?”
“Don’t put words into my mouth. All I’m saying is that you have a knack for letting opportunities slip through your fingers.”
I closed my eyes for the briefest moment. I just wanted out of this conversation. She clearly didn’t want answers. She just wanted me to acknowledge my shortcomings. Well, that was definitely something I could do. I shrugged playfully, trying to play down the severity of this conversation. “What can I say? It’s a gift.”
Her mouth twitched into what some might describe to be a smile, but there was a heaviness behind her eyes.
“Well, I really hope you can keep that gift to yourself this semester. It would be nice to see you back on the stage.” A quick vision of myself center stage, half-naked in my Wonka costume flashed in my mind. That clearly wasn’t what she meant.
“And we would be really fortunate here to keep Professor Bradley on as a permanent teacher.”
I felt my brows crease. “I thought he was only filling in for Professor Faith?”
“He was,” she said, seeming disinterested in me once more. “Thank you, Hazel. You better get to class—wouldn’t want to be late again.”
Her eyes shifted back to her computer screen, illuminated by the blue light of her laptop. I turned to leave, and she added, “Break a leg at today’s audition.”
“Thanks,” I murmured, closing her door behind me. I hated that Professor Cockhead was making me audition. Especially since I was pretty sure there were no roles for me in this show. At least none that I wanted. It was a small cast of eight people, half of which were females. There were two prostitutes, an older madam…and the lead was a nun. I was damn sure Professor Bradley didn’t see me as the nun character, even though that was the part that most appealed to me. I was nearly certain I would be reading for one of the prostitutes. It was a show that was clearly written by a man. Four female characters, three of which were sex workers? Yep, sounded about as unique as any other stupid play in this industry.
My phone rang and I dove my hand in my bag, hoping to see Noah’s name on the screen… But it was Rosa. “Hey, Ro,” I said, answering.
“Hey! I didn’t expect you to answer. I just wanted to wish you luck today at your audition.”
I allowed myself to roll my eyes, only because she couldn’t see me. “Thanks,” I said.
“That excited about it, huh?”
I guess my voice gave me away. I was never good at feigning excitement for anything.
