A week after making it through the first round of auditions, Kiki walked into the designated room at Millennium Studios for the final round. It was eight in the morning, but auditions didn’t start for another hour. A combination of nerves and wanting to get a good stretch in before she danced, had her walking into the room early.
“Guess I’m not the only one.” She muttered under her breath as she took in the crowded room.
Shrugging off the inquisitive looks and sneers from the surrounding dancers, she made her way over to an empty spot against the mirrored walls. Dancing could be a rather cutthroat business when it came to auditions. She was quite familiar with the competitive nature of the profession, having witnessed friends backstabbing each other for a part in a ballet or a position on a dance troupe. Kiki loved the art too much to turn it into something negative by being bitchy or conniving. So she usually kept to herself during auditions and watched her back to avoid getting caught up in any games to eliminate competition.
Suddenly a shadow overcastted her, interrupted her musing. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t my Kiki girl.”
Hearing her nickname that only one person used, her head shot up. “Alex!” She leaped up from the floor and threw her arms around her best friend.
She, Tami and Alex had been the three musketeers, thick as thieves since the two girls met him their freshman year at Stevenson’s. They were always together until Alex, a year ahead of them, graduated and went off to NY to attend Julliard, eventually setting up permanent residence there. Even though they were on opposite sides of the country, the three of them were determined to stay close and Alex made sure that if he wasn’t cast in a production, he came home as much as possible.
Like Tami, Alex was much more than just a best friend to Kiki and her family. While Tami had a mother who neglected her, but Alex’s home life was much worse. Especially when he came out to his family his sophomore year of high school. His father beat the crap out of him and he was kicked out of his family, disowned. Bruised and heartbroken, he went to Kiki’s house for refuge and was welcomed and accepted with open arms. Nina and Frederick took him in, giving him one of the guest rooms and treated him like their own. He eventually asked them to help him get emancipated. They agreed and Frederick represented Alex through the proceedings. The emancipation was granted three months later, sadly without protest from the Velezs.
After his 16th birthday, Alex decided to move out of the Lewis’ house despite everyone’s protest. He had always been an independent person and he wanted his own space. Kiki’s parents helped him find a suitable apartment; however, the places they looked at were too expensive for him to afford with the part time job he had as a waiter, but anything in his price range was deemed unsuitable by Nina. Since no one challenged Nima, Alex agreed to let the Lewises pay his utilities and half the rent on a nice studio apartment they found or else they would make him move back in.
Over time it become a running joke that instead of bringing home stray animals Kiki brought home stray friends. But her parents were fine with welcoming any of their children’s friends into their home. They had plenty of love and support to give to those who needed it.
“Oh my gawd. You asshole you’ve been in town and you didn’t call anyone?” She smacked him in the arm.
“Calm down. I just got in last night. I figured it would be a nice surprise when I showed up here to audition too.” He had submitted a video for the first round because he was out of town working at the time. When they called him for the final audition, they sent him to LA and he wasn’t about to argue with any opportunity to visit home.
She giggled and started bouncing on her toes. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“Isn’t this awesome? We’re gonna be touring together.”
“We gotta make the cut first.” He tilted his head and gave her a “give me a break” look to which she rolled her eyes.
“Wouldn’t it be cool if they partnered us up?”
She perked up even more. “Yeah! We haven’t dance together in years.” She cheesed and wrapped her arms around his body. “I missed you Alex.”
“I missed you too sweetie.”
Their reunion was cut short when the choreographer Marty, and two other judges walked into the room clapping to get everyone’s attention.
“Alright everyone, it’s time to start the final round of auditions. As you all know, we will be picking only five out of the thirty that are here today. You thirty came from over a hundred during the first round, so you gotta step up your game once again if you want to be one of the five chosen.” Alex squeezed Kiki’s hands, signaling his faith that they were going to be two of the five. “We’re going to break you up into six groups of five. Every group’s going to dance together and then each person will perform the routine individually. After your group is done, you are free to go and we will contact you in a matter of days to let you know the results.” He scanned the group of dancers as he talked. “So any questions?” Receiving no response he continued, “ok then let’s get started.”
Kiki’s group had gone before Alex’s, so she waited for him in the lobby. Almost an hour later he came out, cheesing. It was obvious he felt good about his audition. Kiki felt confident about her performance too, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up. The others in her group were definite competition and no doubt those outside her group were good as well.
“That was amazing.” He exclaimed, excitedly. “I know it had to be even better for you since its bee awhile.”
“It was a nice blast from the past and I think I did really well, but the competition was steep.”
“You used to say that all the time and you always ended up being the best to audition.”
“I don’t know, you said it yourself it’s been awhile. I might be a little rusty.”
“Shut up. Stop being so modest.” He pulled her up from the couch she was sitting on. “Come on, let’s go home and we can start getting you packed. I shudder to think about the atrocious outfits that have accumulated in your closet without me around.”
She smacked his stomach as he dragged her out the studio.
A week later, both Kiki and Alex received a call from Marty. In February, they would be going on tour together.
