One Step Closer to What I Want | Shara

[Sophia Lopez]

Sophia couldn’t believe the luck she had gotten. She had done her audition to become Tracey for the musical a month ago and she had been selected for the role! It was amazing but also, she knew how it was to be fat and she could be a great dancer when she wanted for it was what kept her back on tract. Maybe it was her history talent that have them to pick her for the role. But either way, it was the best thing that could happen to one and a first step for her to become famous and to get to talk about her causes for nature and animals’ safety.

She didn’t bother to look at who was actually going to be Link at this point. She wanted to tell the good news to her friend as she knew that she had been selected too. She walked into her dorm bouncing around happily. She was sharing the room with Shara so she was expecting her to be around. “Shara?” She asked unable to contain her joy. “Guess who’s being the female lead of the musical!!!” she exclaimed happily.

She bounced around and tossed her purse onto the floor. Music was as great as animals were and that was why she was having a double major to become a veterinarian if she couldn’t get famous in the musical world. Her luck seemed to be on her good side so far and she was enjoying it greatly.

[Shara Turner]

Shara's last class had ended a bit before Sophia's, so after leaving her theatre class with the news that she'd gotten the role of Penny in the upcoming production of "Hairspray", she had gone back to her dorm to take a shower and just relax. She had no more than gotten dressed in some more comfortable clothes and began to brush her hair when her friend and roommate, Sophia, came bursting into the room looking very excited. "What?" she was barely able to get out, for Sophia barely paused before continuing on with the big news.

Tracy, huh? That sure was exciting! Shara was very happy for her friend, albeit a bit - but only a bit - jealous of the role her friend had attained. After all, Shara was the actress, and not Sophia. But then again, musicals focused more so on music than the actual acting within them, so it wasn't surprising. But Shara wouldn't let a bit of jealousy get the better of her, as she was proud of her friend and she had got a major role, even though she didn't get the main role. Besides, this meant that they'd have fun doing the musical together! Maybe Shara would be able to help Sophia and give her lots of good tips!

"That's awesome!" she cheered, hugging her friend. "I'm so happy for you! This is going to be so much fun! I got the role of Penny, by the way." the last sentence was a bit less excited sounding than the others, but nonetheless, she was excited and couldn't wait for the first rehearsal.

[Sophia Lopez]

Sophia was having trouble containing her joy at this point. She rarely bragged but when she did, it was because she was having extremely good news and this one was considered as one of them. Her smile turned into a huge grin as she finally saw her friend who came out of the bathroom. It was also however at that moment she realized that her friend too tried out for the production of Hairspray and that she was probably aiming for the role of Tracy Turnblad. Oh god…what a horrible friend she was being! She was turning into the person she disliked the most!

She shook her head, still happy that her friend got an important role which was the role of Penny. She had watched the movie and knew that it would be a perfect fit for Shara. She was also excited to get to spend time with her closest friend. Not only would they see each other in the dorm often but they’d also see each other in the rehearsals. It was great that they would get to act as friends too! She giggled at the thought and returned the hug Shara gave her.

“Hun, even the play was written for us as we have to act like best friends! It wouldn’t be too hard for us isn’t it?” she asked with a small smile. “I’m sorry I got the role and not you, you have more experience in the acting matters.” She added. She really felt bad about it as she had a heart.

“But I still think that, after watching the movie, you would be an amazing Penny!” she exclaimed clasping her head together. “Let’s just hope my Link will be good looking enough so I won’t have trouble hitting on him.” She said with a joking voice tone.

[Shara Turner]

What a coincidence that they'd be playing best friends on the stage too! "It definitely was!" grinned Shara when Sophia talked about their roles. She shook her head- it definitely wouldn't be hard for them to 'act' like best friends at all, considering that they already were. It'd be a ton of fun! Shara was excited to finally get Sophia on the stage alongside her.

Shara hadn't meant to make Sophia feel bad about getting such a great role - the main role! She felt bad, her friend should be excited about it, not sad because Shara didn't get the role! Shara always got leads or at least main parts. She could bear to give this one up to her best friend. "No, don't worry about it! I didn't mean to make you feel bad about it! I'm glad you got the role, it's perfect for you." she said truthfully. The more she thought about it, the more she understood the director's casting choices. "Thanks!" she added when Sophia told her she'd make an amazing Penny. "I hope so!" truth be told, she was excited about the role. Penny was her favourite character from the movie, so hopefully she'd be able to live up to the part and do it justice.

Sophia mentioned the part of Link. Now it just so happened that Shara knew who was playing Link- her director showed her the entire cast list that afternoon in class when she'd been told about playing Penny, but at that time, the director hadn't quite decided (or written down, at least) on the role of Tracy, so that was the only one that Shara hadn't known about. How ironic was it that it'd be Sophia! Shara winked at her friend, saying, "Oh don't you worry, they've picked the perfect Link. Couldn't have possibly found a better one if they'd tried." Shara firmly believed this - she agreed one hundred percent with the director's choices, especially the one for Link. For obvious reasons, of course.

[Sophia Lopez]

Sophia was like that sometimes, when things took her at heart, she worried about them first and less about the people she cared about. Yes, she was a bit selfish but the cause she was fighting for were selfless. Going on the same production as her best friend was going to be exciting and she was happy that she had even gotten a lead role despite the fact that she was a freshman. It simply proved her that she had talent and that she was actually closer to the dream she had. Becoming famous to talk of her cause was going to be the perfect opportunity.

She smiled at Shara when she reassured her that she shouldn’t be worry about her being disappointed. She didn’t blame her though. She nodded and giggled. “Don’t hope, you have to know you have talent and be confident about it!” she exclaimed with a smile. “I know I can sing and nothing and no one will get me away from my dream.” She said happily. “you know you can act and I know you’ll be the most amazing Penny we haven’t seen in ages.” She added attempting to be cheerful and to give some pep talk to her friend.

She looked at her friend curiously however when she gave her a few dibs about the mysterious Link she would have. Did she know something she didn’t? She tilted her head to the side slightly and nudged her friend. “You know something I don’t.” she began resting a finger onto her mouth. “Who is Link? I’m sure you know!” She exclaimed then pointing an accusing finger at her friend’s face. “Can’t you tell me? Is he gorgeous? Oh gosh… I have to make sure I don’t look horrible!” She said beginning to worry about her appearance. She was really touchy about it, considering the bullies she had to go through back then, she didn’t want to live that again, even if she had now blossomed into a pretty flower. She still doubted herself at times.

[Shara Turner]

Honestly, Sophia was the best friend Shara could have asked for. She always knew what to say when Shara needed it, and they helped each other out. Of course Shara was confident in her acting abilities - heck, it came naturally to her at this point, or really, it always had, but even more so now - but when it came to playing a character she was familiar with and had as a favourite, like Penny, she always tended to doubt herself a bit more. But hearing Sophia's little pep talk did help quite a bit, and she felt much better. "Thanks! You're gonna be amazing too. We'll knock their socks off! This is gonna be the best production ever! We have an absolutely perfect cast."

When Sophia questioned Shara's knowledge of Link's actor, Shara just smiled. Instead of answering, she merely gave a sly wink and said teasingly, "Of course I know who's playing him. The director told me the whole cast list except for you earlier today in class. I'm always the first to know if I'm around when there's something to tell." she was quite proud of how close she had become with the director even though she was just a freshman. She could even say she was the class favourite, if it was possible. The director and drama teacher was very encouraged by Shara's passion and perseverance in the subject.

"You won't look horrible, you're beautiful. I mean, I suppose they might put makeup or a costume on you to MAKE you look horrible, but that wouldn't be your fault. I'm not sure what we're doing for designs quite yet actually... we're probably gonna start working on them tomorrow." mused Shara. She knew that her friend was still a bit self conscious when it came to appearance from time to time, and she did all she could to remind Sophia how beautiful she now was.

[Sophia Lopez]

Sophia smiled happily at her friend’s encouragement. Of course, they were going to be an amazing cast! Who could be best at playing best friends than they were? She was confident on the fact that they would easily nail that credibility. She just hoped that she would be good enough to do the same with her Link. What if she ended up with someone she couldn’t get along at all with? That would be horrible but of course, not all actors were jerks and assholes. She had to tell herself that. “Of course! We are perfect in every way, there’s no doubts on why they picked us!” She added with a joking wink.

She frowned however when Shara winked back at her and remained the secret of the one who was going to play Link. How unfair of her! They were best friends and she thought they weren’t going to hold back any secret to each other! Yet, she remained stubborn about her match and was quite disappointed about it. “But I’m your best frienddd…” she complained giving puppy dog eyes to her friend in hope that she would give away what she wanted to know. She hoped that it would work but she knew deep down that when Shara was keeping a secret she never told it to a living soul. She was awesome that way.

She gave a small smile at her friend as she gave her the pep talk back about her appearance and nodded. “I hope so and at least I know how it is to be…different.” She added matter of factly. Even if it was a dark event of her past, she knew that it was the best thing that could have happened to her especially considering that she was taking the role of someone who used to be like her.

[Shara Turner]

Perfect in every way indeed. Shara hadn't been this excited about a role in ages! No more than hte average amount of excitement she got every time she was in a play, anyway. She nodded excitedly as Sophia commented on their 'perfection'.

Shara felt kind of bad for keeping the information from Sophia, but she wanted her to be surprised! After all, she was the only one who knew the full cast list, and she wanted to keep it that way until the first rehearsal and meet-up of the cast, which was to be the following day after classes were over. She merely smiled 'innocently' at Sophia as her friend continued to beg for the information, and shook her head teasingly. "Nope, I'm not telling. You'll just have to wait 'till tomorrow at rehearsal! All I'm gonna say is, even though playing Penny will be fun... if you decide to drop outta this role, I'd have no problem filling in for you during the kiss scene." she winked at Sophia, for it was quite true- though that wouldn't hold true and she certainly wouldn't want to take the role away from her best friend, if Sophia had needed an understudy, she'd be happy to fill in. Especially during that scene or any scene with their Link.

Shara gave Sophia a quick, reassuring hug as she talked of her role and being able to relate to it. "That's why you're perfect for it! No one could possibly be a better Tracy than you." she said encouragingly, knowing the truth of her words and hoping that it got through to Sophia. "Not even me!" she added jokingly, though she did believe it. There was some merit in having common traits with the character you were playing, that was for sure.

[Sophia Lopez]

To know that Shara knew the entire cast made Sophia frown a little. She wanted to know too! But she also knew that Shara was the one who was in a drama major. She had a minor in music and not acting so it was normal for her to know while she was just part of the cast. She knew that Shara would become an amazing actress though, especially if she was going to be able to pull off the role of Penny. This was going to be so exciting.

She listened to Shara as she gave her the little dibs on who was going to be her Link. What? That handsome? She was excited to actually see him. She knew that they would probably just end up being friends on the best line but at least, if she was going to kiss someone cute…even if it was going to be her first kiss, she wouldn’t have too many regrets about it. She pouted at Shara as she talked about the kissing scene. “Nuh-uh, not if he’s as handsome as a Greek God.” She joked, tickling her friend’s ribs. She laughed slightly and grinned goofily at her friend.

She didn’t want to sound annoying but there were times where she would always worry about herself or the way she looked. She couldn’t help it; her past has left her some old scars that didn’t want to go away. Not that easily to say the least but she was thankful at the same time, knowing that it had given her more guts than she had had back then. She hugged Shara back. She was happy her friend thought she would be perfect as Tracy. “Awe, thank you!” she said sweetly. “I couldn’t ask for a better Penny eh?” she asked jokingly as she wrapped her arm around her friend’s shoulder.

[Shara Turner]

It was good to see Sophia smiling, and even more so to see her frustrated because she couldn't know who Link was. She only had to wait a day, surely she could handle waiting that long! It was good being the one who knew something, Shara had to admit. She loved having the upper hand in this situation because it really was funny to see Sophia all worried and excited about who she was kissing. It occurred to her that she might have been more so worried about the fact that it was her first kiss, which Shara totally understood.

"I know it's your first kiss, Soph, but I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. Not with who it's gonna be. And besides, my first kiss was onstage too. It's not a big deal, really - I never paid much attention to that stuff to be honest!" she said, trying to be as helpful as she could in such a situation. She didn't even remember her first kiss really, she just remembered it being onstage. With how many productions she'd been in, it was trivial. Besides, it probably wasn't even during the production but in a rehearsal, so it wasn't really even 'on stage' that it was her first!

She giggled when Sophia compared 'Link' to a Greek god. "Now that's not too far off," she said, and then shrugged and nodded when Sophia said she couldn't ask for a better Penny. "Of course you couldn't! It IS me after all." she said with a wink, grinning at Sophia as she mirrored her friend's actions and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as well.

[Sophia Lopez]

Sophia couldn’t wait until Aly was to come because they had amazing news to tell her! Not only was she part of the production but Shara was going to be there too! Aly most likely needed to come and watch them on the premiere of the musical! She knew her parents would be proud of her if they knew about it and couldn’t wait to tell the news to her family. She had a brain but she also had talent as well!

She looked at Shara as she spoke of her first kiss. It was true it was going to be her first. She was a bit nervous about it; her first kiss was something very important to her as she was willing to give it to someone who was actually going to be worth it and not an annoying jerk. She secretly hoped that her Link wasn’t going to be a jerk. She’d feel bad if she was to have to end up kissing him. She had to go see the Broadway version of the show to just see how often she’d have to kiss him. Oh well, she still was happy to be Tracy! “But it’s still important, the first kiss I mean.” She noted. “To me at least, I wouldn’t want to give it away to a jerk you know.” She said to her friend. She had always been a romantic even though her heart had been broken.

Sophia giggled slightly some more and smiled happily at her friend. They needed to celebrate! Girls night off! “We need to celebrate! I say girls’ night along with Aly! We have to tell her the amazing news!” she chimed as she turned her head to look at Shara.

[Shara Turner]

Shara was a lot less of a romantic than Sophia was. She had never even been in a relationship, and the only time she'd ever been kissed was when it was part of a script. And that didn't bother her, really. She'd long since decided that since she was going to be an actress, she'd just have to settle with the fact that she'd never really be in a relationship. She had seen enough magazines with news of how all celebrity relationships ended badly, and she really didn't want to be a part of that. And then of course there was the example of her parents' relationship right in front of her... she had never really had a healthy relationship as an example to her that would make her want to be in one herself, that was for sure. She never really realized it, but her parents' relationship had definitely made her too scared to ever attempt one herself. Sure, she'd joke about it from time to time, like when she was talking about how attractive the Link was, but she'd never actually try to be in a relationship with him or anyone else for that matter.

"I guess so," she said finally, in response to Sophia's worries about her first kiss. "But you're not really giving anything away, and it's just on stage and part of a script so it doesn't even have to count if you don't want it to." she tried to be reassuring. It was hard, she didn't really care about such things herself, but she wanted to make Sophia feel better about it even though she didn't really understand the girl's views.

"We definitely do!" she said cheerfully, happy for a change of subject when Sophia mentioned having a girl's night with their other friend and roommate, Aly. "She'll be super excited! What should we do?"

[Sophia Lopez]

Sophia tried to understand the way that Shara was explaining how it was to kiss on stage. It was true that it wouldn’t really ‘count’ as one but she still couldn’t get that thought into her head. Not while he had been cruel to her back then! Her first kiss was something precious to her and she was reluctant to give something like this away to someone she didn’t even really want to give it to to begin with. Ugh, she was probably over thinking it. Anyways, what were the chances for her to kiss someone she hated? They were small, very small right? As long as the guy wasn’t too bragging, she wouldn’t complain too much about it.

She preferred to think of better things, like the celebration they needed to do with their roommate! She wondered about what Aly was doing at this point anyways. Shouldn’t she come around soon? Unless something was holding her back, she shouldn’t be here in too long. She smiled as Shara agreed to the plans she was going to have. What should they do? That was a good question.

“It all depends on if we want to go out and hit the mall or not, we could always just do a girls’ night and be as girly as we want.” She said with a small laugh. Okay, Sophia wasn’t one of the girliest girls around but she still enjoyed to take care of her appearance, talk about boys and paint her nails. Doing this with friends was even more awesome.

[Shara Turner]

Shara could tell that Sophia was still nervous about the whole stage kiss thing - she supposed she must have been way back when her first one had happened too, but it had been so long now that she couldn't remember it very well. Now she was so used to stuff like that on stage that it hardly bothered her at all. It was just something that happened, and it wasn't like it was real because it was just part of a script. And truthfully, if Shara were in Sophia's position, she certainly wouldn't be complaining. She was sure that all Sophia's worries would go away as soon as she found out who it was she'd be kissing.

Either way, she was glad to see that Sophia was changing the subject and thinking more about the girl's night with Aly than worrying about the onstage kiss. It'd be good for her to clear her head and stop worrying about it for a bit. She wouldn't have to think about it again until the rehearsals the next day, and hopefully after seeing the rest of the cast, especially Link, she would get used to the idea pretty quickly and not be bothered by it any more.

Shara thought for a moment before responding with her own ideas about the girl's night. "I think it'd be awesome if we could just kinda hang out here. We can go to the mall together sometime on the weekend, but we should all just kinda chill tonight don't you think? 'Cause i mean, we're roommates and we always hang out here, but we never actually do anything here like a girl's night. It'd be fun to do something different for once!"

[Sophia Lopez]

Sophia tried to stop worrying about anything that related to the rehearsal. Besides, they’d be there the next day so she should use that evening to relax and not to worry a single time about her role. She should be excited for it instead, as well as happy! She was having the female lead! It was something completely amazing. Not to add that the girl was having a happy ending of her own despite the fact that she was fat. If only people would stop looking at their appearances for once. She was happy to be part of that cast, not only was she a fighter and used to be fat but she understood Tracy and her need to fight for the integration cause.

She was Hispanic after all. Sure, she wasn’t black but she still was slightly colored. Even more during summer. She’d have to make sure not to get too much of a tan since she was supposed to play a white girl… That’d be interesting. She needed to practice her dancing before they would get to the rehearsal too. She had so much to think about! That was going to be fun.

She smiled sweetly at her friend as she seemed to be concerned a bit and nodded agreeing with her idea. It was true they could get to the mall later. “That works, besides, we should relax since tomorrow we have rehearsals.” She commented with a happy smile. “We could use clay max and made a homemade spa!” She commented excitedly.