Week 7 Story: The Prodigy

 

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Story Source: Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata by Laura Gibbs

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Francine was a freshman at Washington High School. She was new to the area and wanted to make new friends and attend extra curricular activities as well. She saw an older girl hanging up the sign ups for the spring musical.

"Woah, what is this?" Francine said trying to read the signup to see if she was able to participate. 

One of the older girls looked at her and scoffed "these are the signups for the spring musical, if you're new I'm not sure how much of a chance you have at making it. Beth and I have been the leads every year since I was 13 and the department is just very set in its ways." The older girl, Sarah sneered at her, and her friend Bethany looked embarrassed about how her friend was behaving.

Francine was discouraged, she had never really sang in front of people before, but she loved to sing with her family at home. "I've never really been in a show before, but I think I have what it takes. Maybe you could help me?" 

"Sorry kid, I told Bethany I would help her practice for auditions tomorrow. You're on your own." Sarah walked away grabbing Bethany's arm and dragging her along. 

Francine thought to herself, "who needs her, I can just watch old videos of the musicals and see what I need to sound like." So Francine googled Sarah and Beth's performances and memorized one of the songs. 

Last year, Washington High School put on a performance of Les Miserables. Les Mis was not Francine's favorite musical because it made her sad, but she memorized the way that Beth sang "On My Own," and was able to adapt her own style to the song.

Beth and Sarah heard her practicing in the band room and immediately were shocked. "Sarah, whoever that is....she's really good.... She is singing that song.... better than.....me." Sarah angrily stormed into the room scaring Francine. 

"Who WAS that?" Sarah screeched, Francine came out of the practice closet and smiled.

"Oh that was me! Did you think it was good? I am practicing for auditions later!" 

Sarah was enraged, she wasn't about to let some freshman get a better role than her. She especially wanted the lead this year, since she was a senior. 

"Listen, I will do you a favor since we are going to be friends," Sarah said smiling slyly, "I would put that you want ensemble down on the signup. That way you look humble, and it sets you up for standing out amongst the majority of the singers!"

Francine was so grateful for the advice the experienced girls had given her, she auditioned for ensemble and made it in her first try. The girls however, knew they had set her up for failure because after that she never got a lead, she hadn't made an effort to try and because of that she was ensemble forever. 

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Author's Note:

I was inspired partly by High School Musical when Sharpay notices Gabriella singing and does all in her power to get her away from her callback, and also partly by the Tiktoks of mean theater kids that I have seen. They always make me laugh because there are actually people out there who are like this, and I thought it was a similar concept to the story of Ekalavya a boy who was in search of a Guru to learn archery. Drona refused to teach him, so Ekalavya built a statue of Drona and practiced in front of it, and became the best archer even better than Arjuna. This story parallels with Sarah being Drona, Francine being Ekalavya and Beth being Arjuna.