Chapter 141: not everyone needs to be a star

Chapter 141 — Not Everyone Needs to Be the Star

Serena Ashford was already on the rehearsal room floor when Roxanne arrived with Liam, and she did not notice them come in. She stood at the centre of the boards with her eyes half closed, one hand lifted as though resting on a banister nobody else could see, and she spoke a monologue about a lighthouse keeper writing to a sister who never answered.

It was polished, and it was more than that. She moved without hurry, remembered every cue, and held the room without appearing to reach for it. When she finished, nobody breathed for a second.

Liam started clapping first. Roxanne joined him, genuinely impressed, and Serena opened her eyes and gave a small, startled smile.

"Thank you. I didn’t realise I had an audience."

"You always have an audience," Liam said. "It’s a gift. I’m very jealous."

"Show me what you’ve been working on," Serena said. "The coordinator says it’s good, and she says that about everything, so I’d like a second opinion."

Liam launched into an enthusiastic explanation of the royal siblings, the ceremony, the vanished horses. Roxanne cut in to warn Serena that the scene was still a work in progress, possibly several works in progress. They ran a short section while Serena sat on a bench with her chin on her hand.

When they stopped, she said, "The dialogue is strong. But you keep interrupting each other before the emotional moments can land."

Liam looked offended. "Interrupting is part of my charm."

"Then your charm needs better timing."

Roxanne laughed before she could stop herself, and Liam turned to her with a betrayed expression that only made it worse.

"Slow down," Serena said, standing. "You fill every pause with another joke. Try leaving one empty. Roxanne, when your character admits she doesn’t want to attend the ceremony, stop after the line. Just stop."

Roxanne tried it. She said the line, and then she let the silence stand, feeling it stretch, uncomfortable and enormous. She wanted to fill it. She held still.

Across from her, Liam did not speak either. He only looked at her, a sibling who had understood something he had not wanted to.

The moment felt different, truer, as though a window had been opened in the scene.

"There," Serena said softly. "That is what the audience needs. Time to understand what a character isn’t saying, not only what she says aloud."

Roxanne nodded slowly. She felt awkward being watched so closely, her cheeks warm. She was used to proving herself to people who doubted she belonged in the room. Serena was not doubting anything. She was simply helping her get better, and the difference was unexpectedly refreshing, like cold water after a long walk.

Then it was Liam’s turn. He took centre stage, drew himself up, and delivered a single sincere line about his sister’s courage with a pause so long that a first-year peering round the door left in alarm.

"Stop," Serena said. "Stop. Do you know how to deliver one sincere line without making it sound like you are proposing marriage?"

Liam considered the question gravely. "I would need to know whether the audience was receptive."

Roxanne burst out laughing and had to sit down on the floor. Serena shook her head, but she was smiling too, and the corners of her mouth would not stay straight.

After that the rehearsal eased. They tried the scene three different ways. In one, Liam played his character as brittle and bright, in another as quietly wounded, and Roxanne discovered that his humour was a good tool when he did not use it to dodge every serious moment. He, in turn, learned that her sharpest lines landed best when she did not rush to fire them. It began to feel less like two people competing for the laugh and more like two people building something.

During a break, Serena sat down beside Roxanne with a cup of water. "Have you performed before?"

"A few school activities. Mostly helping. I never thought of myself as a performer."

"You don’t need years of experience for presence," Serena said. "You have it already. You just don’t trust it."

Roxanne was grateful, but empty praise made her uneasy. "Would you tell me if I were terrible?"

"Yes."

"Without softening it?"

"I would soften it a little. I’m not cruel."

Roxanne laughed. She had expected the older girl to be brisk and slightly intimidating, and found her instead quietly funny.

Serena turned her cup in her hands. "My confidence comes partly from practice. I’ve spent years in formal rooms, learning how to hold myself so nobody can see me worrying. But I still shake before anything that matters to me. Tonight I nearly dropped my own script."

"You didn’t look it."

"That is the skill. It isn’t the same as it being easy."

It was a small confession, and Roxanne carried it carefully. She had spent so long assuming that polished people were born that way. Serena’s calm was a craft, with seams, and knowing it made her feel less alone in the room.

They ran the royal-sibling scene one more time. Liam let the emotional beats breathe. He did not rush the line about the horses, and he did not fill the silence after his sister’s confession with a joke. Roxanne let her character’s frustration show without pointing every line like a knife. The scene turned slowly, finding its own weight, and when the last words faded, nobody said anything for a moment.

Serena nodded. "That is the version you keep."

Liam bowed with a flourish. "We accept praise in the form of applause, flowers, and preferably food."

"I’m revising my opinion," Serena said. "The scene was good. The actor is still exhausting."

Roxanne laughed, and Liam laid a hand over his heart as though mortally wounded. But he did not push it further. He looked, she thought, honestly pleased, with the unguarded glow of someone who had made something he liked. She realised she felt the same. It was not because they had outdone anyone. It was because they had built something together, out of two different people and a lot of silence.

Serena gathered her things as the light faded, saying she had another commitment. At the door she lifted a hand. "Same time next week, if you want it."

"Maybe," said Roxanne, and meant yes.

When she had gone, Liam turned. "Another rehearsal?"

This time Roxanne did not hesitate. "Yes. But I choose the time, and you bring snacks."

"Your artistic demands are becoming unreasonable."

"Then find another co-star."

"Absolutely not. I’ve grown attached to my snacks."

They settled on Thursday. Roxanne walked back toward the dormitory with the dusk coming down blue over the roofs, feeling lighter than she had in days. The showcase was no longer a thing she had reluctantly agreed to. It had become something she was beginning to look forward to, and the thought was strange and pleasant, like finding a window open in a room she had thought sealed.

At dinner, Isla leaned across the table with a spoonful of soup halfway to her mouth. "The showcase has been opened up. Students can invite guests from beyond their usual circles."

Roxanne nodded absently and reached for the bread.

"And each performer is being asked to name one person they would especially like to attend."

"That’s sweet."

"Liam has already submitted his."

Roxanne looked up. "Who did he pick?"

Isla grinned, slow and enormous. "You."

Roxanne stared at her.

Her phone buzzed against the table. She turned it over and read a message from Liam.

Don’t panic. It’s not a proposal. It’s an invitation to watch me become a legend.