“All right, thespians, time to show us what you got,” Mr. Daniels yells. I’m screwed. So much for first impressions. At least I’ll have time to prepare during other people’s performances. “Tess and August. How about you get us started?”

Craaaaaap.

It’s official—I’m finished. Tess nearly skips to the stage, her blonde ponytail almost taunting me as I follow behind. We take the stage and I’m gripping my script tight to not reveal that my hands are shaking. This isn’t going to go well. Will they laugh at me? Anna will tell my new lunch friends that I bombed. And that cute girl named Yazmin is in the front row.

“Ready when you are,” Mr. Daniels sings from behind his desk.

Tess and I turn toward each other. I take one last deep breath and get into the scene. I am Donnie and I love my wife (ugh, Tess), who is leaving me for a rich man (great, bye!), but I am desperate for her to stay. I start the scene, but we don’t connect. Our energies don’t match. Tess is too standoffish, and I’m too desperate. It’s like she’s not in the same scene as me. She’s giving me nothing. And when we get to the end, a moment between Donnie and Jackie that’s supposed to be sweet and hopeful, it comes off like we hate each other, because maybe we do?

After we finish, there’s a small round of applause—more polite than real. I look at the class, who are visibly unmoved by our performance. I kind of want to throw up. Mr. Daniels removes his glasses. “Tess, what was your objective?”

“Passiveness,” she says passively.

“That’s an emotion. What was your goal?”

“Oh, to be passive. I hate him and I wanted it to be over.”

I can’t tell if she’s talking about Donnie and the marriage, or me and the scene.

“And August?”

“My character’s objective was to stay with my wife.” I turn on the Funny Guy and give Tess a look. “I’m not sure why.”

The class laughs, and that feels like fuel. Mr. Daniels shakes his head. “You can take your seats. William and Kerry, won’t you be next?”

I return to the back row, defeated. I’m embarrassed and avoid making eye contact with anyone. The next scenes are great—some funny, some serious. I’m drowning in other people’s talents. I spend the rest of class seething about Tess. This is all her fault. She really messed it up for me. That was my chance to show everyone why I’m here, and Tess Montague ruined that.