Puppies For Sale - Part Three

“T's through Z's, line up!” The fat old woman shouted. Xavier looked up in realization that he didn't get in with the right group. He dashed for the line in hopes that he could have a second chance. His name did technically start with a T, anyway. “You're Xavier O'Toole, aren't you?” The fat old woman asked. “Uh-uhm... yes ma'am...” Xavier replied meekly. “I'm sorry, sweetie, I'm afraid you missed your chance.” The woman said. “P-please ma'am! I was busy writing an' I missed bein' called and me mother and I came all the way here from Ireland and she said they wouldn't turn me away, don't turn me away, please... please.” Xavier pleaded, as pathetically as possible. “Alright, alright. Fine. Go on in, sugar.” The woman said. “ Thank you so much!” Xavier said, hugging the woman and running into the line.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Shouldn't you have been here an hour ago?” The man asked. “Yes... I missed the call because I was busy writing...” Xavier said nervously, fumbling with his notebook. “Writing? Writing songs?” The man asked. Xavier nodded. “Aye, I was.” He said. “”How old are you? Eleven? Twelve?” The man asked. “I'm... fourteen, actually.” Xavier replied, staring at his feet. The man examined him top to bottom. “You don't look like you are.” He said. “Ah.... me mum says I'm a late bloomer...” Xavier replied. “Where are you from?” The man asked. “Uhm... right on the edge of Ireland, but not in Northern Ireland. Lifford. But we're moving to England soon.” Xavier replied. “Can you play any instruments?”The man asked. “Yes. I can play the Guitar, Piano and the Flute. I'm trying Drums too.” Xavier answered. “Have you acted before?” The man asked. “No... well, a couple times in plays an' stuff.” Xavier replied. “Can you sing?” The man asked. “I s'pose so...” Xavier said with a shrug. “Do you have any interests? Sports?” The man asked. “Uhm... I like playing cards. And baseball. Me uncle took me to a game a couple months ago when I went to America with me mum, dad an' brother. ...I also like basketball, but I'm no good at it. I always get picked last 'cause I'm little. I hate it.” Xavier babbled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay, we have the lists of who's staying!” The large woman shouted, after pinning up the lists. The surrounding area was flooded with kids and the poor lady was trampled over. The whole place was filled with whooping and crying when everyone found out who was staying and who wasn't. Xavier was ducking through the crowd to see if he got in. He did, and at the top of one of the lists too. “Yes, I got in...” He muttered quietly to himself. Enrique and a gaggle of girls went to the lists. Enrique got in, but the girls didn't. He tried to comfort them by remaining quiet but they wouldn't take it, and ran off. Greg fought his way through the crowd and found himself on one of the lists, he looked over to the list beside him and saw a girl from his school he had a crush on. “Fuck yeah!” Greg shouted, pumping his fist in the air. Luckily nobody heard him over all the noise, and he walked away. Chester, unenthusiastic the whole time, went over to the lists after the crowd dispersed. He walked by every list and spotted himself, the last name on the last list, and smiled a little to himself, and joined the rest of the kids going through. “Part Three of the auditioning process will start tomorrow morning, so rest up!” A man announced, leading the crowd out of the hall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Alright, it's time for the last part of the auditions. We're going to pair you up into groups of 4's and 5's. The 30 kids we choose will come up and draw 3 or 4 names from this hat and that will be your group. I'll call you each up by alphabetical order. Understand?” The woman explained. The crowd whooped in agreement. The wait went on for a while until... “Chester Harris, your turn.” The woman called him up. Chester came up and rifled through the hat for his 3 names. “Uh... Enrique Suarez... Greg Swift and... Xavier O'Toole?” Chester read, looking around. “Here...” Xavier said quietly, coming forward, tripping over someones foot. It was Greg's. The both walked over to Chester's side. Enrique ran through the crowd over to the other three. “Next, Kendall Henderson.” The woman said. Kendall strode over and picked his four names. “Okay... Carlos Maslow, Logan Pena, James Schmidt and Chandler Jordan.” He read. The three boys and Chandler went over. Chandler was the girl that Greg had a crush on. She winked at him on the way. Greg grinned goofily.