Ivy Booker

This morning, I woke up as a nervous wreck because I didn't know how this audition would go, but after my audition...I am one hundred percent confident that I nailed it! I went in there, as confident and vibrant as I could, and read each of my lines perfectly; despite me still being somewhat nervous. Now all I have to do is wait and see if I got a call, which I was told that I'd possibly be getting a call tomorrow.

"Excuse me?" I heard someone say, tapping my shoulder. I turned and saw this cute guy that was standing in line for the audition also.

"Yes?" I said, stopping mid-walk. 

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I saw you in there for the audition and I just wanted to know how you did." I furrowed my eyebrows, looking at him up and down, before looking back up at him. "I mean...how do you think you did?"

"I think I did pretty well. How about yourself?"

"Same here. I was nervous as hell though, if I'm being honest." We both shared a laugh, as I nodded my head.

"I know what you mean." I said.

"I'm Derrick." He smiled, extending his hand.

"Ivy. Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine, Miss Ivy." He still had my hand in his, which made me slightly uncomfortable, as I pulled my hand away from his.

"Yeah...well...It was nice meeting you and good luck on the callback audition, if you do get called." I said, turning to leave.

"Hey wait a minute!" He called out, running up behind me. "I know this is a little straight forward, but would you like to grab a coffee with me sometime?"

"I don't drink coffee."

"It doesn't necessarily have to be coffee. It could be a smoothie, a milkshake, hell...it could even be a soda."

"That's nice, but no thanks. I'm not dating at the moment." I told him. With everything that happened last year, a relationship was the very last thing on my mind.

"We won't call it a date then. We'll call it a...friendly outing." He said, making me laugh a little.

"A friendly outing?"

"Yeah...you know, two friends just hanging out. A friendly outing." He was really pushing hard, but I wasn't about to give in to him. The last person that I gave in to turned out to be a psycho, that tried to kill my dad and ended up shooting himself and my cousin in-law.

"That sounds nice and all, but I'm not looking to make any more friends right now. Now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere I need to be." I lied, brushing past him. I know I came off as rude, but I refused to get sidetracked by good looking guys. I made that mistake once and I wasn't about to do it again.

*

"Hi daddy." I smiled, sitting my phone up. I wasted no time Facetiming my dad as soon as I got back to my door. 

"Hey Lil Shawty. How'd the audition go?" He asked, not even looking at the camera. Judging by the loud noises that were playing in the background, he was watching some type of game that was on TV.

"It went great! I really think I nailed it!" He didn't respond. He just continued to watch the game, paying me no mind. "Dad!"

"Huh?"

"Did you hear me?"

"Yeah, you said it went good or something like that." He said, making me roll my eyes. I sighed heavily, scratching my head.

"Where's mom?" I asked.

"Baby! Ivy wanna talk to you!" A few seconds later, he handed the phone to my mom.

"Hey beautiful. I heard your audition went great. You think you got the part?" She asked.

"I sure hope so. I'm just soooo nervous that I won't get it." I stressed.

"I'm sure you will, so don't stress about it."

"Is that Ivy? I wanna talk to her!" I heard Sariyah said.

"Nah, you talked to her first yesterday! I'm going first." TJ shouted.

"No you're not!"

"Yes I am!"

"Hey now!" Our mom shouted. "Sariyah you did go first yesterday, so let TJ go first this time." I heard her whine, just as TJ appeared on the camera.

"Hey sis!"

"Hey TJ, what's up?" I questioned.

"I need some advice. There's this girl that I want to ask out, but a rumor went around school about her being a hoe. I don't know what to do."

"Those rumors could possibly be true, but then again...they could be false. Remember those rumors about Bella? Well they were false, despite everybody saying something different. You won't know the truth unless you ask her yourself."

"But what if she hates me? I don't want to ask her and then she gets mad or something." He huffed.

"Then that means there's some truth to the rumors and she doesn't deserve your time and attention." I told him, shrugging my shoulders.

"Fine, I'll ask, but if she won't talk to me after this, then be ready to receive a very disrespectful text message!"

"And be ready to for a disrespectful response. Now put Sariyah on the phone and I'll talk to you later. Love you!"

"Love you too. Here Sariyah." He said, passing her the phone.

"Hey Ivy." She smiled.

"Hey love bug. How were cheerleading tryouts? Did you make the squad?" I asked, hoping to hear some good news. 

"I won't know until tomorrow, but I was the best in my group so fingers crossed that I made it." She beamed, making me smile. I love seeing how excited and happy my siblings were, especially knowing that TJ has developed a new crush and Riyah found a newfound hobby. "How was your audition?"

"It was great. Hopefully I'll get a callback tomorrow, but I don't want to jinx it so let's change the subject." I said, laying back on the bed. "I met this guy today."

"Ohhh, details!"

"Nothing much to say about him. He was slightly cute, very straightforward, and he asked me out."

"He asked you out? Ahhhh, for when? What are you going to wear?" She asked.

"Nothing, because I turned him down. I'm not ready to date again just yet, so I kindly declined his invitation and we went our separate ways." I told her. 

"Seriously Ivy? You can't hold every guy accountable for what Tay did! Besides...maybe one of those New York guys can help with you being so uptight."

"Excuse you! I am not uptight!"

"Yes you are! Maybe a date with a fine New Yorker will do you some good. Maybe he'll even let you relieve some much needed stress." She giggled.

"Okay little girl, go do your homework! And you better be lucky your daddy didn't hear that, cause ohhh chile!" Our mom chimed in, making me laugh. "Please don't take advice from your sister, Ivy. You continue to focus on yourself and your acting career."

"I already know mom, but I'm about to do some homework and order me some dinner. I'll call ya'll back before I go to bed." I said.

"Alright baby girl. We love you and we'll talk to you soon."

"Love you guys too!" I ended the call and plugged my phone up, wrapping a blanket around me as I grabbed my book and opened it up. What Sariyah said was heavy on my mind, not the part about dating a fine New York man, but the part about me not holding other guys accountable for Tay's actions. She was right about that, but I couldn't help myself. It all started with Gabe, who was in love with Bella and she was secretly in love with him too, and then Tay who I thought loved me but in reality...our relationship was just one big lie. Now I had this huge guard up, that I refuse to break down for anybody, and I damn for sure wasn't going to let it down for a good looking guy. I refused to make the same mistake twice.