Free Happy Birthday to You (Birthday Trilogy, Book 3) by Brian Rowe Page A

thing,” the other girl said. “You look too old for this part.”
    “Excuse me?”
Charisma said with a chuckle. “I’m nineteen. How old are you? Thirty-five?”
    “You’re
nineteen? Gosh, I feel sorry for you.”
    “You better shut
your mouth.”
    “I already
have.”
    Charisma smiled,
knowing she had won that war, as she waited another forty-five minutes for her
big audition. Finally, her moment arrived.
    “Charisma
Kellog?” the assistant asked.
    “That’s me,”
Charisma said, standing up and taking a step forward. “ Finally .”
    “Uhh, you can go
right in.”
    “Well, duh.”
    She didn’t mean
to be so nasty with the assistant, but she couldn’t help it. She never had to
wait forty-five minutes. Ten, maybe. Fifteen at most. She felt tired and hungry now, not as on
her acting game as she liked to be. But she had winged it before. It was time
not just to wing it again, but to make the role hers.
Charisma stepped inside the small casting room.
    She knew that
the warm bodies sitting all day in the casting area could sometimes look dazed and
cynical, but Charisma had never seen anything like this. An older man on the
right looked like he was sleeping, and the young woman manning the camera on
the left looked depressed enough to throw the heavy object, as well as the
tripod, right at Charisma. The casting director Patricia Stead sat in the
center, and she looked the most animated of all, even though it was clear
within seconds she didn’t want to be here either.
    “Headshot?” Ms.
Stead asked.
    “Yes,” Charisma
said, handing it over. Charisma felt good about the headshot. She had just
taken some new pictures three weeks ago, and she had updated the resume last
night.  
    The casting
director looked down at the headshot, then up at Charisma. “How old are you?”
    “Nineteen.”
    “No, I mean,
your real age.”
    Charisma opened
her mouth to speak, but nothing came out for a second. Finally: “ Nineteen .”
    The casting
director just shook her head. “Sorry, you just look too old.”
    “What?”
    “We need you to
look sixteen. You look too old. I’m sorry.”
    “I look sixteen,”
Charisma said. “Hell, I could pass for twelve !”
    “Not in this
town, missy.” The casting director darted her eyes toward the waiting area.
“Andrea! Next!”
    Charisma looked
back to see another girl already making her way into the room. She glanced back
at the casting director. “You mean… you won’t even let me read—”
    She hadn’t even
finished her sentence when she saw Ms. Stead start chatting with someone on her
cell phone in a somber manner. There was no use. There was nothing she could
do.
    Charisma stormed
out of the room, out of the waiting area, and down the main hallway to the
elevator.
    “Too old? Too old ? I’m not
too old for anything !”
    Charisma exited
the building and headed straight for her car, her rage intensifying, her desire to start screaming increasing by the second.
    She started
grabbing for her keys, when she stopped, and noticed the guy parking his car
right behind hers, so close she could tell the front of his car was tapping her
bumper.
    “Hey!” Charisma
shouted.
    She walked up to
the passenger side window and started incessantly tapping on it. The guy was
bent over the passenger chair, separating quarters from nickels and dimes.
Charisma knocked again, but he wouldn’t turn to her.
    “Why is everyone
ignoring me? I’m Charisma Kellog for Christ’s sakes!”
    She raced around
the back of the man’s car and over to his driver’s side window on the other
side.
    Charisma went to
tap again, when she stopped, and noticed her reflection in the window. It
wasn’t, astonishingly, the image she had made herself believe it to be for the
last few days. She saw what everyone else was seeing. Charisma didn’t look old,
but she appeared older, lines running down her forehead, cheeks, and chin. She
looked tired and weak, like she hadn’t exercised in years, and hadn’t