- Evaluation

…"What am I even auditioning for?"

The girl leaned back into her seat before letting out a small chuckle "You mean to say you've simply strolled in here without any clue as to why you're meant to be here, or what's even happening?" "Uhm… basically yeah, sorry if i've caused any trouble", he said truthfully.

"It's alright, water under the bridge", she said casually. Arthur didn't want to ask the question again so he had to wait while she fiddled with something in her bag. In truth he was happy just watching her, he never really got to speak with a girl older than him so he thanked his legs for dragging him to the audition.

Eventually she pulled out a pad of paper laughing quietly as if she was pleased with herself.

"This is a script", she paused for effect, "For a new TV show currently in pre-production. All we need you to do is read a few lines then answer some personality questions. If all goes well you'll get a call asking you to come back for further testing"

"What's it about?" "Hmm?" "The show, what's it about?", he asked again. "Oh haha right. It's all about a vampire hunter. It's got a bit of violence, romance, action set pieces, that sort of stuff. The audition today is for the titular hunter".

"Is it fairly big budget or like an indie thing?" Arthur asked. "Mega budget, government funded actually" she said proudly. "Ha, explains the shit building" he chuckled quietly. The girl simply smiled at him as she passed the pad of paper over.

"Look I'm gonna be honest, I've never auditioned before, I highly doubt my acting capabilities", Arthur now felt a pang of nervousness as he'd have to possibly make an idiot of himself in front of this girl, prompting him to spout his honesty.

Maintaining the same smile, she urged him to read, "Come on you've gotta at least try. Besides, I've got a feeling about you kid".

**************************

[a short time later]

"Ah Rebecca, glad you could make it!" "Of course sir". Rebecca had just finished up the last of her interviews, going slightly over due to an unexpected entry.

It was customary after every set of auditions to report the findings to her superior. The chosen location this year was a quiet pub only 2 minutes away from the asbestos nest she had been in all day.

"Quite interesting this year sir, we believe a record high of five, of the original twenty-five, can be passed through screening, well six if you count the bonus entry", Rebecca said as she pushed a couple of files to the man across from her.

"Bonus entry?", he asked inquisitively. "One lad turns up out of the blue, claims he's never acted before", she said. "You mean somebody actually read the audition sign", he produced a guttural laugh before realising he should probably quiet down to avoid drawing attention. "Fifty-four years I've been doing this and nobody has ever read the sign!".

"Yeah, interesting" Rebecca suddenly turned serious, "That's fifty quid you owe me". The smile was wiped from the man's face, "What?" He pretended like he didn't know. "We bet whether or not we'd need the script, and it looks like we did", the man sighed as he fished the money out of his wallet.

"In all seriousness though I'd like to push him forward for the second stage, along with the other five candidates. He turns up in a Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops, yet still managed to have a certain edge, he even had the cheek to ask me out for drinks afterwards", she said with a smirk. "There's a wild uncertainty deep in hiding behind his eyes. I know it sounds stupid but I thi…" "Enough", the man said sternly.

"You've built up enough credibility to be able to do this without my permission Rebecca. If you wanna do this then of course you can, you don't need me to say yes or no. I doubt there'd even be any repercussions if it doesn't work out", he said whilst adopting a more cheerful tone.

She puffed her cheeks out triumphantly. "Thanks sir. We'll obviously have to change how we do the second stage slightly with him because he doesn't know the truth yet. How we interviewed him is not consistent with the other twenty-five, therefore he should only be considered if he impresses and excels".

"Well said Rebecca, couldn't agree more. I look forward to seeing the lad"...