Chapter 20: Back Door?

Nicole and Veronica stood there dumbfounded at Ms. Sofia's words.

Nicole was the first to get her wits back, and she asked with uncertainty, "I passed?"

As soon as Nicole asked, Veronica couldn't help but say, "Nicole couldn't have passed! The website already released the list! Nicole wasn't on it!" Veronica was trying as much as possible to keep her face even, but her hurried tone betrayed the anxiety she was feeling at the moment.

Ms. Sofia raised an eyebrow in Veronica's direction.

Veronica realized her words were quite inappropriate, so she hurriedly calmed herself down before continuing, "Please don't misunderstand. It's not that I don't want my sister to get the role it is just that I don't want to give her false hope! This whole situation is suspicious! The results are already out and even if mum and dad step in it will just cause people to talk. It's more harmful to her carrier if she takes a backdoor this early and succeeds than if she fails an audition and succeeds in another otherwise even if she does well no one will believe in her capabilities."

Nicole listened to Veronica speech and was quite impressed. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought that her sister truly cared for her.

She had to admit Veronica's had a talent for acting, primarily as a white lotus. And though it pained her to admit it, Veronica had a point; she couldn't take a back door.

She didn't need any lousy publicity this early in her career.

If she took a back door now it would backfire on her later and make her path harder than it already is.

Thinking up to this point Nicole looked up at Ms. Sofia, "I appreciate the offer, but I agree with my sister I would rather use my own effort to get my roles. I still think it would be better to look to other auditions."

"Who said anything about a backdoor?" with another sentence Ms. Sofia sent the two girls back at a loss.

"Get changed; you'll understand when we get there," with that Ms. Sofia exited the room.

As soon as Ms. Sofia was gone Veronica turned towards her sister and grasped her hands tightly, "Nicole you have to be careful okay, this is your career we are talking about. Don't be fooled by people into taking sub-par jobs."

She paused for a minute as if hesitating to say something.

"Big sis, is something wrong?"

Nicole was getting nauseous as she watched her sister put on a play in front of her. It took a considerable amount of restraint to not immediately throw off her sister's hands when they grasped hers. And having to play along to this charade only made her more nauseous.

She really had to give it to her sister, pretending to like someone you can't stand takes a lot of effort.

Veronica hesitated a bit more before leaning in and whispering, "Don't trust Ms. Sofia too much. See the way she is so dismissive of us? She can barely stand holding a conversation with us! Anyway just be careful around her."

With that, she gave Nicole's hand one final squeeze before going to her room to get ready.

Nicole watched her back disappear before sneering, 'Trying to sow discord already, huh.'

Without wasting another second Nicole turned and returned to her room to get ready. As she did that she could not help ponder on what Ms. Sofia said, what was going on actually?

It didn't matter though; she would find out in due time.

Soon Nicole and Veronica were done and entered the car as it drove them straight to Swan Lake studios.

They alighted the car and headed to the reception to report.

After a little while, a female crew member came to escort them to the set. When she arrived, she couldn't help but gush at the adorable pair of sisters.

In the end, she couldn't help starting a conversation with the pair. Through their talk, Nicole learnt that her name was Andrea and she was the costume manager for the set.

Their manager wasn't one to talk much and Veronica though polite was obviously uninterested in getting to know Andrea, so the conversation was basically between Nicole and Andrea.

Soon they arrived at venue and Andrea bid them farewell as she gets back to her job.

After she had left, Ms. Sofia lightly knocked on the door before entering with the two girls. Though Veronica seemed excited for her first role, Nicole, on the other hand, wasn't as amused. Still, she was curious to find out what she was there for.