"you'll be fine" they told me as I nevously stood gazing at the reflection in the mirror, the same thoughts going through my head, over and over, "what the hell am I doing?"

I am a jeans and T shirt gal, long baggy jumpers, boots or trainers, and here I was wearing stilletos and a short skirt with a not loose enough top that showed skin between waistband and the bottome of the top.

Still a challenge is a challenge and I accepted it, though this was one that I was beginning to wish I had taken a forfeit on.

Arriving at the audition I wished even harder that I had not accepted, the girls surrounding me were beautiful, all glossy hair and nails and pearly white teeth, some of them wearing even less than I was!

"What the hell am I doing?!" I thought again as I stood nervously eyeing the other girls who all looked so cool and 'with it' I on the other hand was most definately without it. My looks could be described as 'classical' at least thats what my last boyfriend had told me, "You are not pretty, but you have a classical beauty" I was never sure if that was intended to be a compliment or not? But, I had never thought of myself as anything other than plain, so it was better than nothing, he was of course long gone by the time I was stood here among the beautiful women, having decided he would rather have pretty and blonde. Me I had a chestnutty sheen to my hair, brown with red in it, neither here nor there, and stood amongst the hot redheads and steamy blondes in this suddenly overcroded room, I felt small and insignificant. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror my green eyes looked troubled and less like emeralds and more like winter grass.

"Thats it" I thought to myself, as the next blonde and beautiful womans name was called, and all the others tittered and giggled, turning I walked to the door and wrenched it open, I may not stand a chance in between this bevy of beauties but I knew how to make an exit!

Except that didnt go quite as planned either!

I walked out of the door, well sort of, half way through and straight in to a guy, I stepped to the right, so did he, I stepped to the left, so did he, I drew a deep breath and looked up saying "As much as I love to dance I dont think this is the right place" and looked into the blueist eyes I had ever seen, he smiled a dazzling smile
"whats the rush?" he asked in a low knee melting voice
"I have to go" how did I not stammer?
"Have you finished your audition?" he asked
I laughed and looked back at the room full of melting beauty and then back at him, he was just a guy, handsome, tall and the stuff dreams are made of, but with that room full of pickings I was bottom of the pile.
"I decided not to bother" I said as I sidestepped him and walked to the outside door "I will pay the forfeit instead" and I walked out into the sunlight.

The next thing I knew my hand had been grabbed and I was being pulled back to the hallway, and into the room, quite ungraciousley I might add! Not being used to highheels I almost fell flat!

Straight through the room and into the audition room where a panel of three very bored looking people were sat at a table listening to the latest blonde beauty deliver her lines "What the hell do you think you are doing!" I spluttered at the tall man, he ignored my question and looked at the three bored looking people who were all gazing at me, he then looked at the blonde and said
"thank you we will let you know" and turned away and proceeded to ignore her

"Can you ad lib" he whispered in my ear

Can I ad lib?

" You made her cry" I threw at him, meaning the blonde who had fled the room in tears
"Didnt you want me to?" he threw back
"Why would I want you to hurt someones feelings?" I asked increduously, or as near as I could manage, yes I could ad lib, it was a game we played. along with the challenges.
"Do you have any?"
"We are not discussing me, we are discussing you" I flicked my hair,
"We never discuss you, you never let me know what you want" he said forlornly, damn he was good!

I gave him the best melting look I could muster and said softly "You know what I want, can you not see?"
He stepped closer and laid is hand on my face
"I had hoped" he said quietly as his face came closer and his eyes looked straight into mine.

"Bravo" came the shout from the table just before his lips met mine, at least I thught they were going to.

He straightened and looked towards the three at the table "she has the part" "definately" "agreed" they all said.

What!

Everything after that was pretty much a blur, auditions dress rehersals, the show, and of course my social life.

Now, well I no longer feel second rate, every single day is like a new day, because of my new career, no not exactly, more because of my new husband, I had a choice that day, do the audition or pay a forfeit, the forfeit was a blind date with one of the guys friends, one we had never met as he was a well known director and was always busy.

It turns out the guy I bumped into was the director friend, and he already knew about me, I asked him once did he make me do the audition cos he didnt want the blind date, "no" he told me, "I fell in love with your picture long before I met you, I told him to send you to that one, so whichever you chose challenge or forfeit, we would meet"
"Pretty sure I would fall for you, then" I asked
"No, just hoped, and if you hadnt then I would have followed you until you did" he finished laughing.

Of course I am no longer allowed to accept challenges or do forfeits ;)