Excerpt from If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

It was customary for us to watch whichever audition followed our own (performing unobserved was compensation for performing first), and I paced restlessly along the crossover, wishing that James could have been my audience. Even when he didn't mean to be, Richard was an intimidating onlooker. I could hear his voice from the rehearsal hall, ringing off the walls.

Richard: "Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,

How you awake our sleeping sword of war:

We charge you, in the name of God, take heed.

For never two such kingdoms did contend

Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops

Are every one a woe, a sore complaint,

'Gainst him whose wrongs give edge unto the swords

That make such waste in brief mortality."

I'd seen him do the same speech twice before, but that made it no less impressive.

At precisely half past eight, the door to the rehearsal hall creaked open. Frederick's familiar face, wizened and droll, appeared in the gap. "Oliver? We're ready for you now."

"Great." My pulse quickened—a flutter, like little bird wings trapped between my lungs.

I felt small walking into the rehearsal hall, as I always did. It was a cavernous room, with a high vaulted ceiling and long windows that gazed out on the grounds. Blue velvet curtains hung on either side of them, hems gathered in dusty piles on the hardwood floor. My voice echoed as I said, "Good morning, Gwendolyn."

The redheaded, stick figure woman behind the casting table glanced up at me, her presence in the room disproportionately enormous. Bold pink lipstick and a paisley head scarf made her look like some sort of gypsy. She wiggled her fingers in greeting, and the bangles on her wrist rattled. Richard sat in the chair to the left of the table, arms folded, watching me with a comfortable smile. I was not Leading Man material and therefore didn't qualify as competition. I flashed him a grin and then tried to ignore him.

"Oliver," Gwendolyn said. "Lovely to see you. Have you lost weight?"

"Gained it, actually," I said, my face going warm. When I left for summer break she had advised me to "bulk up." I spent hours at the gym every day of June, July, and August, hoping to impress her.

"Hm," she said, gaze descending slowly from the top of my head to my feet with the cold scrutiny of a slave trader at auction. "Well. Shall we get started?"

"Sure." Remembering Richard's advice, I straightened my feet on the floor and resolved not to move without reason.

Frederick eased back into his seat beside Gwendolyn, removed his glasses, and wiped the lenses on the hem of his shirt. "What do you have for us today?" he asked.

"Pericles," I said. He had suggested it, the previous term.

He gave me a small, conspiratorial nod. "Perfect. Whenever you're ready."

Excerpted from If We Were Villains by M L Rio. Copyright © 2017 by M L Rio. Excerpted by permission of Flatiron Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.