It was a rather dodgy 16th April weather-wise and I was testing my newly applied orienteering skills on the map that my friend Larissa, had printed off from Google. Naturally, I was failing quite spectacularly at getting my bearings once coming out of Kentish Town and Larissa was no better. Fortunately, a friendly builder came to our rescue and pointed us in the right direction as he’d clearly seen enough of us teens to recognise where we had wanted to go. The destination in question? The open auditions being held for hit teen show ‘Skins’ of course!

Although we had only been armed with vague directions, it soon became clear that we were headed in the right direction as we passed many young hopefuls dressed in their best coming back from the auditions. Feeling the nerves bubbling up inside of us, trying to spot who’d got a part or not became a good way to calm ourselves. It was a rather easy game actually, as most of them were either excitedly chattering down the phone to their friends or simply had a glum expression adorning their face.

Marching up the long road from the underground station to the venue for the auditions, William Ellis school, soon began to feel like a parade as we kept picking up more and more other teens who were hoping to get a call back and before we knew it we were joining a queue to get let into the school. We all soon began to feel that anxiety bubbling up inside of us all once more. That, however, proved to be extremely short-lived as we passed the thousands of other teenagers auditioning before finally finding our place at the back of the queue. It looked like it was going to be an extremely long wait and the wind was bringing in some frosty air, which issued a collective groan as we all reached for our extra jumpers.

Fortunately, good conversation and a fast moving queue, seemed to make the four hours we spent lining up, surprisingly bearable. We befriended the other people around us and once the sun came out, everyone seemed a great deal more contented. After a good couple of hours, it seemed like the queue was like our own mini community for the day, complete with neighbours (those who were either side of you in the queue) and even gossip! This being that the peace was disturbed by people flocking to the gates and cheering. A couple of boys wolf-whistled and laughed in anticipation. We knew that one of the actors from ‘Skins’ would be there and it transpired that it was Kaya Scodelario, who plays Effy in the most recent series of ‘Skins’, who had come out to say a quick hello.

A couple more hours, and we were finally inside the building, handing in our audition forms, receiving a sticker with a number on and getting our pictures taken. From then onwards, I could feel butterflies going out of control in my stomach and before I knew it, I was being ushered into “workshop one” with about twenty other people. Luckily, I got put with Larissa and Alex, a nice boy I had got to know in the many hours we had spent lining up for this single opportunity. There was also another girl, Helen, who was in our group too. We were all to do improvisation and a lady came around and gave us all a scenario to work on for a couple of minutes before the producers came in to decide our fate. We were given the rather bizarre task of acting out a scene in which we had discovered that Alex’s father was a cross-dresser and that we had to break the news to him. However, other scenarios included cheating in an exam, and abandoning your friend for a more popular version.

The auditions went swiftly and it was more than enjoyable to watch everyone else act out their own obscure scenarios as well, once the pressure was off. The producers went out briefly before then coming back in with their final decision. They only picked two of us out of the twenty hopefuls who sat before them and I can unfortunately say that I was not one of them, nor were any of the other people I had befriended that day. However, trying something new, is never a wasted day and we all left no less disheartened.