Page 102 of Lucky 22

What else can I do?

“Hey, Ella!”

I turn and see our showrunner, Amy, coming into the studio.I smile. “Hey. How are you?”

“I’m fine, thanks. Listen, we made some revisions to the nextepisode. Twenty-two pages worth,” she adds with a small laugh before handing mean envelope.

I inwardly squeal with glee because…twenty-two.

We get hard copies of all the scripts to ensure nothing getsleaked. People working on the Galactic Wars project in the past havehad their emails and computers hacked by fans trying to find out what’s comingnext.

“We really love what you’ve done with Ashla so far. And nowthat we’ve completed the artwork for her, the animators can finally getstarted.”

“I have to tell you, I love how the writers have herdeveloping. Ashla really is such a fun character, and I’m having the best timebreathing life into her.”

She nods but doesn’t say anything at first. I can sense thatsomething else is coming, but I don’t know if it’s good or bad.

When she doesn’t move to leave, I feel a knot forming in thepit of my stomach. Nothing good ever comes when a showrunner—or any of thecreative executives—comes to talk to you privately.

“Is everything okay, Amy?” I ask.

She hesitates for just a moment before seeming to resignherself to the conversation.

“Obviously, Griffin Lawson is overseeing this project,” shebegins.

Griffin is the creator of the entire Galactic Warsfranchise. He is very involved in this project, but we don’t really work withhim directly. He works out of his office in San Francisco, and we record theshow in Los Angeles. But we hear many stories about what he thinks about theproject, and sometimes, we even receive notes about our performance. Seriously,I cannot believe that Griffin Lawson knows my name.

I nod and wait for her to continue.

“He’s been listening to the recordings and looking at theartwork we have so far, and he’s not sold on some of the voices.”

I feel like I’m going to be sick.

Wasn’t she just praising me? Didn’t she say how they alllove what I’m doing with Ashla? And she gave me a script. That has to meansomething, doesn’t it?

My head starts spinning when I realize this is how theconversation typically goes when you’re being let go. You get a heap of praisebefore they lower the axe.

Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.

But the script…

Swallowing hard, I nod again.

“We all know Griffin is the genius behind the entireuniverse. It’s practically unheard of for a movie to launch an entire saga thatremains popular for thirty years,” she says with another small laugh.

A nervous laugh? A normal one? Does she find this amusing?

Another silent nod as my lunch feels like it’s lodged in mythroat.

“The man knows this world better than anyone. So, if hefeels a voice isn’t right, then we need to fix it.”

She pauses, and I swear the room feels about twenty degreeswarmer. I may pass out if she doesn’t get to the point in the next ten seconds.

I let out a shaky breath. “Amy, am I…am I being fir—?”

She cuts me off before I can even finish the sentence.“What? Oh. Oh, no, Oh, Ella, I’m sorry. I should have led with that.” Reachingout, she gives my arm a reassuring squeeze. This time, her laugh is definitelynervous. “Gosh, I’m so sorry. This whole day has been a little wild. We’rerecasting the role of Lukan Karzen. Griffininsisted.”

“Oh, wow…” I murmur. I’m devastated because Mark Andrewsvoiced that role, and we were becoming good friends. I feel so bad for him. “Doyou have someone lined up already?”