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While Jimmy paced and talked, Darla’s nerves preyed on her. This was it. This was really happening. She was really about to be on one of the hottest shows on television.
“When we get to the hotel,” Jimmy said, pausing to look at the four of them, “you’ll be taking publicity shots as a group. We’ll have the first gang of auditions already inside the building, being prescreened. Once you finish pictures, you’ll head straight into the audition room. We’re beginning at exactly nine, with cameras rolling. We’ll end at precisely seven tonight.”
“What exactly was the crisis Meagan had that required Blake’s help?” Darla asked. “Is this something that we need to know about before we get there?”
“My job is to worry,” Jimmy said. “Your job is to be a star and pick stars.” He touched his headset. “Yes. Right. Coming now.” He glanced at Darla, then his watch, and then, already headed to the door, called over his shoulder, “We leave in fifteen minutes.”
“That man gets so hyper,” Ellie said from the chair where she sat next to Darla, whose pink hair now glistened with the same kind of tiny purple stones she wore on her jeans.
“That might be the only thing we agree on today,” Lana said, standing up to run her hand over her slim-fitting red dress that hit above the knee, her black boots accentuated her long legs. She looked every bit the acclaimed Broadway star. How would Darla live up to that?
“All done,” the stylist said, tearing away the cover over Darla’s own attire—black jeans with cool floral stitching down the sides and a turquoise V-neck tank. She’d loved this outfit days ago when she’d picked it, but not so much now. Now, she felt like the boring schoolteacher in the midst of rock stars. She felt comfortable on her show and her audience was warm and responsive, her staff, too. They all made her feel like she belonged. Now, though, she wondered how she’d ever gotten here. How she’d ever gotten her own show. She was nothing like these people. She was just Darla from Colorado. How was she ever going to impress viewers and keep her place on the show?
* * *
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, they were loaded into a limo—Darla and Ellie on one side and Jason and Lana on the other—about to make a grand front-door entrance to the auditions for the crowd with cameras rolling.
“Isn’t it exciting?” Ellie asked, grabbing Darla’s arm, clearly thrilled about the lines of people they were passing. “We’ve come a long way, baby, from last year.”
“She’s excitable,” Lana said, rolling her eyes at Ellie. “Everything is ‘exciting.’ You’ll get use to it.”
“Lana’s a bitch,” Jason said drily. “You’ll get use to it.” He glanced at Darla. “She’ll eat you alive if you let her. Don’t.”
That statement had Darla stiffening her spine and questioning how she was coming off. “I’m nervous,” Darla admitted. “Extremely so. But I’m not a pushover—especially when it comes to making people’s dreams come true.”
“We can see you’re nervous,” Jason said. “You look a little like you might be sick.” He motioned toward Lana. “Aim to my right.”
“Yes, please,” Ellie agreed. “Right before we get out of the limo.” She grabbed her phone and seemed to be setting her camera. “I want personal pictures.”
“Oh, aren’t you funny, Ellie,” Lana said, wrapping her arm around Jason and peering up at him. “I guess I better stay nice and close to you so you’re in the target range, too.” She cut a look at Darla. “And we’ll see about that pushover comment. We’ll see today, in fact. This should be fun.”
Oh, great. Darla, aka the new fish in the pond, had just managed to taunt the resident shark. If things were different, if this job weren’t so important to her, she wouldn’t care. She’d focus on casting, which she knew she was good at. But things were different, and this was going to be an interesting day. One of many, it was beginning to seem.
“We’re here!” Ellie announced. “Lights, camera, action. The new season has arrived.”
The car stopped in front of the hotel entrance and Darla could indeed see flashing camera lights. Adrenaline rushed through her. She inhaled and closed her eyes, forcing herself into performance mode, into the place she didn’t let the rest of the world bleed into. Where she was a talk show host and no fears could touch her.
But everything happened so fast. The car stopped and then she was outside, the crowds shouting and calling to her. Darla waved and smiled, blinking against the camera flashes.
Almost the very instant that she and the other judges cleared the front door, they were herded into a room with a big Stepping Up panel set up as a backdrop for photos. Blake was there, speaking into the camera, doing an intro about the judges arriving.
