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1
KYLA
“Have you heard anything?” my friend April hissed over my shoulder.
I did my best to ignore her and focused on the customer in front of me.
“One burger and fries, coming right up,” I said with a smile as I passed the serious-looking woman a table number. The woman gave me a sour look, as though I’d told her I was planning to spit in her food, and moved away.
April poked my ribs with something sharp.
“Kyla?”
“Ouch,” I protested and rubbed my side. She’d jabbed me with the pointy end of a salt shaker, and I snatched it away before she could do it again. “No, I haven’t, okay?”
There was a long line of customers waiting to order, and although I was just as excited as April, I had a job to do. It was a hot weekend, and the cafe was busy, full of muddy kids who’d finished their sports games, students who looked like they’d been awake all night, and old men who read the newspaper and quizzed me about the war in Ukraine when I collected their plates. I worked hard so none of our customers had to wait long,but it was tough to stay focused when April kept bugging me every few seconds.
I could understand her excitement, though. Nothing happened in our sleepy Australian town: it was beautiful, with thick ancient trees and dense forests, but boring. Every day ran like clockwork: mothers doing the school drop-off at nine, lunch between midday and two, a lull in customers in the early afternoon, and my dad snoring on the couch before I arrived home. Rinse and repeat.
I’d expected to live like this forever until April sent me a screenshot of a talent agency’s callout, with eleven excited smiley-face emojis.
Casting call forPushing Daisy, a contemporary romance about two ex-lovers whose road trip takes an unexpected turn when their car breaks down. Dates: late January to mid-February. Location: Kurnee, Queensland. Local talent only, applicants must be at least 21 years old and 5’2” tall.
Interested?she’d texted, and at first I thought it was a prank. A Hollywood movie shootinghere, half a world away from their studios? Not a chance. But as I typed a flippant reply, I thought of all the films that had been shot in Australia, and the idea started to feel less insane:The Matrix,Wolverine,Elvis…
I’d had fun in my drama classes at school, I was sure I could take a couple of weeks off work, and who wouldn’t love the idea of seeing themselves on the big screen?
Why not?I typed and clicked the link she’d sent me.
The application process was easy: an online form and a recent photograph of myself. But waiting for their response? That was the hard part.
It had been two weeks since we’d lodged our applications, and if we didn’t hear something soon, April was going to lose her mind.
A balding man was next in line, and I squared my shoulders as he reached the counter.
“Welcome to Bob’s Books and Bites. What can I get for you today?” I asked in my most upbeat voice.
The man narrowed his eyes at the laminated menu in his hands. His glasses dangled from his pocket, but he didn’t put them on.
“Do you have sausage rolls?” he asked.
I ground my molars, fighting the urge to point out that if we sold them, they would be on the menu. It wasn’t like we had a secret stockpile of food that we kept out the back for ourselves — everything we had was either listed on those two pages, or the specials board behind me.
“Sorry,” I said, shaking my head and hoping that I looked slightly disappointed. “But our pie of the day is steak and Guinness — would you like that instead?”
The man hesitated.
“I’ll get a coffee,” he said, and placed the menu with the others next to the till. “Black, with two sugars.”
“Certainly.” I punched in his order and passed him a table number: forty-eight. “I’ll bring it out when it’s ready.”
“Where’s your phone?” April whispered. “I’ll go check it for you.”
“In the break room.” I smiled at the next customer, a woman with two unruly sons. “Welcome to Bob’s Books and Bites. What can I get for you today?”
“I don’t know why they haven’t called yet,” April lamented, as the boys argued over whether they wanted fries or nuggets. “What’s to decide? We’re young and hot, and fit all their criteria.” She sighed dramatically. “Just imagine…what ifa famous casting director spots us and wants us in their next movie? We could be famous!”
“Maybeyoucould be famous.” I added the woman’s order to the computer and waited while she swiped her phone across the card terminal to pay. I’d seen enough movies to know that even if we were selected, we’d be nothing more than blurred shapes behind the lead actors. And even if wewerenoticed, my prosthetic leg guaranteed I’d never be hired as an actress. Who’d ever heard of an amputee movie star?
