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This money would be life-changing, and I couldn’t believe I’d been on the verge of turning it down. Pretending to have sex with the hottest movie star on the planet suddenly felt much moreachievable: hell, I’d eat my dinner out of a toilet bowl for this kind of cash.
A used one.
But then I opened the shooting schedule. It contained a spreadsheet that listed the scenes, the dates they would be filmed, the actors involved, and notes about the shooting location and anything else we needed to know. I’d told myself that I wouldn’t need to worry about the sex scene for at least a few weeks since it occurred in the last third of the movie: but as I read through the spreadsheet, I realized that the scenes were being shot out of sequence.
And my first sex scene with Dean was being filmed on Friday.ThisFriday.
I suddenly felt dizzy. I stood up, became lightheaded, and sat down again. Today was Wednesday, with only an hour or so left, and that gave me oneday to prepare. My mouth became dry as I called April, and I became more anxious with every unanswered ring.
“Hey Kyla, what’s up?” April asked when she eventually answered. Her voice was thick — she’d probably been asleep — but I was too buzzed to feel bad about waking her up.
“I have to film the sex scene with Dean on Friday,” I said too quickly, my words tumbling over each other.
“What?” April’s voice became clearer, and I imagined her sitting up in bed. “What did you say?”
“Sex scene. Friday. With Dean.”
“You lucky fucker.” April’s voice sounded sleepy again. “If you feel like having some kind of meltdown so they can pick another extra for the role, I’ll put my hand up.”
“How am I supposed to do this without having a panic attack?”
“Why are you asking me?” April yawned. “Aren’t you the special one?”
I let her words sink in. Was she jealous? That didn’t seem fair after she’d encouraged me to take the role.
“Never mind,” I said, although I desperately wanted to talk it through. “I’ll work it out.”
I hung up the phone, feeling empty. April was my best friend and had been since we were five — I never expected her to resent me for taking this opportunity. It wasn’t like I’d even applied — the offer had come out of nowhere.
But on another level, I couldn’t blame her for feeling like that. Being spotted by an agent had been her dream for as long as I could remember. I drove home feeling lonely, a feeling that was compounded by the fact that by the time I got there, dad had already gone to bed and the house was dark.
14
KYLA
By the time morning rolled around, I didn’t feel any better.
I’d slept with the script next to me and rolled over on it through the night, and now the first twenty pages looked battered and dog-eared. I shoved it in my bag, grabbed a slice of toast from the kitchen, and kissed my dad on the cheek as I rushed out the door.
We were shooting outdoor scenes today in a section of Rainforest Resort that used to be a stunning garden, but had since become overgrown. Tom and Daisy would traipse through the wilderness and, although they argued, they would also have moments of tenderness where Dean would rescue me from a snake and I, as Daisy, would help him when he fell.
As I turned into the parking lot, I was confused by the presence of a large bus parked over several car spaces. Rainforest Resort had been non-operational for years, so it made no sense that a bus would bring tourists here. But as I made my way to the garden, the sound of many high-pitched voices floated through the foliage and suddenly, the bus made more sense. I followed the rocky path into a clearing to findat least thirty children, all wearing blue and yellow school uniforms.
“What’s going on?” I asked Dean. Since today’s scenes only included the two of us, he was the only other actor here: Wyatt and Isaac must have been in their trailers, I reasoned.
“A local elementary school wanted the kids to get a behind-the-scenes view of what filming a movie is like,” Dean said. “The principal must have gone over Preston’s head, because he’spissed.”
He looked over to where the crew were setting up cameras on dollys and cranes that would follow us through the jungle. Preston was talking to one of the crew members and ignoring the children.
There were two teachers with the group, and they both seemed to be waiting for instructions from Preston, who didn’t look like he was about to give any. They stood together, talking to each other and occasionally calling a child who ventured too far from the rest of the group.
It was chaos.
“Everyone,” I called out, projecting my voice the way I’d learned from my high school drama teacher and clapping my hands to get their attention. Thirty small humans stopped what they were doing and looked at me. “Why don’t we all sit here?” I gestured to a patch of soft-looking grass. “And show me how straight you can sit up.”
The kids did as I instructed, sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of me. They watched me with wide eyes, waiting for my next instruction.
“I’m Kyla Wright,” I said. “One of the stars of this movie. This is Dean Hart.”
