If You Asked Me If I Loved Him, I'd Lie.

I think I would rather watch fourteen straight hours of Cats than to ever relive that horrendous plane ride ever again. It was bad enough that I was on a direct flight, meaning over twelve hours of flying, but to just make it that much better (sarcasm noted), I was seated next to the most uptight business man, who spent most of those twelve hours explaining every detail of his messy divorce and trying to convince me that his wife was a whore.

When I finally received the opportunity to try and sleep, I awoke ten minutes later to find that he was trying to steal my iPod right out of my hands. After we landed, I was relieved, thinking that that signaled the ending of my bad luck, only to be informed that my luggage was possibly lost in transition. Finally, it was found again, someone had placed it in the wrong compartment, and I was set free.

But none of that matter now, in fact, it was already behind me. Because I was here.

I trudged out of the airport and onto the streets of America, immediately cringing at the sight, smell and sound that I encountered. I suddenly regretted trying to avoid being a burden to my uncle and offering to catch a taxi over to his house; with the amount of taxi’s flying past without a glance, it was going to be impossible to signal one.

After ten ignored signals, a good three minutes of yelling at every yellow vehicle and an almost-disaster that involved a puddle, a taxi driver took pity on my downtrodden body language and pulled up to the curb, signaling for me to get in.

“Where you going, kid?” The cabbie asked, chewing his gum obnoxiously.

“I, uh, I’m going to...” I searched my pocket quickly for the scrap paper that held Uncle Tom’s address, before repeating it to the driver.

“You an Aussie?” He asked, glancing at me through the rear-view mirror indifferently.

“Er, no, I’m from New Zealand,” I explained quickly, hating the stale air of cigarettes and vomit.

“Where?” He asked, speaking loudly as if he hadn’t been able to hear me and that would up his chances hearing correctly this time round.

“Um, don’t worry,” I mumbled, hoping that would be our last conversation with the exception of asking how much I owed him. I played with the ends of my freshly dyed blonde hair, slightly hating the color. That was one of the downsides of the character I had to play, she was a blonde, meaning I had to be too. I tried glancing out the window but everything passed so quickly it began to unsettle my stomach.

After what felt like forever and a day, the cab pulled up outside a flashing looking building. I threw a few notes at the seedy cabbie and told him to keep the change as I grabbed out my luggage and gapped it up the driveway quickly.

I pressed the doorbell twice before stepping back and waiting patiently. A few moments later, a young, shaggy haired man wearing thick, black glasses and an erratic smile stepped out to meet me.

“Uncle Tom!” I said happily, throwing myself forward and giving him a hug. He hugged me back as equally as tight, before stepping back to get a good look at me.

“Wow, Charlotte, my little Lottie. Look at how much you’ve grown up! When was the last time I saw you?” He asked, still smiling brightly as he ushered me inside.

“I think it was my 14th birthday, so that would be three years ago,” I said, rolling my eyes and pulling off the scarf from around my neck.

“It has been a long time! So how was your flight?”

“It would be safer just to move on and give me the tour,” I replied with bitterness, not wanting to relive the experience of that time. Uncle Tom raised his eyebrows at me, but knew not to press the situation any further. That was a similarity between my mother and I, and Uncle Tom grew up knowing not to push subjects with my mother, and knew how to handle me in that area.

Uncle Tom started showing me around the place, that was so massive but seemed so empty, it was barely personalized with photos with the expectation of his bedroom that held many pictures of our family. The emptiness that the house held suddenly reminded me of the silent agreement my uncle and I held. Uncle Tom was a lawyer, and often had to leave for business trips for long periods of time, and for the month that I stayed, it would be no different. We both had decided it would be better for the both of us to leave that minor detail out of my mother’s awareness, knowing full well it would hinder my chances of actually being here. Looking back on that, I was now a little unsure. It was such a big house, and although I loved being alone, maybe it was just a little too alone for me.

“And the last bedroom, is yours,” Uncle Tom said, stopping at the last door and pushing it open with a smile. He seemed to be thrilled with the idea of not having the house all to himself, and I glowed to think I was so welcome.

“You must be tired, so I will leave you to it. I hope you sleep well, and I have to leave early in the morning, but I’ll be here at six so you can tell me all about your day!” Uncle Tom kissed the top of my head before leaving, closing the door behind him.

The bedroom was beautiful, and different to the rest of the house. It was box-shaped and stuck out the side of the house, and the first detail to capture my attention was the fact that two walls of the room were in fact, ceiling to floor windows overlooking the entire city. It was gorgeous. The color scheme consisted whites and reds, with modernized white chairs, and large red and black abstract paintings on the walls, with the bed sitting further in the corner. It was perfect. Suddenly, staying in this city wasn’t so daunting, and I fell asleep to a city lullaby with a smile on my face.

-&-

“Hello, you must be Charlotte Kensington, I’m Craig Matthews, co-director of Sonny With A Chance,” A man with a red face and shiny head said to me as I walked through the door I had been pointed toward by the uninterested secretary.

“Oh, Mr Matthews! Hi, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” I answered cheerfully, sticking out my hand that he took gingerly to shake. I was determined to not let my nerves ruin this for me, and to make a big impression.

“As it is you. Well, here’s the game plan,” He said, full of that fake enthusiasm I had heard so much about. “Today you will get the tour of the set, get acquainted with co-stars, basically just get familiar with everything and watch a couple shoots so you know how we do here, then tomorrow we will go over the boring stuff, such as contracts and scripts. Yeah?”

“Uh, yeah, sure, sounds great!” I managed out, slightly over-whelmed with the noise, the lights and this co-director who clearly did not know how to act his age. I looked over Mr Matthews’ shoulder and walking toward the two of us was the one and only, Demi Lovato.

“Hey Mr Matthews, looking’ good! Oh, you must be Charlotte, I’m Demi,” Demi said brightly, smiling that black hole of a smile and pulling me into a hug, Mr Matthews running his fingers over his scalp in a smirk at the compliment he received. Ugh.

“Now, you are going to love it here, it’s so much fun! Let’s see who we can introduce you to... Oh! There’s Doug, he plays-”

“Grady!” I filled in with a smile, and Demi nodded her approval and called him over.
“Hey, you must be the new girl, I’m Doug, and this...” He reached over and dragged a boy wearing a brown fedora hat over towards us. “This is Brandon, who plays-”

“Nico. It’s a pleasure to meet you two, I’m Charlotte, but Lottie works just fine,” I said, trying to smile and not focus on that bad feeling I felt in my stomach. Could they see me shaking? If they didn’t, that would be a miracle.

“Wow, are you from Australia? That’s an interesting accent!” Brandon asked, peering intensely at me, as if the answer was tattooed under my fringe.

“Uh, no actually, I’m from New Zealand. Close though,” I added quickly, not wanting to seem rude.

“I’ve never been there before!” Demi said wishfully, and the rest of them agreed.

“Really? It’s amazing, you really should. Maybe on a world tour?” I said pointedly at Demi, and she smiled.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Now, let’s show Lottie where we will be shooting, I bet you are dying to see it!” Demi said happily, and the group began to walk off with me just in tow. Lottie? Why had I told them they could call me Lottie? Only my Uncle called me that. Sure, I mean, it sounded more... like an actress name, but...

I suddenly bumped into something, someone, resulting into a high pitched scream that soon turned into a whine.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention and oh gosh, you’re Tiffany, I’m so sorry!” Just my luck, I managed to bump into Tiffany, the girl that played Tawni who I had to work closely with, seeing as I was playing her cousin. I had also mange to make her spill her soda all down her sequined top.

I ran over to the catering table and grabbed some napkins, returning to the still whining Tiffany and tried to clean off as much as I could. Demi, Doug and Brandon ran back and looked confused at the scene they saw.

“Tiffany, I’m so sorry!”

“That’s... uh, that’s okay, it’s just a good thing I didn’t grab a coffee, isn’t it?” She hissed out through clenched teeth, showing that it certainly was not okay that she was drenched in a caffeinated drink. She stormed off to find something else to wear, and I turned back to Demi with a grimace.

“She hates me, doesn’t she?”

Demi looked like she had been caught off guard. “No, no, she might be a little annoyed, but it was an accident, she’ll come round.” She didn’t look very certain at all, which was just a tad worrying.

“Anyway, I’ll show you to the set. It isn’t very big but-”

“That’s what she said!” I began to laugh at my joke, instantly stopping when I realized everyone else was giving me a strange look. If I was back at home, my friends and I would be close to tears right now, instead, the three of them continued to look at me as if a third arm had grown out of my back.

“Yeah, anyway...” Demi began to walk off, followed by Brandon and Doug who will still confused by my joke. I flushed red and cursed my stupid sense of humor, looking down to the ground until I suddenly tripped over a cord and went head first... into the set, pulling down everything I was trying to reach for to save myself. After the crashing was over, the backdrop swung down, covering up myself and my embarrassment.

I groaned into the ground and muttered, “I guess I should have been a little more specific when I said I wanted to big impression.”