Aim High, Never Rest

As I followed Rebecca, one of the many production assistants that scurried around the set of Varsity Vampires 3, through each of the main set-ups across the lot, I couldn’t help but wish that she would just stop for a moment and give me time to soak everything in. But the bounce of her auburn ponytail never seemed to slow as she gave me the run-through on the set, quickly nodding towards the green room as we jetted down one of the many hallways. It was all incredibly overwhelming to take in at once, and I felt like a rat in a maze as she briefly described each room to me in passing. I thought to myself that it was all really a waste of her time; I was doomed to get lost somehow. Being dumped on the lot felt like being dropped into a new school in the middle of the semester, especially since I was the last of the leads to get casted, so I was basically alone in my cluelessness.

It had been a little over a week since I’d last hung out with my friends at the pizzeria downtown. Since our little lunch together, I’d been swamped with class in the morning, meetings for the film in the afternoon, and trying to catch up with my schoolwork and prepare for shooting at night, so my social life was becoming a downward spiral. It wasn’t that I wanted to blow off my friends, in fact, right now I felt like I needed them more than ever as a means of escaping all this stress.

Plus, I couldn’t seem to get Hannah’s behavior at the pizzeria out of my thoughts. With only a couple exceptions, I considered most of the people in my building as my friends. Though there was always the tension of competition for the same roles, record deals, and cover shoots, we were all pretty close-knit because only we knew how much pressure came along with being young and in the industry. It just hurt me to see Hannah so withdrawn, especially because I know that that isn’t who she is. It kind of made me want to knock Carlos upside his goofy, helmet-clad head, which would’ve probably caused me more pain than it would him but regardless. It’s the principle.

Just being around all of my friends and watching their different struggles: Maxine’s crush on Jordan, James’s pursuit of Carley, that unspoken tension between Hannah and Carlos, was exhausting. It all sort of harkened back to that time when I became completely engrossed in my mom’s favorite soap opera, and I just felt like screaming at the screen, “Why can’t you all just get together already and be happy?!”

I guess either way, I’m running from something. I use my job as an escape from my social life, and I use my social life as a break from my job. There’s never any balance.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I ended up tuning Rebecca’s snippety voice out.

“Anyways Kandi, the first table read is at ten, so that gives you around forty-five minutes to wander around and get used to the feel of the set.” The words seemed to jot out of her pursed lips in a frenzy.

“Okay, thanks for showing me around.” I flashed her a quick smile before we went our separate ways.

Not wanting to get lost on my first day, I retraced our steps back to the green room and ducked my head in the doorway, scanning the room for any signs of a friendly face. The only person in the room was the Taylor Lautner lookalike I’d auditioned with previously, and I silently raked my brain as I tried to match the face to his name.

Tony, that was it.

Tony was stretched out across one of the two leather couches, flipping casually through a magazine as Dr. Phil droned on from the small television behind him.

As I slowly approached the free sofa across from him, my eyes subtly took note of his features. With his caramel skin, dark eyes, and espresso-colored hair, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Carlos, and when Tony noticed me, that same broad and reckless grin spread across his lips.

“Hey Kandi,” he greeted me as he unlodged a pair of tiny black earbuds from his ears. “How’s your first day going so far?”

I sighed as I sunk into the soft leather cushion. “Honestly, I’m already exhausted, and we haven’t even started yet.”

He chuckled slightly, his eyes still skimming the page in front of him. “I can relate. I’ve only been here a couple weeks myself, plus this is really my first experience with a big budget film, so it’s definitely overwhelming. You’ll get used to it though, I have faith.” He grinned over at me again, and the expression was immediately mirrored on my own lips.

“Well, it’s good to know that I’m not in this alone,” I admitted.

“Trust me, you aren’t,” Tony shot back before lowering his voice. “Dak’s pretty much the only returning cast member, so everyone’s new. Producers said they wanted to cast ‘fresh faces,’ but personally, I think it’s because Dak has a tendency of running all of his costars away.”

The tone in Tony’s voice seemed genuine, but there was an edge of warning to his words that made me not want to venture further. Though I appreciated how welcoming Tony was being, I just couldn’t picture Dak Zevon as being the male prima donna type.

My phone vibrated against my thigh, and I immediately fished it out.

“So where do you stay?” I asked, not wanting to be rudely engrossed in my phone and in an attempt to veer the conversation in another direction.

“I just bought a house in the hills.” Though he said it so nonchalantly, I could tell by the glimmer in his syrupy eyes that he was very proud of that fact. “What about you?”

“I moved into the Palm Woods a few months ago.”

“Really? I used to live there,” he laughed as he sat up, tossing the magazine to the coffee table between us.

“So you know how it is,” I prompted, my gaze flickering between the host on tv and Tony’s eyes.

“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “Everyone there is a total nut job. If I can offer you a piece of advice…” His voice trailed off as he waited for my permission.

I nodded, encouraging him to continue as I casually glanced down to check the text on my phone. It was from Logan, asking me how work was going. I quickly typed in my response: “Interesting…How’s bio?”

“Get out of there as soon as you get the means to.”

As Tony’s words lingered in the air, I got a reply from Logan: “Eh, the usual. We’re supposed to be dissecting a baby pig tomorrow, please don’t make me do it alone.”

I responded to Logan with: “I’ve got your back. Meet me tonight? So much to tell you.”

The conversation grew more casual from there, with Tony sharing his audition horror stories while I listened intently. He seemed like a nice enough guy, and before we knew it, it was time to head off to the table read. Luckily, I was with Tony, so I didn’t have to try to find the meeting room on my own.

The main meeting room was surrounded by drab gray walls and consisted of basically one long, rectangular plastic table that stretched across the length of the room, flanked by metal folding chairs. In front of each chair laid a folded up piece of paper that served as a nametag, with each character’s name in all bolded capital letters and the actor’s name underneath in smaller italics. I found my seat quickly, and Tony eased into the chair beside mine. I noticed that I was seated in between Tony and Dak, which I guess made sense considering the story.

According to what I’ve gathered from the script so far, Varsity Vampires 3 is centered around a love triangle between the three main characters: Cody (played by Tony), the best friend; Ethan (played by Dak), the boyfriend; and Addison (played by yours truly), the new girl. Cody is secretly a werewolf, hence the resemblance to Taylor Lautner, that plays basketball for a rival school, while Ethan is a vampire-slash-basketball-allstar-MVP-what have you at the school that Addison has just started attending. Basically, I think the writers of this franchise basically took snippets from Twilight, High School Musical, and Degrassi and just sort of worked them into one project with the mass appeal of all three and a seemingly endless budget.

As more people began to drift into the room, I began trying to match each face with each character’s name in an effort to mesh together all of the confusion in my head. With the exception of one tan-skinned brunette, all of the faces were unfamiliar, and even though I felt like I knew the one girl, I couldn’t remember her name or where I knew her from. As the cast members began to talk amongst themselves, I tried to inconspicuously squint at the italicized name on the girl’s tag: Jennifer Woods.

Though her name still didn’t ring a bell, I knew it would bother me until I remembered where I knew her from.

Dak came in last, breathing an apology to the director as he slid into the sole empty chair beside me.

“Sorry, my interview with Pop Tiger ran over,” he replied in a rush as he flipped to the first page of his script. His lips curved upward in a smile as he stole a sidelong glance in my direction.

Though I was a bundle of nerves the entire time, I had to admit that the table read wasn’t so bad. It just served as a chance for us to all get accustomed to saying our lines aloud and to get used to the different faces in the room. After reading through the script a couple times, we were let out for the day.

As people began to stream through the narrow doorway, I pulled the Jennifer girl to the side of the line.

“Um, okay, this is probably going to sound really strange, but I feel like I know you from somewhere. You wouldn’t happen to live at the Palm Woods, would you?” I asked, trying my best not to come off as some sort of stalker.

A soft smile warmed her sunkissed features, and the thought passed my mind that she almost looked like a female version of James. “Yeah, and I was actually thinking that same thing. I think we have a class together…maybe English?”

As we stood there waiting for the room to clear out, I tried to visualize the layout of my English class, and the girl’s face immediately fell into place, though it seemed a little different now that she wasn’t surrounded by her two best friends.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we do. Anyways, I’m Kandi, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Likewise,” she said with a smile, a rare expression for any one of the Jennifers. “Looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of each other now that we work together.”

I offered her a nod and a wave as she flitted through the doorway, and it wasn’t until Jennifer left that I noticed Dak Zevon had been waiting for me. It was odd, the effect he had on me. I’d never been the type to be starstruck or at a loss for words, but as I walked over to him, I couldn’t help but feel like my limbs were made of jello.

“Hey,” he said, his tone so effortless as he gazed down at me. “Kandi, right?”

The only response I could muster was a quick nod.

“Anyways, since you’re new to the set and all, I thought maybe you might like to have lunch with me?”

It took all that I had to get my voice to work right, to make the words come out smooth and steady. “Yeah, sure. That’d be great.”

We continued through the maze of corridors, and though I probably should’ve been paying attention to where we were going for future reference, I couldn’t keep my eyes from wandering back towards Dak. It was just something in the way he walked, the way his confidence shined through each powerful step like he owned this place. It wasn’t in the typical arrogant, douchebag way; his confidence was earned more from familiarity, like he was such an old pro at this that it no longer fazed him.

With a couple more left turns, we were entering into a more open area, and Dak’s aquamarine eyes scanned the makeshift cafeteria for something decent to eat.

“I don’t know if one of the PAs has already showed you around yet, but this is the cafeteria,” he said, waving over the area as if he were giving me a grand tour. “Doesn’t look like it has much to offer today.”

Suddenly my voice was functioning normally again.

“Actually, I did get a rushed tour this morning, but it looks like she neglected to tell me that we have a cafeteria.”

Dak laughed a little hardier than my comment deserved, and the awkwardness of the sound automatically made me feel more comfortable around him. He breezed past the line for hot lunch and snaked a couple miniature container of cereal and two bottles of milk, holding one container up for my approval.

“This work?”

“Yeah.”

He led me to an empty round table at the corner of the room, and I took a seat across from him, tearing open my serving of cereal and carefully pouring the milk in.

Though he seemed nothing but friendly, it was so difficult for me to actual eat in front of Dak, though he seemed to have no issues with eating in front of me.

In between bites, he asked, “So how’s your first day been?”

I laughed slightly to myself at the question. “Not so bad. Interesting to say the least. Everything just feels so overwhelming and intimidating to me right now.”

“That’s understandable,” he said before taking another bite of Frosted Flakes. “You’ll get used to it. I mean, I wouldn’t put a word in for you if there had been a doubt in my mind that you could handle it.”

It took a moment for his words to fully sink in.

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, the casting agents asked me which of the girls I enjoyed auditioning with the most and which I thought would be the best for the role, and you were my pick,” he explained, his stare obviously avoiding my own. “I mean, you were kind of the only one that didn’t completely flip out when I entered the room.”

It was hard for me to believe that out of all the other girls that had auditioned for this role, Dak Zevon chose me. It was definitely a lot to take it, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it yet.

“So anyways, I feel like we should probably hang out a little more since we’re going to be co-stars and everything,” he continued, raising the plastic container to drink the remnants of sugary milk. “Wanna go out for dinner tonight, my treat?”

Though I wasn’t really looking to pursue anything unprofessional with Dak, he was right. If we were going to believably play love interests on screen, it would probably be a whole lot easier if we got to know each other better. Plus, I would’ve been an idiot to pass up a dinner date with Dak fucking Zevon.

“Sure, sounds great.”