The New Girl

I park my car in the parking lot of the set. I take a deep breath to recollect myself. I look in the mirror, just making sure there is nothing in my teeth or anything embarrassing on my face. I let out a sigh and realize this is as good as it's going to get. I grab my keys, my phone, and my coffee. It's very early for me to be up and on days like this, caffeinated beverages are my best friends.

I walk into the building and a woman greets me. "Elle Hillin?" she asks. She's wearing a headset and holding a coffee. I nod my head in response to my question and she smiles. "We're happy to see you! Come with me!"

I follow her into a room and then am greeted by two men. One of them I am very familiar with, Jared Padalecki. I was a fan of Supernatural before I even auditioned for this part, so when I was told I got it, I was on cloud nine. The second man I am not so familiar with. I know he's Eric Kripke, and I know his voice because we spoke on the phone, but I wouldn't be able to point him out in a crowd of people. "Hello, Elle! I'm Eric, we spoke on the phone," he tells me.

I smile, and nod," Yes I remember."

"And this is Jared," he says, introducing person I already know a lot about.

"Nice to meet you," I say, shaking his hand. "I was a fan of the show before I even got this part so I know who you all are," I smile. They both smile back.

"That's good!" Eric says. "So, as you know, you are going to be playing Sam's good friend from college, Whitney." I nod. "I have thought, since you two will be playing each other's good friends, it would be a good thing for you to be good friends off of set too. Jared already knows about this, and is happy to do it. We'll only do it if you're comfortable with getting to know someone on such a personal level."

I pause for a moment to take it all in. I soon force a smile," Yes of course! I'd be happy to." They both smile. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to get to know Jared very well, who wouldn't? I am just terribly awkward with new people, and I'm afraid I'm going to ruin it, but what am I supposed to say? 'No I'm a really awkward person and I'd prefer to just stay away from you all as much as I can.' ? I know it seems weird for an actor to be awkward with new people, but it acting actually helps. It let's me connect with people in a way I normally wouldn't be able to.

"Great! Today we aren't going to shoot any scenes. The first scene you two with have together will be in two days. So until then, get to know each other a little bit, and we'll see how it goes from there," Eric tells us. We both nod our heads, understanding. "I'll leave you two alone and get to know each other a little better." He leaves the room and my heart sinks. I hope I don't ruin this.

"So, as you know now, I'm Jared," Jared tells me. He gives me his usually happy smile. I smile back.

"And I'm Elle," I say, pointing to myself.

"So, let's just get started with this thing. What are your favorite things?" he starts. I raise my eyebrows, this is going pretty quick.

"My favorite animal is a horse," I start. He nods his head and makes a 'not bad' face. I can't help but smile. "My favorite food is pizza, my favorite sport is hockey, my favorite color is red, my favorite number is 29..." I can't think of anything else. "What about Mr. Padalecki?" Mr. Padalecki? Why wasn't I bless with good charisma skills like every other person in my family?

"Well, my favorite book is 'The Great Gatsby', my favorite food is a good cheeseburger with mustard lettuce and tomato, my favorite movie is 'Good Will Hunting', my favorite color is blue, and my favorite song is 'I'm Yours'," he replies with the same smile. He's like a ball of sunshine and I can't help but be happy around him, even though a small part of me is kicking myself for my awkward personality.

"Yours are much more interesting than mine," I say. That's the best you got, Elle? Get it together! "Isn't a cheeseburger with mustard lettuce and tomato a hamburger then?"

"No, a hamburger also has ketchup. I don't like ketchup on my burgers," he replies very serious. I nod my head.

"The more you know," I say. He smiles.

"What do you like to do? You seem like a very interesting person," he says. I can't help but blush. I blush very easily which doesn't help with my awkwardness.

"Why thank you. When I'm bored I take baths, they make me think better," and from there I just let it out. I told him everything he asked about, I couldn't help it, he made me feel comfortable when deep inside I was telling myself I needed to stop talking because I was embarrassing myself.

~~~~

"...and from then on I have not been able to look at Ronald McDonald the same," I say, laughing between words. Jared's laughing too, thankfully. I can see tears coming from his eyes and I can feel tears coming from mine from laughing so hard. I am so thankful he's such an amazing person. If it would've been anyone else this whole thing would have been a disaster.

Suddenly there's a knock on the door. "Come in!" Jared yells.

"Hey you two, sorry to kill the obvious joyful mood, but we're closing up and you've both been in here for three hours, so I think it's time to go," the same girl who greeted me at the door says. I raise my eyebrows shocked. I felt like 20 minutes.

"Wow, alright," Jared says and gets up. I get up and follow him out of the room.

"So you two really hit it off?" the woman says. We both look at each other and nod.

"Yeah," we say in unison.

"That's great!"

Like a gentleman he walks me to my car. "Thank you," I tell him. He thinks I'm just thanking him for walking me to my car, but I'm thanking him for this whole three hours that we've talked. If it wasn't for his sunshine personality it would have been a completely different three hours. I hope we get to know each other much more.

"No problem," he says. "We will definitely make more plans to just talk, you're a lot of fun to talk to." I smile.

"Touche," I reply. He smiles back and I close my door and pull away. I let out a small squeal when I pull into the street. That whole night I could not take the smile off of my face. This has been the best day I've had in a very long time.