He stood just behind the gate with his gorilla arms crossed tightly over a black t-shirt. His beady little brown eyes darted across the growing crowd of people, as if daring any of us to try and make a break for it. I wasn’t prepared to risk my life to see how fast this giant could run. With a shake of my head, I dropped out of the crowd and began walking toward the other side of the school.
There had to be another way inside. A way that didn’t leave me looking so out of place. A way that said I belong here.
As I turned a corner of the school building, the bushes beside me began to rustle. I slowed to a stop, listening to the giggles of what sounded like a boy and a girl having too good of a time. And when the bush began to rustle some more, two people popped out in front of me.
Sure enough, it was a couple. They both had bright red cheeks and wore athletic clothing with tennis shoes. The girl had a few inches on me, with a long, slender neck and shining blonde hair. The boy had an athletic body, with red hair and dimples that could’ve disarmed even the toughest of our cafeteria ladies.
“Oh, hi there,” the boy said as he nearly bumped into me. There wasn’t an ounce of shame in his expression. He adjusted his t-shirt with a laugh and then shot me a teasing grin. “You caught us.”
“Hmmm.” I raised an eyebrow as the blonde smacked her lips together and then looked right through me, as if I didn’t even exist. They weren’t Rock Valley High kids, that was for sure. “That’s a good bush for hiding.”
The boy nodded, then wagged his eyebrows. “Sure is. Wanna take it for a spin, sometime?”
The blonde hit him on the chest with a huff as I giggled behind my hand. “Geez, Freddy, can’t you at least have the decency not to hit on another girl when the one you just got done making out with is still within earshot?”
His dimpled grin only grew bigger and he shrugged. “Guess not.”
She rolled her eyes, but I could tell she wasn’t fazed. She carried herself with the confidence of nobility. Striding past me, she practically embalmed me with the heavy scent of her perfume. I held my breath, holding in a cough until she was several yards away, and then expelled the scent from my lungs.
“So...about that bush?” Freddy was still watching me with teasing eyes. He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder.
This guy was too much, but in a funny, harmless sort of way. I chuckled and then shook my head. Not that I was against using the bush for private matters, but I had better things to do today. “Not a chance.”
He shrugged again and then flashed his straight teeth in a smile. “Can’t say I didn’t try. Are you one of the extras?”
“No...” A light bulb moment went on inside my head. My lips curled into a smile and I cocked my hip, placing my hand on my waist. “Actually, I’m Alanis Nori’s assistant. I’ve been looking for her. Any chance you know where she is?”
He nodded and came up to drape his arm across my shoulders. Compared to the blonde chick, he smelled much better. Like sweat and citrus mixed together. It was a friendly maneuver that didn’t feel at all like a come-on, which was impressive considering the scandalous offer he’d just made to me.
“Come on, gorgeous. I’ll lead you right to her. And maybe then, I’ll earn a phone number?” I pressed my lips together and smiled up at him as he groaned. “Again, can’t say I didn’t try.”
As we walked toward the set, he chatted easily about his home in LA and how this movie part was his big break. Most of the other kids had gone home by now. It hadn’t taken them long to get bored. The big, burly body guard didn’t even bat an eye at me. We walked on through, Freddy’s arm still draped over my shoulder.
It wasn’t until we made our way through the line of storage containers and trailers did the site open up into a real mess of people bustling around. Massive camera sets and lights were pointed at the soccer field, where several kids ran drills with black and white balls, kicking them between bright orange cones. My eyes did a quick skim over the crowd for Zane, but he was nowhere to be seen. And when Freddy finally led me to a trailer with the word Makeup in bold letters printed on the door, I gave up the search to focus all my attention on the battle at hand.
“The next scene is coming up soon, so I’ll bet Alanis is in there,” Freddy said, taking his arm off my shoulders. He eyed me, doubt flashing in his eyes. “Are you sure you want to face that? She’ll eat you up alive.”
I chuckled, the first bit of nerves hitting me. “I’m her assistant, remember? I deal with this kind of stuff all the time.”
A knowing smile flashed on his face. “Uh huh. Assistant. And why haven’t I seen you before? I’d definitely remember a girl like you.”
I returned his grin. Okay, so this Freddy guy was smarter than I’d originally given him credit for. But he didn’t ask me any more questions. He tweaked my chin and then winked at me.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell. I’m about to go on, so I’d better run. Feel free to DM me if you ever change your mind about that bush, gorgeous.”
I laughed as he jogged in the direction of the soccer field. If my heart hadn’t totally gone bonkers over Zane, I could’ve looked twice at a guy like Freddy. He was totally the type of boy I would’ve dated. A guaranteed good time. Nothing too serious. And over before it began. But the old ticker in my chest was giving me a solid thumbs-down.
That one little kiss had seriously messed with me.
Shaking my head, I took a deep, cleansing breath to clear all of the boy issues out of my head. If anyone had asked my older sister, Aubrey, she’d tell them that boys were all I thought about. But she was wrong. If there was one thing I wanted most in this lifetime, it was to be a world famous makeup artist. And the woman standing inside this trailer could
build or bury that dream faster than a flick of a mascara wand.
With a steady hand, I pulled the trailer door open. My feet took the three steps up to the floor with a confidence I hoped would snag me the job. And when I turned at the top of the stairs, the first thing that struck me was the bright, white interior. I wasn’t sure if I was expecting it to look like the inside of my Uncle Matt’s RV, but everything about the interior of this trailer had been built for a makeup artist of Alanis Nori’s capabilities.
The floor was covered in a beautiful deep gray wood laminate. The walls were so white they almost hurt my eyes. At the far end, four black leather swivel chairs sat in front of a wall of mirrors. Bubble lights over the mirrors flooded the entire space with light so bright I was pretty sure it cast every single crater along the surface of my face into view. For the first time today, I felt a brush of nerves as I self-consciously patted my cheeks, hoping against hope that the concealer I’d spent over fifty bucks on last week was doing its job.
But there was no time to linger on my flaws. Only one chair in the makeup trailer was currently occupied and there was Alanis Nori herself kneeling in front of it, dabbing a lip gloss wand across the mouth of a girl with jet black hair and pink highlights. My body froze and my mind exploded with admiration for the artful way she applied the nude color. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.