Dare You to Chase the Soccer Player (Rock Valley High 5)

“I asked for steady rain, not monsoon. And now, the field is too muddy to shoot.” He grunted something that sounded like a stream of curse words, but it was too fast for me to tell for sure. “We’re going to lose a day of shooting for this. I swear, the studio’s already breathing down my neck the way it is. We can’t take delays like this, but here we are. I’ll be glad to get out of this town by the end of the week.”

“So, that’s a wrap on today?” Alanis asked, cocking her hand on her hip.

Allen nodded. “That’s a wrap, until we can get this fixed. Go do something useful. Take a nap, for all I care. The kids are going to blow off some steam with a soccer match. I’ve threatened to fillet someone if we’re not back to business by tomorrow.”

She nodded as he walked away. I held the makeup tote awkwardly by my side and glanced at the boys still playing soccer under the broken rain machine. It really had made a muddy mess out of things, but they didn’t care.

Freddy was showing off his dribbling skills, trying to get the soccer ball around the others. Zane outmaneuvered him and stole the ball away. I smiled as I watched him lengthen his stride and aim for a small makeshift goal the boys had fashioned out of two garbage pails. With a hard kick, it sailed right between the goalie’s outstretched arms and through the goal, earning a cheer from Zane’s team. I held up my phone to get a picture of the whole cast, zooming in on Zane’s face as he celebrated his goal. He looked good in mud, in rain, and probably would rock a burlap sack, too.

“Makeup Girl,” Freddy called, jogging to my side. He held a hand on his chest as he leaned over and panted. “Come on, we need some more support. Zane’s team is kicking our tails.”

I arched an eyebrow at him. “You know you can call me Lexi, right? I mean, you were at my house just a few days ago.”

He stood up straight and shot me a grin. “Makeup Girl is more mysterious, don’t you think? Come on. Zane would never steal a ball from a girl. I’m counting on you being his handicap.”

Playing soccer in the mud was probably about the last thing I’d ever expected to want to do, but those boys made it seem so fun. Plus, a few of the extras were getting involved, including some of the other girls. Janelle, of course, sat on the sidelines in her chair, looking far too important to get herself dirty. The sight of her lording over the field made me want to try it all the more. Plus, they’d just turned off the rain machine, so my only nemesis at that point was the wet ground. I could keep it together.

I’d missed out on the fun in the pool. I wouldn’t miss out on this.

Zane had given me the courage.

“Okay, count me in.”

Freddy whooped in victory and I took a step toward him, before freezing to look back at Alanis. Oh, that was right. I still had a job to do. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, her brow arched. With a sheepish grin, I ducked my head and hugged the tote to my abdomen.

“That is, I’ll play if you’re done with me for the day,” I said, cringing.

“Fine, go.” She waved her newly red-painted nails at me and then took the tote. “Mud baths are good for the skin, anyway, so they say.”

I squealed my thanks, then turned to run onto the soccer field.

“Wait, Makeup Girl!” Janelle called, waving me toward her.

What now? Did she want to interrogate me some more? To make me feel inferior about my bone structure? I took a tentative step in her direction as she smiled at me in a way that could only be described as disarmingly friendly.

“Leave your jacket and stuff with me,” she said in a friendly tone I wasn’t used to hearing from her. Maybe we’d finally made some progress at my pool party on Friday. “You can’t let those boys destroy something that cute.”

I glanced down at my pink denim jacket. She had a point. It was one of my favorites. With a grateful smile, I handed it, my employee badge, and my phone over to her. “Thanks, Janelle.”

“No problem,” she answered with a sickly-sweet smile. “It’s the least I could do, since I’m not playing. Right?”

“Uh...yeah. Sure.”

I wasn’t sure what had gotten into Janelle, but it was nice to feel like a part of the crew for once. No demands, no eye rolls or anything coming from Miss Hollywood Star herself. Ready for the game, I ran out onto the field. The ground below my Sketchers squelched with every step. I joined the lineup, standing across from Zane, as Freddy placed the ball back into the middle of the field.

“Freddy thinks you’ll take it easy on me,” I said under my breath, holding back my smile. “Is that true?”

His eyes sparkled with a teasing tone as he shrugged. “Guess you’ll just have to wait and see, but I wouldn’t count on staying clean if I were you.”

“Oooh, a tough guy, huh?” I teased. “Bring it on.”

“You got it.”

We both watched Freddy run toward the ball and kick it into play. All at once, the field broke into motion. At least twenty of the actors had joined the game and were slipping and sliding through the mud, gunning for the ball. It was madness and chaos on every level. I hadn’t played soccer since my elementary school days, when Dad still held out hope of me being a star athlete—that hope died pretty fast—but I remembered enough to run toward the ball when Zane got possession.

“Get it, Makeup Girl,” Freddy called from behind. “He won’t fight a girl. Get in there.”

As I rushed up on him, Zane laughed and easily maneuvered the ball out of my reach with the toe of his shoe. He held up his hand and grinned at me.