He knows just what to say to make everyone feel better, Olivia thought, still buzzing with excitement that she’d been one of the lucky ones.
Olivia couldn’t deny it. Jackson was perfect boyfriend material.
Sophia refused to leave the craft service truck until they’d eaten their steak sandwiches, but Ivy was itching to get to Olivia.
I’ve got my proof, Ivy thought. Now I can say something before Olivia gets in too deep!
‘Will you admit it now?’ Ivy asked Sophia as they finally set off.
Sophia sighed. ‘It looks like you were right.’
‘Ha!’ Ivy said. ‘And now I’ve got to warn Olivia.’
‘Warn Olivia about what?’ Charlotte Brown had stopped right in front of them, flanked by Katie and Allison.
‘Uh.’ Ivy had to come up with something convincing but uninformative – and quick! ‘Warn her about . . . the competition! I heard there’s a girl trying out who’s been in some TV commercials.’
Charlotte rolled her eyes. ‘That doesn’t matter. Philippe has already announced those of us who got through – and, even though Olivia made it, I’m practically under contract already.’
Ivy felt a rush of pride that her sister had made it through, but was now doubly determined to find her and tell her what she’d learned about Jackson. She shouldn’t go giving her heart away without knowing who she was giving it to. She threw an urgent look at Sophia.
‘Well,’ Ivy said. ‘Watch out for those other auditionees. They’ll do anything for the job.’
Charlotte put her hands on her hips. ‘Like they’d get past me.’
‘By the way.’ Ivy tried to sound casual. ‘Have you seen Olivia?’
‘She said she wanted to hang around in the diner more,’ Charlotte said.
Ivy thanked her and headed across the parking lot to the Meat & Greet, which was completely surrounded by people. It looked like every unsuccessful budding actress was waiting to catch another glimpse of Jackson.
‘I can’t see Olivia,’ Ivy said to Sophia.
Sophia was a few inches taller and stood on her tiptoes to look over the crowd. ‘Maybe we should try to push our way through to the diner?’
Ivy nodded. She had to find her sister, right away.
Olivia and Camilla were tucked away in a corner of the reception trailer, as far from the chaos of the diner as they could get. Any other time, she would have waited for Jackson with the others but Olivia wanted to get to work memorising her lines in peace.
The lines were from the opening scene and were supposed to make Jackson’s character, Chase, fall in love with Mia. The thought of doing a romantic scene with Jackson made Olivia feel a little shy, but she was just going to have to put all that to one side and be professional.
‘Ready?’ Camilla said.
‘Let’s do it,’ Olivia replied.
She started the scene by reaching for a box of tissues on the windowsill, pretending it was the last half-shell of coconut juice at a Hawaiian buffet. Camilla, playing Jackson’s part, did the same and bumped into her.
Camilla read, ‘Chase looks into Mia’s eyes and what he sees stops him in his tracks.’ She dropped her jaw and slapped her hands on either side of her mouth.
‘Ha, ha,’ Olivia replied, but she stayed in character and kept going with the lines.
‘Chase grabs a coconut from the fruit display in one hand and Mia’s hand in the other and pulls her to the beach,’ read Camilla. She grabbed the tissues and hit the box with a nearby can of drink. ‘Chase tries to smash open the coconut with a rock. “I’m going to open it for you,” he says.’ Camilla said Chase’s lines in a deep, very unconvincing man’s voice.
‘Maybe if you were wearing a grass skirt,’ Olivia/Mia teased.
‘Maybe if I’d just taken that last coconut drink, I wouldn’t be humiliating myself,’ was Camilla/Chase’s reply.
‘I’m glad you didn’t.’ Olivia knew this was supposed to be the really romantic bit where she admits a little that she likes him. ‘Because watching you try to crack that nut is the funniest thing I’ve seen this trip.’
‘So you think that you could do better?’ Camilla/Chase challenged.
The script had Mia take the rock from Chase. Olivia had never opened a coconut before but the script made it pretty clear. ‘You see these three indents here?’ She pointed at two of the letters on the can. ‘The Polynesians say that these three indents are the face of the coconut. These two are the eyes and this is the mouth. The mouth is the weakest point.’
Olivia pretended to strike the coconut and get it open. Then she was supposed to smile the most beautiful smile Chase has ever seen. To make herself do this just right she thought of the moment when Jackson grabbed her hand before the big announcement about the auditions.
‘You know, you’re really good at this,’ Camilla said, dropping the silly manly voice. ‘When you said those lines, you became this whole new character. It was you, but you were different – and I really believed what you were saying.’
‘Thanks, Camilla.’
‘You should definitely be an actress.’
Olivia was always comfortable entertaining people when she was cheering, and she had to be super-careful about the vampire secret; maybe acting was just another form of all that? And lately, she could find plenty of inspiration for romance. ‘Maybe today will be my big break,’ she said.
‘But remember that if Philippe is stupid enough to give the part to someone else, it doesn’t mean you aren’t good,’ Camilla countered.