12

"And action!" Ricardo called, almost before Laura was out of the shot.

Sophia opened the book, her expression unreadable. For a moment, Ricardo was afraid that this book might not be any better than the last. He took a breath, ready to stop the action again, but Sophia's expression changed subtly. He stopped, watching her intently. "Get in close on this," he told the cameraman, his voice barely a whisper.

Ricardo watched on the monitor as the shot closed in on Sophia's face. Her normally cool expression had transformed. Her eyes flicked across the page of the book, and there seemed to be a hunger inside, as if she couldn't get enough of the story. Ricardo let the cameras roll as Sophia read for several minutes. She seemed to forget that the rest of them were still there. Once, she shifted her position, turning on the bench so she could prop her feet up and rest the book on her knees. She chewed her lip gently, and Ricardo grinned - he never would have seen these reactions with that piece of crap book that they had started with.

Finally, satisfied that they had sufficient footage of Sophia enjoying the book, Ricardo made a motion with his hand, cueing Blake's entrance.

From across the set, Blake gave a thumb's up signal before starting his walk towards the bench. He approached from the side. Had Sophia stayed in her initial position, he would have been coming from her left, but with the way she had shifted, she was now facing him. Unless she looked up, however, she probably would not see him. Watching the scene play out before him, Ricardo wondered why he hadn't thought of this positioning on his own - it was going to look much better than the planned shot.

As he got closer to the bench, Blake slowed down. Both in character and out of character, he watched Sophia. There was something different about her... something more human than he was used to seeing. He stopped at the side of the bench and just watched her as she read. He smiled as he looked down towards her, trying to keep his mind on his character - he had just spotted the woman who was exactly what he had been looking for all of his life, and now he had to get her, without scaring her off.

"Hello," he said, breaking the spell that the book seemed to cast on Sophia.

"What?" she replied, startled as the book dropped from her hands.

Blake reached down and picked it up, handing it back to her, smiling at the confusion that was in her eyes. It looked as if she had forgotten where she was, if just for the moment. "I think this is yours," he said.

"Thank you," she replied, offering him a slightly dazed smile as she tried to figure out how to get back to the script. The director hadn't stopped them yet, so it would appear that he was comfortable with the slight ad libbing that was going on.

"I'm Zach," Blake said, extending his hand towards Sophia.

"Kat," she replied, shaking his hand. "Um, I'm sorry, should I know you?"

11

As the director led Sophia away, Laura looked at Anna and rolled her eyes again. Anna laughed. "Have fun! I'll be over at Stage B for a bit, then I'll come back to touch her up."

"Thanks," Laura said wryly. She took a deep breath, trying to convince herself that a bad start didn't necessarily lead to a bad day, then followed behind Ricardo and Sophia. By the time she arrived at the set a few minutes later, the actors were all in place, and the lighting guys were turning on their equipment for the first scene.

"And, action!" Ricardo called.

Sophia picked up her book and crossed her legs, getting comfortable on the park bench. In the bright lights, she flipped through the pages, looking bored.

"Cut!" Ricardo yelled. "Sophia, darling," he said, approaching her so he didn't have to shout. "Let's try something different. Your character is... bookish. She likes to read. I need you to look excited about this book - it's interesting to her."

Sophia huffed and put on a pout. "But this is a boring book!" she protested, holding it up. "It's old and hard to read."

Laura was already on her way to the props people when Ricardo called out, "Can we get a new book?"

"I'm on it!" Laura called back. "What can you give me?" she asked the nearest prop technician.

"Give me a minute," he said, scrambling into the trailer behind him. A few moments later, he reemerged with a paperback book in one hand and a hardcover book in the other. The paperback was clearly a romance novel - the scantily-clad woman and the muscular man on the cover left no doubt. The hardcover book looked to be of a similar genre. It seemed likely that Sophia would appreciate either of them, at least compared to what she was reading now, but Laura wasn't sure about the character.

"Give me the hardcover," she decided. "But keep the dust jacket." The man handed it over, and without the dust jacket, the romance novel looked much more like the book that Sophia was already holding. Laura glanced at the title - "In the Garden" - and decided that it could pass as a non-fiction title, something that Sophia's character was likely to read. Hurrying back over to where Sophia waited, Laura handed her the book.

"'In the Garden'?" Sophia half-asked as she read the title. "What is this, a gardening book?"

Laura tried to hide her smile. "No, it's a romance novel, with a gardening title. Hope you like it." Before the actress could say another word, Laura hurried off with the other, boring book in her hand.

"And action!" Ricardo called, almost before Laura was out of the shot.

10

Anna put her arm around the younger woman and gave her a hug. "Hey, it's a foot in the door. I take it that, uh, Sophia doesn't know about..." She tilted her head in Ricardo's general direction.

"No," Laura said, shaking her head, "And I want to keep it that way for as long as I can."

"She would probably treat you better if she knew," Anna pointed out.

Laura rolled her eyes. "Ricky told me the same thing yesterday. But this is something I really want to do on my own, Anna. I need to."

"I know, chica," Anna said, smiling. "Why do you think I've kept quiet about who my cousin is?" Laura smiled back. It was good to know that Anna had made it on her own - maybe she really could do the same.

"Hey!" Ricardo barked, coming over to the trailer. He sounded gruff, but he winked at the two women in front of him. "Where's my star?"

"Right here, Ricardo, dear," Sophia said, stepping out of her trailer.

"Sophia! You look beautiful - come and sit in the light for me, so we can share you with the world," Ricardo said theatrically, offering his arm to the actress.

"That sounds like a lovely idea," Sophia replied, taking his arm.

As the director led her away, Laura looked at Anna and rolled her eyes again. Anna laughed. "Have fun! I'll be over at Stage B for a bit, then I'll come back to touch her up." "Thanks," Laura said wryly.

9

"Ms. Cornish?" Laura called, knocking once more. "Mr. Jarvis has called for places."

Inside her trailer, Sophia sat serenely as her personal make-up artist finished her work.

"Would you be a dear and tell that girl outside that I will be ready when I am ready?" Sophia asked the make-up artist, her voice almost too sweet.

"Of course," the woman replied, and stepped outside.

"Anna!" Laura jumped back as the door opened, surprised to see her cousin stepping out.

"She's in a mood today, Laura," the make-up artist warned after closing the door. "She's being really sweet..."

"Shit," Laura muttered. When Sophia started out sweet, things usually ended up being much worse than normal by the end of the day.

"Anyway, she's all made up, hair done, and she says she'll be ready when she's ready," Anna continued. "My stuff's still in there, so I'll just stick around until she comes out."

"Sure," Laura said, still somewhat distracted by thoughts of impending doom. "You aren't usually this late with her makeup - what's going on today?"

"I've got no idea," Anna replied. "All I know is taht Mikayla called me as soon as she was done Sophia's hair, and that was almost an hour later than usual. I've got no idea if it was Mikayla or Sophia getting in late, or if it was just a bad hair day."

Laura sighed. "Hopefully, it was just a slow morning."

8

As he walked away, Blake shook his head a bit. Sometimes, he felt a little guilty about leaving a girl hanging. However, if she couldn't pick up on the fact that he still didn't bother learning her name... well, she almost deserved it.

This intern thing, though, had caught Blake's attention. The girl didn't really give of an "I'm-sleeping-with-the-director" vibe, so it surprised him to hear that she was seen with him like that. He made a mental note to watch how the two of them acted - after all, food services girl didn't seem to be the brightest bulb, and it was entirely possible that she was wrong.

"Let's get rolling, people!" The director's voice interrupted Blake's musings, and the actor made his way over to his place, glancing around, trying to see where Laura was. He finally caught a glimpse of her over at Sophia's trailer, knocking on the door.

7

"That's her," the craft services girl whispered to Blake, pointing to Laura as she walked past.

"Really?" Blake asked.

"Really!" she replied. "I saw her last night, after we wrapped. She ran over and got into Mr. Jarvis's jeep - she put on some dark sunglasses and slouched down, like she was trying to hide, and he totally peeled out of here!"

"Really..." Blake said, this time sounding more thoughtful. The intern and the director? That was awfully cliche, but it did seem to happen all the time.

"Blake?" The craft services girl was looking at him, like she had just asked something.

"Sorry, baby, I missed that - what did you say?" He flashed her a smile, hoping it would keep her from getting upset with him.

"It's okay," she said, grinning. "I wanted to know if you were busy tonight?"

"Sorry, gorgeous, but something has come up," Blake told her, keeping his smile on. "I'll call you later, though."

"Okay," she said, giving a little giggle as he got up and left the cart.

As he walked away, Blake shook his head just a little. Sometimes, he felt a little guilty about leaving a girl hanging. However, if she couldn't pick up on the fact that he still didn't bother learning her name... well, she almost deserved it.

6

Laura waited until his door was shut, then breathed a sigh of relief. This job was way more stressful than she had expected it to be! Between Sophia's little fits and Blake's teasing, Laura was constantly on edge, waiting to see who was going to catch her by surprise next. After taking a moment to compose herself, Laura headed off in search of the director.

Ricardo was almost all the way to his car when Laura spotted him. She picked up her pace and arrived at the vehicle just as he put his hand on the handle.

"Laura!" he said, surprised. He hadn't heard her approach, although that didn't surprise him - he had been lost in though, trying to come up with some way to handle his two stars. He quickly looked around to see if anyone was watching, but it seemed that the coast was clear.

"Get in, and keep your head down," he told her, climbing into the red Jeep. Laura hurried to the other side and climbed in, pulling on a pair of sunglasses from her bag and sitting low in the seat. Ricardo fired up the engine and pulled out of the lot before he glanced over at Laura again.

"So what's up? I thought you wanted to avoid being seen together," he said.

"It's just been a bad day, Ricky, and I wanted to talk to you," Laura said with a sigh. "Between Sophia's sulking and Blake laughing at me... it's just sucked."

"I told you about Sophia before you started," Ricardo said. "I knew it would be hard to deal with - but you insisted that you could handle it."

"I didn't come here to have you say 'I told you so,'" Laura pouted. "And I can handle it. Usually. It was just today."

"You can always quit... I'm sure I could find someone else -"

"No! Ricky, please - I can do it! And if I can get through this, I can work anywhere in the business." She looked at him, her expression fierce.

Ricardo chuckled. "I know you can, kiddo. Don't worry, every day can't be this bad. Of course, it could be much better for you..."

Laura sighed as Ricardo trailed off. "I want to do this on my own, Ricky; I want to actually earn my respect, not just have people being nice to me because of you."

"I'm just saying, it's handy to know the director," he said with a shrug.

"Nepotism is not the way - I don't want to just be Ricardo's baby sister."

"So you'll just be 'that intern over there,'" he said, raising an eyebrow at her.

Laura sighed. "For now."