Chapter 74

Pacific Studios is a massive place. It sits right in the middle of Los Angeles, and the grounds must be at least a quarter mile square. We passed building after building until we pulled up before a huge gate where an armed man stepped out of a kiosk and carefully checked the temporary passes that Mrs. Devon had given us. He gave us a map once he verified who we were, circled where we supposed to go, and directed us to a parking lot inside the grounds. I pulled my car next to Mom’s, and Mom motioned us to her car when Erin and I got out, handed each of us a box containing new cell phones, and said, “Here, you’re going to need these.”

Mom watched us excitedly open the boxes, then she added, “We need to keep in touch.”

Erin asked, “Gee, Mom, aren’t cell phone calls expensive?”

“They can be, so use them wisely. Just remember that you’re working now and the bill comes out of your salary.”

Erin and I looked at each other, and I think that it hit us both at the same time. I don’t think either of us had thought about actually getting paid to do this.

We started toward the building the guard had marked, and we looked around while we were walking. The place was beyond description. We were walking along a normal appearing city street. On one side was a row of modern-looking office buildings with manicured lawns and flower trimmed sidewalks. A dirt lot was on the other side there. There was an Army tank sitting next to a Jeep that was turned on its side in the middle of the lot, and a dusty looking Quonset hut sat behind them. It looked just like a scene from a war movie, except that the masts of what looked like a sailing ship were sticking up behind the hut. There were people riding bicycles and zooming along in electric golf carts everywhere we looked, and many of the occupants were dressed in strange looking outfits.

The place that was circled on the map turned out to be one of the office buildings, and receptionist directed us to a room where a woman had Mom sign some papers when we identified ourselves to her. Mom then looked around at things, shook her head, and said, “Can you believe this?” She gave us each a kiss and said she’d see us later when we nodded in agreement.

The woman gave Erin and me some brochures, and said that there would be someone in to talk to us shortly. We sat there reading the brochures until a guy came in and introduced himself as ‘John’, who then spent a few minutes telling us how to behave around the studio, and what we should and shouldn’t do. He then took us to a small class room, and introduced us to a heavy-set, older woman who looked sort of familiar. He told us that her name was Mae Gibson. She waited a second, as though she was waiting for us to say something. She went on to explain that she was our tutor when we didn’t, and that she expected us to check with her at eight o’clock every morning unless we were on location or on a set. Erin and I both nodded, and she dismissed us with a wave of her hand. I noticed that John was rolling his eyes as we were leaving. He explained that Mrs. Gibson was an ex-child star who still did bit parts once in a while when I asked why, and that she always expected people to remember her. John then took us to an office where they issued me a parking card to hang on the mirror of my car, gave each of us a plastic ID card and told us that we would have to show the card every time we came into the studio

John took us to a large lunchroom from there. It was about half full of people, and many were dressed in odd outfits like the people we saw outside. Some were in evening wear, some looked like aliens from outer space, and one table was full of people in bandages covered with what looked like blood.

There was a tug on my arm, and Erin pointed and said, “Look, Pete!”

Sitting not ten feet from us were two stars of a police drama that Dad loved to watch, and at a table a few feet away was a famous news anchorman.

John pointed to the cashier, and told us we that we could pay for lunchroom food with our ID cards, and that it would be charged to Mrs. Devon’s account. He then said, “Okay, that’s all for today, Kids. Be on time tomorrow, and listen to Mrs. Gibson. She a bit of a pain, but she’s a heck of a tutor. You’ll learn more from her in one day then you will in a week at a regular school.”

He left, and Erin and I drove home with our heads swimming. She was excited and chattered all the way. I tried to act cool, but I was every bit as affected as she was. It was finally sinking in. This was really happening, and it was just the beginning.

The house was quiet when we got home. Erin said that she was going to make a phone call, so I went to my room and called Marla. I got her machine and left a message, then stripped to my shorts and hit the exercise machine. It had been a while since I worked out, and I had a pretty good sweat going when I heard a tap at my door. Thinking that it was Erin, I said, “It’s open.”

The machine faced away from the door, so I didn’t see it open. All I heard was a gasp. I turned to see who it was, and Cindy was standing there with a large envelope in her hand. Her eyes were wide, and she had a shocked look on her face, so I stood up, turned toward her and asked, “What’s the matter Cindy?”

She answered, “Uhh, nothing. I knocked on the door to the front house, and no one answered. I, uhh, just wanted to drop off your lesson plans.” She was talking to me, but she wasn’t looking at my face. I was naked except for my boxer shorts and her eyes were at my waist. I looked down to see why, and saw that my shorts had slipped a little sideways when I stepped off the exercise machine, and my fly was slightly open. I don’t think that she could see anything, but she was staring hard.

She actually looked kind of turned on, so I decided to tease her a little. I walked over until I was standing close to her. I’m a lot taller than she is, and she craned her head back and looked up at me when I did. I was going to make a smart remark, but the look in her eyes was that of a frightened animal, and she started backing up. She threw the envelope down when she got next to my little table and flew out the door.

I was standing there shaking my head, when the phone rang. Monique said, “Hi, Pete,” then she said, “Oops, another call, hang on a minute, I think that it’s Alice.” She put me on hold, and I sat there thinking about her.

Monique is so beautiful that it still bothers me to look at her. I was always in awe of her, and I often wondered what would have happened if she and Alice had stayed around. I was pretty sure that Alice and I would have gotten together, but Monique was always in the back of my mind.

Then I thought about Kristen. She and Monique are very different from each other. Kristen is almost an equal to Monique in terms of pure beauty, but in a darker, earthier way. The big difference between them is that Kristen seems approachable, Monique doesn’t. She has a quality about her that makes you think that she isn’t real. I remembered that it seemed almost surprising that she was a flesh and blood girl when I made love to her in the hotel that time. I wonder what spending a lot of time with her would be like. Would her beauty wear off in time? Was there a real person under that beautiful façade?

Monique sounded excited when she came back to the phone, but oddly detached when she said, “It was Alice. She’s still in a meeting at the agency. She said that they want her to test for the lead role, but the guy says that it’s just a formality. He said that she’s exactly what they’re looking for.”

Monique stopped for a minute as though she was thinking. She replied, “We went to New York for my career,” when I asked if everything was okay. “Alice did everything that she could think of to make it happen, but it was her, not me that ended up being a success.”

“I thought that you were doing well.”

“I did okay, but nothing like what happened with her, and she did it without even trying. Look at what’s going on now.”

“Are you angry or a little jealous?”

“I’m not angry, but I’m a little envious. I know that I shouldn’t be. Do you know that they offered her a leading role in that soap she was on, and she turned it down so that she could concentrate on my career?”

“That sounds like her. Alice is a great girl.”

She was quiet for a minute, then she seemed to brighten up as she said, “Can you believe it, Pete? We’re going to be working together.”

“Yeah, it looks like it. Is that okay with you?”

“Okay! Of course it’s okay. Why would you even ask that?”

“Well, you’ve been a big time model for some time now. Will you mind working with an amateur?”

She chuckled and answered, “Don’t worry about that, I’m not ‘big time’, besides there will be plenty of people around making sure that neither of us screws up, and you’re a lot smarter than a lot of the people I’ve worked with.”

I was wondering what she meant by that, when she surprised me by saying, “Umm, did you miss me, Pete?”

“Yes, I did. I was really disappointed when I went to your house and the two of you were gone. Why did you leave without telling me?”

“It was Alice’s idea. We finally had the money to move, and we knew that you would get to be a problem between us if we stuck around.”

“Why would I be a problem?”

“Well, I’m sure that you know that we both had feelings for you.”

Surprised, I answered, “I knew that Alice liked me, but I didn’t know that, uhh, you did too. You always pushed me off on Alice whenever I tried to talk to you.”

She sighed, then, “Alice is more than just my sister, Pete, she’s my entire family. She’s been more of a mother to me that my real mother was. There is nothing that I wouldn’t do for her. I liked you from the beginning, but she did too, and I didn’t want to spoil things for her.”

I was stunned by what she said. Could she still have feelings for me? I decided to take a shot. I asked, “How about now. You said that Alice was seeing someone now. What about you?”

“I’m not seeing anybody.”

“Why not? You must have a ton of rich guys hitting on you all the time in the business you’re in.”

“That’s true, but what if I told you that I was saving myself for you?”

“I’d say that you were teasing me.”

“Maybe a little, but I haven’t forgotten that time in the hotel. It was wonderful, Pete. It was everything that I hoped it would be.”

“So, why haven’t you made some, uhh, new friends?”

It took her a while to answer, and her voice was quiet when she responded with, “I don’t know, Pete, I really don’t. I’ll occasionally find someone I’m attracted to, but I find a way to turn them off as soon as they show an interest in me. I’ve been rude to some very nice men for no reason at all.”

I started to ask more, but she interrupted with, “Enough about me. The fact that you and your family are all connected with the Stone Agency is amazing, and what’s the deal with you and the new TV show?”

“Didn’t they tell you about it at the meeting?”

“No, my part of the meeting was pretty short. Tammy had to leave, so she dropped me off at our hotel. I’m supposed to be back there again to meet with her and a guy named Anthony tomorrow morning.”

“Well, I’m not sure of all the details, but I think that you’ll be pleased, and you’ll know more about what’s going on than I do by this time tomorrow.”

She insisted that I tell her about it, but I kept saying that I didn’t know, so she began telling me about her adventures in New York. We were on the phone for nearly an hour. I had never spoken to her at length before and the more we talked the more I realized that there was a shy, insecure girl beneath that fabulous exterior, and it really surprised me. She was talking about a funny thing that happened to her on her first photo shoot when I heard what sounded like a scream in the background. Monique quickly said, “Alice is here, and she sounds excited. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” and she hung up. It sounded like the meeting with the producer had gone well.

I showered, and Mom called on the intercom to say dinner was ready as I was drying off, so I went inside to find Mom, Amy, and Erin sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by pizza boxes. They were excitedly talking about what happened today, and Mom suddenly hugged Amy they began laughing. I sat down and she explained, “The producer was very taken with Alice, but he wanted her to audition for the part. Amy jumped up, grabbed Alice, and started to apologize for bringing her out here on a wild goose chase,” when I asked what was going on, “Then she told her to forget about this part and go ahead and sign with the other company.”

I asked, “What other company?”

Mom laughed, “There is no other company. It was a bluff that Amy pulled off and the guy fell for it. They’re drawing up a new permanent contract tomorrow.” Amy looked a little embarrassed, but I could tell that she was pleased.

Mom then went on with, “Anthony and Tammy are going to sign Monique to be their spokesperson tomorrow morning, so along with her, we also represent Kristen, Tomaso, Breane, you, and Erin. We’re going to be very busy.”

“Tammy mentioned that Marla is going to work for them as well.”

“She is. She’s going to be in charge of new openings, but she’ll be working directly for WE.”

“Won’t Monique also be working directly for WE?”

“No, she’s going to be on contract, the same as you are. We also have some local work for her, so her contract will be structured so that she’ll still be able to work on other things. We’re going to explain this all to her tomorrow.”

There it was again! I was actually ‘on contract’ with someone. This was really happening! I was sitting there trying to figure out what all this meant when the smell of pizza took over and saved me from getting a headache thinking about everything that was happening.

The next few days flew by. Erin and I got to the studio by eight every morning, and the sessions with Mrs. Gibson went much better than either of us expected. People would stop by and talk with her, but we were the only ones in her room for the rest of the week. She explained that Mrs. Devon asked her to spend this time with us because neither of us had any experience being around a studio, and that she wanted us to get familiar with things. She would look over our lesson plans, then she would sit with each of us and go over them. Things were easy to understand by doing it that way, and we were able to do our homework right there in the room. We could have actually finished by noon, but Mrs. Gibson insisted that we have lunch before we left. It was okay with us, because it was fun sitting in the lunchroom waiting to see what famous person would come in.

Erin and I stopped at Kate’s house on the way home every day. It seemed like Sylvia was holding the baby every time we got there. Kate jokingly said, “I wouldn’t get to hold the baby at all if Sylvia was capable of breast feeding,” when I mentioned it to her. Erin loved to hold the baby too, and it was interesting watching her. She didn’t play with dolls a lot when she was little, but she handled the baby like she’d been doing it her whole life.

Monique called me after her meeting with Tammy. She told me how excited she was, and how amazed she was about the plans they had for her. I talked with both Marla and Monique every night, but they were both so busy that I wasn’t able to hang with them. I also talked with Alice once, but she left for New York to close their apartment and ship their things out here on Thursday. Monique went to San Francisco to take care of some things Friday morning, and Marla said that she had promised to have dinner with her folks Friday night when I asked her about the weekend. She and Tammy were also going to La Jolla on Saturday morning to look for an apartment for her. It looked like I had a free weekend, and Mom said that Dad was coming in Friday night, and he said that there were some things that needed doing around the house when I mentioned it to her. Dad hadn’t been home for a while, and I could tell that she was looking forward to seeing him. It made me feel good.

I asked Amy about her weekend, and she said that she had to work Saturday morning, but she and Jake were going out Saturday night. I talked with Bill, and he told me that he and Tess were going to a movie Friday night, and they were going to Magic Mountain with a bunch of kids from school Sunday, and he asked if I wanted to join them. I said that I’d give him a call if I got a date.

Dad was sitting in the back yard when we got home Friday. He appeared to be sleeping, so Erin went to her room and I tried to be quiet on the way to the garage, but he opened an eye as I passed him, and said, “Hi, Son.”

“Hi Dad, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t, I was just resting. I’ve been gone a lot lately, and it’s good to be home.”

“Are you going to be here for a while?”

“Yes, I’m maxed out on flight time for this month. I’ll be home for a week and a half. Mom is working full time now, and it’ll give me some time to do some things around here, plus our plane needs its annual, so I’ll keep busy.” He grinned and said, “So you and your sister are big movie stars now. How does it feel?”

Dad and I talked for over an hour. I hadn’t realized how much I missed him. Things always seem right when he’s around. He and Mom talk all the time, so he probably knew more about what was going on than Erin and I, and he said, “You guys are going to do okay. I’m glad that you have this opportunity.”

I started to answer him, but I noticed him looking at something behind me, so I turned around. Cindy was standing there with our lesson plan. I hadn’t seen her since the first night since she’d been leaning the envelopes against my door. I felt a little guilty for teasing her that afternoon, so I said, “Hi, Cindy, come here and meet my dad.”

I noticed that she’d be almost invisible in a crowd again as she came walking over. She’s not ugly, but everything about her is bland. Her hair is mousy brown, and the clothes she was wearing were colorless and ill-fitting. She was wearing sneakers that had seen better days, and I noticed that one of them had a piece of tape on the heel when she got closer. Dad stood up to meet her, and when I introduced them she glanced up at him for a second, then she stared at the ground like she was embarrassed. Erin joined us just then, and she looked at Cindy after she hugged Dad, and said, “Hi, Cindy, thanks for helping us out.”

Cindy answered, “Uhh, that’s okay, but she seemed nervous, so I asked, “Are you okay, Cindy?”

“Yeah, I’m kind of late, I uhh, better get home.”