by Kasie West
It was tempting. “I’m good.”
She left, and I glanced at Donavan. I didn’t know him at all, but he didn’t hide irritation well. “Hey, Choir Boy, you took the job.”
“I’m regretting it already.”
I flashed him my stage smile. “You won’t regret it for long. I grow on people.” Or he’d quit.
Dancing Graves
INT. THE GRAHAM MANSION—DAY
BENJAMIN SCOTT tries to fight off a horde of angry zombies who have broken into the mansion. Several make it past him and find SCARLETT and EVELIN hiding in the library. Scarlett takes the poker from the fireplace and attempts to hold them off, swinging it wildly all around. She connects with several, pushing them back for a while. Eventually she is bitten. Evelin escapes unharmed and finds Benjamin.
EVELIN
Come quick! It might be too late!
BENJAMIN
Where is she? Where is Scarlett?
EVELIN
Come.
Benjamin finds Scarlett unconscious in the library. He rushes to Lord Graham’s lab and finds the most recent cure attempt and brings it back to Scarlett. He lifts her head and forces the liquid down her throat, then cradles her to his chest.
BENJAMIN
Don’t leave me. Not like this.
Five
I placed the packet in my dad’s hands. “There. Now you can call off Boy Wonder. Where do you hire these people from anyway? Valedictorians R Us?”
“Is he on track to become a valedictorian?”
“My guess is yes. He takes homework more seriously than any seventeen-year-old should.” I wasn’t even sure he was seventeen. He’d looked about my age, but he’d acted closer to my dad’s.
“Heaven forbid,” Dad said. “But, no, like I said before, he goes to the school that sponsors your independent study. The school you’d go to if you actually went to school.”
So the school recommended him. That made sense. For some reason I had it in my mind that my dad had scoured the city to find the person who looked most like a tutor.
“If I went to school, I’d be going to the one by mom’s house.” I didn’t realize that would hurt his feelings, but I could tell by the look on his face that it did, which made me immediately regret saying it. I was acting like an ungrateful brat. I knew it was because I was tired and stressed. But I also knew it was because he was treating me like a third grader. My mom would’ve trusted me more had she been here. But, like that third grader, I didn’t admit my mistake. Instead, I mumbled, “Going to bed,” and left him standing in the living room.
My phone rang as I was pulling on my pajamas. Mom.
“Hello?”
“Hello, my sweet girl. How are you?”
I immediately felt better at the sound of her voice. I didn’t realize how much I missed her until that moment. “Good,” I said, climbing into bed.
“Just good?” she asked.
“Well . . .” I sat up and adjusted my body against the headboard, settling in to get her advice.
“No,” she said. “Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“Don’t pull on the cords, or the television might fall on you.”
It took me two seconds to realize she was talking to Colby, my little brother. “Do you need to go save him from a television disaster?”
Back to me she said, “No, it’s fine. He’s four; he knows better. He was trying to get his blanket and got the cords with it.”
“I see.”
“Now, what were you saying?”
I started to ask about how to deal with my dad better but stopped myself. That was between me and him. I didn’t need to put her in the middle of it. We’d figure things out. So I asked, “Have I ever had a problem with chemistry?” My mom had spent many hours watching me from behind curtains or front row center.
“What do you mean, hon, I— It’s in the dryer, Sydney! I moved it over last night! It stinks? It probably sat in the washing machine for three days, then. I’ll run them again in a minute.”
A lamp on my desk was in the mode where it projected stars onto my ceiling. I mapped a constellation with my eyes while she continued talking to my sister. “Mom, do you need to go?” I asked when she was quiet again.
“What? No. I want to talk to you.”
I knew she did, but it sounded like she was on edge. “How is everything? You doing okay? You sound busy.”
“You have no idea. Bill just started a new case and it’s taking all his time, and I feel like I’m in the car twenty-four seven. It was nice having you around to help. Plus, Colby and Syd miss you.”
“I miss them too!”
“What am I saying?” Mom said. “I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. I’m so happy for you. I’m dying up here thinking about how much fun you must be having. This is it. Your big break. And with Grant James. You must be in heaven. Are you? In heaven?”
She didn’t need more stress. She didn’t need to know what people were saying about me online. She didn’t need to know that my chemistry was off. After all, everything else seemed fine. I was a great zombie. And this opportunity felt like my mom’s dream as much as mine sometimes and I just wanted her to bask in it. She’d helped me get here. “Yes, Mom, it’s amazing. You should come visit the set sometime. You’d love it.” She really would. It was amazing.
“I will! That would be great . . . so great. I’ll have to see when I can fit— Colby, don’t fall asleep right there, sweetie. You need to brush your teeth first.”
“Mom, sounds like bedtime routine is in full swing. I’ll let you go. Thanks for calling me.”
“Okay, Lace. Love you. Good night,” she said.
“Love you too. Good night.”
I hung up, then reached over and clicked off my light. I lay there staring at the dark ceiling for a while. I was exhausted, but my mind wouldn’t let me sleep. I still gripped my phone in my hand, and I swiped across the screen, causing it to light up. I clicked on my contacts and pushed call.
“Hello,” Abby said when she answered. “You know most people use chat these days, right?”
“Would you rather me chat you?”
“No. It’s good to hear from you.”
“Too late,” I said. “Now I know how you really feel.” Abby was always joking, so in reality, I wasn’t worried.
“How are things?” she asked.
“Do you babysit?”
“Um . . . do you have a baby I don’t know about?”
“No, my mom could use a night out. I want to hire you.”
“You’re sweet. Sure, I’ll take your siblings out for a night. I won’t even charge you.”
“You’re the best.”
“Yes, I am,” she said. “How is Operation Making Friends On Set going?”
“Good. I found out one of the actresses is in love with Grant, so I’m helping her out. You know, since I’m a notorious matchmaker.”
Abby let out a scoffing sound. “Notorious? You know you have to actually do something of note before you can be considered notorious.”
“Shhh.”
“Are you basing this notoriety off me and Cooper? Because if I remember correctly the plan you came up with didn’t work at all. It’s a miracle we even got together after everything that happened.”
“Shhh. Notorious. Anyway, moving on. Thank you for watching my brother and sister. I owe you big-time.”
“As in, you can give me a tour of a Hollywood movie set and let me meet some famous people? That kind of big-time? Or like, you’ll buy me a milkshake and call it even?”
“Do you want a tour of a movie set?”
“Who wouldn’t?”
“Then yes! Come visit me. You will be impressed by my lack of fame and by all of Grant’s fans.”
“I am always impressed by people who aren’t famous. I can’t wait.”
“I’ll look at the schedule and try to find a day where we can actually spend some time together.”
“I can’t wait.�
��
“And I’ll introduce you to Grant, a real-life movie star.”
“Yes, please.”
Dancing Graves
INT. LORD LUCAS’S LAB—NIGHT
BENJAMIN relates the events that took place while LORD LUCAS was away, pointing out where the vial that he had given to Scarlett was and what it looked like. Scarlett has been unconscious for three days and is in her bedroom, where Benjamin moved her after giving her the vial. Evelin attends to her.
LORD LUCAS
And how did she react after you administered it?
BENJAMIN
Her breathing slowed; she seemed to relax.
LORD LUCAS
That’s a good sign. I’ve never been able to give a dosage so quickly after a bite. Maybe it will make all the difference.
BENJAMIN
We can only hope.
Six
One of my least favorite parts of working on this movie was the hours I had to spend getting my makeup done every day so I could look like a zombie. Which was why I was thrilled when Leah applied it in record time. Not entirely sure what to do with my newfound free time, I wandered over to the set, where Grant and Amanda were finishing up a scene. They were standing under a large oak tree and making a plan about what to do if my change progressed further. I visualized the way I would move later. How I would creep toward them, what thoughts I needed to channel during the scene.
Remy stood just behind the glow of lights, watching with his headphones on.
Amanda was good. It was kind of ironic that her character was in love with Grant’s character, seeing as how she liked him in real life too. I wondered if those real feelings helped her act the scene better. I also wondered if the unrequited part of the script was true to real life as well. If it was, we needed to change that.
“Good, very good!” Remy yelled out at the scene break. He turned to me and beckoned me forward. “Okay, zombie girl. Get in there and remind your hunter why he hasn’t killed you yet.”
I joined Grant on set while the cameras and lights were moved into a new position. Amanda sat in a chair by the monitor, and Noah showed her a playback while Aaron looked over their shoulders. He seemed to be chiming in with suggestions. Noah threw an impatient look over his shoulder, not hiding what he thought of those ideas.
I turned my attention back to Grant. “You haven’t killed me yet because my father is on the verge of the real cure, and you really want to inherit his fortune when you marry me,” I said for only Grant to hear.
He smiled. He was pacing, going from the tree to the headstone to a cart past the lights with garden tools on it, then back again, mumbling his lines under his breath.
Remy was busy talking to a camera operator, so I snatched Grant’s hand on his second pass and pulled him toward me.
“Do you see my eyes?” I said.
He tilted his head, like I’d said something surprising. “Yes. They’re gorgeous.”
“Thanks. But more important, makeup-free, right? Don’t look anywhere else today. We can do this.”
“Do you see my eyes?” he asked, bending down to my level. His eyes were even bluer up close.
“Yes. They’re gorgeous,” I said, mimicking him.
“Most girls actually like to stare into them.”
“What?”
“You think it’s me,” he said. “That trailer visit the other night. This. You think it’s me.”
“I . . . Maybe.” I’d thought it was both of us.
He leaned in even closer, his stare becoming a smolder, showing just how easy he could turn it on. “It’s not.”
“Oh.”
“We good?” he asked.
“Yes. We’re good,” I said. Only we weren’t. He had me flustered now. Second-guessing myself. I had planned to do the things I’d practiced with Donavan the day before, but if I was the one who wasn’t projecting chemistry, those things wouldn’t help me.
We started in on the scene. “Cut!” Remy yelled in the middle of a take. “What’s that?” He pointed right at me.
“What?” Had I said a line wrong? It wouldn’t have surprised me—I felt off.
He stepped forward, his finger still extended until he reached me and his finger met my arm. I looked at where he was pointing, to see a long rip in my blouse. There were a lot of rips in my shirt, but I, too, recognized this as a new one. One that hadn’t been there in any other scene, which was a bad thing. It would stand out if two scenes were back-to-back, one with the rip and one without.
“I don’t know how that got there,” I said. There’s no way I wouldn’t have heard that long of a fabric rip. Weird.
“Wardrobe!” he bellowed, and I tried not to cringe.
“I’ll go get a backup,” Faith said.
She took longer than Remy wanted (I could tell by his constant sighing), but when she returned, he said, “Way to be on top of things, Faith.”
As she helped me exchange shirts, I said, “Thanks.”
She gave me a quick nod, and then we continued.
I left the set for the second day in a row frustrated that nothing had changed. The chemistry was still off. Remy had made sure to let us know. Back in my trailer after yanking off my corset, I pulled out my laptop and googled Amanda Roth’s best kissing scenes. A whole list came up. I clicked on the first one.
Eight minutes later, I had watched the first three. She was amazing. The chemistry she created crackled through my computer screen. I was so engrossed in figuring out how she was pulling it off that I didn’t realize someone had come into my trailer until he cleared his throat.
I pushed pause and looked up to see Donavan standing there.
“I knocked,” he said.
“I finished the packet yesterday,” I responded.
“You finished one of the three. That’s one-third.”
“Look at you, using your tutoring skills in everyday conversations.”
“It’s a talent.” He stepped all the way inside and shut the door.
“You should include that in your bio for sure.”
“My bio?”
“Right. You probably don’t have a bio. I’ll write one for you. ‘Donavan: Loves homework, haircuts, and harmonizing.’”
“You know I don’t actually sing, right?”
“Let’s not argue about semantics.”
He gestured toward my face. “Is ‘can wear zombie makeup twelve hours straight’ in your bio?”
I had forgotten I was still wearing it. “I’m trying to become the character.” I touched my cheek. “Has it been twelve hours?”
“According to the call sheet your dad sends me every day.”
“It’s not always accurate,” I said. “Just giving you a fair warning.”
“Are you already working on your next packet?”
“What?”
He nodded at my laptop.
“Oh, no.” I had more important things to work on. I slid down the couch, indicating he should sit. He did. “But I am studying.” I pushed play on the scene I had paused.
He watched for several minutes in complete silence as Amanda went from a heartfelt monologue to making out with someone.
“Isn’t she amazing?” I asked.
“I’m confused.”
I pointed to Amanda. “This is an actress in this movie. She’s going to teach me how she does this.”
“How she does what?”
“I have to convince audiences everywhere that a zombie loves a zombie hunter. So far, it’s not happening. So far, the only thing future viewers care about is that I’m not someone else.”
“How do you know this?”
“The internet.”
“The internet?”
“Well, people on the internet. Mainly Grant’s fans.”
“You know what a wise philosopher once said?” he responded.
“What?”
“You have to shake it off. Shake, shake, shake it off.”
I smiled a little. He did know how to tell a joke
. “Because the haters are gonna hate?”
He returned my smile, which softened all his seriousness. “Exactly.” He looked around, apparently having humored me long enough, his serious face back again. “Do you know where your other two packets are?”
I stared at him for a moment. He wasn’t at all enamored by the fact that he was on a movie set or talking to an actress.
“What?” he asked, meeting my stare.
“Nothing.” I went to the cabinet, picked up a stack of papers, and plopped them on the table in front of him. Then I went back to watching another one of Amanda’s videos.
“These aren’t the packets,” he said.
“They’re in there somewhere.”
“What is this?”
I turned my head sideways to look. “Oh. That’s my script.” I held out my hand, but he kept flipping pages.
“What does INT and EXT mean?”
“Those are the scene details. Interior and exterior. INT means it’s an inside scene and EXT means it’s outside. And then this part is where specifically each scene takes place and then what time of day.” I pointed at the different words. “It’s mainly notes for the lighting people.”
He nodded and continued to read. “Do you really have to say this stuff?”
“No, I just have to read it, then make up whatever I really want to say.”
“‘My heart aches to be with you, but soon you will only want flesh’?”
“I don’t have to say that part. Grant says that.”
“Grant James.” He said it as a fact, not as a question, so he obviously already knew the answer.
“You want to meet him? I could introduce you,” I said. It was obvious I needed to get on my tutor’s good side so he’d relax a bit. He may not have cared who I was, because I was nobody yet, but everyone knew Grant.
“I don’t want to meet him.”
“You don’t?” Everyone wanted to meet Grant James.
“He has to say the words: I wish I could feed your hunger with only my lips.”
I took the script from him. “You just made that up.”
“Close enough,” he said.
“No more mocking. Look, I will work out a deal with you. I will do your packet—”
