by Natasha West
‘I usually go by Daisy.’
Robyn smiled. ‘Daisy, I can tell I’m gonna like you.’
‘Right, can I get Reece and Daisy over here?’ said a hassled looking middle-aged woman in thick-rimmed glasses and a hasty ponytail.
Daisy walked over to the woman who was standing next to a monitor that showed an empty table that was set for two.
‘Hello Daisy, I’m Jane, I’m directing you today.’
Reece was now standing next to Daisy, making sure not to look at her.
‘So, Reece is having dinner with Alexa…’
Daisy was jolted by that information. She hadn’t seen the infamous Alexa Lockwood on the set or in makeup, she’d assumed she wasn’t in this scene.
‘…And then Reece spots you from across the room, eating with friends, one of whom is his sister Robyn, who you’ve kept in touch with’ Jane explained to Daisy. ‘You catch each other’s eyes, you and Reece. And you can’t help thinking that he’s looking really good.’ Jane turned to Reece. ‘And you can’t keep your mind off Daisy. You know that if Alexa catches you staring at a girl, there’ll be trouble. But you can’t help it. You loved Daisy like mad and she dumped you. You’ve never really stopped thinking about her since then.’
Jane paused and Daisy thought there would be more but apparently, Jane was done.
‘What happens then?’ Daisy probed.
‘Well, that’s where the reality bit comes in. We’d really like you to let the scene take you where you’d like. Just be yourself. Within limits, of course. I’ll let you know after the first take if we need to adjust the action.’
Daisy nodded as though she understood, but she really didn’t know what the woman meant at all.
‘Oh, and the golden rule of the set is… Never stop until you hear cut. Whatever happens, keep going’ Jane added and there was something quite serious in her tone. Daisy wouldn’t forget those words, she knew.
‘Sure. Yes, OK.’
Daisy thought she saw the slightest smirk cross Reece’s lips. She wondered what was so funny.
‘Right, so we’re ready to go when you are. Daisy, you’re at that table over there. Follow Robyn’s lead, she’ll keep the flow going at your table.’
Daisy turned and was grateful to see Robyn waiting for her, a friendly face among all the confusion.
She sat down with Robyn and another girl, who Robyn introduced as Blake, while crew members shouted mysterious jargon to one another. Reece sat down two tables away and then Daisy watched as Jane went over to him quickly, muttering something in his ear briefly. He grinned and nodded and Jane rushed back to the monitor.
Daisy didn’t know what Jane had said to Reece but she was certain that whatever it was, it wasn’t anything that she was supposed to hear. And that worried her.
But before the worry could catch hold, the Laid in Medford machine started up. ‘Stand by!’ Jane yelled. And then ‘Turn over.’ ‘Camera rolling’ the cameraman replied. ‘And ACTION!’ Jane shouted at the top of her lungs. Robyn immediately began to chatter inanely to Daisy, telling her about some total idiot she’d gone on a date with last night. Daisy nodded, smiled, laughed when appropriate but all the while, her peripheral vision was checking out the rest of the room. Reece was still sitting alone.
Suddenly, Daisy realised that today was her first day as a professional actress. It wasn’t quite what she’d pictured throughout drama school. Maybe a couple of lines in some tiny play, nothing fancy. Instead, she was pretending to fancy a walking erection and worrying about where his girlfriend was. Daisy let the preposterousness of the situation wash over her.
And then the doors of the restaurant flew open and Daisy turned to see someone enter. That someone was Alexa Lockwood, in all her splendour. Daisy’s first thought as she walked in was ‘Isn’t it amazing how they get her to walk in slow motion?’ After a moment, Daisy realised how stupid that was. Alexa was walking at normal speed. It was Daisy’s mind that had slowed the moment down.
Daisy shook herself out of her time-lapse brain fry and turned to see Robyn had finished her story, ending on the punchline ‘And that was before the starter had even come!’ Daisy realised she was supposed to laugh and she did so, leaving only the slightest lag in the interaction.
‘Is that Reece?’ Robyn said, spotting her brother.
Daisy, who had half an eye on Alexa, striding through the restaurant as though she owned it, said ‘Is it?’ with much less enthusiasm than she guessed she was supposed to feel.
‘Bloody hell, it is. And that’s Alexa, Reece’s girlfriend’ Robyn said, as though Daisy didn’t know. ‘Do you know her?’
Daisy realised that she was now supposed to speak. ‘No’ was all that came out. And a star is born thought Daisy self-deprecatingly.
‘She’s… nice’ Robyn went on with a shrug. Daisy realised Robyn had just given her something more to work with. It was a chance to correct her previously dull response.
‘Are you sure?’ Daisy asked with a grin.
‘Well, maybe nice isn’t really the right word for Alexa.’
‘Well, she’s beautiful. I’ll say that’ Daisy noted genuinely.
‘Isn’t she, though? If I didn’t love her, I’d hate her’ Robyn said with a laugh.
Daisy, having seen the first series, knew that what she should say was something very bitchy. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
‘Are they serious, her and Reece?’ Daisy asked instead. And then she turned to look at where Alexa and Reece sat. Alexa had her back to Daisy but Reece had now ‘Caught her eye’ and was looking a little troubled. Daisy had to hand it to him, he really did look like he was sweating the situation.
‘Yeah. Well, in a Reece kind of way’, Robyn responded ambiguously.
And then, Alexa’s voice suddenly rose amid the din of the other diners. Daisy distinctly heard her say ‘Is there somewhere you need to be?’ Daisy felt an odd chill run up her spine as Alexa’s voice cracked the atmosphere with its velvety bored tones. What the hell is wrong with me today?
Then there was some defensive muttering from Reece’s end. Daisy kept half an eye on the pair as the other girl at her table, Blake, criticized the service in the restaurant, the food, the other diners. That was obviously Blake’s role, to keep the bitchy quotient up. Daisy was glad if it meant she didn’t have that job. But what exactly was her job here, she wondered. As far as direction went, Daisy had been given practically nothing. What was supposed to happen next? She was in the deep end of this nonsense and she didn’t have a clue how to swim.
Abruptly, Alexa Lockwood, whose back was still to Daisy, stood and announced she was going to use the bathroom. Daisy watched her walk out of her line of vision, probably for longer than she should have. Actually, it was definitely a longer look than it should have been because she was suddenly shocked to see Reece standing next to her table, looking down at her with a leer. She recovered herself and smiled as though pleased to see him.
‘Daisy’ he said and leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. She accepted the kiss as though it didn’t turn her stomach.
Reece turned to his sister. ‘Robyn, you never told me you were still friends with Daisy.’
Robyn looked like she’d been caught out. ‘Oh, didn’t I?’ she lied badly. Reece turned away from her, back to Daisy.
‘Long time no see’ Reece said. Daisy wondered if he ever spoke without using a cliché, but if the first series was anything to go by, apparently not. But that didn’t mean Daisy had to talk as though she were speaking from an English phrase book for beginners. In fact, there was no reason she couldn’t have just a tiny bit of fun today.
‘Reece… you’ve gotten fat. Oh no, sorry, those are muscles, aren’t they?’
Reece’s mouth fell open in abject horror. He obviously wasn’t used to being negged by women. Daisy found it was quite enjoyable to bring him down a notch.
‘Yeah’ Reece said, trying to recover. ‘Been hitting the gym.’ And then he actually flexed a mus
cle at the table, grinning. Daisy wanted to shake her head at him, but she thought that might not be where the scene was supposed to go. She was meant to be attracted to this fool, so she laughed with affection and gave the arm a slight squeeze, pretending to admire it. Thankfully, Robyn had something to say about her brother’s antics.
‘Reece, if you must hit on women when you’ve got a girlfriend, can you not do it right in front of me. I won’t be able to look Alexa in the eye.’
‘Relax’ Reece said with a smirk. ‘I’m not hitting on anyone, Sis. I’m just messing about. I saw an old friend and came to say hello. No crime in that. Speaking of the Old Ball and Chain, I’d better…’
‘The what?’
Daisy turned to see that Alexa Lockwood had also managed to sneak up on her and was directly behind Reece. It was her first glimpse up close and it was not disappointing. High Definition had not done her justice.
‘What did you just call me, Reece?’
Reece turned and began to sputter some excuse. But Alexa was doing an amazing job of displaying contained fury, but with an edge that made it seem totally off the cuff. There was nothing about it that seemed like a performance. Daisy thought, not for the first time, that Alexa really was wasted on this show.
Robyn suddenly stood up, trying to smooth things over. ‘He didn’t really mean that. You know him. He’s just…’
‘Robyn, your brother can speak for himself’ Alexa replied. Robyn sat back down. Daisy could have sworn she was genuinely a little frightened. And that’s when Daisy herself began to get a bit scared. She was going to get a tongue-lashing in a second. That was suddenly clear. She wasn’t here to lust after Reece, or if she was, that was purely incidental. No, what she was really here for was to provide competition for Alexa Lockwood. Which was patently absurd.
But here it came anyway, Alexa Lockwood’s rage falling upon her, along with a set of doe eyes that could stop traffic. ‘And don’t think I don’t know exactly who you are’ Alexa said to Daisy, ignoring Reece altogether.
Daisy found herself saying ‘Who, me?’ in surprise. It was as though she’d forgotten where she was.
‘Is that all you’ve got to say for yourself?’
Daisy thought for a moment that she might just try to make nice with Alexa. But then she understood that the words ‘Is that all you’ve got to say for yourself’ were not meant simply as something for Alexa to say. She was challenging Daisy, performer to performer, asking her to find a bit more.
So Daisy did.
‘No, actually’ Daisy said, rising from her seat, her chair scraping back. ‘That’s not all. I’m just here to have lunch with my friends. And who the hell are you to come over, shouting the odds?’
‘I’m this bastard’s girlfriend, that’s who I am. The current one. And I don’t appreciate watching you flirt with him right in front of me.’
‘I wasn’t flirting.’
‘I just watched you touching his arm.’
As though thinking that enough time had passed without everyone looking at him, Reece decided to speak up. ‘Darling-’ he began, trying to intercept the argument. But Alexa never looked at him. Daisy didn’t mind a bit to have Alexa’s full focus, even if it was a little terrifying.
‘What am I supposed to do when he shoves it in front of me?’ she demanded of Alexa. ‘Maybe if you ‘touched his arm’ a bit more often, he wouldn’t be trying to get me to touch it in the first place.’
Alexa’s mouth fell open in pure rage and then her hand was reaching for the table and what did it find? A full glass of red wine. Daisy suddenly realised what was coming next but it was too late to get out of the way.
Splash!
Daisy looked down at herself to find she was covered from head to toe in red wine, looking like Carrie after her prom queen coronation went to shit. She looked back up to see a smile of triumph on Alexa’s pouty mouth. ‘Enjoy your lunch’ she said before she turned and swept out of the restaurant, Reece scuttling after her.
‘CUT!’
Daisy was still staring down at herself like a fool, frozen in a shock that she hadn’t had to fake. Even though she knew Alexa was infamous for this little stunt, she hadn’t thought it would be happening to her today. And now her perfect hair and makeup were ruined. She’d been hoping to enjoy it just a little longer. But she’d been paid well to have a drink thrown in her face, so she supposed she should just keep her mouth shut and cash the cheque.
‘Nice work, everyone. I think we’ll get some close-ups on Reece and Alexa, but Robyn, Blake and Daisy are wrapped’ Jane called out as Aaron handed Daisy a towel, which he seemed to have to hand already. It was then that Daisy knew why Reece was grinning to himself. It was all heading for the wine throw from the beginning and he’d known it.
But Daisy’s part seemed to be done with, which surprised her. Didn’t they want to get some more footage for safety? Whenever she’d worked with young filmmakers (for free, of course, ‘for the show reel’), they’d covered every scene to death.
‘Nice work’ Robyn said.
‘How can we already be done?’
‘You’re covered in wine, it would take forever to reset you. I guess they’re happy, anyway. Don’t question it, just get the hell out of here. Go back into the real world while you’ve got the chance.’
Daisy dried off her hand on the towel and held it out to Robyn. ‘Thanks for everything today.’
‘You’re welcome. I don’t think it’s the last time we’ll work together, though.’
‘No?’
‘Nope. You gave Alexa a run for her money today. I’ve got a feeling they’ll want you back.’
Daisy had no intention of ever coming back, but she didn’t want to offend Robyn so she said ‘We’ll see, I guess.’
Six
‘Thanks, we’ll be in touch.’
The door slammed quickly behind Daisy and she knew full well she wasn’t getting the part. Not a snowball’s chance in a pizza oven. The director had barely looked up from his phone as she’d performed pages from the play. It wasn’t a great play, but still, Daisy had done her best to give the character life. But it had obviously not been good enough to make the guy drag his eyes away from his emails.
In the three weeks since Alexa Lockwood had covered her in vino, it was her fourth audition. None of them had turned into a job. But Daisy was trying to be optimistic. She was still barely out of drama school. She couldn’t expect success straight away.
But optimism was getting harder to generate. Between parenting, living with her Mum, running to auditions and temping at a comprehensive school’s reception (from which she had run at the final bell to get to today’s audition), she was beginning to feel spread pretty thin. It was alright for now, but how long would this state of affairs continue? Months was doable. But years? Daisy knew it was possible, even likely. Could she really do this for the foreseeable future?
As Daisy drove home, her mind turned around that question. No solid answers came.
Daisy had just gotten the front door closed and her mother’s voice was already breaking the peace.
‘Did you get it?’
Daisy knew the answer to that, even though the official decision wouldn’t come down for a few days. But she’d gone through this line of questioning three times recently and she didn’t want to deal with the response she knew she would get when she revealed she hadn’t gotten the part.
‘Oh, well. It’s all done with mirrors anyway’, Kathy would say in world-weary tones. Daisy had never had that expression precisely defined to her but she knew it had something to do with being under-connected, that there was a trick to being successful that would never be revealed to the likes of Daisy and her kin. Kathy no doubt considered getting the part on Laid in Medford to be some early fluke, the exception that proved the rule before Daisy slid quietly into obscurity.
Daisy knew her mother’s cynicism wasn’t meant personally. But still, it irked her. Because there was a suggestion in the comment that she d
idn’t have what it took to make it. Daisy knew that her mother didn’t want her to fail, exactly. It was just that when she did, it proved Kathy right. And Kathy liked to be right. She liked it a lot. So Daisy simply replied ‘I won’t hear yet’ and hoped that would be the end of it.
‘Well, I wouldn’t get your hopes up. It’s all done with mirrors.’
Daisy, who had just picked up some junk mail from the doormat, found herself scrunching up a leaflet on double-glazing until her knuckles went white. Once her hand allowed her to release the leaflet, she turned back to her oblivious mother. ‘Is Jake in?’
‘He’s upstairs on his play box.’
She meant playing on his Xbox, but she refused to learn the proper word for it in case it caused her to lose IQ points just from contact with the correct lingo. Needless to say, Kathy didn’t approve of her grandson gaming.
‘It’s your night tonight, isn’t it?’ Kathy asked.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Your thingammy on the telly. That is tonight, isn’t it?
Daisy knew that, but she’d been hoping her Mum would forget. She’d built a mental wall between herself and Laid in Medford, trying to see it as a bad dream. It wasn’t that it had been a traumatic experience. In a way, it had been quite entertaining. It was more that Daisy was beginning to feel embarrassed that people she went to drama school with, students and teachers alike, were going to see it. And worse than that was the idea of Jake seeing it. Even though the payday she’d gotten from the show had bought him a whole new school uniform and PE kit, not to mention the aforementioned second-hand Xbox, now Daisy kept picturing Jake going into school tomorrow morning and having to listen to a bunch of jokes about his mum making a prat of herself on the TV.
‘Oh, yeah. I think you’re right.’
‘OK, well, let’s all make sure to be in the living room before nine, then.’
‘Why?’ Daisy asked, perplexed.
‘To watch it, of course!’
‘Actually, I’d rather we didn’t make too big a deal of it.’
‘But isn’t this the point? Three years of drama school?’
