“Not with that attitude, missy.”
Victoria laughed. “Are you trying to mom me?”
“Yes. Is it working?”
“Sorry, no. You’re too nice. You need a little more edge to make it believable.”
“You’re saying I should be more like Ava.”
“Not so much that you should be, just that she gets her way a whole lot more than anyone else I know.”
“Same as you.”
“What?”
“You get your way most of the time. You set the rules. It’s not surprising. Like Ava, you’re also strong, independent and fearless. It’s nice to see.”
Cindy was saying she was like her mother? No! That couldn’t be true. Except the way Cindy described them, maybe it was, and didn’t that totally suck?
Early Saturday morning Shannon pulled into a parking lot of the USC campus. She’d gone online the previous evening to figure out where she was supposed to go. She’d never been on campus before and certainly hadn’t been to the film school, so information had been required. Despite her planning, she sure hadn’t slept well. Just thinking about how she would be spending her weekend was enough to tie her stomach into knots.
For the forty-seventh time, she told herself she should have simply told Avathank you but no. She wasn’t interested in cinematography. The film list had been tedious to get through—at least she assumed it would have been, had she finished. As it was, she’d barely gotten through two of the eight recommended movies, and she’d hated both of them. All she wanted was to be back in bed with Aaron as they planned their weekend. Worse, she felt an instinctive need to text her mom for moral support, only she hadn’t told her about the class, so she was going to have to suck it up and get through this on her own.
Now as she walked from her car, she felt nauseous, light-headed and incredibly out of place, feelings that only increased when she found the room and walked inside.
There were about two dozen high school students in the large classroom. All of them were talking excitedly to each other, some showing videos on their phones. Beside each of them was a huge camera bag filled with equipment. Complicated-looking camera type equipment that she not only didn’t recognize but also couldn’t even name the component parts of.
She slid onto a seat next to a dark-haired teen who looked to be about fifteen at most. The girl smiled at her.
“Aren’t you dying? I’m dying. I was so excited, I couldn’t sleep last night so I rewatchedThe Ocean Journeytwice. I know everyone saysAnd Then Youis his seminal work, but I thinkThe Ocean Journeywas when Mateo really found himself as an artist, you know? The lighting alone makes me cry every time I watch it. I’m Jelli, by the way. Like a PB&J but with ani.”
“Ah, Shannon. Hi.”
Jelli pulled a laptop from her huge bag and opened it. “I’ve been doing some editing, playing with different angles to get the scene just like inThe Ocean Journey. Not copying but trying to duplicate the feel with my own work. My film teacher at school says we can learn by redoing a master’s work. Like painters recreating a great painting over and over again.”
She pressed a couple of keys on her laptop, then turned it toward Shannon. The screen filled with a young boy in a sailboat. Behind him the sky morphed from blue to green to red before quickly turning to night. Birds flew by backward while the boy and the boat moved forward.
“See what I did there?” she asked eagerly. “It’s the same technique Mateo used inThe Ocean Journey.” She wrinkled her nose. “I couldn’t get the scope he could because I don’t have the same equipment, but I think it’s pretty good.”
Shannon stared at the screen. She had no idea what she’d just seen or what Jelli was so proud of. To her, the sequence hadn’t made sense at all, but she wasn’t going to say that.
“It’s brilliant,” she said with a smile. “I mean brilliant.”
Jelli flushed with pleasure. “Thanks. It’s part of what I submitted. I hope he likes it.”
“Submitted?” Shannon asked in confusion. “You mean...”
“To get into the seminar. The videos we had to send in? I was so scared because I was afraid I wouldn’t make it.”
“Oh, that. Me, too.” Shannon looked around at all the earnest teens who continued to talk animatedly and share their work. They’d all auditioned to get into the class, she thought, feeling guilt as well as shame. They cared about this, wanted to know everything Mateo could teach them. They were eager, talented and driven. She had nothing in common with them and absolutely didn’t belong here.
But before she could run out of the classroom to go hide in her car, a tall, dark-haired man walked into the room. He waslean, intense, and when the kids saw him, the room erupted into applause. Mateo paused and graciously nodded. The teens leaped to their feet, cheering.
He crossed to the front of the room and opened the laptop waiting on the lectern. After he pushed a couple of buttons, an image filled the huge screen behind him. There was a shot of a giraffe crossing the plains somewhere wild-looking. Maybe the African savanna, Shannon thought, noting how rapt the other students were. The camera panned to a lion lying in wait.
One of the teens whispered a soft “Oh no.” It was only then Shannon realized there was no sound, just the image. Seconds later, the image changed. It was the same scene but filmed from up high, as if the camera was in a second-story window. She saw the same ground, the same trees. Barely on the edge of the screen was a flicker of movement, then the camera turned, and she saw the lion.
The scene started again. At first there was only the brush, then she saw a large paw as the lion walked into view. He filled the entire screen, looking powerful and majestic.
