Chapter 2
Doug
No Willa on the show? The news made me want to leave too, though not for reality TV. I couldn’t think of anything worse than being an overinflated, egotistical judge who enjoyed crushing the hope out of people. I hated talent competitions. My mother put me through so many auditions where I was told I had talent, but not ‘the look’ they were going for. Unfortunately, I was accepted enough times to keep the dream alive. Her dream. I did a lot of performing for small audiences in community college auditoriums and stood in a lot of lines. And all the shows I didn’t make it on? We’d watch them as homework. The last thing I wanted was to go back to that, no matter how much I liked Willa.
I packed up and drove home to my apartment. Tiger, my cat, jumped on me as soon as I walked in the door. I carried him on my shoulder into the kitchen and filled up his food dish. He showed up two years ago, and now I couldn’t imagine life without him, as pathetic as that may seem.
I gave up on having a two-legged roommate after the last guy moved out a year ago. He was a slob and ate all my food. Finances were tighter, but I couldn’t bring myself to find someone else to split the rent with.
Mom called like clockwork, ten minutes after my arrival. If I ignored her calls, she came over. I preferred a five minute phone call to getting stalked. I knew she did the same thing to my older brother, Owen, because the first thing she did when she called was give me the Owen update. I’d often wondered if there was a Doug update he endured three times a week.
“Hi, Doug. It’s six weeks until Owen’s wedding. Do you have a date yet or do I need to start talking to some of my friends and see who we can come up with?”
“I don’t need a date, Mom.”
“You’re a major TV star. You can’t show up alone. What would people think?”
“I don’t care what people think. I’ll be there to see Owen get married, not socialize.”
“Well, I’ll put the feelers out. I’m sure we can come up with someone perfect for you.”
As usual, she’d willfully ignored me.
“Owen sold a ten million dollar house yesterday. I’m so proud of him.”
“That’s great, Mom.”
“What’s new with you?”
“Oh, I bought a new pack of socks yesterday. My feet have never felt better.” I knew that wasn’t the kind of answer she was fishing for, but it was the most exciting thing in my world. And she’d hate that.
“Doug, be serious. How is filming?”
“Amazing. Fantastic. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.”
Anyone else would hang up on me at that point. But not my mother. We were on the phone for another thirty minutes. I used the time to research cars. My lease was almost up, and I was thinking I’d get a Jeep next.
Her call left me slightly stressed out, as it always did, but there was something else. A dissatisfaction with the status quo. I did want a date for my brother’s wedding. More than that, I wanted to enjoy life, to be surprised by it in a way I hadn’t in years.
Had Willa really taken an idea, shopped it around, and sold it, all by herself? Knowing her, yes. Yes, she did. She wasn’t one to wait for success to come knocking.
I’d done acting jobs besides Strength Warriors, but I always waited for my agent to pitch them to me. They were nothing special. A voice-over commercial or a bit part where the character didn’t even get a name. I’d be in the credits as the disgruntled parking attendant or the clumsy waiter. And come to think of it, I hadn’t done any of those in a while.
Reality TV was not my thing, but maybe I shouldn’t have shut down Willa’s offer so quickly. She’d handed me a unique opportunity that meant something to her and trusted me with it.
I’d spent so many years being dragged into this business by my mother that I’d never stopped to consider that maybe it was my turn to decide what success looked like for me. Just because I associated talent competitions with bad memories didn’t mean it always had to be that way.
Even though there was no one to check over my shoulder, I still felt nervous as I pulled up an internet search and started reading up on the current reality TV talent shows. I never watched them, and I hadn’t tried out for one (thank goodness) in over a decade. But did I really want to stay a villain on a kids show forever?
Willa
I never panicked, but this was as close to panic as I’d felt in a long time. I needed Doug. And I couldn’t tell him why until he agreed to be a judge on my show. I’d stayed up late, trying to come up with a backup plan, but nothing was as sure as my trust in Doug. I’d just have to talk him into it.
Today, we were filming on the high school set. No bulky costumes or fight scenes, unless you counted the cafeteria food fight we’d work on later. Just teenage pranks and relationship angst appropriate for pre-school audiences. My character was dating Chad’s character, and Doug wasn’t even on set, making me grumpier than I was naturally.
Chad put his arm around me and repeated his line—an invitation to prom. We were at the counter in our character’s favorite diner, sitting on shiny red stools, his leather-jacketed arm around mine. Tween girls everywhere would swoon, but that was because they didn’t know Chad personally. I knew that smirk on his face all too well. It was a look that made me want to twist his arm behind his back until he cried.
Instead, I smiled like it was the best day of my life. “Of course I’ll go to prom with you.”
