The Jerk Actor & His Nerdy Apprentice

Part One

•Kayla•

"Welcome back, class." Mr. Owsley greeted our class as he walked into the room, setting his briefcase onto his desk. His thick brown hair was in curls, barely reaching the tips of his ears on either side of his head. His brown eyes were bright with excitement at the beginning of the new semester; the last semester. "How was everyone's Christmas break?" Everyone in our class was of the same religion, so he didn't have to go by regular rules of saying 'holiday' break.

We went around the class, telling our classmates about how wonderful or difficult or terrible (etc) our two-week break was. When they got to me, I held up a finger, taking out my medium-sized notepad with a pen attached to the side. The class chuckled; of course Kayla Marie would take notes during her Christmas break, eh? I only told them from the small outline that I had written down about how my break was, what happened, who visited, and who didn't bother.

After a few minutes of me constantly talking, I shut myself up, letting the next people speak before our sharing time ran up. I know what you're thinking; sharing about your Christmas, or any, break in college? Didn't students only did that in grade eight and under? Well, our class is small, and very tight knit. It's as if we're a family, away from our other families that don't live at the college, or our own apartments, with us. No one here lived with their families anymore, since it was basically a requirement.

Not that these people were stuck up. It's just, if your little brother, sister, dog (etc) got a hold of a project of yours, tough luck. Start from scratch. You get no special treatments during that situation, and that's why basically everyone lives alone. There were a few in the past who tried to squeeze by, living with families, but too many things came up and they ended up having to drop their course.

Once the last people were through sharing, Mr. Owsley clapped his hands, delighted to share this semester's assignment. We were all anxious, from hearing that the final assignment was always the best. Though, this year's was known to be different, but no one knew exactly how or what was going to go down.

After a few seconds - that felt like a few hours - ticked by, Mr. Owsley finally began speaking. "Okay, I'm sure you're all as excited as I am to hear about your assignment for your final semester before you all graduate. But, first, we have to talk details." In any other class, you would hear groaning. Here, though we were all dying to hear about the new major assignment, we also needed to know what kind of impact it would make on our grades, graduation, and even future.

"Thus being the final assignment, it will count as fifty percent of your yearly grade, combining with last semester's fifty. This also determines if you graduate, or don't." The room was deathly silent; no one in this class had lower than an A, and everyone was frightened of ever getting anything lower. "Before we can go into each part of the grade, I must tell you the actual assignment." He smiled a knowing, gentle, smile, as the room fell into an aura of calmness. Yet, I still continued to take notes in my notebook on a crisp, new page.

"You each will be shadowing a famous actor or actress. You will see how their lives work, what they have to do and/or earn to get where they are, and whatever else happens in their everyday lives. To cut it short, you will be their apprentice." Oh my God! How many strings did they have to pull to get this for us? I could barely contain my excitement. And, from the expressions of my classmates, they seemed to be having the same difficulty.

Mr. Owsley chuckled, leaning against his desk, his curls bouncing a bit. "This project will not be as easy as you all assume. These people are strangers to us, when you see them in movies, they are playing a part; it takes nothing to understand a character. But to understand a true person, that takes some work. And that's what you guys are going to do during these following months, starting next week." He lectured inspiringly. I jotted notes as he continued speaking.