Between

nine - the undaunted

Olive's POV

I walked into the large lobby of the filming studio office in Sydney. "Here for the Undaunted meeting?" The secretary asked in a strong accent. Possibly Russian?

"Yes, thank you."

"Just through there." She waved towards the open door on the left, and I went through it. Inside there was a large white table which had blue spinning chairs all around it. I recognized a couple of people, Daniel Lewis, the guy who had called me, and Terry Wells, the director, and Wesley (I didn't remember his last name), who would be playing Harry, the other lead.

"Hi, Olive." Terry said. "Take a seat next to Wesley." I went over and sat next to him, and he smiled at me, so I smiled back. Sheesh, he had the best smile.

A moment later, a girl with fiery red hair rushed in and sat in the empty seat on my other side. "I'm sorry, am I late?"

"Nah, you're on time, Molly." Terry told her. "Okay, now that we're all here, let's all introduce ourselves, because not everyone has met everyone yet. I'll start. Hey, I'm Terry, the director, and I really love cheddar cheese." He looked over at Daniel who was sitting next to him.

"I'm Daniel Lewis, and I'm the producer. I also do a bunch of other random stuff that no one else wants to do. So yea, that's fun." He paused for a second. "Wesleeey. Your turn."

"My name's Wesley Quinn, and I'm playing Harry. I also, like this fine person, love cheddar." He said as he pointed at Terry.

It took me a while longer than it should of for me to realise I was next. "Oh! Sorry, didn't realise it was my turn." I gave a small nervous laugh, which was weird, because I never get nervous. Ever. "Well, I'm Olive Henton, and I'm playing Rue." Quick, think of a random fact about yourself. "I can uhh, wiggle my ears." Shut up brain. That's just weird. Luckily everyone laughed, and Molly, the girl with red hair introduced herself.

"Hi! I'm Molly Grove, and I'm playing Liz." I recognised that name from the script as Rue's best friend. "I'm really excited to be here, so yeah. Let's do this movie!"

After everyone introduced themselves, we went through the first part of the script. It was pretty fun, and everyone seemed really nice. Soon after we finished reading through the script, the secretary with the possible Russian accent appeared in the doorway. "Ms. Brennan has arrived." She said.

"Okay, thanks Linda. I'll go get her." Terry said, and then stood up and left the room. He came back a moment later with a woman behind him, who I recognized, I just couldn't figure out where from. "So, everyone, this is Jessica Brennan, the author of the Undaunted. Ms. Brennan, this is everyone." Of course, I had seen her picture on the back of the book of the Undaunted, which I had read before the auditions.

She smiled. "Please, call me Jess. It's so nice to meet you!" She surveyed the room. "Harry?" She asked, pointing at Wesley, and he nodded. "Yes! Got it right!" She looked at Molly and I. "Rue and Liz?" She asked, pointing at me first, and then Molly.

"Yup." We said simultaneously.

***

"I'm home!" I called as I came through the door. I left my suitcase beside the door, and my mum came out of the kitchen. "Hi, honey! How was the meeting?"

"It was pretty good actually."

"That's good. Do you want a muffin? I made these apple and pear and cereal muffins."

"Really? But you hate cooking. But sure, I'll have one, thanks."

"I was going through some old boxes, and I found a cook book. It's actually quite fun! I also made cookies, and a chocolate cake, and some apple crumble, and I just put an egg and bacon pie into the oven." Mum went back into the kitchen, and I followed her. The bench was covered in plates of cookies, cakes, you name it.

I laughed. "How are we meant to eat all this?"

"I don't know. We could invite a bunch of people over and have a party if you want." She said with a shrug.

"Yea, sure. But I'm going to go have a nap; the plane was exhausting." I went upstairs, lugging my suitcase behind me, and slid into bed, not even bothering to change.

***

"Skye." The word came out of my mouth, but it sounded far off and distant. She stood maybe ten meters away from me, facing the other way. She was wearing a white dress that floated and shimmered, and her light brown hair was in soft brown curls opposed to its usual stick straightness. The room in which we were standing in fell away, leaving only darkness around us. A man appeared at a door in the middle of nowhere. "Skye!" I screamed.

She turned towards me, but she had no face. Just skin covered in stretch marks and scars. "What?" She asked innocently, even though she had no mouth. The man took a gun out of his pocket, and pointed it at Skye, but before he could pull the trigger, Skye disappeared into a swirl of mist.

I woke up sweating and breathing heavily. I turned on the lamp that was beside my bed, and looked around the room. It was familiar, calming.