The Other Side of Hollywood is completely insane. Paul and Kenny have a vision for this choreography, and that vision is chaos. Well, organized chaos, but chaos nonetheless.
I've spent most of the past two weeks trying to work through choreography for this piece, and it's challenging, to say the least. There are so many people to account for, and each of them are doing their own separate things. It gets hard to remember it all.
What doesn't help is that I'm still running on about four hours of sleep every day, sometimes even less. At this point, I'd give anything to make these nightmares go away. Every night feels like two weeks because I spend most of it tossing and turning, being scared to go back to sleep. The dark circles under my eyes are becoming more and more visible, no matter how much makeup I try to use on them.
My saving grace is when I get to work with the guys, teaching them their parts of the dance. I even got to meet Booboo, which was a surreal experience. Like everyone else, he was super friendly and is easy to work with. He's also a fantastic dancer, so that helps.
My daily routine becomes simple. I get up after a night of restless sleep, I get ready and go to the studio, I dance and choreograph and teach for hours on end, and then I come home and climb right into bed. I haven't had much time for anything else.
Once we have some solid choreography, we start rehearsing on the set of the Hollywood Ghost Club. We continue to choreograph and practice days on end until Kenny and Paul are satisfied with the outcome. Unlike I Got the Music, I'm not going to be in this dance. It seems a bit unfair after all the hard work I've put into the choreography, but I don't complain.
Filming for it starts today. I'm still supposed to hang around on set to make changes if needed or correct anything that looks wrong. It's challenging because I have so many people to keep up with, but at least I'm not totally alone. Other choreographers and dancers are looking on with me, plus Kenny and Paul, of course.
I don't get to talk to the guys much because they're busy filming the scene. I did see Madison earlier, so I know she's here to watch. I thought about trying to find her, but I didn't know if I was allowed to leave where I was. Luckily, she found me instead.
"Hi, Jenny! I didn't know you were back here. I thought you'd be in this dance since you've been helping choreograph the whole thing," she says when she walks up to me.
"Yeah, I think I was originally supposed to be in it, but they decided it'd be too risky since I already have a role in Dirty Candy. I'm okay with watching though, at least I get to see all my hard work pay off. And it makes it easier to catch mistakes," I reply.
"That's understandable. The guys are doing amazing, so know that your hard work wasn't for nothing. It's a miracle anyone taught those three children how to not look ridiculous when they dance."
"I love that you're multiple years younger than them and still address them as children," I laugh. "It fits, though. They all act like children, well, Jeremy less than the other two."
"Yeah, I think Jer is the only sane one in the group. Still, they're all very passionate about acting, so at least they do take one thing seriously. Speaking of- I wanted to tell you about something," she says, a serious expression on her face.
"What is it?"
"Charlie and I may have written a song. And I think we're gonna show it to Kenny today. We kinda took inspiration from Julie and Luke, and we're gonna try to see if Kenny lets us put it in the show," she tells me.
"Mads, that's awesome!" I exclaim, and she smiles. "Can I come with you while you show him? I wanna hear this song."
"Of course! I was going to ask you to come anyway," she chuckles.
We continue to watch The Other Side of Hollywood together, with me correcting minor mistakes after every take. Once we finally break for lunch, Madi and I make our way over to where the guys are. Booboo is with them this time, which makes me a bit nervous since I haven't talked to him much.
"Jenny, Mads!" Charlie waves us over.
"You all are doing great!" Madison says once we reach their table.
"Thanks, glad to hear it. This is super tiring. Jenny, I don't know how you do this every day," Charlie says.
I laugh as we all move to get our lunch. I mostly just listen in to the other's conversation. We all ate lunch together until Charlie and Madison decided that they were ready to try to show Kenny the song they wrote. I feel kind of weird following them to tell Kenny, but I continuously remind myself Madison did say that it was okay.
Once they find Kenny and sit down somewhere, they start singing their song. It was completely breathtaking. The way their voices fit together, the lyrics that fit perfectly with Luke and Julie. Everyone who was looking on was blown away, especially Kenny.
Once Madison and Charlie finished, they had to inform Kenny that it was their own original song and that they thought it fit perfectly with the storyline for Luke and Julie. He agreed almost instantly that we had to use it in the show.
"We were thinking that we could use it during the dance scene between Nick and Julie. Julie could envision that she's dancing with Luke instead of Nick, and it could solidify the feelings she has for him," Charlie explains.
"I love that idea. A whole daydream dance sequence would be perfect," Kenny says. "I'll talk with the writers and see what we can do. I'm super proud of you two, that sounded wonderful!"
He hugs the two of them and then makes his way back to the set. They come over to me, and I'm still standing in awe.
"You guys... that was amazing. Seriously."
They both smile at me and I go to hug both of them. We all walk back to set together and almost immediately start back with filming. Madison has to leave a little after filming starts back again, leaving me alone once again. I continue to look on and try to correct as much as I can, but it gets a little boring after a while.
I ride home with the guys once we stop filming for the day. Owen seems strangely quiet throughout the ride, but I decide not to mention it. Charlie is super giddy about Perfect Harmony, and I don't want to ruin his excitement.
Once we make it back to the apartment, I make sure to thank Jeremy for driving us, and I walk in alongside Owen and Charlie. Owen follows me into my apartment as Charlie walks into theirs. He doesn't ask questions though, he just smirks at me as he closes the door behind him.
"Hey, guys, how did filming go?" Sav asks when we walk in.
"It was good, very tiring for us all. But everyone is doing amazing," I tell her.
"That's good. And I can tell it was tiring- no offense, but you both look like you need about a day's worth of sleep."
"I do," Owen responds.
I walk into my room, which is still a complete and utter mess from last night. Owen follows me in.
"Wow, what happened to your room?" he asks once he sees the state it's in.
I just shrug as I flop down onto my bed. The comforter is completely waded on the other side of the bed, none of it tucked in. My blankets are strewn all across the floor, as are most of my pillows. I try every possible way to sleep, and this is the result.
When I finally look at Owen, actually look at him, I notice that he doesn't look like himself at all.
"O, are you okay? You don't look so hot."
"I always look hot, Jenny," he says with a smirk. I just roll my eyes as he continues. "I don't know. I think I might be getting sick again."
"Again? Is your immune system that bad?" He just shrugs. "What's wrong?"
"I think I might have pink eye. My eye is red and I have a very annoying runny nose."
I look at his eyes and I do see that one is definitely redder than it should be. "I think I have some leftover eyedrops from when I had pink eye a few months ago. I can go look for them if you want."
"Please. And do you have any decongestants? I could use some of that too," he tells me.
"Of course. Hold on, let me see what I got," I say as I walk to my bathroom. I pull out the container with all of the medicines I brought, and I find the eyedrops and a brand-new pack of Zyrtec-D. I walk back and hand them to Owen.
"You're a lifesaver, Jenny. Thank you."
"I live to serve."
"I would ask if I could watch Miraculous with you, but I doubt you wanna risk getting sick," he says.
"And you are correct," I laugh. "I pinky promise we can do it as soon as you're better." He holds up his pinky and I interlock it with mine.
"Pinky promises are sacred. You better not break it," he says seriously.
"I would never."
"You better not. Anyway, get some sleep, Jenny. I'm gonna go and take this medicine and hopefully sleep afterward. And thank you, again."
"Anytime. Goodnight, Owen."
"Night, Jenny," he says with a smile, and he walks out of my room. I genuinely hope he gets some sleep tonight. Maybe he can get enough sleep for the two of us.