MAY 2018 - LOS ANGELES
Eliana paced by the craft table while waiting for her coffee to finish brewing, the script reduction in her hands as she repeated her lines under her breath. The girl's hands moistened by the stress of needing to perform her scenes perfectly as she repeatedly wiped them on her sweats. She had had yet another sleepless night, facetiming with her mother as Annie helped her daughter with delivering her lines the most authentic way possible. Today was the moment Eliana needed to flabbergast her peers with her acting, especially Jim, since they were shooting emotional and difficult scenes for her character. Today wasn't the day for Eliana to succumb to the pressure, she needed to be the best version of herself and that started with getting her head to stop spinning. Eliana paused her recital to put way too many sugars in her coffee and a splash of milk to sweetened it even more which provoked a snort from the boy who stood by the door's frame. Jamie walked in the craft room and made himself a coffee.
"Let me guess, you prefer yours black." Eliana playfully commented while crossing her arms, her full attention quickly shifting to the boy who seemed to brought her calm.
"I do." Jamie chuckled as he watched Eliana's eyes quickly flickering on the script pages in her hands, a smirk creeping on his lips.
"You pretentious skawng." Eliana joked before returning her whole focus to the words before her eyes and her feet to move in circle around the room, in an almost hypnotizing way. As Jamie sipped on the hot coffee, his throat warming up by the liquid and his back leaning against the table, he scrutinized the girl's tensed face. Jamie recognizing the stiffness in her body caused by the anxiousness of having to perform as he had lived it a few times before. The girl must had sensed his stare as she was now turned around to him before saying, "Don't you have to get suited up or something?" She coldly expressed, insinuating for Jamie to leave her, the pressure creeping on her and eating parts of her usual kindness away. The boy's body straightened up, leaving the table as his cheeks flustered to the sudden mood shift in the room, embarrassed to have caused Eliana's discomfort.
"S-Sure..." He stuttered, frowning at the girl who coldly met his eyes, immediately regretting her tone and wishing she could take the words back but Jamie's quick departure making it impossible for her to do as such. Eliana sighed to herself, disappointed by her reaction toward Jamie, her closest friend, the boy who only wanted to light up her mood. As her eyes red the lines on the pages, her mind wandered somewhere else, the interaction with Jamie replaying like a video looping over and over, until she eventually figured the only way for her to resume her rehearsal was to talk to the boy and apologize. They, all of the kids, were all under so much pressure and it was unfair of her to unleash her stress on him as he already had his own to deal with. The seventeen year old walked to the break room where most of the kids would hang out in between scenes, searching for the brunette but instead was greeted by her younger costars and friends.
"Lili!" Trinity excitedly exclaimed as soon as she spotted the girl enter the room, running up to her hand and pulling her by the coffee table where drawings and crayons were piled everywhere. "Come draw with me." Eliana kneeled beside the young girl who almost immediately resumed to her activity, a pink marker in her hand sketching flowers. Lilies.
"Sorry, Trin. I have to rehearse lines," Eliana reluctantly said, sorry to disappoint the young girl. "but I'll draw with you during lunch time, mhm?" Trinity nodded to Eliana, accepting her offer before refocusing on the flowers before her. Eliana looked over at Bailey who sat on the other side of the table, her legs crossed on the floor and an untouched, blank white sheet in front of her. She was chatting with Duane who's half body laid in the couch in between Britain, Filip and Jack, all playing some video games on the television. Bailey's smile couldn't get any wider, her cheeks tinted by a slight shade of pink and her dimples on full display. Eliana smiled at the thought of her friend having a crush, probably her first as the girl faintly remembered hers. Gregory Trembley, they were in the same seventh grade class. She never even had the courage to speak to him but her heartbeat always seemed to picked up whenever he was close by. Probably like Bailey's was in that moment. As Eliana didn't want to bother her curly haired friend, she moved her gaze to one of the unoccupied boys on the couch, maybe they would know where Jamie was.
"Do you want me to help you with your lines?" Jack said, his eyes immediately interlocking with the girl's as he couldn't care less about the video game he was playing. Eliana contemplated the idea, hesitating as she would rather find the oldest before their filming day would start. "My mom taught me a few tricks, I can show you." Jack added with hopeful eyes that Eliana couldn't deny. The girl took it as an opportunity to balance everything out, she had already pushed one of them away, there was no need for doing the same mistake twice.
"Sure." Eliana smiled to the fourteen year old boy who's face instantly lit up with excitement. Jack jumped out of the couch and took the older girl's hand in his. Before pulling them out of the room, Eliana succeeded to share an amused look with Britain who chuckled at the scene. Jack had always been the most extroverted of them all, he was always so full of energy that sometimes might had come off as annoying for others but not for his friends, it was probably the thing they liked most about him. How he was always so effortlessly happy and excited for the small things of life which Eliana had always find inspiring. "Where are we going?" Eliana asked to the boy who kept walking them around set.
"Whenever I struggle to find calm, I go there. Trust me, it helps with learning your lines." Jack said, leading them toward the metallic stairs as they headed upstairs, on the second floor. The duo was greeted by a few production members along their way until they finally reached a beige door with a wooden plate screwed on.
"Audiovisual management?" Eliana red the words out loud, her tone laced with confusion as the smile on the boy's face grew wider, his head repeatedly nodding before he opened the door for them to enter. Eliana looked around, multiple screens of all sizes were hung to the sound proofed walls and control consoles' buttons were lighting the dark room. This was a television control room.
"No one ever comes here." Jack stated, getting his iPod out of his pocket and plugging it near the sound console, a soothing ocean audio started playing on the speakers. Eliana's eyes followed the younger boy's every move as he grabbed a controller and turned on all of the television, the color bar's lights slightly blinding the girl. "Sit." Jack ordered Eliana who find herself immediately listening to the fourteen year old.
"Jack, this is-" Eliana started, looking around the room but was quickly interrupted by the boy shushing her, grabbing both of her hands in his as he closed his eyes.
"Inhale for five seconds. Read your first line and exhale for five other seconds." Eliana couldn't help but snicker to the boy's instructions, wondering how it would truly help her and finding it slightly ridiculous. Jack abruptly opened his eyes, yanking the girl's hands closer to him.
"Ow, Jack!" She protested which caused the boy to glare at her, insinuating for her to focus and follow his lead. Eliana sighed to herself, slowly closing her eyes the same way Jack had previously done. The teenage boy directed her into doing his meditation as Eliana proceeded to calmly deliver all of her lines without reading them, her mind efficiently remembering them.
"He's outside." Jack mindlessly said, causing Eliana to quickly opened her eyes to look at the boy before him who was still in his meditating state, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. Eliana messily shuffled her fingers through Jack's hair as a way to thank him for helping with her lines but also to punish him for playing her, knowing well she was looking for Jamie all along. Eliana ran downstairs, her footfalls echoing in the studio and catching some of the crew's attentions as they amusedly watched the girl dodged members and equipment until she reached the studio's exit door. The teenage girl looked around the several white trucks parked right outside of the building, mentally slapping herself as she hadn't thought to look for him in this place first. Jamie was always such a calm presence, no wonder he would isolate himself in his trailer before filming begun. Eliana sharply exhaled and knocked on his door, the metal throbbing under her hand as a figure soon replaced the white solid before her. Jamie timidly smiled to the girl, unsure of the reasons she was at his door as she had made it clear she wanted to be alone a few moments ago yet he still let her in. Jamie watched the girl sat on the small wooden bench, crossing her legs and straightening her back while she kept her eyes deep in his before dropping them to the camera resting on the table.
"Ask me your questions." Jamie's eyebrows surprisingly rose to Eliana's words, capturing the girl's image was always something he looked forward yet he still couldn't wrapped his mind around her sudden change of heart about being part of the documentary. The brunette boy pulled out a chair and sat on it, his camera obstructing Eliana's view of his face as he pressed the recording button. Jamie gave a single glance toward the girl, telling her that she could start talking before returning his eyes to watch her from the camera's monitor. "My name is Eliana Martin, it's the twenty first of May and I'm seventeen year old." Eliana took a deep breath, apprehending the words that would soon escape her lips. "Today is a very difficult day for my character... and for me. I've recently been struggling with delivering the lines the way I want to. You know, sometimes as an actor, emotional scenes can be our biggest challenge, it is very exhausting for our body and mind. Plus, I've been like a super huge dick to the one who's been reassuring me during those scenes on set," Jamie chuckled, the camera slightly shaking as his body moved up and down before Eliana reached for it, gently turning the camera in her hands so the lens focused on the boy. "You might know him, directly coming from the royal lands, it's Jamie Flatters." Jamie shyly waved at the camera, not used to be in front of his own camera rather than the one behind it. "Anyways, he's the one who's always cheering me up and encouraging me, and he didn't deserve my cold hearted bitch act from this morning."
Eliana placed the camera down on her laps before stopping the recording, both hers and Jamie's chuckles fading as she stared at him.
"So I guess, this is your way of apologizing?" Jamie stared back, hypnotized by her piercing blue eyes as he rolled his chair closer to the girl, the plastic wheels resounding in the trailer.
"Did it worked?" Eliana asked breathlessly, in hope of regaining her friend as her eyes flickered to every one of his feature, taking each of them in for a few seconds while she almost tasted his breath on her lips. Their proximity making the bottom of her stomach throb with envy of closing the space that separated their lips from colliding. Jamie nodded, his eyes still attached to hers, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his lips which Eliana immediately noticed. Their short moment was promptly interrupted by knocks on Jamie's trailer door, knocks they barely heard as they were too focused on each other, tuning the outside world.
"You're needed on set!" A feminine voice said, causing the both of them to move away, distancing themselves from one another as they shared a fast awkward look that actually disguised the real sentiments they kept hiding from each other.
Liked by britaindalton and 160 others
@jamieflatters caught her in my trailer after she stole this, I'm not an accomplice.
Comments
@jackchampion I'm going to tell on you
-> @liamartian I'll stop meditating with you then
-> @jackchampion you're mean
@baileybass bring it back, Jim is looking for it everywhere
->@jamieflatters coming... mum