#ripharambe #dicksoutforharambe
Better Than Revenge
Chapter 10
"I can't work with him!"
"I can't work with her!"
Nora sighed, rubbing her temples. "Okay, one at a time, please."
"I can't work with him!"
"I can't work with her!"
"Let me talk," I snapped angrily.
"Why do you get to talk first?" he demanded, furrowing his eyebrows.
"Because!" I said simply.
"You're just going to try to make me look bad," he accused haughtily.
"I don't even have to try," I pointed out, crossing my arms over my chest. "You do a fine job of that all by yourself."
He let out a loud, irritated breath. "Why can't you just be like the rest of them?"
"The rest of them?" I repeated incredulously. "What, you mean like the rest of the mindless androids who worship the ground you walk on and obsess over your every move?"
"Well... not when you put it that way... you make it sound so much worse. But yes, I guess that's what I mean," he said slowly.
I rolled my eyes. "Excuse me for not fawning over you. I just don't see what's so great about you."
This greatly offended him. "What?"
I burst out laughing. "Oh God, the look on your face... that just made my day. Is it honestly so hard to believe that there's one person on this planet that doesn't think you're the shit?"
"Well... yes," he replied honestly. "It is."
I snickered. "You better start getting used to it, then, because I'm not going to change my mind about you."
He threw me an angry look and was just about to speak when Nora interrupted.
"Are you two done now?" she asked calmly. "Have you gotten it all out of your systems?"
"No," Christian and I chorused.
She sighed, shaking her head. "I knew it would be hard, but I didn't think it would be this hard..."
"What are you talking about?" Christian asked curiously.
"It's definitely worth it, though," she muttered to herself.
I gave her a strange look. "What's worth it?"
"Hmm?" she asked, looking up at us. It seemed as if she had forgotten we were there. "Oh, nothing, don't listen to me! I'm just prattling on! Let's go back inside so we can get started. And please... please try to get along. Just try."
Christian and I glanced at each other, glaring. "Fine," I muttered after she gave us a reprimanding look. "I'll try."
Nora nodded curtly and spun around, heading back inside. I reluctantly followed her with Christian on my tail.
We were having the read-through in the same building the auditions took place in. The set wasn't ready yet, so Nora decided to just have it here. I had yet to step foot on set. I heard the set was going to be at an abandoned mansion, though. As long as it wasn't haunted, I was fine with that.
It took us another five minutes thanks to Christian and me, but finally, we began with the read-through. The name basically stated everything we did: we read through the script. We didn't have to get up and act anything out. It was just reading through.
I had the first line in the script, so I got to start.
"Taylor!" I cried loudly. "Taylor, get up!" I paused, since I was supposed to run into Taylor's room at that moment. "Taylor!"
Savannah, the actress I hadn't recognized before, groaned. "I thought we were skipping today!"
I smiled. "We are! Don't you want to know the reason we're skipping?"
Savannah paused. "I'm listening."
"We're skipping because I managed to get us last minute VIP tickets to Paramore's concert tonight!" I smiled smugly.
"Nuh uh!" Savannah cried.
"Wait, wait, wait," Nora called from her seat. "Savannah, you're too stiff! You need to loosen up. Just because it's a read-through doesn't mean you should slack off."
Savannah sighed in annoyance. "Sorry, Nora."
"I think we should do a few exercises to loosen up," Nora said after a moment. "Come on, guys, we're all doing these."
I hated these exercises with a passion. I hadn't even tried any of the ones Nora had up her sleeve yet, but I already hated them. They were all similar to each other. I'd had to do some in theatre during high school, and they definitely weren't my cup of tea.
The first one we had to do was the animal exercise. Basically, Nora or Anne Holland, the assistant director, would list an animal and we would have to act like the animal.
Running around acting like a gorilla, a dinosaur or a dolphin wasn't my idea of fun.
The second was a little better, but not by much. It was an improv exercise. We needed a partner for this one and just as I was about to go with Jake, who was standing right next to me, Nora put a hand up and stopped me.
She grabbed my arm and looked around before saying, "No, Sophia, you go with Christian, please."
I couldn't help myself. I immediately protested. I knew I was too new to this business to protest about everything, but there was just no way not to. "What? Er... I'd much rather go with Jake, if you don't mind..."
Jake chuckled at my protests.
"Yeah, and I don't think Chris wants to go with her, either," Savannah added loudly. "He'd much rather go with me, right, Chris?"
"Honestly, I'm fine with anyone but her," Christian said, nodding towards me.
"So can he be my partner?" Savannah asked, hooking her arm into Christian's. "Please?"
"No, I want Christian and Sophia to be partners," Nora insisted stubbornly. "They're the two main characters and Sophia should go with her leading man. You need to go with Jake, Savannah."
"But—" she began, but her protests died short. "Fine..."
Nora nodded happily.
I grimaced, glancing over at Christian out of the corner of my eye. "Nora, are you sure? I really don't mind if Savannah goes with Christian. Honestly. I'm cool with it."
"Yes, I'm sure."
I sighed in defeat, slowly walking over to where Christian stood. He glanced over at me, looking at me like I was a bug on his shoe. I flipped him off in return.
"Okay, this little exercise is called 'Yes And'. The first person starts by establishing the setting and the plot and the second person goes with it. You have to keep agreeing with each other. Christian and Sophia, you go first as an example. Sophia, you start."
I nodded shortly and said the first thing that came to mind. "Standing next to Christian Ryder is a bore."
I decided I was going to have some fun with this. If he had to agree with everything I said, I might as well make it interesting, right?
He glared at me but went along with it because he had to. "Yes, it's just like standing next to Sophia Hastings."
"Yes, and it's also insanely annoying standing next to Christian Ryder."
"Yeah, almost as annoying as standing next to Sophia Hastings is."
I pursed my lips angrily. "Yeah, you just can't stand people who are obvious about their hatred for you."
"Yeah, obviously, since I have no reason to like someone who doesn't like me."
"Yeah, and that's definitely being the 'bigger person'," I snapped, using air quotes.
"Yeah, it is, since you wouldn't be the bigger person."
"Yeah, of course. That totally makes sense."
"Yeah, it does," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're just too stupid to figure out."
I closed my mouth tightly, trying to restrain myself. "Yeah, and you're too much of an arrogant ass to realize that you're not being the bigger person, you're just being the bigger ass!"
"Yeah, well, at least I don't have the bigger ass!"
I gasped loudly before retorting, "Yeah, and if you didn't know, people prefer girls who have big asses over guys who are big asses!"
Christian was about to reply when Nora clapped her hands together loudly, crying, "Yes, yes, perfect!"
"Perfect?" Savannah repeated incredulously. "You think her being so rude to him is perfect?"
"Me?" I asked, placing a hand on my hip. "What about him? Don't the things he said count?"
"You're the one who started it," she pointed out.
"If I hadn't started it, I bet ten dollars he would've," I snapped, annoyed at her all of a sudden. What was her problem, anyways? This wasn't any of her business.
"Whatever," she said, rolling her eyes.
"Now, the rest of you go off and try it, please," Nora called out before turning to Christian and I. "You two should try the mimicking exercise while the rest of them do the 'Yes, And' exercise."
"Alright," Christian agreed reluctantly.
She nodded, turning to go observe Savannah and Jake.
"I'm Sophia Hastings and I'm a pretentious bitch," he began, making his voice extremely high pitched.
I didn't sound like that!
Did I?
Dear God, I hoped I didn't...
"I'm Christian Ryder and I take pride in being an arrogant dick," I mimicked, deepening my voice, also making it sound like a surfer dude, for some reason.
"I always seem to be on my period because I just don't know how to be in a good mood!" he exclaimed in that same annoying, girly voice, placing his hands on hips.
"If I had a period, I would probably brag about the size of my tampons!" I said in the surfer dude voice, doing the annoying Justin Bieber hair flip as well.
"I'm way worse, though, because I act like I have one in 24/7!"
"I know a lot about this stuff for some reason, which is kind of scary!"
We went on with this for about twenty minutes. Nora couldn't get us to stop by the end, actually. I had taken a liking to these exercises. They were actually kind of fun. Well, this one was. It gave us a perfect excuse to insult each other without getting yelled at. We couldn't get enough of it.
Eventually, though, we had to stop because we still had to read through the entire script. It took a long time, but finally, we finished reading through the entire thing.
As soon as we were finished, everyone except for Christian and me rushed out. Savannah had some shampoo commercial she was doing, Jake was meeting with his manager for coffee, and the creepy man who played my billionaire father said he needed to go do 'something'.
No one asked because I doubted anyone wanted to know what he was up to, honestly. I know I didn't.
"I'm shocked," I said as I gathered my things. "Christian Ryder doesn't have anywhere to rush to?"
Christian shrugged nonchalantly. "Somehow, I'm free today. I don't even know how. I think Frank screwed up my schedule."
"Frank?" I repeated in puzzlement.
He gave me a look. "My manager. Frank Renaldo?"
Frank. Frank Renaldo. Renaldo, Frank. Frank.
Nope, didn't ring a bell.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" I finally asked in exasperation. "How was I supposed to know that?"
"I don't know," he spluttered. "Most people just do."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm not 'most people'."
"Clearly, or you would've asked me out already," he said, shaking his head.
I backtracked, repeating what he had just said in my head. I figured I must have heard him wrong, but then I realized I hadn't. "Wait. What?"
Was he coming onto me?
Dear God, please tell me he wasn't coming onto me...
He seemed to realize what he had just said and how it had sounded. "Oh, wait, I didn't mean it like that! I just meant that usually, if I made a comment like that, the person I was talking to would try to make plans with me..."
I nodded, sighing in relief. "Phew. Well, like I said. I'm not like 'most people'. Having to spend two and a half months with you on set is going to be bad enough. I'm not going to waste the little free time I have with you."
He shot me an annoyed look and said, "Gee, thanks."
I just grunted in reply.
He was silent for a moment as he glanced at his phone. "Would you believe me if I said I have absolutely no idea what to do?" he asked after a moment. "I never have free time like this, where I have absolutely nothing planned."
"Seriously?" I asked, briefly surprised. "Wow. That sucks. Doing absolutely nothing is actually kind of fun. You get to kick back and relax. Besides, sometimes the best plan is having no plan."
"That probably sounded a lot wiser than it really was."
"Go die."
We were both quiet for a bit as I looked for the missing page of my script. He was busy texting on his phone, as usual.
As soon as I found the page and placed it in it's proper spot, I heard voices coming from inside a room nearby.
"... Are we... with...Christian?" was all I heard.
"I think they're talking about you," I whispered to Christian.
"No shit?"
I glared at him before turning towards the source of the sound. "I'm gonna go listen!"
He was about to protest, but he probably realized that he was just as curious as I was, if not more. I heard his heavy footsteps behind me as I made my way towards the source of the sound.
"Anne, I promise you, it'll be worth it!" Nora insisted. "I know it will be!"
"I don't know," Anne said with a sigh. "I know that I'm your assistant and that it's ultimately your choice, but I can't help but wonder if this will even work..."
"It will," Nora said confidently. "All the trouble we're going through with those two will be worth it in the end."
Christian poked me in the side and I looked over at him with a scowl. "What?" I mouthed silently.
"I think they're talking about you, too," he mouthed back.
"No shit."
He glared at me before turning back to keep eavesdropping.
"I hope so," Anne said softly after a minute.
"You'll see. It will! That's why we chose them," Nora exclaimed brightly.
Christian and I shared a confused look. That was they chose us? What were they talking about? I was dying to know by then.
Christian looked curious and slightly annoyed as he whispered to me, "This is ridiculous. I'm going in."
"What?" I hissed, slapping my forehead before slapping at his arm. "No, you idiot! Ugh!"
It was too late, of course. That bumbling idiot had already barged in. Curiosity got the best of me and reluctantly, I followed.
"Oh, dear," Anne muttered quietly.
"What was that reason you had for choosing us, Nora?" Christian asked calmly, raising an eyebrow at Nora and Anne.
If he wasn't Christian Ryder, he would never get away with this.
"I'm sorry," I mouthed to Anne, pointing to Christian and making a face.
She chuckled at me and Christian whipped around, looking at me suspiciously. I just gave him an innocent look. He narrowed his eyes at me before turning back around.
Nora sighed, completely oblivious to the little exchange. "I knew I'd have to have this talk with you guys eventually... you're too sharp to hide things from. I didn't think you'd catch on this quick, though."
"What are you talking about?" Christian asked slowly, giving Nora the look he often gave me.
"Well, honestly, part of the reason you two were chosen for your parts is because of the rotten chemistry you have."
"The rotten chemistry we have?" I repeated in disbelief. "Isn't it supposed to be the opposite? Aren't the two main characters supposed to have good chemistry?"
"Usually, yes," Nora admitted slowly, "but not in this case. See, the two main characters, your characters Emma and William, hate each other throughout most of the film. They can't stand each other. They can't even be in the same room without arguing."
Christian and I shared a knowing glance at each other.
This sounded vaguely familiar...
Nora noticed this and chuckled. "Yes, this sounds familiar, doesn't it?"
I nodded shortly and saw Christian nodding out of the corner of my eye.
"So I thought, 'Who better to portray Emma and William than to actors who actually hate each other? Who better to portray them than two actors who can't stand each other? Who better to portray them than two actors who literally can't be in the same room—or scene, for that matter—without fighting?' It was perfect. When I saw you two fighting that day, when Sophia came in to audition, the light bulb in my head went off."
"But this is acting," I pointed out. "Any actor should be able to portray the hatred Emma and William feel for each other."
When Nora glanced at Christian for his opinion, he merely said, "What she said," pointing at me.
I rolled my eyes at him. He was so stupid.
"Now, that's not necessarily true," Nora said, clicking her tongue. "While they should, because they're professionals, after all, I had a gut feeling that any girl that I hired would fawn over Christian and have trouble really focusing on portraying the hatred Emma feels for William throughout most of the film. This is why I originally wasn't going to cast Christian. And then you came into the picture, Sophia."
I have to admit, this made me feel kind of special.
"You did what I had never seen any other girl do: you fought with Christian Ryder, treating him like any other person. And you weren't even acting. That was just you behaving naturally. I realized then that I could cast him, after all, with you by his side, since you clearly would not have a problem with being rude to him throughout most of the movie. And Christian seems to bring out an even saucier side in you, which is perfect for the role of Emma. I know that the last few scenes where Emma and William are in love will be hard, but I think we can do it. There are only a few of those scenes. The rest are spent fighting, something you two can clearly do." She coughed loudly. "You two just made the perfect couple for this movie."
I wrinkled my nose at the word 'couple', but brightened considerably when I thought of something. "Hey, there's a story to tell. 'I Got the Lead Role in Kidnap My Heart Just By Hating Christian Ryder'. How much of your fan base do you think you'll lose then? All of the hopeful actresses and celebrity wannabes?"
Christian shot me an annoyed look.
"That would be about... hmm... most of your fan-base, right? I'm sure most of them would love to be famous," I continued. "That's a lot or Anti-Ry-Hard's, you know. Hey, then my mindset won't be so uncommon and you can quit bugging me for not being one of your android stalkers."
"Do you ever shut up?" he finally asked.
"Am I annoying you?" I asked, faking worry.
"Yes," he snapped.
I smiled evilly. "Then no, I don't."
Christian turned to Nora, rubbing his face in frustration. "I have to deal with this for two and a half months?"
"Yes," Nora said with a smile, "you do."
He groaned quietly, muttering, "Just shoot me now."
"Don't have to ask me twice. Where's the gun?"
By the look he gave me, I can't say he was as amused as Nora, Anne and I were.
***
Hehehe I love this chapter. So much Christian and Sophia.. Anyways.
Hope you guys liked it!
Next chapter should be up soon. Hopefully!
VOTE.COMENT.FAN.
:D