Chapter 7
I managed to drop Cal off at home without the tension in the back seat killing everyone. They were just too cute together!
Ashton was coming over to stay with Cal since I would be gone so I didn't have to worry about him.
After that, we made it to Grace's house in record time.
Jo and I couldn't help, but mess with Lou about Cal. I don't know if her cheeks will ever turn back to their normal pigment.
I pulled into Grace's driveway and saw Grace had been hiding something. She was filthy rich!
The whole month I'd been here, I hadn't seen a house even close to this size. We didn't have houses much like this in New York because there wasn't enough room, but in LA, these houses were everywhere.
"Both her parents are doctors," Lou said, reading my thoughts. "Her dad's an anesthesiologist and her mom's a brain surgeon, but they are rarely home. From the few times I've met them though, they seem pretty cool."
I popped the trunk and went to get my things out of it. Lou and Jo followed since their things were in it as well.
I started grabbing my bags when Jo gasped.
"Are all of these bags yours?"
I looked around at all of my bags in the trunk with a confused expression on my face.
"Well, of course not silly. Those two are yours and Lou's, the other five are mine," I said pulling more of my bags out of the trunk.
Why was this bag so heavy?
Oh yeah! It was all my hair essentials.
"You know, we're only staying here one night," Lou said raising her eyebrows.
I groaned and replied, "Okay, so I may have overpacked a bit."
Jo coughed.
"Okay a lot, but this is my first sleepover and I wanted to make sure I had everything."
I started picking up my bags, but soon realized I was going to have to make more than one trip.
"Wait, you've never been to a sleepover?"
I bit my lip and shook my head.
Great. Now they'll probably think I'm a loser with no friends.
"You've been to remote countries and you're on national television, but you've never been to a sleepover," Jo asked with unbelief.
"Way to rub it in," I joked.
"Please, I'd rather meet Channing Tatum any day."
"Yeah. The day I met him was a pretty good day. He's a lot better looking in person," I joked, still messing with them.
"Shut up," Lou said grabbing one of my bags off the cement, while Jo grabbed the other one that was left.
I laughed and closed my trunk, before picking up the bags I put down.
But seriously. That was a really good day. He called me cute!
In a little sister sort of way, but still.
Just as we started to make our way to the front door, Grace poked her head out of the door and yelled at us.
"It's about time! I've been waiting for y'all to come. I heard the car shut off, but it took forever for y'all to come in."
"Great to see you too Grace," Lou called out.
She only rolled her eyes and held the door open for us.
"Why did y'all pack so much? You only ever pack one bag," Grace said.
"We didn't," Jo said smirking at me. "These are all Rory's except for two."
I dropped my bags on the living room floor with a huff.
"I didn't know what all to bring okay? I have a hard time packing efficiently."
Grace laughed and came over to hug me.
"I'm just messing with you," she turned to the other girls. "Can y'all show Rory to the theater?You can put your bags in there like normal."
They both nodded and started walking down a hallway right beside the grand staircase. I picked up my bags again and followed them through the beautiful house.
At the end of the hallway, they turned left and we passed a couple of closed doors before we took a narrow staircase upstairs.
"Why didn't we just take the stairs in the living room?"
They were hard to miss so why did we have to go all the way back here just to go to the same place?
"Because this staircase only leads to the theater. The theater is separated from the rest of the upstairs and this is the only way to get to it."
Why would they separate it from the rest of the level?
When Lou saw my confused expression she explained, "The theater was added on later."
Oh.
I looked around and saw the room was pretty big. There was a huge screen at the front of the room and about four rows of cushion chairs facing the screen. Then, between the screen and the first row of chairs there was a big space.
"Is this where we're going to sleep," I asked, pointing to the empty space.
"That's where we are going to lay down at, but we don't sleep at sleepovers. Only party," Lou said, raising her eyebrows up and down.
I laughed and went over to claim my spot by dropping my bags.
"You can bring my bags over here," I told the girls.
"Already claiming a spot. Impressive for a newbie," Jo said.
"So what are we going to watch tonight? I was thinking 'Pride and Prejudice', the six hour version. You know, the one with Colin," Lou dreamily sighed.
"You call him Colin?"
"Yeah, we're on a first name basis. It's no big deal," she shrugged off.
"I'm not watching the six hour one," Grace said, walking in the room. "If we are going to watch 'Pride and Prejudice', it's going to be the two and a half hour one. Plus, the Darcy in that one is much cuter."
"No way. Plus, Colin is the better actor. The other guy is basically expressionless the whole movie. And moody," Lou said defensively.
"As Darcy should be. You just have to read the emotions in his gorgeous eyes. You can clearly feel his pain when Elizabeth rejects him," Grace said, falling onto her back and clutching her heart.
They were so dramatic.
"Have any of you guys actually read the book," I interrupted.
"Of course," Lou exclaimed while Jo said, "Who reads anymore."
"Take that back," I said playfully hitting her with a pillow.
She stumbled back a bit, but landed right in front of her pillow.
"Oh, you wanna play like that?"
She snatched her pillow and ran over to whack me on the head. I easily dodged and soon after, we were all engaged in a full on pillow fight.
I was having a great time until I heard the familiar tone of my phone ringing. I looked at the screen and saw it was Mike.
Why was he calling me? He knew I was in Texas.
I hit the green button and answered the phone.
"Hello," I said, walking to the side of the room to avoid getting hit by more pillows.
"Rory! Great news! I just spoke to Felic Cassano- you know who he is right?"
"Only one of the biggest movie producers in the world."
"Just checking. He said he was looking for a young star to cast as one of the lead roles in a new blockbuster he's working on. So naturally, I gave him one of your tapes since you couldn't be here to audition in person. He reviewed the tape and said if you wanted the part, it was yours. Filming doesn't start until January so you would be able to finish the semester at school and then come to LA for filming. Doesn't that sound great?..."
He continued babbling on about the movie and what a great opportunity this was for me, but I wasn't listening.
A blockbuster movie? What!?
Don't get me wrong, it sounds like an amazing chance, but I've never acted in anything long term. Only an episode here and there which were two months max of filming. Plus, I didn't even know if I wanted to be an actress for the rest of my life. I've always just done it because my mom signed me up, but what if I wanted to go to college to earn a degree?
I wasn't sure whether I was ready or even wanted to do this movie. I tuned back into what Mike was saying and realized he was still babbling. He sounded so animated and excited. I could only imagine what my mom sounded like when he told her.
"You told my mom right," I interrupted.
"Of course. She was the one who gave me the tape. She's really excited. You know, she has never worked with Felic so she's eager to see what he's like."
I realized that I couldn't tell him I didn't want to do the movie. He was so excited for me and the opportunity I was getting, I couldn't afford to let him down. Or my mom for that matter.
"Sounds awesome," I said with the chirpiest voice I could muster. "I can't wait to start."
"Oh just think Rory. This is going to set off a chain reaction of opportunities. You're going to have directors lined up at your door wanting you for their movies."
"That's what I'm afraid of," I muttered.
"Okay. I'll set everything up and have things ready to go by the end of the year. Don't worry about it anything, just enjoy your semester and I'll call you if I need your opinion on something. Be good," he said before hanging up.
Well, at least he's doing all the work. That's a relief.
I turned around to the girls and saw they had settled down and were laying out their sleeping bags. I'd never slept in one so I was about to see how comfortable they were against the carpet.
I walked over to them and unrolled my sleeping bag.
"So, anyone have any juicy gossip to share," Jo asked, sitting on her sleeping bag.
I did the same and saw that we were in a little circle. Cute.
"Actually, I do," I suddenly remembered.
"Please spill," Jo said, suddenly intrigued.
"Well, I talked to Noland today and he invited us all to a party."
"What? Who's is it," Lou asked.
"Noland said his best friend, Beau, is throwing him a birthday slash back to school party and he said I could invite anyone I wanted. Does Beau throw good parties," I asked.
"We wouldn't know. We've never been, but from what I've heard, they are a can't miss," Lou said.
"Oh yeah. We're definitely going," Jo excitedly said.
I looked at Grace and saw she had a slight blush on her face.
"What has you red as a tomato?"
Lou looked at her, then turned back to me with a smirk on her face.
"That's probably because you mentioned Beau. She's had a crush on that loser since sophomore year."
"He is not a loser," Grace defended. "He is a sensitive guy that doesn't know he needs me in his life yet."
I burst out laughing as Grace defended Beau and the other girls told her why he was a terrible guy.
They were very supportive friends as you can tell. We were going to have a lot of fun tonight.
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Sorry this chapter took so long to upload. I was having a hard time writing the chapter after this so I could not post this until I finished that one.
Anyway, Rory has an acting opportunity?
xx