Chapter 1
Don't do love, don't do friends
I'm only after success
Don't need a relationship
I'll never soften my grip
Don't want cash, don't want card
Want it fast, want it hard
Don't need money, don't need fame
I just want to make a change
- "Oh No" Marina and the Diamonds
"You did what?" Hannah said as we walked across the lot and to my car.
"I told them everything that was wrong with that stupid show," I said. "The lady shouldn't have made me make an audition tape in the first place."
"Avery!" Hannah said and we got into the car. "How could you do that! If I didn't have the chance to be on the show, you should've!"
I shrugged. Honestly, I felt really awesome. Like I could conquer the world or something. Especially when I told them not to contact me, that was a genius line. I usually didn't think of things like that until after.
"Do you know that being on this show is the oppurtunity of a lifetime!" Hannah exclaimed, but I started the car and made a motion that I couldn't hear her.
She glared at me, then shook her head as if she finally realized that whatever she said would not convince me that I did anything wrong. "I just don't know what to say to you."
"So don't."
Three weeks later, I was done with high school, and I was moving all my stuff into the apartment that Hannah and I planned to share. So far, we'd gotten the couch and the TV set up, but after that, Hannah decided that she didn't want to do anything else so she was passed out on said couch.
"Lazy bum," I muttered as I took another one of my boxes down the hallway and into my room, almost breaking my back in the process.
I finally set the box down on the floor and looked around me, taking it all in.
I can't believe that I'm out of high school. No more teachers, homework, exams and drama. Finally, I was an adult, free to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
"Whee!" I yelled and jumped in the air. I had made it. I had actually made it. Suddenly, I heard the annoying ringtone that I didn't know how to change. My phone.
"Hello?" I said, knowing it was my dad.
"Did the move go well? Is everything fine? Are you well fed?" My dad asked, not giving me any time to answer inbetween the questions.
"Dad, I'm fine," I said.
He was always worried about me, never just taking it easy. For example, he didn't let me date until I was sixteen. That isn't a very good example, however, considering that there weren't many people who wanted to date me in the first place.
But anyways, he was always overprotective. I'd had to beg him for forever to actually let me move out and in with Hannah. But I didn't blame him, he'd been like that since my mom died when I was ten. She'd been in a drunk driving accident.
"Okay, Fish, just want to make sure you don't forget about your pops back home," he said, calling me by my nickname.
"Dad, come on, how would I ever be able to forget the man who raised me?" I said, rolling my eyes, but smiling at the same time.
"Okay, okay," he said. "Tell Hannah I said hi and to stay out of trouble. You too."
"Okay," I sad. "I love you."
"Love you too," he said before I heard the click meaning the end of the call.
Five seconds later and my phone rang again. "What now, dad?" I asked.
"I'm pleased to inform you that this isn't your father," the person on the other line said. I immediately recognized the authority in her voice, but why was she calling me?
"Oh, um, okay," I said and gave my self an imaginary pat on the back. Good job, Avery.
"Anyways, Avery Fisher, you have been chosen to be the one female Norm to be cast in the fifth season of StarTV's Stars Unedited," she said. I'm sure that whoever had given her the script had expected her not to sound like she was bored out of her mind but I wasn't worrying about that.
"No, no, no," I said to her. "This must be a mistake, I hate that show."
"We know," she said. "The producers find you interesting. So, the details will be emailed-"
"No!" I yelled. How could this be happening to me? I specifically told them that I did not want to be part of this show. "I decline, I decline, I can decline, right?"
"No," she said, stll in a monotonous tone. "You signed the paper, so no, you cannot. May I ask why you'd want to back down?"
"Did you even watch the video?" I said. "I'd lose all respect!"
"Well, you shouldn't have signed up. We have your signiture saying that once you audition, all is on our hands," she said.
I mentally kicked myself. What is wrong with me? Why didn't I read the fine print when I signed that thing? And now that I think if it, I'm pretty sure I signed a waiver. What was I supposed to do? If I went on that show, I'd have no life. Future managers would see that I was on a reality TV show and wouldn't give me a second glance, no matter how good I was for the job. And cameras? I've never tried before, but I'm pretty sure I have major stage fright.
This was terrible.
The lady went on to explain all the details and what I was entitled to do, but all could think about was how my life was officially over.
"Who was that?" Hannah asked, twirling her long, blonde hair around her finger.
I slowly put my phone in my pocket, then sank down to the floor. I couldn't believe this was actually happen. "I was chosen," I said.
Hannah had stood up and was looking at me with a worried expression. "Chosen for what, you look like you're getting ready to go into the Hunger-" She stopped and realization dawned onto her facial features. "Wait. Are you talking about-"
"Stars Unedited," I breathed.
And then she screamed.
One week later and I was at the set to start filming. The show's first episode always started in the house , more like mansion, that the contestants would be staying in for that night or more based on that seasons challenge. I know this because Hannah had filled me on a bunch of Stars Unedited stuff before I got here, and I actually listened a little bit. I needed to know what I would be dealing with.
When I got to the huge property, I had had to sign a bunch of papers before I was allowed on the set, and luckily I was old enough to sign them myself; my dad did not need to know I was going to be on this show. I was a little weary to sign the papers, as they were sketchy with the meaning, saying that it was because of 'legal purposes.'
More like they didn't want to be sued if I got hurt.
Anyways, before filming started, they were giving us a quick tour of the home. And by quick, they really meant quick. They weren't filming this portion and they didn't want to miss anything that happened.
The lady, I'd found out that her name was Vanessa, was showing us around the huge home. There were three floors. The bottom one held a sort of hangout place, stocked with a jacuzzi, pool and foosball table, and plush couches that looked like they came straight from the eighties.
The second, main floor seemed like the downstairs of a modern home, just blown up. The kitchen was huge, the livng room was huge and the biggest was the dining room. Plus there was a big lobby looking area when you first walked into the home with a huge chandelier hanging from the cieling.
Upstairs were the bedrooms, which did not seem lesser which I had expected since I'd seen the rest of the house. There were two seperate hallways with the rooms, and I assumed it was for seperate genders. The bedroom doors were shut, however, but by the amount of space inbetween each door you could just tell that they were big.
When we made it back downstairs into the lobby area and she started explaining rules, I zoned out and observered the people I was unwillingly staying with for the summer. I mean, the gist of what she said was that we had to do outtakes (whatever that meant) downstairs at least once a day and a bunch of other things that I really didn't care about.
But the people I would be living with, that I cared about.
There was one girl who looked a little older than me. She had an aura of sophistication around her, but didn't seem too unapproachable. She looked like she was Indian mixed with white and had that dark thick hair that anyone would kill for. I knew she was confident, but not to the point where she thought that she was better than anyone else around her. I would be able to get along with her, if I had the courage to actually go up to her.
Another girl looked naive; wide, trusting eyes and a friendly smile on her face at all times. Although she looked really nice, she didn't look like the brightest crayon in the box, not helping the dumb blonde thing as she was blonde, and it looked to be natural.
The third girl looked extremely excited to be here, with brown hair French braided down her back. She was taking in everything as if it was her last time to see this place. She even had one of those large cameras and was taking pictures. If it weren't for the fact that I was the Norm, she would be the next best candidate. She had a One Direction shirt on and was holding a purse with a bunch of Doctor Why and Paranormal stickers pasted on it. She has a bunch of other TV shows and music artists on her body somehow.
The last girl, who had bright, artificially red hair, just looked bored.
I could try to describe the boys but that would be almost impossible. They were all so good looking. Not one of them had some sort of deformity or lazy eye or something. I couldn't even tell which one was a norm like me.
There was one guy in particular, standing not so far away from me, that I couldn't help but stare at. He was easily more than six feet tall with electrifying blue eyes and dark hair. He had cheekbones any girl would kill for and the face of the mysterious bad boy normal teenage girls love. The only thing wrong: it was obvious that he was overly confident. I'm not one to deal well with overly confident.
Also, there was Matthew Bailey here. He was the star of a TV show that you had to live under a rock not to know of. It was called Keeping The Peace, and it had been going on since I was just a little kid, but still everyone watched it. Especially since Matthew Bailey changed from the awkward but sorta cute kid to the gorgeous young adult in the span of the show. Teenage girls loved that. His all around nice guy persona, complete with two matching dimples, made him all the more attractive.
Another guy who stood out was tall, lean and muscular. But that wasn't the thing that that stood out, it was his hair and tattoos. He had long, dark dreadlocks that surprisingly looked really good on him and tattoos running down one of his arms. He looked like a really calm type of person; a go with the flow type of guy.
Everyone here had their own, unique type of style while I looked normal in skinny jeans and a t-shirt. I'm pretty sure it was obvious who the female Norm of the group was.
Suddenly, the mostly quiet group erupted in excited chatter, interrupting me from my thoughts.
"Don't get too excited, you'll see why soon enough," Vanessa said to us.
Wait. What did she say? I looked up at the overly confident beautiful guy, who was closest to me. Was it worth asking him? "What happened?" I asked. I guess it was.
He looked down at me like I was the scum on the bottom of his shoe. "Don't care," he said, the smoothness of his voice startling me, then he walked away from me like I was infested with some sort of disease.
"Don't care," I mimicked and made a face at his back. He wasn't so hot to me anymore. A guys looks are dictated by how they act, so if you have a terrible personality, you have a slightly more terrible face, and right now he looked horrifying.
I heard someone laugh behind me, I turned around to see the girl who looked confident and sophisticated.
"He acts like he's hard to figure out but he's just moody and obnoxious," she said with a small smile. "And she said that guys and girls don't have split rooms anymore."
"Oh," I said. That was a little discomforting. I looked back at the guy again. "You know him? Who is he?" I asked her.
She scrunched her eyebrows at me. "He's Sage Kingsley, we've worked together on a couple of movies," she said, then looked as if she was remembering a different time- a bad one. "Don't ever accept an offer to play his love interest. He may be an amazing actor but off script..."
I had momentarily forgotten that everyone here was famous except for me and one other guy, which was weird considering everyone here was beautiful. Quite intimidating.
"I'm a Norm," I said and nodded in a 'Yeah, I feel bad for myself too,' sort of way. "My name is Avery."
"My name is Peyton," she said and a look of cold humor crossed her face. "Wow, I haven't introduced myself in years."
I wondered what it was like to have everyone know your name before you even got a chance to tell them yourself. But now that I think about it, she seemed familiar. I think she played the love interest in a series of movies. Other than that and Matthew Bailey, these guys would have to introduce themselves to me because I didn't know any of their names of their names.
"Now," Vanessa said with a clap of her hands. "In a little bit, we'll be having our first dinner. That and everything after will be filmed and the first episode will premiere next Thursday. You aren't allowed to watch it until that Thursday when all of you come back to commentate live. A lot of people don't like seeing how they really act, but when we say this show is unedited, we mean it." She said and gave us a scary look. Then she put on that fake smile she always has. "The host, Chris, will tell you who your partners are, aka who you'll be sharing a room with, but when we're filming, he might call them out again, so just act surprised."
Yeah, this is really unedited. Sarcasm intended. And I know that this show had the word unedited in it's name, but didn't they need a little bit more time to put all the tapes together? I mean, it's Wednesday today; how are they gonna get this whole week plus have it in time for it to premier so soon after?
Suddenly a man came out of a door, interrupting my thoughts, and stepped into the vast kitchen we we're standing in. He was a little on the short side with black hair and a smile that said he loved his job.
"Hey guys, my name is Chris, and I'll be your host! Cheer if you're pepped!"
I swear to you there were crickets chirping. Then the overly excited girl clapped a little.
"Tough crowd," he muttered, but was back to his peppy self only a second after. "Okay, I'm going to read out your partners."
I refused to admit that I was maybe hoping to share a room with Sage. Because that would be wrong. His jerkiness overtook his attractiveness; by a little but it still overtook it.
"Bryson and Avery," he called out first. I looked around for someone who perked up and found an averaged-highted guy who was tan and looked like a poster child. He was cute, but so Hollywood looking.
"Sage and Emma, Matthew and Peyton, Wyatt and Aubrey and Tyler and Naomi," Chris finished with his super white smile.
"You're rooms have your initials on them. Your stuff has already been brought up, so go ahead and check out your rooms!"
I followed everyone else up the stairs and a camera crew followed us (What happened to the dinner and everything after that?), trying to stay close to Peyton; she might be the only friend I make in this place. If I made a friend.
The two separate hallways obviously weren't for boys and girls now that I knew we were sharing rooms. Sadly, Peyton was in a separate hall than me and Sage was in my hall.
When I found the door with AF and BW on the golden plaque, I found that Bryson was already inside, lying on the bed like this place was already home.
He looked up at me when he saw me come in. "DTF?" he asked.
"What?" I knew none of this new age lingo. I was too secluded for that.
"Down to fuck," he explained. "You know, have a quickie before dinner?"
I'm sure my eyes were wide as saucers. "What! No! Why would you-"
"Chill," he interrupted and held up a hand. "Just a question. You would think you're a Norm or something," he muttered as an almost after thought.
"I am the Norm," I said and took the bed that was on the other side of the big room. It was smaller than Bryson's bed, which I think is very sexist but whatever.
"Really?" He asked. "I would've guessed Pippi Longstocking over there." He motioned to the doorway and I saw the fangirl standing in the open door. Indeed she was wearing long socks. As soon as he pointed to her, however, she giggled and ran.
Weird.
I shook it off and sat on the bed and studied the place I would be living in for who knows how long. It was spacious and there were two separate doors that I'm guessing went to two separate bathrooms. There was also another door across the room, but I couldn't guess what it was for so I stood up and opened it.
It led to another room that looked identical to mine, but before I could turn back around, the naive looking girl came and greeted me.
"Hi!" She said cheerfully. "I'm Emma."
I backed up without meaning to. Her happiness was foreign to me. "I'm Avery, a Norm." I don't know why I felt the need to introduce myself as a Norm, it wan't really needed.
"Oh," she said, her lips making a perfect 'o' shape. "I'm not. I've been in a bunch of pageants and beauty shows since I was two years old. I don't do those anymore though. I'm a model now."
Before I could reply, not that I had anything to say, I felt a presence behind me. Bryson.
"DTF?" He asked Emma.
"Sure," she said, as if things like this were normal. But in what world was 'Down to fuck' an introducing sentence? I definitely wasn't in Kansas anymore. I looked to the camera guy, hoping that he would be thinking this is as weird as I thought it was but he had on a blank expression.
But before they could jump into bed together, there was an intercom of Chris' voice telling us to make our way downstairs for dinner.
When we made our way downstairs, we all sat down at the huge table, quietly. It seemed that none of us were really comfortable with each other yet, except for maybe Emma and Pippi Longstockings.
The table was long and rectangular with two heads of it. Those seats were occupied by who I think are Tyler and Naomi. On my side it was Pippi Longstockings sitting closest to Naomi, followed by Emma, me then Peyton. On the other side, it was the guy named Wyatt (I think) who was closest to Naomi, followed by Matthew Bailey, Sage then Bryson.
In other words, Sage was right across from me.
Two ladies, whose name tags said Ginger and Maria, came and served us our food.
"So," Matthew Bailey said. "Let's get right to it."
"To what?" Emma asked.
"I'm so excited to be here!" Pippi Longstockings squealed. There was a collective rolling of the eyes of the rest of the group.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Bryson asked, giving Pippi a questioning look.
"Aubrey," she said. "The ultimate fangirl."
"But... you're not a Norm," Peyton stated and glanced at me.
Pippi (Aubrey) leaned in close. "That you know of."
My eyes widened. I would have to sleep at night knowing that this stalker was in the same vicinity as me. How did she get here?
"Okay then," Bryson said quietly and looked down at his plate, obviously a little creeped out too.
"So are you a Norm?"
I looked up at Matthew Bailey to see if his question was directed at me. It was. Matthew Bailey was talking to me. "Oh, yeah," I said.
"Cute," he said with a smile that showed the cutest dimples I have ever seen. They were better in person.
I looked down at my plate of gourmet looking food and blushed with a small, "Thank you." Matthew Bailey had just called me cute. Then I felt someone kick me under the table. I looked up at Peyton.
She motioned with her eyes to across from me. I slowly looked up, trying to be inconspicuous, but I didn't really need to.
Sage was staring right at me, not even trying to hide it.
Why was he looking at me like that? Oh gosh, what if I had something on my face? It would be my luck to have food in my teeth in front of a bunch of celebrities. And cameras.
I quickly looked away from him and wiped at my face. When I glanced back at him, he rolled his eyes and picked at his food.
I looked around the table, trying to figure out if anyone had seen this short but meaningful exchange, but everyone had gotten into little groups of conversation, including Peyton. And since they were made while I was focusing on Sage, there was no way a person like me could join them now without it being awkward.
Maybe I could try to start a conversation with Sage. Who knows, he might be in a better mood now that he's eaten this food. Whatever it was, it was delicious.
I looked up at him but he wasn't staring at me anymore. I mentally called his name, hoping that with some divine intervention I would get him to notice me.
Minutes, but what felt like hours later, he did.
"Hi," I said.
Instead of replying, he just continued to stare at me with that same unreadable expression. Then he literally just turned away.
I sat, shocked. Why was he being so obnoxious? Obviously I should stop trying to be nice to him since he isn't capable of human interaction unless he's pretending to be someone else.
"What is your problem," I muttered, more to myself, but he heard me.
"I have none," he said nonchalantly. "I just don't need to associate with anyone."
I raised my eyebrow, a little offended. "What's that supposed to mean? You joined a reality television show?" I asked, but he ignored me yet again. I picked up my fork and mumbled to myself. "Think you're so great because your the almighty, Sage Kingsley. Well I've never heard of you until today."
He cracked a half smile. "I'd like it if you didn't put words in my mouth, Norm."
I was honestly appalled. How could someone be so exceptionally rude? And why did he make the word 'Norm' sound like an insult?
"I haven't even known you for twenty four hours and I know you're gonna be a pain," I said, trying to keep myself from getting angry, and I rarely got angry, but this guy was just something else.
He shrugged in the most annoying way possible. He didn't even care that he was bothering me. He was almost indifferent.
"You- I can't even-" I sputtered. Why were people like him successful? There were people in the world who had a good heart and actually deserved to live comfortably, but where struggling instead. He should be the one living in a box on the side of a busy street.
And I was on a show filled with these people. Down to fuck? What was that? I had even started to like Matthew Bailey and Peyton, which is wrong. They could turn out to be just like Sage.
I was sure that by the time I finally left this stupid show, my intelligence would be down to almost nothing.
I gave Sage one last glare before getting up. "I think I'm full," I said. I looked around the table to see that it had become quiet, and everyone had been watching our argument. Pippi- I mean Aubrey even snapped a picture.
I ignored all their shocked looks and went up stairs to my room, a camera man following me up. I pushed my suitcase off of the bed then crawled under the covers, fully clothed and huffed.
"Do you mind?" I asked the guy, be he ignored me and continued filming.
I rolled my eyes. How was I ever going to get used to this? And what was wrong with Sage? I've never known someone to be that rude. Aren't celebrities supposed to keep up this perfect image and show that they're nice people who love and support their fans?
Granted, I'm not his fan but still.
I rolled over on the bed with the groan when I remembered that that was filmed. I probably came off as the ultimate bitch to America since no one would see through Sage's perfect looks.
Thinking of all the places I'd rather be, I finally fell asleep.
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It's here! Reality Babes is now up and running. This story is gonna be a little different from my other ones. It's a little but more mature since there are older characters, it's gonna be longer (I hope!), I'll put songs that relate to the chapter as the title of said chapter, and it's a weird concept in itself. You guys are going to have to help me out since I don't really watch reality TV. I know the gist of it, but that's pretty much it. So if I have some questions I'll ask and you guys can help me :)
So, how are you liking it so far? Favorite character? Least favorite character? You'll start to get to know more of the characters as the story progresses and then I'll share with you who my favorites are, hehehe. Oh! And there are gonna be a lot of parody TV shows and stuff in this book, you may have already noticed some stuff *winky face*.
Oh and that's who plays Avery on the side. I'll put more of the cast pictures up later as we keep going on.
Alright. Thanks so much for reading, and I would really appreciate if you guys commented and told me what you think of this story. Thanks! Love you guys <3
Comment! Vote! Fanimos!