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Chapter 24. I Know What You Did Last Competition

"Hi, I'm Lexie," Lexie holds her hands out to the sephia-skinned girl's hand.

"Hi Lexie, I'm Dominique," the girl chirps before waving to the chocolate brown-eyed boy next to her. "And this is Arlo.".

"How were your other groups?" Arlo asks her. The three of them were sitting around a small round table like the other 18 groups in the auditorium.

"Umm... they were okay," Lexie chuckles drily, having already been mixed in two other groups.

"Oh, that doesn't sound good," Dominique grimaces. "What happened?"

"Well, the first group, we were all so shy that we didn't talk except to recite the script. The second group was okay, but..."Lexie shrugs. She liked the second group okay enough, but as a reader of the Seasons franchise, she couldn't see them in the roles. "The third group, Issac, was super nice, and we got along, but I think Tasha would make a good Ziva because she was so mean. She was even mean to the receptionists when they called us in to perform in front of the casting directors."

"Let me guess when she got in front of the casting directors, she was like... super nice?" Arlo leans in as Lexie nods. "Yeah. It sucks, but there's a lot of people like that here."

"Umm... the person we had before you was like that. I think cause she's older than us she thought that we weren't important. But I'm like, Caelia is ten, you look like your 15. She's not; she was 13. I'm ten, by the way."

"I'm 11."

"Oh, I'm the youngest. I'm nine. I turn ten in October, though. So you guys have been together the whole time."

Dominique nods, playing with one of her curls. "Yeah, hopefully, it's because they think we're a good Ziva and Crispin."

"You look like them or what I think they look like. I read the book so..."

"Did you read it after the auditions came out or before?"

"Before."

Lexie blinks when Dominique snatches her hands, holding them between her own. "Me too. When It came out, I was five, and my Mom used to read me to sleep with it. So when I found out they were doing auditions, I had to join."

"Sorry, she gets excited," Arlo apologies. "And yeah, we've been together since the beginning, but we've met before this. I didn't know about the books until the auditions came out. I read the first one in preparation for the movie, and I started on the second one but haven't finished it yet.."

Lexie chews inside her mouth, not sure if she should say anything before shrugging. They seem nice. "I started reading them when I was seven. My dance teacher's husband is a publisher for the..."

"Oh, My God!"

Lexie giggles at Dominique's wide eyes while Arlo grins. "Cool!"

"Right! It's so cool! I was at his house, and he had the first book laying on his desk, and I thought the cover was so pretty. And he gave it to me along with the second and third one."

"It's an original cover!?"

"Yeah!"

Arlo looks between the two of them in confusion. "Explain?"

"If you get them now then you don't get the original cover art. They are completely different from the ones now. They're more elaborate and so beautiful."

"Yeah. Florian told me they cost a lot to make multiple versions of them the first time they were published. So for the second book, they made limited editions that are just as pretty as the first one. And then they did that for the third and fourth one."