Triple Point

Chapter 25: Chaos on Set

May 17, 33 AE

Downtown Los Angeles

"Cut! Alright, let's set up for scene eight."

Elsie let out a long sigh of relief. As much as she loved getting back to work on set, they had been filming a serious scene for what felt like hours, and it was tiring to stay in character for so long.

She didn't know how Mack could easily go in and out of character between scenes and she was a little jealous of his skill, but she supposed everyone had their own methods of doing the job. It only got problematic when he tried to get Elsie to break character between scenes with him, but it was hard to get mad at someone who was so easy-going. Thankfully, he didn't have any scenes until later that day, making the set almost completely free from distractions.

The day's set was the front of a downtown office building, chosen for its spacious lawn filled with more greenery than you would normally find in urban areas. It was a nice location, and the space offered plenty of room for all of the film crew and equipment.

Unfortunately, the open area made it the perfect target for sunlight, and LA decided to start summer early. It was still early enough in the morning that the sun wasn't too bad, but Elsie still wanted to get off the set and back to some shade as efficiently as possible.

While dodging the crew that was pouring onto the set, Elsie carefully made her way back to her seat, high-fiving some of the extras as she walked by. They all looked to be in surprisingly good spirits, considering they had just spent hours in the sun, but she supposed they only had to be on set for a couple days at most.

For everyone else, this was already their third week of filming, and there had already been a couple of dramatic scenes that played out when the cameras weren't rolling. Elsie had no part in any of them, thank god, but that didn't mean she went through the days completely unscathed.

"Great job as always, Elsie!" Camilla's peppy voice rang out amongst the hustle and bustle of the rest of the set. She was waiting by Elsie's seat, right where Elsie last saw her, and she clapped her hands quietly as she bounced on the balls of her feet.

While Camilla's cheer was unusual but tolerable in small doses, she had been like this ever since filming started. And what irritated Elsie the most was the wide grin that stretched across her face the entire time. Elsie thought she had seen the last of it a month ago when they had gone to brunch with Mack, but it unfortunately made its comeback on the first day of filming.

Her expression was nothing like the small smiles that she wore back in Flagstaff, but Elsie hadn't been able to pinpoint the exact difference until they were back in LA. And now, the contrast was obvious: unlike her small smile, Camilla's wide grin didn't seem to reach her eyes.

"Thirsty?" Camilla said chipperly, offering a cold water bottle. "Oh, and they have those double chocolate chip cookies today. You know, the really good ones? I must've had like a dozen already, talk about a sugar rush!"

Elsie only grunted in response as she took the water, her mood suddenly sour. She did like those cookies, but hearing Camilla talk about them so happily made her not want any.

It felt weird for her to be so irritated at Camilla when they were supposed to be friends now. What had Elsie expected? Camilla's personality had a habit of changing at an instant for as long as Elsie had known her, so how was being friends with her going to make a difference? It must've been wishful thinking on Elsie's part, along with the fact that Camilla had seemed determined to make things right between them.

But maybe that was just how Camilla was, Elsie thought. Maybe she couldn't help it, and it's not like Elsie could get mad at Camilla for something out of her control. Elsie just hoped Camilla would be able to talk to her about it.