Take 2

Chapter 1

A Sunday morning with nothing to do is totally unhealthy for a teenage celebrity. Unfortunately, this was not my case.

***

"Sapphire," A girly sing-song voice squealed. I inwardly groaned. "You won't believe what I'm about to tell you!"

"What, Seb broke up with his girlfriend? I already knew that." I sighed. Seb was a hopeless romantic and yet, all the girls he got were the witches. It was sad, really, to watch him get his heart broken by girl after girl. I think he said something about taking a break though.

“No, you weirdo,” Mia grumbled, annoyed that I interrupted her. She was like that, but I loved her anyway. “Wait, they broke up?”

“Uh, yeah,” I sat up. “Day before yesterday, I think.”

“My god, I’ll kill him for not telling me.” She glared at the door before turning her attention back towards me, a wide grin on her face. “Anyway, I have some news for you.”

We were quiet for a while, staring at each other, before I began to get impatient and demanded, “Well, what is it?”

"Hey! Is that any way to treat the bearer of the news, news bearer, whatever they’re called?” She pouted. I raised an eyebrow at her tactics, before grabbing my stuffed panda and giving it a big hug. It was pretty big.

"No, almighty news bearer. Carry on.” I said sarcastically.

She stuck out her tongue. “If you’re going to act like that, then I won’t tell you about how you got a role for the movie, ‘The Both of Us’, and how you have a meeting with the director in the next,” She glanced at her watch. “Oh, ten minutes.”

We sat again in silence, her staring expectantly at me.

“Wait, what?”

*****

Holy crud, look at the time! I thought to myself as I shoved my car door open and sprinted up the stairs to the door to my recording studio, nearly face planting the 'supposedly' automatic doors.

Useless piece of- The cruddy door finally read my presence and opened. Running towards the elevator, I spared a glance at my watch and nearly had a heart attack, it was twenty past the time Mia said I had meeting and I had a feeling my manager slash agent wouldn’t be too happy about that. Instead of going into cardiac arrest and bothering the innocent bystanders with that horrible image, I managed to stumble over my own feet and trip into the elevator before the doors closed, going straight to Jo’s office.

"Sapphire!" My manager slash agent, Josephine or Jo as I like to say, called out as soon as I got out of the elevator. I shuddered at the thought of her pending sermon about how it’s disrespectful to be late and blah blah. It usually took an hour and afterwards, I had to do punishment.

Trudging, I shoved my hands in my shorts' pockets and glared at the ground, cursing the rest of the world. I pushed open Jo’s office door and was blinded by the brightness of the room. “Argh, the light. It burns!”

"Sapphire," Jo said, seemingly calm. "This is Steve Martin," Jo said with an equally blinding smile to match the room, gesturing to the person in front of her. I couldn’t see the person’s face, so I took the time to glance around the room, noticing that the normally drawn curtains were pulled open, letting in some sunlight which bounced around the room.

'Steve' suddenly stood up and turned to face me, a smile lighting up his dark blue eyes. "Hi, you must be Sapphire." He stretched out his hand towards me.

"As my agent had said,” I nodded curtly before lightly taking his hand in mine and giving it a shake. Pulling apart, I took an open chair at a reasonable distance away from both the adults before turning my attention to their conversation.

“Well, Sapphire, before you finally graced us with your presence,” Jo said as I smirked. “Mr. Martin and I were already seeing that the terms and conditions were being made fit for you while working on set.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

"Sapphire, Mr. Martin over here is the director for the new movie, 'The Both of Us'." Jo explained.

"This generation's most anticipated blockbuster," Steve added, grinning.

I furrowed my eyebrows. “The movie role, right?”

Steve laughed. “Yes, the movie role.”

“So, what’s up with it?” I relaxed into my seat, leaning on one of the many throw pillows situated artistically on each chair.

"Well, you already know that I want you to be in the movie. I’m not sure if you know this but," Steve said uncertainly. “I want you to be one of the...”

I frowned. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t catch the last part. Would you mind saying that again?”

“I want you to be one of the...” Steve said.

“I’m sorry but could you say that again?” I propped my head against my open palm.

“My heaven’s goodness, he wants you to be one of the lead characters in the movie.” Jo said, most probably annoyed at Steve’s meekness. I giggled.

"So, let me get this straight,” I said seriously. “You want me, Sapphire Jacobs, singer, to be part of ‘The Both of Us’, an anticipated blockbuster which adds to the pressure, as a lead.”

“Yeah,” Steve reclined in his seat.

“That’s freaking,” I stopped, thinking of a word befitting for the current situation. “Terrifying.”

“Huh?” Jo and Steve said at the same time while both sitting up straighter. It was hilarious.

“I sing. Not act. For all you know, I might mess it up.” I began panicking.

“Saph-” Jo began.

"Nah," Steve reclined in his seat again before looking thoughtful. "You won’t. After all, you have me as a director.” He winked. “I’ll personally make sure that you’ll look awesome. But, I won’t have to do much ‘cause you already are.”

“As much as I love having my ego boosted, can I have like maybe a day or two to think this over?” I said, standing up.

“Of course.” Steve smiled before standing up. “But, if anything, you’re invited come to the cast party tonight. I’ll ask my assistant to send you the address of the place later.”

“Uh, yeah. Thanks.” I returned his smile before shaking hands with him once more.

Steve turned towards Jo, who was silently watching the exchange. “It was nice meeting you, Miss O’Connell.”

Jo stood up and shook his hand as well. “Likewise.”

“See you later, Sapphire!” Steve called as the elevator door shut.

“Are you going?” Jo asked me as I pressed the down button of the elevator.

“I don’t know,” I muttered. “Maybe.” I stepped into the elevator.

“You should, it would really-” Jo’s words were cut short as the doors of the elevator shut, again. I was confused and mentally drained, tired if anything. I needed a cup of hot chocolate.