Life After Dinosaurs

3-Beach Party

At the end of myline was one of the party coordinators. She was in her mid-twenties,or maybe early thirties. Her hair was brown and very plain looking,but she had these intense discerning eyes. She looked like a castingdirector from a major motion picture company and, considering who wasfronting the bill, she might've been one. Gas mask and his group ofoutrageous party goers were rejected flat. I could see their sugarhigh turn into rage as they walked away from the entrance. Behind theguards and fashion directors the party was already going strong.Generic dance music blared from speakers, sans swear words.

April went first.

Stathem took herpurse and looked it over while Cruise gave her a pat down. She seemedto be accustomed to the process and she showed them her student IDwhile flashing a smile and tilting her head slightly. April was bubbly, but who knew if they could tell she was on anything. If Ihadn't listened to her judge three dozen people on the way over Iwould believe that she was a sweet sixteen year old girl looking fora good time.

The castingdirector looked her over and asked her to smile again before nodding andwaving April inside. April turned around and shot Sally an excitedsmile. Then April wanted to wait by the entrance, but Vin Dieselurged her inside. They were going in separately after all.

Sally gave up herbag and keys and flashed her ID without breaking a beat. She walkedup to the casting director and gave her head an oh-so-subtle toss ofher hair. The coordinator sneered at our driver and had her turnaround before saying 'she looks too old' loud enough for me and threedozen others to hear.

Donovan had grownhis hair out to his cheek bones. He spent a lot of time playingguitar and guitar hero. He was convinced that he was going to becomea mega-star some day, and already had a dozen videos up on youtube withno more than a thousand views each. Rodger told me that he had dated a lot of chicks, and apparently one of them went to college.The girls loved his blue eyes, and I was sure the casting directorwould let him in. Instead she just looked back to her clip board andsaid "Next".

Rodger and I werenext and I felt like I was going to puke. In a daze I startedrehearsing my lines to my sister Tasha. 'Hi, I know I said that youhave the night alone with your boyfriend, but I'm kind of stuck inSanta Barbara. Yeah, don't worry it's only a three hour drive.'

"We're going intogether." Rodger pulled me forward.

I was brought infront of Hemsworth. Thor was wearing his Red Dawn cut, but he wasstill just as intimidating as a God of Thunder should be.

"Take off yourjacket," Hemsworth said in a very Thor-like tone. It made my innergeek smirk. I handed him the worn leather and marveled at the man'sresemblance to the actor.

"No cigarettes,"He said holding up the Marlboros and my jacket. I took both andtossed the pack of smokes into a plastic garbage can. I put thejacket on and he gave me a wave to proceed.

The castingdirector was looking at her clip-board, and now that I was close Icould tell that it was an iPad. I started to panic and took my phoneout. I started texting Tasha that I needed to be rescued.

"Take off yourglasses." She said, sharply.

I swallowed andtook my glasses off staring at the floor. I looked up at the castingdirector. She was chewing her lip.

"You're bothunder 18?" She asked looking at our IDs.

Rodger nodded."That's right," He nodded, confirming that I was'smoking' despite not being old enough to do so.

"They're fine,"the director said and they hurried us along.

I put my phoneaway without sending the text. I found it hard to breath and wasbarely aware of my surroundings as we followed the crowd inside.