New Leaves

Chapter Eleven - Rock 'n' Roll Hartfeld

Emily's POV

I sat in my dorm room, waiting for James to Skype me from LA. "What's taking so long? He was supposed to call twenty minutes ago..." I said. I sighed and opened up the document window with Vasquez's book again. My fingers hovered over the keyboard. "Okay, let's see. 'She was trapped, caught in between two friends who...'" Suddenly, the video call window popped up on my screen, and my computer started ringing. "Finally!"

I clicked on the "answer call' button, and James's face appeared in the window. "Hey, Emily," James said.

"Hey, you finally called! I've been looking forward to this all day."

"It's so good to hear a familiar voice."

"Aw, I'd have thought you'd be too busy to miss me yet. It looks like they set you up in a pretty nice spot."

"This is only temporary until I can find a place. Yasmin's been helping me out with the hunt, which is great. I feel like I haven't left my computer in days."

"Sounds like you could use a little distraction. How's LA treating you so far?"

"Honestly? I'm feeling really good about it! I miss Hartfeld, but that's to be expected, of course. I don't know, I feel like this is where I'm supposed to be. What about you? How's the gang?"

"Everything's falling to pieces."

"Well, that certainly doesn't sound good."

"It's really, really not. Things have actually been pretty difficult around here lately."

"Do you want to tell me what's going on?"

I let out a sigh and shrugged my shoulders. "The Gutter Kittens have their first headlining gig tonight..."

"Oh, yeah. I saw that online. Give Kaitlyn my congratulations, would you?"

"Yeah, that's kind of the thing. She and Abbie got into a massive fight last night."

"Uh-huh..."

"And they left things in a terrible place. Abbie's refusing to go to the show, and Kaitlyn's just..." I trailed off as I looked down at the computer screen. James was focused intently on his keyboard. "Uh, James?"

"Uh-huh..."

"James!"

He glanced up at the screen and, when he realized I was glaring at him, gave me a sheepish smile. "Sorry! It's just... these deadlines. I swear I was listening."

"If you're too busy to talk..."

"No, no. I'm just so close to finishing this rewrite. I've been stuck on this one part for the last hour or so."

"I thought you just did a rewrite?"

"This is my third one so far. And I'm sure it won't be the last."

"Wow... It sounds like they're changing quite a bit..."

James shrugged. His smile seemed strained. "Just your typical page-to-screen changes. It's important to make sure it's relatable to a general audience."

"Well, hey, maybe I can help you out. And then you can, you know, pay attention to me."

"That would be great, actually. Maybe a second opinion is just what I need."

"So, what's the issue?"

"Generally speaking, the execs are pretty confident that the play will translate well to the big screen. I've made a few high-level changes so far, but they have a problem with the ending."